detention tonight. She had too much on her mind.
What was she going to do about Christopher and Nissa?
Adianna’s worries were legitimate—at least the ones involving Mother and Vida law. If Dominique found out about her budding friendship with two vampires, she would kill them.
Sarah flexed her hand. Old phantom pain reminded her of the other danger. Sarah had had her powers bound once; she could not imagine what it would be like to have them stripped forever.
Sarah almost convinced herself to give up her new friends, for their safety as well as her own. She managed to avoid Christopher’s questioning looks in calculus that afternoon, and she said nothing but a casual greeting in response to his hello after class.
Christopher had to stay after to talk to the teacher, and Sarah managed to slip out before he was free. She was home, sitting on her bed, before she found his next gift tucked into her calculus notebook; she had no idea when he had managed to slip it there.
It was another drawing—her, dressed in a pale gown. Above her outstretched left hand, the sun and the moon were suspended; she held the earth in her right hand. A sash was tied about her waist, embroidered with stars. In elegant script, a poem had been written down the page on the figure’s left side.
Fantasy, a shining goddess,
She controls the tides.
Fantasy, a brilliant goddess.
She controls our lives.
Fantasy, a golden goddess—
In her hands is the light.
Fantasy, a silver goddess—
In her hands is the night.
Sarah got up and tucked the card into her desk. Next time she saw Christopher she would tell him the truth—about her family, and about all the laws she was breaking. She would tell him the truth, and he would be able to leave her alone without getting hurt.
CHAPTER 7
“SARAH,IS SOMETHING WRONG?” Nissa asked the next day during sculpture. “Christopher told me you were avoiding him yesterday afternoon . . . he was sure he had done something to offend you.”
Christopher? Offend? She doubted he was capable of such a thing.
Sarah grasped at, and then lost, a handy lie. “Look, I . . . it’s nothing really, okay?” Sarah said awkwardly. “I can’t really explain.”
“That’s fine.” Nissa’s voice was soft, understanding. “If it’s none of my business, I’m not going to be a pain. But don’t just ditch Christopher—he’s a nice guy, and he deserves an explanation if you’re not interested.”
By the time Sarah saw Christopher at lunch, her resolve to break off the friendship had wavered. He greeted her with a smile and a hello, not asking about her efforts to ignore him the day before.
“Hey, I’m sorry about yesterday—”
“No big deal,” Christopher answered easily. “I was kind of worried about you, but . . . well, if you’re talking to me again today, it can’t have been anything too awful.”
“I’m sorry anyway.” But his light words and easy confidence made Sarah smile again. “Christopher—”
“Look, we’ve got to duck out soon to meet with our partners about that history project,” Nissa apologized before Sarah could finish her sentence. “Are you sure you aren’t going to the Halloween dance this weekend, Sarah? It’ll be a lot of fun.”
Sarah shook her head. Dominique would throw a fit if she missed the holiday celebrations. “I really can’t.” She debated asking them to meet up with her after the project, somewhere private where she could tell them and be done with it, but they were already on their way out before she could make up her mind.
Christopher touched Sarah’s shoulder as he walked by, a casual gesture that nevertheless made her flinch; physical contact with a vampire made her skin crawl, no matter how weak he was. If he noticed the withdrawal, Christopher did not react to it.
“Catch you later.”
“Yeah.”
A test kept them from talking in that afternoon’s calculus class, but Christopher caught Sarah afterward.
“How’d it go?”
The vampire rolled his eyes skyward. “Math is not my thing.” Changing the subject, he said, “I’ve got to run to a drama club meeting, so I can’t talk long now, but . . . well, since you can’t go to the dance, I was wondering if you might want to go for lunch on Saturday.”
“I don’t know.” She
“Give me a call sometime, okay?” He jotted down his phone number on a piece of scrap paper, and then hurried away to his meeting.
Sarah skimmed the paper after Christopher left, and tucked it into her pocket.
Nine o’clock that evening found Sarah on the phone, trying without success to get through to Christopher or Nissa. Nissa was right—they both deserved more than to get a simple brush-off. She had decided to call, arrange a time when they could talk, and tell them everything.
The sickly B-flat of the busy signal sliced through her yet again, as it had every time she had heard it over the last two hours.
She hung up the phone with a sigh, and pulled out the local yellow pages to find the Ravenas’ address. Her mind was made up, and she didn’t want to risk chickening out again. She patted the coat’s pocket to make sure her keys were in place, and instinctively checked for the knife on her back—a hunter never went anywhere without it—then slipped out to her car.
As she drove, she found herself hoping wildly that Christopher and Nissa would tell her they were part of Single Earth. If they were, then even Dominique could not forbid Sarah to associate with them—it would be an insult against the witches who ran that organization. Dominique would be furious at her daughter, but she couldn’t kill them, or disown Sarah.
She jumped, swerving, as a squirrel darted in front of her car.
Try as she might, her strict control was shattered. She had been purely scatterbrained all evening, and was grateful that she wasn’t expecting a fight tonight.
As she parked in Christopher and Nissa’s driveway, she thought she heard faint music from the house, but it might have been her imagination. Bracing herself, she knocked on the door.
CHAPTER 8
SOMEONE SARAH DID NOT KNOW opened the door. Black eyes gave him away as a vampire, but his light
