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No talking about the L man.”
     
    The L man? Give me a break. “Please, can’t you tell me something useful?” I pleaded.
     
    Adrianne stepped up to his side and grabbed hold of a couple of nose rings. She tugged, and he cried out. “You keep your mouth shut, Blake. Nobody even told you to tell her what you did. They’re going to come down on you, and you’ll be lucky to see the beautiful night for a month!”
     
    She pulled Blake away, and from the looks that passed between them, I knew they were arguing in their heads. What I wouldn’t have given to have that trick again, this time longer, to know what Adrianne had meant by “they” and more about covens. What I desperately needed to know was why Lorcan was obsessed with me and how to stop him. Something told me if I could get Blake alone, he’d spill it, but I had no idea where they lived or if it would be safe to visit.
     
    Who was I kidding? Of course it wouldn’t be safe! I needed some help from someone before I became the undead.
     
    * * * *
     
    “Tanesha, I have the results of your test,” my doctor told me. “I’m not sure why you felt you needed this done, but from the looks of things, you’re healthy. Your blood count is a little low, which concerns me.” She flipped through her reports.
     
    I glanced up from studying my feet. “My blood’s low? I have less? B-But I feel fine. Strong and healthy.” I’d wanted to know if Lorcan sucking my blood had some bad effect on my body, but now that I was here, I wanted to deny everything, to pretend none of it had happened. I hadn’t seen any of them in a couple weeks, this being the soonest my doctor could squeeze me into her busy schedule. Was I ever happy that once you hit a certain age, your parent did not have to know anything about your medical sessions.
     
    If my mother knew I had requested blood tests, she would have freaked and suspected the worst. Not that I could blame her. This experience was worse than anything I’d learned in health class.
     
    “Nothing to worry about, Tanesha,” Dr. Morgan told me. “It’s probably your menstrual cycle that’s the culprit. Your body will compensate and make new blood.”
     
    Yeah, but what if more is siphoned off before my body does that? I wondered. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. Most of all, I wanted to kick Lorcan’s butt. Well, right after I had one more kiss. Just one more. How could any of the boys at my school compare to that? Easy. They couldn’t. I sighed and closed my eyes.
     
    “Nothing at all to worry about. You’re fine.” She marked my chart. “I will see you back here in six months for your annual checkup.”
     
    Still worried, I hopped off the table and prepared to leave after my doctor had shuffled on to the next patient. A few minutes later I was out on the bus stop squinting in the sunlight because I’d forgotten my sunglasses. I glanced down at my bare arms and was relieved that I wasn’t burning in the least. I was not undead .
     
    When a 1982 Camry with one yellow rusted fender on the right side pulled into the grocery store parking lot beside me, I thought about Mrs. Knowles. That looked like her car, and I knew for a fact that she came all the way out here near my doctor’s office to get food rather than the Stop and Shop near us.
     
    I waited to see if it was her, and sure enough she shuffled out of the car in a big floppy straw hat and a dress that covered all parts of her body, her arms and her legs. For a minute, I thought maybe she was a vampire, but I remembered it was broad daylight, and they would burn. Then again, she could be one of the older ones.
     
    My heart hammering in my chest, I decided to follow her into the store, and if nothing else, I could ask her about the other night and what was up with her going in the house watching TV like nothing happened.
     
    I slipped into the grocery store not a minute behind Mrs. Knowles, but when I stopped just inside the doors and glanced