Then I realized Courtney was doing the same thing I’d been doing: She was sneaking around. She’d been so catty about Balthazar supposedly straying. Had she followed us here tonight? Did she suspect the truth? We couldn’t afford to get caught, especially not with Lucas so close. If Courtney saw him, it would all be over.
Hurriedly I followed her as she walked out of the square. Courtney never glanced back once, so I didn’t bother trying to hide. Obviously she hadn’t seen me, but could she be following Balthazar? This was the general area he’d gone to search. I kept looking for him as we walked past old wooden houses, each yard filled with the bits and pieces that suggested the lives within—a child’s bicycle tipped on one side, a porch swing, or a white birdbath on a pedestal. Courtney never seemed to pay attention to any of it or even to be looking around for Balthazar or anybody else. Apparently she knew exactly where she was headed.
Her footsteps slowed as she neared a pale-blue house, one with light shining from all the windows. Even half a block away, I could hear music and chatter coming from within, and as I stepped closer, I saw that the house was crowded with people holding plates of food or bottles of beer. A few balloons had floated up to the ceiling.
Courtney crouched in the bushes next to one of the big windows, looking up at the scene within. I couldn’t get close enough to be entirely certain what she was doing, other than watching.
Is she stalking someone? There was a time I would have thought that even somebody as mean-spirited as Courtney would never kill a human being. But now I wasn’t as sure about vampires as I had been. My skin prickled with dread.
I crept closer. Within the house, I heard people begin to sing happy birthday to someone named Nicole. Courtney didn’t make a move; she remained completely still with her upturned face tinted gold in the light from the window. I was only ten feet behind her.
At first I didn’t pay any attention to the small room nearest to me—it had emptied out when people started singing. But then, from inside the house, a familiar smile caught my eye. Courtney’s smile.
I pressed my face to the glass and realized that Courtney’s photo stood among those atop an upright piano. The photograph showed her in a maroon-and-white cheerleader’s uniform, her hair in a curly ponytail on one side of her head, the sort of style and makeup people wore back in the 1980s—back when Courtney was alive.
This is her family. This is her home.
The song ended, and everyone cheered and clapped. I looked back at Courtney, who brought her hands together as if she were clapping, but without making any sound. Her eyes gleamed wetly in the reflected light.
People started moving back into the room next to me, and I ducked down beneath the windowsill. I caught a brief glimpse of a woman who looked to be around forty, with her blond hair in a sensible bob and a friendly smile on her face; it was a shock to realize the woman was es-sentially an older version of Courtney. Her sister, perhaps.
“You!”
I flinched. Courtney had turned around—to follow the party, probably—and had discovered me.
“What are you doing here? You little sneak!” Courtney’s face was twisted in a furious grimace, despite the fact that her cheeks still shone with tears. “What makes you think you have the right to follow me around?”
“I wasn’t—I didn’t mean to—” But I had been following her, and I had meant to, and there was no way for me to explain why without saying too much. “How did you even get into town? You’re supposed to get Mrs. Bethany’s permission before leaving campus!”
“There’s a laundry truck you can hitch a ride on, which you might’ve noticed if you weren’t so completely stupid.” Grabbing my elbow, Courtney dragged me away from the house. She didn’t want us to be seen, I realized. The people inside only knew that Courtney had died a quarter of a century ago, nothing more. If they saw her, risen from the dead, a vampire—I couldn’t even imagine how they would react. Probably Courtney couldn’t either.
“I’m sorry,” I said, more quietly. “I wouldn’t have followed you if I’d known.”
“Known what? What is it that you think you know?” Courtney grinned at me, though the grin was a terrible fake that made her look sadder than her tears. “All I know is that you’re supposed to be with Balthazar tonight, and you’re not.”
Crap. I should’ve known Courtney’s gossip radar could never go down for very long.
“What’s the matter, Bianca? Trouble in paradise?” She folded her arms and tossed her hair, once again the queen of the school, totally in command. “Did you guys have a fight? Another fight, that is?”
“If it’s none of my business that you’re here, then it’s none of your business that I’m here. So you leave me alone, and I’ll do the same for you.”
Although Courtney clearly wanted to rub in the supposed failure of my supposed relationship, she apparently wanted to hush me up even more. “You say one word about this—one word to anyone—I will know.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
“I don’t have any secrets!”
We could still hear the laughter from the party. I stared at Courtney, hard, and her face fell. She turned to go—and then froze. When I heard the voices, I froze, too. No, no, no, not now!
“We don’t know that Bianca’s in trouble,” Lucas said.
Balthazar walked next to him, their paces in stride. “She’s not on the square where we arranged to meet. That doesn’t spell trouble to you?”
“Bianca has a way of not being where she’s supposed to be. If you knew her better, you might realize that,” Lucas said. Then he stopped in his tracks. I knew that he had seen Courtney and me, which meant that Courtney had seen him. Lucas. The Black Cross hunter.
“Ohmigod,” she breathed. “You’ve been—Lucas Ross—this is—”
“Courtney, listen to me.” Balthazar hurried toward us, hands outstretched. It was the most attention he’d ever paid her, but she shrank back as if repulsed. “I can explain.”