“She’s a blood puppet.” Jody sneered, coming up behind us. “Don’t talk to her, Margaret.”

“It’s Meg, actually,” she shot back. “And I’ll talk to whoever I want.”

“Then watch your back,” Jody advised coldly. “And your neck.”

I met my tutor in the library, still planning the nefarious deeds I could do to Jody.

The library would have been soothing if I didn’t already feel like screaming. It took up the entire floor, with rooms that opened onto one another, hardwood underfoot, and decorative moldings on the ceilings from the original Victorian house it used to be. There were tall lamps in every corner and green-glassed ones on every table. There was even a fireplace with two overstuffed armchairs. It was the only place on campus that didn’t have some sort of weaponry displayed on the walls. A bank of computers shed their blue glow between oak shelves piled with books of every size, style, and description. Christabel would love it. Some of the books even had peeling leather bindings. I was sure there was a basket of rolled-up scrolls behind the librarian’s desk. But the librarian himself was kind of scary, so I didn’t ask what they were.

I was willing to bet there wasn’t a single vampire romance anywhere.

I wondered if I’d get detention for sneaking a few in.

I plopped into a chair next to a lanky guy with a painfully shy smile. “Are you Tyson?” I asked, tossing my knapsack onto the table. The sound echoed, loud enough that the librarian speared me with a look. Tyson winced.

“Are you Lucky?”

“Lucy,” I corrected. “So what did you do to get stuck tutoring me?”

He swallowed. “Um …”

“No one tutors the freaky new girl without some serious motivation.”

“I need extracurriculars,” he admitted. “You need activities on your transcript that aren’t vampire-hunter related. Not that you’re not very nice,” he added awkwardly. “But it’s you or prom committee.”

I paused. “They have prom? Is it formal cargos? Can I decorate the stakes? You should see what I can do with a bit of glitter.”

He looked a little bewildered, as if he couldn’t quite keep up. I get that a lot. Well, here anyway. My old school friends totally understand me. I had a sudden urge to call Nathan just so he could yell at me some more. I sighed. “Never mind. So what’s on the agenda?”

He looked relieved to be back on topic. “Let’s start with the basics.” He pulled a worn Helios-Ra guidebook off the top of the pile of books next to his laptop. “You got one of these in your orientation packet, right?”

“I already had a copy,” I replied. I’d picked Kieran’s pocket this summer for it, to be precise. I had my own profile in the cream-colored pages.

Tyson flushed. “Oh. Right. I forgot you’re in it.”

“I’m famous,” I agreed blandly. “Just this morning someone locked me in a bathroom stall.”

He flushed ever redder.

“Are you blushing?”

He cleared his throat. “No.”

I grinned. “You are adorable.”

“Uh …”

“Relax, I’m dating the undead, remember.”

“Stop teasing poor Tyson,” Jenna said from behind me.

I tilted my head to look up at her. “But it’s fun.”

Jenna hiked her hip on the table and swung her sneaker-clad foot. “You’re going to give him a coronary.”

We both turned to grin at him, waiting for his retort. He just looked slightly nauseated. Jenna patted his knee. I didn’t think she saw the way his ears burned at her touch. Interesting. “Sorry, Tyson. We’re just bugging you.”

He shrugged a shoulder. She swung her foot wider and nearly kicked him. “So what are you guys doing?”

“Tyson is tutoring me.”

Jenna burst out laughing. “Oh, Tyson. You’re screwed.”

“Hey!” I pinched her.

She just scooted across the table and dropped into an empty chair. “This I have to see.”

Tyson wiped his hands on his pants surreptitiously, as if he was sweating. It wasn’t just Jenna that made him nervous. It looked like any kind of group interaction might send him into fits. And while I didn’t consider three a group exactly, he clearly considered it a huge crowd, and the anxiety it produced might just crush his larynx.

“Sorry, Tyson,” I murmured gently. “Go ahead.”

Jenna propped her chin on her hands. “I got your back, man.”

I eyed her. “You know I hang out with vampires, right? You could be scared of me like the others.”

She scoffed. “You and your pretty boys don’t scare me.”

Jenna’s mocking tone was soothing. If it wasn’t for her and Hunter and Chloe, this whole transition thing would have been even worse. “Shush,” I scolded her primly. “I am learning about the weirdo League of hunters who think they’re in a comic book.”

“Your family now too.”

I drew back, horrified. “Excuse me, but after my parents, the Drakes are family. You lot are riffraff.”

“The riffiest.”

“That’s not a word.”

“Is so.”

“What’s it mean?”

Jenna glanced at Tyson. “Help me out here, Ty. You’re the smart one.”

He just shook his head. “Are you two always like this?”