It was dark inside, and I could see two still figures in the bed.
For a moment I froze, then realized I could hear them breathing.
On the bedside table next to Corban was an empty glass that had held brandy--I could smell it now that I was through panicking.
And on Amber's side was a prescription bottle.
Chad slid past me and scrambled over their footboard and into bed beside them.
With his parents here, he was no longer required to be brave.
Cold feet did what all the noise had failed to do, and Corban sat up.
"Chad ..." He saw us.
"Mercy? Who's that with you, and what are you doing in my bedroom?" "Corban?" Amber rolled over.
She sounded a little dopey but woke up just fine when she noticed Chad and then us.
"Mercy? What happened?" I told them, leaving out Stefan's vampire status.
I didn't, actually, mention him at all except as part of "we." They didn't care.
Once they heard Chad hadn't been breathing, they weren't worried about Stefan at all.
"I've never seen anything like it," I admitted to them both.
"I'm out of my league.
I think you need to get Chad out of here and into a hotel tonight." Corban had listened to everything with a poker face.
He got out of bed and grabbed a robe in almost the same motion.
I heard him walk down the hall, but he didn't go into Chad's room.
Just stood outside it for a moment and returned.
I knew what he saw--nothing but a ripped-up comforter--and was glad he'd been there for the little toy- car demonstration.
He stood in the doorway of his bedroom and looked at us.
"First, we pack for a couple of days.
Second, we find a hotel.
Third, I talk to my cousin's brother-in-law, who is a Jesuit priest." "I'm headed home," I told him before he could tell me to go away and never come back.
I needed to help them do something about Blackwood, who was snacking on Amber, but I didn't know what.
And from the sounds of it, no one had ever been able to do something about this vampire.
"There's nothing I can do for you, and I have a business to run." "Thank you for coming," Amber said.
She got out of bed and hugged me.
And I knew what she was most grateful for was convincing her husband that Chad hadn't been lying.
I thought that was the least of her worries.