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“Excellent! That means we all got out okay. Total miracle.”
“Where did Ranulf end up?” I asked.
“He’s crashed out in our guest room right now. You want me to grab him?”
“That’s okay. I’m just glad he’s all right.” Lucas and I shared surprised smiles. If Vic knew he’d invited a vampire to come stay in his house, he probably wouldn’t be sleeping so late—if at all. Fortunately Ranulf was too mild to cause anyone harm. “Listen, we have to go. I’ll be in touch, though.”
“Oh, man, I cannot deal with people being cryptic first thing in the morning.” Vic sighed, then said, very quietly, “Call your parents. Just—you need to, all right?”
A lump rose in my throat. “Good-bye, Vic.”
After I hung up, Lucas took my hand. “Like I said, there are ways for you to get in touch if you want to.”
I’d been so frightened for Mom and Dad that I hadn’t stopped to consider how frightened they must’ve been for me.
I must have looked stricken, because Lucas gave me a quick hug. “We’ll get through to them soon. You can write them or something. See, it’s going to be okay.”
“I know. It’s just hard.”
“Yeah.” We kissed—a simple kiss, but the first one we’d shared in any privacy in far too long. In that moment, our exhaustion and worry didn’t hold us back; we were together again, alone again, remembering everything we’d given up to be together—and reveling in it. His arms wrapped tightly around me as he leaned me backward. The whole world felt off balance except him. If I held on to him, I’d never go wrong.
Lucas is mine, I thought. Mine. Nobody can take this away from me.
By the time we reached New York, it was nighttime. When we first saw the Manhattan skyline in the distance, we all whooped and cheered. It looked pretty spectacular. To me, New York was almost more like a mythological place than a real one—it was where all the movies and TV shows happened, and the street names we were supposed to look for as we drove had a magical ring to them: 42nd Street. Broadway.
Then it occurred to me that Manhattan is an island, and I shivered at the thought of having to cross a river again. But instead we drove in through a tunnel, which was fine. For some reason, going beneath the water made a difference. I wished I’d asked my parents why.
We came out of the tunnel practically right in Times Square, which glittered and shone so much that I was dazzled. The others laughed at me, but I could tell they were kind of caught up in the excitement, too.
But it turned out that after a few dozen blocks, Broadway wasn’t so ritzy any longer. The bright lights dimmed, and we drove past apartment building after apartment building, stacks of them looming up around us like walls. The stores changed from posh cosmetics boutiques or family restaurants to 99-cent stores and fast-food joints.
Finally, the caravan turned into a parking garage, one that posted its incredibly expensive prices outside. The attendant waved us through, so we didn’t have to pay. The garage was definitely dirty and out of the way, so its rates were far too high—and sure enough, no other cars seemed to be parked inside.
I glanced at Lucas, who said, “Welcome to New York’s HQ.”
Everyone climbed out of the vans and trucks sort of sluggishly; we hadn’t stopped to stretch our legs on the trip, just a couple of very brief gasoline-and-bathroom breaks after lunch. We were herded into an enormous industrial elevator, which sank downward. The elevator’s walls were dull, scratched steel, and the light overhead flickered fitfully.
Feeling nervous, I took Lucas’s hand. He squeezed my fingers between his. “This part is going to be okay,” he said. “I promise.”
It’s not forever, I reminded myself. This is just until Lucas and I have a chance to make some plans. Soon we’ll be off on our own, and everything will be all right again.
The elevator doors opened to reveal a cavern, and I gasped. The high, curved ceiling was illuminated by strings of those plastic-encased lights construction guys use at worksites. Voices echoed throughout the arched space. I blinked as I made out the silhouettes of people farther away from us. They all seemed to be in a sort of trench that ran throughout the cave—
My eyes adjusted to the gloom, and I realized that this wasn’t a cavern. We were in a subway tunnel.
This tunnel had to have been abandoned for a long time. Flooring of planks or slabs of concrete sat over where the tracks must have been, and I could see a few small footbridges that connected the two platforms on either side of the tunnel. A cracked tile sign on one wall read, in old-fashioned type, Sherman Ave.
At first I was so amazed by our new hideout that I didn’t notice how quiet the rest of the group had become. All of them were standing still, saying nothing. I wasn’t the only one unsure of my welcome, apparently.
A trim Asian woman, a few years older than Kate, walked up to us with two brawny guys—I wanted to call them guards—on either side. Her salt-and-pepper hair was pulled tightly back into a long braid, and every muscle in her arms and legs was cut. “Kate,” she said. “Eduardo. You guys made it, I see.”
“Some greeting,” Eduardo said. “Is everybody else too busy to say hello?”
“Everyone’s too busy to hear your excuse for that ridiculous raid on Evernight,” she snapped. I realized that the people milling about in the distance were deliberately ignoring us.
Eduardo’s eyes blazed. “We had word that the human students were in immediate danger.”
“You had one vampire’s word against two centuries of experience that says the Evernight vampires don’t kill while they’re there. And you used that as an excuse to lead an attack that could’ve cost the lives of as many kids as vampires. The only reason it didn’t is because you got lucky.”
