Damiano could not settle. They'd had a great practice, done some social media stuff and then had a delicious lunch, but now that he had a little time to himself, he didn't seem to be able to decide what to do. He'd taken to picking up the random things they had strewn around the living room and putting them where they were supposed to be. It wasn't exactly thrilling, but it was mindless and let him zone out.

"Damiano, please sit down, you're driving me crazy just watching you," Victoria complained as she caught him at it for the third time.

"I can't," he replied.

Possibly more than a little exasperated at himself. It must have shown because Victoria put her hands on her hips and gave him a thoughtful stare.

"Something on your mind?" she asked.

"No," he told her, perfectly honestly, "if there was I'd tell you. I just ..." He tried to explain it and came up empty. "I really don't know," he concluded.

"If you're turning into a house-proud nonna at twenty two, I might have to put you out of your misery for your own sake," Victoria said with a shake of her head and a smile.

"I would welcome the release," he replied in kind, even as he straightened a pile of books that had accumulated on the coffee table.

"If I help, will that make it better?" she asked.

"Maybe?" was the best he could do.

"What I do for you," she said and started by picking up a soda can that had been forgotten between the couch and the armchair.

Damiano appreciated the companionship and gave up trying to figure out the whys of any of it. They had just about everything straight when the doorbell rang.

"Are we expecting anyone?" Victoria asked.

"Not that I know of," Damiano replied, but then his phone beeped at the same time Victoria's did.

He pulled it out and looked at the notification.

"It's Leo," he said and headed towards the front door.

He checked through the spy hole just in case, but it was indeed the Magistra standing on their doorstep.

"Hi," he said as he pulled the door open.

"Good afternoon," Leo replied, "sorry to call unannounced, but I was in the area and I just had some news you should hear."

"Come in," Damiano invited, stepping out of the way. "I'll call the others."

He went to the stairs and called up to where he knew Thomas and Ethan were both in their rooms while Victoria and Leo exchanged greetings.

"Tea or coffee?" Damiano offered as he turned back.

"Tea would be great, thanks," Leo replied.

Damiano headed into the kitchen and grabbed them all a drink, just guessing what the others would like while they spoke to Leo in the living room. He returned with a tray to find everyone still standing up, talking about nothing in the awkward transition between arriving and becoming comfortable.

"Shall we sit?" he asked, putting the tray down on the table.

He passed Leo his tea and was quietly pleased as the others grabbed what he had brought them off the tray. They all seemed content, so he had guessed right. Picking up his ice water, he chose somewhere to sit.

"So what brings you to see us?" Victoria asked as they all settled into seats.

"I thought you would all like to know that your case is now officially closed," Leo replied. "We finished the investigation yesterday and the report went before the committee today and was approved. Since it concerns you, a copy will be made available if you wish to see it."

"Did you turn up anything except Tera was a psycho bitch who decided it would be fun to try and wreck our lives?" Thomas asked bluntly.

"Nothing significant," Leo replied, and Damiano thought the Magistra had expected that kind of response. "We did find evidence of exactly what she had planned for all of you since she kept a journal, but no more."

"So she wanted us for more than just pointing and killing?" Damiano found himself asking, even though he was really of a similar mind to Thomas.

"Yes, her plans were quite detailed," Leo replied, "and completely insane."

"The last was a given," Victoria commented.

Damiano was curious, but he didn't think he'd ask for a copy of the report. Sometimes it was best not to know. They all had enough horror to deal with, without going into detail.

"With everything approved, that means the other formalities can be dealt with," Leo added.

"What other formalities?" Damiano asked.

"Tera's estate mostly," Leo replied.

"But didn't I read that anything a rogue vampire has is seized by the community for expenses?" Ethan asked.

Damiano realised he had apparently not been reading the same part of the archive as Ethan, or that might just have been that Ethan had read more.

"The forensic accountants are working on that," Leo replied with a nod, "and everything she accumulated since she became a rogue will be seized, but that does not apply to her holdings from before she became what she was at the end."

"Seems like a weird differentiation," Victoria said. "Why wouldn't the community seize that straight away?"

"I believe it stems from the hope that one day rogues may be reclaimed," Leo said with a shrug. "Sometimes it is hard to discern the origins of some of our laws."

"Hell, that's true of human laws too," Thomas commented.

"Our ancestors have a lot to answer for," Damiano agreed.

"A universal truth," Leo said with a small smile. "Anyway, so I have the name of the accountants and solicitors for you."

Damiano frowned at the sudden subject jump.

"Why?" Victoria asked and he was glad he wasn't the only one confused.

"Well they'll need to talk to you all about how our systems work. Given that we live so long we tend to have two official existences, the one for the human world and the one for our own community," Leo explained. "The accountants will be able to handle it all for you."

"But we only really exist in the human world at the moment," Victoria said, "and it's going to be like that for years."

"But Tera's estate is handled via the community," Leo replied.

"What's that got to do with us?" Damiano asked because he wasn't following.

He saw the light dawn in Leo's eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I haven't explained very well. Because Tera made no preparations before she went rogue and cannot be considered of sound mind when she died, her estate is to be divided between all her surviving vampire children. There are only six and you are four of them. One of the others is a rogue and hence disqualified from inheriting, and the other was last seen in Tebet over one hundred years ago. There is information she is still alive, but not where. A portion of the estate will be held in trust for her, but the rest is yours."

"I'm guessing since you mentioned accountants, we're not just talking about a cat and an old stamp collection," Victoria said.

"Ah, no," Leo replied with a small smile. "I don't know the details, but I seem to remember she had a house in Rome and an estate in the countryside. She was once a very influential member of our community. The accountants will be able to tell you more."

"Holy fuck," Thomas said and Damiano could only agree.

Their lives just kept getting weirder

In the end Leo stayed another fifteen minutes or so, answering their questions and giving them the information for their new accountants.

"Did we just go to sleep one day and wake up in an alternate dimension?" Victoria asked after they had seen their guest out and sent off a message to the accountants to ask for a joint phone call.

"I can't think of any other reason we've gotten to this point," Damiano replied, flopping down on the couch next to her.

"It's that or we're in The Matrix and someone hit scramble," Thomas agreed.

"Or someone slipped us LSD," Ethan added.

"Argh," Victoria said, "why do I want to throw things?"

Damiano looped an arm around her and pulled her close.

"Because any mention of the she bitch makes us all feel like that," he assured her, kissing her forehead.

"This is good right?" Thomas said. "We're getting a headstart on the whole vampire side of things."

"But it still feels ... I dunno ... dirty?" Damiano added.

"Contaminated," Ethan said, expressing what Damiano was feeling perfectly.

No matter what, every time anyone brought up Tera, all he could see were those teeth coming towards him. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and pushed his darker thoughts away.

"Table tennis?" he asked hopefully, because he knew he wouldn't be able to concentrate enough to sing anything properly, but he needed to do something energetic.

"Yeah," Victoria said, pushing off him and standing up. "We can figure out the rest of this shit later."

She grabbed his hand and pulled him up beside her with a show of strength that would have astounded him a few weeks ago. Now it made him smile.

"Last one out there gets the wrecked bat," Thomas yelled and ran for it.

They were all still experimenting with the whole vampire thing, but that was now very, very fast. Damiano did not want the bat with the cracked and taped handle that may or may not have been his fault for being overenthusiastic, so he chased almost instantly.

"Hey!" Victoria shrieked when Ethan beat her to it as well, and the race was on.

If Damiano ended up on his back on the grass with Victoria sitting on top of him to try and exchange the decent bat he had grabbed with the knackered one, he wasn't complaining.