Afterlife (15 page)

Lucas didn’t look like he entirely believed that, but he
nodded. He held out a hand to help Balthazar from the floor. When Balthazar’s
eyes met mine, he smiled, maddeningly smug. “What, you’re not going to thank
me, too
?
Or would that mean admitting I was right
about something?”

“You enjoyed it,” I retorted.

Balthazar shrugged, unable to deny it. He grabbed his
sweater from the floor. “I’m going to shower before class. See you guys later.”
Once we were alone, Lucas said, “Bianca, I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“Breaking down like that, in front of you.”

“You didn’tbreak down.” I insisted. “You were able to
control it.”

“Balthazar was able to control it,” Lucas corrected me.

He had a point.
but
I knew we
needed to focus on the positive. “You’re feeling better now. I can tell.” He
looked better: in fact.
with
sweat glistening on his
skin, his hair mussed and his uniform askew, he looked pretty amazingly hot.

If only we could touch each other without him feeling the
urge to bite, I thought longingly. I know better ways for him to burn off that
energy.

“I
feel .
. . good.” Lucas stood a
little straighter. “Calmer than I have in a long time. It’s like all this white
noise in my head finally went quiet and I can actually think.”

I joked, “Maybe this would be a good time for you to work on
your psych paper.”

“Actually, you know what?” Lucas stepped back and
straightened his sweater. “This is as good a time as any to break into Mrs.
Bethany’s carriage house.”

“Wait. What?”

“Mrs. Bethany’s hiding traps for wraiths around the school,
right? We can’t protect you until we know more about where she’s putting them,
and why
.•
· He grinned, and for a moment he looked like
his old self, when we first met — handsome, aggressive, and quite possibly up
to no good. “Feel like a little breaking and entering?”

 “We should wait until she’s off the school grounds
sometime. Or at least in class. I don’t think she’s teaching this period. It’s
dangerous,” I said, as Lucas kept going down the stairs.

“It’s always going to be dangerous. At least right now, I
can focus on what I’m doing. That’s got to help our chances.”

I wasn’t wholly convinced, but Lucas did have a point — and
besides, he seemed dead set on doing it now. ‘Til be your lookout. If she comes
out there, I’ll throw pebbles against the window, something like that.”

“Sounds good.” Lucas grinned, and in that moment, it felt
like we were on some great adventure together, like it had been back when we
first 10o sneaked around to see each other. Apparently burglary could be very
romantic under the right circumstances.

Nobody else seemed to be around on the school grounds; Lucas
was currently cutting class. (Plenty of the vampire students did this — they
were here less to learn the subjects than to learn how to fit in, which the
teachers tacitly recognized — but when they skipped class. they usually did it
for something more fun than lounging around outside.) At his nod, I darted
forward to circle Mrs. Bethany’s carriage house. I peered through each window,
slightly frosting a couple of the panes. She wasn’t inside. “The coast is
clear.”

“Okay. Keep an eye out.”

Lucas went to one of the side windows. I watched as he
worked at one of the small metal frames around a pane, wiggling it back and
forth until the top strip slid free into his hand. The other three strips of
metal around the windowpane came out easily then, as did the rectangle of
glass. Apparently Mrs. Bethany hadn’t replaced the windows recently. Lucas put
everything out of the way, then reached through the open pane to turn the lock,
quickly setting aside the small row of potted African violets kept there. Then
he put his hands on the sill and neatly flipped over and through, into Mrs.
Bethany’s house.

That was a lot faster and neater than I’d been able to do
it. I consoled myself a little by thinking that he had his full vampire powers
to work with. Maybe I’d tease him later about having more natural criminal
instincts.

Through the window, I could see Lucas walking through the
house toward her desk, where any materials about her hunt for the wraiths would
most likely be kept. I shifted around the edges of the walls.
eager
to keep an eye on him, as well as a lookout for Mrs.
Bethany. But as I did so, I felt it again. The pull.

A trap! Before I could panic, I realized that it wasn’t the
same as in the library — or, while it was the same kind of trap.
there
was a barrier bet\veen us that could keep me from
falling in — the wraithproof roof or walls, perhaps. Apparently she put the
traps together in her home before 101 installing them within Evernight Academy.

Though it didn’t capture me, the trap’s power was
overwhelming. I could feel that strange pull all through me, and I was suddenly
slow, sluggish, and inattentive. It was like running a high fever, when nothing
quite made sense, and movement was possible but seemed to take too much effort.

As I came close to losing the ability to focus, I saw Lucas
brush his hand against something sitting on her desk — another seashell — shaped
box, just like the one he’d found in the library. Maybe it was the same one; he’d
reported that the library wall had been immediately fixed, no questions asked.
Quickly he shut the box, and the dizzying pull of the trap vanished. However, I
still felt terrible; just being near an active trap was enough to seriously
drain me.

For a moment, I was tempted to fade out — to rest, just for
a little while — but I realized it might be a long time before I woke again. I
gathered together my will and tugged myself free of it, returning to the here
and now of Lucas’s search — just in time to see Mrs. Bethany walking to the
door of the carriage house.

I threw myself against Mrs. Bethany’s window so hard it
rattled. Lucas looked up from her desk, instantly alert, but too late. Mrs.
Bethany walked into the carriage house and entered her study before Lucas could
do more than stand.

She paused in the doorway. For a moment, they simply stared
at each other across the room. Horror chilled me so deeply that it was like I’d
become pure frost. Lucas looked seasick.

She’s going to attack him, or at feast throw him out of
Evernight Academy. I shoufdn’t have asked him to do this. I shoufdn ‘t have let
him do this.

I was just about to fly to the school in an attempt to get
help when Mrs. Bethany said, evenly, “Mr. Ross, it would be more efficient if
you simply asked me whatever it is you need to know.”

He didn’t relax, didn’t move. His eyes remained locked on
hers, ready to defend or to attack. “Doubt you’d tell me.”

“Doubt.” Mrs. Bethany laid aside her things and sat in one
of the wooden chairs on the far side of the wall. Another, empty chair sat next
to her, a wordless invitation to Lucas. “Black Cross teaches its hunters to
doubt everything new to them, and to believe only their own decrees about duty.
102 Or sacrifice. Or who is and is not a monster.”

Lucas’s jaw tightened, and I knew he was remembering Kate’s
attack.

“They asked so much of you, and what do you have in return?
Nothing except a few bad habits, such as your penchant for breaking and
entering.”

Quietly Lucas said, “Don’t make me leave school.” The words
seemed to choke him. He hated to beg.

“The sanctuary of Evernight protects you,” Mrs. Bethany
said. Her voice sounded so weird; I couldn’t place the difference at first,
until I realized that she actually sounded — warm. “I don’t intend to punish
you for behaving in the only way you’ve ever known. Black Cross has encouraged
you to be underhanded. There is a better way to conduct matters. Here, I hope,
you can learn it.”

Yeah, Evernight Academy was the home of honesty, what with
lying to the human students about most of their new friends being vampires. As
I scoffed, though, I could see Lucas’s expression changing, becoming less wary.
Mrs. Bethany was saying exactly what he wanted to hear.

More unbelievably, I thought she actually meant it. “Now,”
she said. “Tell me what you were looking for.”

“More information about the wraiths.”

Lucas, don’t
!
I couldn’t believe he
was going to spill our secrets to her that easily.

Instead he said, “I heard they were after Bianca last year.
I don’t understand why she died. If they had something to do with it, I want to
know. And I want revenge.”

Mrs. Bethany straightened, obviously pleased to have found a
kindred spirit. Lucas had convinced her that he wanted the same thing she
wanted: to hunt the wraiths. That was probably the single best way to get her
to open up. I should’ve had more faith in him.

She gestured lu the chair uexl lu her, aud Lucas luuk a
seal. “Tu the i.J.esl uf my lutuwledge, the wraiths I.Jdieved themselves lu
have sume kiud of claim over Miss Olivier, “Mrs. Bethany said. “Are you aware
of the circumstances surrounding Bianca’s birth?”

“You mean, the part where t\vo vampires can’t make little
baby vampires without some wraith assistance? Yeah, she told me.”

“Rather like a fairy tale,” Mrs. Bethany said. Lucas shot
her a puzzled look. “I suppose your warrior mother didn’t spend much time
telling you stories out of Grimm. Suffice it to say that the magical godmother
at the christening usually hides a curse among her gifts. And so it was with
the wraiths. They drank of Celia’s blood, and gave Celia and Adrian a chance to
create life, for a little while.”

Lucas considered that. His dark green eyes focused upon the
window; although I knew he couldn’t actually see me, he knew exactly where I
was. “So her mom and dad always knew this was going to happen.”

“To be precise, her parents thought that she would fulfill
her dominant vampire heritage by taking a life and completing the
transformation. They knew the only other alternative was for her to die.”

“Beingjust a regular girl
— ”

“Was always impossible,” Mrs. Bethany said coolly. “Bianca
was given life, but only so much.”

I sank down to the ground, mist taking form into a shadow of
my body. Had anybody walked by at that moment, they probably could have seen
me, but I didn’t care. I needed to feel something solid to rest on. It Wasn’t
that what Mrs. Bethany had said hurt; to the contrary, it felt weirdly and yet
undeniably right. My astonishment at my own reaction seemed to knock something
out of me.

Mrs. Bethany’s voice gentled. “It’s hard for you to hear,
isn’t it? But in time, I think, knowing this will lessen your pain. You could
not have saved her, Mr. Ross. You endangered her no more than her parents did —
though they will never accept that.”

“I don’t think I can either.”

“You still see death as the worst thing that can possibly
happen. It isn ‘t
..”

“I know there’s something worse than being dead,” Lucas
said, each word grinding out. “Because we’re there.”

“You miss being alive.” I expected her to say that he was
foolish to do so; nobody seemed to get more pleasure out of being a vampire
than she did. But Mrs. Bethany added, very quietly, “So do I.”

Lucas said, “Never gets any better, huh?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Astonishment overcame my melancholy. I became transparent
again so that I could peek once more through her window; Mrs. Bethany sat with 104
her hand on Lucas’s shoulder, her thick, grooved nails dark crimson against his
black sweater. He didn’t shy away from the touch.

Is
she .
..
hitting
on him? I rejected the idea instantly; it Wasn’t that kind of gesture. There
was no denying that a bond had been formed, however — and that in some ways,
right now, Mrs. Bethany could understand what was going on with Lucas better
than I could.

Wordlessly, she patted his shoulder. Lucas obeyed the
unspoken suggestion by rising to his feet. Mrs. Bethany walked him out of the
carriage house — completely unconcerned about his having broken into it — and
the entire way back to Evernight itself. They didn’t part until they were both
inside the great hall; a few people studying during their free period glanced
at the scene, registering to their surprise that Lucas had apparently gotten
teacher’s pet status. I wondered if that would make the other vampires back
off, or target him even more.

“English class calls,” she said. “Dare I hope that you’ve
done the reading?”

Lucas said, “I read Catcher in the Rye on my own a couple
years ago, actually.”

“Of course. You would be primarily self — taught. What did
you think?”

“That Holden Caulfield is a self — pitying loser who needs
more to do wirth his time.”

Mrs. Bethany smiled slightly. “Although I would phrase
things more delicately, our analyses are similar in substance. Which means I
will call on you. Be
ready
.” She checked the old — fashioned
gold wristwatch she wore. “You have several minutes yet if you wished to
shower,” she said, in a tone of voice indicating that he should definitely
consider it.

She went on her way, and Lucas immediately started jogging
upstairs to do what she’d said. He was smiling — really smiling, like it came
from his heart. I felt almost jealous, more like a tagalong than his constant
companion, until he whispered, “Can you believe that?”

“You did get kind of sweaty sparring with Balthazar.”

“No, I mean, can you believe she let me off?”

“Nope. Then again, you are pretty charming.”

“Charm’s not my strong suit.”

“I disagree.” Carefully, I said, “You know not to trust her,
right?”

Lucas remained silent as he walked out onto the floor of the
guys’ dorm where he lived. Finally, when we reached his room, he said, “She cut
me slack, and she didn’t have to.”