Evernight With Bonus Materials

by Claudia Gray

  Once inside, I recovered a little of my dignity by getting dressed again. My clothes were now dry, if rumpled. I loosened the braid I’d slept in, and my hair fell down around my face in soft waves. Not much of a hairstyling trick, but that was what they’d relied on in the seventeenth century. With a pang, I remembered my mom showing me. “Let’s go.”

  Lucas shot me a look as we went out the door, perhaps trying to evaluate how I was holding up. Kate might be fooled by my false bravado, but he knew me better than that. I lifted my chin proudly, so that he’d know I was determined to make the best of our increasingly odd situation.

  Kate led us to a battered old pickup truck from the 1950s, one with faded aqua paint and headlights shaped like the engines of the starship Enterprise. The whole time we got in, she kept looking around us, scanning every single passerby. “Do you guys think you were followed? The teachers can’t look kindly on runaways.”

  “They didn’t get as far as Riverton, not before we left,” I said hastily as I scooted into the center and Lucas got in beside me. “The running water stopped them.”

  She froze that second, with one hand on the keys in the ignition. She stared at Lucas, not the usual upset-mom stare, the one that clearly says you’re two seconds from being grounded. This was harder—the way I imagined army leaders looked when they sent traitors to firing squads. “You told her?”

  “Mom, you need to listen for a sec.” Lucas took a deep, steadying breath and held his hands out, as if he could actually hold her back. “Bianca knew the truth about Evernight already. I only explained Black Cross because I had to. It’s not like she didn’t realize vampires existed before. Okay?”

  “No, it’s not okay. Your mistake might be understandable, but it’s still a mistake. You should know that by now.” She shoved her bangs back and studied me more intently than she had at first. Kate’s casual attitude had dissolved. “How did you find out about them?”

  I thought she meant Black Cross at first. It took a second for me to understand that “them” meant “vampires” to her. Lucas hadn’t told her what I truly was—and I realized, as he shifted in his seat next to me, that he was hiding the truth for my protection. Undoubtedly he also hadn’t mentioned the fact that he now had some measure of vampiric power himself.

  So I did what Lucas and I were apparently best at: I lied. “There were all kinds of clues. The fact that the school never served food for its students, so everyone ate in private—the dead squirrels all around—the way that so many people had attitudes and ideas that came from other centuries. It wasn’t that hard to figure it out.”

  “Doesn’t sound like much evidence.” Kate, unconvinced, gunned the motor and sped out down a frontage road that led us out of the city area. “You never ran into the supernatural before, and you put it together from no more than that?”

  “Bianca’s hiding part of the truth because she’s trying not to scare you,” Lucas said. “She was the one who helped me after this happened.” He then carefully pulled open the neck of his shirt. There, still dark pink against his skin, were the scars left from my second bite.

  “Oh, my God.” Immediately Kate reached across me to touch Lucas’s arm. So she really was a mom after all, even if she didn’t always show it. “We knew this could happen—we knew it—but I told myself it wouldn’t.”

  Lucas ducked away, abashed. “Mom. I’m fine.”

  “You got away. How did you manage it?”

  “I killed one of them—a vampire called Erich, one who had been threatening other human students. We got into an altercation. He had the worst of it. That’s really all there is to say.”

  Lucas’s talent at lying was easier to admire when I wasn’t the one he was lying to. Of course, the genius of it was that Lucas wasn’t actually making any of it up. Every word he’d said to his mother was factually true. He’d simply unfolded those facts in a way that led his mother to believe in an alternate sequence of events, one in which Erich had bitten him and I was the sweet, savvy, totally normal girl who had helped him recover afterward.

  “You’ve seen what we’re up against.” Kate spoke to me more respectfully than before. Anybody who had helped her son was apparently okay in her eyes. She never looked away from the road as she sped over the badly paved streets, steering us into a smaller suburb, one that looked older and fairly run-down. “This is dangerous work, and you’re not ready for it, but I realize that we have a responsibility to keep you safe. If that demon Mrs. Bethany realizes that you’re helping a member of Black Cross, your life won’t be worth a dime.”

  I’d always known that Mrs. Bethany would do a lot to protect her secrets, but I still couldn’t quite believe that she would be willing to kill, much less kill me.

  “All that time, all that risk, and what was it for? Because I don’t guess you managed to figure out the big secret after all,” Kate said to Lucas. “Seems like the kind of thing you would’ve mentioned in one of your reports, if you had.”

  Wearily, Lucas shook his head. “I didn’t get it. So cut me some slack, okay?”

  “Secret?” I wondered if maybe it was something my parents might have mentioned. If I could help Lucas, if there was information I could reveal that wouldn’t hurt my parents or Balthazar, I would do it. “What were you trying to find out at Evernight?”

  “This is the first year they ever let humans in like regular students. The Black Cross fighter who got in before, the handful of other humans over the years—those were special cases, exceptions the Evernight vampires made to get their hands on a lot of money and avoid attention. Whatever they’re up to now is different. They let in at least thirty humans. Why did it change?”

  Mrs. Bethany had said that “new students” were allowed into Evernight so that we could get a broader perspective upon the world. In reality, that was the last thing she really wanted. Yes, the students were there to learn more about the world, but Mrs. Bethany had another agenda—and for that agenda, having human students at Evernight was a risk. Raquel understood that something was wrong, if not exactly what, and Lucas’s example spoke for itself. The vampires were also forced to hide what they were in one of the few places on earth where they could’ve expected to relax and be themselves. Only a powerful motive could lead Mrs. Bethany to permit such a thing—but what? “I don’t know,” I admitted.

  “How could you?” Kate shrugged as she took us down a shady lane. The houses on this street all looked shabby, and one or two of them appeared to be abandoned. She pulled into what appeared to be the rear driveway of one of the abandoned buildings, though I realized quickly it wasn’t a home. It was an old-fashioned meetinghouse, the kind nearly every town in New England possessed, though nobody had held a meeting here for decades at least. The white paint was chipped and water-stained, and at least half the windows were broken. “Just the fact that you kept your head after you learned about the bloodsuckers is more than most people could manage. Lucas is a pro. If he couldn’t figure it out, they buried that secret deep.”

  “A pro, huh?” Lucas grinned as we got out of the truck. I got the sense that his mother didn’t praise him much, but he ate it up when she did.

  She nodded, and I saw for the first time that her smile and Lucas’s looked a lot alike. “A pro who’s already back on the clock, I’m afraid. We’ve got work to do.”

  I wondered what she meant by that. “On the clock?”

  Kate caught herself. “I don’t mean you. Bianca. You’ve done enough, and I’m always in your debt. Always. Helping Lucas in that slime pit—maybe saving his life—” She smiled at me as we walked to the back door of the meetinghouse. “I’m not going to repay that by sending you into danger. You’ll stay here. Stay safe. We’ll take care of everything else.”

  “By ‘we’ you mean—”

  “Black Cross.”

  With that, Kate turned the key in the lock and tugged the door open. We stepped into darkness, and I felt a queasy shiver of unease, but my eyes adjusted quickly, allowing me to glimps
e the scene inside. Almost a dozen people were gathered together in a long, narrow rectangular room with a wooden floor so old the boards had shrunk enough to separate. A few old benches still lined the walls, the wood so soft and old it peeled. Weapons were laid out upon each bench, as if for an inventory: knives, stakes, and even hatchets. The people inside were a motley crew, each as different from the other as they could be: tall and short; fat, skinny, and muscular; dressed in a dozen different kinds of everyday clothes. A tall black girl who looked no older than Lucas wore an oversized hoodie, and she stood next to an old man with short silvery hair who wore a baggy gray cardigan and reading glasses that dangled from a brown cord. The only thing they all had in common was the way each sighed in relief when they recognized Lucas.

  Lucas took my hand in his as he said, “Hey, guys.”

  “You made it.” This was the girl in the hoodie, who turned out to have a big smile with one crooked tooth that somehow made her look a little bit sweet. “Not quite finals time, though, unless they’re having them in March now.”

  “I get it, Dana. I didn’t make it a whole year, which means you win the bet.” Lucas shrugged. “The vampires got my wallet, though, so I’m afraid you’ll have to be content with a moral victory.”

  “Looks like you brought the most important thing.” Dana held one of her hands out to me. I wasn’t willing to let go of Lucas, but I shook with my left hand. “I’m Dana. Me and Lucas go way back. You must be Bianca.”

  “How did you hear about me?”

  “Like he could talk about anything else all Christmas.” Dana laughed. I glanced sideways at Lucas, whose bashful smile made me feel proud and—even in the midst of strangers—sure of myself.

  “Oh, is this your young lady?” The gray-haired man beamed at us. “I’m Mr. Watanabe. I’ve known Lucas since he was—”

  “Long enough to embarrass him,” interrupted someone else, a tall man with dark hair and a mustache. He unnerved me in some way I found hard to pinpoint, and the twin scars on his right cheek made him look scary even when he smiled. Kate put one arm around him as he stood before us. “I’m Eduardo, Lucas’s stepfather.”

  “Right. Hi. Pleasure to meet you.” Lucas had never mentioned a stepfather. Apparently Lucas wasn’t eager to admit him as part of the family.

  Lucas’s smile was thin. “I had to get Bianca out. I know I broke protocol by telling her about Black Cross, but I trust her.”

  “I hope Lucas’s right about you, Bianca.” His eyes narrowed, focusing hard on me before darting over to Lucas. Clearly he meant that I better hope Lucas was right. Giving away secrets wasn’t something this group took lightly—especially not Eduardo and Kate, who seemed to be the leaders. “We don’t have much time for explanations, not if we’re about to move.”

  The others all started talking to Lucas about his narrow escape. I knew I ought to talk to them, too, to help Lucas with the cover story if for no other reason. Yet I remained distracted. My entire life was changing every second, pulling me away so quickly from the world I’d known that I felt a kind of psychological whiplash. And there was even more to it than that. I felt a sort of buzzing so low I couldn’t quite find the sound, like a subtle vibration in the earth. Despite the fact that I hadn’t eaten in almost a day, my stomach churned. Something was wrong with this place, deeply wrong.

  Then I glanced at the wall and saw a shape on the wall where the plaster was brighter than everywhere else, where something had hung for years and blocked the light. It was the shape of a cross.

  Too late I realized that this wasn’t just an abandoned meetinghouse. Back in earlier centuries, a lot of meeting houses had served another function as well. During the week, they were halls for debate or community functions or sometimes even trials. Then, on Sundays, the meetinghouses became churches.

  A church—ugh. Vampires don’t burst into flames upon touching a cross, the way horror movies like to suggest, but that doesn’t make churches a fun place to be. I felt slightly dizzy and turned my head away from the shape of the cross.

  “Bianca?” Lucas’s fingers brushed my cheek. “Are you okay?”

  “I can’t stay here. Is there someplace else I can go?”

  “It’s not safe for you to be out right now.” To my surprise, it was Dana who spoke. “Forget those Evernight bastards. We’ve got bad news in town, and she’s enough to worry about.”

  I should’ve asked who that “bad news” was, or pretended that I had a safe place to go, or something. But the buzzing in my brain was getting stronger—consecrated earth telling me to leave. My reaction was only a pale shadow of what my parents experienced in churches, but it was enough to confuse me and make me weak. “Can’t I go back to the hotel? We didn’t check out.”

  “A hotel? Oh, my.” Mr. Watanabe looked flustered. “These days, they grow up fast.”

  “We need to get Bianca to safety.” Kate’s sharp voice turned even a simple suggestion into a command. “We have to concentrate, and I suspect Lucas can’t do that with her here.”

  “I’m fine.” To Lucas, clearly, Kate’s comment sounded like criticism. “Bianca helps me think straight. I’m better when I’m with her.”

  Mr. Watanabe beamed at him. I would have, too, if I hadn’t wanted to leave the church so badly. “It’s okay,” I swore. “You can find me later. I should go back to the hotel.”

  Eduardo shook his head. “The vampires might have traced you there. We should get you to a safe place. What about your home?”

  The simple question knocked the breath out of me. My home—Mom and Dad, my telescope and my Klimt print, old phonograph records and even the gargoyle—seemed like the safest place in the world and the farthest away. I’d rarely felt so lost. “I can’t go there.”

  “If you’re worried about a cover story, we can help you with that,” Kate said briskly, unwilling to be dissuaded. “We just have to get you to your family. Where are your parents?”

  The back door slammed open, venting light and cold air into the room. I jumped, but I was the only one—all the Black Cross fighters, including Lucas, were instantly on guard, weapons in their hands, to face the enemies at the door. The vampires.

  Standing in front of them all were Mom and Dad.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “BIANCA!”

  My father’s voice and Lucas’s rang out at the same time, each of them trying to warn me about the other, and I felt as though I were being torn in two. Other people started shouting, words overlapping, and the buzzing in my brain mingled with panic so that I couldn’t tell any of the speakers apart.

  “Let her go!”

  “Get out of here!”

  “Step back or you die. That’s all there is to it.”

  “If you try to hurt her—”

  “Bianca? Bianca!”

  That was Mom. I focused on her and only her. She stood in the doorway, holding out one hand. The sunlight dappled her caramel-colored hair so that she was outlined with a sort of halo. “Come here, sweetheart.” She opened her hand so wide that every tendon and muscle tensed, so wide it had to hurt. “Just come here.”

  “She’s not going anywhere.” Kate stepped forward so that she stood between us with her hands on her hips. One of her fingers rested on the hilt of the knife in her belt. “You’re finished lying to this girl. In fact, I’d say you’re finished, period.”

  “You have ten seconds,” my father growled.

  “Ten seconds until what? Until you storm inside to finish us all off?” Kate held out her arms, a gesture that took in the entire room—including the faded outline of the cross upon the wall. “You’re weaker in a house of God. You know it as well as I do. So go ahead. Run inside. Make it easy for us to finish you off.”

  All around me, the members of Black Cross were armed. Eduardo wielded a huge knife, and Dana handled an ax like she knew how to use it. Even little Mr. Watanabe held a stake. How could people who seemed so friendly be so instantly ready to kill people I loved? In the doorway, behind my
parents, I could see Balthazar’s profile. He had accepted his rejection, become my friend, and even risked his life to protect me. He deserved better than this. So did Lucas. It was so clear to me but invisible to everyone else.

  “We’re not coming in.” My father’s smile was crooked and strange—the broken nose changed his face somehow. “You’re coming out.”

  “Look out.” Lucas put one hand on my arm, but he obviously wasn’t talking to me. What had he seen?

  Instantly Balthazar shouldered a crossbow, moving swiftly, giving my mom just time enough to flick a silver lighter next to the arrow. Then a bolt of fire zoomed through the room, shimmering with light and heat, before striking the wall—which instantly burst into flame.

  Fire. One of the only things that can kill us—one of the only things we all fear. And yet Balthazar kept going, shooting arrow after arrow into the church, not aiming at any of the ducking and dodging members of Black Cross or anywhere in particular, just setting the place ablaze. My mother stayed by his side, creating every fireburst with her lighter and never flinching. An arrow shattered the light fixture above us, sending thin shards of glass spraying out in every direction and the burning point thudding deep into the ceiling. All around us, the old, dry tinder of the meetinghouse flared immediately into a conflagration. Already dark smoke had begun to obscure everything.

  “Run!” Kate shouted, turning toward the wide front doors, which Mr. Watanabe was opening even then. But when the doors swung open, others were waiting: Mrs. Bethany, Professor Iwerebon, Mr. Yee, and some of the other teachers stood in a dark, forbidding line. None of them brandished weapons; they didn’t have to in order to make the threat clear.

  “Hang on!” Dana threw down her ax and grabbed what looked like a Super Soaker. “We’re gonna give these bastards a shower!”

  “Holy water?” Mrs. Bethany called over the crackling of the flames. I couldn’t see her very well, not with my eyes stinging from acrid smoke, but I could imagine the sneer on her face. “Useless. You could soak us in every fountain in every church in Christendom and it would do no good.”