Page 109 of You’re So Vein

Winnie and Maisie hand out books they’ve already pulled from the shelves. I’m holding a history on vampire and human interactions. As I’m piling a plate high with reading snacks, Irene sweeps dramatically into the room.

“What are you all doing here?” Irene glowers at me. “Champion, remove yourself and your human minions. I require the library.”

“Who are you calling a human minion?” Arabella snaps.

“We’re looking for information about a poison that works on vampires,” Maisie explains without looking up from her tome.

“You’re wasting your time, as no such poison exists,” Irene says.

“I wonder if that’s true,” Augustin says. “My mother, Dulcina, studied the use of poisons in Dusk Court rituals. Plants that are poisonous to humans are important in our magic. It has to do with the death of the human body. If anyone knew about a poison that works on vampires, it would be her.”

I wonder, not for the first time, what it was like to live in a vampire court. They make it sound so alluring – nothing but parties and studying interesting things and doing magic and prancing about a castle in pretty dresses. Vampires get to have all the fun.

“Why don’t you ask her?” Irene snaps.

Augustin purses his lips.

“Exactly. Because it’s an absurd question. Meanwhile, I am doing real work.” Irene picks up one of the books in our stack. “But it amuses me to see you continue with your fruitless search, so by all means.”

“We come bearing sustenance.” Reginald appears at the doorway, carrying a tray piled with more treats, hot chocolate, and glasses of blood for Augustin, Alaric, and Irene. As he steps into the room, a second figure appears in the doorway, carrying a smaller tray.

Hannah.

What’s she doing?

Judging by the beaming smile stretching from ear to ear, exactly what she wants to do. “Who wants a sausage roll, Coronation chicken sandwich, or beef and caramelised onion stuffed Yorkshire pudding?”

“Me!” shout a half-dozen Nevermore Coven members.

“Who are you?” Irene regards Hannah as she accepts a goblet of blood. “You smell… unusual.”

“She’s… er, a friend of my family. Her parents are Thralls at Augustin’s feeding club.” I remember our cover story.

“Yes, that’s right.” Reginald regards me with wry amusement. “Hannah loves to help me in the kitchen.”

“I know all about vampires,” Hannah says. “But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

“Indeed.” Irene sips her drink, watching Hannah as she circles the room, offering her tray to everyone.

Beside me, Augustin trembles with terror, his eyes never leaving her. Reginald regards us both with an apologetic smile. It’s a huge risk, having Hannah in the room with a Conclave member, but Reginald probably couldn’t talk her out of it. Hannah has that effect on people.

They leave without incident. Augustin stares after them, his features an odd mix of wonder and terror. Watching Papa Augustin be all protective does things to my ovaries.

We all go back to our books.

Time passes.

I slump down in my chair as the words swim on the page. In movies, the “let’s go to the library” scene looks cosy and fun, with a group of intrepid mystery solvers laughing as they scour ancient tomes.

In reality, the ancient tomes are heavy. And dusty. And the writing is faded and hard to read. And ancient vampire scribes cannot spell. Maisie’s book is even written in some kind of code, and she has to hold it up to a mirror to understand it. And Augustin keeps meeting my gaze across the room. He looks all smart and put together with his legs crossed and his fancy watch and a book resting lazily in his lap, but his smouldering eyes promise other, more obscene things he’d rather be doing with me than reading, and it’s making it very hard to concentrate—

“Champion Ahuja,” Irene’s voice snaps the tension building between us. “You may be interested in what I’ve found.”

I race to peer over Irene’s shoulder. She holds a book open on a double-page illustration showing a woman with flowing dark hair and a sword raised, holding the hair of a vampire, whose mouth is open in a fanged scream. She looks ferocious.

“This is Angeline,” Irene says. “She is one of the most notorious vampire hunters. And according to this volume, she is Dhampir.”

The rest of the girls crowd around to look at the image. “I didn’t know vampire hunters existed,” Maisie says.