Happily, before I had to respond, a nurse—and my new favorite person in the world—bustled in to get my blood pressure, and when she left, we started talking about something else.

Dammit, I thought a little while later, when Jesse had fallen asleep again. I had pretty much written off Jesse as a romantic option, and then he goes and says something like that. No matter how things turned out later, he and Eli had both been incredible to me in the hospital. Better than I deserved. What I’d said was true, though—now that Jack was under Dashiell’s thumb and I apparently had this crazy new ability, my thoughts had to be elsewhere. I hadn’t told anyone about what I’d done to Ariadne, and I didn’t plan to. The fewer people who knew about that, the better. And, if I were being honest with myself, I particularly didn’t want Eli to know. Eli did not like being a were, and I was very afraid he’d ask me to change him back. Until I knew more about what I could do, I didn’t want that between us.

By Friday afternoon, I was ready to check out of the hospital. My body was recovering nicely—I could stay awake for the whole day again—and although it was very weak, my radius was defined again. I could tell Eli was inside it, but it wasn’t changing him back into a human, which was okay for the time being. I was just relieved that it was coming back. It’s scary being vulnerable.

It took hours to get through the last-minute exams and paperwork—I was starting to think one nurse in particular was dragging everything out—and it was getting dark by the time everything was done. I was practically bouncing in the wheelchair as the nurse drove it down to the emergency room entrance. I was sick of hospital food and bad cable, and to my own surprise, I missed running and work and the rest of my life. I even missed watching romantic comedies with Molly, who had told me she was planning a Brat Pack marathon for when I got back.

When we got down to the lobby, Eli went ahead to bring his car around. The nurse who had driven the wheelchair was looking nervous and fidgety, so I finally told her I could wait on the bench outside the hospital entrance by myself. As soon as I was settled down, she hustled back for the door. My thoughts were elsewhere, thinking about how I could get time off work to go learn about being a null—not to mention Eli and Jesse.

It’s right when you’re distracted by boys that the powers of evil will come for you.

I idly watched a little boy with a blue balloon walk into the hospital, and when I turned my head back toward the street, a vampire sat on the bench next to me, looking smug and dangerous in a tailored red dress. She grabbed my arm, digging her fingernails in, and tossed back waves of chestnut hair to smirk at me.

And the bottom dropped out of the world.

“Hello, Scar-bear. Did you get my flowers?”

“No,” I breathed. “That’s not possible.” I shook my head frantically. “It’s not possible!”

“Oh, but it is possible,” Olivia cooed at me. I tried to pull away, but she just dug her nails in deeper. “No, honey, you’re not going anywhere. You and I just have so much to talk about.” Blood began to drip from my arm where her nails had pierced it, and she licked her lips. “I came to the hospital to see you, even though you stopped coming for me. And why was that? Did you find out something you shouldn’t?” Her voice was syrupy sweet, and silent tears began to run down my cheeks. “Why did you have to go digging up the past, Scar-bear?”

I heard the squeal of tires and saw Eli’s truck careen out of the parking garage, bearing down on us.

“Oh, darn, looks like your ride is here already. To be continued, honey.” She released my arm and licked blood off her fingers, giving me her old, serene look. Then she was gone.

I began to scream.