Hourglass

My eyes adjusted to the gloom, and I realized that this wasn’t a cavern. We were in a subway tunnel.

This tunnel had to have been abandoned for a long time. Flooring of planks or slabs of concrete sat over where the tracks must have been, and I could see a few small footbridges that connected the two platforms on either side of the tunnel. A cracked tile sign on one wall read, in old-fashioned type, Sherman Ave.

At first I was so amazed by our new hideout that I didn’t notice how quiet the rest of the group had become. All of them were standing still, saying nothing. I wasn’t the only one unsure of my welcome, apparently.

A trim Asian woman, a few years older than Kate, walked up to us with two brawny guys—I wanted to call them guards—on either side. Her salt-and-pepper hair was pulled tightly back into a long braid, and every muscle in her arms and legs was cut. “Kate,” she said. “Eduardo. You guys made it, I see.”

“Some greeting,” Eduardo said. “Is everybody else too busy to say hello?”

“Everyone’s too busy to hear your excuse for that ridiculous raid on Evernight,” she snapped. I realized that the people milling about in the distance were deliberately ignoring us.

Eduardo’s eyes blazed. “We had word that the human students were in immediate danger.”

“You had one vampire’s word against two centuries of experience that says the Evernight vampires don’t kill while they’re there. And you used that as an excuse to lead an attack that could’ve cost the lives of as many kids as vampires. The only reason it didn’t is because you got lucky.”

Kate looked like she wanted to defend her husband, but she said only, “For those who haven’t met her, this is Eliza Pang. She runs this cell, and she’s welcomed us for a short stay.”

We’re here on charity, I realized. I didn’t much care—this wasn’t something I’d chosen, or anything I was going to have to deal with for long—but I knew Lucas would hate that. Sure enough, he had clenched his jaw and was staring stonily at the concrete beneath his feet. I wondered if he hated it more for his or his mother’s sake. We’d have to talk about it later.

No sooner had I thought that than Eliza said, “Eduardo said you had two new recruits. Who are they?”

Raquel stepped forward right away. “Raquel Vargas. I’m from Boston. Anything you guys can teach me, I want to learn.”

“Good.” Eliza didn’t smile, exactly—already I found it hard to imagine her ever smiling—but she seemed pleased. “Who else?”

I didn’t want to step forward, but there wasn’t really any way around it. “Bianca Olivier. I’m from Arrowwood, Massachusetts. I—um—” What was I supposed to say? “Thanks for having us.”

“You’re the one Kate told us about,” Eliza said. “The one who was raised by vampires.”

Great. “That’s me.”

“I bet we can learn a lot from you.” Eliza clapped her hands together. “Okay, the rest of you guys, we’ve set up bunks at the far end of the track. They’ll do for now. Newbies, follow me.”

Follow her where? I shot Lucas a worried glance, but he obviously didn’t know any more about it than I did. When Eliza stalked off, Raquel went with her, and I didn’t have much choice but to go along.

“Are we starting our training already?” Raquel said, as the three of us walked farther along the subway platform.

“Eager, aren’t you?” From the sound of her voice, Eliza apparently didn’t think Raquel would be so eager once she saw what was in store. “Nah, you’ve had a big day. You can start in the morning.”

We got to the end of the platform, and Eliza led us into what had obviously been a service corridor. It smelled of mud and rust, and I could hear water dripping in the distance. A small yellow sign informed me this place could serve as a nuclear fallout shelter. Good to know.

I asked, “So where are we going? Why aren’t we with the others?”

“We have some permanent cabins set up in here. They’re not luxurious, but they beat the hell out of the bunks the rest of your cell is taking. You’ll be living with us, twenty-four/seven.”

“Why do we get those?” I nearly stumbled over the broken, uneven cement beneath us, but Raquel caught my elbow.

“Why aren’t those for Kate and Eduardo?” I wondered if it was because Eduardo was in the doghouse and their shoddy housing was punishment. It was unfair to punish Lucas, Dana, and the others for Eduardo’s mistake.

Instead, Eliza said, “You guys are new to the routine. You don’t know the life, and we don’t know you. Living in close quarters is a good way to make sure you learn all about us, and we learn all about you.”

Finding opportunities to drink blood would be even harder in this environment. If I didn’t drink blood often enough, I’d react more strongly to sunlight, to running water, to churches—and every reaction had the potential to mark me as a vampire.

How was I supposed to keep my secret?

Chapter Four

THAT NIGHT AFTER LIGHTS OUT, RAQUEL WHISPERED, “The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?”

I knew what she meant. A week ago, she and I had been roommates at Evernight Academy. Now everything else in our life had been transformed, but we were still sleeping in beds that were side by side. And I guess this counted as a bed.

We’d been given a room like no other I had ever seen. Apparently, when the engineers had abandoned this subway tunnel, they’d also abandoned a few old train cars. The Black Cross cell had refitted those to serve as cabins. Our bunks sat on top of what had once been the seats, and steel poles ran from the floor to the ceiling, like we were at stripper boot camp or something. Raquel and I had about a third of a car to ourselves, with a makeshift metal wall to give us privacy on one end and the back of the car on the other.