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decided to take matters into his own hands.”
    My mind flashes back to the dive-bombing fairies, with flaming swords, slamming into my mother, hitting her square in the chest. She crumples to the ground, writhing in pain.
    “Is Mom ...” I trail off, not being able to vocalize my greatest fear. A large lump wells up in my throat and tears blur my vision. “I mean, is she ... ?”
    Heather reaches out and touches my arm. “She’s alive,” she assures me. “It’s very hard to kill a fairy, unless you wield weapons of iron. Something other fairies can’t touch.”
    Relief washes over me like a tidal wave. My mother and I have had our moments, that’s for sure, but at the end of the day, she’s like my best friend and I love her to death. If anything were to happen to her ...
    I shake my head. I can’t even think that way. “So where is she then?” I demand. “I need to talk to her!”
    “That won’t be possible. She and your dad surrendered to the fairies and were escorted back to fairyland.”
    Horror slams into my gut and I feel like I’ve had the wind knocked out of me. “Wh-why would they do that?” I cry.
    Heather gives me a steely look. “To buy me enough time to scurry you two away.” She glances over at the other bed and I suddenly realize the lump under the blankets must be my sister.
    On cue, Sunny sits up with a start. “Where am I?” she cries, looking around, her tear-stained face white with fear.
    Heather gestures for her to cross the room over to my bed. “They call this place Riverdale,” she explains. “Hidden deep in a remote valley, nestled within a large mountain range in the Alps, only a handful of people know of its existence.”
    I stare at her, shocked beyond belief. Not only are we not in Vegas anymore, we’re not even in the United States? That pixie dust crap must have knocked me the hell out.
    “It’s a type of boarding school,” Heather continues as Sunny joins us on the bed. “Run by an international affiliate of Slayer Inc. Here, they prepare teenagers to become slayers. Assassins who police otherworld creatures who don’t follow the rules.” She looks over at me pointedly. “But you know all about that, right, Rayne?”
    Well, that answers the question on whether she knows I’m a slayer. But does she know about my other ... condition ... as well? I mean, Slayer Inc. vice president Teifert does, but he swore to secrecy. (Seeing as not everyone in the organization would be pleased about having a vampire-vampire slayer on the payroll.)
    I decide it’s best not to ask, just in case.
    “A school for slayers?” Sunny pipes in. “What about that whole ‘once a generation is born a girl destined to slay vampires’ thingie?”
    “Yeah, that would make for a pretty small graduating class,” I add.
    Heather chuckles. “The ‘once a generation’ thing was a pretty idea, but a totally outdated methodology for all practical purposes,” she explains. “The otherworld has grown exponentially over the years—with new vampires, werewolves, fairies, and other creatures that fall under Slayer Inc.’s policing jurisdiction. Obviously it’s not realistic to rely on only one slayer for all that. So they introduced slayer charter schools to train multiple potentials.”
    “Hang on,” I interrupt. “I never went to any sort of school.”
    “We do things a little bit differently in America,” Heather explains. “Our VP of operations, Charles Teifert, prefers to train his slayers one-on-one.”
    “So then why did you bring us here?” Sunny demands. “Why are we at a school for slayers now?”
    Heather looks surprised at her question. “Because it’s the best place to hide you from the fairies,” she explains. “Until your parents are able to work things out.”
    I open my mouth to object, but at that moment a knock sounds on the door. “Come in,” Heather invites and a moment later a big, burly guy with arms full of boxes enters the room.
    “These are the