“I agree that this can’t be random,” Balthazar said. Slowly, he started to grin. “This isn’t a coincidence. But why would Mrs. Bethany be looking for wraiths? They hate us; we hate them. Normally they give us a wide berth and we return the favor.”

“Not these days. Something’s changed. The old truce isn’t in place anymore.” I shivered and tucked my legs against my chest, hugging myself on the foot of my bed. “They’re after us. Wraiths are targeting either this school or vampires generally. Mrs. Bethany must have known this was coming, so she let the humans in to—to track the ghosts down or get access to them, maybe.”

He drummed his fingers on the windowsill. “You’re onto something.

Think about it, Bianca—for centuries no ghost dares to enter Evernight, and then tons show up as soon as human students appear?”

“Tons?” I thought about the girl I’d seen early in the year, then the frost man I’d seen in the north tower, and finally whatever it was that had disrupted the Autumn Ball—it didn’t seem to have a physical form.

“Yeah, more than one. But it wasn’t immediate. It took a year for the hauntings to start.”

“Given that the incidents started small, the hauntings could have begun last year. We wouldn’t necessarily have known.” I’d finally made the breakthrough. At last I understood. The wraiths had come to Evernight, and whatever we’d seen so far was only the beginning.

“Oh, honey, I love it.” Mom slid her new bracelet onto her wrist, then kissed my father on the cheek. Given that he’d been shopping for her for more than three hundred Christmases now, I thought he was doing pretty well to still be able to find things that pleased her. Or maybe that was the trick of their long partnership, the fact that they still took pleasure in virtually any gift, gesture, or word.

Dad ruffled my hair. “We’ll save the rest of your presents for you to unwrap when Balthazar gets here, but open just one, all right?” I obediently took a gift bag, which turned out to hold a tear-shaped pendant on an antique, green-copper chain. “It’s pretty,” I said as I tested its weight in my hands. “What is it?”

“Obsidian,” Mom said. “Put it on, so we can see.” They beamed at me as I hung it around my neck. I thought obsidian was sort of an odd choice, but the black sheen of the stone really was beautiful.

What was this day like for Lucas? I couldn’t imagine Kate or Eduardo telling Lucas stories about Santa when he was a child, or that Black Cross stayed in place long enough for him ever to have a Christmas tree.

I imagined him as the little boy he must have been, with sandy hair and big eyes, wishing for toys but never getting them. And he would never have complained. Right now, maybe, he was sleeping in a cot in some other miserable parking garage, without any presents or candy or holiday music. The picture in my mind looked bleak, and I remembered again what he’d once told me about not having any kind of normal life.

The image of Lucas’s lonely Christmas morning made me feel hollow inside.

Until our unhappy disagreement at the observatory, I hadn’t realized how much I was counting on someday changing the fact that Lucas and I were in different worlds. He needed to be free from Black Cross someday, somehow. I’d hoped he would join me as a vampire—a possibility he had just rejected forever.

If that wasn’t in our future, how could Lucas ever be free? And how could we ever be together?

Chapter Fifteen

I FELT RELIEVED WHEN CLASSES STARTED AGAIN. I’d settled into a melancholy mood that only became worse with time and silence to brood. At least when the hallways filled with students and assignments began piling up, I had enough to do. I could stop thinking about my problems for a while.

Apparently most of the Evernight students had spent a great deal of time thinking about their problems, specifically the problem of attending a haunted school. Several of the vampire students hadn’t returned; those who had muttered darkly about posting sentries in the halls and sleeping only in shifts while a roommate remained awake. I even heard someone speculating about what it would take to perform an exorcism. Yeah, I thought, I’m sure a priest with his crucifix and Bible would be really welcome here.

Human students remained relatively calm about the prospect of a ghost. Even Raquel could deal. “It’s not the same ghost,” she reasoned as she unpacked her trunk, which was mostly crammed with foodstuffs—canned soup, boxes of crackers, and jars of peanut butter. “If it were going to—well, if I were in trouble, I’d know by now. I’d rather deal with this thing than whatever is in my parents’ house.”

“How do you stand it, living there?”

“This Christmas, I spent the break with my older sister and her husband. Their place is fine. My parents think I’m acting out, but they also think Frida is a ‘good influence.’”

I thought about all the stuff my parents would let me do as long as I was with Balthazar. “Hanging around with a good influence helps you get away with murder, doesn’t it?”

We cracked up laughing and then split a candy bar.

Soon it became clear that at least one vampire had spent her holiday vacation worrying about something besides the wraiths—and that I now had a brand-new problem.

“I’ve made it almost thirty years without having to change a flat tire,” Courtney huffed as she pumped the car jack. “If you’re young, hot, and blond, trust me, you can work around it. There’s always some stupid guy happy to help out. Of course, I can see that you might need to know how to do it yourself.”