“I don’t see why reincarnation couldn’t be possible,” Daphne allows in an upbeat way, as if she’s afraid to argue against it. “It’s a central element in certain religions, and that has to count for something. But if you’re asking what I believe, personally? I just don’t know.” A light snow begins to fall, a few flakes catching the high beams and then scattering across the windshield. “I never really got into the metaphysical stuff deep enough to have a real opinion. Not to sound glib, but I feel like every minute you spend worrying about what happens after you die is a minute lost from making the most of the life you have now.”

“Yeah. That makes sense,” I mumble, but I wasn’t really looking for an existential pep talk—and besides, “the life I have now” is starting to scare me.

“Hey.” She halts the car at a stop sign, more snowflakes drifting over the windshield, and gives me a perplexed frown. “What are we actually talking about here, Auggie? You’ve been at some kind of private funeral in your head all night long, and now you’re asking about whether souls can come back?”

We’re almost at Ximena Rosales’s house, but Daphne looks genuinely concerned, and she isn’t budging the car from this stop sign. I’m not even sure what it was I hoped she’d say, and now I feel guilty for worrying her. Before I can think better of it, I blurt, “There was a vampire attack last night. Downtown. Maybe you heard about it.”

“No.” She sits back, brushing some hair behind her ear. “What happened?” I give her the quick version, and Daphne stiffens, reaching for my arm. “Oh shit, Auggie! Are you … did he…?”

“I’m fine.” I don’t tell her what he said. “He didn’t hurt me. I was just … you know, crapping my pants.”

“And that’s why you’ve been thinking about reincarnation, and what happens after you die,” Daphne concludes, starting to drive again, and I don’t correct her. “Because when a person becomes a vampire, they die; but when their body wakes up again, with all the memories and everything else intact—”

“Is it still the same person?” I play along, grateful for the easy diversion. “Or has their soul moved out, while something totally different moves in? Because the body still uses the same brain, with all the person’s knowledge and memories. So does the victim really become a vampire, or are they just replaced by an entity that can’t tell the difference between itself and who had the brain before it?”