mind. Jennifer looked up. Gabrielle was propped against the locker next to hers, a piece of her bright hair wound around a finger, her eyes inquisitive. “Earth to Jen.”
Jennifer swung her locker door open, avoiding her cousin’s eyes. “Sorry. I was thinking about something.”
“You’re always thinking about something.” Gabby tugged on her hair. “You need to take your mind off stuff. Want to go out tonight? See a movie? Something dumb, with cute guys in it.”
It was like Gabby was psychic. Jen bit her lip. “I can’t. I have … plans.”
“Plans? Plans with who?”
“No one.”
“Plans with Colin?”
Jennifer slammed her locker door shut. “Maybe.”
“Oh my God, you
“Of course I’m going to go.”
Gabby chewed her lip. “I don’t think it’s a good idea—”
Jennifer turned away, cutting her off. “I’m going home, Gabby. I’ll see you later.”
Of course, it wasn’t as easy to get rid of her cousin as that. Gabby walked with her all the way home, talking excitedly all the way about Colin. Warning her that going out with him wasn’t a good idea. He was weird, he was too silent, he was too pale, he was too strange, he acted like a serial killer, he never talked to anyone. He was probably full of himself and boring.
“So I’ll be bored,” Jen said, keeping her eyes straight ahead as she walked. It was easier to disagree with Gabby when you acted calm and didn’t get mad. “So what?”
“So why subject yourself to that when you could spend the evening with me?” Gabby’s voice was wheedling. “Where’s the girl power?”
“Girl power doesn’t mean never going out with boys ever, Gabs. You go out with boys all the time.”
“I’m just looking out for you. Colin is—weird.”
“So he’s weird.
“Not like him.” Gabby sounded unhappy. “I think he could be—dangerous.”
That did it. Despite vowing to stay calm, Jen whirled on her cousin. “Is this about Bridget saying he was a vampire? Is that what this is about? I thought that was a joke.”
“It was.”
“So you don’t think he’s a vampire.”
Gabby met her gaze, steadily. “No. I don’t.”
Surprise washed over Jennifer, and then something else—disappointment? It flared out quickly, and now she was angry again. “Then
“I bet you can’t.” Gabby’s blue eyes sparked with matching annoyance.
“You’re always the one who gets the dates. You’ve always got some cute guy panting after you. Now that I’m the one with the date, you’re jealous. You noticed Colin first, and you’re mad he likes
Once the words were out of Jen’s mouth, she wished she could take them back. There was the strangest expression on Gabby’s face. She’d never seen her cousin look like that before.
“Let me tell you, Jen,” Gabby said, “whether you believe me or not, jealous is the
Jennifer opened her mouth to shoot back that she didn’t believe her, then closed it again. Whatever else was going on—whatever was the real reason her cousin was acting so strange—it was obvious that Gabby was telling the truth.
Jennifer sat on her bed, looking at herself in the mirror that hung over her dresser. She had changed her clothes a dozen times, and finally settled on black jeans and a black sweater. Her hair was down, brushed out, with gel on the ends to stop it from frizzing. Between her dark hair and her dark sweater, her face seemed to hover in the mirror like an untethered white balloon floating in the darkness of the room.
It was almost midnight. There were books spilled out across her bed. She had tried reading to take her mind off waiting, but that had only made things worse. She’d tried finishing the vampire novel she was halfway through, but it had only made her skin feel hot and unbearably itchy. She could hear the clock in the hallway ticking—hear the snap, snap, of each minute passing. The air in the room seemed close and suffocating, too, as if she couldn’t quite breathe properly.
She wished she hadn’t told Gabby anything. It would be humiliating to have to go to school in the morning and admit that the date she’d fought so hard to defend hadn’t even happened because she’d been stood up. Maybe Colin had just been mocking her with all his talk about blood and desire and—
It came then, a soft rap on her window. She whirled around to stare; the floating white balloon in the mirror veering as if caught by a gust of wind. She heard the sound again and stood up, going to the window and throwing it open, leaning out into the soft spring night.
He was in the garden below her window, a black shadow against the neatly trimmed grass of the front lawn, face and eyes printed white against the darkness. He beckoned to her with his hand.
She came down, and he was waiting by the front steps. He put his finger to her lips, shushing her before she could ask him any questions. When he took his hand away she could taste the salt from his skin on her mouth.
He took her hand. She let him, and he drew her toward the front gate and out onto the street. It was empty, the white lights painted down the center of the road gleaming in the moonlight, the parked cars still as sleeping animals. Colin pulled her into the shadows between two cars and kissed her, hard and hungrily, pushing her back against the trunk of a neighbor’s Jeep, the handle of the trunk jamming into her back.
Colin’s hands were alternately cold and hot on her skin, sliding up under the back of her sweater. His mouth tasted like salt. She was dizzy, floating, cut free from everything. Her fingers scrabbled against his shoulders, his neck. She could feel his pulse hammering.
Colin pulled back. His lips looked bruised in the dim light, his eyes hot. He said, “You’re right. We shouldn’t do this here.” He took her hand again. “Let’s go.”
“Where?” she whispered. It was all she had the breath to say.
He grinned, bright in the darkness. “You’ll see.”
The cemetery gate was unlocked. Colin pushed it open and slipped through, pulling Jen behind him. There was a gravel path running between the graves, lined with pale headstones. Some of the graves had flowers scattered across them, black in the shadows. Their feet crunched on the path.
Jen’s heart was pounding. “What are we doing here?”
“Relax.” Colin turned, holding both her hands in his, walking backward. He drew her after him, and she could have pulled away, but she didn’t want to. “I want to show you one of my favorite places.”
She let him lead her. “All right.”
The path wound under the trees, where the shadows were thick and dark as paint, and came out by the side of a small lake. Hills rose around the lake, spiked with mausoleums and leaning gravestones. Colin let go of Jen’s hand long enough to slide off his backpack. He pulled a blanket out of it, spreading it on the ground, and beckoned her to come and sit beside him.
For a moment, they sat in silence together, looking out over the lake. The wind had come up, and ruffled Jen’s hair, lifting it away from her hot forehead, cooling her burning skin. The moon shone down on the lake, making
