At first I thought nobody else was inside. But then a solitary figure in the corner moved. Somebody in rags had been sleeping in a huddle on the floor, and I’d taken her for another trash heap.

She pushed frowsy pale hair back from her face and looked at us steadily. Even from across the room, I recognized her immediately. Ever since our capture, we’d known who we would be taken to—but that didn’t make her any easier to face.

Lucas whispered, “Charity.”

Chapter Seventeen

CHARITY WALKED CLOSER TO US. HER FAIR CURLS hung loose, making her look even younger than usual. She wore a lacy sleeveless cotton dress that probably used to be white instead of bloodstained and gray. Her feet were bare, her red toenail polish badly chipped. I thought of a small child awoken from its nap, confused and cranky.

“You brought them here,” she said to Shepherd. “You brought them to our home.”

“You wanted to find the girl, right? Well, we got her.” Shepherd grinned. He clearly considered this a job well done, and Charity’s displeasure didn’t even register.

She tugged at her hair and frowned. “You brought the boy, too.”

“That’s right,” Lucas said. “Miss me?”

Charity pulled down the front of her dress far enough for us to see the pink, star-shaped scar above her heart left from when Lucas had staked her during the burning of Evernight. Stakings were the only wounds vampires could receive that left permanent marks. She traced the edge of the star with her little finger. “I think of you every day.”

Great, I thought. She’s obsessed with us both. I stepped between them, so that she and I were only a few feet apart. “What do you want, Charity? Balthazar’s probably left New York by now, so it’s not like I can tell you anything.”

“I’ve been thinking,” she said. “The best way to find Balthazar is…not to find him. To make him come to me. And how better to do that than by taking something he wants?”

A chill shivered through my body as I realized she was talking about me.

“I don’t want to join your tribe.” I said. My voice sounded clear and didn’t shake—the opposite of how I truly felt.

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride,” she said.

This was it. There was no way to escape. Lucas and I were outnumbered and surrounded. Charity would turn me into a vampire. Tonight, I would die.

I tried to tell myself it wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. I’d spent most of my life expecting to become a vampire someday. Maybe I’d feel some weird bond to Charity. That often took place between a new vampire and the older one who had brought her over. But I’d still be me. Lucas had already accepted what I was, so we would still love each other. It wouldn’t be so bad, would it?

But I had wanted to choose. I had wanted to have some say in what I would become, what existence I would lead. I’d wanted to be free—and now I never would be.

“Fine,” I said. I blinked quickly, hoping she wouldn’t see my tears. “I can’t stop you. Just let Lucas go.”

“Bianca,” Lucas pleaded. I couldn’t turn to look at him.

Instead I remained focused on Charity, whose dark eyes widened with disappointment. It was like she wanted me to be happy about becoming a vampire. How could she expect me to feel any other way? How could she not know that I hated her?

“You want to force me to do this? That’ll make you feel strong, convince you that you took something away from Balthazar? Then do it.”

“She isn’t Balthazar’s girl,” Lucas said loudly. “She’s mine.”

That was the worst possible thing he could’ve said.

“Yours?” Charity clasped her hands together. A jelly cord with only a few beads left dangled from one wrist, the cheap, ruined reflection of the coral bracelet I wore. “Bianca is yours. That makes you hers.”

I got even closer to her, so she would stop looking at him. “Leave Lucas out of this.”

“How can I leave him out of it, when you belong to each other? What I do to you affects him. And—what I do to him affects you.”

She flicked her hand. Shepherd and another vampire grabbed Lucas and began dragging him backward. Lucas struggled, elbowing Shepherd so hard in the ribs that he doubled over, and for a moment Lucas pulled free. I saw his hand go to his waist, where he had for so many years worn a stake—a useless reflex, a remnant of the life he’d abandoned.

Shepherd recovered himself, and a third vampire joined in. Lucas fought against them with all his strength, but he was outnumbered.

“What are you doing?” I cried, struggling against the hands that held me fast. “Leave him alone!”

“You will determine his fate,” Charity promised. “Only you.”

“Balthazar always said vampires could never change, that it was the tragedy of what—of what we are.” It was bitter to again include myself with Charity, to admit that soon there would be no difference between us. “That’s the only reason he still cared about you, Charity. He thought you hadn’t changed, but you have. You’ve become a monster.”

Charity shook her head. “My poor brother never did understand. I haven’t changed. This is what I always was, even in life.” Her gaze was distant, focused on the past, on people no longer here. “But now I have the courage to act.”

“This one is strong,” Shepherd called as he continued struggling with Lucas. “Too strong.”