Dana shot me a look. “You have this one wrapped around your finger but good.”

Was she actually joking around with me again? It seemed like too much to hope for. “I don’t know,” I said. “He’s pretty stubborn.”

Lucas didn’t join in the banter. “Dana, tell me what you’re going to do.”

“I honestly don’t know,” she replied. Her broad face, normally never without a smile, was gravely serious now. “I believe what you’re telling me, but the fact remains that having a vampire in our organization, knowing what we know—I don’t think that’s a great idea. I don’t care what kind of vampire she is, she shouldn’t have jack to do with Black Cross.”

On that point, we were in total agreement. “Lucas and I want to leave,” I said. “Soon. I’ve always known I couldn’t stay here.”

“Biding your time, huh?” Dana didn’t look impressed.

Lucas stepped closer to her. “We’ll be gone in a few weeks,” he promised. “If you don’t think you can keep the secret that long—just tell us right now, and I’ll get out of here with Bianca this instant. It’s your call.”

“You’re really ready to leave us? To walk away from this work?” Dana looked disappointed—no, more like crushed. She and Lucas had been best friends almost their whole lives; losing him, and discovering that he’d kept such a major secret from her, had to hit her hard. “I thought this was your world. I thought you were committed.”

“It’s more complicated than I used to think. They aren’t all evil, Dana.” Lucas’s lopsided smile nearly broke my heart.

“Besides—I love her. She needs me. That means my choice is made.”

“I gotta think.” Dana stepped back to pace along the edge of the tunnel, at least in the small space that had been cleared of debris. That left us alone with Raquel, who had yet to say a word.

“Raquel?” I ventured. No response. “I know you’re angry. I don’t blame you. But if you think about it—really—can’t you see why I didn’t?”

She nodded slowly.

“You do?” Well, that was something, anyway. “This doesn’t have to change things. Not if you don’t let it.”

“That’s good,” Raquel whispered. I started to relax. What I’d taken for horror in her reaction was probably merely shock. Maybe we’d be okay, if Dana would only come around.

Lucas’s hand found mine, and I held on tightly. I wondered if we would have to run and whether I even could run, as weak and shaky as I felt.

Dana stopped pacing and said, “A few weeks, you said. What’s the holdup?”

“Eduardo took the cash I’d been saving,” Lucas said. “I’ve only been able to put away a little more since then.”

“Makes sense.”

“Dana, spit it out.” Lucas sounded almost angry. “What are you going to tell the others?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“You heard me. I won’t say anything.” Dana’s expression was flat, but she sounded sincere. “Let’s go back.”

“They’ll ask why we aren’t digging,” I said, unsure whether the crisis could really be over.

“And we’ll tell them it’s too damn hot down here for Satan to have a steam bath. I get the feeling we’ve all been through enough today already.” Dana headed toward the exit, then glanced back at us. “Come on, everybody.”

There didn’t seem to be anything to do but follow her. None of us said one word on the way back.

Saying that night felt tense would be a massive understatement.

Throughout dinner, Lucas and I sat next to each other, trying not to stare at Dana or Raquel. We were eating plain rice for about the tenth day in a row, and every grain seemed to stick in my throat. Raquel and Dana didn’t look at us. In fact, they were making such a point of not looking at us that I felt like everyone would surely notice.

Instead, the others were wrapped up in different concerns.

“For his own safety, Lucas needs to keep moving from cell to cell from now on,” Eliza said, stabbing at her plate of rice with a plastic spork. “Or at least until we’ve taken care of Mrs. Bethany.”

Easier said than done, I thought. Black Cross’s best hunters had gone against Mrs. Bethany three times in the past few months, and she’d killed at least a dozen of them without taking a scratch.

Kate hadn’t really been eating since Eduardo died. She simply pushed the rice around on her plate, making little grooves. “You’re telling me I can’t keep my son with me any longer?”

Eliza didn’t flinch. “I’m saying you should dissolve your cell.”

“We’ve been together awhile,” Dana said. It was the first time she’d talked all night. Lucas and I both flinched. “Practically my whole life, and Lucas’s, too.”

“The cell should’ve been a lot more fluid long before now,” Eliza said. “You know that.”

“Yeah,” Kate said. “I know that.” She let her spork fall to her plate.

I saw the tension knotting the muscles of Lucas’s shoulders. As claustrophobic and demanding as the life was, despite the zealotry Lucas had outgrown, his Black Cross cell remained the only sort of home or family he’d ever known. I knew how lost he had to feel, how alone. Sometimes, despite everything, I missed Evernight Academy—where at least I’d been warm and comfortable every night, and had as much as I wanted to eat, and knew that my parents were looking after me.