But I’d led Henry out of there. I’d climbed with him to the road, encouraging him every step of the way, where a stray passerby had seen us and called the police. My parents, there was nothing of them. Nothing that looked like the people I knew. Nothing that could indicate they were still alive.
I couldn’t save them.
But I’d saved Henry.
And now? Now something was wrong. He wasn’t here. Tears filled my vision, and I squeezed my hands closed, as if I could still feel the broken shards of glass that had been embedded beneath my skin. It was my job to protect him. I’d failed him so many times over the years. I’d let my friends take care of him instead of me. I should’ve told my ex that we had to move here. Not just cried and begged him to. I should’ve realized a man who didn’t care about anything that was important to me wasn’t the knight on a white horse I’d made him out to be. I’d thought he’d give me the life of my dreams, but all we had pursued were his dreams. Mine never mattered. But now that I was home, now that I was here for Henry, he was gone? Hurt?
“Where is he?” I sobbed, big, fat tears rolling down my cheeks as I scanned the room once more before I turned back to the living room and walked down the hall as my vision swam and I began to hiccup.
Someone had righted the kitchen table and chairs. Deva said nothing, just pulled me into one of them, and stared into my face. Maybe she was speaking. Saying something. I wasn’t sure. I felt so far away. So lost.
Deva put her arm around me and hummed softly, her voice strangely soothing as time passed with no meaning, and then I heard the sound of sirens in the distance. Sounds and lights came sharply back to me, and I realized Deva was whispering, “It's okay. I’m here.” Over and over again.
I turned toward her, and it was like everything was clicking back into place. My brother, the guy who never left the house, who didn’t raise his voice, who wouldn’t hurt a fly; He seemed to have been attacked. And our home was vandalized. Why? It made no sense.
Carol came back to us and sat down on a chair across from me. I didn’t know what she’d been doing, but she was pale. Had she seen something I hadn’t? Did she know something I didn’t know?
“Who would do this?” I said, the words tearing from my lips.
Deva and Carol exchanged a look that made my stomach do a flip. Deva’s dark brows drew together and then she spoke softly. “Before the police get here, Emma, listen. Your brother—the crew he was hanging with was pretty dangerous.”
“Crew?” I stared at her in confusion. My brother didn’t have a crew.
“He never mentioned anything?”
I shook my head, shocked. The fact that he had a girlfriend had astounded me considering I knew he hated leaving the house, but now to learn he had a whole crew of friends? How much had my brother changed while I’d been gone? “I thought he mostly just hung around with Alice and stayed here,” I murmured, almost more to myself than anyone else.
They exchanged another knowing glance, and I pulled away from Deva. They knew something. That much was clear. My shoulders were like stone, and my panic was fading, replaced by confusion.
“Tell me. Please. I need to understand.”
Carol sighed and ran a hand through her light brown hair. “Henry can count cards.”
I stared at her dumbly. I hadn’t known that, but it made sense. He was that smart. “Okay?”
What did that have to do with any of this? He always liked to collect action figures and rare collectibles of nerdy things that he loved. And I was pretty sure he dominated everyone in games online.
Deva squeezed my shoulders. “He got into gambling, and then he got into gambling with the vampires.”
Gambling with vampires? Is that what she just said? My brother, my sweet brother, was gambling with bloodsucking animals that burned in the light and wore capes? I couldn’t believe it. Talking cats, fine. Karma powers, okay. Gambling vampires? No. Just no.
“W-hat?” I stuttered out.
“He’s really good,” Carol said, as if that would make any of this make sense. “But from the rumors, he always takes it a step too far and loses.”
And it was like everything clicked in my mind.
“That’s why he was always asking for money,” I whispered, a rush of cold air moving over my skin as things that never made sense suddenly did.
Deva reached out and squeezed my good shoulder. “Yeah, he asked for it from all of us once or twice. But the thing is, you can’t tell the sheriff.”
“Why not?” I cried. “If the vampires have him, we have to get him back.” I would pay his debt, even if it cost me every last penny.
“There are others that can help us with that,” Carol said. “Not the human police.” She looked at Deva again. “Honestly, we probably shouldn’t have called them.”
The more I was learning about this supernatural world, the more I was starting to hate it.
Suddenly, someone knocked loudly on the door, and my gut tensed. My head was spinning from everything I’d seen and heard, but one thing pushed in front of the rest. If I started blabbing about vampires and gambling, I wasn’t going to get helped by humans, I was going to get locked up. That much I knew.
So, I let them in and explained what happened, keeping it vague. They took a bunch of pictures and asked questions about Henry and who he hung around with, but I was able to honestly answer that I didn’t know. I didn’t know his friends outside of Alice.
Behind the officers, I sensed someone else come in. My heart leapt
