I try to push up on my arms to look for Dani but my elbow collapses. "Vampires," I whisper. "Two of them."

"How the h.e.l.l did you get caught?" Zahara asks.

"We didn't have any binders-it all happened so fast. They just grabbed us and then-"

Zahara looks up at the ceiling and shakes her head. "How could you be so stupid? You never go out without binders!"

"We were just after a ghost. We didn't think-"

"d.a.m.n straight, you didn't think!" Zahara says. "You're lucky you still have a pulse!"

Sascha helps me sit up. "Look around for Dani, I'll stay with her."

When Margo and Zahara leave the room, Sascha leans in close to me. "I was afraid something like this would happen," she whispers.

"What?"

"I think they're trying to scare you and Dani."

"The vamps?"

"No-our mothers."

"We were just testing the new ball. My mom thought it would be an easy job; she didn't know vamps were hanging here."

Margo comes down the stairs. "The place is empty-just a couple of dead rats the vamps were snacking on." She looks down at me. "Before the main course arrived."

"That's not funny," Sascha says.

"Well-" Margo pauses like she knows that was a s.h.i.tty thing to say. She looks away. "It was just a joke," she adds quietly, apparently unable to stop herself from using her usual tagline.

"Dani's got to be here. Wait, is her broom out front?" I ask, hoping it's gone and she's just flown off instead of dead.

Z walks in. "Yeah, both of your brooms are leaning on the porch rails, we saw them when we landed. Look, I don't see any sign of her or the vamps. Why don't we head home and get some help. Helena might be able to do some tracing spell. Can you fly?"

My head throbs when I stand up, and I feel weak. "Yeah, I think so."

"Huh," Margo says, walking across the room. She bends over and then holds out the witch ball I'd brought. "Looks like there was a ghost after all."

"No," I say, taking the ball from her hand, but as the words come out of my mouth, I wonder if I'm wrong. A burning, white light is banging around furiously inside the ball, weaving up and down the gla.s.s threads, like it's trying to find a way out. "When we revealed I didn't see a ghost, just the two vamps, but maybe one got sucked in while I was-"

"Meat?" Margo asks.

Sascha turns to Margo. "What the h.e.l.l is your problem? Dani's missing after a freaking vampire attack, and you're dropping one-liners?"

"She didn't mean it," Zahara says. "Right?

Margo s.n.a.t.c.hes the ball out of my hands. "Yeah, and I don't think anything's happened to Dani. She's been so p.i.s.sy about everything, she probably needed some time alone to think."

"No," I say. "You didn't see it. I don't think that was something Dani could have walked away from on her own!"

Margo raises her eyebrows. "You seem to have pulled through okay. But since I've never been stupid enough to let a vamp get close enough to bite to me, I'll have to take your word for it."

I stare at her and tell myself to keep control. But I can't. I slap her face with as much force as I can manage and stumble as my knees give out from under me.

Sascha catches me, but I wobble in her arms. "Jules!"

Zahara grabs my other arm and pulls us both up. "Hey! Cut it out!"

"What the fu-" Margo sputters, holding a hand to her face. "My nose is bleeding!"

I wrap one arm around Zahara's neck to steady myself. "Just be happy I'm weak from having my blood drained, because I was trying to break it. But let me be the first to congratulate you on finally becoming the uber-b.i.t.c.h you've been in training for. I thought maybe you were on our side, but it's obvious you'd rather be Helena's pet hunter."

Margo walks up to me and pokes my chest with a finger. "You know what, Jules? You'd just better back off, because you don't know the half of it! And don't think Helena is going to let you keep d.i.c.king around with Connor if you're not one hundred percent behind the coven! Not that you really have a choice. None of us do!"

We all stare at Margo.

"What?" Zahara asks. She turns to me. "You and Connor are like-together? And Helena knows?"

Margo holds a flashlight under her chin, illuminating her face. "G.o.d, Z, I thought Dani was supposed to be the thick one. But yeah, Helena knows, and she's not happy." She flicks the light off and brushes past me. "I'll be at the meetinghouse," she calls back to us. "Helena's gonna want to see this ball and hear what happened."

She thunders down the porch steps and I hear her mutter the cloaking spell.

"I can't take this anymore!" Zahara says, her hands curled into fists at her sides. "Sascha, you've got to tell us something!"

Sascha slumps against the wall. She closes her eyes, and Z and I exchange looks, and I wonder if Sascha's pa.s.sed out.

"Sascha?" I say.

She opens her eyes, takes out the flask, and brings it to her lips again. She throws it back and takes a long swig, and then hands it out to Zahara. "Here, this helps. Some."

Z shakes her head. "I don't want the freaking booze-I want answers!"

"Okay," Sascha says. She stands up and sways a bit. "I've been in h.e.l.l since my birthday- figuratively-but I've kept it under wraps with a little help." She shakes the flask and lets out a quiet laugh. "Dani, on the other hand, leaves her initiation a little nuttier, runs her mouth, and gets a very powerful spell cast on her. She doesn't show signs of improvement, and people are very careful about what they say around her, not knowing what will set her off again."

"Your point?" I ask.

"My point is, I was being the good, quiet witch who fades into the background making it easy to forget I'm there-easy to talk in front of me." She takes another swig. "And I overheard my mom on the phone last night, she said she wasn't sure if 'scaring them straight' was the best tactic, but she'd go along with it if the majority ruled."

"And you think that's what happened?" I ask. "Our mothers set us up?"

Zahara kicks an old beer can across the floor. "With vampires?" she says, rolling her eyes toward the cracked ceiling. "That's crazy!"

"Crazy, yes," Sascha says, "but not the least bit surprising." She takes another drink and puts her arms around Zahara and me. "Our mothers have taken the term 'evil b.i.t.c.h' to a whole 'nother freaking level."

I think about my mom emphasizing the coven mission before we went out tonight. I could almost see her thinking an unexpected attack might make me feel a little more willing to go out and get revenge on the next set of bad guys-make me feel the bloodl.u.s.t a little more.

My hand reaches up for my necklace. The stone didn't light up despite the fact Dani and I reactivated them just yesterday.

Of course, if there's a spell to activate stones, why not one to deactivate them? I wonder if such a spell might involve a cauldron and herbs that turn the steam into a thick, swampy, blue mess. I shake my head. She couldn't have. She wouldn't have.

"You really think they sent the vamps to rough us up?" I ask.

Sascha nods. "The question is," she says, looking around the empty room, "did one of the vamps take things too far?"

15.

I look out my living room window and see the moon hanging orange and low in the darkening sky. It's waxing and should be full within the next few days. It's been just over twenty-four hours since Dani disappeared. I wonder if she can see it wherever she is.

I rub the top of Nuisances head, and he gives a sleepy trill. Was Dani really taken by the vamps? I've asked myself this a million times today, while carefully avoiding thinking too long about the next logical question.

If so, will we have to hunt her down?

I squeeze my eyes tight and hear Dani's voice in my head stating the obvious like she always does. Well, hunting vamps and werewolves is what we do.

I stare at my cell phone sitting on the coffee table and will myself not to call Connor again.

He wasn't any help anyway.

Don't worry, babe, I'm sure she'll turn up. You know how mad she was, she's probably just trying to get her head together. I really can't talk right now- my mom's hovering and something big is going on. Call you later!

What could be bigger than Dani disappearing?

But maybe that's what he meant, and it just didn't come out right.

Mom walks in with her cape on. I keep petting Nuisance, and pretend I don't see her.

She sits next to me and reaches out and kneads her knuckles on top of Nuisance's head. "I have to go out for a little while. We're having a meeting to try to sort out what happened, and figure out what to do next. And to find Dani."

She pauses and I wonder if she realizes that her "find Dani" sounded like an afterthought. I stare down at Nuisance, concentrating on the deep rumblings coming up from his throat.

"I know how hard this is for you," she says. "If I had known what was going to happen, I never-"

She takes a deep jagged breath, and I try to think of something snarky to say. I could ask her how the ghost ball biz is going, or if she could've come up with something a little less lethal than a vampire attack to ensure Dani got a zero on the chem quiz-but I decide to play it Sascha's way and keep things cool.

"Yeah, it's hard. Really hard." I look at her and see she isn't wearing the plastered-on smile that's been the norm lately- her face is drawn and blotchy from crying.

I haven't cried yet. I thought if I could hold out and be strong, Dani would come home and we could laugh about the good scare she gave everyone. I think I was worried if I did cry, it'd mean Dani was dead-or worse.

I let Mom wrap me in her arms, and now I can't hold back the tears any longer. She hugs me tight, and I have to believe Sascha got it all wrong. Our mothers couldn't have set us up.

"Mom, I'm so scared. I thought for sure she'd call me today. But she-"

Mom hugs me tighter, and then smoothes my hair with her hands. "I know, sweetie. We're all scared, but we've put the word out on the street to look for her." Mom gets up and blots her eyes on the edge of her cape. "I can stay if you want me to."

"No, that's okay. I want you to find Dani."

"I'll call you if we hear anything."

There's a knock on the kitchen door and my heart skips a beat. "Dani?"

Mom shakes her head. "I'm sure if it was Dani she'd go home first. I'll see who it is."

I'm thinking home is probably the last place Dani would go. I pull the blanket up to my chin and hope if it isn't Dani it's Connor. Surely after everything that's happened he could come over-it's not like we're a secret anymore.

Nuisance jumps off my lap and follows Mom into the kitchen. I hear the kitchen door open.

"Michael, how nice of you to come over."

I sigh.

"I'm just on my way out, but Julia's in the living room. I'm sure she'd love someone to talk to."

I'd love to talk to Connor, but I guess Michael will have to do.

The door shuts, and I sit up and run my fingers through my hair. "Hey," I say when he walks in.

"Hey," he says quietly as he takes off his coat and sits next to me. "I just thought you might need some company." He takes my hand, and a tear rolls down my cheek.

"Dani's tough, Jules-tougher than people give her credit for."

I lean into him and breathe the November air clinging to his flannel shirt. "I don't think she's coming home."

He doesn't try to dissuade me, and I'm figuring he's come to the same conclusion.

"And," I continue, "I won't be able to tell her I'm sorry." I take a deep breath and decide to tell him the other thing I've been trying not to think about.

"We got in a fight just before it happened," I whisper. "She didn't think I had her back- and I didn't. She was so upset after her initiation and I didn't try hard enough to help her. And I let the vamp take her. I didn't even try to stop it." I look up into his brown eyes, wondering if he'll be sorry he came over-sorry he tried to comfort someone who let their best friend go down in flames.

"Hey," he says, squeezing my hand. "It wasn't your fault. You guys aren't invulnerable, and from what I've heard, vamps can really mess with your head."

"Oh, yeah." I sigh, remembering how powerless I felt.

He leans away from me and tilts his chin down. "And a lot of weird s.h.i.t has been happening, that's the other reason I came over." He looks around the room like he's not sure if he should go on. "I heard my mom talking to Mrs. Keyes on my back porch," he says finally.

I wipe my sleeve across my eyes and cheeks. "Were they talking about Dani?"

Michael nods and furrows his brow like he's not sure he can tell me what comes next.

"Michael! What did they say?"

He takes a deep breath. "Mrs. Keyes figured that the vampire who got to Dani wouldn't turn her because then Dani would talk. She figured she'd-"