I pick up my cell phone to call Michael and jump when it rings. I frown, not recognizing the number. I click on the phone. "h.e.l.lo?"

"Hey, Jules. It's Finn."

"Finn?" I shrug in return to the looks I'm getting from everyone.

"How ya doing?"

"I've been better," I say.

"So anything good going on at your house?" he asks.

"Urn, no."

"Well, Evan and I are having kind of an interesting evening. Dani's here, and as we haven't seen her in a few days we missed the big fang makeover. While I don't necessarily have a problem with it, Evan is a little freaked, and we'd appreciate it if you could come over and get her before he runs into some serious incontinence issues."

"Oh, c.r.a.p," I say softly. I should've known she wanted to talk to Evan. "Look, don't invite her in. She won't attack you or anything"-I glare at Margo-"but I'll be right over.

"Thanks, Jules," he says. "Oh, wait-hold on. Yes, I called her," he says in a m.u.f.fled voice.

"Well, you wouldn't leave. You gave Evan her number last week. Actually there is a big difference between witches and vampires!"

"Finn, put her on, okay?" I say loudly.

"Huh?" he asks, obviously putting the phone back up to his ear.

"Put Dani on-just open the door and hand her the phone."

"What are you doing? No, no! Don't open it," Evan calls out in a high-pitched squeak.

"For the hundreth time, stop being such a wuss-she can't come in unless you invite her," I hear him say to Evan. "She wants to talk to you," he says.

"Hi, Jules. You don't need to come get me. I was just leaving," Dani says in a p.i.s.sy voice.

"You shouldn't have gone over there in the first place! Given what you know about Evan, didn't you think he might be a bit freaked out that you're a vampire?"

"Well, I kind of hoped my boyfriend would've been a bit more understanding" she shouts.

"You were gonna put the vamp spell on him, weren't you?"

Dani sighs. "Okay, fine, maybe I was," she says so quietly I can hardly hear her. "I wasn't gonna bite him, though. I was just hoping using the vamp mojo would finally get a rise out of him.

"But I guess it's okay to tell him I always had a better time with Finn anyway!" she says more loudly. "Oh, Jules, Finn is a werewolf."

"Give me the phone!" Finn yells in the background.

I hear some scuffling with the phone.

"I am not!" he says.

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, you know what, Finn? With the day I've been having, you could tell me you're a brain-sucking zombie, and I wouldn't blink an eye. Just tell Dani to meet us at the park down the street from Connor's house."

I end the call and stand up, ignoring the slack-jawed expression on all of their faces. "Dani was pestering Evan, they were kind of going out, but apparently being a vampire is some sort of deal-breaker. She's going to meet us by Connor's, though. So," I say with a clap of my hands, "I'm ready to check out Helena's secret room-anyone who promises not to stake Dani can join me."

They all still look too dumbstruck for an immediate response, so I dial Michael's number.

"Hey, it's Jules, we're all here at my house, and we're hoping we can make use of your excellent decoy abilities."

"Yeah, sure, what do you want me to do?"

"We're gonna channel our inner Nancy Drew and get to the bottom of some things. We need to sneak into this room at Connor's but we need you to distract him."

"I'll try. When do you want me to come over?"

"Now, but don't come here-meet us by the playground near Connor's."

"I'm on my way."

"Thanks!" I click off my phone. "Let's go!" I head for my bedroom door, and then turn back to them. "Do you think Finn Dolan could be a werewolf?" I ask.

Zahara scoffs. "I don't know what the h.e.l.l to think anymore."

"I could totally see him being a wolf!" Sascha says. "He's always sniffing."

Margo c.o.c.ks her head. "He is always sniffing, isn't he?"

I nod and turn back toward the door. "That would explain a lot."

"Hey," Sascha adds. "I noticed when I landed that your mom's workshop has seen better days-what happened?"

I pick up my broom and walk outside. "I had a little pity party, but I'm over it now."

We sit facing out in different directions on the small merry-go-round near the center of the playground, holding binders in our hands-a concession I made so Margo didn't have to worry about Dani sneaking up on us.

"She's probably not gonna show," Margo says. "If she's smart she won't," she adds.

"Would you just relax? Things are tense enough," I say.

"Look!" Zahara says, pointing toward the swing sets.

Dani gives a little wave. "Are we cool?" she asks.

Sascha bursts into tears and looks at me.

"It's OK," I say.

She nods, and goes running over to Dani, hugging her tightly. She takes Dani's hand and leads her back to us.

I look over at Margo and see tears br.i.m.m.i.n.g in her eyes.

"We're cool," I say.

We tumble into a big group hug, and then Sascha pulls back.

"Let's see them," she says.

Dani smiles and reveals her new teeth. Margo draws back slightly and Zahara swats her in the arm.

"We're going to Connor's to see if we can find anything that'll help us get out of the covenant with our souls intact," I say. "Michael's gonna distract him and we'll sneak in."

"Someone has to invite me in," Dani says, looking slightly embarra.s.sed.

Margo reaches out and squeezes her hand. "I'll do it."

I smile, thinking there's hope for Margo after all. "Great! We need to go through everything fast so we can get out before Helena gets home. Don't touch any of the stuff lying around-some of it is lethal."

We see the van pull up into the parking lot. "Are we ready?" I ask.

"Oh, yeah!" Zahara says. She puts a hand out in front of her and then we all place one on top.

Dani's cold hand on top of mine sends shivers up my arm. "Let's do it!"

"Can you still cloak yourself now that you're-you know?" I ask Dani.

"Yeah. The other vamps were so jealous. Well, sort of. They can turn into mist, but that's not as cool as being able to become completely invisible. If I were, like, evil I could so sneak up on my victims and they wouldn't know what hit them!"

She notices we're staring at her. "Not that I would sneak up on anyone, I'm just saying!"

I shake my head. "Let's fill Michael in, and then knock this coven on its a.s.s!"

18.

We wait, cloaked by the side of Connor's house, and watch Michael ring the bell.

After a couple of minutes pa.s.s, Connor opens the front door.

"Hey," Michael says. "I was wondering if we could talk?"

Connor hesitates. "I'm kind of in the middle of something."

Michael glances toward where we said would be, and I wish he could see us. I will him not to give up. "Um, I won't stay long, okay?"

Connor looks at his watch. "Yeah, I guess."

I tilt my head toward the rear of the house, and we all slink around to the back porch. I slowly turn the handle and give them the thumbs-up when it moves. I pull the door open just enough for us to slip inside.

As I walk into the dark kitchen I hear Margo whisper, "I invite you in."

"Thanks," Dani whispers back.

We walk past the living room. I look in and see Connor sitting on the couch.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about all that," he says to Michael. "It's just been really tough lately, what with Dani missing. I didn't want Jules to get more upset than she probably already is. And I talked to my mom about it-she was just talking hypothetically about Dani. So it's no big deal."

Dani swats my arm. I turn to her and she rolls her eyes.

We head up the stairs and I cringe with each squeak the old stairs make. I hear Michael talking in a loud voice and know he's trying to cover the noise.

I breathe a sigh of relief when we make it to the room. "The lights are on, Connor must have been up here. Reveal," I whisper.

"Whoa," Zahara says quietly. "Look at all of this!"

"Holy s.h.i.t!" Sascha says.

"Over there." I point to the computer and the desks, and we head toward them. The screen displays Connor and Helena's e-mail. "Look through all the papers and notebooks."

Z starts rifling through some papers while Sascha opens a thick accordion file stuffed full.

"Margo, why don't you look through the file cabinet? Dani, you could read some e-mails. I'll look through the ledger."

Everyone nods. I turn to look at the three ghost b.a.l.l.s lying on the desk in open containers filled with packing material. I shudder as burnt eyes and body parts come in and out of focus in the midst of the green light inside two of the b.a.l.l.s. The bright white light in the third ball zips and twists around the gla.s.s threads inside and I wonder if it's a different kind of ghost.

"There's just receipts and junk in here," Sascha says. She closes up the file and grabs a notebook.

I start to open the ledger when I notice the box where Connor put the Ouroboros ring is still sitting on the desk. I lift the lid off and unfold the paper lying on top of it.

Dani peeks over from the computer chair and looks in the box. "There's your friend!"

"Yeah, right. Hey, why don't you look through the ledger? It has a list of kills and stuff." I slide it in front of her and start reading the description of the ring. My stomach twists when I get to the third paragraph. The ring has the unique ability to convince the wearer that the giver of the ring is being truthful- deservedly or not. The Ouroboros's ruby eyes light up in response to the giver's words, and the spell infused with the ring influences the wearer to trust the giver implicitly.

I resist the urge to tear the paper into a million little pieces. I fold it back up, numbly place it on top of the ring, and replace the lid with a shaking hand. I purse my lips and try to hold back the tears br.i.m.m.i.n.g in my eyes. He freaking lied to me and I bought it! Every time I had doubts, I let him drive them away with a kiss.

"There's, like, thousands of kills listed in here," Dani says to me.

"What?" I ask, pretending not to hear her so I can buy myself a few seconds to shake off the crawling feeling I have all over. I wipe my eyes and sniff. I need to focus on why we're here, because given everything going on, my son of a b.i.t.c.h boyfriend is the least of my problems.

" I said there's thousands of kills listed, and this one nut job who was keeping track in the early 1800s wrote down stuff like they killed a wolf with a mole sprouting three hairs or that some vamp had freckles." She flips the pages toward the back. "And we sure are hunting a heck of a lot more since we took over the job."

Dani runs her finger down a page counting under her breath. "Look at the totals after we started hunting. Ten here in March." She turns the page. "April has, um, twelve. And look at this."

She points to the brown writing under the comments about the kills. "We appreciate your added efforts and will adjust the payment accordingly. "

"Gotta love a book that lets you converse with demons," I say.