I scream. Raina screams. Grampire looks at us like we’re idiots.

  “Cut out all that racket,” she snarls, congealed blood flying from her lips and landing at my feet. The smell is overwhelming, even as a human: iron, adrenaline, Grampire’s sticky sweet smell multiplied by a thousand. I don’t know what to do. My body wants to head for the hills, but my brain knows I have nowhere else to go. And my heart still wants to believe this is all a misunderstanding.

  “She’s slaughtered another victim, just like me!” Raina cries. “You’ll be next, Malia!”

  “Can it, poltergeist,” Grampire growls. She looks at me, red eyes blazing, but I’m frozen in place, shaking head to toe. I want to believe Grampire wouldn’t, but—the smell of blood is overwhelming, I—

  “I’ll protect you!” Raina opens her mouth wide, wider, wider than humanly possible. Dense, cold fog billows out of her dark maw and rolls over the living room. Ice creeps up the walls in sheets, and when I blink, the fog fills my vision. It’s white, freezing clouds as far as I can see.

  “Oh, you fucker,” Grampire’s faint voice spits. “I knew I should’ve—kid! Whatever she shows you, it’s not real. Just keep still ‘til I find ya.”

  My heart hammers in my chest. Do I want Grampire to find me? Better question: do I want the strange, terrifying poltergeist to find me first? No! My body is shaking, on the cusp of transformation. It’s no longer a suggestion; the danger is here and I need to defend myself. I pull my clothes off before I burst through them, but my phone clatters to the ground in my haste. A low laugh hums over my head.

  “There you are! Lost you for a minute, child.” Raina’s face appears over me, contorted with impossible proportions, mouth still stretched open in a horrible grin.

  I squeak in fear as my body slips into wolf form. My vision worsens significantly in the fog, but my nose and ears sharpen, and the fur protects me better from the cold.

  “Please leave me alone,” I beg.

  “Kid!” Grampire’s voice calls from somewhere to my left. “Follow my voice!”

  “Can you risk that?” Raina taunts me. “You should run while you still have a chance. Run away and never come back.” The ghost clears away some of the fog, and shows me a straight shot to the open front door. Grampire says something, but it ends in a violent coughing fit. My tail is between my legs and a whimper escapes my throat. I don’t know what to do. If I leave, I’ll escape the ghost-turned-poltergeist. But I can’t leave Grampire to fight a violent spirit by herself! Not that I’m any help, but—

  Raina leans close to me, her face inches from mine. Hers contorts into a mask of a blue-eyed monster, a demonic Halloween horror with horns and black spikes on the edge of her face. She grins, her teeth black and broken, jagged and sharp.

  “Leave this place,” Raina growls.

  I almost follow her instructions, but my muscles are locked up. I recognize this mask; my dad wore it one Halloween when I was six and jumped out of a closet to scare me. I was inconsolable the rest of the night. But this isn’t a cheap mask—it’s real. And it’s changing before my eyes: first the demon, then a childhood bully, then Uncle Alder in his wolf form, towering over me, his eyes blazing blue instead of yellow, but with no less contempt. I press my belly to the cold floor, terror robbing me of all rational thought. I have to go. I have to get away from him. I have to—

  A sudden burst of light illuminates the room. I blink, the spell broken, and Raina hisses at the glow. She retreats, and some of the fog and mental terror clears away. I crawl to the light—it’s my phone. I glance at my screen filled with a text from Fern.

  Fern: Phyllis isn’t Grampire. This is just some old white lady who died in the 60s.

  Fern sends me a picture and I blink again. It’s a black and white photo of a white woman laughing and holding the hand of a little boy and leaning on a jovial-looking man with a beer gut and thick mustache. I recognize her immediately. The woman in the picture is the ghost.

  I look up at the apparition, her demon mask no longer that scary. “Wait…I thought you said your name was Raina?”

  The ghost hesitates, the frigid temperature of the room rising a fraction. “It is!”

  I stand up straight, my tail relaxing. “No, it isn’t. Your name’s Phyllis! I saw your stuff in the first bedroom upstairs.”

  Raina—Phyllis, I mean—shrinks in size and turns human again. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. My name is Raina, I was killed by a vampire, this was my family’s hotel—”

  “Like hell it was,” Grampire bellows from somewhere close by. “You were a customer and you didn’t own shit.”

  Phyllis seems to wilt. Her mouth returns to normal and her bright blue eyes dull closer to a human color. “You’re no fun.”

  Fun?? This was terrifying, not fun. The fog thins, and the dark shape of Grampire comes into view. She hurries to us, still coughing white clouds out of her lungs. “Damned ghost. You alright, kid?”

  I nod. “I’m okay.”

  “Good.” Grampire smacks the back of my head, not hard, but hard enough to smear congealed blood on my fur. I cry out in horror and Grampire grimaces at me. “That’s for not listening to me when I said don’t talk to strangers.”

  “I didn’t know ghosts counted!”

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  Grampire ignores me and glares at the sulking poltergeist. Almost all the fog is gone, and she’s back to her normal ghostly form. “And you better get ready for an exorcism.”

  Phyllis glares at Grampire. “You can’t even hold a Bible in those hideous claws. Good luck, nightstalker.”

  I look back and forth between Grampire, who has a murderous look on her face, and Phyllis, who’s sneering arrogantly at Grampire.

  “Wait,” I tell Grampire. “She didn’t hurt us. She was just messing around.”

  “Yeah, in my house.”

  “It’s actually mine,” Phyllis sniffs. “Before you came and killed me and my family while we slept.”

  “Oh, that’s the story this week?” Grampire turns to me, her eyes half closed in intense annoyance. “That clown died because she got drunk at a New Year’s party and broke her neck falling down the stairs. Been a pain in my neck ever since.”

  I look at Phyllis, but based on how she’s sulking, that’s true. “Why did you try to trick me?”

  “I was here first,” Phyllis whines. “Do you know how unpleasant it is to have a peaceful afterlife and then you come home one day to a vampire in your living room?”

  “I’ve known this land for longer than you were alive and dead,” Grampire growls. “And everyone knows once you die, you don’t own anything. I have half a mind to dump all your old junk into the river.”

  Phyllis throws up her hands. “See?! I live in a hostile environment. You can’t blame me for wanting the blood sucker gone.”

  Grampire snorts with displeasure. “Like I care what a dead, clumsy drama queen has to say.”

  “Well, I don’t want to look at a glorified squatter!”

  They argue back and forth for a while. It’s kind of cute. Grampire is clearly furious, but she hasn’t called an exorcist yet, so I guess she just puts up with poltergeist antics every Thursday. Phyllis seems like a powerful ghost, but she didn’t hurt me. Scared me to death (and used my memories against me, which is disturbing), but I’m fine. Maybe…maybe this is an opportunity.

  “Phyllis,” I interrupt Grampire’s tirade about arrogant undead. “Why do you want us to leave?”

  “I mean, have you seen the place? It’s a wreck!” Phyllis huffs. “And then you come in here and move all my stuff. So rude.”

  Grampire rolls her eyes, but I try to give her a look that says let me do the talking. Surprisingly, she glances at me and stays quiet.

  “I’m sorry I touched your things,” I say. “But we’re in the process of cleaning up to hopefully restore the hotel. We’ll have a ton of guests when we’re done!”

  “I never agreed to that,” Grampire grumbles, but I ignore her.

  Phyllis’s eyes round with shock, and then she glances at the cluttered living room. “Well, it would be nice to see the old girl up and running again…”

  “If we fix everything up, can you let us live here without any more evil fog and scary memories?”

  Phyllis waffles, so I continue.

  “You could even play pranks on the guests when they get here?”

  Phyllis brightens. “Oh, that’s an idea. You do get tired of seeing this ugly mug’s insecurities every week.”

  Grampire flips her off and Phyllis returns the favor. But she seems a lot happier. Her ghostly form is sort of glowing, like a dim lightbulb. Her eyes are still bright blue, but softer.

  “This is great! I need to get prepared for the guests…oh, I haven’t washed linens in forever…” Phyllis wanders away, floating into the kitchen.

  “Fucking ghost,” Grampire mutters as she disappears from view. “Been giving me a headache for damn near fifty years. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine,” I assure Grampire, but her words stick in my brain. “Wait, Phyllis has been here for longer than you?”

  “On earth? No. But in the hotel, unfortunately.”

  “Do you think she’d know if there was a sorcerer nearby?”

  Grampire lifts her eyebrows. “Good thinking. Hey, poltergeist.”

  “What?” Phyllis reappears in front of us, her arms folded. “I have better things to do than talk to you.”

  “Trust me, I feel the same,” Grampire snarls. She nods at me. “This is for the kid. She’s got a curse that needs removing. Know anyone?”

  Phyllis looks up at the ceiling and makes a “hmm” noise. “A few years back, I heard a powerful sorcerer moved into town. But I think they’ve since moved on.”

  “Oh.” My tail droops and Grampire pats my back sympathetically.

  “However,” Phyllis continues, “I can sense a powerful concentration of magic close by. You get sensitive to that kind of thing when you die.”

  “Where?” I ask, my ears perking.

  Phyllis turns and points to the glass doors that lead to the backyard. “In that direction, toward the forest. I bet that’s where the sorcerer has moved in the years since.”

  Grampire and I exchange a look, mine excited and hers impressed. Finally, a lead! And to think a sorcerer was so close and we didn’t even realize it. Looks like we’re having another field trip soon.

  “Thank you so much, Phyllis! The curse has been—”

  “I don’t have time to listen to this,” Phyllis says, cutting me off. “I have to prepare for guests! So much to do. Goodbye.”

  I watch in disbelief as Phyllis pops out of existence.

  Grampire shakes her head wearily as the temperature of the room slowly warms. “What a night. Can’t believe you tamed that nightmare.”

  I smile best I can with my wolf teeth. “See, I told you we don’t have to fight all the time.” That reminds me of Grampire’s bloodstained nightdress, which has now frozen and blood flecks off in a horrible imitation of red snow. “Umm…why are you covered in blood?”

  Grampire sighs again. “I had to eat. I was getting hateful.”

  Oh, of course! I haven’t seen her drink blood once since I got here. Still…I glance at the pile of bones by the armchair. “Did you bring anything back?”

  “Oh yeah.” Grampire goes outside and comes back clutching a greasy brown paper sack. My tail wags furiously without my consent. Grampire grins for the first time all night. “Managed to convince the night shift at Burger King to feed me and you.”

  Yay!! The scent of greasy meat and rubbery potatoes fills my nose. I long to shove my snout in and chow down, but I need to know about the bones first. “What about you? Do you bring the, umm, corpses back?”

  Grampire blinks, then laughs. “That idiot ghost really got in your head, huh? Vampires, at least the ones with any sense, don’t kill people. Hypnotize ‘em and while they’re stoned, bite. Gets messy, but they don’t remember a thing.” Grampire nods at the bone pile. “Those were there when I got here. I just piled them up one day when I was bored.”

  My tail speeds up its wagging. I don’t know why I even doubted Grampire. She’s a terrifying creature, but somehow, I knew she wasn’t dangerous. At least, not to me.

  Grampire shuffles to her chair and collapses in it. “Eat up, kid. I’m taking a nap.”

  “Don’t you need to wash the blood off?”

  “What did I say? Leave me alone, we gotta go wizard hunting again tomorrow.” Grampire closes her eyes and in seconds, she’s snoring.

  I happily dig into my Burger King fries. My tail sweeps dust onto the air, but today I don’t care. My belly is full for once, I made a new ghost friend (and think of the marketing we can do with a legitimately haunted hotel!), we finally have another lead into getting this awful curse removed, and layer by thin layer, I’m learning more about Grampire. So far, I love what I’m finding.

  I finish my meal and lie on my side on Grampire’s favorite rug, content. I almost fall asleep, but then Phyllis’s booming voice calls from upstairs, “When are you going to finish cleaning up in here, Malia? You can throw away more of the Bonecrusher’s stuff to make way for mine.”

  Grampire’s eyes fly open and find me. “You did what while I was gone?”

  I wince, ears back in sheepish appeasement, but I feel like smiling. My tail thumps against the floor as I get ready to convince Grampire not to kill me. But for once, my body isn’t really worried it’ll happen. Despite living with a terrifying vampire, I’m confident I’ll live to see another day in Grampire’s wacky hotel.

  “Umm…I can explain!”