Lucas interjected, “Does that mean I have to become a vampire no matter what?” I fidgeted, unable to wholly conceal my hope. My mother shot me a look that made me go still.

Mrs. Bethany shook her head. “Not necessarily. You might yet live a long life and die of other causes, if that’s the sort of thing you consider cause for celebration. However, soon you’ll find yourself more and more drawn to Miss Olivier, whose lack of discipline has already been made very clear.” Dad took a step forward, like he was going to defend me, but Mom put one hand on his shoulder to keep him back. “Other vampires will find you equally appealing, although the taboo against hunting another vampire’s chosen prey should protect you—for a time. Eventually, Mr. Ross, you’ll find the prospect entices you as much as it does her. You will desire it more powerfully than you can possibly guess. It is a craving no pure human can ever understand. When that time comes, you will probably choose to join us.”

If Lucas was going to lose it, I thought this would be the moment. But he remained calm. “Does that mean I’m sort of…in between? Like Bianca?”

“Not exactly like her, but close enough.” Mrs. Bethany’s prim mouth relaxed slightly, and I realized that she was almost smiling. “You are a quick study, Mr. Ross.”

“I’d like to know more,” he said, seizing upon her approval. “I want to understand these…senses. Abilities. Powers.”

“And limitations, too. Those take root in humans more slowly than our powers, but they will arrive. You cannot afford to forget that.” Mrs. Bethany considered it for a few more seconds, then nodded. “This was not what I intended when I opened the school to human students, but I ought to have anticipated it. I’ll send over some papers that might help you. Old letters, studies, things like that regarding those who have been in your situation and who have chosen to follow our path. Just remember this, Mr. Ross: Our secret is now your secret. The more you learn, the more you belong to us. You can no longer betray the truth about Evernight without also betraying yourself. I will be watching you very closely from now on.”

“I believe you. I’m not going to say a word about vampires to anybody.” He gave me a sidelong glance. “Well, at least not to anybody who doesn’t already know.”

I squeezed his hand, happy and relieved. It didn’t matter what my parents said to us now or how long I was going to be grounded. All that mattered was that the truth was out at last, and Lucas would be okay. And he might—just maybe—be mine forever.

Not until much later that night did I realize that Mrs. Bethany had never told Lucas what would happen if he didn’t choose to become a vampire. She didn’t offer it as an option. I wondered if that was because it was impossible for him to choose anything else—or because he wouldn’t be allowed to choose.

Chapter Fifteen

WITH MARCH CAME RAIN, TORRENTS OF IT, blurring the windowpanes and turning the earth to mud. For the first time, the grounds weren’t available to us as an escape. But for the first time, we didn’t need it. Lucas and I were learning about Evernight now. We were becoming a part of it.

“Look at this.” Lucas pushed one of Mrs. Bethany’s heavy, black, leather-bound books toward me as we sat together in a private corner of the library. The only other sound was raindrops pattering against the window. The book’s pages were brownish with age and the ink had faded, so I had to squint to make out the words. I read as Lucas explained, “They keep talking about ‘the Tribe.’ Some older group of vampires. Is anybody here from this Tribe?”

“I never heard of the Tribe before.” I’d never imagined how complicated vampire lore was; my parents had never hinted at any of this. “But what do they mean by older? My dad is nearly a thousand years old. Surely that’s about as old as it gets.”

“Not if everyone is immortal. There ought to be vampires two, three, ten times older than him. Ancient Romans. Ancient Egyptians. Whoever came before those guys. Where are they? Not here, I don’t think.”

He was right. The oldest vampire at Evernight was probably Ranulf, who had died in the seventh century. Of course, some vampires did die, like, finally die; if you didn’t get any blood for months and months, or even if you didn’t drink blood for a shorter time and then were exposed to the sun—that could get you. My parents had made that clear when I was a little kid who didn’t want to finish her glass of goat’s blood. Everyone’s worst nightmare was fire, which killed vampires even more quickly than it did humans. Despite all those dangers, a lot of vampires should have survived even longer than Ranulf.

“Mom and Dad say some people get lost,” I murmured. “That they lose track of time and humanity altogether. Evernight Academy was built so that vampires wouldn’t fall into that trap. Do you suppose that’s what my parents meant? Maybe the Tribe is all the vampires who get lost. They’re hermits and recluses, with no connection to humanity.” The thought made me shiver.

“Is this creeping you out?”

“Yeah, a little.”

Lucas brushed his thumb across my cheek. “You want us to take a break?”

I realized that I did, kind of. “I ought to study history. It’s hard enough to get As when you’re being graded on a curve alongside people who actually witnessed about half the events in the book. Now Mom’s being tougher on me than ever.”

“Go ahead.” Already he had turned his attention back to the book of vampire lore. “I’ll be right here.” Lucas didn’t lift his head from the book for the next hour, and when I bundled up my things to go downstairs, he let me leave without him so that he could keep working until the moment the library closed. (There was no taking the book back to his room; we agreed that Vic might be oblivious, but he wasn’t stupid, and leaving the real vampire information out where Vic could see it would be crazy.)

Every once in a while I asked myself if Lucas could have any other reason for immersing himself in Mrs. Bethany’s books. But I always pushed the thought away almost instantly. Mostly I encouraged him, thinking that he was getting closer to becoming a vampire—and staying with me—forever.

Not that everybody liked that idea, of course. Courtney had kind of chilled out after I bit Lucas for the first time, apparently figuring that I was now “in the club.” However, she didn’t want Lucas in the club with us, which meant that after news of the second bite spread around the school, she was in high bitch mode.

“Can you imagine hanging around with that guy for a hundred years?” she complained loudly to Genevieve in Modern Technology one day, while Mr. Yee was in the corner patiently explaining something to the perpetually bewildered Ranulf. “I mean, eww. One school year of Lucas Ross’s attitude is too much. If he thinks I’m going to acknowledge his sorry existence in a couple of decades, when he’s trying to suck up to all the people he put down here, he can think again.”

Balthazar, who had been attempting to program the microwave that provided the lesson for the day, casually called, “Hey, Courtney, refresh my memory. The other day, I was thinking that I’d seen you in French Indochina, but then I realized that wasn’t quite right. You were changed—what—fifty years ago?”