LITMIR.BIZ

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      “So,” I said, trying to keep my voice playful, “besides spending more time in my fascinating company, why did you come back? I know that’s not what you’d planned.”

      “No offense, but even your fascinating company wasn’t enough to change my mind.” Raquel rolled over onto her belly, so that we were facing each other again. Her dark hair was cut even shorter than last year; at least she’d had a barber do it so that it looked good, even a little bit punk. “I told my parents I wanted to try somewhere else. Maybe live with my grandparents in Houston, go to school there. They didn’t want to hear it. Evernight’s ‘private’ and ‘exclusive,’ and that should be enough for me, they said.”

      “Even learning about—about Erich—”

      Raquel’s mouth twisted into a scowl. “They said he was probably just trying to flirt with me. They said I was too standoffish with guys, and I had to learn to ‘like somebody back.’”

      I stared at her, aghast. Erich hadn’t been some overzealous would-be boyfriend. He had been a vampire intent on stalking and killing her. Raquel didn’t know that, but she’d understood that he was dangerous. If I’d told my parents that somebody had scared me half as badly as Erich had scared her, my father would have held me tightly until I felt safe again, and my mother would’ve probably taken a baseball bat to whomever had dared threaten her little girl. Raquel’s parents had laughed at her and sent her back to this place she hated.

      “I’m sorry,” I said.

      She shrugged one shoulder. “I should’ve realized they wouldn’t listen. They never have. Even when I—”

      “When what?”

      Raquel didn’t answer. Instead, she shoved herself into a sitting position and pointed accusingly at the wall behind me. “So, are we stuck with the Klimt?”

      I’d hung my print above my bed. The Kiss was so important to me that I’d forgotten Raquel had never seen it before. “What? You don’t like it?”

      “Bianca, that picture is so cliché. You can get it, like, on fridge magnets and coffee mugs and stuff.”

      “I don’t care.” Maybe it’s stupid to like something just because everyone else likes it, but if you ask me, it’s even stupider to dislike something because everyone else likes it. “It’s beautiful, and it’s one of my favorite things, and it’s in my half of the room. So nyah.”

      “I might paint my side of the room black,” Raquel threatened.

      “That wouldn’t be too bad.” I imagined putting glow-in-the-dark stars upon the walls and ceiling, just the way my room had been when I was little. “That would be great, actually. Too bad Mrs. Bethany wouldn’t let us get away with it.”

      “Who says she’d object? They’ve done everything else to make this place as creepy as possible. Why not black paint all over everything?”

      I got the mental picture of the school’s stone towers in shining black—which was pretty much all it needed to go straight to Dracula’s castle territory. “Even the bathrooms. Even the gargoyles. I didn’t think we could make Evernight any scarier, but we could, couldn’t we?”

      “It would still be better than being home.” Raquel’s eyes were strange as she said this—so weary that for a moment she looked older in spirit than the vampires who had surrounded us at the assembly.

      I wanted to ask her more about what had happened with her parents, but I didn’t know how. As I tried to find the words, Raquel briskly said, “C’mon and help me put away this crap.”

      “What crap?”

      “My stuff.”

      “Oh,” I said, nodding as we got to our feet and headed toward her boxes and duffel bag in the corner. “That crap.”

      After we’d gotten her bed made and her few things situated, Raquel wanted to take a nap. Her parents weren’t wealthy, like most of the families of human students at Evernight; instead of being driven to the front door in a luxury sedan, she’d had to catch a bus from Boston before dawn, make a couple of transfers, and then wait for a cab to bring her up here. She was completely wiped and had fallen asleep even before I’d gotten done lacing up my shoes to go outside.

      Raquel is here on scholarship, I thought. That means Mrs. Bethany is actually paying for her to attend this school. Why would she do that?

       All the human students are here for a reason, and Raquel proves it’s not money. But what is it? Is Raquel somehow even more important than the rest?

      More questions, still no answers.

      I strolled onto the grounds to see how much Evernight had changed, now that the other students were here. The humans were talking to one another eagerly, making new friends, while the vampires watched them, languid and disdainful.

      My stomach growled. It was nearly lunchtime. I hoped I was the only vampire thinking about food while we were looking at the humans, but I probably wasn’t.

      “Yo, Binks!”

      Nobody had ever called me “Binks” before in my life, but I knew who it had to be even before I recognized the voice. “Vic!”

      Vic was loping toward me across the grounds, a big grin on his face. As usual, he’d made a few adjustments to the Evernight uniform; instead of the school colors, his tie was decorated with a hand-painted hula girl, and his beloved Phillies cap was on his head. We ran into each other’s arms, laughing, and he spun me around so that my feet didn’t touch the ground.

      By the time he dropped me, I was dizzy but still smiling. “Did you have a good summer? I got your pictures from Buenos Aires, but then I didn’t hear from you.”

      “After all the seaside fun, I was put to work. Woodson Enterprises has a summer internship program, and Dad was all, You need to learn the ropes of the family business. But when you’re an intern? You’re not learning any ropes. You’re learning how people like their coffee. I spent the rest of the summer trying to remember who wanted a hot chai soy latte. Seriously lame. Were you stuck here the whole time?”

      “We spent the Fourth of July in D.C. Mostly my mother dragged us around to monuments and stuff. But the Natural History Museum was pretty cool—they had some meteorites on display that you could actually touch—”

      Vic’s hand stole toward the pocket of my skirt. I pretended not to notice the envelope he held. My heart started beating faster.

      “Well, it was fun. At least I got to be away from this place for one week of the summer, because as boring as it is during the year, it’s even worse when you’re here practically all alone.” I was babbling, paying no attention to what I was saying. “I went down to Riverton on the weekends sometimes but that’s pretty much it. Um, yeah.”

      “We gotta catch up later.” Vic obviously understood that I couldn’t think about anything right now besides the item he’d just tucked into my pocket. “You want to meet up after dinner? You can meet my new roommate. He seems pretty cool.”

      “Okay, sure.” I would’ve agreed if Vic suggested we get together to shave our heads. Adrenaline coursed through me, making me giddy. “Meet up right here?”

      “You got it.”

      Without another word, I ran away from him, heading straight for the cast-iron gazebo at the edge of the grounds. Fortunately, none of the other students were in there yet, which meant I still had it to myself.

      I went up the steps and settled onto one of the benches. The thick canopy of ivy leaves overhead sheltered me from the sunlight as I reached into my pocket and withdrew what Vic had tucked there—a small white envelope, addressed only with my name.

      For the first second, I couldn’t open it. I could only stare down at the handwriting I remembered so well. The letter had been sent to me through Vic, by

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