l took a shallow breath and let it out. Okay. Things were going - if not exactly well, at least it wasn't the disaster on wheels I'd been envisioning five minutes ago. Names were a good start. Now to keep the lines of communication open.

"Stephanie. Richard. Jane. I... well, I can't say it's wonderful to meet all of you, just like I know you weren't exactly thrilled about meeting me. But I can say I'm glad I've learned who you really are. I, uh, felt bad about the silly nicknames."

"You did?" Jane asked, open skepticism in her voice.

"Well, sure. See, I - "

"Don't be fooled!" Nick warned them. "She's got this annoying weird charm thing going on. It's hideous. Like head lice. Everything she touches turns to shit."

"Would that include Jessica?" I snapped.

"Well," he snarled, "she didn't have cancer before she moved in with you and a bunch of other mutant bloodsucking freaks."

I didn't even want to respond to that. Emotionally exhausted, I sat on the arm of the couch next to him and waited to see what the Fiends would do.

And for the first time, I noticed Nick was bleeding - from the inside of his elbows, his neck. There were more serious cuts up and down his arms - from the fight at his house, I assumed. Maybe he'd rolled on some of the broken glass on the carpet? Maybe he'd -

Oh, God, his neck. They'd - they'd fed on him while waiting for me. His skin must still be crawling.

I imagine he felt raped and suddenly couldn't look at him.

"We have to deal with this one before we do anything else," Richard said, hauling Nick out of the chair. "They don't care for each other, so he's officially become useless."

"Useless?" Nick yelped, outraged.

"Hey, a minute ago you were ready to die just to make me feel like shit for the next thousand years. Now you're all mystified because you might be executed? "

"We should kill him," Richard decided.

"What about the queen?" Stephanie asked, looking around nervously as if the queen's guard was going to burst out of the walls at any moment. Ha! If only. I could use a last-minute rescue. Dammit, why, why wasn't my life more like a movie?

Richard squinted at me, and I got a decidedly distrustful vibe from him. "We should kill her anyway."

Then I got a stroke of real luck. Nick tried to pull away from Richard and briefly succeeded, separating himself for a bare second from his supernaturally strong grasp. Quick as thought, I stood up, snatched Nick by the back of his neck and the seat of his pants, and tossed him out the bank of windows.

"You biiiiiiiitch," he yowled all the way down. Then, thank God, I heard him cursing as he thrashed around in the hedges.

"She lies!" Jane shrieked, and came at me.