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thinks Claudia’s self-portraits are visionary. I’m the one with the talent, Lenah.
Me
.’
    His enthusiasm was contagious and I was desperate for him to like me as he had once before.
    ‘You want to crush poor Claudia Hawthorne?’ I asked.
    He dropped his chin to his chest. ‘She’s just so freakin’ good.’
    I could speak to Tony on Main Street, and if we went in the direction of town, the restaurants and pub might still be open. Cars drove by often enough. Tony could run back on to campus, or away
from me – whatever worked for him, depending on his reaction to the truth. You know, when I told him that I was once a Vampire Queen and killed thousands.
    ‘Fine,’ I said. ‘Take me off campus and get me expelled.’
    ‘Perfect, Len!’
    I gasped, but tried not to seem too excited. Tony had called me by my nickname. I loved it and hoped he would use it all the time as he once had.
    The quickest way off campus was to walk parallel to the greenhouse and creep through a short stretch of woods to Main Street. I followed behind Tony though I hesitated at the end of Turner and
checked the shadows for anyone lurking.
    ‘What?’ Tony said. ‘Oh . . .’ He nodded. ‘I see what’s happening here.’ He kept nodding like he held all the secrets in the universe and I was the
dumbest human alive. ‘Is this your first time sneaking off campus?’
    ‘Um . . .’
    Not the most brilliant of answers, I admit. I stalled and continued searching the woods, not for Justin but for someone who might want to impale me with an arrow. Maybe the mystery archer
figured I’d never be so foolish as to leave campus. But with Tony in the moonlight smiling at me, there was no way I could say no to him.
    ‘So is it?’ he asked again. ‘Is it your first time going AWOL? Did you go to a boarding school before this? Claudia said she heard a rumour you went to a
British—’
    ‘This is my first boarding school,’ I said stopping him before he used more acronyms and expressions I didn’t understand. ‘Don’t need to get kicked out my first
week.’
    ‘Oh, you won’t. We get caught all the time. It’s part of the unofficial Wickham initiation.’
    We snuck over the path, kept our backs to the greenhouse and hesitated at the end of the building. The Main Street lamps filtered a pearly glow through the full branches of the Wickham woods. We
were close to the stone wall that surrounded campus. I touched the dagger tucked in my belt.
    A smile lingered on Tony’s mouth as he tiptoed towards the stone wall ahead. I fell behind to cover him, spinning to check if anyone was tailing us, though the woods truly seemed empty and
the wind was light. I wished for my vampire sight, which allowed me to see in infinitesimal detail. The edge of the constellation Pegasus peeked through the breaks in the leaves above. Pegasus
always showed me the safest way whether I was a vampire or a human.
    I climbed over the six-foot wall and dropped on to Main Street next to Tony. We were pretty close to Lovers Bay Cemetery, which was halfway down Main Street. I inhaled the salty ocean air.
    ‘Congrats! You’re officially a Wickham student. I’d drink a beer with you on the town beach, but all I brought is my pencil.’
    ‘I hate beer. And actually,’ I said, tucking my hair behind my ears, ‘I came out tonight to talk to you.’
    We were about a hundred and fifty feet from the Wickham gates. If we needed to, we could probably make it back to campus without having to climb the wall a second time.
    ‘Will you chill? If I had thought you would be this nervous, I wouldn’t have taken you off campus. Note to self: Lenah Beaudonte is a crappy road buddy.’
    I checked the length of the stone wall for anyone else that might be lurking about.
    ‘Are you OK?’
    ‘I need to tell you something.’
    ‘You need to talk to me?’ Tony said. ‘In the middle of the night? Oh . . .’ He shuffled his feet on the sidewalk. ‘Because I’m with . . . kind of,