“Oh. Dana and I were…”

“Were what?”

Raquel paused. It wasn’t like her to avoid a simple question. Ducking around a lady on the sidewalk who carried three big shopping bags in each hand, I repeated, “Were what?”

“We were off together on our own. Alone. So we’d have some—you know—some space.”

I shrugged. What was the big deal?

Then I saw the hesitation on Raquel’s face, and the hopeful light in her eyes, and I realized that I was just about the blindest person on the face of the earth. “You and Dana are—”

“Me and Dana.” Raquel grinned, the brightest smile I’d ever seen on her face, just for a split second, like she couldn’t hold it in any longer. But her uncertainty returned quickly. “That doesn’t make you feel weird, does it?”

“Some,” I confessed, “but only because you never said anything. After all the stuff we’ve told each other, you could’ve told me this.”

“You never know who’s going to be strange about it. Besides, you kept trying to fix me up with guys.”

“I tried to fix you up with Vic. One guy. Not plural.” My head was spinning a little. At least talking about her love life had distracted Raquel—and me. “I just never guessed.”

Her lips twisted in a funny smile. “Hello? No interest in men, like, ever?”

“I didn’t want to think in stereotypes.”

“There’s not thinking in stereotypes, and then there’s just plain not thinking.”

“Okay, if you wanted me to feel really stupid, mission accomplished.”

We stared at each other for a second and then burst out laughing. I hugged her tightly around her shoulders and then listened to her go on for almost half an hour about how beautiful and incredible and smart and terrific Dana was. Although I completely agreed with Raquel about that, my input wasn’t required. My job was to smile, nod, and be happy for her. It was easy enough to do.

Does Lucas know about this? I wondered. Probably he did, or at least suspected. He and Dana were pretty tight. This was just one of the dozens of subjects we hadn’t had a chance to discuss.

We returned to Black Cross headquarters just before sundown, luckily without me betraying any other vampires to Milos. As I changed out of my sweaty clothes, Raquel headed out, promising to get rations for both of us. I didn’t really feel like eating anything, much less my seventh consecutive day of oatmeal, but I thanked her and let her go. Some alone time seemed like a good plan.

Once I’d changed clothes, I took a stroll along the tunnel. It was the first privacy I’d really had since the fall of Evernight; at every other point, I’d either had a job to do or people with me. The fathomless dark of the distant tunnel, past the strings of light Black Cross used, seemed as absolute a limit as any wall could ever be.

I saw that vampire in a dream, I thought. I had wondered before if my dreams were beginning to predict the future, but this was the surest proof I’d had yet. The vampire with the reddish dreadlocks had been revealed to me by the wraith.

After so long away from the hauntings at Evernight Academy, and after becoming used to the reassurance of the obsidian pendant around my neck, I’d managed to put aside some of my anxieties about the wraiths. But now, with the ghosts reaching into my mind and showing me the future, all that confusion and fear was coming back.

They were after me because I was, in some ways, as much the child of a ghost as of vampires. My parents had essentially bargained with the wraiths so that I could be born. Vampires on their own could never get pregnant; with the assistance of a ghost, it was possible. What my parents hadn’t known at the time, and I hadn’t learned until a few months ago, was that the wraiths considered themselves the rightful owners of any children born because of such bargains. I didn’t know what that meant, really—though to judge by their attacks on me at Evernight, it meant they didn’t want me to live as an ordinary vampire. Well, I agreed with them on that score. I’d left the school and my parents, and I remained convinced that I would never kill a human being and become a full vampire.

Apparently that wasn’t enough for the wraiths. I wondered what else they would want. Would the ghosts keep intruding into my dreams? If they were still after me, why weren’t they attacking me again? Were they only biding their time?

Then I realized I was worrying about something that would never happen—because I was walking alongside iron railroad tracks.

Iron! According to Balthazar, the wraiths were repelled by certain stones and metals. Obsidian, like my pendant, was one of them. The most powerful repellants of all were the metals found in the human body, like copper and iron. That meant that Black Cross headquarters was naturally, well, ghost-proofed.

Slightly relieved, I started to relax. It occurred to me that, now that I had a bit of alone time, I could maybe hunt for a few mice in the tunnels. Lucas’s blood still warmed me, but I was in no hurry to be that hungry again.

That was when I heard the tapping.

Click, click, click, click.

I stared upward into the dark. Even my vampire-enhanced sight couldn’t make out much more than a tangle of pipes and shadows. Once again—click click click click. The sound of metal on metal.

Maybe it’s nothing.

Maybe it’s not.

I ran back toward the subway-car cabins, looking for Raquel. Instead, I ran into Eliza, but that was even better. “Something’s going on farther down the tunnel.” I panted. “This weird knocking sound.”