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“It’s weird. I remember you biting me this time—but it’s hazy. Like how sometimes you can’t quite remember a dream five minutes after you wake up. If you hadn’t been here with me the whole time and kept me awake, I probably would have forgotten that, too. You’d think being bitten by a vampire would be one of those things that would stick in your memory. You know, stand out from the usual?”
“The forgetting is part of the bite. I don’t know why. Maybe nobody knows why. It’s not like there are scientific explanations for vampires.”
Lucas breathed in deeply, then slowly pushed himself up on his elbows until he was sitting. I braced his shoulder with my free hand, but he shook his head. “I’m okay, I think.”
“Now you know why, when we kiss, sometimes I have to, well, hold back.”
“I understand now.” His smile looked a little funny. “That part is sort of a relief. I was starting to think I needed to switch to a new mouthwash or something.”
I giggled and kissed him on the cheek. “Don’t worry. I didn’t turn you into a vampire.”
“I know. I mean, my heart’s beating. So no vampire.” Lucas took the handkerchief from his pocket and held it to his neck. As he dabbed at the wound, he winced. “I still can’t believe you were born a vampire. I’ve never heard of that.”
“How could you have heard of it before you ever knew that vampires were real?”
“Good point.”
“I’ll never bite you again, unless you ask me to.”
“I believe you.” Lucas laughed, and it was a strange sound—like he was laughing at himself for some reason I didn’t understand. “I believe you completely. Even now.”
I hugged him tightly. For Lucas to say that after he’d learned how I lied to him, well, it was as much as I could ever have asked for.
We bandaged Lucas so neatly that nobody would notice while he wore his uniform shirt, went back downstairs, and just managed to avoid missing curfew. He kissed me easily at the entryway to the guys’ dorm and then walked away, giving no hint that tonight was different from any other.
“You’re acting weird,” Raquel said that night as we brushed our teeth at the sinks. “I know things have been tense with you and Lucas. Is everything okay?”
“We’re great. We kind of had a misunderstanding over the holiday, but everything’s all right now.” What she’d perceived as me “acting weird” had been me trying to angle myself so that Raquel couldn’t see that the toothpaste I was spitting out was pink with Lucas’s blood. “How are you?”
“Me? I’m awesome.” She said it with real relish, which made me stare at her in surprise. Raquel laughed. “Sorry. Now that Erich’s gone, Evernight seems halfway bearable.”
“Really? Listen to you. By next year you’ll be Evernight’s one and only cheerleader.”
“One, if you ever call me a cheerleader again, I will wipe the floor with you,” Raquel said around her toothbrush. “Two, it wouldn’t be very exciting to cheer for a school whose only sports are equestrian events and fencing. Seriously, talk about being stuck in the Dark Ages.”
“More like the early eighteen-hundreds.” I turned off the cold water tap and gave her a smug smile. “And I notice that you didn’t say you wouldn’t come back next year.”
This earned me a wet washcloth thrown at my head, but I managed to duck.
That night, as I lay in bed and Patrice slipped out the window for a late snack, I tried to evaluate how I felt. Once again, I knew that almost mystical closeness to Lucas, but this time it was even better. He knew now; he understood everything. I didn’t have to lie any longer, and that alone was a vast, soaring relief. Nothing else really mattered.
Or so I thought, until the next morning.
I awoke with the same heightened senses I’d felt before. My parents had said that I would get used to the sensations, but I certainly hadn’t yet. I tugged my pillow over my head in a futile attempt to muffle the sound of Genevieve singing madrigals in the shower, the birds cawing outside, and someone downstairs who was already sharpening pencils. The pillowcase felt coarse against my skin, and the smell of Patrice’s nail polish was almost overpowering.
“Do you have to give yourself a pedicure every single day?” I threw back the covers.
Patrice glanced down at my bare feet, which obviously hadn’t been given much attention in a while. “Some of us place a higher priority on hygiene and grooming than others. It’s simply a matter of preference. I try not to look at it as a reflection on anyone’s character.”
“Some people have better things to do than paint their nails,” I retorted. She ignored me and continued brushing burgundy polish onto her little toe.
By the time I got downstairs, I felt like I was getting a handle on my enhanced senses. What worried me more was the suspense about seeing Lucas. Even though he’d asked to be bitten, the wound had to hurt. What if that had scared him off?
He wasn’t waiting for me when I came downstairs. Last term, when we’d been together, he’d usually waited at the entry to the girls’ dorm, backpack over one shoulder, but today, nothing. I shrugged it off and told myself that Lucas had simply overslept again. Sometimes he did, and after the previous night, no doubt he needed his rest.
At lunchtime, I looked for him on the grounds. Lucas was nowhere to be seen. Still, I said nothing to my parents or anyone else. Lucas had said last night that he believed in me, and that meant I had to believe in him. Even when I got to chemistry class and saw that Lucas had skipped, I kept telling myself that I had to have faith.
It was just after class when Vic sidled up to me in the hallway, doing a very poor job of acting casual. “Heya. Remember that time you sneaked into our room?”
