You found me.

Viken frowns.

"Jaan and Eugene carried you up here after you passed out, I didn't have anything to do with that."

"I meant that morning, in Lamia's castle." Heli averts his gaze from Viken to the ceiling. "You were walking around singing."

"Oh," Viken says. "I was, but I didn't think there was anyone else in the castle other than Eugene. How did you hear that?"

"If you had been any later," Heli pauses. "I don't think I would have woken up."

With a click, Viken switches off the radio and the static ceases. He's silent for a few moments, so Heli continues.

"That's your magic, isn't it?"

"Hm?"

Heli turns on his side to face Viken.

"You use music to change how I feel about things."

Viken laughs. "Took you long enough to figure that out."

Heli frowns, but Viken shakes his head.

"Don't be cross about it, you do the same thing but worse. It's actually the most frightening thing about you. How easily you make everyone around you drop their guard."

"I don't do that."

"You sure do. I asked Eugene, he said it was a vampire thing. You are a predator, after all. You're just exceptionally good at luring people in."

"It's not on purpose," Heli says.

"I never said it was."

Heli pulls the duvet further over his shoulders.

"Anyway, everyone was really freaking out, afraid your mind was stuck outside your body somewhere," says Viken.

"No," Heli sighs. "I was just lost in my own head."

"I was getting nervous you were going to start rotting again. You were pretty putrid when we found you," Viken continues. "But Jaan said you weren't really dead as long as you weren't turning to dust."

"I remembered a lot of things."

Viken turns his attention back to the radio, and finally manages to tune into a clear station. The quiet music has a disco beat and he sighs and hops up onto the bed.

"Move over." He lays with the radio on his stomach. "Were they helpful things?"

"No," Heli says. "Just bad things, mostly. I was ready to give up, but I think everything turned out the way it was supposed to. So I'm glad. I'm glad you're here."

Viken smirks. "You're just saying that because you want my blood."

That may still be true but it's not what Heli means.

"It's really funny," Viken says. "You crave my blood the most, but your power doesn't affect me. You could easily have your pick of literally anyone else's blood but you can't because of that curse."

"Hmm," Heli hums a half-hearted agreement.

"But, hey you know what? At least for my part, you can be assured how I feel about you is genuine."

"You mean to say no one else likes me."

"That's not, no.," Viken groans. "Actually you're right, everyone has been trying to pry you away from Lamia because they hate you. Bloody hell." He mutters something else but Heli doesn't catch it as he laughs.

"I know they don't."

They lay, listening to the radio. Viken taps the radio in time to the music. The stillness is uncomfortable. Heli tries to focus on the dance beat emitting from the radio, but his mind keeps wandering back to carnival music and a horrified face.

"Are you falling asleep?"

"I'm not," says Heli, though he realises his tone sounds like he's drifting off and his eyes are closed.

"It's alright if you do. I don't feel like packing again."

He covers his face with his hands. Falling back into deep sleep would cease the images running through his head. Getting up and finding a distraction would have the same effect, but he doesn't want to have to explain what happened that night to anyone, at least not yet. A good stretch would probably do wonders for the heaviness in his limbs too.

"Bad memories, you said?" Viken says.

"I don't want to talk about," Heli starts but continues anyway. "I almost did something horrible."

"You didn't though," Viken laughs softly. "That's what counts, right?"

"I was going to do it," says Heli. "I would have."

He resists Viken's attempts to pull his hands from his face. After a while, Viken gives up but with another laugh he repeats.

"You didn't though."

"I might know who cursed me though."

"Oh?"

"There was a girl from the village," Heli mumbles between his fingers. "Lamia wanted me to kill her."

"Wow," Viken says. "You must have been terrifying."

"Hardly. We'd met before."

"She must have felt really strongly about you."

"I suppose there's no way to break the curse then," Heli says. "She's bound to be long dead."

"Seems that way," Viken's tone is unconcerned. "She can't forgive you if she's gone."

The door opens and the steps of multiple people fill the room.

"I see he's moved."

Heli opens his eyes and turns over. Jaan, Jakah and Eugene are standing at the end of the bed with expressions of varying degrees of concern. Solon sits down at the little table, his face unreadable as always.

"We won't be trying that again," says Jaan. "I'm sorry, it really seemed like telepathy would work."

"Telepathy worked perfectly," Heli says. "The problem was that Lamia was there in my head, waiting for me. Nothing that went wrong was our fault."

"If you want to block Lamia out, we could try another seal," Eugene sits down at the foot of the bed. "Since the last one we tried was no good, I've been working on improvements."

"No," Heli snaps up. "You're not putting more spells on my head. Besides, I don't need it anymore."

"I can make it different this time," Eugene explains. "Instead of keeping your thoughts in, this one will keep Lamia out."

Heli shakes his head.

"Are you sure?"

"She doesn't want me," Heli's voice trails off. "Not anymore. I know that now. I remember what she did to me."

Jakah sits down and wraps his arms around Heli. "Is knowing that enough?"

Heli shrugs. "I can't let her affect me anymore. But I want to be able to protect myself."

He looks up at Eugene, who grins. "That's fine then. The offer still stands if you ever want." He claps his hands together. "What do you say we get ready to head out then?"

Heli takes a deep breath. "What I want, " he says slowly. "Is to be at home in front of the fireplace, playing board games. But it's not what I should do. Or what I have to do, which is find out what happened to Jino."

"You know where that church was then?" asks Solon. "The cemetery that you saw?"

"No, I've never seen it before," Heli admits. "I connected with Jino's mind, at least I thought. But he wasn't actually there and I'm worried."

"What do you plan on doing then?" says Jaan. "Look at every church on the continent?"

"If that's what it takes," Heli says. "I have all of forever to search."

"I don't think you'll have to take that long." Eugene pulls a folder from his bag on the floor and hands it to Heli. "We had some time to go back to the university while you were out."

"Was it really that long?"

"Long enough."

Viken sits up to show Heli the contents of the folder. "Your description was vague to say the least, but we were hoping maybe the architecture would point us in the right direction."

Inside are several pages of white paper. Imprinted on each are black splotches and squares, some bearing the semblance of the outline of a building.

"What even is this?"

"Some bad photocopies," Jakah snickers. "You would have been better off sketching whatever you were trying to copy."

"We tried, okay?"

Heli closes the folder and hands it back to Eugene. "I don't see how this is going to help. These images are totally unintelligible."

"Maybe so, but it gave me some ideas. At least we have some place to start right?"

"You don't all have to come with," Heli says.

"We're not letting you go alone," Jaan points to Jakah, Solon and himself. "I want to see that Jino's alright too."

"And you're stuck with us whether you like it or not," Eugene says. "I think we can afford a little side trip."

"A little trip," Heli repeats. How could he sound so confident when he didn't even know what they were looking for?

Eugene doesn't appear to share Heli's hesitation. "The sun's just set, so we've got plenty of daytime left. Let's get our stuff and get out then," he says. "I'm sure Eira is beyond tired of feeding us."

The others file out to gather their things, but as they're left alone Heli grabs Eugene's arm.

"Eugene," he starts. "Thanks for not staking me."

Eugene blinks a couple times before offering a sideways grin. "I couldn't have done it, you looked so pathetic. Wish someone had warned me picking up a vampire would be more akin to adopting a child though. And you've multiplied."

He claps Heli on the shoulder, leaving Heli with his mouth open but no retort.

Eira's cafe is busy for the first time since they arrived. She slides a coffee across the counter and waves with her free hand, no longer in a sling. With a slight jog she comes over to where they're waiting by the door, ready at least to say farewell.

"People are coming back, then?" Heli says.

"A successful re-opening," Eira grins. "It helps when there isn't an imminent threat of death."

"How did you convince everyone?"

"Told the paper we caught a giant wolf," Mr. Iversen approaches from behind. "The deaths stopped, so all's well."

"And they just believed that?"

"We might have had Solon transform and play dead."

Heli laughs. "You're joking, right?" He looks to Solon, who turns away.

"Don't forget this." Mr. Iversen hands Heli a long rectangular object, wrapped in brown paper. "Your sword."

"Right," Heli takes the package.

"If you're ever this way again, feel free to stop," Eira says.

Despite Eugene's remark about being tired of feeding them, she doesn't let them leave without some snacks for the road. As they pile back into the van, Jakah gives Frida one last pat on the head before climbing in and shutting the door. Eira and Mr. Iversen are still waving as Eugene drives away, until the inn and the town are just lights in the rear window.

Viken again sits in the front seat, with a map and an envelope in his hands.

"Which way are we going?"

"Just a general south direction for now," Eugene replies. "I'll figure it out after we get off the ferry."

"A real plan we've got here," Viken sighs. He pops open the top of the envelope and peers inside. "This is all she paid us?"

"I didn't ask for any more," says Eugene. "Not after she put us up free for a month and had no other business."

"This isn't going to last very long."

Heli lets his head drop to Jaan's shoulder as he watches the trees pass by outside the window. Viken and Eugene keep debating about their pay as they go along. By the time they reach the ferry port, Viken is dozing off, and Eugene is yawning. He sneaks the envelope from Viken's grip and pulls out enough for the fare.

"Can't we just skip the ferry," Jakah stops in the middle of tucking himself under some of the blankets meant to protect them from the sun as he interrogates Eugene. "You already drive way faster than a normal car."

"You know how you can't cross moving water on your own? It's similar."

"How does it work then? Were we flying?"

"Nope," says Eugene. "All four wheels are always in contact with the ground."

Jakah frowns as he thinks. "We're not phasing into another plane of existence."

Eugene laughs. "Wouldn't that be nice, I wouldn't have to stop for petrol."

"Don't tell me the van is possessed."

Eugene taps Viken on the shoulder. "Anyone need anything while we're waiting?"

"I need a toilet," Viken mumbles.

"I'm hungry," adds Jakah.

"You're on your own there. What about Solon, is he alright? I haven't heard his voice in a while."

"That's normal," says Jaan. He rises from his seat to get a better look at Solon behind him. "He's fine."

Jakah throws a blanket over Heli's head and he closes his eyes. When he opens them again he's in the same position, and the van is parked, its engine off and quiet. Everything feels still, not at all like they're traversing over waves.

"What's that?" He hears Eugene say.

"Heli's awake," Viken says. "Don't move yet, the sun hasn't gone down."

Tentatively, Heli lowers the blanket from his head. Through the windshield he can see the deep orange of the sun setting over buildings and treetops. He's mostly in shadow, so he uncovers his head completely. The others look to still be asleep, Jaan with his head down on his chest.

"How'd you know I was up? I didn't even move."

"I can always tell," Viken grins. "You take a real deep breath before you start breathing normally. It sounds like you're sighing."

"That makes sense." Heli sits up to watch the sunset.

"I was a little nervous you'd all start waking even earlier," says Eugene. "Since we're not in the Arctic anymore."

By the time everyone is awake the sun has disappeared completely behind the trees. Eugene hops out of the front seat, and throws open the back door. With a flourish, he gestures behind him. On top of a hill just ahead, sits a small church surrounded by a handful of headstones. A bell tower is topped with a cross and the arched windows are lit, its colourful stained glass illuminated.

"Is this your church?" Eugene asks.

"No," says Heli flatly. "Too small."

"Alright," Eugene resettles into the driver's seat. "On to the next."

"This isn't seriously your strategy," says Jaan as Eugene starts the engine and pulls away. "Just driving around looking at churches."

"More or less." Bomgyu crosses out a point on his map with a marker. "You don't know where it is, we have a vague idea of where it might be, what else have you got?"

"An insatiable thirst."

Viken looks at Eugene with a concerned expression. Eugene's grip on the steering wheel visibly tightens.

"Listen, you may think that Heli's description was extremely vague, but we got more out of our research than you might realise. I did mark all the places I think it could be. So we're not just wandering aimlessly, I promise."

Heli looks at Jaan, but he's nodding in understanding.

"Arched windows and towers sound gothic," Solon adds from behind him.

"There are still a lot of those," Heli says. "All over the place."

"Sure, but there were some other unique features of the church you saw, right?" asks Eugene.

"Not really," Heli says. "The cemetery looked pretty normal. There weren't any other buildings around either."

"Which means we can eliminate every church in a city."

Heli settles back into the seat. "What if it's not on a map though? It could be long abandoned. Or not real. What if Jino imagined it?"

Viken turns, the map crumpling in his fist.

"Do you want to find Jino or do you want to go home?"

Eugene pulls down a narrow road that opens into another churchyard and a second gothic building. Snow blankets the ground, covering the church roof in white. Though cold, compared to the temperatures where they had been, this version of winter is completely tolerable. The church has the right number of towers and the cemetery is considerably larger, but it's still not the right one.

"Can we get out a minute?" Jakah says. "We haven't stood up in hours."

Stretching does feel good, and Heli takes the opportunity to take a small walk around a few of the headstones. The stones are similar, but this still isn't it. He just knows it's not. The other cemetery had mausoleums.

"We'll find a butcher somewhere," Eugene says as Heli sits on the stone steps leading to the church's door. Viken sits next to him, stretching his legs.

"There's bound to be some blood cuisine here too."

"I know I said I'd be willing to look forever, but I'm still not asking you to," Heli says.

"Getting frustrated already? We've hardly gone anywhere."

Heli shrugs. He pictures the church, the graveyard, trying to find something familiar or unique that would help narrow down the search. No matter how he imagines it, there's nothing he recognises.

Well, even if he has no idea what he's looking at, maybe one of the others will. He grabs Viken's arm.

"What-"

"Look." Heli sends him the vision of the church, exactly as he remembered it.

"This is so weird," Viken closes his eyes. "Why is it blurry?"

"I'm trying to remember everything," Heli says. "Does it look like any of the photographs?"

"No," Viken admits. "What about the cemetery?"

Heli shifts the image in his mind to the sprawling graveyard. Viken scrunches up his nose and squeezes his eyes tight.

"I can't read any of the graves," he says.

"Trying to squint at them isn't going to help," Heli says. "I didn't look at any of them that closely."

"Too bad, the language might have been a good clue."

Heli replays the scene, as he mentally walks by the mausoleums, notices the small silver cross. Viken is right that the headstones would have been useful, but he wasn't thinking about that at the time. Though the stones clearly have text, it's even blurrier than the edges of the landscape. What else might there be to help them? He remembers the trees, the grey cloudy sky, the black snake lunging for him…

"AUGH!" Viken jerks his arm from Heli's grasp. "You could have warned me about that."

"Sorry," Heli says.

Viken opens his eyes. "You really never saw it before? Not even travelling with the carnival?"

"Let me see." Jakah stands in front of him, hands outstretched. Heli takes his hands, and shows him the same scene.

"Ah!" Jakah's face lights up.

"You know it?"

"Maybe. Can I see the map?"

Viken pulls the hastily re-folded paper from his pocket and Jakah flattens it out on the stone.

"We're about here, right?" He points to a red circle.

"That's right," says Eugene.

With his finger, Jakah traces a line from the circle, along what appears to be a river and up to an area clustered with road markers, that must be a city.

"We came this way once, must have been about '28," he says. "But we didn't set the carnival up at all, we just passed through. I didn't really understand why, since there were plenty of open areas. Lamia told everyone we couldn't stay here, so we didn't. There may have been a church along this way." He points to a spot not too awful far from where they are now. "Someone said there were vampires in the crypts, but we didn't meet any. The church was so far in the distance, I didn't really look at it. But seeing it now, it was vaguely familiar."

"Vaguely is better than not at all, I guess," says Eugene.

"That was fifty years ago," Jakah protests.

"Someone collect Jaan and Solon, and let's take a look."

As they pass through a town, Viken points out they ought to find someplace to stay and eat before it's too late into the night. Eugene parks in front of a white building promising lodging.

"Heli and I will see about a room, if the rest of you want to find food," Eugene says.

"Why do I-"

"Because the last time Jakah went off to find sustenance, I'm not entirely sure where he procured it and I don't need to come out to find you passed out somewhere."

"We'll keep everyone in check, don't worry." Solon says.

"I didn't do anything bad," says Jakah, as Jaan wraps an arm around his shoulders. They head off in the opposite direction and Eugene drags Heli towards the door. Heli watches as they head away in the street lights with a feeling of unease. For some reason, he feels nervous as they go. Like something bad might happen to them once they're out of sight.

"I actually hope Jakah's vague memory of this church is correct, I don't have enough money to keep this up forever."

As Heli steps forward behind him, he's met with a strange resistance. Something around the building presses the air around him, making it hard to approach. He glances around the doorframe, searching for the source of the barrier, and spots a silver cross nailed just above the door.

"Eugene," he says. "We can't stay here."

Eugene turns around with a frown. "This is a small town, there really aren't any other choices."

Heli points to the cross. Eugene's eyes follow the gesture.

"I didn't think that sort of thing worked."

"They don't want us here."

Eugene steps back, glancing from the cross, to Heli, to his vehicle.

"Should we move on then? Sleep in the van? I've been driving for hours, I was really hoping to-"

"Maybe it was put up a long time ago," Heli offers. "This has got to be an old building right? Most people don't believe in vampires anymore."

"Right," Eugene hesitates. "Maybe don't look anyone in the eye, just in case."

Eugene grabs his arm and pushes open the door. Attached to Eugene, Heli slips through the barrier and they both enter.

Heli reflected Eugene's hope that Jakah was correct, and Jino would be there. The less time they spend here, the better.

Heli gazes up into the bell tower rising high above them into an overcast sky. He turns to the graveyard, a sprawling expanse of headstones, and just before the trees, a line of smaller stone buildings.

"Is this the one?" Jaan asks.

Heli tilts his head and steps to the side of the building. So far it seems right. He looks out over the cemetery, picking a spot that feels right so he can see it from the same distance as he had before. From here he's sure this is the right place.

"Well?" Viken, still in front of the church, calls over.

Heli transports himself back.

"Jino should be here, somewhere."

"You said he wasn't present," Solon says. "But if this place had made that much of an impression, there should be some clue about where he went."

"Vampires in the crypts," Heli repeats. "I'm going to look around."

"Don't go off alone, in case there are vampires around," says Jaan.

Heli makes his way back to the mausoleums, followed closely by Solon. Heli looks around at the silent stone structures. Nothing catches his eye, no glinting crosses hanging about these doors. They're also locked, completely sealed shut. Peering into the thick glass, he can't see any evidence that the graves inside have moved. On either side, are the shadows of two stone vaults, undisturbed and properly closed up.

"I don't feel like there are any other vampires here," Solon says as they check crypt after crypt, squinting into the darkened caverns.

Heli turns his attention to the air around them. He can feel Solon's cool energy behind him. Without the enhancing effect of the others he's limited to this space, but if Jino's nearby perhaps he can connect mentally again.

Jaan and Eugene have moved around the church. Viken and Jakah are at the bottom of the hill, inspecting headstones. And there's something else, standing just behind the trees and out of visible sight.

Heli walks further away from the church, deeper into the cemetery. The extra presence also moves, carefully keeping its distance but still tracking them as they go. It doesn't feel like a vampire.

"Lamia didn't want to bother with these vampires, maybe we don't either," Solon muses. "Though if Jino is with them, maybe-"

"Shh," Heli motions for Solon to stop as the mysterious presence draws closer. "Someone is following us."