by Claudia Gray
"You've seen what we're up against." Kate spoke to me more respectfully than before. Anybody who had helped her son was apparently okay in her eyes. She never looked away from the road as she sped over the badly paved streets, steering us into a smaller suburb, one that looked older and fairly run-down. "This is dangerous work, and you're not ready for it, but I realize that we have a responsibility to keep you safe. If that demon Mrs. Bethany realizes that you're helping a member of Black Cross, your life won't be worth a dime."
I'd always known that Mrs. Bethany would do a lot to protect her secrets, but I still couldn't quite believe that she would be willing to kill, much less kill me.
"All that time, all that risk, and what was it for? Because I don't guess you managed to figure out the big secret after all," Kate said to Lucas. "Seems like the kind of thing you would've mentioned in one of your reports, if you had."
Wearily, Lucas shook his head. "I didn't get it. So cut me some slack, okay?"
"Secret?" I wondered if maybe it was something my parents might have mentioned. If I could help Lucas, if there was information I could reveal that wouldn't hurt my parents or Balthazar, I would do it. "What were you trying to find out at Evernight?"
"This is the first year they ever let humans in like regular students. The Black Cross fighter who got in before, the handful of other humans over the years—those were special cases, exceptions the Evernight vampires made to get their hands on a lot of money and avoid attention. Whatever they're up to now is different. They let in at least thirty humans. Why did it change?"
Mrs. Bethany had said that "new students" were allowed into Evernight so that we could get a broader perspective upon the world. In reality, that was the last thing she really wanted. Yes, the students were there to learn more about the world, but Mrs. Bethany had another agenda—and for that agenda, having human students at Evernight was a risk. Raquel understood that something was wrong, if not exactly what, and Lucas's example spoke for itself. The vampires were also forced to hide what they were in one of the few places on earth where they could've expected to relax and be themselves. Only a powerful motive could lead Mrs. Bethany to permit such a thing—but what? "I don't know," I admitted.
"How could you?" Kate shrugged as she took us down a shady lane. The houses on this street all looked shabby, and one or two of them appeared to be abandoned. She pulled into what appeared to be the rear driveway of one of the abandoned buildings, though I realized quickly it wasn't a home. It was an old-fashioned meetinghouse, the kind nearly every town in New England possessed, though nobody had held a meeting here for decades at least. The white paint was chipped and water-stained, and at least half the windows were broken. "Just the fact that you kept your head after you learned about the bloodsuckers is more than most people could manage. Lucas is a pro. If he couldn't figure it out, they buried that secret deep."
"A pro, huh?" Lucas grinned as we got out of the truck. I got the sense that his mother didn't praise him much, but he ate it up when she did.
She nodded, and I saw for the first time that her smile and Lucas's looked a lot alike. "A pro who's already back on the clock, I'm afraid. We've got work to do."
I wondered what she meant by that. "On the clock?"
Kate caught herself. "I don't mean you. Bianca. You've done enough, and I'm always in your debt. Always. Helping Lucas in that slime pit—maybe saving his life—" She smiled at me as we walked to the back door of the meetinghouse. "I'm not going to repay that by sending you into danger. You'll stay here. Stay safe. We'll take care of everything else."
"By 'we' you mean—"
"Black Cross."
With that, Kate turned the key in the lock and tugged the door open. We stepped into darkness, and I felt a queasy shiver of unease, but my eyes adjusted quickly, allowing me to glimpse the scene inside. Almost a dozen people were gathered together in a long, narrow rectangular room with a wooden floor so old the boards had shrunk enough to separate. A few old benches still lined the walls, the wood so soft and old it peeled. Weapons were laid out upon each bench, as if for an inventory: knives, stakes, and even hatchets. The people inside were a motley crew, each as different from the other as they could be: tall and short; fat, skinny, and muscular; dressed in a dozen different kinds of everyday clothes. A tall black girl who looked no older than Lucas wore an oversized hoodie, and she stood next to an old man with short silvery hair who wore a baggy gray cardigan and reading glasses that dangled from a brown cord. The only thing they all had in common was the way each sighed in relief when they recognized Lucas.
Lucas took my hand in his as he said, "Hey, guys."
"You made it." This was the girl in the hoodie, who turned out to have a big smile with one crooked tooth that somehow made her look a little bit sweet. "Not quite finals time, though, unless they're having them in March now."
"I get it, Dana. I didn't make it a whole year, which means you win the bet." Lucas shrugged. "The vampires got my wallet, though, so I'm afraid you'll have to be content with a moral victory."
"Looks like you brought the most important thing." Dana held one of her hands out to me. I wasn't willing to let go of Lucas, but I shook with my left hand. "I'm Dana. Me and Lucas go way back. You must be Bianca."
"How did you hear about me?"
"Like he could talk about anything else all Christmas." Dana laughed. I glanced sideways at Lucas, whose bashful smile made me feel proud and—even in the midst of strangers—sure of myself.
"Oh, is this your young lady?" The gray-haired man beamed at us. "I'm Mr. Watanabe. I've known Lucas since he was—"
"Long enough to embarrass him," interrupted someone else, a tall man with dark hair and a mustache. He unnerved me in some way I found hard to pinpoint, and the twin scars on his right cheek made him look scary even when he smiled. Kate put one arm around him as he stood before us. "I'm Eduardo, Lucas's stepfather."
"Right. Hi. Pleasure to meet you." Lucas had never mentioned a stepfather. Apparently Lucas wasn't eager to admit him as part of the family.
Lucas's smile was thin. "I had to get Bianca out. I know I broke protocol by telling her about Black Cross, but I trust her."
"I hope Lucas's right about you, Bianca." His eyes narrowed, focusing hard on me before darting over to Lucas. Clearly he meant that I better hope Lucas was right. Giving away secrets wasn't something this group took lightly—especially not Eduardo and Kate, who seemed to be the leaders. "We don't have much time for explanations, not if we're about to move."
The others all started talking to Lucas about his narrow escape. I knew I ought to talk to them, too, to help Lucas with the cover story if for no other reason. Yet I remained distracted. My entire life was changing every second, pulling me away so quickly from the world I'd known that I felt a kind of psychological whiplash. And there was even more to it than that. I felt a sort of buzzing so low I couldn't quite find the sound, like a subtle vibration in the earth. Despite the fact that I hadn't eaten in almost a day, my stomach churned. Something was wrong with this place, deeply wrong.
Then I glanced at the wall and saw a shape on the wall where the plaster was brighter than everywhere else, where something had hung for years and blocked the light. It was the shape of a cross.
Too late I realized that this wasn't just an abandoned meetinghouse. Back in earlier centuries, a lot of meeting houses had served another function as well. During the week, they were halls for debate or community functions or sometimes even trials. Then, on Sundays, the meetinghouses became churches.
A church—ugh. Vampires don't burst into flames upon touching a cross, the way horror movies like to suggest, but that doesn't make churches a fun place to be. I felt slightly dizzy and turned my head away from the shape of the cross.
"Bianca?" Lucas's fingers brushed my cheek. "Are you okay?"
"I can't stay here. Is there someplace else I can go?"
"It's not safe for you to be out right now." To my surprise, it was Dana who spoke. "Forget
those Evernight bastards. We've got bad news in town, and she's enough to worry about."
I should've asked who that "bad news" was, or pretended that I had a safe place to go, or something. But the buzzing in my brain was getting stronger—consecrated earth telling me to leave. My reaction was only a pale shadow of what my parents experienced in churches, but it was enough to confuse me and make me weak. "Can't I go back to the hotel? We didn't check out."
"A hotel? Oh, my." Mr. Watanabe looked flustered. "These days, they grow up fast."
"We need to get Bianca to safety." Kate's sharp voice turned even a simple suggestion into a command. "We have to concentrate, and I suspect Lucas can't do that with her here."
"I'm fine." To Lucas, clearly, Kate's comment sounded like criticism. "Bianca helps me think straight. I'm better when I'm with her."
Mr. Watanabe beamed at him. I would have, too, if I hadn't wanted to leave the church so badly. "It's okay," I swore. "You can find me later. I should go back to the hotel."
Eduardo shook his head. "The vampires might have traced you there. We should get you to a safe place. What about your home?"
The simple question knocked the breath out of me. My home—Mom and Dad, my telescope and my Klimt print, old phonograph records and even the gargoyle—seemed like the safest place in the world and the farthest away. I'd rarely felt so lost. "I can't go there."
"If you're worried about a cover story, we can help you with that," Kate said briskly, unwilling to be dissuaded. "We just have to get you to your family. Where are your parents?"
The back door slammed open, venting light and cold air into the room. I jumped, but I was the only one—all the Black Cross fighters, including Lucas, were instantly on guard, weapons in their hands, to face the enemies at the door. The vampires.
Standing in front of them all were Mom and Dad.
Chapter Nineteen
"Bianca!"
My father's voice and Lucas's rang out at the same time, each of them trying to warn me about the other, and I felt as though I were being torn in two. Other people started shouting, words overlapping, and the buzzing in my brain mingled with panic so that I couldn't tell any of the speakers apart.
"Let her go!"
"Get out of here!"
"Step back or you die. That's all there is to it."
"If you try to hurt her—"
"Bianca? Bianca!"
That was Mom. I focused on her and only her. She stood in the doorway, holding out one hand. The sunlight dappled her caramel-colored hair so that she was outlined with a sort of halo. "Come here, sweetheart." She opened her hand so wide that every tendon and muscle tensed, so wide it had to hurt. "Just come here."
"She's not going anywhere." Kate stepped forward so that she stood between us with her hands on her hips. One of her fingers rested on the hilt of the knife in her belt. "You're finished lying to this girl. In fact, I'd say you're finished, period."
"You have ten seconds," my father growled.
"Ten seconds until what? Until you storm inside to finish us all off?" Kate held out her arms, a gesture that took in the entire room—including the faded outline of the cross upon the wall. "You're weaker in a house of God. You know it as well as I do. So go ahead. Run inside. Make it easy for us to finish you off."
All around me, the members of Black Cross were armed. Eduardo wielded a huge knife, and Dana handled an ax like she knew how to use it. Even little Mr. Watanabe held a stake. How could people who seemed so friendly be so instantly ready to kill people I loved? In the doorway, behind my parents, I could see Balthazar's profile. He had accepted his rejection, become my friend, and even risked his life to protect me. He deserved better than this. So did Lucas. It was so clear to me but invisible to everyone else.
"We're not coming in." My father's smile was crooked and strange—the broken nose changed his face somehow. "You're coming out."
"Look out." Lucas put one hand on my arm, but he obviously wasn't talking to me. What had he seen?
Instantly Balthazar shouldered a crossbow, moving swiftly, giving my mom just time enough to flick a silver lighter next to the arrow. Then a bolt of fire zoomed through the room, shimmering with light and heat, before striking the wall—which instantly burst into flame.
Fire. One of the only things that can kill us—one of the only things we all fear. And yet Balthazar kept going, shooting arrow after arrow into the church, not aiming at any of the ducking and dodging members of Black Cross or anywhere in particular, just setting the place ablaze. My mother stayed by his side, creating every fireburst with her lighter and never flinching. An arrow shattered the light fixture above us, sending thin shards of glass spraying out in every direction and the burning point thudding deep into the ceiling. All around us, the old, dry tinder of the meetinghouse flared immediately into a conflagration. Already dark smoke had begun to obscure everything.
"Run!" Kate shouted, turning toward the wide front doors, which Mr. Watanabe was opening even then. But when the doors swung open, others were waiting: Mrs. Bethany, Professor Iwerebon, Mr. Yee, and some of the other teachers stood in a dark, forbidding line. None of them brandished weapons; they didn't have to in order to make the threat clear.
"Hang on!" Dana threw down her ax and grabbed what looked like a Super Soaker. "We're gonna give these bastards a shower!"
"Holy water?" Mrs. Bethany called over the crackling of the flames. I couldn't see her very well, not with my eyes stinging from acrid smoke, but I could imagine the sneer on her face. "Useless. You could soak us in every fountain in every church in Christendom and it would do no good."
"Most priests can't make holy water," Eduardo agreed. Disturbingly, he sounded like he was enjoying this. "Most preachers of any faith aren't true servants of God. But those servants do exist—as you're about to find out."
Dana squeezed the trigger and sent a jet of water toward the teachers. Mr. Yee and Professor Iwerebon immediately yelled and fell back, as if they had been sprayed with acid.
"That's it!" Kate cried. But even as Dana fired again, the next jet of water failed to make its mark. The air was growing so hot that the water was evaporating right away.
The timbers overhead creaked ominously. I could hear Professor Iwerebon shouting in pain and Mr. Watanabe coughing hard from the smoke. The floorboards beneath my feet were beginning to feel hot. I no longer wondered which side would die; I wondered if we all would.
"I'll go!" I cried. "I'm going out!"
"Bianca, don't!" Lucas's face was painted in firelight, red and gold. "You can't go!"
"If I don't go, you'll die. All of you. I won't do that."
Our eyes met. I had never imagined saying good-bye to Lucas before; it had seemed like there couldn't be a good-bye, not for us. He wasn't just part of my life—he was part of me. Leaving him was like cutting off my own hand, sawing through sinew and bone, bloody and horrible and terrifying.
But for Lucas, I could do anything that had to be done. That meant I could even do this.
"No," Lucas whispered, his voice almost inaudible above the crackling of the flames. The Black Cross group were edging toward the center of the room, creating a circle of defense. "There's got to be another way."
I shook my head. "There's not. You know it as well as I do. Lucas, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
He took one step toward me, and I wanted to fling myself into his arms and hold him at least once more. If I did that, though, I knew I'd never be able to let go. For both our sakes, I had to be strong.
"I love you," I said, and then I turned and ran toward my parents.
My father's hand closed around my arm as he and my mother pulled me outside. The door swung shut behind us. "Bianca!" Mom embraced me tightly, and I realized that she was crying. Her body shook with each sob. "My baby, oh, my baby, we didn't think we'd ever see you again."
"I'm sorry." I hugged her back while grabbing my father's hand in one of mine. I could see his bruised, black-eyed face over her shoulder. Instead o
f the anger or hurt I'd imagined, there was only relief in his eyes. "I love you both so much."
"Honey, are you okay?" Dad said.
"I'm fine, I promise. Just let them go. Please. For me. Let them go."
My parents both nodded, and if Balthazar disagreed, he didn't say so out loud. We all made our way toward the front of the meetinghouse. Thick smoke from the ceiling billowed upward in a dark, coiling pillar. A driver in her car on the nearby street was already shouting into her cell phone. The fire engines would be here soon.
As we stepped onto the sidewalk, the three of us still huddled together with Balthazar following closely, Mrs. Bethany hurried toward us, her long black skirt flapping behind her. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "Guard the back! Don't let them out!"
