"My head hurts." "Let's get you cleaned up." He led me up the stairs.
I didn't think that I should have grabbed my clothes until I stood alone in a huge, gold-and-black bathroom.
I turned the shower on.
"John," I said.
I didn't bother looking for him because I could feel him.
"You will never harm anyone again." I felt the push of magic that told me whatever it was I could do to ghosts had worked on him.
So I added, "And get out of this bathroom," for good measure.
I scrubbed myself raw and wrapped myself in a towel big enough for three of me.
When I came out, Corban was pacing in the hall in front of the bathroom.
"Who do you call about something like this?" he asked.
"It doesn't look good.
Blackwood is missing; Amber is dead--probably buried in the backyard.
I'm a lawyer, and if I were my own client, I'd advise myself to avoid trial, plead guilty, and do reduced time if I could get it." He was scared.
It finally occurred to me that we'd survived.
Blackwood and his sweet grandmotherly vampire ghost were gone.
Or at least I hoped she was gone.
There wasn't a second pile of ashes in the basement.
"Did you notice the other vampire?" I asked him.
He gave me a blank look.
"Other vampire?" "Never mind," I told him.
"I expect the sunlight killed her." I got up and found a phone on a small table in the corner of the living room.
I dialed Adam's cell phone.
"Hey," I said.
It sounded like I'd been smoking cigars all night.
"Mercy?" And I knew I was safe.
I sat on the floor.
"Hey." I said again.
"Chad told us where you are," he told me.
"We're about twenty minutes away." "Chad told you?" Stefan would still be unconscious, I'd known.
It just hadn't occurred to me that Chad could tell them where we were.