“Is this not how parties usually go?” Rachel asked.

Jane stood in the center of what, ten minutes ago, had been in fact a prime example of how parties usually went.

And then her best friend had fainted, and her prone body had been surrounded by thorned vines thick as tree trunks. She was pretty sure one of them had hit someone. And that this someone had started screaming, screaming about how her face burned. Then Olivia had scooped Cami up and run off.

But also, she couldn’t be sure of much of anything. Because it was getting hard to breathe, and she could feel a panic attack building up. The music had cut out, and now all she heard was her own frantic heartbeat, her own desperate breaths…

“There, there,” Rachel cooed, patting her on the shoulder. “If it’s any consolation, I don’t think this will affect your mother’s reputation at all.”

“My--mother’s--reputation?” Jane echoed, forcing the words out between sharp, shaky breaths. “What--does my mom--have to do with--any of this?”

Rachel cocked her head to the side. “Isn’t that the thing you’re always worried about? Because she’s… the first… lady? First lady mayor?”

“First--Indigenous woman--to hold an elected--position in…” Jane stopped, trying in vain to catch her breath. “I-I-In Walder. But--that’s not the problem.”

“It isn’t?”

Jane threw her arms up, gesturing vaguely to the mess around them. “My best friend--just passed out--and threw vines everywhere--and then Olivia…” She trailed off, looking around. Where had the two of them gone?

A phone rang. Jane knew its ringtone, an 8-bit reimagining of some old pop song. Olivia’s. On shaky legs, she scrambled towards the sound.

“What’re you doing?” Rachel asked.

“There might be answers.” Jane snatched the phone up, shaking pine needles off it. The thing was in one of those pink fuzzy cases, so the dirt had made a home there, sticking between synthetic hairs. It was gross, but they had bigger problems.

She accepted the call.

“Heeeeey, Olivia,” drawled a low, playful voice. A woman, probably not much older than they were. “You were supposed to be here, like, an hour ago. I get you’re new, but as a rule of thumb, we do what we’re told, and…” She trailed off. “Olivia? Usually, you’ve said something snarky by now.”

Jane looked at Rachel. Rachel shrugged.

“Just be honest,” she whispered. “Tell her where Olivia is.”

That was decidedly not what Jane wanted to do. Odds were she was talking to a boss, or a coworker, or some other person who wouldn’t take “Yeah, she’s busy dragging an unconscious friend around after she grew plants everywhere” as a good excuse for being late.

But the rest of the truth she could roll with.

“Um,” Jane squeaked out. “Olivia dropped her phone at a party. Who is this?”

A heartbeat of silence. Then, the caller forced out, “Um, this is a prank call. Obviously. Happy Halloween. Yeah. Uh.” She hung up without another word.

“Check Olivia’s contacts,” Rachel whispered over her shoulder. “There might be something there.”

“It’s password-locked,” Jane muttered. “Good as a brick now.” She shoved it into her pocket. Just another thing to take care of.

The music kicked up again. Jane jumped at the low, growling bass.

“You kids sure know how to throw a party, huh?” teased a new voice.

Jane whirled around. In the dark, she barely recognized him: that creep from the woods who’d done something to Cami.

“Trintio?” Rachel exclaimed, beaming. “What in the world are you doing here?”

“Cleaning up after you guys,” he deadpanned.

Jane squinted. She almost believed him: in one hand he held a big, black bag. But then he reached in, took out a handful of what looked like sugar crystals, and sprinkled them along the forest floor. They sunk into the gravel and pine, hissing like embers.

Trintio rolled his eyes. “You didn’t take that literally, did you? My work is more based around…” He paused, grasping for the right word. “Optics, I suppose. I’m making sure everyone who set foot here forgets about the more…” Again, he trailed off.

“Traumatic events of the night?” Jane offered. “Like my best friend going catatonic and making vines grow everywhere?”

Trintio gave a thumbs-up. “Exactly like that. They’ll forget about Cami’s Awakening, and Cassidy being mauled, and--”

“Cassidy got mauled?” Rachel interrupted. She wrung her hands together, looking between him and Jane. “She’s not gonna die, is she?”

“Might wish she did. But no.”

Jane shuddered. Of course, someone had gotten mauled. This whole night had been a mistake. “What happened?” She fought to keep her voice even, keep the air in her lungs.

One more problem, she thought, and I’m going to lose it. Actually lose it.

“I think the werewolves were after Helena, but something went wrong,” Trintio said. He sprinkled more crystals about and stopped to check his nails. Up this close, Jane noticed his hand was horribly scarred, like he’d stuck it into an open fire and left it there to cook.

Maybe he had, actually. You never knew these days.

“They got Cassidy instead,” he went on. “But that’s really bad news, because we were hoping to keep this job to you five. Getting someone else involved is dicey, and now there’re two humans, which is really, really, bad.”

Jane became dimly aware that she was the only human in the conversation. “Bad how?”

“We try to keep the number of humans involved in these kinds of shenanigans to a minimum. Some people will not be above killing one of you.” Jane must’ve cracked, because he quickly added, “If it’s any consolation, my faction is on your side. You have the protection of us fey, and we’re pretty good at our jobs.”

“Wait, so is Cassidy not a human anymore?” Rachel asked.

Trintio nodded. “She’s a werewolf now, to my knowledge. So, you need to get her into your club.”

“You’re joking,” Jane blurted out. “Cassidy didn’t just… become a werewolf.”

“I can’t lie to you,” Trintio said, sighing. “Literally, I can’t. Or my tongue will turn to ash in my mouth.”

Rachel shuddered, her hands fluttering at her sides. “That sounds gross. Like, imagine how the inside of your mouth would feel. All… dusty.”

“I think I’d be more focused on the burning,” Trintio replied. “You know, of my tongue, as it turned into ash.”

“Okay, that’s fair. So…” Rachel looked around, crossing her arms. “How do we recruit Cassidy? You said she got mauled, so is she hospitalized?”

Trintio shook his head, chuckling. “You think doctors know how to treat werewolf bites?”

Jane groaned. Was he always this insufferable? “She’s asking for a reason, Trintio.”

“Well, they don’t know how to treat werewolf bites,” he replied, ambling past them to sprinkle more dust. “I have a hunch on where they are, but I’m not happy about it.”

“And where would that be?”

“Thorne Manor. Home to some of my most regrettable decisions.” He tied up the top of his bag. “I’m assuming you two want to go there.”

“It’d be appreciated,” Jane admitted. She’d heard of Thorne Manor, once or twice. Big place on the edge of town. Owned by a rich, reclusive family. No one knew where their money had come from, or how it never ran out, but they’d been there longer than anyone could remember.

In hindsight, textbook supernatural beings.

“How was I never suspicious of those people?” she muttered.

“Oh, yeah, they’re obvious vampires.” Trintio laughed, but there was no humour to the sound. “Soulless, bloodsucking fiends who shorten your lifespan by leeching off of it.”

Rachel barged between him and Jane, pouting up at the fey. “Olivia’s a vampire, and she’s not like that at all!”

“She will be, if she’s there long enough. They’re a bad influence. But!” He stood up straighter, as if suddenly remembering his purpose. “I’ll get you there. And then leave before he can see me.”

“He?” Jane echoed. “What, someone you screwed over?” She wasn’t as much of a fanatic about these things as Cami or Rachel, but she knew most stories about fairies included mischief of some flavour or another.

Trintio brought a hand to his chest in mock-affrontedness. “He screwed me over first, I’ll have you know.”

“Did you steal his firstborn?” Rachel piped up. “Or tie his shoelaces together?”

Trintio ignored her, back to tying his bag. It got smaller as he pulled it shut, impossibly so, until the strings were an arm’s length each and the bag itself fit in his coat pocket. “I haven’t done this with passengers in a while, so I apologize if it’s uncomfortable.” He held out both his hands.

Rachel took his hand without hesitation. Jane stared at her.

“What else are we gonna do?” Rachel asked, grinning. “We’re already here.”

No arguing with that. Jane took Trintio’s hand.

“Great,” Trintio said. “Hold on tight.”

The three of them leapt up, and the world turned upside down. Branches hit Jane’s arms, pine needles caught on her costume, up became down, and down became up. She contemplated opening her mouth to scream, but the endless stream of foliage hitting her face kept it shut.

Then they dropped and hit the concrete. Jane shuddered, barely keeping her balance.

“Did we just teleport through trees?” Rachel murmured. She looked at Jane, who tried to look back, but her vision swam about. It was like she’d just gotten off a rollercoaster.

Trintio laughed. “It’s an old fey trick.” He let go of them, and Jane fell against an old metal fence. The thing squealed in protest, a sound that hit right between the eyes.

I’m going to come out of this with a killer headache, she thought. She ran a hand through her hair, shaking out pine needles, and straightened her glasses. “So, the others are here?”

“Should be. Can you handle the rest of this on your own?” He made a vague, shooing gesture. “I’m not exactly…”

Rachel’s head cocked to the side. “Is this about the firstborn you stole?”

“I didn’t steal a firstborn, Rachel. That’s not my department.”

Jane stared at him. “You mean to say you guys have a firstborn-stealing department?”

Before he could answer, a new voice called, “Adam?”

Trintio froze. “Oh, shit.”

It’d come from the other side of the gate, where a young man stood. He was dark-skinned, with navy-blue curls, and he wore a suit that distinctly reminded Jane of her goth cousin.

Also, he looked like he’d been struck in the gut and had a knife at his throat: breathless, dazed, too shocked for proper fear. He stared at Trintio with wide, golden eyes.

They were just like Olivia’s.

Trintio raised a placating hand. “Angelus,” he said slowly. “Been a while, hasn’t it?”

“A-Almost thirty years,” Angelus stammered out. “Three tens. Five sixes. Two fifteens.”

“I know.” Trintio strode forward, running a finger along the metal bars of the gate. Angelus’s eyes followed it intently. “When did she let you out?”

“About six months ago.” Now, Angelus scowled. “I lost decades because of what you did, Adam.”

“You ratted me out first. I didn’t leave my burrow for five years.”

Angelus rolled his eyes. “Cry me a river, featherhead.”

“Rather crude, don’t you think?”

Jane looked to Rachel, who was listening with a bemused smirk.

“We should’ve brought popcorn,” she remarked.

Angelus looked Trintio up and down, his lip curled in disgust. “I will say, though, could’ve fooled me about the burrow thing. You look like you’ve been underground for decades.”

Trintio gawked at him. “My, Angelus. That’s not very kind. But if we’re catching up, do you still like counting? Hmm? How many fingers am I holding up? Two middle fingers, it looks like!”

Jane checked her phone. Still nothing from Cami. Or Olivia. Or Helena.

I’m going to have to be the adult here, she thought. Me. Not the ageless supernatural beings. Me.

Suppressing a groan, she barged in between the two. “Yeah, hi, Angelus, I’m guessing?” Her voice shook with every word. The only other vampire she’d spoken to was Olivia, and Olivia had never had any reason to suck her blood. “I don’t know what happened between you and Trintio here, but we’re looking for our friends.”

“We’re the Freakspotters,” Rachel added.

Angelus perked up immediately. “Wait, you’re the Freakspotters?”

“You know about us?” Jane managed a laugh, despite it all. The rich vampires in the creepy old house knew about their college supernatural club? “Why do you know about us?”

“We chose you guys because we thought you’d be great for our little project,” Angelus said. He grinned, revealing fangs. Jane tried not to stare. “And, well, three of our representatives were already there. It was really just a matter of converting one more, but…” He snickered, looking at Trintio. “Well. You guys backfired, didn’t you?”

Trintio studied the ground. “Maybe we failed to account for something. Do you have the others or not?”

“Oh, you haven’t changed a bit, have you?” Angelus teased. “Come on in. They’ve been waiting for you.”