Lock kept petting her until she went back to her normal form. He shifted a little as she set things down for their picnic.

"I've been doing some of the grunt work for Shock," Lock said, "to get on her good side, but...well, I'll cross that grave when I get to it."

He took a ravenous bite out of one of the sandwiches before he continued.

"And Barrel might be eating his way out of the grave, but his cooking speaks for itself."

In the rare times Carmilla and Lillith joined them for dinner, blood pudding was on the menu. And in all of Halloween Town, only the vampires made it better. It was their specialty, of course.

"And speaking of Barrel," Lock continued, "I've also been helping him practice, which is pretty much a full-time job in itself."

Lock's tail twitched as he shoved the rest of the sandwich in his mouth. It wasn't just with drums, either. Part of that included quizzing Barrel on potions when Shock got fed up with tutoring him, not that Lillith needed to know that. Shock even made flashcards - some of which, Carver illustrated out of boredom - that Lock could just use for review. They worked well enough that Lock seriously debated finding a way to put playing the drums in flashcard form.

"He's not dumb," Lock said, "but there are some things he struggles with. Thing is, I can't tell of this is one of those things, or if he just does it to annoy me."

He took a sip of the wine.

"What about you?"