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you must share it with us. I told you this is a difficult story, but we'll make it through together -- the three of us -- I promise you." She turned to Connor. "I promise you both."
    Grace took a breath. "It was Dad," she said. "He was so young and happy." She paused. "He was on the deck of a ship. It was the Nocturne. I saw the sails sparking with light behind him."
    "That's impossible!" Connor said. "Dad was never on the Nocturne."
    Grace shook her head. "No, I'm certain it was him." She turned to Sally. "I think I've figured it out," she said. "Our story, I mean. You were a donor. And our dad, Dexter, he was your vampire partner." Grace glanced at Connor, saw him frown, then faced Sally as she summoned up the words that she knew had the potential to change both twins' lives forever. "Our father was a vampire."
    Sally held Grace's gaze, but before she could respond, Connor jumped up from his seat and cried out. "No! I don't want to hear this!" he snapped. "I don't want or need to hear this. Our dad was a good man. No, Grace -- not a 'good man' like Lorcan or your Vampirate captain. A truly good man. He raised us on his own. He sacrificed everything for us for fourteen years and died way too young."
    Connor stopped and glared at Sally. "How dare you say these things about him!"
    "I didn't say ..." Sally began, but her voice had grown weak again, and besides, Connor was already striding toward the door.
    Sally coughed and reached for more water. "Go after him," she rasped at Grace.
    Grace was torn. "What about you?"
    "Go," Sally said, gathering all the force she could muster. "Bring him back. He needs to hear this as much as you do."
    Her voice might be weak, but her words were strong as steel. Grace ran to the door and chased along the corridor after Connor. He hadn't gotten very far. He was leaning against the wall, his head in his hands.
    "Connor, you have to come back in there with me."
    He twisted his head and glared at her. "I don't have to go anywhere, Grace."
    Grace was insistent. "You need to hear what our mother has to say. We both do."
    Connor shook his head. "It's lies, Grace. A fairy tale." He shook his head. "No, not a fairy tale, more like a horror story."
    "You might not like it, Con, but that doesn't mean it isn't true." She reached out to him, but he shook her off angrily.
    "You're actually asking me to believe that our dad was a vampire?" He shook his head, incredulous.
    "Perhaps," Grace said. "And if that is the case, then we ought to know." She paused, deep in her own spiral of thoughts. "I wonder ... would that make us vampires, too?"
    Connor stared at her openmouthed. "Listen to yourself!" he said. "Grace, you've completely lost your sense of reality. Okay, so the Vampirates rescued you from drowning. They did a good thing there, no question. But that isn't enough for you, is it? No, you have to go and make friends with them! And now you want to be family, too? It's not normal, Grace. It's weird. Deeply, horribly weird."
    "I'll make friends with whomever I choose," Grace said, equally full of fire.
    "Fine," Connor said. "That's your choice." Then he spoke very deliberately. "Our father was not a Vampirate. Dexter Tempest was a kind, normal man with two kids and a job as a lighthouse keeper. Overworked and underpaid."
    "You can keep telling yourself that," said Grace, surprised by her own calm, "but saying it doesn't make it true." She paused. "I haven't lost my sense of reality, Connor. I'm just open to differentrealities. While you've been away, living the pirate life, I've had my eyes opened to the most amazing possibilities -- things I would never have dreamed could be true." Her eyes flashed with fire as she continued. "You've even seen some of these things for yourself! You were there when Mosh Zu healed the captain."
    Connor bristled. "I don't see what that has to do with Dad."
    "Connor, you saw Mother and the other shades rise from the captain's body! Didn't that change your sense of what is