Damiano's nose twitched and a familiar scent dragged him back to consciousness. He opened one eye to find Victoria holding out one of the little cartons.

"Thought that might drag you back to us," she said, and gave him a smile.

It was a toss up whether he started crying or accepted the offering, and for a change hunger managed to trump wayward emotion.

"Thanks," he said and several pairs of hands helped him sit up.

He accepted the carton as soon as he was in a position to do so.

He had apparently been lying on the couch which had been pushed against the wall, and he found himself bracketed by Victoria on one side and Ethan on the other as soon as he was no longer lying down. Thomas sat on the floor in front of him. There was a lot of touching going on. Not that he was complaining. It felt like back when they had all first woken up at the hospital.

The candles were all out and the curtains were open. It was once again a ridiculously cheerful sunny day, which made everything that had happened feel even more surreal. When Victoria nudged him, Damiano remembered the blood carton and took a sip. There were four discarded ones on the coffee table, so he knew he wasn't the only one to have partaken.

"How are you feeling?" Sofia asked.

"A bit spacey," he replied.

"Understandable," Sofia said. "It will probably take a few hours for your metaphysical self to resettle."

"It was when I dreamed about her, wasn't it," he said, because he had to know, "that's when she got into my head?"

"That was when she chose to attack you and lost the first time. She would have had to use the connection between you to transfer the moment her body died," Sofia replied. "I am so sorry, I had no idea she would be capable of such a thing. I believe Tera may have been far older than she led the community to believe when she settled in Italy."

"Then you couldn't have known," Damiano said.

He didn't blame Sofia for her instinct of guilt, he had the same one, but he was refusing to give in to it. He felt cleansed, even if his thoughts were all over the place, and apportioning blame was not going to help anyone.

"I should have checked," Sofia insisted.

"How old does a vampire have to be to be able to do what she did?" Victoria asked.

"It has only been documented twice," Sofia replied, "more legend than fact. The vampires involved were both reported to be several thousand years old."

"Totally not your fault then," Thomas said, and Damiano was glad they were all on the same page.

"Do the legends say what happened to the others?" he asked, because he found himself morbidly fascinated.

"In one case it was a mutual decision," Sofia replied. "A husband and wife, the husband was killed by hunters and somehow transferred to his wife's body. They co-existed as two beings in one shell from then on."

"What happened to them?" Victoria asked.

"That is not documented," Sofia said. "They may still be alive somewhere. Very old vampires do not always reveal themselves, pretending to be much younger than they are. In that, Tera would not have been alone. I just cannot believe I never realised it."

"You trusted her," Ethan said simply.

"What about the other one?" Damiano asked.

"The older vampire's personality instantly obliterated that of their child," Sofia replied. "They continued using the new body until they were once again defeated, and that time precautions were taken to prevent it happening again."

"Then why did she fail?" Damiano asked, because he couldn't understand it.

Sofia gave them all a quiet smile.

"Together you are positively remarkable," she said. "I was amazed when you three boys called Victoria back, igniting enough resistance within her to fight off Tera's influence. I did not tell you at the time, because I did not wish to unsettle you further than you already were, but, given the direct access Tera had to Victoria, that should not have been possible. When she attempted to take over Damiano, the bond between you all meant she could not usurp his personality and her power went mostly dormant."

"What gave her so much power today?" Thomas asked.

"The metaphysical can be very unpredictable," Sofia told them. "Just the focus on Tera and her estate reignited her essence. From what you have all told me, I believe she was then using Damiano's subconscious to fuel her strength and deplete his, however, I have no doubt you would have prevailed, even without my aid."

"That's not how it felt," Damiano said.

"Trust me on this," she replied.

When she said it like that, Damiano had no choice. He had a feeling there was something she wasn't saying, but he did trust her, and he was too tired to worry about it.

They talked some more, but about less monumental things. It wasn't long before Damiano found his head drooping. He hadn't had any decent sleep the night before and everything that had happened had really taken it out of him. When he almost fell asleep on Ethan's shoulder, Ethan put a cushion on his lap and urged Damiano to lie back down. He dropped off with his head in Ethan's lap, his legs over Victoria and a hand on Thomas' shoulder.

He dreamed. Tera was there, only she wasn't the twisted creature they had all met. She had the same face, the same build, only when she smiled it was without cruelty, and the glisten of madness was not in her eyes. She waved at him, nodded her head and faded away into nothing.

"Good luck, My Child," her voice whispered as she disappeared and Damiano relaxed into uninterrupted slumber.

~*~

"What exactly are you doing?" Victoria asked, just as Damiano looked down at his phone to see if he could work out what to do with the apparently myriad strands of hair he currently had in his hands.

"Trying to recreate the amazing hair Ethan had in his fantasy outfit," Damiano replied.

He had found a Youtube tutorial with almost the exact same style from the dreamscape, and Ethan had said yes when he asked, so he was going for it. Ethan was sitting on the floor in front of the couch, placidly scrolling on his phone as Damiano failed spectacularly.

"Why?" Victoria asked.

"Because we felt like it," Damiano said, giving her a look as Ethan made a small snorting sound. "Okay, I felt like it and Ethan didn't run away."

If he was honest, he wasn't quite sure where the fit of madness had come from, but it was feeding into his need to touch, and Ethan seemed to be enjoying it, so he wasn't arguing.

After everything that had happened, Sofia had stayed the night in Thomas' room, since it was one they hadn't used since the last bedding change. Then she'd spent a good percentage of the next day with them, making sure they were all doing alright and didn't have any lingering metaphysical effects from what they had done. She had left them after making them promise they would call immediately if they needed anything.

That had been the previous day and Damiano was all too aware he was in a weird mood, but it didn't feel bad. He found himself not wanting to be out of proximity of the others for more than a few minutes at a time, and if he could touch it settled him even more. Ever since they had forced Tera out, he felt cleansed, but slightly off balance. Like he was adjusting and needed time to get used to a new state of being.

When he touched Victoria or Thomas or Ethan he could sense their energy and it helped him maintain the sense of rightness at his core. It wasn't that he feared being without them, more that being with them comforted him. He knew he was adapting pretty quickly and settling back to normal, but Sofia had had a quiet word when she noticed him trying to resist the impulses and told him not to, so he was taking her advice.

"I hate to break it to you," Victoria said, "but that does not look anything like the braid you are going for."

"I know," Damiano said with a put upon sigh and released the hair he was holding. "The tutorial makes it look so easy."

Victoria sat down beside him on the sofa.

"Maybe with two pairs of hands?" she suggested.

Damiano grinned and picked up his phone to show her the video he was watching.

"No pulling," was Ethan's only input, even as Damiano left Victoria to watch the tutorial while he brushed out the drummer's hair to start again.

~*~

It was a lovely evening and they had decanted to the garden to enjoy the fresh air and setting sun. Damiano and Victoria had claimed one lounger between them, with Chili as an added extra, while Thomas and Ethan had claimed another. Ethan had his hair up in a messy bun because while Damiano and Victoria had had fun earlier in the day, they had managed to prove that some things Youtube made look easy, actually took lots of practice.

Everything was very relaxed and calm and Damiano felt incredibly peaceful.

The incident with Tera had given them some closure and kickstarted their need to get back to work. After talking to their management it was being arranged and they weren't going to have much longer to enjoy the solitude of their countryside retreat. Damiano was looking forward to jumping back in whenever they were given the go.

"I've been thinking," he said, mostly because it felt like the right time.

"Uh-oh," Thomas commented, "do we need to worry."

Damiano stuck his tongue out at his bandmate in a completely mature reaction.

"For your information, I've come to a conclusion that I thought I'd share," he said, giving Chili a head rub while he spoke.

He paused for dramatic effect.

"Which is?" Thomas asked, rising to the bait.

Damiano scored himself a virtual point for making Thomas ask and grinned.

"I'm bi," he said. "My taste in men seems to be very specific, but I'm definitely bi."

"Congratulations," Victoria said and gave him a smile and a pat on the leg, "welcome to the bi-side."

"Cool," Ethan agreed.

"Damn, that means I'm the only one still confused," Thomas moaned.

"You don't have to label anything if you don't want to," Ethan pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm supposed to be the cool, sure one," Thomas complained, "where Damiano is the confusing, flighty one. This is not the way round it is supposed to be."

Damiano made a scoffing sound.

"I'm supposed to confuse other people, not myself," he countered.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that," Thomas replied with a laugh.

Throwing one of the scatter cushions they had brought from the lounge seemed like the only valid response to that. Of course that resulted in a cushion war between all four of them. Even Chili got in on the act, running off with one that was almost as big as she was.