By the end of the week, I was ready to scream every time I spotted Nikolas or Chris. They were everywhere I went: outside the school, the grocery store, the library, the waterfront. They did not approach me and I pretended to ignore them, but their constant presence meant I was no longer free to come and go as I pleased. I wracked my brain for days to come up with a way to meet with NightWatcher but so far it looked impossible. The Mohiri were going to protect me into insanity.

I started hiding out at home when I wasn’t at school because it was the only place I could avoid them, or more specifically, another run in with Nikolas. The only problem with my self-imposed confinement was the fact that I was going stir crazy after a few days. The last time I hid at home it was because I was dealing with the trauma of the vampire attack and the discovery that I was not quite as mortal as I’d believed – valid reasons in anyone’s book. This time it was pure cowardice and I hated myself for it.

The only high point in my week was when Malloy sent me a message saying that he knew a guy who dealt mainly in exotic plants and he was working on getting the Ptellon blood for me as soon as possible. When I’d told Malloy how I would pay he got almost as excited as he did about the troll bile. I immediately did an online search and discovered that red diamonds are one of the rarest gemstones in the world. I wished I’d known that before I took it from Remy and offered it up as payment. It could draw too much attention to me when I was trying to keep a low profile. I pushed my worries aside. I had to protect Nate first then deal with the rest if anything came of it. Besides it was unlikely that someone would make a connection between troll bile and diamonds, no matter how rare they were.

When my cell phone rang on Saturday afternoon, I assumed at first that it was Roland because he always called me on Saturdays and he was one of the few people who had my number. The number on the screen was unfamiliar and I answered the call gingerly. “Hello?”

“Sara, hi. It’s Samson Long. We met at the party last weekend.”

“Um, hi,” I replied, trying to hide my shock. How on earth did he get my number?

“I hope you don’t mind, I got your number from Roland. He said it was cool.”

Note to self: kill best friend. “No, it’s fine.”

Samson cleared his throat. “I know it’s kind of short notice, but would you like to do something tonight?”

“Do something?” I repeated dumbly.

“Yes, like a movie or dinner… or whatever you like to do.”

“I –” I stammered, not sure how to respond. Samson Long was asking me out on a date. Heat flooded my face. A boy was calling to ask me out for the first time in my life and all I could do was stand there like an idiot.

“Or we could just go for coffee now if you want to do that,” he offered quickly.

“Okay,” I heard myself saying. I liked Samson and I’d enjoyed talking to him at the party before Nikolas had shown up to ruin my mood. “Coffee sounds nice.”

I heard the smile in his voice. “Great. How about I pick you up in half an hour?”

“Okay,” I said again. I gave him my address and hung up in a daze. Shaking myself out of it, I went to change and do something with my hair. With a few minutes to spare, I sent Roland a text: UR so dead.

I expected Samson to be in the white van from the party, but he showed up in a yellow Jeep Wrangler that suited him somehow. He smiled broadly when I got in and said he was glad I said yes. I ducked my head so he couldn’t see the heat in my face and occupied myself with buckling my seat belt. I was around boys all the time but this was my first time alone with one who was not shy about letting me know he liked me.

As we drove away, I looked out my window and saw Chris sitting in his normal spot. He pulled out a cell phone and spoke to someone and I had no doubt he was talking to Nikolas, probably passing me off like a baton in a relay race. I turned away, determined to have a good time today and not let them ruin this for me.

Samson said he was taking me to his favorite coffee place and on the way we talked about the party and how it was too bad it had gotten rained out. “Next time, we’ll have to hold it inside so rain doesn’t drive everyone away,” he said with quiet meaning.

The coffee shop was called The Hub. I had seen it in passing plenty of times but today was my first time inside. It was more of a hangout for the college crowd and I could see the appeal in the cozy ambience created by a large fireplace and comfortable couches. Samson bought us two mochas and we weaved through the couches to a pair of big chairs near one of the windows. It was obvious how often he came here by the number people who waved or said hello to him as we passed. It took me a few minutes to realize why it seemed so different than the places I normally went to. If I walked into one of those other places with Samson, all the kids there would have watched us and started whispering right away. Here, people looked up and went back to whatever they were doing. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the two of us and I found it a refreshing change.

“I have a confession to make,” he announced after we had settled into the comfy chairs. “I asked around about you this week.”

“Oh.” I took a sip of coffee to hide the flush creeping up my neck again. “What did you find out?”

His laugh was nice and easy and I noticed that his eyes were a beautiful leaf green. “Not much. Everyone knows who you are but no one seems to really know you except Roland and he said I’d have to ask you. You are a woman of mystery.”