Lucas pulled out one of his stakes, but lazily, and he simply turned it around in his hand. “This is a place where new vampires come to hunt. People who come to the park long after dark—especially up here, this far from the carriage rides or the zoo or the track—usually do it for stupid reasons.”

“What do you mean, stupid?”

“Drug dealers. Prostitutes. Guys getting drunk. Or people trying to rob all of the above.” Lucas shrugged. “Occasionally it’s more innocent than that. It might be some homeless man looking for a place to lay his head or a couple on a stroll. Or a guy who thinks he can save on cab fare by cutting through the park. Regardless, they all make pretty easy pickings for bloodsuckers.”

I looked up at the ring of tall buildings around the park, like a ring of light that seemed to hover above the border of trees. It was weird to think that there could be a vampire hunting ground in the middle of so much activity and noise. “So why is it only new vampires who come here?”

“Because the ones with any experience know Black Cross will be on patrol.”

That made sense. “So how do we start?”

“We follow the humans.” Lucas started walking along the edge of the park, his eyes scanning the horizon. “Keep ’em safe. See if anybody of the undead persuasion takes an interest.”

Any vampires we find here really will be trying to attack people, I thought uncomfortably. There wouldn’t be much chance for me to warn the innocent, or much reason either.

I wished I could’ve talked to my parents about all this. Really talked, not the half-truths we’d too often told each other. Their lies still hurt me deeply, but I couldn’t be as angry with them any longer. I missed them too much.

Then an idea hit me, sudden and—in my opinion—brilliant.

At first I opened my mouth to blurt it out to Lucas; I felt certain he would approve. But I also knew that what I was about to suggest was against the rules. Better not to make Lucas break his promises. I’d take this responsibility myself. Luckily, I had a few bucks on hand, not much, but enough for what I needed to do.

Casually, I said, “I’m hungry.”

“Oh. Okay.” Lucas looked uncertain. “Well, I guess there’s squirrels and stuff around here.”

“Yeah.” I honestly did need more blood than I’d been getting, and my mouth watered a bit at the thought of it. But that was secondary to what I really had on my mind. “I’ll just grab something, I guess. If it’s okay for me to leave you for a second—”

“We’re gonna be on patrol until about two A.M.,” Lucas said.

“We can take quick breaks if we have to.”

“Be right back.”

On tiptoe, I kissed his cheek, then walked away. Once I knew I was out of sight, I left the park and walked into the city itself. The crush of traffic—honking horns and car alarms—was slightly overwhelming, but I had a mission. I’d thought I might not be able to find what I sought, but New York was a city big enough to supply any need. Sure enough, within a couple of blocks, I saw the sign I was looking for: INTERNET CAFÉ.

Once I was inside, I signed into my e-mail account. The dozens of boldface new messages at the top of the screen startled me, and the names of the senders seemed to lash me, one by one: Dad. Mom. Vic. Balthazar. Ranulf, who had apparently figured out enough about modern life to get a gmail account. Even Patrice, my sophomore-year roommate, the one I thought didn’t care about anybody but herself, had reached out to check on me.

If I began reading those e-mails, I knew I’d start to cry. Instead I opened up a new message, addressing it to my parents at their Evernight Academy account, the only one they had.

Mom and Dad,

I’m sorry it took me so long to get in touch with you. This is honestly the first chance I’ve had to tell you that I’m okay. I know my running off like that had to scare you, and I wish there had been another way.

Had there been another way? Could I have chosen something else? I didn’t know anymore.

I’m with Lucas. The people in Black Cross don’t know the truth about me, so I’m safe for now. Soon we’ll leave and set out on our own. He loves me and will take care of me no matter what.

I know things weren’t right with us before we left. For however much of that was my fault, I’m sorry. And if we could talk sometime soon—really talk, without more lies and secrets—I’d be so happy. I miss you guys more than I ever knew I could.

Now I was in danger of crying anyway. Blinking fast, I concluded:

Please let Balthazar and Patrice know that I’m all right. I’ll write again sometime soon.

I love you both.

That wasn’t all that needed to be said, not by a long shot, but I knew this wasn’t the time to say it.

Blinking fast, I hit Send.

After I logged out and left, I wanted to run straight to Lucas’s arms. Instead, I decided to grab a couple of pigeons first. In the darkness of the park, nobody would see me.

Besides, I thought, you have one advantage. You’ll be the only vampire there who knows where all the hunters are.

It wasn’t that comforting.

But the night passed without incident. Other hunters kept coming by to check on Lucas and me, so we didn’t get much privacy; that was disappointing. Still, I’d finally had plenty to eat, so I felt more reassured as we went back to HQ at three in the morning, exhausted despite not having seen another vampire the whole time. But as soon as we walked in, we learned that the Black Cross cell was on alert.

“That’s not lockdown, is it?” I asked Lucas.

“No, but they’ll be watching us.” He clasped my hand as we walked deeper into the tunnel. Everyone seemed to be awake, and the lights remained on. The lieutenants on watch that night were talking animatedly to Eliza, who didn’t look thrilled.

“What is it?” Raquel asked, nervously fiddling with the tawny leather bracelet she always wore. “Did something go wrong with our hunt?”

“Five boring hours in the park? That’s not the crisis.” Dana’s eyes were narrow as she studied the uneasy crowd. She had a crossbow slung over one shoulder, and she rubbed Raquel’s back absently, trying to settle her down. “Sure would like to know what it is.”

Eliza overheard our whispers and turned toward us. Traffic overhead made the ceiling shiver a bit, and the strings of lights swayed back and forth, casting her lined face in shadow, then in light. “We might have vampires staking this place out.”

Raquel brightened—like that was good news, not reason to freak. “You think they’re going to try to come down here and take us on?”

“They wouldn’t dare,” Eliza replied, with a proud toss of her braid. “But somebody might be watching.”

Mrs. Bethany, I thought with a shiver. She would get revenge for the damage to Evernight Academy if there were any way possible. “Why do you think that?”

“We keep finding dead birds near the building. Like something’s killing them. At first we were making jokes about bird flu, but today Milos checked out the corpses, and sure enough, they’d been drained of blood. We’ve got a vamp around here, and we’ll all be watching the roof and the nearby area to get a glimpse of our visitor. Then we’ll ask a few questions of our own.”

Lucas and I shared a glance. No vampires were watching the HQ; I had left the birds. Why hadn’t I thrown them away more carefully? I had tried, but there hadn’t been many options.

From this moment on, my blood supply was cut off—and that meant our time to plan our escape was running out.

Chapter Five

THAT NIGHT, AS I TRIED TO GO TO SLEEP, I KEPT telling myself, You have five days. You were able to last that long without blood when you first left Evernight Academy. That means you can last that long again.

Besides, Black Cross has put me on patrols. I’ll be able to get out, nearly every day, and surely I’ll have chances to eat then. Everything will be okay.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

First of all, my hunger for blood had grown. I’d spent only a month in Black Cross, but my body was continuing to change. The vampire inside me was growing stronger as the human grew weaker.

After I had drunk Lucas’s blood for the first time, my mother had warned me: You’ve turned over the hourglass. What she meant was that my vampire nature had been awakened by the taste of living human blood. Where, before, I’d been a mostly normal teenage girl—albeit one who drank a glass of O positive with her dinner—I wasn’t so normal anymore.

My hearing had become so acute that I could hear people whispering several car cabins down from mine and Raquel’s. My skin had become so pale that a couple of people had remarked on it, though mostly jokingly, like Dana saying that this was what happened when white people tried to live underground. Occasionally the Black Cross patrols crossed the East River bridges to guard areas in Brooklyn or Queens; the mere thought of crossing running water made me nauseated. I felt grateful that the makeshift bathroom in Black Cross headquarters had no mirror, because I suspected my reflection was beginning to fade.

My parents had warned me what happened to vampires who didn’t drink blood. Their appearances continued to change, warping until they looked like the monsters of legend: white, bony creatures whose fingernails jutted out almost like claws. Their hair fell out. Constant hunger caused their fangs to show at all times. Worst of all was the madness; when vampires truly hit the point of blood starvation, their minds went. Instead of behaving more or less like human beings, they became like wild animals, immune to conscience or restraint. Even a good vampire could become a killer if deprived of blood for that long.

Yeah, this is how your parents get you to clean your plate when you’re a baby vampire. The old stories were definitely scary enough to get me to drink my whole glass of O positive back in the day. Now that childhood horror had returned as I wondered every day, Can that happen to me, even though I’m not a full vampire yet? How am I different? How am I the same? How am I supposed to go on, not knowing?

Even while out on the Black Cross patrols I didn’t have a chance to eat. Time and again, I was partnered with people other than Lucas; night after night, we went to locations that offered me no chance to hunt for food. I was never forced to see a vampire being murdered, which was a small mercy, but by this time I was hungry enough to become selfish. I only wanted to drink, and I couldn’t.

Within five days I was desperate. That was the night Lucas and I finally got to patrol together again.

“We have got to come back here once we get some free time again,” Dana said as our group began patrol. The June heat radiated up from the streets, even though it was twilight; sweat beaded the small of my back. “Because this looks like a good place to party.”

All around us were nightclubs and bars—some of which looked seedy to me, while the others looked sleek and expensive. There didn’t seem to be much middle ground. “I think I’d get carded.”

“Slap some makeup on you and Raquel, and y’all would be set,” Dana insisted. “Hey, are you all right?”

“Just tired. They had me do the climbing wall twice today.”

Dana thumped my shoulder. “They’re making you tough.”

Lucas glanced at our leader for the night—it was Milos, one of Eliza’s lieutenants, a rangy guy with white-blond hair and beard. He said to Milos, “I’d like to take Bianca along the east side of our zone. Okay?”

Please say yes, please say yes. Lucas can help me get something to eat, I know he can—

“Suit yourselves,” Milos said. His smile had a knowing quality—almost a smirk—but I didn’t care. Let him think we were sneaking off to make out. I only wished we had that kind of luxury.

Some of the others murmured and giggled, but nobody stopped us as I took Lucas’s hand and we walked together into the dark.