An older lady a few rows ahead of us glanced backward, obviously wondering what the hell we were talking about. Lucas gave her his most charming smile, which made her dimple up and turn back to her novel. Then he took my hand and led me to the very back of the near-empty bus, where we could speak freely without any of the other passengers overhearing talk about vampires.
Lucas slid into the seat next to the window. I thought he might take me in his arms, but he remained tense, staring at the water-blurred glass. “We haven’t made it out of here until we make it past that overpass. The one three miles out of town.”
I didn’t know what he was talking about. Obviously Lucas had made a more thorough tactical survey of the area than I had. “What do you think they would do? Stand in the middle of the road and make the bus stop?”
“Mrs. Bethany’s not stupid.” He never took his eyes from the window. Passing streetlights illuminated him in soft blue, then dimmed as we passed them, casting us back into shadow. “Yeah, they might’ve followed me into town. But she might’ve figured out that I was going to take the bus. If she did, her hunting party is going be to waiting on that overpass. They’ll jump down on the bus, snatch me out, let the cops try to explain it to the passengers later.”
“They wouldn’t!”
“To stop a Black Cross hunter? You bet your ass they would.”
“If you’re with this Black Cross, why did you come to Evernight Academy?”
“I was sent to infiltrate the school. It was my assignment. You don’t refuse Black Cross assignments. You get them done or die trying.”
The dull certainty with which Lucas said this frightened me as much as anything about vampires ever had. “Did you guys just now learn about the school?”
“Black Cross has known what Evernight was almost since it was founded. Those places, where the vampires stay—”
“Where we stay.”
“Whatever. That’s where vampires do the least damage. Nobody wants to create a scene or make people nearby suspicious; vampires always control themselves in those areas. They don’t hunt, don’t cause trouble. If vampires acted like that all the time, there would be no need for Black Cross.”
“Most vampires don’t hunt,” I insisted.
The bus hit a pothole, jarring us all, and fear made me gasp out loud. Lucas put one hand on my knee to steady me, but he turned his eyes back toward the window. We were almost out of Riverton at this point, getting closer to the overpass every second. “Remember what you said to me at the antique shop?” he muttered. “Tell it to Erich. He was damn sure hunting Raquel.”
How could I make him understand? I cast around for an example I could use. “You like hamburgers, right?”
“We have seriously got to go over the right and wrong times for small talk. Dinner party, yes. Five minutes from a vampire ambush, no.”
“Hear me out. Would you eat a hamburger if there was any chance it could punch you in the face?”
“How is a hamburger supposed to punch me in the face?”
“Just say that it can.” This was no time to bicker about metaphors. “Would you bother? Or would you eat something else?”
Lucas considered this for a couple of seconds. “Leaving aside the weirdness of a hamburger that can attack—which is a lot of weirdness to leave aside—no, I guess I wouldn’t.”
“And this is why most vampires don’t attack humans. Humans hit back. They scream. They throw up. They call nine-one-one on their cell phones. One way or another, humans cause more trouble than they’re worth. It’s a lot easier to buy blood from butcher shops or eat small animals. Most people always take the easy way, Lucas. I know you’re cynical enough to understand that much at least.”
“Nice and practical. I bet you told me just the way your parents told you. But you never said that killing people is wrong.”
I hated that he’d recognized the explanation as my parents’ and not my own. I hated that I only had their word to go on. “That goes without saying.”
“Not for a lot of vampires, no, it doesn’t. What you say makes sense, but it’s not as reassuring as you think. One of us is wrong about how many vampires kill people, but I know that a lot of people get killed. I’ve seen it happen. Have you?”
“No, never. My parents—they’re not like that. They’d never hurt anyone.”
“Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
“Have you seen it?” I challenged him.
My stomach sank as he nodded. Then he said the worst thing he could’ve said. “They got my father.”
“Oh, my God.”
Lucas stared at the window, even more tense than he had been before. We had to be very close to the overpass now. “I wasn’t there for that. I was just a little kid. Hardly even remember him. But I’ve seen vampires attack other people, and I’ve seen the bodies they’ve left behind. It’s horrible, Bianca. More horrible than I think you realize, maybe even more than you can imagine. Your parents only ever showed you the pretty side. There’s an ugly side, too.”
“Maybe you’ve only seen the ugly side. Maybe you’re the one who doesn’t understand the real balance.” My stomach was churning, and my fingers tightened on the back of the empty bus seat in front of me. Were we about to have to fight for our lives? “If my parents hid the full truth from me, maybe your mother hid the full truth from you.”
“Mom doesn’t pretty things up. Trust me on this.” Lucas breathed out. “Get ready.”
The bus took a sharp turn, shaking the few passengers from side to side. Through the blur of rain, I could see the overpass lights coming up. I squinted at the darkness, trying to make out shapes or movement, some hint that Mrs. Bethany might be waiting there for us.
Lucas took a deep breath. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Two more seconds, and the bus rumbled beneath the overpass. Nothing happened. Mrs. Bethany had led the group into town after all.
“We made it,” I whispered.
He folded me in his embrace. As Lucas sagged against my shoulder, I realized for the first time how exhausted he was and how frightened he had really been. I combed through his wet hair with my fingers to soothe him. There was time to have arguments later, to talk about Evernight and Black Cross and everything else that divided us. For now, all that mattered was that we were safe.
I hadn’t been to Boston since I was very small. Dimly I remembered what it was like to be in a city rather than the countryside—noise and trash, asphalt and traffic signs instead of earth and trees, and lights everywhere, bright enough to hide the stars forever. Though I braced myself for a seemingly inevitable panic attack, by the time we got to our destination—an area on the outskirts of town, and so far as I could tell one of the skeevy neighborhoods—it was late, and we were exhausted. I wasn’t scared; I was only numb.
“We should figure out what we’re going to do tonight.” Those were the first words Lucas had spoken to me since we got off the bus. Our hands still tightly clasped, we wove our way through the shifty-looking characters. They wore clothes that were too large, laughed too loud, and stared sharply at every car that rounded the street corners. “It’s going to be morning before anybody picks us up.”
