"Where are you going?" my dad asked. "You two can't go to sleep like this."

  "Eli's right," Eleanor said. "Apologize to each other."

  Trixie and I looked at each other. "Sorry," I said.

  "Sorry," she said.

  We gave an artificial hug and I went to bed, still angry.

  * * *

  2 6

  * * *

  Trixie gave me the cold shoulder the next day. All day. I hated fighting with her. Halfway through my day at Mystic, I gave up and told Eleanor and Trixie that I was going to Coffee Cove to see Lucy. Eleanor was too busy to say anything and Trixie just didn't want to.

  I couldn't say I blamed her. If anyone had insinuated to me that Colt was an evil vampire intent on enslaving the world, I'd have thrown a frog at them. And I hadn't just insinuated it to Trixie. I'd flat out said it.

  I was sitting on a bench in the town square when someone suddenly placed their hand on my shoulder. I turned to look behind me and saw Russell standing there. He was wearing a spring jacket and a bowler hat. He had the brim pulled way down, almost covering his eyes completely.

  "Hi," I said, surprised to see him out in public. He only seemed to show up when we were alone. Right now, the square was bustling. It was mid-afternoon and we wouldn't be alone here for hours.

  Russell must've read my mind. "There's no better place to hide than in public," he told me. "Have you spoken to Colt about me?"

  I nodded. Colt was ready to meet Russell, though he was nervous about it.

  "When can we go see him?" Russell asked.

  I shrugged. "I was waiting to hear from you. I supposed that if you're ready now... we might as well go."

  Russell's jaw dropped a half inch. "You mean... right now?" He suddenly seemed nervous. He lifted his hat and ran his hand through his hair before replacing it.

  "There's no time like the present," I told him.

  "What if he's not home?" I wasn't sure whether vampires could sweat, but it seemed to me that Russell was fixing to break out in a cold, thin film of it.

  "I'll call him," I said and pulled my phone from my pocket.

  "No, don't. I mean..."

  I patted Russell gently on the shoulder as I stood up. "It's okay. He wants to see you."

  "Does he know that I'm...?"

  Crud. I hadn't yet gotten around to telling Colt about his dad being a vampire. If I was honest with myself, it was less about finding the right opportunity and more about working up the right nerve.

  "No," I admitted. "Tell you what. Give me a half hour. I'll just go to his apartment and tell him the news." Tell him the news? It sounded like I was preparing to tell Colt that Russell had won a cooking contest or gotten first place in a swim competition.

  "Maybe we should wait," he said.

  "No. Melbourne came to see me last night. He admitted to working with Vlaski. I think we might be running out of time to stop them." Russell's eyebrow twitched. "I know it's scary, Russell, but he's your son."

  He nodded. "Call me Russ. And yes, you're right. Of course, you are. Okay. A half hour."

  We parted and I made my way to Colt's apartment. He opened his door on the second knock.

  "Hi," he said, happy to see me. He kissed my cheek and pulled me inside. The boxes I'd seen last time I was here were gone.

  "Are you still moving?" I asked.

  "Not anymore."

  I was relieved to hear that. "What made you change your mind?"

  He smiled at me. "You."

  I laughed nervously. My heart thumped in my chest. "Won't your mom be disappointed?"

  "Yeah, but she'll understand."

  "I still owe her an apology. A big one."

  "Yeah, you do, but I think you'll find that she's pretty forgiving. Especially when it comes to women I'm seeing."

  "She told me the only girlfriend of yours that she's ever met was your high school girlfriend."

  He blushed slightly. "My mom got a little... clingy after my dad died. I think she hoped that I would get married and have kids. She never really wanted to let me go; she just wanted to expand her family. Fill the void that was missing with my father's absence.”

  "Speaking of your dad..."

  "Have you talked to him? When does he want to meet?"

  "How's a half hour?" I asked.

  "A half hour? From now?"

  I nodded. "He's on his way."

  Colt started wringing his hands together. He stood in the corner near the saxophone I'd given him, still untouched since the day he'd unwrapped it.

  "Colt, there's something I need to tell you about your father."

  He turned to me with raised eyebrows.

  "It's just that... your dad... he... he's different."

  Colt's brow furrowed. "Different how?"

  "Well, he's not the same man you remember. Not exactly. A lot happened in the field. He's been through things, changes, that might be hard to grasp at first."

  He waved off my concerns. "Of course, he's changed. I know that. Thirteen years is a long time."

  "Right... it's just—"

  There was a knock on his door. Colt shot me a look. "Is that him?"

  I shrugged. It hadn't been a half hour. More like fifteen minutes, if that.

  Colt inhaled a long breath, held it, and let it out. He opened the door. Russ stood there, his expression alternating between grim and happy. He reached out one hand. Colt shook it, then pulled him into a hug. They stayed like that a moment, father and son, reuniting after a point in time when both had thought that would be impossible.

  "Come in," Colt finally said. His father stepped inside. "Have a seat."

  "Sorry if I'm a bit early," Russ said. "I uh, thought I'd better just get it over with. I mean, you know." There was silence as Russell took a seat in an oversized armchair across from the couch. I sat on the sofa next to Colt. The silence continued for a full minute until Russ finally broke it.

  "This is weird, right?" Russ said and we all laughed nervously. "I suppose you have a lot of questions for me."

  Colt attempted to smile normally. "About a million of them. Ava filled me in on a lot of things, but I think I'd like to hear it from you."

  "Where do you want me to start?"

  "How about you tell me what happened after you left that day. The last time I saw you."

  Russell nodded. "Yes. The beginning. Or the end, I supposed. It depends on your perspective." He sighed and folded his hands in his lap, settling into his story.

  "I was an undercover agent at COMHA for years. I'd been working on a high-profile case."

  "Vlaski Ambrose," Colt said, nodding.

  "Exactly. I'd spent months getting close to him. Gained his trust by pretending I wanted to be one of them. One of his Cult of V members."

  "How'd you do that?"

  "It was simple. I told him that I wanted the one thing that made sense to him—immortality. It was what he'd wanted, too." Russell's eyes turned watery. "The day I left—the fight we had—at the time, I'd thought it would make things easier for you and your mother. That if your last memory of me was a bad one, it would be easier to let go."

  "You mean... that fight we had was staged?"

  "On my part, yes."

  Russ let that sink in for a minute. I patted Colt's hand, offering what little comfort I could.

  "You thought you were going to die. Didn't you?" Colt asked.

  "Yes. I did die that day. I had to. Vlaski wouldn't fill me in on his entire plan until I became one of them. So, I had to agree."

  "You agreed to let him turn you into a vampire?" Colt asked, his eyes wide.

  "It was the only way."

  "So, what happened? How'd you escape?"

  "COMHA had come up with a solution that offered me a chance to return to my previous life. If I took it within twenty minutes of being turned, the process might've been able to be reversed. But I couldn't get away. I'd only heard half the plan. Without the rest of it, we wouldn't have known how to stop them. By the time I got back to COMHA, it was too late."

  Colt shook his head. "So, how'd you finally change back?"

  Russell looked at me, confused.

  "I didn't have a chance to tell him," I muttered, feeling stupid. I'd had plenty of chances to tell him.

  Russell leaned forward. "Colt... I didn't change back."

  I could see the comprehension slowly sink into Colt's face. "You're a vampire." It wasn't a question. "You said you made it back to COMHA headquarters, though."

  "Yes, but it was too late. It was three days after I'd taken the solution. There was nothing they could do."

  "But if you were at COMHA then that means Dean Lampton knew you were alive. He knew what had happened to you." Colt's hands were clenched into fists at his side. "Dean let me and my mother believe you were dead for the last thirteen years."

  "I asked him to," Russ said quickly, but the words were lost on Colt as anger took over.

  "I don't care what you asked. It's what Dean did that matters."

  "Colt... don't do anything stupid."

  "Stupid? Me? Never."

  * * *

  2 7

  * * *

  For the first time since I'd arrived on Heavenly Haven, the Sweetland Cove gossip mill was down. No one cared about my relationship with Colt. No one cared about Eleanor's wedding. No one cared whether Otis Winken's familiar, Tadpole, had stolen the apple pie off Natalie Vargas' back porch.

  Sweetland was too concerned about Mistmoor Point. Their mayoral election was at the end of this week, but that wasn't quite good enough for Mayor Thomas. He'd called another town square meeting. Megan Lockwood was at his side, carrying coffee and a clipboard. Apparently, she'd gotten the job.

  After Rachel Sessler's death, there hadn't been many takers. The rumor, at the time, had been that she was too involved with the mayor's affairs and that was what had gotten her killed. Well, that and the notion that all vampires on Heavenly Haven were inherently evil and had to be run out of town. The only good thing about this Mayor-for-All Rule was that it had people so wrapped up they'd forgotten they wanted to be vigilantes and run every vampire in Sweetland out of town. Ruling or not ruling Mistmoor was of more importance. Running the vampires out could be pushed to the backburner for now.

  Rachel's death had all but been forgotten in lieu of the more pressing need to discuss Mistmoor Point's mayor—or the lack thereof. Since Mayor Thomas's last speech in the town square, everyone in Sweetland had rushed to their computers or Witchmobile phones and looked up the Mayor-for-All Rule Mayor Thomas claimed to have found in Heavenly Haven's ancient constitution.

  Mayor Thomas had been right. If Mistmoor went ninety days without selecting a mayor, then he had the right to take over their town. Acting mayors didn't count, so Tazzie Singer was of no use unless she was officially elected to fill her husband's void, which she might be.

  Mayor Thomas was speaking loudly into a microphone as Colt paced the ground next to me, a phone to his ear. He had one finger plugged into his other ear, trying to hear the person at the other end.

  "No!" he yelled. "I want to speak with Dean Lampton now!" There was a brief pause followed by Colt muttering and cursing under his breath. "Yes, I know he's busy. No, I can't call back."

  This was his third attempt to speak to Dean in the last twenty-four hours. I wondered if I should have told Russell not to give Colt too many details about his days as a COMHA agent. I had naively thought that learning his father was still alive would be enough for Colt, but I'd been wrong. He wanted answers from the man who had kept his father's true existence from him.

  "No!" Colt screamed again. He held the phone away from his ear and looked at me with crazed eyes, as if to say, can you believe this person?

  I could hear Dean's secretary, Shauna, on the other end, sighing and trying to calm Colt down.

  "Fine!" Colt yelled. "But you tell him that if he doesn't call me back, he'll be sorry!" He hung up his phone and stuffed it angrily into his pocket. A few people around us were staring, but their attention faltered when Mayor Thomas started banging his fist on the podium like a gavel.

  "Mistmoor has no right to reject the Mayor-for-All Rule!" Bang! "If our positions were reversed, Sweetland would have to submit to the rule as well. And we would, because Sweetland Cove obeys the law!" Bang! "There is nothing we can do to help Mistmoor unless they help themselves!" Bang! "And if they can't help themselves, then we will be forced to act on their behalf!" Bang! Bang! Bang!

  There was a general outcry of approval, followed by applause. I couldn't help thinking that the mayor was contradicting himself in his own speech. One minute Sweetland could do nothing to help them, the next it was our duty to help them. I looked at Colt, whose cheeks were still flushed with anger. He was barely listening to the mayor's speech.

  Mayor Thomas looked at Megan and held out his hand. She immediately handed him a bottle of water. I couldn't remember Rachel ever following the mayor around with water and coffee. Megan was acting more like an office gopher than his Girl Friday. Rachel had been far from a gopher. Still, I supposed you had to start somewhere. I had the feeling that Megan had taken the job more to prove that she was an adult than because she was really interested in politics.

  Lucy had told me that their parents were ecstatic that Megan had left Coffee Cove—officially, she was on "hiatus"—for the mayor's office. Apparently, Brenda and Vincent Lockwood had hopes of Megan one day making mayor. I spotted them in the crowd, clapping at everything Mayor Thomas said, even the accidental burp he let out when he opened his mouth again.

  Sweetland was divided. Half the town wanted to take over Mistmoor. The other half wanted nothing to do with Mistmoor. Their mayoral elections were at the end of the week though, so I didn't think there was much cause for concern. Mistmoor's mayor might be arriving on the scene a little late, but they would still be arriving.

  "Power to Sweetland! Down with Mistmoor!" someone in the crowd shouted.

  I shook my head, wondering if things could get any worse. An hour later, Lottie Mudget walked into our bakery and I knew that they could.

  Colt had disappeared. He'd kissed me goodbye and dashed off, mumbling something about his mother and seafood, or at least that was what it had sounded like. I'd gone on to Mystic Cupcake. Eleanor and Trixie had attended the town square rally for a few minutes before deciding it wasn't worth their time. They'd come back to the bakery and started in on the morning's chores.

  My father had already finished our jalapeno lemon poppers with time-stood-still extract. The extract was something new I was working on. It didn't really make time stand still, it just sort of froze your wrinkles so that they weren't as obvious. The magical equivalent to Botox.

  "How was the rest of it?" Eleanor asked when I came in.

  I shrugged. "The same as the last one. Lots of yelling. Lots of cheering. Lots of people being silly."

  Eleanor filled a display tray with extract-free white chocolate raspberry tortes, for those who wanted the sugar without an added pick-me-up. The bell above our door chimed just as I was tying my apron. Lottie Mudget came rushing in. Her hair was frizzy and her eyes were wild.

  "Have you heard the news?" she asked. We all looked at her. She wasn't even pretending that she'd come in for a pastry. She was here to deliver gossip. And whatever it was, it had her cheeks glowing pink, as if she'd just come in from a vigorous run.

  "If you're talking about the mayor's little speech out front, yes, we've heard everything we need to hear," Trixie said. She shot me a look and rolled her eyes. I was glad we were back on speaking terms, though things between us were still a little tense. She'd told me that she believed that I believed everything I'd told her about Melbourne, but that didn't make it true. She wanted to hear it from him. I hoped he stayed away from her. Now that he knew I was aware of his connection to Vlaski, he had no reason to return.

  "No," Lottie said, "Mistmoor declared war!"

  Eleanor dropped a gum drop. Trixie dropped a cupcake. I dropped my jaw.

  "War?" Eleanor asked. "That can't be right."

  "It is. Just a few minutes ago. They said there's no way that they will allow Mayor Thomas to take over their town and that his threats meant war. No one in Sweetland is allowed inside Mistmoor's borders, or they'll be considered an enemy and taken hostage."

  The way Lottie was explaining things, she was being highly dramatic. I couldn't be sure whether it was just her way of making the story sound more important than it was, or if what she was saying was actually true.

  The door chimed and Sheriff Knoxx walked in. Eleanor's face, which had grown red and pinched, relaxed when she saw him. She put down the tray she was working on and went to hug him. I guess she needed a little comfort.

  "Zane, please tell me that what Lottie's been saying isn't true."

  "What's she been saying?"

  "That Mistmoor's declared war on us."

  Sheriff Knoxx sighed and rubbed his right temple. "I'm afraid she's right." Eleanor's face turned white. "I got a call from Lincoln not more than an hour ago. He barely managed to stop a crowd of Mistmoor residents from coming over here and causing trouble."

  "What kind of trouble?" Eleanor asked.

  "Apparently, a few of them had gotten ahold of lightning in a jar. They were planning to throw it out around town, hoping to break up some of the tourist hot spots, maybe even cause some damage to our buildings."

  My throat felt suddenly dry. Lightning in a jar wasn't the same as a nuclear bomb, but it was bad enough. If they were willing to do that, what else were they willing to do?

  "Mayor Thomas is an idiot," Trixie said decidedly. "Mistmoor will have its new mayor in a few days anyway, so what does it matter?"

  "Yes..." Sheriff Knoxx looked at the ground.

  "What's wrong?" Eleanor asked. "Don't tell me that there's a problem with their elections."

  "No, not exactly. It's just that, well, there's talk of a tie. Polls look like it might come down to Tazzie Singer and Thaddeus Wright. If it's a tie, then they have to have a run-off election. If they do that, then Mistmoor won't meet the deadline and Mayor Thomas can enact his silly rule."