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  I knocked on the door, although the sign clearly said, CLOSED. When she didn’t answer, I looked at my watch. It was only nine o’ clock, so I doubted she was asleep. I looked back at the car waiting across the street.

  Finally, I heard footsteps on the other side of the door. “Molly,” she said, her voice sweet. “Is that you? Did you forget your key?”

  “No, my name is Olivia. I was hoping you could help me with something.”

  “Ma’am, I’m afraid I’m closed. Please come back tomorrow during working hours.”

  “I know, but I don’t have a lot of time. I need your help tonight.”

  “What is with today?” I heard her say from the other side of the door.

  “I’ll pay you double what you usually charge,” I said. “I’m sure it won’t take long.” I just needed to get in there. Then, I had to figure out some way to get her to trust me.

  Domino sighed, unlocking the door. She opened the door slowly, as if wanting to get a good look at me before making her final decision. Benjamin was right—sending a non-threatening woman like me was the best way to go.

  “Alright, come in,” she said.

  “Thank you. My name is Olivia Dahl.” We shook hands and I followed her down a hallway and into a study, decorated in purples and varying shades of gold.

  “What is it that you need?”

  “Well, you speak to ghosts, correct?”

  “Yes. Is there someone in particular you’d like me to connect you with?”

  I hadn’t planned on going through with an actual séance, but now that I was here, I couldn’t resist. This woman was serene, comforting, and captivating all at the same time. Her purple eyes were something straight out of science fiction and her hair was like black, patent leather shoes.

  “My mother,” I said.

  “Alright,” she said, leaning forward. She took my hand in hers. “I need a connection with you.”

  I nodded and watched as she rolled her head forward and back, like she was practicing some relaxation technique.

  “Her name?”

  “Marie Dahl.” I couldn’t help my misgivings about doing this. I knew I shouldn’t stray from the plan.

  After what seemed like an eternity, she opened her eyes and stared at me with those royal purple eyes.

  “I can’t connect you with her because she is not in limbo. I can only communicate with the ghosts that are still stuck in limbo.”

  I couldn’t stop my face from falling. I was excited—apprehensive, yes, but excited all the same at the possibility of communicating with my mother one last time.

  “This is a good thing,” she said, petting my hand. “Rest assured, Olivia. She is at peace.”

  Slowly, her hand retreated from my own. “What are you?” she asked. Her voice so low I might not have understood her question if I weren’t a vampire.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I don’t know how to break this to you—but you’re dead. You’re not a ghost—but you’re dead.”

  I couldn’t help laughing. “You can tell that?”

  She nodded gravely. “But you knew that already,” she correctly surmised.

  I nodded. “Yes. I’ve come to talk to you about something.”

  “But, what are you?” she asked.

  “I’ll get to that, but first, let’s talk about you. Have you ever wondered why you can speak to ghosts?”

  “Of course—every day. Here, I want to show you something,” she said, standing and going to her desk. She rummaged through several drawers before retrieving a small wooden box with flowers painted on the sides. She came back to sit with me on the sofa and opened the box—removing several photographs.

  Domino laid the photographs out in a row across the seat cushion that separated us. “There is a man that lives nearby. He’s a scuba diving instructor, but he also considers himself a kind of historian. Always looking at town archives and what not. He’s the type of guy who goes to the cemetery and does those gravestone rubbings. He’s extraordinary, however, when it comes to research.”

  I studied the four photographs. They were all of Domino, or at least, someone that looked exactly like her. The only difference was that they were all taken in different decades, even from different centuries.

  “He stumbled across these photographs and brought them to me. Tell me, do you know anything about them?”

  I nodded. “Yes, I do.”

  She smiled, her face lighting up and filling with warmth. “Would you like some coffee?”

  “No, thank you. I can’t drink… stuff.”

  “Oh, right. How rude of me. You’re dead.”

  “I’m more like half-dead. But, enough about me. Let’s talk about you.”

  I hadn’t decided up until that moment exactly how much I was going to tell her. I didn’t feel like it was my place to tell her about the bad thing that she did. “Your soul has been reincarnated, over and over again for the past thousand years. Your purpose in life is to help ghosts.”

  Domino folded her arms across her chest and leaned back in her chair. “Do you mind if I have some coffee?”

  “No. Please, don’t let me stop you.”

  “I don’t even like coffee that much, but I like cream and sugar. People think you’re strange though, if you just drink milk and sugar all the time.”

  She left the room—presumably to go to the kitchen.

  “Can I join you?” I asked, calling after her.

  “Oh, of course!” she said.

  I followed her to the kitchen. It was small and looked like it hadn’t been remodeled since the sixties. She already had a pot brewed, but it had cooled. She poured coffee into a mug, filled it generously with cream and microwaved it for thirty seconds. She took the mug out, scooped several tablespoons full of sugar into it, and stirred vigorously.

  “The key,” she said, “is to add the sugar when it’s hot. It’s better that way.” She took a sip and smiled, pleased with her concoction. “So, what am I, then?”

  “You’re human—you just have special abilities.”

  “And what are you?” she asked.

  She was taking things so well, that I figured now was as good a time as ever to tell her. “Alright, listen. I’m not going to hurt you. Okay?”

  “Okay?” she said, taking a tiny sip of her scalding coffee.

  “I’m a vampire. I’m one of the undead. That’s why I said I was half-dead. I’m kind of caught in between the two.”

  “Kind of like the ghosts,” she mused.

  “Yes, I guess. Just more…”

  “Fleshy,” she suggested, finishing my thought.

  “You are special and unique. There are people that want to do you harm, as well as people that want to help. My friends and I want to help you.”

  She nodded as the back door burst open—or rather, splintered as the lock twisted before getting smashed. Domino screeched and tossed the hot coffee in Benjamin’s face.

  “Wait, no! He’s my…”

  Benjamin wiped the coffee off his face with his hand. “I’m your what?”

  “I don’t know. Boyfriend sounds so weird for some reason. Domino, this is Benjamin—another vampire. He’s a good guy.”

  “No time,” he said, “three demons surrounding the house.”

  “Demons?” Domino asked.

  “We have two men out there. I came in to warn you.”

  After a few minutes, Thomas and Jeremiah walked into the house through the broken door. Benjamin tried to fix the door, but was only able to get it back into the doorframe. It wasn’t properly secured, but it would have to do for now.

  Thomas introduced himself to Domino, but Jeremiah was acting strange. For starters, I had to make all the introductions. He stared into Domino’s eyes in a way that I thought might creep her out, but she was so open that she didn’t seem to mind.

  “You came to the tour today,” she said. “I recognize you.”

  “I wanted to make sure it was you we were looking fo
r,” he said.

  “I’m glad you all found me,” she said, pausing to stare off into the space between the door and the kitchen counter. “Now is not a good time,” she said to no one in particular.

  “I’m sorry?” I said.

  She turned her attention to me. “It’s just a ghost. Don’t worry. He understands that I’m busy right now. Don’t you?” she asked, again speaking to something the rest of us could not see.

  “We have to go. There could be more demons on the way,” Thomas said, his hands resting on his hips.

  “Oh,” she said, tucking the hair behind her ears. “I’d love to go with you all, but I couldn’t do something like that.”

  “We’re here to keep you safe,” Jeremiah said.

  “I can see that. It’s just, I’ve tried to leave town before. I can’t. I literally just can’t.”

  The front door unlocked and we all looked at each other.

  “That’s Molly; don’t scare her.”

  “And who is Molly?” I asked.

  “She raised me. I don’t know who my parents are—which makes perfect sense now.”

  “Domino?” We heard Molly calling from the hallway.

  “In the kitchen!” she hollered back.

  Molly stepped into the kitchen and looked from Domino, to me, to Benjamin, then Thomas, and finally Jeremiah.

  It was hard to recognize the features right away because Molly was an older woman. Her hair was almost completely white and her back hunched forward slightly. But she was a demon, alright.

  “Jeremiah,” she said. “I thought it was about time.”

  “Anya! What a surprise.”

  “Molly, you know these people?”

  “Just this one, dear,” she said, pointing to Jeremiah.

  “There are people after Domino,” he said. “We need to take her with us.”

  “She says she can’t leave, though.” I didn’t like how we were all talking about Domino like she wasn’t there. But even I couldn’t help doing it. I would have been bitching up a storm by now, if I were she.

  “She’s right. She can’t leave on her own. You’ll have to take her.”

  What did that even mean? I wondered.

  “Domino, why don’t you go pack a bag?” Molly said. “I know this one,” she said, pointing to Jeremiah. “You’ll have to go with them now.”

  Domino nodded and started for the stairs.

  “I’ll help you,” I heard Jeremiah say as he followed close behind her.

  If he wasn’t careful, he could quite possibly overwhelm Domino. Anymore attention from him and he was going to turn into a stalker. I didn’t like just waiting around as we were. Three demons only meant that more were coming. And, if the demons knew where we were, then Natasha, could know my location as well. Benjamin came up behind me, pressing his body into my back. I leaned into him, relying on his support. It didn’t feel right to call him “my boyfriend.” Something more distinguished, like “eternal lover” sounded more appropriate.

  “Molly, quick question. What does Domino mean when she says that she can’t leave?”

  “Yes, that. Whatever they did to Domino has her bound to this area. I’ve been watching over her for a thousand years. I’ve taken several forms and Domino and I have joined forces at times.”

  “Yikes! What did you do to get this gig?”

  Molly looked at me curiously. “The only constant is that she’s bound to the area we always end up in.”

  Thomas left the kitchen. “I’m going to walk around outside,” he said.

  “Sooo, help me out here, Molly. Any ideas that might help us get her out of here?”

  “As I said before, my dear. You’ll just have to take her with you.”

  “Molly,” Benjamin said, “how well informed are you with the timeline? Do you know how much time we have before Domino’s sentence expires?”

  Molly sighed, and I could see for the first time that this woman was ancient. How many lives had she lived? “By the end of this year. I’m afraid I can’t tell you more than that. It’s difficult, after so many years, to keep a clear record in my mind.”

  “Of course,” Benjamin said. “I understand.”

  “I’d never met one of the vampires until now,” she said. “All the trouble caused…”

  “I was there,” Benjamin said. “From the beginning. We did not cause the trouble. That woman did, with her recklessness.”

  “Oh, my boy,” Molly said, her eyebrows drawing together, “that woman up there doesn’t know the first thing about her past lives. She’s a good person, means well, and does the best she can with those darn ghosts that plague her every lifetime.”

  “There’s a war out there,” I said. “The demons are tearing through the city.”

  “You want to seat her on top of the throne?” Molly asked. “Better hope she remembers her past life. Better hope—she remembers. That one there,” she said, pointing up toward the second floor. “She doesn’t have it in her.”

  I liked this old lady. She was sweet and grandmotherly like my late grandparents, but she also had a feisty bite to her. “Molly,” I asked, “What will happen to you now if Domino goes with us?”

  “I’ll remain here until my term is up; then I can return to the underworld.” She shrugged and smiled as if she were talking about a game of bridge and not the termination of her thousand-year charge.

  Domino came down from upstairs right then with Jeremiah behind her. He was carrying her candy-apple-red suitcase. “Molly, do you mind if I use your suitcase?”

  “Of course not. Take whatever you need, dear.” Molly approached Domino slowly and drew her into a hug. “You have to go with these people,” she said. “Listen to what they say, but follow your instincts. They will ask you do to brave things, but just remember… you were destined for greatness.”

  A tear escaped Domino, traveling slowly down her cheek. “Will I ever see you again, Molly?”

  “Yes, dear. If everything turns out for the best, then yes.”

  I suspected that Molly was talking about the underworld. Would they be reunited in the underworld? I hoped so. Then, I got the strangest feeling. We just assumed that Domino would make a better leader of the underworld. We all hoped that her resentment and anger at being held captive on earth, separated from the man she loved, would not turn her into something worse than the current king. For all we know, however, she could damn the underworld as well as ours.

  Thomas returned and nodded some secret vampire sign that I assumed meant the coast was clear. How come I was never taught the secret vampire signals? Benjamin moved to stand next to me. I thought about how I would feel if they took me away from him for a thousand years. Yeah… I would be pretty pissed off. I was not the one that wanted to break the news to her though, that’s for sure.

  “We should leave,” Jeremiah said.

  “We have to take her with us. She can’t leave voluntarily,” Benjamin said.

  “What does that mean?” Domino asked.

  Thomas stepped forward, picked Domino up by the waist, and threw her over his shoulder. “I think it means that we take her with us.”

  “Oh,” Domino and I said in unison.

  Thomas carried her out to the SUV and she sat in the back seat with Jeremiah and me. She barely spoke more than a few words during the drive. I was glad I volunteered to sit in the middle because the scenery captivated her as we drove by. It wasn’t special or anything—lots of highway and a few roadside bait shops. Not to mention that it was dark outside, but she was happy just the same.

  Natasha was heavy on my mind. “What is it that she wants with the demons’ help?” I asked. “What’s in it for her?” We were all together. Might as well have a brainstorming session.

  “Who is Natasha?” Domino asked.

  “She’s a vampire,” I said.

  “Terrible personality,” Thomas clarified.

  “She is one of the people that is after you. We’re going to stop her though.”

  �
��I can’t imagine why anyone would be after me,” Domino said sweetly.

  The car was silent. Jeremiah had unanimously been elected as the one that would tell her everything—he just didn’t want to explain it to her with an audience.

  He hesitated.

  “Domino, you used to be a demon like me, and like Molly. You were given a soul and made into a human. Soon, however, you will be changed back into a demon and there are some people—like the vampire, Natasha, and other demons that don’t want to see that happen. The reason is because when you were a demon, you had extraordinary powers and these people don’t want to see those powers restored to you.”

  Domino focused her attention back on the fleeting scenery, and it wasn’t until two miles passed before she replied. “This is all very interesting.”

  As simple as that.

  Everyone was moving into Benjamin’s house. Well, everyone except for Thomas. Of course, Jeremiah insisted that his place was by Domino’s side. He would be moving into the fight room. There was a futon in there that he could sleep on. Domino would sleep in the guest bedroom, which was my old room. It felt like a long forty-eight hours had passed. Thomas stopped at the foot of the long drive that led up the house and we got out and watched him drive away.

  The driveway to Benjamin’s home was long and straight. It looped around into a circular finish so that you could turn and leave the house easily without having to back your car up the whole way. In the middle of this loop was a rather large, but beautiful, landscaping masterpiece that obscured the view of the house. So, it wasn’t until we had nearly walked right up to the house, that I noticed Laura’s car was waiting for us. She was sitting in the front seat, reading a book.

  “Oh no,” I said. “How long do you think she’s been here?”

  “Since it got dark?” Benjamin suggested.

  Laura didn’t hear us walking up, so I knocked on the car window. Startling her, she looked happy enough to see me. She opened the car door. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  “Hi,” I said, surprised she wasn’t angry with me for ditching her at her apartment, after she’d been kind enough to take us in. “You should have called. It’s dangerous for you to be here out here by yourself.”