Seeing that the head was no longer in existence filled Mia with relief. Suddenly, all the stress and terror of the night washed over her, and she sank into a pile, scooting herself as far away from the ashes as she could without having to actually get up. She watched as the two wolves sitting on the far side of the stream turned back into Zev and Conner. The grayish one was still standing in the stream, and she was incredibly happy to see he was alone. When the head melted, the rest of the demon must have gone along with it. The wolf turned towards Mia, climbing out on her side of the stream. Mia couldn't help but notice he was limping as he crawled over to her.

"Are you ok?" Mia asked as Luke started his transformation to human form. He nodded, and once he was completely back to being the boy in her English class, he looked at her and grinned.

"I'm ok." he told her. "But that horse kicked me right in the arm."

Even in the darkness, Mia could see that most of his forearm was already starting to bruise.

"I'm sorry." she told him.

"Don't be. It was my decision to jump in front of it."

"Well, thank you for that." Mia said sincerely. She knew it was definitely a big part of why the Dullahan hadn't caught up to her.

"Don't mention it." he said straightening. Then, handing her his good arm, Luke pulled Mia to her feet. "Let's just never do that again, ok?"

Mia didn't say anything – she just shook her head vehemently.

"Are you guys ok?" Carmine shouted out across the stream. She was standing with Anna, Zev, and Conner. Mia was relieved to see that everyone looked relatively unscathed.

"We're fine." Luke called back.

"Why don't you come back over here so we can get out of this place?" Zev asked.

"Yeah – and bring that head with you. Or whatever's left of it." Carmine added.

Mia was about to tell them that there were a lot of ashes, and she wasn't going to be carrying all of those in her hands. But before she could even complain, there was a heavy thud as a bag weighted with a rock landed just a few feet from where she and Luke were standing. Luke knelt down and began awkwardly scooping the ashes into Carmine's bag.

"Here. You hold the bag, I'll scoop." Mia said. She didn't want to have to be the one to tell him, but she was pretty sure his arm was broken. She just hoped werewolves healed faster than humans did.

When they were finally finished, Luke walked towards the stream. Mia hesitated. It was a lot wider than it looked when she was running for her life, and she really wasn't sure she had the energy to make another jump like that.

"Let's see if there's a more narrow part we can cross." Mia told Luke.

"Sure. Actually, the stream starts about twenty feet up that hill." he said, pointing. "If we go up there, we won't have to cross it at all."

"Perfect."

As they walked up the hill, Mia heard Carmine digging around in the leaves. Finally, she heard her friend call out, "I found the coin!" Mia realized that must have been what had hit the Dullahan as it tried to cross the stream after her.

Mia and Luke met up with the rest of the group about five minutes later. When they got there, Mia saw that a hole about a foot deep had already been dug.

"Just pour the ashes in there." Carmine said.

They buried the head, keeping the gold coin safely in the middle of the ashes. Someone asked Anna if she wanted it back, but she just shook her head.

"Keep it with the head." she said. "It might not be keeping it from resolidifying, but why take that chance?"

Everyone agreed that was probably the safest bet. They walked out of the woods and headed for an all-night diner that Luke swore had the best burgers in town. Mia didn't care where they went; all she wanted to do was sit down in a place that was warm and bright and as far away from the woods as she could get.

The walk to the diner was mostly made in silence. Everybody seemed to be either lost in their own thoughts or too tired to think of anything to say. The hostess eyed their bruises suspiciously but didn't say anything. Mia could tell she was making a mental note of them, in case it turned out later that some crime had been committed.

Now that they were under the bright lights of the restaurant, Mia could see that Luke's arm was deep shades of purple and blue, and Zev looked like he'd have a black eye by the morning.

"It's nothing." Zev said when asked about it. He leaned back in the booth for a second before quickly straightening. He was met with five pairs of eyes staring at him.

"I think I'll just sit forward for now." he said.

"He got you in the back, didn't he?" Luke asked, a knowing grin on his face.

"Yeah. A couple times." Zev told him.

"Let's see."

Zev looked around, making sure no one would notice him. Since it was Friday, the place was actually fairly full, but it was mostly juniors, seniors, and college kids. Zev shrugged, apparently deciding he didn't care if any of them saw. He turned around as much as he could in the booth and lifted up the back of his shirt. Crisscrossing his back, like a hastily drawn X, were two deep red gashes.

"That looks painful! Are you ok?" Anna asked.

Mia could tell she was feeling guilty for agreeing to let them come along. Mia probably would have felt guilty too. But the fact that they had almost certainly saved her life made it difficult for her to feel really bad.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Besides, it's nothing compared to whatever you did." Zev said, looking over at Luke and his bruised arm.

"You really should see a doctor." Carmine told him.

"Yeah, I'll probably go tomorrow." he said. "I just have to figure out what I'm going to tell him."

"Tell him you were kicked by a horse." Zev said, laughing.

"Yeah, I'm sure that'll work." Luke rolled his eyes, but he was still grinning.

"Well, thank you all for coming with us." Mia told the boys.

"What made you think to grab the head anyway?" Luke asked.

"I don't know." Mia answered honestly. "I guess when everybody was there, it just looked like a good opportunity. He was busy looking at all of you, and I don't know – I just grabbed it and ran."

"Well, it's a good thing you did." Zev told her. "You ran really fast."

"Yeah, Zev could barely keep up!" Luke cut in, gleefully taking the opportunity to mock his friend.

"Yes I could!" Zev protested. "It's just that she got a head start!"

"Yeah – I don't think I've ever seen a human run that fast!" Conner told her, clearly impressed.

"What?" Carmine asked incredulously. She looked like she was about to laugh. Then, a light seemed to go on in her head. "Oh..." she said dully.

"What's 'oh'?" Luke asked instantly, narrowing his eyes.

The whole table seemed to stop. Mia's fork stayed resting in midair, on its way up to her mouth. Anna's hand froze around her cup. The girls stared down at the table as casually as they could, and Mia slowly lowered her fork back to her plate. No one said anything.

"What's 'oh' mean?" Luke asked again.

Mia's ears burned as she pictured exactly how the next five minutes would play out. She looked up at Carmine, wishing she could strangle her friend with her mind. Carmine's face was bright red as she glanced from Mia to Anna. Anna still wasn't making eye contact, so Carmine's gaze came back to Mia.

"I thought you would have told them!" she whined.

"Told us what?" Zev asked, his face suddenly wearing the same expression as Luke's.

Mia stayed silent. Now that it was obvious she was going to have to tell them, Mia was trying to figure out the best way to phrase it. Once they realized that she wouldn't be saying anything within the next few minutes, the boys turned and stared at Carmine. Carmine, under pressure from three different stares, folded.

"About being vampires." she mumbled, eyes now down at the table.

The stunned silence seemed to echo around the table. Mia's eyes were glued to the plate in front of her, and she could only imagine what was going through everyone's minds. She figured this was probably the last time she'd be hanging out with any of the guys again, and her heart started to sink. Zev lasted almost a full minute before he started laughing.

"Are you serious?" he asked.

Mia looked over at him, but his face was unreadable.

"Are you telling me that a vampire saw us out in the woods and was so scared that she decided not to talk to us anymore?"

"Well, there were a lot of you, and only one of me." she shot back defensively. "Besides, other people finding out about us in this city is how we got into this whole mess in the first place."

"What do you mean?" Luke cut in.

Mia turned to Luke, grateful to have somewhere to look other than Zev. At least with Luke, she didn't feel like quite as much of a hypocrite.

"Summer blackmailed us into helping." Mia told him.

"She did?" Luke raised his eyebrows.

"She did." Anna told him, speaking up for the first time. "She said if we didn't help, she'd tell the whole town about us."

"And there aren't enough of us to stop her." Mia said, thinking about how Zev had said his group managed to work their way into a standstill with Summer's.

"So, how many of you are there?" Zev asked. "Just the three of you?"

"Two, actually." Carmine corrected.

"Two?" Zev asked, the surprise evident on his face. "So who's not...?" he trailed off, looking intently at each girl in turn.

"Me." Carmine said simply.

"So...what are you then?" Luke asked. Carmine just shrugged.

"Human." she told him.