bet we can learn a lot from you.” Eliza clapped her hands together. “Okay, the rest of you guys, we’ve set up bunks at the far end of the track. They’ll do for now. Newbies, follow me.”
Follow her where? I shot Lucas a worried glance, but he obviously didn’t know any more about it than I did. When Eliza stalked off, Raquel went with her, and I didn’t have much choice but to go along.
“Are we starting our training already?” Raquel said, as the three of us walked farther along the subway platform.
“Eager, aren’t you?” From the sound of her voice, Eliza apparently didn’t think Raquel would be so eager once she saw what was in store. “Nah, you’ve had a big day. You can start in the morning.”
We got to the end of the platform, and Eliza led us into what had obviously been a service corridor. It smelled of mud and rust, and I could hear water dripping in the distance. A small yellow sign informed me this place could serve as a nuclear fallout shelter. Good to know.
I asked, “So where are we going? Why aren’t we with the others?”
“We have some permanent cabins set up in here. They’re not luxurious, but they beat the hell out of the bunks the rest of your cell is taking. You’ll be living with us, twenty-four/ seven.”
“Why do we get those?” I nearly stumbled over the broken, uneven cement beneath us, but Raquel caught my elbow. “Why aren’t those for Kate and Eduardo?” I wondered if it was because Eduardo was in the doghouse and their shoddy housing was punishment. It was unfair to punish Lucas, Dana, and the others for Eduardo’s mistake.
Instead, Eliza said, “You guys are new to the routine. You don’t know the life, and we don’t know you. Living in close quarters is a good way to make sure you learn all about us, and we learn all about you.”
Finding opportunities to drink blood would be even harder in this environment. If I didn’t drink blood often enough, I’d react more strongly to sunlight, to running water, to churches—and every reaction had the potential to mark me as a vampire.
How was I supposed to keep my secret?
THAT NIGHT AFTER LIGHTS OUT, RAQUEL WHISpered, “The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?”
I knew what she meant. A week ago, she and I had been roommates at Evernight Academy. Now everything else in our life had been transformed, but we were still sleeping in beds that were side by side. And I guess this counted as a bed.
We’d been given a room like no other I had ever seen. Apparently, when the engineers had abandoned this subway tunnel, they’d also abandoned a few old train cars. The Black Cross cell had refitted those to serve as cabins. Our bunks sat on top of what had once been the seats, and steel poles ran from the floor to the ceiling, like we were at stripper boot camp or something. Raquel and I had about a third of a car to ourselves, with a makeshift metal wall to give us privacy on one end and the back of the car on the other.
“I miss having your collages on the walls,” I said. The windows on the sides of the car had been whitewashed, but they were blank and cold. “And my telescope. And our books and our clothes—”
“That’s just stuff.” Raquel propped herself up on one elbow. Her short dark hair stuck out in all directions, and if I’d been feeling any less forlorn, I might’ve teased her about it. “What matters is that we’re finally doing something important. Vampires have screwed up both our lives, and ghosts—I’m not even going there. Now we can strike back. That’s worth the sacrifice.”
I knew I didn’t dare trust Raquel with the truth, but I wanted her to understand a little of what I was really feeling. In a small voice, I said, “My parents took good care of me.”
Raquel said nothing. I’d caught her off guard, and I could tell she didn’t know what to think.
“And Balthazar—he was kind to me. To both of us.” I thought that might help convince her.
Instead, she sat up straight, energized by anger so immediate that it shocked me. “Listen, Bianca. I won’t pretend to understand what you’ve been through. I thought I’d had it rough, but finding out the people you thought were your parents were really vampires—that’s the worst.”
I had to let her go on believing that, so I remained silent.
She continued, “They kind of brainwashed you, okay? You’re going to keep making excuses for them for a long time. But the fact is, they screwed you over. Balthazar played their mind games right along with the rest of them. So wake up. Get your head straight. We aren’t kids anymore. We discovered that there’s a war on, and our place is here with the soldiers.”
Raquel was so absolute. So sure. I could only nod mutely.
“Okay,” she said. When she burrowed under her blanket, I figured our conversation was over for the night. It’s not like there was anything else I could share with her anyway. Then, very softly, she added, “I’ll make us a collage sometime soon.”
I smiled and hugged my pillow. “Something pretty. This place could use some pretty.”
“I was thinking more fearsome and wicked,” she said. “We’ll see.”
During the next couple of weeks, every day seemed to be exactly like the one before it and the next to come.
Lights came on at some crazy early hour of the morning. I didn’t know what time it was exactly, because we didn’t have clocks or cell phones. But I could tell from the way my whole body protested that it was too early for me.
Everybody got ready superfast. Basically, I hardly had time to do more than rinse myself off in the showers. And these were communal showers, too—like my worst gym class nightmare—but everybody was so businesslike and quick that I didn’t have much chance to feel self-conscious. Then we changed into our workout clothes and headed to their makeshift exercise area.
And stayed there. For hours.
Not everybody had to stay put, of course. The Black Cross people from New York, whose names were hardly more than a blur (ZackElenaReneeHawkinsAnjuliNathan), trained in the mornings, then set out on patrols after the night shift came in. They had maps of New York City up in the patrol area, with different routes marked out. Somebody was watching virtually every neighborhood of the city day and night. I knew that Lucas, Dana, and the others from our group were sometimes on those patrols, but not me and Raquel. No, we were expected to become fighters or die trying.
Me, I might’ve been happy to die trying. Dying seemed easier than trying to do a chin-up, much less five of them like they wanted.
“Come on, Olivier.” My trainer for the day, a red-haired woman named Colleen, held my feet as I struggled through my sit-ups. “Go for sixty.”
“Sixty?” My face was flushed, and I felt like I might vomit at any second. I’d just done forty. “I can’t.”
“You can’t until you can. Push for it.”
Sure enough, within a couple weeks, I could do
