“You know what,” Lucy said as the doorsopened. “I have to go to the bathroom first. Do you want to comewith me?”
There was something in Lucy’s eyes thatcaused Melanie to hesitate before saying she would go ahead andmeet Lucy in the cafeteria. Instead, she replied. “Sure.”
Melanie returned to the bathroom with her andwatched as Lucy checked all the shower stalls before walking aroundto the bathroom's toilet side. She leaned against a sink while Lucywalked into one of the stalls.
She came back out and closed the door.Melanie frowned while Lucy pushed open the other bathroom doorsbefore returning to the first stall and flushing the toilet. Whenshe came back out, she turned on the sink and leaned against itwhile she faced Melanie.
“What do you think about Kyle?”shesigned.
“Why are we here for this if there are nocameras in my room?”Melanie asked.
“Because if we spent too much time in yourroom, they would come for us. This will buy us a little more time.What do you think about Kyle?”
“Everything I know about him has to be alie, Lucy. Vampires can’t go out in the daytime, and they don’thave families. They don’t work jobs, and they don’t pay rent. Hetricked me into believing all those things about him, but I have noidea why.”
“Exactly;whywould he do that?They can manipulate people’s minds, but they usually do it so theycan kill their victims,notget closer to them. So why wouldhe do that when he never hurt you or me?”
Melanie pondered this before shrugging andsigning faster as her irritation grew. She already had enoughdoubts and questions without Lucy heaping more onto her.“Maybehe was playing some kind of sick game with us.”
“Or maybe not. Maybe everything webelieved we knew about him, minus the vampirism, is true, andthey’re the ones lying to us.”
“Even if that is true, and let’s face it,we know these assholes aren’t honest with us, Kyle still lied to meabout this.”
Lucy turned the water off and claspedMelanie’s hands. She leaned forward to peer into Melanie’s eyesbefore releasing her. Her hands flew through her next words as shefrantically tried to get everything out.
“I’m not saying it’s not a possibility.However, we’ve never trusted anyone here; why would you trust themnow?”
Melanie lifted her hands to reply, but theyfell back to her side. She couldn’t think of an answer. Instead,she gazed helplessly at her friend.
“Do you remember your interrogation?”Lucy asked.
“Bits and pieces,”Melanieanswered.
“What did you tell them aboutKyle?”
“I don’t know,”she admitted andburied a wave of shame over this pathetic answer.“Everything;nothing. I don’t know.”
“So, if he has siblings, then Cassidy andJulian are also vampires as well as Dante and Aida. If you toldthem about his siblings, then they’ll go after them too. Did youtell them about them?”
The blood drained from Melanie’s face, andshe had to grip the sink to keep from falling over. Had she toldthem about Kyle’s family? She honestly couldn’t remember.
Were they his family? Or had Melaniecondemned people she liked, or at least she thought she liked them,to a lifetime of despair? Did she like them? Were they evenreal?
Melanie shook her head to clear it of herdoubts. She was tired of feeling confused, exhausted, drugged, andlost. So tired of doubting everything she’d been so sure about onlythree short weeks ago.
“I don’t know, Lucy. I don’t remember whatI revealed. What did you tell them?”
“I don’t know,”Lucy admitted.“ButI think if we revealed anything, then they would have gone afterhis family. I think they would be here too, and they’re not. Maybe,somehow, we managed to keep that detail to ourselves.”
“I doubt it,”Melanie admitted.“I’m sure I spilled everything.”
“Me too.”
“So maybe his family cleared out once theyrealized Kyle was missing.”
“I hope so.”
“You don’t think they’remonsters?”
