I wiped my eyes and nodded. “Thank you. I needed to hear that.” I backed out of the room and headed to my own.

I didn’t have a lot to pack either. I realized in that moment that I’d pretty much been living off Remo’s largesse. This was his house, the clothes I wore had been bought with his money, even the food in the cupboards was bought for those victims the vampires brought in to feed on. I let out a sigh as I grabbed a few things, mostly paperwork that pertained to my actual existence as a person, even though I was a Super Duper. A few small articles of clothing, the original dress I’d worn from Merlin’s. I pulled the case off a pillow and stuffed everything inside. Like I was going trick-or-treating with Tad the way we did when we were kids. I laughed to myself, the irony not lost on me. I had a built-in costume and everything now. That is, if anyone would give candy to a two-story-high snake.

I stepped out of the bedroom the same time that Sandy did. “Ready?”

She nodded and smiled. “Yes. On to the next adventure, right?”

Her words were more than a little prophetic, unfortunately. The sound of Tad yelling from downstairs had me hurrying, rushing headlong down the steep steps, the sound of arguing voices floating up to us. Tad and Dahlia were in the kitchen. He shook his head. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m sorry, but you know that I have to; I have no choice.” Her voice was thick with tears, and a few jeweled drops sat on the perfect smooth skin of her cheeks. “I don’t want to; you have to believe me.”

She took a step back but seemed to be resisting. Like she was being pulled. I reached out, and she took my hand, her green eyes swinging to me. “Remo is calling all the vampires in the area to him. I have to go; it’s not something I can deny, because of the bond that is placed on all his underlings.”

I tightened my grip on her. “He won’t hurt you?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I defied him by coming to you and Tad. He may have to make an example of someone to appease the council . . . and it will probably be me.”

Because of her ties to me and Tad. This was my fault.

I tugged her to me, a fierce protectiveness washing over me. “Then we can’t have that.” I wrapped my arms around her, wanting to believe that Remo wouldn’t hurt her. But what did I know? I would have sworn that he wouldn’t walk away from me, but he had. I would have sworn that he cared for me more than just as a friend, or a fling, or a blood donor. And yet here we were, wondering if he would hurt my best friend because she’d followed her heart back to my brother. I swallowed hard. “You need to feed off me, then. Either it will allow you to ignore him, or you can at least protect yourself.”

She shook her head, but Tad was nodding. “Alena is right. You . . . you mean too much to me. To all of us.”

In my head, I cheered for him as he took her from me and hugged her tight. Silently I egged him on. Say it, Tad. Say the words. Tell her now, or you might not get another chance.

His eyes flicked to mine and then closed. “I love you, Dahlia. Please, I don’t want to lose you.”

Her whole body crumpled against him. “I love you too.”

I sniffed, and behind me, a tiny hiccup escaped Sandy. I reached up and pulled the bandage off my neck wound. It was only partially healed. “Do it. This will heal by the morning.”

Dahlia gave me a wobbly smile and leaned in close. The sensation was not like with Remo; there was no pleasure rocking through me. She drew in a few tiny swallows, but it should have been all she needed. The blood of a Drakaina was a heady thing for a vampire. Something we’d found out by accident and had since used to our benefit.

“You are family,” I said. “Be careful, okay?”

Dahlia nodded, her eyes clear and her body no longer being pulled in another direction by Remo’s call. At least I was guessing on that bit.

“I’ll try and see if I can talk to him,” she said.

I shook my head. “No, don’t bother. I understand what he’s facing, even if I don’t like how he’s handling it. We all are a team; that’s how we’ve made it this far.”

I backed up to give Tad and Dahlia some privacy. Sandy followed me out the front door to the Charger. “You think another hero is going to come at you? I mean, us, I guess, because if they go through you, I’m next, aren’t I?”

She said it with complete calm. I knew why. There was a measure of fatality to our lives neither of us could escape. We’d both been chosen to be turned into Greek monsters because Hera and Merlin thought we were weak. They thought we would give up and let the heroes kill us.

They were wrong. But it still sucked rotten donkey balls, and the truth was we were going to have to fight to survive no matter how it went against our natures.

“Hercules, this time.” I threw my small pillow sack into the back of the car. “And he has a nine-headed Hydra as a helper. Hera got smart this time. Monsters attacking monsters. We’ve seen how your feathers cut through me, and my venom does a number on other monsters.”

“Very Godzilla-like.” Sandy nodded. “And it makes a wicked sort of sense. You think she’s doing it because of Theseus?”

I thought about her question a moment before nodding. “Yes, he showed her that we could hurt one another. I mean, where else in mythology is it monster against monster? Mostly heroes face monsters, so Theseus showed Hera a different way to do it.” Another reason to be glad he was dead.