“You do that, buddy, and get back to me,” Jonathon joked. I eyed the vampire and coven member. The love of my life and my friend. Could Jonathon and Isaac become friends? The idea was almost laughable. Almost. “Oh, so we have pet names now do we,” Isaac looked thoughtful for a moment, “If I’m buddy I think I’ll call you buttercup.”

“My friends call me by my name.""You don't have any friends.""I don't want you to be my friend, Selia, or my servant, not now. I thought you were both. You have let me know I was wrong. So are you to treat me so. You are wrong.”

“Ooh, is the big bad Kylie going to punish the big scary vampire,” Jonathon said jokingly, elongating his incisors. He playfully, but lightly, bit my hand. “Oh, you’re so frightening.” I said feigning fright.”

“Your friend Mikey knew what my touch could do, but he didn’t tell me. He turned me into a murderer. Worse than a murderer.”“I think,” said Nick, “they call that manslaughter or wrongful death, don’t they? I mean, when it’s an accident or out of ignorance, or something.”Clarence turned to Nick, studying him with his Everlost eye. “You’re a lot smarter than you were back in the cage,” Clarence said. “You look better too. Back then you were a thing, now you’re almost a person.”“Thanks . . . but ‘almost’ is still ‘almost.’”“Yeah, well, we’re all almost something.”

“What do we do now?”“Well, we escape. I’m not sure how yet, but—”“No,” said Valkyrie. “What do we do now? We’re partners. You’re my best friend. I love you. You were my… I looked up to you. What am I supposed to do now?”He turned away. “You need to find yourself a new hero.”

“What’s weird is that our parents, my parents, sacrificed so much and worked so hard doing what they didn’t love so we could get an education and do what we love. Now that I think of it, it was almost evil, giving us that kind of freedom, mandating that we try to identify something we love.”