“No. Something better,” said the ghost.
How long had she been there? It seemed as though she’d always been by my side. We stood together on the grounds of Evernight Academy as dark clouds roiled overhead. Gargoyles glared down at us from the imposing stone towers. The wind blew strands of my dark red hair across my face. A few leaves, caught in the gale, blew through the aquamarine shadow of the ghost. She flinched.
“Where’s Lucas?” Somehow he was supposed to be here, but I couldn’t remember why.
“Inside.”
“I can’t go in there.” It wasn’t that I was afraid. For some reason, it seemed impossible for me to walk inside the school. Then I realized why it was impossible. “This can’t be real. Evernight Academy was burned in a fire. It doesn’t exist now.”
The ghost cocked her head. “When you say ‘now,’ when do you mean?”
“Feet on the floor!”
The shout awakened us every morning. Even as I blinked my eyes, groggily trying to recall the dream that already had begun to slip away, Raquel bounded from her cot, strangely energized. “Come on, Bianca.”
“It’s just breakfast,” I grumbled. Peanut butter on toast wasn’t worth rushing for, in my opinion.
“No, something’s happening.”
Bleary and confused, I stumbled to my feet to see that the Black Cross hunters around me were already on guard. My exhaustion told me that it couldn’t possibly be morning yet. Why had they hauled us out of bed in the middle of the night?
Oh, no.
Dana ran in and yelled, “Confirmed! Arm up, now!”
“The vampires,” Raquel whispered. “They’ve come.”
INSTANTLY THE ENTIRE ROOM SPRANG INTO action. All around me, Black Cross hunters were grabbing crossbows, stakes, and knives. I slid into my jeans, my whole body tense.
There was no way I was joining this fight. None. I might have decided never to become a vampire, but that didn’t mean I was ready to join a crew of vampire-slaughtering zealots. Besides, the vampires coming after us now wouldn’t be the mad killers who gave the undead a bad name. They would be from Ever-night Academy, seeking only what they saw as justice for what happened to the school—and, possibly, trying to save me.
But what if they tried to hurt Lucas? Could I stand by while they attacked the man I loved?
Next to me, Raquel took up a stake with shaky hands. “This is it. We have to be ready.”
“I’m not—I can’t—” How could I explain this to her? I couldn’t.
Lucas emerged from the men’s half of the room, his shirt untucked and his dark gold hair still mussed from sleep. “You two are not getting involved in this,” he said. “You’re not trained.” His eyes met mine, and I knew he understood the other reasons I couldn’t take part.
Raquel looked furious. “What are you talking about? I can fight! Just give me a chance!”
Ignoring her, Lucas grabbed our arms and started towing us toward the back of the warehouse. “You’re both coming with me.”
“The hell I am.” Raquel broke free and ran to the metal door, which banged as she pushed her way through. Lucas swore under his breath as he started after her. I followed them, more in shock than anything else.
Outside, the sky was the flat gray that preceded dawn. Hunters in various states of undress shouted to one another to take position. Knives gleamed in the moonlight, and I heard the creaking and clicking of crossbows being loaded. Kate crouched on the gravel, her arms in front of her like a runner and her head cocked in a way that told me she was relying on her hearing to gauge the risk. I looked out over the field surrounding us—high and unkempt with uncut brush. To most humans, it would have looked entirely still. With my sharper vision, I could see flickers of movement coming closer. We were being surrounded.
“Mom,” Lucas said softly, “somebody should guard Bianca and Raquel in the warehouse. They can’t fight yet, and they’ll be looked at as—traitors, something like that. The vampires would target them.”
From his place at the corner of the lot, a crossbow in his hands, Eduardo said, “Running away now?”
Lucas’s jaw tightened. “I didn’t say I should be the one. But somebody ought to be with them just in case.”
“Just in case the vampires get through? Best way to prevent that is by having all our fighters at the front,” Eduardo shot back. “Unless you’re simply looking for an excuse.”
One of Lucas’s hands balled into a fist, and for a moment I thought he might hit Eduardo. Calling Lucas a coward was manifestly unfair, but this wasn’t the time to argue about it. I put a hand on his arm, trying to calm him.
It was Kate who intervened, though. “Eduardo, can it. Lucas, get them in the warehouse.” She never looked away from the horizon, from the attackers she knew were coming. “We need all three of you to start packing our supplies. Fast as you can.”
Eduardo turned to her. “No way are we running from this, Kate.”
“You like fighting more than you like staying alive,” Kate said, never meeting his eyes. “But I try to think like Patton. I don’t run this group so everyone can die for the cause. I run it so the vampires have to die for theirs.”
The shapes in the brush all rustled as one, moving closer. Lucas tensed, and I realized he could see them in the dark as well as I could. Ever since I’d first drunk his blood, he’d developed the first stirrings of vampiric power. That meant he knew what I knew: We didn’t have much time. Minutes, maybe.
“Raquel, come on,” Lucas said, but she stubbornly remained by Dana’s side, shaking her head.
“This isn’t safe,” I tried. “Please, Raquel, you could be killed.”
Her voice trembled as she answered, but she said only, “I’m done with running.”
Dana set aside the crossbow she’d been loading and faced Raquel. Her entire body seemed to vibrate with energy. She had been the one to spot the vampires, the one who had known about the danger longest—and she was already in battle mode. Yet she spoke gently to Raquel. “Packing up our stuff isn’t running. Okay? It’s something we need to do, because we’re going to have to get out of here, either after the fight or during it.”
“Not if we win,” Raquel began, but stopped when she saw Dana’s expression.
“They know our location now,” Lucas said. “More vampires will come. We’ve got to run. Help us get ready to run. That’s the best thing you can do right now.”
Raquel never looked away from Dana as her face shifted from
