Kieran

"Kieran?"

Jackson's voice was the first thing I registered upon waking. It took me a moment to be able to open my eyes and recall what had happened. "Jackson?"

"I'm here," came his reply, "Are you okay?"

I finally willed my eyes to open and I saw with relief that my mother was there, too. "Yeah, I'm fine. I don't think he did anything besides put me to sleep...which surprises me, I'll admit. What happened while I was out?"

"Kieran...he's dead," said Mom. "Drystan's gone."

"What?" To say those words shocked me was nothing short of an understatement. I glanced around the room for any sign of Drystan and sure enough, he lay next to the balcony door, a pile of ashes that I assumed were what was left of his heart scattered next to his lifeless body.

I climbed out of the coffin with some assistance from my mother and immediately Jackson pulled me into a hug. As I returned the hug, I could feel him shaking a bit and I couldn't blame him. Whatever Drystan had done while I was asleep could not have been anything close to pleasant. "Thank God you're okay," he said into my shoulder.

"You, too. What exactly did he...?"

"He took my heart from my chest and tried to crush it," Jackson answered, and for a moment I wished Drystan were still alive just so I could kill him myself. Jackson must have seen that in my expression because he added, "I'm okay, Kieran. Your mother saved my life."

As the three of us left the office to return to the party, Jackson and my mother told me everything that happened while I was asleep, including everything Drystan had told Jackson. Hearing it all made me even more glad the man was gone.

When we arrived, Draculaura was the first to approach us. "This party is off the fang; where did you guys go?"

"We had to take care of something, dear," answered Mom, "Nothing to worry about now."

Bram, who had also made his way over to where we were standing, asked, "Care to fill me in later, Kieran?"

"Maybe later," I agreed.

The rest of the night turned out to be quite fun. Both Jackson and Holt got to enjoy the party along with the rest of us and at one point I caught a glimpse of an all-too-familiar lantern in one vampire's hand.

"Long time, no see, K.V.," I heard from behind me. There was only one monster I knew who called me 'K.V.' Sure enough, I turned to find Whisp standing there, arms crossed, a smile on her face. "How've you been?" she continued.

"I've been great, Whisp, how about you?" I asked.

"Unlife has been treating me pretty well, too. Care to introduce me to your friend there?"

"Oh, right! Jackson, this is Whisp. Whisp, this is my boyfriend Jackson," I replied as Jackson held out his hand for Whisp to shake, which she did.

"It's nice to finally meet you," Whisp said, "and I'm glad to see you guys together!"

"Thanks," said Jackson, "It's nice to meet you, too. Kieran's told me a lot about you."

"Yeah, I've heard quite a bit about you, too."

"Why am I not surprised?" Jackson glanced at me as he said that. I could tell he was teasing me. Whisp ended up chilling with us and Holt for the majority of the night, although she did have to go grant her finder one of their wishes at one point and I did see some of the girls I had history with scattered throughout the room. None of them approached me or even paid me any attention, though, which was a good thing. Overall, I think everyone had a lot of fun.

Later that night when it was over, Mom and I filled Holt and Bram in on everything that had happened. Upon hearing what Drystan had put both Jackson and I through, along with what he had said to Jackson, Holt looked as if he shared my earlier sentiments on killing Drystan a second time if it were possible. More than anything, though, he was glad everyone was all right in the end, including Jackson. I felt the same way.

The next day was Hazel and Elissabat's wedding, which turned out to be quite beautiful. Elissabat wore a silver gown complete with a layer of lace, her hair in its usual light waves. Hazel wore white, complete with a veil and her hair plaited. They both walked down the aisle—Elissabat going first—with Bram walking his sister down it. Elissabat had chosen Draculaura for her maid of honour awhile back, a decision that made Draculaura nearly burst with happiness when she told her. The ceremony went smoothly and several people cried, though the latter tended to happen a lot at weddings.

The reception afterwards was what held most of the highlights, one of which was when Hazel and Elissabat took part in the Shoe Game which was where the couple sat back to back and were each given one shoe of theirs and one of their spouse's. Then someone asked them a series of questions, which they had to answer by holding up one of the shoes depending on which they thought the answer was. The questions were all opinion-based. It got even better when we learned that Holt would be asking the questions. "Looks like we're starting with a good one, yo! Which one of you's the better secret-keeper?"

Both women immediately answered Elissabat. "400 years of being disguised as a Hauntlywood actress beats out any of my secret-keeping accomplishments by a very long shot!" Hazel added.

"Yeah, that one was kind of a given. Oh, this should be good!" Holt grinned before reading the next one, "Which one of you made the first move?"

"Hazel," called Bram just as both women took credit.

"Shut up, Bram!" she yelled back. He just laughed.

"Aw, man, I'm lookin' forward to seeing how you ladies answer this one," Holt commented, "Who's more of a night owl?"

For several seconds, neither Hazel nor Elissabat quite knew how to answer. I had to chuckle at how predictable the result of asking two vampires that question really was.

"Okay, you know what? Time for a compromise!" Hazel declared, holding up both shoes at once. In a hilarious twist of events, Elissabat did the same thing almost simultaneously!

"I feel like this one's gonna be obvious, but who's got the bigger wardrobe?"

"No shit, it's obvious!" Hazel cracked up as both vampires answered with Elissabat.

"I'd tread carefully with this next one, ghouls. Who's clumsier?"

I could see Elissabat trying not to laugh as she held up Hazel's shoe. If only she could see Hazel holding up hers.

"Who's the bigger baby when they're sick?" continued Holt, and they both said it was Hazel. Holt burst out laughing. "Not surprised. Alright...Oh, this one's gonna be good! Who's always right?"

They both said Elissabat.

"Who's more stubborn?" This time, everyone yelled Elissabat's name and both women seemed to agree. "Who said 'I love you' first?" Hazel immediately held up her own shoe, while Elissabat was hesitant but eventually did the same.

Before moving on, Holt couldn't help but burst out laughing, not just at Elissabat's hesitation but at what the next question happened to be. "Who has the crazier family?" he managed to get out, and all of us laughed too.

"Elissabat!" I called, and I think a lot of others did the same thing. Elissabat and Hazel both seemed to agree, which was a good thing because if Hazel had answered with her own shoe, I would have had some questions as to how her family could possibly be crazier than her new wife's.

"Last question and y'all don't need to raise anything for it," concluded Holt, "Are you ladies ready to dance together for the first time as a married couple?"

"Absolutely!" said Elissabat and they both got to their feet. For the first half of the song, we allowed them to have the dance floor to themselves. The second half was when other couples began to join in, including Holt and I.

"Yo, if we ever decide to get married, I want us to play that game," Holt said as we returned to our seats when the song was over.

"Oh, definitely," I agreed at once.

The day following the wedding was when we were due to leave Transylvania and go home. It took awhile for everyone to be ready because some people proved difficult to wake while others had a lot of things they needed to pack up. Eventually, though, we made it onto the bus in a timely fashion.

The trip home wasn't nearly as exciting as the trip there except for one highlight that would never be forgotten: A large turkey hitting the right side of the bus windshield as we were driving. Spectra made sure to get pictures of the cracked window (thankfully no glass made it onto the ground somehow) and post them to her blog. Unfortunately for Jackson and I, we didn't get to actually see the turkey since we were at the back of the bus playing a card game when it happened. It was still funny to see the pictures though, and Spectra somehow got a video of the incident.

We did have to stop and get the windshield repaired which extended the trip by about an hour and a half, though, which was the only downside. After that, though, the two-day trip home went entirely uninterrupted and we made it safely. It was just as peaceful as it had been on the way there, although Jackson hadn't been sleeping very well since the Drystan incident. More than once I'd woken him from a nightmare that had him shaking in his sleep.

"I'm sorry," he would whisper. I replied that he had nothing to apologize for and when he told me what his nightmare had been about it made that much more sense. It usually had to do with having his heart taken out again, though not always by Drystan. "Sometimes it's...this weird guy with brown eyes and shoulder-length hair," he explained, "I don't know who that could be, to tell you the truth. I just...I wish the dreams would stop."

"I know," I said, bringing him closer to me and wrapping my arms around him, "I do too, for your sake."

Jackson's family was there waiting for him when we arrived, overjoyed that he was back. I figured he would probably reveal to them what happened later on, but I left that decision up to him. As we made our way over to where they waited, Jackson smiled. "It's good to be back," he said, and I nodded in agreement.