We’re all traumatized but I’m fairly certain that I’m the only one missing every single thing about my vampire ex-girlfriend who died saving all of us from her vindictive mother. I try to choke back the tears but the sobs keep coming. Danny rubs my back.
“Let’s get you tucked in.” She guides me to my bed. She’s given up on hating me. War does that to you.
Danny takes my place at command central to update the Silas students. All I can do is watch and listen from my bed in the fetal position. Perry joins her, back to her starched self.
“Hi, students. Laura wanted us to update you about the big win we had yesterday. She’s a bit under the weather, recovering from the battle,” Danny opens.
Perry continues, “Here’s how it went down. LaFontaine led us to the Lustig Theater Building, where the dean and her vampire army were holed up with the missing Silas students, preparing to feed them to the light. We tracked them through a maze below the building.”
LaFontaine chimes in. “I still can’t believe you used me as a human homing beacon.”
“Desperate times,” Perry says.
LaFontaine corrects her. “Oh no. That was badass hard core. We do not apologize for that. Ever.”
Perry turns to hug LaFontaine. “I missed you, weirdo.”
“Control freak.”
Back together looks really good on them. Danny coughs. “And …”
Perry continues her explanation after veering off track momentarily. “I’ll spare you the misstep when we got caught up in the broom closet. It happens. Once the Summer Society and the Zetas busted us out, the confrontation began. They were all there — the dean, the vampires, Kirsch and the other victims — at the lip of this enormous chasm filled with a glistening light.”
I see LaFontaine shudder. Perry throws her arm around her friend, whose head drops on her shoulder.
I get up and go over to the camera. “All of the humans started walking right for the edge because what could you do but give yourself to the light? In a split second, I was yanked backward by a pantherlike animal. When I was a safe distance away, the beast shrank and shifted, and there stood Carmilla. With a sword. The only thing that could destroy the light and save us all.” Sadness creeps in once more. “And she leapt forward, driving the sword right into the heart of the light. We watched it flicker, then die out, taking all the vampire ghosts and darkness with it. It cost Carmilla her life. She wasn’t guilty of what we accused her of. We were all wrong. I was wrong.” Danny puts her arm around me.
LaFontaine moves into focus to finish the story while the nonstop tears flow down my cheeks. “Once the light was extinguished, I guess the brain parasites died. That’s when everyone woke up more or less.”
“I was at a wine and cheese,” Natalie says. “That’s it. Holding a glass of rosé.”
“I was on a campus tour. I didn’t even want to go to Silas!” Betty yells. Perry moves the webcam on her. “But we were still trapped in a cavern in complete darkness with a crapload of flesh-eating vampires. Okay, it wasn’t totally black since the walls had glowing puffballs on the them, thanks to the Alchemy Club. Turns out they’re good for something.”
I crawl back into bed.
“It was like having a bar fight in black light,” Kirsch adds. “Totally rad, until a vampire broke my arm. That’s when Summer Psycho saved my bacon.”
“That part was accidental,” Danny notes.
Kirsch pulls her close. “Even so, when you save a Zeta’s life, you become an honorary Zeta. For life. We’re legit a family. You even get a cool trident.” He’s so proud it’s endearing.
Danny plants her forehead in the palm of her hand. “All the vampires surrendered. Carmilla’s mom, the dean, did not.”
“She was clinging with her claws to the cliff face about fifty feet down,” Perry says with a laugh.
Danny chuckles. “Yeah, she was screaming at us that she would be back and we would all pay for what we’d done.”
Kirsch gets his puppy on, jumping around. “That’s when hottie Hollis pushed a rock that was hanging out on the edge. Bam, right on the dean, squashing her like a bug.”
LaFontaine peps up. “Even better than that? Now that the evil dean is gone, the new administration is going to have to heed my long list of health and safety concerns. I win!”
Perry touches LaFontaine’s arm and gestures toward me. I don’t miss that. “Sorry, Laura,” she says.
I say words that aren’t true in response. “It’s okay.”
Perry tries to comfort me. “You did it. You saved Betty. You saved almost everybody.”
“Almost” rings loudly in my ears and heart.
I roll over, curl up and cry an ocean of tears.