"You're here!" I said to Esmi the second I was close enough. "How are you here?" I was half tempted to pull her into a hug, but being watched by a room full of bloodsuckers left me awkward and reserved. That, and the fact that I might pitch over on my face if I reached out and unbalanced myself. The torn, bleeding feeling inside of me was only getting worse. Every breath burned and every step was agonizing, but I'd let the Twins damn me before I gave my enemies the satisfaction of knowing it. If they thought I was weak, I'd never leave the room alive.

Esmi cocked her head and gave me a polite smile that managed to mingle frustration and friendliness. "I am required to be here. But tell me: you are Hull? I know you, don't I?"

My stomach lurched as my mind finally caught up with my mouth and pointed out the extra-real shimmer around the girl. She was a summoned card. "Oh shit, that's right. You died."

Her lips thinned. "If you're always so uncouth, I can't imagine we were very friendly."

I chuckled painfully and tried to stand up straighter. All I wanted was to sit down. No, I wanted to lay on the floor, puke my guts out, and pass out. Never mind that. "I'm a hopeless ass who would never come within spitting distance of a lady like you, but you were kinder to me than I deserved." It felt so strange to be talking about her in the past tense while she was standing right in front of me, but… Twins twist my stones, she was dead. Now I wanted to weep on top of everything else. "When Basil took me under his wing, so did you."

Her hand shot out and clamped on my arm. "Basil is here in the Palace."

"I know." I shook my head in frustration. "I know where they're keeping him, but I haven't been able to get in yet."

"You will," she said, making it a demand. "You will help him."

"May Fortune take me if I don't," I said. "He's the whole reason I came."

She scanned my face as if she could read truth or lies there. It was strange not to see gold flecks in those eyes. "Perhaps we were friends after all," she said.

A knife of sadness twisted in me. "I'll always be your friend, Esmi."

A spasm passed through her, and she blinked at me. "What was that last thing you said?"

I frowned. "Your name. Esmi."

She looked troubled. "Why can't I understand that word? I hear the sounds, but they turn to mud in my ears and slip away."

It finally dawned on me what was happening. Twins, my mind is moving at a snail's pace. "You're a Rare. Cards don't get their names back until Mythic."

Her features hardened. "I doubt Alexi cares to keep me so long or elevate me so far."

I sighed inside my head. Another person I need to save. Twins take me. I'll have to find out who this Alexi asshole is and kill him so I can take her card. Basil will want it. I had more than enough on my plate already, but now that I'd seen her, I couldn't very well just leave her in the vampires' clutches. The urge to lie down grew stronger.

A strong hand clapped me on the shoulder, and I only kept my knees from buckling by catching hold of Esmi's arm. She supported me silently, seeming to notice for the first time how badly I was doing. "The man of the hour," a deep voice boomed. "You honor us with your presence, Hull."

I turned to find the big-ass vampire who'd first let me in, still wearing that velvet suit a size too small for his bulky, muscular frame. He held a crystal goblet by the stem, and I was pretty sure it was full of blood. His long hair was pulled back in a slick tail, and he looked every inch a predator. My first instinct was to dart away from him, but I suppressed it. I'd just stumble and fall, and I was more than halfway sure that such a show of weakness would make him pounce on me without even stopping to think first. I wanted my blood to stay on the inside tonight. "I have to admit I'm not sure why you want me here," I said, striving to look tough and failing miserably. "I haven't exactly gotten along great with any of the vampires I've met so far."

The big monster smiled tolerantly. "You humans have such strange ideas about friendship and communion. How can you truly respect and admire someone you haven't tested your strength against? I would never have dreamed of joining myself to Alexi had he not nearly taken my head off when I wasn't looking."

I gave a weak laugh. "I'm no great genius at friendship or love, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it works around here."

"And thus your bonds are made of milk and spun sugar," the vampire said, shrugging. "But let me not monopolize your time." He flicked a pearly, manicured fingernail against his goblet, making a loud chime. "Brothers, sisters, and friends," he cried, the conversations all around falling away. "We have drunk, feasted, and played, and now our guest of honor is ready. Let us celebrate the Shedding of Beliss, our dear sister. Hull, tell us the story."

The room fell completely silent, and all eyes turned to me. The weight of those stares felt almost physical, and I could feel my knees trembling. The invitation did say something about speaking, didn't it? Fortune's balls, what am I supposed to say? Is that a lion-man in the corner? What the hell is that? And that vampire girl looks to be about nine years old. This is all so weird. This moment had to be about the vampire I'd killed. Why would they give two shits about me otherwise? The big guy could have torn me down the middle already had he wanted to, so maybe this wasn't the let's-kill-the-human party I'd feared it was. No choice but to wade into it and hope for the best.

I fished the dead vampire's card from my pocket and held it up. "Was this Beliss?"

The vampires scattered around the room thumped their chests with a closed fist, each hit accompanied by a guttural uhn noise deep in their throats. Two, three, four, five times they did it in perfect unison, and then fell silent.

I licked my lips. "I'll take that as a yes, then. I'll tell you the story of our fight if you want, but if you think I'm gonna say sorry or cry about it, you can all go ahead and kiss my ass." I stopped, trying not to grimace. That probably wasn't the right way to start eulogizing their fallen sister. But these were my enemies, Twins damn it all, and I couldn't just make myself talk all noble and pretty to them out of nowhere. No one said a word, and none of them looked offended, so… Keep going, stupid. All they can do is kill you, and you let your own mother take you three–quarters of the way there already. "And I'm not giving her card back, either. I won it fair and square. If somebody's got some good Nether cards I'll think about trades, but it'll have to be something pretty damn good to tempt me."

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I wished there was a chair behind me to sink into, but with how my head felt, I might black out just from changing positions too fast. I hoped Esmi was still behind me. She was the only one I trusted to catch me if I fell, even if she didn't remember me much. I swallowed hard to clear the thick mucus from my throat and kept going.

"All you shitheads showed up out of nowhere to kill the King and take the city, and you've more or less managed, so good job, I guess. But my neighborhood is full of poor folks with no cards, and when your girl Beliss showed up looking to break things and kill people, I wasn't inclined to let her."

A quiet murmur passed through the rapt vampires, but it sounded approving. Everyone else was listening politely, but looking at the vampires – each of them obvious with their bleached skin, hungry look, and sharp teeth – anyone might be forgiven for thinking I was telling the story of the world's creation for the first time. They cared about what I was saying.

"I had to cut through crowds of summons to get to her, but as soon as I saw her I knew she was the one I had to fight. This image on her card doesn't do her justice – she was so big and strong I wasn't sure at first whether she was a man or woman. I'd pay good money to watch her arm wrestle that big bastard over there." I pointed to the suited vampire, who grinned fiercely and bowed his head in acknowledgement. "She hit hard and played her cards smart, and for a time I wasn't sure if I could best her. All I knew was that I had to try."

Again the vampires beat their chests with their fists, though they didn't make the throat noise this time. Three thumps instead of five. Who knows what their traditions mean? Finish the story before you fall over.

"I… uh," I stammered, trying to collect my thoughts. I wiped my forehead with a shaky hand. It was pleasantly cool in the room, but I was sweating like a stuck pig. "She summoned this huge Legendary card to try to end it – don't get any ideas, I didn't bring it with me tonight – and it emptied my Mind Home with a single hit. Nearly killed me. But once it was devoted I was able to hang on and focus all my damage onto Beliss." I wasn't about to tell them about my Sucking Void. Telling the story was one thing; giving information about my deck to people I fully intended to kill was another.

Suddenly I could see the fight all over again in my mind, the robed vampire laughing and taunting as she fought, and her sudden shock when I'd jumped on her in a berserker rage. There had been a moment… "Funny," I said, not really thinking about what I was saying. "When she went down she struggled at first, as I think back on it, there was a moment at the end when she could have kept fighting or tried to push me off, and she didn't. Her eyes… she knew it was over, and she didn't do anything. Like she accepted it. Like she wanted it."

"I knew it," cried a slender, finely dressed human vampire, springing to his feet. "Ah Beliss, I saw the Malaise in you, but I could not draw it out no matter what I tried." Tears of red slid down his cheeks. "I failed you, sister. I failed you!" His words dissolved into sobs. The big musclebound vampire crossed the room in a few steps and swept the shorter one into a crushing embrace, whispering in his ear.

The interruption left me wrong-footed, unsure of what to say. "I… don't know what the Malaise is."

"We do not speak of it," said the serpentine vampire coldly. "End the tale."

"It's done," I said. "I beat her with my weapons until she died and then took her cards. She was a hell of a fighter, and in other circumstances I don't know if I'd have even tried to fight her. And look, I know she was your sister and all, but I'm glad it was her that died and not me."

"It ended how she wished it to," said the slender vampire, his head resting on the big one's shoulder. He sounded heartbroken.

The big vampire turned to me. "You do our sister justice with your tale. Truth has been spoken. Beliss has been Shed. May the remnants of her shine in our hearts and minds."

As one, the vampires reached upwards with both hands, turning their faces to the ceiling. "Beliss," they whispered together. "Beliss. Beliss."

The tableau held for an uncomfortably long moment, and then they all relaxed back into their seats. "Thank you all for celebrating the passage of one who is dear to us," the big vampire said to the room at large. "Stay and enjoy our company and games as you wish. All here are ensured safe passage until sunrise."

And with that, the room broke back into a dozen scattered conversations, and the thing was over. I tottered over to a side table and leaned against it hard, my arms shaking as they tried to hold me up.

"Hull, are you well?" Esmi said, coming up to me.

"Been better," I grunted. "It's not exactly the right night for partying. I've had a rough day."

"Can I help?" she asked, looking concerned.

"Oh shoo, you mother hen," the slender vampire said, walking up and waving a hand. With no more than that, Esmi dissolved into sparkles of light and was gone. This little asshole was her summoner. "My deepest thanks to you," he said, putting a surprisingly strong arm under my elbow. I wanted to pull away, but if I did, I'd fall over.

"You didn't seem happy with what I said," I offered cautiously.

He used his free hand to dab at his eyes with a scarlet silk handkerchief. "Speaking the truth can be painful, but it is always good. I am the one responsible for the well-being and continuance of my little group of lovelies, you see. I needed to know how she ended. It is vital."

I filed away the knowledge that this little dandy was the head of the vampires. I'd never have guessed it. "I can't say for certain that she gave up, you know."

"If she hadn't, she would not have Shed," he said simply. "The Malaise has been growing on her for years despite all I could do."

"Which you can't talk about," I said.

He clicked his tongue. "Sivkanu is a dear, but also a bit of a prude. I speak what I wish." He led me carefully toward the bigger vampire, supporting me as we walked. "When one can live forever, eventually living loses its savor. The Malaise comes to all of us, soon or late. Distraction, enjoyment, fighting: all these are excellent short-term antidotes, but in the long run I hope to help each of them find their undying purpose." He patted my hand and smiled at me. "Hearing of their sister's valor even as she allowed the Malaise to overcome her may just unlock something for one of them. Ginsomer loves thinking on such things. I'll have to have a long talk with him tonight."

"You have done us a service, truly," said the big vampire as we approached. He bowed deeply. "Stafford, at your service."

"Young man," the slender vampire said, turning to me and taking me by both hands, "you are dying."

I blinked at both of them, my mouth dry. "Sorry, what?"

"We can smell it," Stafford said. "Alexi better than most. You have days to live. A week at most."

A little laugh bubbled helplessly out of me. "That sounds about right."

The smaller one – Alexi, apparently – turned to Stafford, and they shared a long look. Stafford gave a miniscule nod, and Alexi beamed at him before turning back to me. "Whatever ailment has gotten the better of you, it need not be your end. You spoke truth powerfully and faced those whom you ought to fear with courage and a rough kind of wit. We would offer you the Gift."

They both looked at me like something magnificent had just been said, but I was confused. "What gift?"

"The greatest gift we have to give," Stafford said. "We can make you one of us."

My slow-turning thoughts spun on that for a long moment before I could form a response. "You want to make me a vampire?"

"We force no one," Alexi said.

"Well–" Stafford said, rolling his eyes.

"I force no one," Alexi said, swatting at him with mild annoyance, "and I ensure none of the others of my coven do. Anymore."

I couldn't keep the incredulous stare off my face. "You defeated my city. Killed the King."

"And we have heard that you have turned your back on your kind," Stafford said. "Is that not true?"

"Close enough," I said. "But I didn't walk into the Palace expecting to become a bloodsucker."

Stafford's lips tightened. He didn't like being called that. I filed that information away too.

Alexi laid a placating hand on Stafford's arm and another on mine. "You have the mettle. And you will soon die without intervention. Think on it. But not for too long. I can do nothing with your corpse."

"I… thank you," I said slowly. Mother had said she'd give my card back. I didn't trust her any farther than I could throw her, but it was nice to know that if – when – she double-crossed me, I had another option. Not a great one, but being a vampire sounded a damn sight better than dying. "I'll think about it."

Then a flicker of movement on the far side of the room caught my eye. The door had opened and a lithe, blond young man wearing a truly stupid-looking helmet slipped inside followed by a fearsome lich summons. My heart quickened painfully, and I struggled not to faint on the spot.

Basil had come to the party.

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