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do any good. We’d both have to steal more clothes
     the next time we got a chance.
    “Maybe it’s different when a human does it.”
    “Because you felt so magical when you were human?”
    “I don’t know, Diego,” I said, exasperated. “I didn’t make up all those stories.”
    He nodded, suddenly more serious. “What if the stories are exactly that? Made up.”
    I sighed. “What difference does it make?”
    “Not sure. But if we’re going to be smart about why we’re here—why Riley brought us to
her
, why she’s making more of us—then we have to understand as much as we possibly can.” He frowned, every trace of laughter
     totally gone from his face now.
    I just stared back at him. I didn’t have any answers.
    His face softened just a little. “This helps a lot, you know. Talking about it. Helps me focus.”
    “Me, too,” I said. “I don’t know why I never thought about any of this before. It seems so obvious. But working on it together…
     I don’t know. I can stay on track better.”
    “Exactly.” Diego smiled at me. “I’m really glad you came out tonight.”
    “Don’t get all gooey on me now.”
    “What? You don’t want to be”—he widened his eyes and his voice went up an octave—“BFFs?” He laughed at the goofy expression.
    I rolled my eyes, not totally sure if he was making fun of the expression or of me.
    “C’mon, Bree. Be my bestest bud forever. Please?” Still teasing, but his wide smile was natural and… hopeful. He held out
     his hand.
    This time I went for a real high five, not realizing until he caught my hand and held it that he’d intended anything else.
    It was shockingly weird to touch another person after a whole life—because the last three months
were
my whole life—of avoiding any kind of contact. Like touching a sparking downed power line, only to find out that it felt
     nice.
    The smile on my face felt a little lopsided. “Count me in.”
    “Excellent. Our own private club.”
    “Very exclusive,” I agreed.
    He still had my hand. Not shaking it, but not exactly holding it, either. “We need a secret handshake.”
    “You can be in charge of that one.”
    “So the super-secret best friends club is called to order, all present, secret handshake to be devised ata later date,” he said. “First order of business: Riley. Clueless? Misinformed? Or lying?”
    His eyes were on mine as he spoke, wide and sincere. There was no change as he said Riley’s name. In that instant, I was sure
     there was nothing to the stories about Diego and Riley. Diego had just been around more than the others, nothing more. I could
     trust him.
    “Add this to the list,” I said. “Agenda. As in, what is his?”
    “Bull’s-eye. That’s exactly what we’ve got to find out. But first, another experiment.”
    “That word makes me nervous.”
    “Trust is an essential part of the whole secret club gig.”
    He stood up into the extra ceiling space he’d just carved out and started digging again. In a second, his feet were dangling
     while he held himself up with one hand and excavated with the other.
    “You better be digging for garlic,” I warned him, and backed up toward the tunnel that led to the sea.
    “The stories aren’t real, Bree,” he called to me. He pulled himself higher into the hole he was making, and the dirt continued
     to rain down. He was going to fill in his hidey-hole at this rate. Or flood it with light, which would make it even more useless.
    I slid most of the way into the escape channel,just my fingertips and eyes above the edge. The water only came up to my hips. It would take me just the smallest fraction
     of a second to disappear into the darkness below. I could spend a day not breathing.
    I’d never been a fan of fire. This might have been because of some buried childhood memory, or maybe it was more recent. Becoming
     a vampire was enough fire to last me.
    Diego had to be close to the surface. Once again, I struggled with the idea of