I sat down on the asphalt, then lay back so I could stare at the sky, the dark color fading into nothing as I waited for whatever the fallout would be. Not caring about anything . . . but then I jerked upright.

“Remo.”

CHAPTER 20

The time it took to get back to the hospital on Whidbey Island seemed to be counted in years instead of hours.

I wore clothes Panacea had given me, a long white dress that was pinned at the shoulders with two large discs engraved with snake heads. Smithy went with me, and Poseidon gave us a ride in his coast guard boat, though he grumbled the whole way. I gripped the edge of the boat as it zipped across the water, bouncing on the waves. Ernie sat on my shoulders, clinging to my hair.

“We’ll get there in time, we have to,” he said.

“You’re sure Hades turned him back into a vampire?” I asked Smithy again. Maybe for the tenth time. Because I couldn’t believe it.

Smithy nodded, his face somewhat green in the growing light of the oncoming morning. “Yes. When he reversed the virus, everyone went back to the way they were before.” He leaned over the edge and vomited into the spray of water. I turned away from him. The sun was at my back, warming my bare skin even as we hurried.

The sun was up. How was I going to save Remo if he was burned to a crisp? Fear clutched at me, driving me the rest of the way when I would have otherwise fallen to my knees, passed out from sheer fatigue.

The boat pulled up to the docks, and I was climbing the ladder before Poseidon had properly moored. At least that’s what he yelled at me while I scrambled off the boat. Barefoot, I ran toward the hospital, shocked when I saw the bodies still there.

“Ernie,” I whispered.

“No, don’t think like that. Hurry.” Ernie pushed me, and I stumbled forward. I broke down the front doors and ran for the stairs. The stale air of the closed-off hospital, the faint scent of antiseptic, cleaners, death, unwashed bodies. I closed it all off as I bolted up to the tenth floor. To my room. I slid to a stop in front of the door, suddenly unable to push it open. As if I were that girl again, sick and dying, unable to save herself.

Only now it was my heart that was sick and dying. Whatever lay on the other side of the door would either save me or be the shattering of my heart. With a half-hitched sob in my chest, I put a hand to the door.

“You can do this,” Ernie said. “You’re not that girl anymore.”

I pushed the door open and walked in, making myself look around. There was no one in the room.

“No one came to be with him?” I did a slow turn. “Of course not. I sent Hermes.” I put a hand to my head and flicked my tongue out, scenting the air. There was a hint of cinnamon and honey . . . and other vampires. The more I breathed, the more distinct smells I picked up on. Ten, maybe even twelve.

“The vampire council is how many?”

“Baker’s dozen,” Ernie said.

I nodded, feeling it in my bones. “Ernie, they have him.”

His eyes were filled with worry as I crawled into the bed and lay down where Remo had been. I breathed in his scent and closed my eyes. I couldn’t save him if I was weak. I couldn’t do it without sleep. “Watch over me,” I whispered.

Ernie answered in the affirmative, but it wasn’t him I called to. With my eyes closed, I saw my mother, I saw her smile and nod. “I will watch over you, my girl. Sleep.” And I let myself slip into the abyss that spoke my name.

I woke up to a hand on my shoulder shaking me.

“Alena, are you alright?” Tad’s voice cracked. “Tell me you’re alright.” And then he pulled me up while my eyes were still closed so that I was enfolded in his arms. I hugged him back and pressed my face against his chest. “I’m . . . no, I’m not okay, but I’m going to be.”

I pulled back a little from him. “Dahlia and Sandy, are they okay?”

He nodded. “They’re at Mom and Dad’s place.” The pain in his eyes, the look in his face. I knew without him saying it.

“The vampire council is there.” I spoke the words as a statement, not as a question.

He nodded again, and his voice cracked. “They’re hurting Dahlia and Remo. And Dad . . . he can’t stop them, he’s not strong enough after turning people who had the virus.”

I stood and took a breath, then another, feeling my body shake off the last of the sleep. “No rest for the wicked.”

“What are you going to do?” he asked, his eyes full of uncertainty and fear. “Alena?”

I smiled, and while it was tiring, and a bit hard to make my lips turn up, I meant every word.

“I’m going to save them.”

We stood a few houses down from the front of my parents’ house, the midnight hour still a long ways off despite the darkness. A cold, wet gale had blown in off the water with us, and I was soaked through. I looked around, seeing the eyes of vampires here and there, watching us. “Anyone want to come with me while I will still let them?”

A few crept forward, and I was surprised when it wasn’t Remo’s vampires, but Santos’s. Lee was at the lead. “We’ve been waiting for you to show up. We aren’t strong enough to take them on our own, boss. But we’ve been watching, looking for an opportunity.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Why?”

He shrugged, his words matter-of-fact. “You said if Remo wouldn’t take us, you would. He denied us, so we are yours. And we have something for you.”