Somehow, someway, she was right there, right in front of our eyes. But if Nefera was here, something wasn't right.

But it was hard to tell with how tall she stood, hands on her hips, and a cruel smile glimpsing each of us. Her purple eyes met mine, and her expression wavered.

I returned her smile. "Where's Valentine?" The words left like a statement.

She frowned and turned her back on me with a flip of her hair. "This is a really nice mansion..." She faced her monsters. "We can deal with them here. Make yourselves comfortable."

"Answer the question, Nefera," Cleo seethed.

She spun on her heel and marched right to her knees. "I don't need to."

After the briefest flicker of silence, a laugh bubbled out from Cleo's mouth. "Oh my Ra. He betrayed you. Oh, Nefera, you think you'd have learned something from daddy."

She stomped her foot and crossed her arms, looking no more intimidating than a child. "So what if he did? It's not like he's helping you! He only cares about his friend. And anyway," she held her head high, looking down at Cleo, "I still have all of you." She looked at me again, and this time her expression soured. "As much as I love being back in my body, unlife sure was easier with your face."

I bit my tongue. Her body had been abandoned in a crypt for years because it didn't suit her. She took my body, my life, away from me. And Cleo. Cleo had lived for centuries, but even I knew she didn't deserve a moment of that taken away. And now here we were, five years of our unlives gone; on our knees before the monster who played with them like toys.

With steady breaths, I glanced behind me. My friends looked worse. Paralyzed, bleeding, or out cold. Exhausted. And there was nothing we could do about it.

Adrian approached Nefera, eagerness alight on his features. "So, we were thinking we eat the tasty-lookin' ones, then have a good old-fashioned blood bath with the rest. Maybe pick our teeth with the skeleton. Is that cool?"

She grunted in disgust and waved him off. "Do whatever you want. Or, better yet, save the blood for an extra boost later instead of wasting it on a Radamned bloodbath." She looked over her shoulder, and her eyes widened. That cruel smile twisted her lips again. "Don't touch that one. She could be useful."

I followed her gaze to where Gigi stood on her knees with a defiant, unblinking look in her eyes. "I'm not like my sister," she said, like gravel in throat.

"No, but power is power," Nefera trilled. "I'll take what I can get."

"Haven't you learned?" Cleo scoffed. "Power comes with a price. Figures you haven't, though. I always suspected you were dropped on your head."

"Funny." Nefera leaned forward. "I'm not the one taunting the executioner."

"Of course," Cleo's laugh was hoarse. "You get that privilege. That power. You finally have it all."

"Aw, Cleo," a smile flickered onto her face, "you've finally caught up with the rest of the class. You should get a gold star." She rolled her eyes and glanced at her nails. "Best part is that I didn't need Valentine or his genie to ruin you."

"But you did," I said, the words coming before I could think. "Without Whisp's obedience, you wouldn't be here."

She glowered. "I think I'll have them take you first. Well," she looked at Cleo, "after you, sister."

Cleo opened her mouth to retort, but she held back. Instead, she looked up at Nefera with an expression I dreaded.

Disappointment.

Her voice choked, "What happened to you?"

Nefera's lip trembled, but her stance was rigid as stone. She closed her eyes and let out a breath, her voice booming. "Get rid of them."

But no one moved.

She opened her eyes. "Hello? Earth to minions?"

But none of the vampires paid her any attention, their eyes trained on a lone figure waltzing into the room with just as much confidence as Nefera.

Elissabat.

Their queen.

Adrian was the first to take a knee, and the others followed almost instantaneously. "Your majesty... We thought you were dead."

Elissabat smoothed her skirt and plastered on a smile. "I was only waiting for the right time." Her words sounded scripted, and right now it was a recital.

"She just had to get vampires," Heath rasped. He chuckled. "Venus thought it was snooty."

Cleo grinned. "And it's just like one of Nefera's ideas to stab her in the back." She leaned into Deuce, who had recently gained movement in his limbs. She and those around me seemed to relax, but the tension in me remained.

We weren't finished yet.

"Excuse me." Nefera stomped over to Elissabat, but Adrian and other vampires shot up, blocking her way. Nefera clenched her fists. "What exactly do you think you're doing?"

One of the ghoul vampires smirked. "Protecting our real queen. Oh, and by the way, those blood cocktails you make us drink? Suck."

"And you're a bitch!" another vampire spouted out like he'd been holding it in too long.

"That's enough," Elissabat's low voice boomed before Nefera could snap back. She looked at the group of vampires. "If you wouldn't mind doing me a few favors—"

They clamored in agreement, and she held her hands out to calm them. Elissabat looked at us for a long while, her gaze hardened and expressionless. She locked onto Nefera.

"Release those monsters, please. And leave the normie be."

Some vampires groaned, but they went straight to work. Nefera's gripes and yells drowned in the sound of their boots and the unlocking of cuffs. In less than a minute, we were all free.

In the light of the approaching dawn, color returned to their faces. Even the werewolves sat up, beaten as they were, at least they wouldn't get worse from here. I rubbed my wrists, my stitches frayed.

Nefera screeched and charged at Elissabat, only to run into a cluster of vampires. She pounded at their chests and wailed. "You're mine, you're mine. I built this world! You answer to me!"

Elissabat looked almost nervous. She cleared her throat and adopted a face of elegance. An actress playing the role of a leader. "Restrain her."

The click of cuffs was almost immediate, but Nefera's fit raged on. Elissabat turned the corner and commanded they take her and follow. The sound of bootsteps didn't overpower Nefera's wails this time, and they were the last sounds that left the room as they disappeared up the staircase.

I looked around, relief overtaking me until I remembered the situation we were in. Toralei and Holt were still unconscious, and the werewolves could barely stand. And Jackson—

I tripped myself scrambling over to him. His eyes were closed and his skin looked even paler in the rising sun. I pressed my hand onto his wrist. There it was. A steady pulse.

His eyes slowly opened, and I breathed a sigh of relief. His hand was still on his neck. "To think I thought... becoming a vampire... was a cool idea."

My breath caught. I searched frantically until I saw Gory. "He's not going to become a vampire, is he?"

She adjusted her glasses. "No. Not unless he'd like a taste of the vamp that bit him."

Jackson grimaced. "Definitely not cool."

Heath appeared at my side, a groggy Holt close behind him. The former rested a hand on my shoulder. "I'll take it from here, Frankie."

I looked at him. He only aged five years, yet his russet eyes told of so many more. He was almost unrecognizable. Whoever I knew from high school was gone, and maybe in this weird strange, dark world, that wasn't such a bad thing.

They were in good hands.

I sent him a nod and shot a look at my ghoulfriends. Abbey came to Heath's aid, and Draculaura tended to Clawd and Clawdeen who, despite the ferocity in her eyes, was not standing up soon. Lagoona was quick to tend to the others, too. The many she had lived with for so long. The only one who returned my gaze was Cleo, but she didn't move.

She cradled Deuce in her arms, both of them still exhausted, and I knew that she wanted to be there for him.

Despite the ache in my limbs, how they screamed to stay put on the ground, everything in me said I needed to act, I needed to do something.

We weren't done yet.

Not yet.

Cleo smiled at me, a gentle form of encouragement, and I nodded.

"I'll be right back." I staggered to my feet, and with all the strength I could muster, I headed for the stairs and followed the voices down the hall.

The vampires crowded together and blocked the entrance to the media room. Robecca and Rochelle attempted to shove through them, but with no luck. There were too many of them. Elissabat must be inside with Nefera.

I cautiously neared them, and a couple of vampires shot me harsh looks.

"It was better when she was you, you know," a vampire ghoul hissed.

A guy elbowed her. "Hey, we should thank her. If it weren't for her, we wouldn't have found our queen."

The ghoul's expression softened, and she ignored me. The others paid me no attention, but I knew that would change if I tried to get past them. Robecca and Rochelle weren't enough of a distraction for all of them.

I retreated, just far enough so they wouldn't pay me attention, when I ran into Gigi.

Her arms were wrapped around her torso, and she gave me nothing but a fleeting smile as she passed me by.

"You can't get past them," I called, but she carried onward.

She looked so, so tired. The complete opposite of the fire and relief I saw in the many downstairs. Heath, Draculaura, even Gory and Bram went straight to helping each other in any way they could. But Gigi strayed away, and the longer I stood in the hallway, I realized that so had a handful of others. The monsters that hadn't been with me at camp... they weren't as close-knit like the ones who'd been through it all these past five years. They weren't so much a family than survivors. But at least now, maybe, there was a chance they could be something more.

Spectra's blue glow whisked past me. The group of vampires paid her hardly any attention—most of them rolled their eyes—and she phased her face through the wall.

Spectra. She was my way past them. I rushed to her and tapped her shoulder, but my hand phased right through her. I tried again. No luck.

Gigi groaned, and I looked behind me to see her huff down the hall until she stopped suddenly. She fished a phone out from her pant pocket and stared at it. Gigi jumped when it rang, and she proceeded toward the stairs out of sight.

I called Spectra's name, trying my best not to alert the other vampires. She finally budged.

"Frankie, I'm trying to figure out what's going on. It may be good for my—"

"Get me in there," I said. "Please."

She paused, then nodded. Spectra swooped down and grabbed my hand. In nearly an instant, we were in the media room. Nefera sat cuffed with her head down, her teal hair loose and obscuring her face in a lone chair, as all the others had been moved around her in a large circle. Adrian was with Elissabat, helping her with some cameras. So this was how they'd start.

All but Nefera's back faced us. But when she looked up, her face was full of blossoming bruises. My breath caught.

They weren't starting, they were finishing up.

She stared right at us, and she shook as her face contorted into a hard look of spite. That was enough for the others to notice us, and Adrian didn't hesitate.

But neither did Spectra. She grabbed him and dragged him up and out through the ceiling. That left me alone with Nefera and Elissabat.

I took a breath. "You can't do this, please."

She crossed her arms. "No?" She smiled and pulled a tape from the nearest camera. "I did what I needed to do."

"Expose her, right?" I took a step toward her. "Now that you have her confession. Now that you get to be the queen. Just like you always wanted."

Her face faltered, but she regained her composure. "It's what I'm destined to do."

I kept taking careful steps toward her. "Since when did you care about destiny? I thought you had dreams, Elissabat."

"I've spent years thinking this over, Frankie. How do you expect me to think of my dreams?" She looked to the floor. My eyes were on the tape. "This world... They need me more than ever."

"Maybe." I was right in front of her. "But maybe not in the way you think." My hands were nearly on the tape when she snatched it away from me.

Her eyes were hard. Red. She bristled.

I lunged at the tape and she fell, but her grip wouldn't budge.

"Please," she cried. "I have to do this. It's the best way!"

"It's not." What was with all these monsters thinking they had to conform to everything around them?

I held down her wrist with my left hand and unstitched. Leaping to my feet, I held her wrist down with my foot and pressed down. Her grip loosened. My loose hand scrambled at the tape. It strained at pulling her fingers apart, and Elissabat kicked out my other leg. I fell and kneed her stomach, and the tape fell. My hand caught it, and she chased after it.

Nefera laughed. Her laughter quickly turned into groans.

I caught Elissabat's shoulders and had her for mere seconds before she broke free and I fell flat onto my back.

Nefera's groans only grew louder, and I rose to look at her. She writhed in her seat and clenched her teeth, bursts of sound barely breaking through. Her eyes widened, and her hair morphed free from her face. It was tied up atop her in a bun.

I shook my head and looked at my loose hand. I scanned for cracks along the wall, pleading that there was some way that it could escape with the tape.

A blue glow entered the room.

I pointed at my loose hand. "Spectra!"

Her eyes widened, and she spun around and snatched my hand and the tape out and through the wall.

I breathed a sigh of relief and slumped onto a nearby chair, my exhaustion catching up with me.

Elissabat fell into a heap on the floor, her head in her hands. She shook, but when she glanced up, her attention was drawn past me. Nefera.

Now, her clothes had transformed into a golden two-piece. Her hair. Her clothes... I'd only ever seen a similar outfit on—

She let out a yell and vanished.

In her place were a pair of handcuffs...

And a genie's lantern.