“It was nice knowing you, Jess,” Noah told him solemnly.

  It was lunchtime during school the Monday following the barbeque, and Jesse had just filled his friends in on Damien’s invitation as they sat together at their usual table.

  “Thanks, man,” he said dryly.

  “He’ll be fine,” Alicia said. “Damien likes him a lot. Just don’t do anything that could jeopardize the rest of us.”

  “If he does, we could just deny we knew he was a human,” Siobhan pointed out. “Throw him under the bus.”

  “You guys suck.”

  “But seriously, just do what we’ve been doing and I’m sure none of the vampires will catch on.”

  What exactly they’ve “been doing” varied, depending on the situation, usually either keeping silent during conversations or coming up with lame excuses when asked directly. Honestly, he thought that it was a miracle that they haven’t been caught already.

  “Anyway,” Alicia started, ready to turn the conversation to a topic she wanted to talk about. “Have you guys heard the rumors going around about that haunted house?”

  “Uh, none of us exactly keep up with the social trends aside from you,” Noah reminded her. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

  She looked surprised. “Really?”

  Jesse and Siobhan both shook their heads. It was the first time he was hearing about a so-called haunted house, though Noah was right, he really didn’t pay attention to the middle school rumor mill.

  “You all are lucky you have me to keep you informed. Apparently, a week ago, Peter Hansen dared Joey Martin. to spend the night in that abandoned house on River Street. You know the one? The last house on the street?”

  “Vaguely.” She was already starting to lose him with her talk of names he didn’t know, but he could picture the house she was referring to, having driven past it enough times on his way to other places.

  “It’s that house that has been abandoned for so many years that it’s basically falling apart,” she explained. “It’s one of those places that just looks haunted, you know? So, anyway, the way I heard it, Joey tried to spend the entire night at the house, but chickened out like halfway through. He came to school the next day looking completely shaken and swearing up and down that the place really was haunted.”

  Noah scowled. “What’s this got to do with anything?”

  She let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m asking what do you guys think? We’ve hung out with actual ghosts before. Do you think the last house on River Street is haunted?”

  “We need some more information to go on,” Siobhan said. “Did this Joey say anything specific about what he saw?”

  Alica frowned. “The story kinda got stretched as it spread. I think he claimed that the lights would turn on and off and that there was a room full of cursed dolls or something.”

  “We haven’t met any of those yet, thank god,” Jesse muttered.

  “Sounds fake,” Noah dismissed. “I bet this Joey guy got scared by a shadow and made up some story to make himself look cooler.”

  “He still came to school admitting he thinks ghosts are real,” he said. “If he did that to look cool, he failed.”

  “Ghosts are real, though,” Siobhan pointed out.

  “Yeah, but they don’t know that.”

  “I think he clearly saw something,” Alicia said. “Maybe there are some ghosts living in the house, like the Abernathys. I mean, it’s been there since forever, at least one person must have died in it.”

  “But the Abernathy’s are super nice. If there are ghosts living there, would they have really scared the guy out of his mind like that?”

  Noah poked at the food on his tray with his fork. “I mean, I’d probably want to bully this kid too if he broke into my house in the middle of the night.”

  “That’s a good point.”

  “Okay, I’ve reached my allotted monster talk for the day.” Jesse put his own fork down. “Can we please change the subject?”

  “Cheerleading tryouts are coming up,” Alicia said immediately.

  “Can we change the subject again?” Noah asked.

  “Nope!”

  “Wait, how are there tryouts when it’s near the end of the school year?”

  “There’s multiple tryouts throughout the year, though since this is the last one for this term, it’s more about selecting who will be on the team next year so that they can start practicing over the summer.” She clapped her hands together. “So, who wants to join?”

  “Can’t, asthma,” Siobhan said.

  “Sorry, I’m not good at athletic stuff,” Jesse said. And no, running for his life from various monsters didn’t count.

  “And I’d look terrible in the uniform,” Noah finished off.

  Alicia rolled her eyes, but a small smile played at her lips. “Fine then, I’ll just have to do the tryout all on my own.”

  “But aren’t you already on the team? Why do you have to try out again?”

  “It’s basically a formality. They like to make sure everyone’s keeping in shape and not skimping on practice because of finals.”

  “Oh, god, finals.” Noah buried his head in his hands. “Thanks for reminding me.”

  At the mention of the upcoming tests, they quickly shifted their conversation to that instead, spending the rest of their lunch break lamenting schoolwork and chatting about other random topics that didn’t matter much. It was surprising just how much hanging out with his friends made Jesse feel less tense, the ease in which they could just laugh and talk with each other. It was almost enough to make him forget his meeting with the vampires that afternoon. Almost.

  Before heading over to the Den, Jesse made a quick stop at the pumpkin patch after school. If he was going to be stepping into the lair of a bunch of vampires, he at least wanted to get everything he had to do out of the way first.

  He knelt down next to a jack-o-lantern whose expression looked particularly sour. “Hey, Brom. How are you doing?”

  Brom eyed him suspiciously. “What’s it to you?”

  “Just checking in. You mentioned that you’d like us to drop by every once in a while, remember?”

  “I most certainly did not,” he denied. “And even if I did, how come you chose to visit today instead of Saturday, when you came to Gravewood for Hank’s barbeque. Thanks for inviting me to that, by the way.”

  “We didn’t know you wanted to go. Can you even eat?”

  “No, but that’s beside the point.”

  “How about next time there’s a party we bring you along,” Jesse suggested. “As a favor.”

  He laughed harshly. “Oh, that’s the real reason you came by. You want me to hurry up and cash in that favor.”

  “Busted. Just tell us what you want already.”

  The jack-o-lantern had been saving the favor he forced out of Jesse and his friends since November, dangling it over their heads but never actually using it, and the more time wore on, the more anxious it made him.

  But Brom just tutted. “Patience, little ‘vampire’. I’m saving that favor for an extra special occasion.”

  “We’re not going to do anything that reveals our identities as humans,” he said firmly.

  “Oh please, like I couldn’t do that myself. I wouldn’t waste it on something as benign as that. Besides, do you really think so little of me that you believe you’d be able to tell if my favor would reveal you?”

  He frowned. “What does that even mean?”

  “What it means is that if I actually wanted to expose you kids, you would have already been revealed by now.”

  A chill ran down Jesse’s spine. For the most part, Brom was just an annoying frenemy who sometimes helped them, sometimes hindered them, depending on how he was feeling that day, but every so often he said something like that that set him on edge. It gave him the feeling that, no matter what, he’d never be able to fully trust him. “So, all those times you’ve tried to blurt out that we’re humans, or trap us in situations that could expose us-”

  “Those were just jokes,” he said, dismissively.

  “Some sense of humor you’ve got.”

  “You have no idea.”

  “Well, this was a nice talk,” Jesse said, getting to his feet. And by that he meant a complete waste of time. “See you later.”

  “There you are.”

  He turned around just in time to find Cynthia Vanderwebb scuttling towards him across the patch. His heart skipped a beat at the sight of her, but he reassured himself that she had been too far away to hear his and Brom’s conversation, the one they just had where he all but admitting to being a human.

  Nice environmental awareness, he chided himself. Is this what Brom meant about not even realizing if he was trying to expose them? The jack-o-lantern would have been able to see Cynthia approaching but had given him no warning while they talked.

  “Mrs. Vanderwebb, what are you doing here?”

  “I was looking for you,” she said as she came to a stop uncomfortably close to him. “I thought I’d find you here, seeing as you’re friends with... him.”

  “I wouldn’t call us friends.”

  Brom let out a dramatic gasp in offense, as if he didn’t just threaten Jesse moments prior.

  “Anyway, is there a reason you decided to corner me here in the pumpkin patch instead of at Hank’s party?” He knew she had been in attendance at the barbeque because he and his friends had been specifically trying to avoid her.

  “Oh sure, keep rubbing it in that everyone went except me.”

  She ignored Brom’s bitter mumblings. “I tried to speak to you at the party, but I saw you talking with that Damien boy, and then you left soon after. I would be careful if I were you; that boy and his gang of vampires get up to all sorts of trouble.”

  “Like what?”

  “Just look at the way they dress! All piercings and hair dye. It’s like they have no respect for themselves. And they’re always going into town at night, partying at clubs and doing who knows what around humans. I swear, one day those punks will expose us all with their recklessness.”

  Brom scoffed. “‘Kids these days with their Satanic music and blue hair!’”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “They’re a bad influence,” she insisted. “You don’t need to be hanging around that sort.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind. Is that all you wanted to talk about?”

  “Sorry, I got off topic.” She brushed off the front of her shirt as if composing herself. “The reason I was looking for you is because I have a job for you. You and Siobhan, actually. See, my husband, David, and I are going out of town this weekend to visit my family in Japan. We can only bring the oldest of our children with us, so we need someone to watch over a few of the younger ones while we’re gone. My usual babysitter can’t make it, so I thought you two might like the opportunity to make a little extra cash.”

  “Just us?” he asked. “Not Noah and Alicia?”

  She pursed her lips. “I’ve seen Alicia’s babysitting skills with her brother, Ashton, and I have to say, I’m not impressed. As for Noah...” she trailed off. Judging by how she spoke about Damien and the vampires earlier, he could only guess what she thought of Noah. “I think you two are the most reliable of your friend group, but you can bring them along if you think you need more hands.”

  “Wait, how many kids would we be watching?”

  “Three, my youngest; Jeremy, Charlotte, and Mason. And I know it may sound daunting, but Hank was already kind enough to agree to watch over them during the day, so you would just have to take over for the evenings. Make sure they’ve all eaten, had their baths, and get to bed on time, that sort of thing. So, what do you think?”

  Babysitting the spider children of a woman who has told them numerous times that she hates humans was the absolute last thing he wanted to do. But he also didn’t want to be turned into a cocoon, so he said yes. He’d prefer to stay on her good side if he could.

  “I’ll have to check with Siobhan, though,” he told her. “To see if she agrees.”

  If she left him hanging here, he would never let her hear the end of it.

  “Wonderful. I’ll leave detailed instructions for you, and Hank can fill you in on everything else. You’ll only be babysitting for three nights, Friday through Sunday, and we’ll be back late Sunday night. For that amount of time, I’ll pay you two hundred dollars to split among yourselves.”

  “Two hun- uh, thank you, that’s very generous.”

  “And don’t forget, show up at five o’clock sharp to take over for Hank.” With that, she left, and Jesse took a quick look around to make sure that they were actually alone this time.

  “See, I don’t even have to do anything,” Brom said. “You kids screw yourselves over just fine without me.”

  “In that case, do you want to help babysit?”

  “God no. I’m not going anywhere near that lady’s house.”

  That was probably for the best; he didn’t want to end up owing the jack-o-lantern another favor.

  It seemed like tradition in Gravewood for all the houses to look almost normal, but have something just slightly off about them, such as Bella’s witchy garden and Dr. Rotbart’s crazy contraptions, and the Den was no exception. All of the windows had been boarded up, making the house look like something from a zombie apocalypse movie, and the front porch was replaced by a small reverse sunroom with glass walls tinted black to reduce the amount of sunlight let in.

  Jesse rang the doorbell and a second later, Damien answered, face splitting into a wide grin at the sight of him.

  “You made it! Don’t just stand there, come in.” Grabbing him by the shoulder, the teen ushered Jesse into the house, where he got his first proper look at the Den Damien had told him so much about.

  In the living room, all the antique Victorian furniture had been replaced with more comfortable modern pieces, including a huge sectional and matching armchairs for plenty of seating. The faded wallpaper was almost entirely covered up by posters of all sorts, ranging from indie films he’d never heard of to classic rock bands that weren’t around anymore.

  A dozen or so vampires were lounging around, a show no one was paying attention to playing on the tv. All of them were dressed in punk attire, and though Jesse didn’t put much stock into what Cynthia had told him earlier, he still couldn’t help but be nervous, surrounded by scary teens and young adults that were much older than him. Back when he was in elementary school, he had once visited his cousin in Boston, who at the time had been attending college and lived in a fraternity house. The Den had a similar vibe to it, though his cousin had ordered all the other guys living there to be on their best behavior around him, and he wasn’t certain that Damien had done the same.

  “Guys, meet Jesse,” he introduced. “Jesse, meet... everyone.”

  All at once, the vampires stopped what they were doing to crowd around him, each trying to talk over the others to tell him their name.

  “Yo, my name’s Raven.”

  “You can call me Sid.”

  “I’m Nash.”

  Names and faces started blurring together as he was introduced to everyone. Zarah got mixed with Ziggy got mixed with Viper got mixed with Venom. It was a lot to take in all at once and he had to fight the urge to turn around and run right back out the front door.

  “You were the one from the costume contest on Halloween, right? Man, your costume was sick!”

  “You should totally come hunting with us some time, we know all the best spots around town.”

  “Damien brought back some brownies from Hank’s barbeque and said they were from you. Any chance you could bring some more?”

  Damien let out a sharp whistle, not unlike the one Hank used to call his family in line. “Easy, gang, we don’t want to scare the poor kid off. Sorry ‘bout that. We just get a little excited whenever we meet someone... well, like us.”

  Like us? From his tone, he made it sound like there was more to it than just being a vampire.

  “Anyway, welcome to the Den! The hottest hangout for vampires in all of Gravewood.”

  A whoop sounded through the crowd as everyone nodded in agreement.

  “I know it may look a little intimidating at first, but stick around and I promise you’ll come to love it. And us. Let me show you around.” With his arm still thrown around Jesse’s shoulder, he started leading him on a tour of the house, the other vampires dispersing so as to give them some space.

  “This here’s the living room, though none of us are technically living,” he said with a grin. “It’s where we spend most of our time, outside of our rooms.”

  “How many of you live here?”

  He shrugged. “Most of them come and go throughout the year, but there’s a couple of us who are always around, including me. Speaking of which...”

  They entered the kitchen, which Jesse thought was remarkably clean for a bunch of young adults living together, until he remembered that they didn’t need regular food.

  Which begs the question, he thought to himself. Why did they eat the brownies if it doesn’t matter to them? Maybe they get their nourishment from blood, but they still enjoy the taste of human food? It wasn’t as if he could just ask, because that would lead to a very awkward and potentially dangerous conversation of exactly how much he knew about vampires.

  A tall, gangly vampire stood with their back to them, fiddling with something he couldn’t see on the far counter, oversized clothing hanging off their wiry frame. Paired with their unruly black hair, they looked more emo than punk.

  “Yo, Ricky. Jesse’s here.”

  The vampire turned around to greet them, and the first thing Jesse noticed about them was the mask that they were wearing. It was a black medical mask, similar to the ones his mom sometimes wore while working, with a cartoon fanged smile stamped across it where their actual mouth would be, and though it covered half their face, the crinkles around their eyes gave away the fact that they were smiling as they waved at the two of them.

  “Jesse, this is Ricky,” Damien said. “When I told them you were coming, they wanted to get a little gift for you.”

  “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “It’s okay. Hold out your hand.” Their voice was quiet and horse, like they didn’t talk out loud much.

  Jesse did as instructed, and Ricky deposited a live mouse into his open palm.

  “Ohmygod-” It took all of his will power not to accidently drop the wriggling mouse onto the floor. Instead, he held onto it with both hands as it tried to squirm out of his grip. Volunteering at his mom’s clinic left him with plenty of experience handling animals, but the sheer suddenness of the mouse is what startled him.

  “Damien was worried you weren’t drinking enough,” they explained. “And I figured you might be averse to human blood, which is normal for fledgling vampires.”

  “I was not worried,” Damien defended.

  Ricky rolled their eyes and made a few gestures with their hands. Sign language, Jesse realized. Not that he understood what they were saying. Damien replied back with some quick hand motions of his own, and he assumed they were trading insults with each other.

  “Uh, thanks, Ricky,” Jesse said aloud, interrupting their silent argument. “I’ll just, uh, save this for later.” He was thankful that he chose to wear a jacket that day that had pockets that could button close, gingerly placing the mouse in one so that it couldn’t crawl out.

  The two teenagers exchanged knowing glances, and Ricky placed a hand on his shoulder.

  “I was also uncomfortable with drinking when I first turned. It’ll get easier.”

  “You should take some pointers from Ricky,” Damien supplied. “They’re a pro at draining blood from animals without killing them.”

  “That’s... an interesting skill to have developed.”

  Ricky shrugged. “When I was human, I was a vegetarian. It never sat right with me, taking something else’s life just to prolong mine.”

  “There they go again, waxing philosophical. We’d better move on before they start monologuing about the meaning of life or whatever. Ricky, do you know where Trace is? I didn’t see her with everyone else.”

  In response, Ricky simply pointed down.

  Damien groaned. “Again? I swear, she spends more time with that bag than with either of us.”

  Ricky signed something else, glancing at Jesse as they did so. He frowned, wishing he understood ASL so he could know what they were saying.

  “Yeah, okay. We’ll just have to go down to her.” He sighed before turning to Jesse. “Come on, there’s still one more person you have to meet.”

  The Den’s basement looked like a regular basement, as opposed to Dr. Rotbart’s lab, where he had clearly taken painstaking care to renovate the room for his needs. There were plenty of metal shelves and plastic bins shoved against the bare concrete walls, making space for a large punching bag hanging from the ceiling, which was currently in use by a vampire girl. She was wearing a pair of headphones that were blasting music so loudly, Jesse could hear it all the way from the doorway. They watched as she threw a punch so hard, the bag swung violently in an arc that nearly took out one of the shelves.

  “Trace,” Damien called out. “TRACE, JESSE’S HERE.”

  Instead of responding, the girl continued her sparring match with the bag, landing a hard left hook against it.

  Marching up behind her, Damien yanked the headphones off her ears.

  “Hey! What the fu-” She whirled around, fist raised back as if to punch whoever dared to separate her from her music, but when she saw who it was, she lowered it again, albeit reluctantly. “Dude, what do you want? I’m kinda in the middle of something.”

  “Jesse’s here.” He pointed at him.

  She blinked. “Was that today?”

  “Yes, Trace! I specifically said, get ready for when he comes to visit on Monday.”

  She gave a noncommittal shrug. “My bad, must have slipped my mind. Anyways, I’m Trace.”

  She looked to be the same age as Damien and Ricky, however old that actually was. Her warm brown skin complimented her dyed red hair, and though she was currently wearing simple workout clothes, her nose ring made Jesse think she also leaned into a punk aesthetic, just like the rest of the Den. While he couldn’t remember Ricky, he vaguely recalled seeing her as part of Damien’s posse on Halloween night.

  “So, you’re the one we have to thank for Damien coming home smelling like animal crap every night? It’s nice to meet you properly. He hasn’t shut up about you for the past few months.”

  “Trace,” he warned, but he looked more embarrassed than angry.

  “Not going to lie, he was pretty cute, getting all worked up over a little fledgling vampire.” She leaned in to stage whisper to Jesse, not even bothering to try to keep Damien from hearing. “I think he’s got it in his head he could be your mentor or something; take you under his wing.”

  Well, that explained a lot.

  “Hey, how was your workout going?” he hastily tried to get attention off himself. “Trace is a boxing pro. She’s practically always down here beating this thing up.”

  The punching bag did indeed look well worn; most of its burgundy color had faded over time and there were several stitched-up sections from where it had previously been ripped.

  She shrugged again. “Got to do something productive inside while I wait for the sun to go down.”

  Jesse ran his hand over the bag and frowned. He’d expected its surface to feel smooth, but instead it was hard, with several bumps and lumps protruding from it. “Are these-?”

  “Rocks,” she confirmed. “Sand got too easy for me train with, especially with my vampiric strength.”

  He had a flashback to the time he saw Damien use super speed to catch up to him on the street before, and now he added super strength to his mental list of vampire powers.

  “Do you want to take a shot at it?” she asked, moving to hold the bag steady for him.

  “I think I’ll pass.”

  Damien snorted. “Not everyone’s a beast like you. I think even I would break my hand on that thing.”

  “Let me know if you ever want to learn how to box. If this one’s willing to share his protege, that is.”

  “Oh, would you look at the time, Jesse’s got to be going.” He started pushing him in the direction of the stairs, ushering him out of the basement. “He still attends school, you know.”

  “Whatever you say. See you later, Jesse.”

  Once they were back upstairs, Damien led him through the kitchen and out the backdoor to avoid the crowd in the living room. The back porch didn’t have an enclosure like the front one did, but because of its awning and the position of the sun, it was well shaded. The vampire plopped down on the steps leading to the yard, and Jesse sat beside him.

  “Sorry about them. I know they can be a little overwhelming.”

  “A little,” he admitted. “But they’re cool.” And he was surprised by how much he actually believed that. He had been expecting a house full of ravenous vampires and had instead found a group of chill teens and young adults. They could have easily been mistaken for regular humans just sharing a place to live.

  “Yeah. They might be weird and annoying, but they’re practically family.” He hesitated for a minute before starting abruptly, “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure,” Jesse said as casually as he could, but his heart had already started racing. Nothing good could come from that sentence.

  “How long has it been since you’ve turned?”

  “About a year now.” That was part of the story that he and Noah had concocted when they realized that their visits to Gravewood were no longer one-off events. Their entire friend group had sat down and discussed what they would say if they were ever questioned, and they all knew each other's stories by heart so they could vouch for one another. But this was the first time he was putting it to the test.

  Damien nodded like his answer made sense, and he breathed a mental sigh of relief. “I can tell you’re still new to this, still figuring everything out. I guess the one who turned you left you high and dry?”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “I hate vampires that do that,” he said with so much vitriol, Jesse actually flinched. The venomous tone of voice and the scowl on his face was a complete one-eighty from the cheerful guy who had just welcomed him into his home. “Almost as much as I hate- well, maybe it was a good thing they abandoned you, since you don’t have to put up with their crap.”

  Before Jesse could even begin to process what that meant, Damien was continuing. “Anyway, if you ever need anything, just let me- I mean, let us know. Us vamps have to stick together, after all.” He winked, returning to his usual laid-back self.

  “I'll keep that in mind.” But inside, he could feel his heart twist at his words. The vampire was being so kind to him, so genuine, and here he was, taking advantage of his hospitality. He suddenly felt like an intruder. The Den, this whole place, it was clear it was a home for these monsters. A place for them to be themselves. A place where they belonged and he didn’t.

  He didn’t want to know what Damien would do if he found out he was a human.