Rose’s eyes widened even more.

Near us, Olive shifted uncomfortably and rested a hand on the small of her back, wincing as she did. As mind-boggling as this family drama was for the rest of us, I had to imagine it was of small concern to her, what with everything else going on in her life. Dimitri immediately swooped in and linked his arm through hers. “You’re tired. There’s no need for you to stand around and endure all this. I’ll escort you back.” He began leading Olive toward Diana’s cabin but paused to glance at Lana. “Whatever you do with him is your choice, but I’m more than happy to get rid of him for you, if you wish.”

“We’ll deal with it,” she replied.

Dimitri gave her a nod of acknowledgment and then escorted Olive away, like a knight from a chivalrous, albeit surreal, fairy tale. Rose appeared torn about whether to go with them or stay and finally followed the twosome down the path. Lana turned to Adrian and me.

“Will you vouch for him if he stays?”

“My uncle?” Adrian asked. “Hell no. I haven’t seen him in years. I don’t know anything about him.”

“Oh, come on,” cried Rand. “We’re family. And Lana, you can’t really turn me out. It’ll be sunset soon. There’ve been reports of local Strigoi sightings this week.”

I wondered if he was exaggerating for his own benefit, but Lana’s grave face suggested otherwise. “Fine. You can spend the night in our guest quarters at the front of the community.”

He gestured back to the private cabins. “No need to put yourself out. I’m sure Elaine would—”

“Guest quarters,” Lana repeated more loudly. “Or you can leave now.”

Rand exhaled dramatically, like he was being terribly inconvenienced and not actually receiving a great kindness from her. “Fine. Will you at least walk me there, Adrian? Then you can get back to that dhampir girl you knocked up.”

Adrian scowled but didn’t correct him. Lana was already retreating, leaving Adrian and me no choice but to walk with Rand. Nonetheless, I noticed her guards trailing at a respectful distance as the three of us made our way back toward the commune’s front. Lana wasn’t going to leave Rand unsupervised.

“How’s your dad?” Rand asked Adrian companionably. “And your mom?”

“Not living together,” Adrian replied. “I figured you knew that.”

“Nate doesn’t talk to me anymore. No one does. I have to get all my information through secondhand gossip.” He sounded terribly put out by that as well. This was someone who felt sorry for himself a lot, I realized.

“Maybe that’s something you should think about,” Adrian remarked evenly. “If ‘no one’ is talking to you, maybe they’re not the problem. Maybe you are.”