vampire.”
“I will be alive.” Mrs. Bethany displayed not a flicker of hesitation. “An old betrayal will at last be set right. I will be able to die as I ought to have — as a human woman. And you will be no less dead than you already are.”
A swirl of light, and the world took shape around me. At first I thought myself free, and prepared to vanish or run or do whatever I could — but 219 then I saw where I was.
Mrs. Bethany stood in front of me, trap in hand, in the middle of a room that shimmered in every color, floor, ceiling, walls. I realized that it had the exact same dimensions as the records room, but instead of bare stone and dust, this glittered, deep and translucent. Mother — of — pearl, I realized. And the copper roof on the south tower — the strange sensation I’d often detected from the empty room above my parents’ apartment — she’d brought the trap into the other tower, into this place. And now I knew what it was.
“You turned this entire room into a trap,” I said. Already I knew I wouldn’t be able to get out.
“My theory is that you can provide the power for many of us to revive,” Mrs. Bethany said. “You will be returning life to nearly a dozen individuals, Miss Olivier. Perhaps that is some small consolation.”
I backed away from her. The mother — of — pearl felt slippery against my feet — but no, that Wasn’t it. I couldn’t be solid or insubstantial; I couldn’t float, couldn’t run. Everything was in — between, robbing me of the abilities I could use in either state. Although I had a sense of place within this trap, it was still a trap, eating away at my very sense of reality and self. It just took longer. A slower death. No wonder I’d heard the wraiths screaming.. .
More gently, Mrs. Bethany said, “Think of it like being an organ donor.”
I had been able to hear the wraiths screaming, even when they were trapped….
With everything I had, with every ounce of strength, I screamed, both aloud and within my soul, “Help me! “In the scream I put the place I stood, Mrs. Bethany in front of me, everything I thought and felt and knew. The effort alone seemed to make me less than I’d been before — as though I had screamed out part of myself.
“The room is soundproofed,” Mrs. Bethany said. “No one can hear.”
Not with their ears, maybe. But if Maxie or Christopher detected it, or if Lucas could hear me within his dreams — A rap on the door startled me into hope. But Mrs. Bethany didn’t seem surprised. She simply held up the trap and opened it, then set it on the floor. The grayish swimming void unfolded before me again, and I desperately tried to keep from sinking within it. As I flailed about wildly, unable to resist, I heard a murmur of voices — hardly the rescue mission I’d been hoping for. o The trap swung shut. For a couple seconds, I felt a dizzying rush of relief, and I tried to make sense of what I could see. We remained in the mother — of — pearl room, but the door had already been closed again, cutting off my chance at escape. And now Mrs. Bethany and I weren’t alone. Half a dozen vampires ringed the room, each of them staring at me as eagerly as Mrs. Bethany had. Most were students; a couple were teachers. None of them were people I knew very well, but I knew one thing — they were ancient and powerful. Mrs. Bethany had chosen her accomplices well.
“I do not know how many of us you can resurrect, Miss Olivier.” Mrs. Bethany reached into the pocket of her long skirt and pulled out the blade I remembered from Samuel’s transformation. “But for myself, and those who follow, may I express my most profound gratitude?”
“You can go to hell,” I said.
“We’re vampires,” Mrs. Bethany said, and for a moment I saw an echo of the darkness and self — hatred I’d glimpsed within Lucas these past months. “We’re already there.”
“You’re killing me.” I still couldn’t believe it, although it had begun.
“If it helps, you are also killing me.” Mrs. Bethany smiled, like that was great news. “I do not intend to live long as a human. This extended existence has been more torment than pleasure to me. I want only to die as I ought to have done.”
“To die? You’re doing all this just to — to die all over again?”
“To die as I ought to have done,” she repeated. A deep sadness darkened her eyes. “To go where I should have gone, after death, and be reunited with those I knew in my one rightful life.”
Christopher, I realized. She thinks if she dies as a human, she’11 be with Christopher again.
She pushed up the sleeve of her lacy blouse, angled the knife. and sliced open the skin of her wrist. Her vampire’s blood began flowing down her hand, and I felt a crazed hunger unlike anything else I’d ever known. I didn’t want to drink her blood; I wanted to be one with it. The instinct to rush into her — to become a part of her and lose myself forever — was more powerful than anything I could’ve imagined.
Don’t! Hold back! Think about Lucas, think about everyone else you Jove, hold on for them! But as I thought this and I tried to cling to it with all my strength. I could feel my resolve breaking down with the rest of me. My humanlike form began turning into cloudy vapor. Mrs. Bethany lifted her 221 head, triumphant. Soon she would be human again, and I would be.. nothing.
Then the door thudded, making the vampires jump. It thudded again and gave way, splintering wood and mother — of — pearl in a thousand directions as Lucas burst into the room, crossbow in hand.
Either he instantly understood what was happening, or he was going to kill Mrs. Bethany first and ask questions later. Lucas shouldered his crossbow to fire, but Mrs. Bethany lunged for him, pushing the crossbow up so that tl1e arrow smacked the ceiling.
“Let her go,” Lucas said as they struggled for the weapon.
“She is no longer yours,” Mrs. Bethany said, shoving him back. “She is mine.”
The other vampires began to go after him, too, but Lucas hadn’t come alone. Balthazar and my mother smashed through what remained of the door; Balthazar had grabbed his fencing foil, and Mom just seized the vampire nearest her and punched him hard.
As I swirled, disoriented and unable to resist, the fight intensified around me. To me, it seemed to be happening in slow motion, dreamlike and yet more terrifying for the clarity of the violence. I caught a glimpse of my father, wielding a broken chair leg as a kind of stake. I saw Balthazar go Skye didn’t budge. She was a lot cooler than most people would be in a situation like this, but then again, she’d grown up in a haunted house. Maybe it came with the territory. “You said Bianca. That’s the girl you loved, the one who died — she’s a ghost?”
“She’s a ghost and she’s trapped and we’re getting her out of here,” Lucas said, never taking his eyes off me. “Now you get out ofhere, too!”
Instead, Skye took a couple of steps forward and spoke again — this time, to me. “Bianca, come into me. Like the spirits did at the ball.” She wanted me to possess her? Could I do that?
“What are you doing?” My mother tried to push Skye back. “This is dangerous!”
“I know what it is to lose somebody,” Skye said. “If anyone could do this for my brother. I’d want them to try. So I’ll try. Bianca, it’s okay. Come on! Do it!”
I let go of my vapor self and let the swirling energy in the room carry me down toward Skye. Everything vanished — and then suddenly I felt hard stone against my back, and pain. I tried to inhale, but the breath had been knocked out of me — Breath. Pain. A heartbeat. I opened my eyes — her eyes — and looked up to see my parents and Lucas kneeling above me. “Bianca?” Lucas said, hesitantly.
“It’s me,” I said. “It’s us.”
Because Skye was there with me, totally. This wasn’t like possessing Kate; Skye had welcomed me, and because of that, her spirit and mine existed side by side. Although she was frightened — her heartbeat fluttering as fast as a bird’s — she didn’t flinch.
Thank you, I thought to her.
She thought back, You’re welcome. But shouldn’t we maybe run?
“Good plan,” I said. Her voice sounded so strange as mine. Lucas and my parents stared at me, and I grabbed on to Lucas’s hand. “Let’s go. We have to save Maxie if we can.”
“We should just get out of here,” Mom said as Lucas helped me to my feet. I was startled to be able to look him directly in the eyes; Skye was taller than me. “Sweetheart, I’m sorry about your friend, but we have to think about your safety.”
“Maxie didn’t think about her safety when she came after me,” I said. “Besides, Vic’s trying to help her. Are you going to make Vic go up against Mrs. Bethany alone?”
Lucas guided me toward the door. “No way. Come on.”
My mom and dad glanced at each other for a second, but they followed us. Now that I was enclosed in Skye’s body, as though it were a warm, living suit of armor, the trap room had no more power over me; leaving was as
