Scout was quiet for a minute.
I knew it wasn’t a great idea to escort a vampire through a sardine can of tasty teenagers. But when did Adepts ever have “great” options? My idea was the better of two crappy options, if you asked me.
“If we don’t help him see her, then we don’t get to control when and how he sees her.”
She rolled her eyes, but finally nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “I don’t like it, but you’re right. When’s your next night of party planning?”
“Every night. Sneak is Friday.”
“Right. We’ll play it that way, then. But I don’t think he’s going to be crazy about playing human.”
“I’m often not crazy about it, either,” I muttered, and we marched back into the room.
Nicu was standing in the middle of Lake Michigan, gazing up on the lakeshore. I bet he’d never been on the lake before. Immortality would be nice, but that would kind of be a bummer.
“We’ll arrange a meeting,” Scout said. “Our time, our place, our rules.” She elbowed me. I guessed I was supposed to break the bad news.
“And you have to pretend to be human.” I fought the urge to duck under his brutal stare.
Fire flashed in his eyes. “I will not do so.”
“Then you will not get our help in meeting Veronica,” Scout said.
He flashed his fangs. “I do not need your help.”
I put a hand on Scout’s arm to keep her from mouthing off. “What she means, Nicu, is that in order to keep everyone’s secrets, well, secret, you’re going to need to play it cool with Veronica. No fangs—if you can turn those things off—and maybe a little less of the I’d-just-as-soon-throttle-you-as-look-at-you vibe.”
He just blinked at me. I wasn’t sure vampires needed to blink, and it seemed scarier because of that. Unnerving, like he was more machine—or monster—than man.
“You will contact me,” he finally said.
“Yes, yes, we will contact you. How do we do that?”
He reached into his coat, and I froze, waiting for him to pull out a musket or a ninja star or a sleek vampire weapon. Instead, he pulled out a small white business card.
He handed it over between two fingers. “Call me,” he said.
And just like that—like we’d only been discussing the weather—he walked past us and out of the room, leaving the faint scent of coppery metal in his wake. The sound of his boots softened as he disappeared into the tunnels. Then we heard the metallic screech and clank as the door opened and shut again, and he was gone.
“That was fun.”
Scout humphed. “Can you imagine dating a vampire? All the fangs and blood and stuff?” She gave a fake shiver, and we were quiet for a moment.
“Still,” I said, “Nicu’s pretty hot.”
“Oh, my God, I am so glad someone else said it. Totally en fuego, isn’t he? I wouldn’t kick him out of my bed for eating crackers.”
I gave her a doubtful look.
“I mean, I’m not saying I’d let him in my bed in the first place—I am not that kind of girl—but I feel like I wouldn’t kick him out again, either.”
“I feel like I’d fight you for him.” We closed up and secured the basement door again, then climbed the stairs to the first floor and peeked into the main building.
The building was better lit and less damp than the tunnels, which was nice, but we still had to be careful. Instead of vampires roaming around we had Foley’s minions—the dragon ladies who roamed the hallways on the lookout for Adepts breaking curfew.
St. Sophia’s had been a Gothic convent, so most of the school still looked like a medieval church. The main building held the administrative wing, the chapel, and a giant circular room topped by a dome. The floor and walls were all stone, and there was a maze built into the stone beneath the dome. It was a really impressive room, but also kind of creepy. It was dark even in the middle of the day, and at night it wasn’t hard to imagine monsters hiding in the corners.
When we were sure the coast was clear, we hustled through the room, and then into the Great Hall. That was our study-room-slash-library. It had tall, stained glass windows and lots of tables where we were forced to spend two hours every night doing homework. (Boarding school was fun!)
It was empty this late at night, so we ran through the hall and then into the dorm building where the suites were located. We went upstairs to our suite, and I unlocked the door with the key I wore around my neck on a ribbon. Every St. Sophia’s girl got one. It was part of the welcome package.
The suite’s common room was dark and empty. The room was round, with the doors to the four bedrooms around one half of the curve—mine was to the right, then Amie’s, Lesley’s, and Scout’s. Lesley’s door was the only one closed. There was no light underneath it, so I assumed she was asleep. Amie’s was dark and wide-open; maybe she was bunking with Veronica or Mary Katherine, whichever girl she wasn’t currently mad at.
Scout looked over at me. “Bedtime?” she whispered.
“Since we have class tomorrow, yeah. I think bedtime would be a good idea. And I hope I have sweet dreams of the firespell I used to have.”
“Like they say, you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.”
We stood there silently for a minute. It was one thing to make a joke, but I did miss my firespell a little, and I hadn’t had my magic nearly as long as she’d had hers. She must have felt the sting even more.
“I guess,” I said. “Sleep good. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Yes, you will.” She walked to the threshold of her room, then looked back at me. “Sometimes our lives are too weird for words, Parker.”
“Like creepy little fairy tales,” I agreed. I just hoped we’d have happy endings, too.
5
I woke up grouchy after dreaming that I’d been trying to run but couldn’t get my feet to move. It was like I was swimming in slow motion and couldn’t get up to speed. I’d needed to escape from something, but my legs had been virtually useless, which pretty much described how I felt about magic right now.
And it was a Monday! Woot.
I pushed the hair from my face and checked the clock. It was after seven, but my small room was still dark and the suite outside my door was quiet. It didn’t sound like anyone else was awake. Outside, I could hear the buzz of cars downtown. The rest of my suite might have been asleep, but Chicago was awake.