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I frowned. “Swell.”

“Don’t worry about your parents, Sierra,” she said in a soothing voice, like singing a lullaby. “They’ll be all right. They have you. And they have each other. They’re happy. So don’t beat yourself up over something you have absolutely no control over.”

“Hmm.” I looked down at my sandwich, then picked it up again. I was still kind of hungry. Ok, make thatreallyhungry. “So, how was your first week back at the university?”

Her smile faded. “Eventful.”

“What happened?” I asked, then took another bite of my sandwich.

“We’ve had some vandalism. Someone got into one of our labs and smashed things up.”

“Who?”

Bella shook her head. “I don’t know. The vandal took out the cameras and the alarms.”

“Do you think it was a student?”

She sighed. “I think it was vampires. The witches and vampires of the city are caught up in quite a heated dispute at the moment. Harsh words were exchanged. I suspect this is only the next step in the cycle of escalation.”

“It never ceases to amaze me, all the in-fighting in the supernatural world,” I said. “We’ve faced the end of the world together—many times over, in fact—but as soon as the crisisis over, people just scurry back to their own corners and start hurling insults and more at each other.”

“That sounds like something Leda would say.”

“Mom has,” I replied. “Repeatedly. She’s pretty frustrated with people’s bullshit. Why is it when the danger subsides, everyone is so quick to abandon their unity and go back to fighting with one another?”

“It’s just the nature of our universe, I suppose.”

“Yeah, well, our universe sucks. Let’s make a new one.”

Bella chuckled. “You are just as ambitious as your mother, I see.”

“Hey, Sierra,” Eira said, sitting down at our table.

“Hey, twinsie.”

My best friend Eira wasn’t my twin. She wasn’t even my sister. She was actually my aunt, my dad’s little sister. But we were both born on the same day—the same battlefield—so we’d long ago decided that we were twinsies.

“What brings you here?” I asked her.

“Shopping.” She indicated the pile of shopping bags beside her chair. “There’s way better shopping here than in ‘the Palace’.”

“Is that what your parents are calling it now?”

“Dad thinks it’s catchy.” Eira rolled her eyes. “He’s such a dork.”

Bella’s baby screeched.

Eira flinched and gave the baby the side-eye. She pushed her shopping bags out of reach of baby projectiles.

“I still need to find a bikini that will totally freak out my parents. Want to help?” Eira gave her eyebrows a devious up-and-down wiggle.

I hesitated. I was supposed to be having lunch with my aunt. Though shopping with Eira did sound like fun.

“Oh, goodness, look at the time! I really should be getting back to work.” Bella gave us a wise smile, then waved her hand to call the waiter. “You two go on.”

“You’re cooler than other parents,” Eira told her, standing and gathering up her bags.

“I don’t have teenagers yet.” Bella winked.