"Makes sense that they're scared of him,"I said. "I'm a demon and I'm scared of him."

"How can those two be demons?"Cal asked, leaning back in his chair. "I thought that ritual had been destroyed after Alice."

"Apparently not,"I said. "But it's not so much the how that bugs me as the why. I mean, it's not like demon raising went so wel for them the last time they tried it."

I got up from the table, carrying my plate to the buffet. The others had used magic to dispose of their dishes.

"If your dad says it's okay, do you want to go out with them tonight?"Jenna asked, rising to stand beside me.

"Not real y. But I stil think we should. Might give us a good chance to learn more about what's going on here."

Jenna bumped her hip against mine. Or at least she tried to. She's so short that it was more like her hip against my thigh. "I love when you think al deviously, Soph."

Cal smiled at us, and my face flushed. Seriously, what was going on with me?

Jenna looked back and forth between us. "Oh! I just remembered, I need to, uh, unpack some more stuff, so I'm...gonna go do that. Come find me in a little while, and we can do some more exploring."By which of course she meant, Come find me when you're done talking to and/or making out with Cal, then tell me everything. Jenna may have been a vampire, but she was stil a girl.

But as soon as she left the room, Cal rose to his feet. "I promised your dad I'd check out one of the gardens this morning."He wiggled his fingers, and little silver sparks flew between them.

"Right,"I said, relieved. "Go work your plant mojo, and we can, uh, talk or whatever later."

"Sounds like a plan."His voice was low, and I felt a shiver race up my spine. I think he could tel , because he kind of laughed before saying, "I'l see you later, Sophie."

Once he was gone, the room felt bigger again, and I sagged back against the buffet.

Lara stuck her head in the door. "Sophie? Everything okay?"

"Yeah, fine. Just, you know..."I waved my hand. "Adjusting."

"It is a lot to take in, I know,"she replied, her voice sympathetic. "When your father-"

I didn't want to hear anything about Dad, so I cut her off, even though I felt bad doing it. "It's fine. I've had lots of experience dealing with new places."

And, I thought, I'm already doing better than I had my first day at Hex Hal . No one's slobbered on me, I haven't developed an inappropriate crush, and I haven't made any enemies yet. Wel , there's Nick, but he's nothing compared to Elodie-

Chapter 7

Suddenly I remembered my promise to Jenna to tel Mrs. Casnoff about Elodie. I real y didn't want to have to find a vampire pony. I could use the cel phone Lara had given me to cal Hecate, but no one could put you on the spot like Mrs. Casnoff, and I knew she'd have a bajil ion questions.

From me, there would be stuttering and lots of "ums,"and "I don't knows,"and I wasn't in the mood to deal with it. Then I remembered the sweet, shiny laptop in my room. "Lara, do you know Mrs. Casnoff's e-mail address?"

"Certainly. It's ACasnoff at Hecate dot edu."

Great. I may not have to give Jenna a vampire pony, but now I would have to give her ten bucks.

Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting in front of my computer, typing out an e-mail to Mrs. Casnoff. I tried to make it sound as casual as possible, and I used the phrase "it's no big deal"twice. Stil , I hesitated before sending it. What if Elodie acknowledging me actual y was a big deal? I wasn't sure I could handle much more weirdness. Besides, that feeling was back, and when I took a deep breath, trying to make it go away, I caught the faint whiff of smoke.

But I'd promised Jenna.

So I sent it.

I spent the rest of the day exploring Thorne Abbey with Jenna, and even though we spent hours wandering through its rooms, we didn't come anywhere close to seeing it al . Every room was fil ed with bizarre, dusty treasures, including one bedroom that contained five complete suits of armor, and another that held nothing but taxidermied animals. I told Jenna about e-mailing Mrs. Casnoff-and paid up my ten bucks-and that seemed to make her happy.

At lunch, Lara brought us sandwiches in the conservatory-which, it turned out, was a large sunlit room that housed the biggest piano I'd ever seen, as wel as about a thousand ferns-and told us that she'd talked to Dad. He would be home later that evening, and we had his permission to go to the vil age with Nick and Daisy.

"But,"Lara added, "you're to be home by midnight, and you're only to go to the vil age. Anything farther afield is absolutely forbidden."

Yeah, that sounded like something Dad would say. "How much 'farther afield'could we go?"I asked Jenna once Lara had gone. "We're in the middle of nowhere."

I found out that night. We were supposed to meet Nick and Daisy by the back entrance (wherever that was) at eight. At 7:45, I was in the bathroom putting on some mascara when Jenna slipped in wearing an outfit that I can only describe as Hel o Kitty Goes Goth.

"Isn't that a bit much for strol ing through the vil age?"I asked, eyeing her hot pink go-go boots.

She shut the door and hoisted herself up on the counter. "We're not going to the vil age,"she replied. "I asked Daisy. They're taking us to London."

I nearly poked my eye out with the mascara wand. "London is like three hours away. Are we going to steal a car or something?"

Jenna shook her head. "Sophie, when are you going to start remembering that we have magical powers? We're not driving, we're...wel , I don't know how we're getting there, exactly, but it'l be, you know."She waved her hands in the air. "Maaaaaagic."

"Great,"I muttered, fishing in my makeup bag for some lip gloss. My stomach lurched nervously. If Daisy expected me to perform some sort of awesome demon traveling spel ...yeah, that wasn't happening. "Why exactly are we going to London?"

Jenna grinned. "There's this club that's just for Prodigium. Daisy says it's pretty awesome."

Ugh. A club for Prodigium? That conjured up images of way more velvet and dry ice and angst than I was up for.

"I don't know,"I said. "That sounds awful y 'afield'to me."

"Yeah, but if we wanna find out more about Daisy and Nick..."

"I know. It's so obnoxious when you're right about stuff. Stil , there's no way Cal is going to be cool with this,"I said, hoping that might put an end to the whole thing.

Jenna looked confused. "Cal's not coming."

"What? Why not?"

She shrugged. "He got caught up in dealing with some sort of botanical emergency. Apparently there were a lot more sick plants here than he thought."

"Huh,"I said, turning back to the mirror.

"Why, Sophia Mercer! Is that disappointment I detect with my super-special vampire powers?"

"No, I just...I just wish he'd come to tel me himself."

"Uh-huh,"Jenna said with way too much smugness. "And you wore that low-cut shirt and those high-heeled boots for my benefit, right?"

I tossed a compact at her. "No one likes a nosy vampire, Jenna."

Nick and Daisy were waiting for us by the back door once we final y made it downstairs. Nick shot me a surly glance, but didn't say anything.

"I take it Jenna fil ed you in on our plans for this evening?"Daisy asked me in a low voice. Her gray eyes were lined with kohl and practical y glittering.

"Yeah,"I said, trying to feign some excitement. "Can't wait!"There was nothing I wanted less than to hang out with a bunch of Prodigium and two demons, one of whom was obviously unstable.

"You know if you narc on us to your dad, he'l probably kick us out,"Nick said, opening the door.

"Wow, I sure would hate that after you've been so friendly and welcoming to me,"I replied brightly.

"She's right,"Daisy admonished, pul ing on Nick's sleeve. "Be nice."

He studied me with those unnerving blue eyes.

"I'l try,"Nick said final y.

We stepped out into the damp night. Just outside the door, a gravel path led to a long row of shoulder-high hedges. It disappeared into the darkness near the edge of the forest that surrounded the back of Thorne Abbey.

We fol owed the path as it wound its way toward the woods. Jenna clutched my arm, our shadows stretching out before us in the moonlight.

Up ahead, Daisy lit a cigarette, and I could see its tip glowing bright red. Nick walked next to her, hands in his pockets, and I could hear the two of them talking, his voice low and clipped. I was pretty sure I heard my name.

"They're not so bad,"Jenna whispered. "And it's like they don't even care that I'm a vampire. Apparently they've met lots of them at this place where we're going tonight, Shel ey's."

"Shel ey's?"

"Yeah, you know. As in Mary. Frankenstein, monsters..."

"Cute."

We reached the edge of the forest, and I saw that the gravel path continued through the trees, although it was a lot narrower. My heels sank into the damp ground, and soon Daisy, Nick, and Jenna were pretty far ahead of me. I shoved my hands deep into my pockets, wondering if I was ever going to be able to walk through a forest at night without thinking of Alice, and al of the time Elodie and I had spent learning spel s.

The path came to an end just in front of a large stone building. Nick was nowhere in sight, but Daisy was standing in the doorway. "Come on,"she said, waving us forward before disappearing inside.

We fol owed her. Even though the night was warm, the stone structure felt damp and gloomy. The musty scent of age and disuse hung in the air. I heard a flutter of wings and looked up to see a large dark bird fly out of a giant hole in the roof. "What is this place?"I asked.

"It used to be a corn mil for the estate,"Daisy replied. She pointed toward the destroyed roof. "A tree fel on it during a storm about sixty years ago."

"So why not tear it down?"Jenna asked.

Even in the dim light, I could make out Daisy's incredulous look. "Because,"she said, "it houses an Itineris."

"That's not some kind of hideous Latin monster, is it?"I asked, trying to raise an eyebrow.

Daisy laughed as she picked her way over fal en beams to lead us deeper into the mil . "It is Latin, but it means journey, or road."

I stumbled over a pile of broken stone. "Wel , that sounds equal parts fun and terrifying,"I muttered, but Daisy was already too far ahead to hear me.

Nick stood at the back wal . There was a tal opening, probably about eight feet high. It looked like a doorway. Inside, al I could see was darkness.

"Oh, man, I real y hope we're not crawling al the way to London,"I said, but as I got closer, I could see that it wasn't the opening of a tunnel like I'd original y thought. The doorway led to a shal ow alcove, no more than three feet deep.

Daisy smiled shyly at me. "I take it you've never traveled by Itineris."

"I'm not even sure I could spel it."

To my surprise, Nick graced me with a tiny smile, one that actual y looked genuine and not unhinged. Then he walked into the opening. There was no flash of light or surge of magic. One minute he was there, the next he wasn't. Somehow, that was so much scarier than if there'd been a big light show, or maybe some smoke. Daisy went next. It was the same way with her, like she just blinked out of existence.