Bran carries me toward the door. “This can become their tomb for all I fucking care.”

“You can’t just leave us like this!” one of the Renshaws says.

“The fuck we can’t,” Bran says as he leaves.

“Hey! Please! Don’t leave us!”

Someone shuts the door behind us, muffling the sound of their calls for help.

Episode 53

At Your Service

I’m numb all the way back to Duval House.

Numb and faraway.

The things you could do, Jessie…

When we reach the house, we pull in beneath the porte-cochère. Jimmy is there, waiting with several other vampires. They have pole stretchers for Damien and Kelly.

They still haven’t regained consciousness.

I turn in the passenger seat of the SUV to glance back at my sister. Bran settled them into the crook of the SUV’s back door with Damien leaning against it and Kelly tucked into his side.

Will they ever wake up? Or are they trapped in a spell like Sleeping Beauty, forever waiting for the other’s kiss?

Once we’re parked, Jimmy and another vampire slowly open the back door and pull Damien out first and deposit him on a stretcher. Kelly slumps over in his absence, before Bran catches her and lifts her out like she weighs nothing at all.

“Take them to the infirmary,” Jimmy orders.

I don’t have the energy to be shocked that Duval House has an infirmary.

Bianca races up to us, having driven separately. She’s disheveled and there’s still a smudge of blood on her cheek.

Is she already regretting joining Duval House?

“I’m here,” she says, panting.

It isn’t until Bran comes around to the passenger side that I realize I’m still sitting in the SUV. “Come on, Mouse.” He offers me his hand. I just blink at it.

“I…I’m not…”

“Can you walk?” he asks.

“I…”

He moves to carry me out, but I push him away. “I can walk.”

“Then I need you to do it. Come.”

I slip out of the SUV and feel slightly better once my feet are on solid ground, once I drink in a deep breath of fresh air. It’s dark beyond the golden glow of the house, and the crickets are chirping in the warm summer night. I wish I was doing anything else other than this.

Bran hooks his arm around my waist and drives me toward the side entrance. He barks orders as we walk. “Michael and Anthony on the east side of the property, Isaac and Danielle on the west side. Jimmy, get the rest of the guard on the north and south ends and then double check that the security system is functioning properly. Bianca.”

“Yes?” she says from my right side.

“I need you to tell me what happened to my brother and Kelly.”