“Piper, really? You are fascinating, aren’t you?” He stepped forward as if he wanted to inspect me closer.
Levi moved to block him, his body tense. His voice came out as a barely contained growl. “She’s injured. So is her mother. All three humans need medical attention.”
Warren lifted his chin as if he couldn’t stomach taking direction from Levi but thought better of making a scene. “Yes, yes. Barbara?”
The nurse came forward with a bag clutched in one hand. “This way, dears. All of you.”
She waved us down the hall to the only bedroom. The space was dominated by a queen-sized bed. The three of us sat on the same side, facing the door. I noted, vaguely, that we were staining the quilt with blood.
“Wha… What’s happening?” my mother muttered.
I tried to take her hand but realized mine was full of splinters from the severed table leg. “Everything is going to be okay, Mom.”
“Your daughter’s right,” Barbara said, crouching in front of Mom before looking at her. “Everything is going to be okay. You’re safe. Piper is safe.”
Mom’s head dipped forward as she looked deeply into the nurse’s eyes. “Piper is safe.”
“Are you compelling her?” I asked.
Barbara nodded, not breaking eye contact. Her irises seemed to have changed color slightly from brown to a warm amber. “It’ll be much easier this way. She’ll feel good and have no memory of what happened here today. She’ll think you two had a nice visit.”
I sucked in a breath as I thought about the possibility of forgetting the horrors I’d just lived through. Everything about tonight had been awful, but I couldn’t forget. Remembering was far too important.
“Don’t compel me,” I said.
True agreed. “Me, neither.”
Barbara let a small smile onto her lips. “Don’t worry, girls. The dean advised me that you are to remember everything that happened here tonight. You might need it.”
Her words seemed ominous, but I must have been in shock because I couldn’t process them. I watched numbly as Barbara treated my mother’s wounds and then moved onto me. Two bandaged hands and a wrapped-up neck was the result. Just some cuts and bruises for True, thank God.
When Barbara was done, she stood. “Piper, they’d like to see you in the other room if you’re feeling up to it.”
I nodded, then glanced back to True. “Will you sit with her?” I tilted my head toward Mom. She’d fallen into a quiet slumber as her lips twitched peacefully.
“You got it,” True said. Then she grabbed my bandaged hand. “The bad guys are dead, right?”
“Right,” I said, sucking in a breath. I held it in as I walked out of the room and back toward the carnage.
But when I got there, there was no sign of the dead vampires. Sure, the table was broken and things were knocked off the walls, but any trace of Micah, Sarah, Lars, or Chloe had vanished. Warren, Dean Purty, and Levi sat in chairs around the destroyed table in a tense semi-circle. As I approached, Warren pointed toward the last seat available as if I should take it. When I glanced back to see if Barbara would join us, she’d already blended into the shadows.
My Spidey Senses started tingling. What kind of meeting was this?
Dean Purty was the first to speak. “Piper, we sincerely want to apologize for what happened to you and your mother tonight. It appears you’ve had several run-ins with the worst of our kind. There are not enough words to express how sorry we are.”
I opened my mouth, ready to say It’s okay, but snapped my lips shut. It wasn’t okay. Not remotely. I settled for, “It’s not your fault.”
“I feel it is,” he said. “Sarah, Lars, and Chloe were all here because they had vowed to get better, to improve their behavior, but clearly…” He gestured to the broken table and trailed off like he didn’t need to remind me of all that had gone down. “I never imagined they’d take it this far.”
“We can’t undo what was done,” Warren said, cutting in, “but I can make reparations. Your mother will go home, she won’t remember a thing, and she’ll find a certain nameless benefactor has cleared all her debts, including the mortgage of your home.”
“Oh, wow.” We’d accrued quite a bit of debt after Dad died. To be free of that would mean Mom wouldn’t need to work so many long hours. “That’s very generous. Thank you.”
Warren squared his shoulders and somehow managed to look rich and important even in his