“The fire on the left there,” she said, turning back to her giggling friends. I said hi to a few more people as I found my way to one of the smaller fires. The embers shimmered. Nathan sat on a bench, his feet practically inside the fire.

“You dyed your hair!” I exclaimed, plopping down next to him. The rickety bench wobbled. Usually his hair was bleached white, but now it was black enough to shine nearly blue in the firelight.

“You got contacts,” he accused.

I scrunched up my nose. “Had to. Long story.”

“Do you eat hamburgers now too?” he grumbled.

“Aw. You missed me,” I grinned, tugging on the end of his red-and-white-striped scarf. It was way too long, brushing the ground when he sat down. I’d made it for him three years ago when my Mom taught me to crochet.

“Did not, traitor,” he grumbled, but he slung his arm around my shoulder. “Where’s your gorgeous boyfriend? He’s the one I really wanted to see.”

“He has a family thing,” I told him, trying not to let my smile slip. Knowing Nicholas was alive wasn’t the same thing as knowing he was okay. “But these are my friends Jenna and Tyson.”

“Hey.” He gave Tyson a considering look then glanced at me. I gave a near imperceptible shake of my head. Nathan sighed. “Bummer,” he said under his breath. He nudged me. “You are useless to me, Hamilton.”

“I know, sorry. There’s this guy Jason, but I don’t know him well enough to know if he’s your type.” Nathan liked to play at being casual, but he was actually a romantic at heart. I had no intention of setting him up with anyone who didn’t deserve him, no matter how cute they were. When Nathan fell, he fell hard.

“This music really is awful,” I said cheerfully. “We should fire her.”

“Too dangerous,” Nathan said. “MJ’s a biter.”

“And how exactly do you know that?”

“She bit me in grade six. I still have the scar.”

“Do I even want to know why she bit you?”

“She claimed I stole her X-Men comic book.” He sniffed. “When clearly, she stole it from me. She didn’t even know who Gambit was.”

“Oh well, I’m surprised you don’t shun her even now.” I was used to Connor geeking out over comics and sci-fi movies. “Let’s run her out of town, Nathan.”

“If she plays Celine Dion again, no one would blame us.”

Jenna was chatting with the girl next to her, and Tyson looked as if he wanted to flee into the woods. The music was bad, the fires were cozy.

It was nice. Normal.

You know, until the screaming.

And that kind of scream in Violet Hill could mean only one thing.

Vampire.

The rest of the party assumed it was someone fooling around, an ordinary scream of a girl being scared by some drunk idiot jumping out of the shadows at a field party. But I knew better. I followed Jenna and Tyson, pulling my embroidered purse in front of me in case I needed easy access to a stake or a pepper-Hypnos egg. I pushed through the branches of a stand of slender birch trees, barely noticing when they slapped me in the face. I skidded to a halt in the frozen dirt and decomposing leaves. I didn’t know the girls well because they were a year ahead of me, but I knew their names. Rachel was hyperventilating and weeping, her fist stuffed into her mouth.

Libby was sprawled in the undergrowth, blood on her neck.

Tyson knelt beside her, checking her pulse and lifting her eyelids to see if her pupils responded. Jenna was already sweeping the grove for vampires. I turned to Rachel, my hand still hovering near my purse, just in case.

“Did you see who did this?” I asked.

Rachel just continued to fall apart. “Rachel!” I grabbed her shoulders and tried to make my tone firm and strict, like an angry teacher. “Pay attention!” She just hiccuped pitifully and made me feel like a monster. But we couldn’t help Libby without certain answers. “Rachel! Answer me!” I shook her.

She gagged on a sob but tried to answer. “I just saw a shadow running away.” She choked. “Pale and…” She dissolved into tears again. “Libby’s bleeding. Why is she bleeding?”

I sniffed the cold air, smelling snow and fire and old pine needles but not mushrooms or rot. I didn’t think it was Hel-Blar but best to be sure. “Did you smell anything… weird?”

She blinked, momentarily distracted by the strange question. “What, like pot?” She shrugged.

“No, I mean something… kind of rotten.”

“No, nothing like that. Why?”

“Not Hel-Blar,” I told Jenna quietly when she circled back to us.

“Thank God for that,” she muttered as Tyson rose from his crouch with Libby in his arms.

He looked calm and utterly capable. There was no bumbling shyness about him when he looked down at two guys in his path. “Move.” They scrambled to get out of his way.

“Where is he taking her?” Rachel shrieked, trying to grab at Tyson. “Wait!”

“He knows first aid,” Jenna explained. “And he has a car. It’ll be faster than waiting for an ambulance.” Translation: she’d been bitten by a vampire and was unresponsive and we had no idea if she’d been infected or not. No hospital could help her now, not even in Violet Hill. She needed the Helios-Ra doctors.

I was about to follow Tyson and Jenna when I saw it.