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human?”
    Brent and Maggots were up on the wall in a moment. They wrenched Oliver free and hurled him across the classroom. Oliver lost his sense of up and down. He reached out to the forces without success and braced for a hard landing—
    Only suddenly, he was stilled in midair, his body being controlled by someone else. Oliver opened his eyes to find himself suspended upside down just over the fish tank. Now his body flipped around, and he was thrust across the room toward his desk. As he flew, he heard the excited murmuring of students. He also saw Theo being pulled off the wall by an invisible force.
    â€œSettle down, gentlemen,” a low, gravelly voice hissed.
    Oliver tumbled into his chair, then looked up to see Theo being dropped into his seat with a bone-jarring crunch.
    Their teacher, Mr. VanWick, was sweeping into the room, coattails trailing behind him. “Students,” he muttered, “that’s enough horseplay.” The boys and girls quickly scurried to their seats. Mr. VanWick reached the front of the room and tossed his leather briefcase onto the lectern. As he approached, a goblet, whose rim looked like it had never been washed, met his hand in the air. He took a sip, then looked out at the class and smiled. His flair for the dramatic dated back to having been an Underworld star of the stage in the 1700s. He had even appeared in early human silent films. Aside from the long hair growing from his ears, he kept his appearance youthful, despite his four hundred or more years. Only his eyes, deep in dark circles and red-rimmed, showed his true age.
    Mr. VanWick continued, “Books to page one-eight-five.” Everyone dutifully flipped open their parchment textbooks as Mr. VanWick cleared his throat and began to lecture in his low steady voice.
    Oliver managed to get his book open, his body still aching and his mind racing. He couldn’t believe that article. Emalie had known about vampires…. If she printed that picture of him, Oliver’s school and home life would officially be over. He would never, ever hear the end of it.
    And Emalie’s life would likely be over as well. A human writing articles about the vampires, no matter what little paper it was in, was also writing her own death sentence.

Chapter 4
    A Missed Chance
    OLIVER SAT QUIETLY AT dinner that morning, lost in thought. He absolutely could not let that photo appear in the paper. And he couldn’t let Theo get to Emalie first. Oliver didn’t think that Theo and his friends would kill her, but if Theo got his hands on the photo she had taken, he could find many ways to torment Oliver with it. So Oliver had to get to Emalie before them, and definitely before any adult vampires noticed that article and started asking the Nocturnes why their house was featured in a human school paper. Because that might lead his parents all the way back to Oliver knowing about Emalie’s visits in the first place.
    He could imagine his parents’ ashamed voices. Why didn’t you tell us? Or at least stop her from leaving that very first morning? Yet the truth was that it hadn’t even occurred to him to do so. And it would only be more embarrassing to explain that.
    â€œHow was school, dear?”
    Oliver started, looking up like he’d been caught in a beam of sunlight, but Phlox was talking to Bane. The three of them were sitting in the low-lit dining room. Its walls were hung with deep velvet curtains, the magmalights cooled to orange. A place was laid out for Sebastian, who wasn’t yet home.
    â€œMmm.” Bane’s mouth was full of the chocolate soufflé they were dining on. “What a night,” he added between chews. Oliver marveled at how easily Bane talked around the truth.
    â€œDid you make any progress with physics class?” Phlox asked him.
    Bane slugged back a gulp from his goblet. “Physics is stupid.”
    Phlox smiled tightly and looked down at her plate. Oliver