Wisdom

“What did she do?” My stomach dropped, and I stepped back so I could sit back on the couch.

“Daisy went berserk.” Peter laughed hollowly. “She attacked several people in town. I tried to contain the situation and convince them it’d been an animal. I’m not sure what they believed, but we managed to get out of there alive. Daisy is unscathed, which is the important part, right?”

“Did she kill anyone?” I asked, and Ezra closed his eyes, shielding himself from it.

“No. Well, not that I know of,” Peter corrected himself. “The way she went after some of them, it’s entirely possible that they died after we left. She’s not… safe. I don’t know what to do. We chartered a plane, and we should be leaving on it soon. But I don’t know where we’ll go or what we’ll do.”

“What does Mae think you should do?” I asked.

“Lord knows what Mae thinks about anything anymore,” Peter said. “I told her it was a mistake to bring Daisy out in public, but Mae has been in such denial about this whole thing. I think she’s starting to realize it’s a mistake, but she can’t do anything now.”

“Are you coming home?” I asked.

“I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do,” he said at length. “I’m not even sure that Ezra or Jack would let us come home. And we can’t live in a city with people everywhere.”

“Do you want to talk to Ezra?” I asked and looked up at Ezra to make sure it would be okay.

“He’s around?” Peter sounded surprised.

“Yeah. He’s right here. You should talk to him.” I stood up and held the phone out to Ezra, not waiting to hear Peter’s response to it.

“Hello?” Ezra took the phone from me.

Milo stood next to me and watched anxiously as Ezra said very little on his end of the conversation. Other than a few murmured “mmm hmms,” he offered nothing of value.

“What’s going on?” Milo whispered.

“Daisy attacked some people at a carnival,” I told him, but I kept my eyes locked on Ezra.

“Alright.” Ezra hung up and turned back to us. Without saying anything, he walked over and handed the phone to me.

“Well?” I said.

“They’re getting on a plane. They’ll be here in a day or so.” Ezra looked over at the window and shook his head. “I’m not sure what will happen when they get here but… it is what it is.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Milo asked.

“They’re desperate. I couldn’t tell them no.” Ezra tried to convince himself. Both Milo and I wouldn’t say no to them either. “But they can’t stay here. Not for more than a few days. Or maybe at all. The child can’t be around people.” He stared off at nothing, and he sounded completely lost. “I have no idea what will become of them.”

After a moment of confused silence hanging over us all, Ezra turned and walked back down to his den. I tried to stop him, but he shook his head and said he had some thinking to do. I’m sure he did, but I didn’t know if even he could come up with a plan to fix this.

This was exactly why he’d been so against Mae turning Daisy in the first place. He knew nothing good could come of it, and he couldn’t clean it up.

“This is so messed up.” Milo leaned back against the couch and let out a deep breath. “Did Peter say how bad things were?”

“He didn’t go into graphic detail but things were definitely not good. Some people might be dead.”

“And now she’s coming here?” Milo looked up at me.

“And now she’s coming here,” I repeated.

“I want to help Mae, and I don’t necessarily want Peter to die.” He stood up straighter and crossed his arms over his chest. “But what are we supposed to do? Daisy is dangerous, really dangerous. And even if she wasn’t, her poster is plastered all over town. Mae kidnapped her, remember?”

“I know,” I nodded. “She can’t live here, not in the city.”

“Where else can she stay?” Milo asked.

“I don’t know…” I trailed off, thinking. “But Olivia is the oldest vampire I’ve ever met. She might know something about child vampires.”

“You’ve only met like five vampires. That doesn’t really mean anything,” Milo said.

“I’ve met way more than that,” I scoffed. “And she’s still like six-hundred-years-old or something. She has to know something about them.”

Jack groaned from the other room, and I remembered that I’d heard him fall while Milo’d been arguing with Ezra.

“I gotta go take care of Jack, then I’m going to Olivia’s,” I said. “You can come with me if you want.”

I went into the kitchen and found Jack passed out between the island and the counter. When I pulled him up, he barely even stirred, so I carried him up to our room and dropped him off. I’d never seen Jack this knocked out before, but I’d never seen him drained either.

Watching Jack sleeping on the bed, looking peaceful and vulnerable, I had this weird sensation. He’d never been the weaker one before. But lately, things had been shifting.

I’d become stronger as a vampire, and thanks to my training with Olivia, I’d become a better fighter than him. We’d done some play fighting the other day, and I’d tackled him without really trying. I was growing more powerful than Jack, and it felt… disorienting.