“I think you’re safer here. I’m learning all sorts of stuff. Even you said you didn’t know enough.”

“I know how to run.” How to get cash and how to keep our trail clear—hopefully. But he was right, sort of. If I could stay here long enough, learn enough, when I bolted I would be better prepared.

Or I just might leave too late and end up dead.

I wish Dad was here. The thought was like probing at a sore tooth. A thin thread of anger worked its way around inside my chest. Why did he have to go and get himself killed?

It wasn’t really fair, I guess. But why was he going after Sergej anyway?

I could guess. For Mom. He missed her at least as much as I did.

“Don’t leave without me. I’m just sayin’, Dru. We might stand a better chance if we stick around here for awhile. Get our hands on some more stuff, find out more.”

I rolled away, turning my back on him. “Okay.”

He waited a little bit. “What?”

Was he deaf? I sighed, half-pushed myself up, turned my pillow over, and dropped back down again. “Okay. You’ve got a good point. We’ll stay here for awhile.” I just hope I live to see us leave.

Contemplating your own gruesome demise is a sure way to make you definitely un-sleepy. But there hadn’t been an attack the entire time we were here. I could just stop going to Council meetings and stay out of Anna’s way. Sometimes bullies just got tired of it and left you alone after awhile.

Except I was the only other girl in the whole Schola. It wasn’t like I could blend. I wished there were some wulfen girls around, but they don’t come to the Prima. They either stay at home to help protect the compounds, or they attend satellite Scholas as day students. Still, it would have been nice.

Though with my luck, they’d probably hate me, too, for some reason. I’ve never been the girl other girls like.

Graves lay very still. “I think you’re the only person who’s ever listened to me.”

“The other wulfen did.” I closed my eyes. Sleep was an impossibility, but my entire body was so heavy.

“You know what I mean.” A restless movement went through him. “Ah, Dru?”

Now that I knew what I was going to do, I felt heavy all over. I’ve always been like that—the thing that bugs me most is not having a plan. “What?”

“Can I . . . I mean, do you mind if I sleep up here? If you don’t, I, um, understand. I just—”

“Yes.” The word bolted out of me. “Yes, please. Maybe I’ll be able to sleep if you’re here.”

“Okay.” Did he sound pleased? Was he just tired of sleeping on the floor? Did he have something, well, a little more active in mind? Like another liplock? Or was he afraid I’d take it the wrong way if he asked to sleep up here and expect a liplock?

Sometimes having a pretty active brain is no picnic. Because it starts serving up fifty different what-ifs for the way anyone acts, and having to choose which one to believe revs your mental engine until it wears you completely out.

We lay there. I listened to the sound of him breathing. I think I dozed after awhile, lulled by that steady inhale-exhale. The last thing I remember is his arm creeping around me as gray dawn came up outside the window. He settled against me. I sighed and he froze, but then I relaxed all the way.

I finally felt safe again.

When he spoke again, it was a quiet murmur in the darkness. “Dru? Don’t leave without me.”

What could I say to that? I said the only thing I could.

“I promise.”

At lunch I scanned the cafeteria for the rest of them. Leon had been awful quiet all morning, including through forty-five minutes of Aspect Mastery, where—thank God—I wasn’t the one who had to sit in front of the class and make the fangs pop out and retreat on command while the teacher lectured about the physiological changes. My turn wasn’t until later that week, and I hated having people staring at me while the place at the back of my throat where the bloodhunger lived woke up and tinted everything with red.

It’s damn hard to sit still and just do it when you can smell the fluid in everyone’s veins. I guess maybe that was the point, but I still didn’t like it. Especially when the ampoules of blood came out and we started having to identify them according to the characteristics on the sheet. The other guys got partners. I did each one alone, and everyone stole little glances at me while I did.

It didn’t help that it was laughably easy. Female. Male. Brunette. Blond. Wulf blood. Djamphir blood. Each one had its own distinct smell, and the touch helped, too, telling me which was which. It would help us track, they told us, and help us identify nosferatu.

Sometimes they prefer a particular type of prey.

Lunchtime was always a relief. Getting the first few bites down was hard, though. I was usually so hungry that once I forced myself to start, things went okay, but those first few bites might as well’ve been sand.

“Jeez, where are they?” I went up on tiptoe as djamphir boys stepped around me, their ranks parting like waves.

Leon said nothing, just folded his arms. He was probably hungry, too.

And even though I knew he wouldn’t, I made the offer, like I did every time. “Well, go on. Go get something to eat. I’m in front of a million djamphir; nothing’s going to happen.”

“Please.” It didn’t even merit a shrug from him. “Will you stop saying that?”

Which was kind of nice of him, unless he was on Anna’s side. Whatever weird side that was. I wondered, each time I saw any of my so-called bodyguards, which one—or ones—it was. All of them? None? Just a few?

I gave an aggrieved sigh, rolled my eyes, and saw Benjamin across the lunchroom. His face was set, mouth pulled down, and Graves was right beside him. Graves actually leaned in, his mouth moving as he said something fierce and low in the djamphir’s ear.

Benjamin’s mouth twisted wryly. He made some sort of response, and if I was better at lipreading I might have been able to catch it. As it was, I only caught my name and a shrug with hands spreading. Then something about Anna.

I stiffened.

Graves caught Benjamin’s shoulder. For a moment I thought Ben was going to round on him. But no, Benjamin just looked down at Graves’s coppery fingers, then up into his face. They stared at each other for a long, tense-ticking ten seconds. Then Benjamin shook Graves off and nodded. Said something else, but Graves’s gaze had come up and latched onto mine.

I realized I was clutching my mom’s locket, warm silver metal under my fingers. My eyebrows went up, and my entire face must have been shouting, What the hell is going on?

“They won’t agree,” Leon said quietly. “It’s not in Benjamin to listen to a wulfen, even a prince like the loup-garou.”

“What are they arguing about?” I had a right to know, didn’t I?

Leon just shook his head. “Let’s get something to eat. I’m starved.”

And what could I say to that? He could give lessons in polite rudeness, just like Babbage.

I hitched my bag higher up on my shoulder. “Fine.” And stamped for the steam tables.

It should have weirded me out, but the Schola Prima was like the other one. The food appeared from behind a fog of something weird, a billowing vapor hiding shadows and suggestions of shapes. Lunch monitors took the pans to the steam tables. Everyone had a turn working during lunch.

Everyone, that is, except me. I didn’t kick too hard about that.

All the same, I would have liked to see who was cooking my food. I was missing my own kitchen more and more. Industrial food is okay, especially when they spare no expense for the linen napkins and fresh ingredients. But I wanted my mom’s cookie jar. I wanted the spatula I always used for grilled cheese.