“Everyone ready?” she asked, albeit rhetorically.

“As we’ll ever be,” I replied.

We waved goodbye to Dmitri and the others as we made our way up the ramp. Derek was the last to board, setting the shuttle’s closing mechanism in motion. The ramp shut tight, and the wide cabin was pressurized, the fresh air hissing as it was pumped inside.

The shuttle itself was a marvelous combination of magi-tech, with biological systems embedded into the walls to create a continuous flow of clean and highly oxygenated air, even when there was none on the outside. Greenery sprawled around and above, past the solid glass walls and ceiling, primarily responsible for our ability to breathe.

Sofia and Derek then took their seats in front of the control panel, strapping themselves in. Tristan, Amal, Nethissis, and I occupied the lateral seats, with a good view of what would soon be revealed through the massive windshield.

“My heart is thumping,” Amal murmured, clicking her safety straps in place. I could tell she was nervously excited. Her pulse drummed in my ears.

“Enjoy the cruise!” I said, offering her a broad, stewardess-like smile.

Derek glanced out through the windshield as the light bubble swallowed our shuttle. The interplanetary spell was activated. Nethissis’s eyes darted around the ship. She was as skittish as Amal, and it was downright adorable. Behold, the swamp witch who faced dozens of roiled-up Hermessi and an evil Reaper and lived to tell the tale.

Naturally, I was poking fun because I needed to take my mind off my own sharp edge. Deep down, I was nervous too, but I’d made a name for myself as the brave and composed one of the Vaughns. Tristan’s hand covered mine on the armrest. He knew. When no one else could figure me out, he read me like an open book.

I gave him a half-smile, and he paid me back with a wink, as if to say, “Chill, sis. We’ve got this.”

The takeoff startled us, as the spell bubble lifted the shuttle off the ground and darted upward through The Shade’s protective layer of eternal night. My stomach was tiny, reduced to the size of a pea, but I soaked it all in. The humming of the interplanetary spell. The rumbling of air brushing against it as our speed increased through the sky.

“We’ll be breaching the atmosphere soon,” Derek announced, kicking back in his seat. He didn’t need to take hold of the shuttle until we reached Trexus-2.

Light was filtered through the smoky windshield, but we could still see the sparkling sun as it hugged the world below. The dark blue ocean unraveled beneath, meeting the clear blue sky on the arching horizon. My heart soared along with our shuttle before everything shook to the core. Friction with our planet’s atmosphere was always the bumpy part of the ride, but we moved through, eventually, and the cosmos opened before us.

I found myself in awe of the view. Billions of stars exploded across the pitch-black canvas. The neighboring planets turned slowly under the sun’s amber eye. Mars, with swirls of red and orange. Our moon, a giant pearl on the dark side of Earth, casting its light through the night. Beyond, I could see Jupiter and Neptune rising, titans that had been given the names of ancient gods.

This was the next step in my development, as a vampire and as an explorer. Memories of my brother and me begging our parents to take us on safari trips in West Africa emerged. I could almost see myself back home, in the mirror, scabs still healing on my bony knees, as I put on my Indiana Jones style hat and brown leather satchel, grinning and looking forward to finding ancient artifacts somewhere in the heart of the old continent.

Of course, all I got at the time was a jeep ride through the local plains and jungles, observing lions lounging in the sun, giraffes meandering toward the watering holes, elephants nudging their little ones across the golden fields, and cheetahs racing to catch antelopes that ran like the wind. Years would pass before I’d get my chance at explorations of my own, so I’d had to make do with what my parents had given Tristan and me.

“What’s on your mind?” my brother asked, as the spell bubble shot through space at a gazillion miles per hour.

Inside the shuttle, the temperature and pressure were perfect, and we did not feel the discomfort of being hurled through the galaxy at light-speed. It didn’t seem to make Amal look any better, though. The poor soul was as pale as a sheet of paper, occasionally sipping from a water bottle to keep herself hydrated. I realized then that it wasn’t the actual mission that had made her somewhat skittish. She just really hated flying.

“Our first safari trip.” I chuckled. “Remember that one?”

“Oh… yeah. You were so disappointed,” he replied, the memory glinting in his green eyes. “I loved it, but you were all pouty because we weren’t going to visit any archeological sites or ruins.”

I shrugged. “Meh. There wasn’t that much in those parts of Africa, anyway. Once we got to Egypt when we were fifteen, I got my full dose of archeology.”

“Hey, you were partial to the safari, too. Admit it.”

“I was. Especially when the chimpanzee family stumbled upon our jeep. I have no idea how they found the snack bag as fast as they did.”

Tristan laughed lightly. “Oh, yeah. You were all smiles, fumbling for your phone to snap pictures, while Mom and Dad were shrieking, worried there would be no energy bars left for later.”

“Hey, not my fault I get hangry,” I replied. “But no, you’re right. It was cool. Heck, it was an amazing experience.”

“To be honest, I appreciated our trips together later. With Mom and Dad we were still human, and they were constantly worried about us. Worried that the lions might eat us. That a hyena might steal you in the middle of the night.”

“Good grief, that was funny,” I blurted, doubling over. “Mom used that as a threat, more than once, whenever I wandered off.”

Tristan did a shrill imitation of Mom. It didn’t flatter her, but it was still funny as hell. “Esme Cherie Vaughn! Get your hind back here before the hyenas steal you and eat you!”

It got him a giggle from Nethissis and Amal as well. Sofia and Derek were pretty good at keeping their straight faces, until I thickened my voice and did my dad, next. “Esme, listen to your mother! She knows the hyenas’ diet better than you ever will!”

Now the whole team was laughing. Our parents had always meant well, but they were often overprotective and hilarious in their attempts to shield us from the horrors and dangers of the world.

Derek and Sofia had played a solid part in lowering their resistance to the project. We couldn’t be kept inside the family cocoon anymore. Though we both looked like we were only in our early twenties, Tristan and I had explored almost every corner of the Earth—not to mention several remote locations in the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension.

We were more than ready for this.

“I understand what your father meant by white hairs,” Sofia said once the laughter died down.

Our families had not been as close as I would’ve liked, but the Novaks had had nothing but love for Tristan and me whenever we arranged visits. We’d visit every other week or so, since our families lived on opposite sides of the redwood forest, and our parents had several educational projects that often took them to the Vale.

That gave us the opportunity to hang out with humans a lot, and not just our vampire relatives and friends. I had always loved the Vale, but I’d loved the outside world even more, and so had Tristan.

“We were quite a handful, yes,” Tristan replied. “But not separately, mind you. Esme was a little soldier, and I was the straight-A tyke. It was when we were together that trouble started brewing.”

Derek chuckled. “You coaxed each other into doing stupid things, huh?”

“Well, we considered them to be the brave actions of enterprising young explorers, but yeah, you could say that,” I said, my cheeks hurting already.

“They got used to it eventually.” Tristan leaned back into his chair. “Mom and Dad both realized they couldn’t contain us. So instead, they focused on whatever damage we might cause.”

“Damage? Were you destructive as children?” Amal asked, curiosity painting a faint smile on her face, her white hair braided neatly down her back. Luscious orange scales covered her neck and shoulders, matching her big, round eyes. I remembered then that she’d never had a childhood of her own. Both she and her twin, Amane, had been designed in artificial wombs by Ta’Zan, emerging as full-grown specimens.

I shook my head. “Not really. I mean, it wasn’t that bad.

“We had a habit of wandering off and not telling anyone where we were going,” Tristan explained. “It’s why we were given cellphones at the age of five.”

Sofia lit up, remembering something. “Oh dear. I remember the time you both made it all the way to Sun Beach!”

“And when we found them sleeping outside our treehouse,” Derek added. “They were eight and nine, respectively, wearing their shorts and explorer hats.”

“Those cute little binoculars.” Sofia giggled.

More than once, my brother and I had gotten ourselves lost in The Shade, for it was a giant place for children like us. It had once felt like the entire world to me. We’d never been unsafe or in any kind of danger, though. The people had always found us and brought us back home, to a trembling mother and a white-faced father. After a while, our parents had adjusted, learning not to panic anymore when they didn’t see us around the house.

“Mom had made a list of people to call in case they couldn’t find us,” I said.

Tristan smiled. “She had … what, two hundred names in there?”

I nodded proudly. “One time, she went through all of them before she found us.”

“You were devils. Absolute devils,” Nethissis replied, a grin stretching her lips. “I like you now, more than ever.”