Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

Nobody said much after we'd all clambered into the back of the minivan. What was there to say? The weather's warm for this time of year, and oops, we just decapitated the vampire queen?

The vampires wouldn't mind, right?

She'd probably been a horrible person anyway.

In the back, seated among the Lost Ones we'd rescued, I rubbed the ache in my neck. The bite had healed but drying blood painted my side. Behind the wheel, Zee complained about breaking a nail and was covered in scratches from his sideways flight through the chapel roof. And Victor looked as though he'd been wrestling with a bear, and had lost half his shirt in the process.

A bunch of wide-eyed, traumatized people and three little pixies kept looking at me, as though maybe I should say something?

"So, uhm..." I croaked. "You can stay at our hotel, get cleaned up, and have something to eat if you like?" I told them. They glanced at each other. How much had they seen? Did they suspect I wasn't as cute and innocent as I appeared? Had they seen too much? And if they had, what was I going to do? Unalive them all after rescuing them? That would make me worse than the vampires.

Kenzo sat with them, still naked under Victor's jacket. "What happened to the other people in the manhunt?"

"They're safe," Victor replied from the front. "I dealt with the vampires participating in the hunt accordingly. The SSD has been informed, after receiving an anonymous call."

Kenzo nodded and looked around, as though waiting for someone else to ask the big questions. When nobody did, he plowed on. "Are you guys like the Scooby gang?"

"Wait, what's a scooby?" I asked.

"Plucky queers who go around in their gang-bang wagon solving crimes?"

"Sounds fun," Zee said. "We should do that."

"You know, like superheroes?" Kenzo elaborated.

A tiny laugh squeaked from me. "What?! Us? We just happened to be passing by and picked you up on the side of the road, remember? Just passing through. Had nothing to do with whatever happened back there." They looked to each other. "Nothing at all."

"Yeah, but... you saved us," Kenzo said. " You broke their chains, the demon chopped off the queen's head, and Daddy Fancy Pants killed like... loads of vampires."

"That's really not my name," Victor said.

"There's blood right there, on your clothes, Adam." Kenzo pointed out.

"No, nope, pfft, not really." I patted my knees. This was awkward.

"Didn't happen," Zee said.

"A highly unlikely scenario," Victor agreed.

"Anyhoo, wow." I chuckled. "It's warm back here. Are you warm? Zee can you crack a window?"

He did, and a cool salty breeze swept in, clearing the stuffy air, and my head. Everything was going to be fine. These folks would get cleaned up and go their separate ways, and nobody had to speak about any of this ever again.

"Do you think the vampires will know I did it?" Zee asked.

A quick glance at Victor in the front passenger seat revealed how he leaned against the door, massaging stress from his forehead. "I suggest we keep our heads down."

"Did you see it though? It was fucking epic. Me and Shareen. Swoosh, thunk. A fucking masterpiece."

"I was rather busy trying not to have my throat torn out."

"You missed it? I killed the fucking sucker queen and Vampire Daddy missed it? For reals?" Zee flapped a hand at Reynard's face. "This resting bitch face is a mask. I see you laughing inside. You totally saw. You think it was hot. Because it was."

"I most certainly was not aroused by your butchering of our revered queen."

I flopped my head back and let my eyes flutter closed. The drone of the minivan wheels, and Reynard and Zee's debate, lulled my ragged mind into a doze. It was going to be fine. We'd all get back to the hotel. Jimmy's family were safe. He'd make the gremlins leave, and it would all go back to how it was before. Not normal, exactly, but normal for us.

We arrived at the hotel with the rescued Lost Ones, and Madame Matase jumped into action, getting each of the victims fixed up with a room, just for one night.

"What the Friar Tuck happened to you three?" We must have looked terrible if Tom Collins was lost for anything more creative to say.

"Line 'em up." Zee slumped on a bar stool .

"Some alcoholic therapy coming right up." Tom got to work, scooping up glasses, drinks, and serving our usual pick-me-ups.

"Adam, are you well?" Reynard asked. His concerned gaze roamed, checking for additional wounds.

"Oh, this?" I pulled at my stiff, bloody shirt. "Yeah, I'm fine. I heal pretty fast."

"Did you slaughter the vampire responsible?" he snarled, showing a hint of fang.

I had smashed Armin's skull against the floor. "I think so. It got pretty wild back there."

"Fuuuuck." Zee collected his rainbow cocktail and sat back. "Did I slay the vampire queen?"

Victor and I both looked over. Had that realization only now sunk in? "Yeah," I said.

He shook his head, fluffing his purple locks. "We are so fucked."

"Maybe they won't know for sure it was us? Right?" I asked Victor, but his face looked doubtful. "I mean, there weren't many vampires left standing. No witnesses. We'll just deny it."

"Adam told me to do it," Zee blurted. "He told me to kill her, and he's my general, so it's his fault."

"Would you jump off a cliff if I told you to?"

"Uh, yeah? Wings?" He shrugged his wings, then let them droop.

"Oh, yeah." We each sipped our potent drinks and ruminated on the evening's events. "The painting is still there. Maybe nobody will notice her head's gone."

"Adam, I admire your optimism, but the chance of the vampire hierarchy not noticing that their plan to summon the queen by sacrificing Lost Ones has been spectacularly destroyed, and that their revered and worshipped queen is now missing her head, is exactly zero. "

"Yeah but..." I really needed some hope here. "It's not as though we went there meaning to do all that."

"Right. It was an accident." Zee's eyebrow arched. "They happen all the time. It's not our fault."

"Exactly," I agreed. "If we explain that we were just there to get Jimmy's family back..."

"Princess Buffy seems like the levelheaded, reasonable kind of preteen psychopath?" Zee flopped over the bar. "Imma get wasted. Tom, fuck me up."

Tom smiled, happy to oblige. "One Fuck Me Up coming right up." He didn't even pretend to hide the salt shaker and how it dusted suspicious white powder into Zee's glass.

"Why did the queen appear to be able to breach the veil at the precise moment you were in the chapel?" Victor wondered aloud, after thanking Tom for his tea—with alcohol.

"Huh?" Zee lifted his head.

"Coincidence?" I suggested, and sipped my whiskey.

"Wait, Fancy Fangs has a point. Actually, he has two points. Ha! I'm hilarious." Zee gathered up his new drink, and twisted on the stool to face Victor and me. "Why did she try and climb out of the painting now? Why not yesterday, or tomorrow?"

"Adam, did any of your blood get on the painting?" Victor asked.

"Oh. Uhm." There had been a spray of it when I'd shoved Armin off. "It did spray a bit. So... maybe?"

"You think because of what he is ..." Zee whispered at Victor. "It triggered something?"

"What he is, or more accurately, who he is destined to be ." Victor had used his ominous daddy voice.

Oh dear.

"Destined?" Zee snorted. "Destiny can suck my balls. You should know better, since you're as old as dirt. Destiny is bullshit. You ever seen destiny be right?"

"Not until last night . . ." Victor said.

I sipped my drink faster, and found the bottom of the glass fascinating. I couldn't look at Victor. Or Zee. It didn't have anything to do with the prophecy. Just coincidence.

A buzzing thankfully distracted Victor and Zee. The trio of colorful pixies we'd rescued fluttered into the bar. One of them let out an ear-piercing whistle, and a few moments later, Little Jimmy shot from a hole in the drywall behind the potted plant. They were a blur of color, spinning and dancing in the air.

"Aw, they're cute," Zee said. "Like ugly giant mosquitos."

We watched the pixies soar and dive, weirdly graceful as they reunited. It really was cute. And it made the raid on the chapel worthwhile, to know we'd brought Jimmy's loved ones back to him.

They fluttered down to a table. Jimmy climbed up on to the other's back and?—

"Oh, okay." I turned my face away. "Anyway."

"He's really going at it," Zee said. "All three are getting it on. A harem. That makes sense. That's some impressive hip action. Look at him go. I'm so proud."

"Don't watch ."

"What? Right. Yeah. Don't watch, Victor . Pervert."

"I was not." Victor tapped his fingers against the teacup on its saucer. "In fact, I was wondering about the subject of Adam's blood triggering a break in the veil, through which the queen was almost able to pass. The purpose of the gifts, it seems, was to offer up the blood of different species, to see which might complete the link. But Adam's blood jump-started the process."

Pixie grunting noises filled a break in the quiet. Then the jukebox started up again, and we were freed from the awkwardness of listening to Jimmy getting vigorously reacquainted with his friends .

It wasn't just any blood spilled, or even dragon blood that had triggered the queen's rising. But my blood, the Prophesied One. That asshole whose heart was supposed to save all Lost Ones. Me.

Zee was asking Victor why dragon blood would have anything to do with reopening the veil, and while Victor hedged his answers, it was becoming clear the moment of truth had arrived.

I closed my eyes, downed my whiskey, and blurted. "I am the Prophesied One. I am the Chosen. My heart will save all Lost Ones. It's me. Hi. I'm the problem. It's me."

The jukebox still played, and the pixies continued to grunt like humping pugs. I winced, then carefully cracked an eye open.

Zee stared, eyes wide, mouth wide, wings wide. Everything wide.

Both eyes open now, I grimaced, shrinking on my stool. "I would have told you sooner, Zee, but I was afraid you'd freak out and leave. You already said the Prophesied One was a coward. I never wanted to be Chosen. It's just been there, my whole life, chasing me. It's why I'm hiding in this hotel, why I cursed myself in this glamor, and why I'm trying real hard to be nobody. Because if anyone finds out, then they will come. Bounty hunters, religious crazies, trophy hunters, sorcerers. I'll lose my heart, just like the prophecy says. You have no idea the things I've done to keep my heart in my chest. And I'm sorry, Zee, I really am. I wish I wasn't the failure everyone thinks I am. I'm sorry this changes everything. It puts you and Victor in danger—it's why he left. It puts this hotel in danger. I never wanted that, or any of it. I just want us."

Okay. That was a lot.

Even Tom stared, speechless .

Zee hadn't even blinked.

"Say something," I told him. "Anything. Tell me I'm a loser, a coward, how I should step up and be a hero like you. Tell me what I know already, but always fail at."

Victor's hand settled on mine. Its reassuring weight slowed my racing heart. I had him, I knew that much. I had Victor. He knew me, he knew my secrets, and after a wobble, he'd stayed. But Zee... Zee was everything to me. I loved him so hard that a single bad word from his lips now could shatter me. After everything he'd been through, and how he still attacked each day as though it would be his best. I admired that. He was my hero.

Zee blinked. "We're in a fucking prophecy?"

Was he angry, frightened, confused? "Yeah?" I ventured.

His smile twitched, growing at one corner. "I've always wanted to be in a prophesy."

"You have?" He wasn't mad or upset?

"Yeah. Look at me. What the fuck is all this magnificence about if it's not some grand plan? Fuck yeah, I am here for it."

Victor's hand squeezed, and my heart swelled.

Zee's smirk grew. "You know, you could be the world's most viciously fucked-up, mass-murdering psychopath, and I'd still want to spend every second of every day with you. I fucking love you more than I love myself, Kitten. And everyone knows, I love me a lot."

I'd been such a fool. All this time, I'd been afraid the truth would ruin what we had, when I should have known our love was stronger than a silly prophesy.

I flung my arms around Zee, almost knocking him off the stool. His wings flapped. He spilled his drink, swore, but then his arms came around me, and for the first time in forever, I truly felt as though I had a home.

"I will always stand with you," he whispered. "For better, for worse, prophecy or fate. I don't care about any of that, I care only about you. And maybe Victor. Whatever. Bring it in, Fancy Pants." Zee's voice rumbled, and a few moments later Victor's reassuring embrace closed around us too. "This one time, Daddy Spice, you get a hug."

"Frankly, I'm only participating in this embrace for Adam."

They were so cute. "I love you guys," I mumbled against Zee's chest, then hooked an arm around Victor's neck and dragged him closer, making me the filling, squished in the middle of a vampire-demon sandwich. Yes, this was where I was meant to be. This was what home felt like.

To be accepted.

To be loved.

For being me.

For us.