“Please, you totally did.” Lucy smiled briefly. “And I love you for it. But cut it out already.” She waggled her eyebrows at me. The light reflected off her dark-rimmed glasses. “Did you kiss her?” She stopped. “Of course you kissed her. How was it?”

“I’m not a girl, Lucy. I don’t want to braid your hair and talk about kissing.”

Solange stared at me, sniffing the air delicately. She looked confused. “Did you bite her?”

“No, I didn’t bite her,” I answered, a little more roughly than I’d intended. “Instead of talking about me, why don’t we talk about what the hell were you doing out in the woods in the first place?”

“Yeah,” Nicholas agreed silkily. “Let’s talk about that.” He nudged Lucy into a chair. When he reached for the teacup, she narrowed her eyes at him.

“I will pour that on your head.”

He didn’t look particularly worried. “I’ll tell Mom you’re not resting.”

Her mouth gaped open. “Dirty pool.”

“Hell, yeah.”

At least no one was talking about my love life anymore. “Solange, seriously,” I said. “What the hell?”

“I just needed to get out,” she said quietly. “With the abductions and the assassination attempts and the bloodchange, forgive me for feeling a little overwhelmed.” She lifted her sunglasses. “And look at my eyes.” Her pupils were still ringed in red, the whites bloodshot. They hadn’t changed back.

“Ouch,” Lucy winced. “Do they have vampire Visine for that?”

Solange didn’t smile. “Anyway, you guys patrol all the time,” she told Nicholas and me.

“Not alone!” he shot back.

“She wasn’t alone,” Lucy interrupted. “I was with her.” She smiled sheepishly. “I followed her,” she admitted.

“Why?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I guess I was worried. But I knew she needed some time alone so I didn’t want to bug her.” She shrugged one shoulder. “Montmartre’s dead. And so’s Greyhaven, and he was Montmartre’s lieutenant or whatever, so I figured we were okay. It’s not like the Host could have regrouped that fast.”

“Did you conveniently forget about all the Hel-Blar?” Nicholas asked them with disgust. They both shrugged. He looked like his head was going to explode. My little brother had his hands full with those two. I just wanted to lie in a dark room and try not to replay every moment of that kiss.

You know, before I fanged out on the girl.

The vampire hunter girl.

I groaned, turning to stomp up the stairs. I didn’t need super-sensitive vampire senses to know Lucy was chasing me.

“Oh no way, Quinn. No headache is going to keep me from getting the dirt.”

She was as unshakable as a gnat. I couldn’t help but shoot a grin at her over my shoulder. “I had no idea you were so kinky.”

She flicked me. “If you want to save your brother’s and your sister’s undead lives, you will distract me right now.”

“What, calling you a perv isn’t distracting enough?”

She tilted her head. “I have photos of your superhero phase. I’m sure Hunter would love to see the one of you in the Batman tights and cape from that Halloween when you were ten.”

“Remind me never to piss you off,” I said.

“It’s a basic life skill,” she agreed cheerfully. “But an important one.” She perched on the edge of my bed. “So spill, Casanova.”

“Dream on.”

She pouted. “I’m injured, remember?”

“Oh, so now you play the injured card.”

She grinned unrepentantly, popping back to her feet. She’d never been any good at sitting still. “Why are you still all fangy?”

I ran my tongue over my fangs, being careful not to slice it open. I had no intention of telling her I’d had the urge to turn Hunter into a wineglass and drink her down like red wine. “Only you would reduce centuries of the mythical undead to ‘fangy. ’ ”

“I call ’em like I see ’em, fangboy.” She paused at the window, frowning slightly. “There she goes,” she said quietly.

“Who, Solange?”

She nodded. “She’s going to hide in her pottery shed. I’m worried about her, Quinn.”

“Why?”

She gnawed on her lower lip. “Because she’s being weird. She told Kieran not to come over tonight.”

“That’s not weird.”

“No, it’s the way she said it.” She sighed. “And my parents are coming back home the day after tomorrow, and I’m worried you guys are going to try and freeze me out. You know,” she made sarcastic air quotes, “for my own good.”

“We wouldn’t,” I lied. We totally would. We were a dangerous family to know right now. In fact, kissing Hunter and then actually tasting her blood had stirred my inner vampire closer to the surface. Even Lucy smelled good right now, and I was as used to her scent as to any of my siblings’. It rarely bothered me.

It was bothering me now.

“Lucy, I’m glad you’re okay. If you do something stupid like that again, I’ll kill you myself.” I smiled to soften the scold. “Now go away. I’m tired.”

She glowered at me. “You’re not tired. You’re trying to get rid of me.”