He lunges at me, but Leanna yanks him back just in time. "Come on," she says. "Don't waste your time with this n.o.body. We've got to get ready. The sacrament is scheduled to begin any moment now."

Corbin lets out a breath. "You're right," he says. Then he turns to me. "I'm going to enjoy disemboweling your sister," he spits. And then, with that lovely sentiment, he follows Leanna out, closing the door behind him and leaving me in darkness.

Once their footsteps fade away, I work to try to break my bonds. But it's no use. I'm stuck fast and I succeed only in making my wrists bleed. If only I had that kind of mental telepathy with Magnus that Rayne has with Jareth. Then at least I could warn him.

He and Jareth are probably out there right now in the ceremony room with the other initiates, with no idea what's going on. Which means they might be forced to take a sip from my sister. And while I'm not sure if her poisonous blood can kill full-blooded vampires, I'm so not ready to take that chance. I've got to warn them somehow.

And then there's my sister. My sweet Rayne. My best friend in the world, lying unconscious on a table, her blood swimming with poison. If the poison doesn't kill her, the thousand bites from the initiates will drain her dry. And then she'll be gone... forever.

Meaning half of me will be gone, too.

A lump forms in my throat. I feel so d.a.m.n helpless. If only there was a way to get out. I'd trade every bit of "normal" to just have some kind of crazy superpower right about now to get me out of this mess so I can save my family.

But just as I'm about to give in to my despair, the door squeaks open and light shines into the room. I look up, a.s.suming it's Corbin or Leanna, back for more. But it's not.

It's Jayden.

26.

"Oh my G.o.d! Jayden!" I cry. I don't think I could be happier to see anyone-even the Bergdorf shoe fairy-at this point. "How did you-?"

He runs into the room and goes right to work on my bindings. "When Jareth hypnotized me he opened a two-way link between me and Corbin," he explains as he unties. "Once you guys left I kept getting visions of him and what he was doing. Which was annoying, at first. Until I caught a glimpse of you and I realized you were in trouble." He yanks the rope free. "So, of course, I had to rescue you," he adds shyly. "I hope that's okay."

I leap from my seat, throwing my arms around him in a huge hug. "Thank you so much! I don't know what I would have done without you!"

He smiles his crooked smile. "You won't ever have to find out."

My heart melts at his naked vulnerability. Half of me just wants to kiss him all over again. To tell him I forgive him. But it's more complicated than that. And I need to stay focused here.

"We have to go find Magnus and Jareth," I tell him. "Corbin's planning to poison everyone here."

Jayden nods and we rush out of the closet and back into the makeshift lab. The good news-it's now totally deserted. The bad news-my sister's gone, too. Which means they must have moved her body to the main hall for the ceremony. We don't have much time left.

But something out of the corner of my eye causes me to pause at the door. The Holy Grail. It's still sitting in its gla.s.s case. I run over, grabbing a metal bar off the counter, and start smashing at the gla.s.s.

"What are you doing?" Jayden cries.

The gla.s.s shatters. I reach in and pull out the cup. Then I try to hand it to him. "This is it," I tell him. "Drink this and you'll be mortal again. You won't have to live this vampiric nightmare anymore."

To my surprise Jayden refuses the goblet. "No," he says, shaking his head. "As long as I remain a vampire, I share Corbin's link. I can read his mind and help you defeat the Alphas and save your sister.

I can't do that if I go back to being a weak-a.s.s, powerless human."

"But..." My heart wrenches at his words. I know he's doing this for me. To prove his love. To offer protection at the expense of his own happiness. But the price he'll pay for his devotion may be too high to bear. "Look, Jayden, as much as I appreciate your willingness to help, you're running out of time. Once your vampire cells bond completely with your human ones, that's it. There's no turning back. What if this is your last chance to regain your mortality?"

He shrugs. "Then I'll miss my last chance. I'll deal." He sounds so confident. And half of me wants to agree with him. Just let him be a vampire-my immortal protector-for the rest of eternity. But no, I can't do that to him. I can't let him make the ultimate sacrifice for me when I still don't even know what it is I want from him.

Once upon a time, I, too, had been tempted to give up my humanity for love. Not because I wanted to become a vampire. But because I wanted to be with Magnus. But Magnus realized this-and saved me from myself.

And now I have to do the same for Jayden. Or I'll never be able to live with myself.

"Can you listen to Corbin now?" I ask him. "Figure out which way he went?"

Jayden nods, closing his eyes to concentrate. I take the opportunity to swig a big gulp of the Grail. (Which, um, is completely nasty, by the way.) Jayden opens his eyes, oblivious. "He's in some kind of big temple," he says. "Where they're holding the biting ceremony-"

I don't let him finish. Instead, I throw my arms around him and kiss him hard on the lips. His mouth opens in surprise, allowing me to let the liquid flow through.

He gags and jerks away, spitting it out. I hope he managed to swallow some...

"What the h.e.l.l was that?" he demands.

"Jayden," I say softly, wiping the liquid from my own mouth. "I don't think you really want to be a vampire."

His eyes widen in realization. He stares at me. "You didn't..." he whispers. "Oh G.o.d, Sunny, you didn't!"

"I'm sorry," I say, my heart aching in my chest. "I know it was a low move. But I had no choice."

"Why would you do that?" he whispers. "I could have helped."

"You've helped enough," I a.s.sure him, tears falling from my eyes. "Now it's my turn to help you. Some of us are cursed with the darkness. But you still have a chance. A chance at a normal life, surrounded by the people and animals you love so much. They need you, Jayden. Your friends. The dogs and cats of the theater. And I think, deep down, if you're honest with yourself, you'll find you need them, too." I pause, then add, "And I refuse to be the selfish person who robs you of your life and everything you love."

"But I don't mind-"

"Maybe not now," I agree. "But someday you would. Someday you'd start to regret the sacrifice you made for me. And you'd start to resent me for that. Maybe even hate me a little. And I couldn't live with that."

Jayden says nothing at first, tears streaming down his cheeks, matching my own. Then, finally, he nods. "Oh, Sunny," he murmurs. "I'll never forget what you've done for me."

I reach out to pull him into a rough hug, my tears splashing down onto his shoulder. "That makes two of us."

27.

After saying good-bye to Jayden and promising to call him the second this is all over, I conjure up another red robe, then sneak down the now-empty halls once again, this time following signs to the temple, where evidently everyone's gathering for the main event.

I step into the large chamber, a cavernous underground arena that would astound those who worship at the now-paltry-looking temple aboveground. The whole place seems as if it's been dipped in gold and draped with crimson curtains. Statues of Buddha are everywhere and smoke streams from incense being burned on several altars. I feel like I've snuck into the devil worshiper's place in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Except these initiates are wearing red cloaks and they're all facing a large, curtained stage at the front of the room in antic.i.p.ation of the upcoming sacrament.

I scan the place, desperately seeking Magnus and Jareth-who texted to let me know they made it to the temple-but with everyone in matching outfits, it's harder to pick anyone out than in a Where's Waldo? book.

"Oh my G.o.d! Sunny McDonald? Is that you?" squeals a voice beside me.

Shocked at the sound of my name, I whirl around, my eyes widening as they fall on none other than my old friend Evelyn from back at Riverdale Academy, flanked by her Slay School friends Amber, Ember, Gwen, and Mackenzie. They're all wearing the requisite red robes and all excitedly clamor around me-hugging and squealing in excitement. While I greatly appreciate the sentiment and yes, I missed them, too, I'm wondering how I can politely let them know I need to keep a low profile here.

"I can't believe you got here!" Evelyn cries. "I thought somehow you got lost in the big move." "Move?" I repeat, wondering what the Alpha group's cover story was to their students. After all, these girls signed up to be slayers to fight evil-not become it. There's no way they'd be down with the headmistress's plan for world domination if they knew what it entailed.

"Didn't you hear? That's why we're in j.a.pan!" adds Amber, who appears to be wearing a Batman logo shirt under her robes. Jareth would be so pleased. "Remember that vampire who bit Corbin back at school? Well, she escaped and brought all her evil vampire friends back with her."

"It was awful!" cries Gwen. "We barely got out alive."

"Yeah, we had to take off in the middle of the night and leave all our stuff behind," Kenzie adds with a scowl.

I cringe. So that's what Headmistress Roberta told them? That the group moved them across the world for their own protection against vampires set to drain them dry? I guess that explains all the willing victims here.

"So what's all this about now?" I ask, wondering if they even know why they're here tonight. I mean, I can't imagine these innocent girls would willingly give their lives to the cause and become vampiric fae.

The girls look at one another, then back at me. Ember lowers her voice. "We don't know," she hisses. "All we know is there's supposed to be something they're calling 'the sacrament' that we all have to take."

"And once we do," Amber adds, "we can finally graduate to fully licensed slayers."

"I cannot wait to graduate," Gwen says pa.s.sionately. "Then maybe I can finally go home."

"Since the vampire attack, we've been on total lockdown," adds her cousin Kenzie. "We're not allowed to contact any friends or family not affiliated with the organization." She frowns. "I never thought I'd miss my mom so much."

I bite my lower lip, wondering what on Earth I should tell them. If I can't stop Corbin from doling out the poisoned blood, these innocent girls will die. And if I do stop him, they're still in danger of being bombed to oblivion by the Consortium in just a few hours.

"Um, what if you guys left now?" I try, without much hope. "I mean, you all miss your families, right? Why don't you just skip out on this whole crazy sacrament thing and go home to see them?"

"Leave?" Evelyn looks at me like I'm crazy. "But we've worked so hard to get here! And we're finally going to graduate. How could we just leave?"

"Besides, we've all taken a vow to kill evil vampires," Amber reminds me. "After all, if we slayers don't stand together against the darkness of the otherworld, who will?"

Good question. And right about now, it's looking like yours truly is the prime candidate. After all, as much as I hate what the Alphas are doing to my sister, I can't in good conscience let all these innocent people die. They may be slayers, but they're good kids who have somehow found themselves unknowingly on the wrong side. I'm sure if we were able to get them away they'd make valuable members of the real Slayer Inc. organization. The one run by Vice President Teifert, who is only interested in upholding justice and the law, not trying to take over the world.

But, I realize at the same time, even if we could pry them away from the Alpha's clutches, the Consortium would still not likely let them live. It would be a risk. And I've seen firsthand what the Consortium thinks of taking risks. To them, the only good slayer is a dead slayer.

Of course, at the moment, it's not up to them, now, is it?

"I've got to go do something," I tell my friends. "But I need you guys to do me a major favor." "What's that?" Gwen asks.

"Promise me when the ceremony starts, you'll go stand near the exit. Then if something... were to go wrong... you can get out easily."

They stare at me with wide, confused eyes. "Go wrong?" Ember asks. "What could go wrong?"

"I can't explain now," I apologize. "But trust me, okay?"

They all nod and turn to slowly push their way through the crowd, toward the back doors. I let out a sigh of relief. Well, that's something, at least.

But now I have bigger fish to fry. I weave through the crowd, toward the front of the stage. Suddenly a rough hand grabs me and yanks me to the sidelines. What now? I whirl around, my eyes thankfully alighting on Magnus.

"You scared me!" I hiss.

He grabs me roughly and pulls me close, squeezing me so tight for a moment I think he's going to crush my ribs. Guess that means I'm forgiven for my Jayden-kissing sins.

"I was worried!" he cries, kissing the top of my head over and over. "We kept trying to text you and you didn't answer. And the guards wouldn't let us leave the chamber once we walked in. I thought..." His voice cracks. "Well, I thought you were..."

I reach out to squeeze his hand. "Well, once again you underestimated your little Sunshine," I tease. "I'm totally fine. But we have bigger problems." In a low voice, I give him and Jareth the rundown of what I learned from Corbin. Jareth cringes when I mention Rayne's poisoning.

"Okay," Jareth says when I'm finished. "So we'll find where they've got her stashed, grab her, and get the h.e.l.l out of here so the Consortium can blast the lot of them to kingdom come. Sound good?"

I bite my lower lip. "Um, no," I say. "I'm not okay with that, actually."

The vampires stare at me in disbelief. "What?" Magnus asks. "Sunny, why not?"

"Look, there are a lot of innocent people here, okay?" I remind them. "Sure, the leaders are evil and all that. But the rest of them are just students. p.a.w.ns in the Alphas' game. They never signed up to become vamshee warriors. They don't want to take over the world. They just want to help police the bad guys-like my sister and my stepmom and my mom's boyfriend, David, and all the others in the main Slayer Inc. group. They don't deserve to be poisoned. And they certainly don't deserve to be bombed by the Consortium either."

"I suppose you would have tried to save the construction workers on the Death Star, as well," Jareth replies drolly.

"Hey! All those guys wanted to do was feed their families..."

Magnus scowls. "If we let them go free, the war will continue indefinitely. And the Alphas will gain the upper hand."

"I don't believe that," I say stubbornly. "I think if we tell these people what's really going on, they'll rebel against the leaders who lied to them. They'll turn to our side."

"It's a dangerous gamble you're asking for," Jareth growls. "Do you really believe all these people here are innocent?"

"I lived with them at Riverdale, remember?" I ask. "They're good kids. They've just been lied to and tricked. And once they find out what's really going on, I don't believe a single one of them will side with Headmistress Roberta."

"That's all well and good, but-"

I turn to Magnus. "Look, you're always asking me to see the bigger picture," I remind him. "And yes, I want to save my sister. More than anything in the world. But I can't do it at the expense of having hundreds of other innocent people killed instead."

Magnus sighs. "Did I ever mention you're too good for your own good?"

I grin. "All the time."

"Well, whatever we do, we need to make a decision fast," Jareth says, glancing at his watch. "Because the bombs will start flying in less than an hour."

I open my mouth to reply, but at that moment I'm cut off as the trumpets sound and the red silk curtain slowly slides open. The crowd erupts in excited cheers and whoops as none other than Headmistress Roberta herself steps up to the podium, illuminated by a single spotlight.

It's showtime.