Free Hourglass by Claudia Gray Page B

me betraying any other vampires toMilos. As I changed out of my sweaty clothes, Raquel headed out, promising to get rations for both of us. I didn’t really feel like eating anything, much less my seventh consecutive day of oatmeal, but I thanked her and let her go. Some alone time seemed like a good plan.
    Once I’d changed clothes, I took a stroll along the tunnel. It was the first privacy I’d really had since the fall of Evernight; at every other point, I’d either had a job to do or people with me. The fathomless dark of the distant tunnel, past the strings of light Black Cross used, seemed as absolute a limit as any wall could ever be.
    I saw that vampire in a dream , I thought. I had wondered before if my dreams were beginning to predict the future, but this was the surest proof I’d had yet. The vampire with the reddish dreadlocks had been revealed to me by the wraith.
    After so long away from the hauntings at Evernight Academy, and after becoming used to the reassurance of the obsidian pendant around my neck, I’d managed to put aside some of my anxieties about the wraiths. But now, with the ghosts reaching into my mind and showing me the future, all that confusion and fear was coming back.
    They were after me because I was, in some ways, as much the child of a ghost as of vampires. My parents had essentially bargained with the wraiths so that I could be born. Vampires on their own could never get pregnant; with the assistance of a ghost, it was possible. What my parents hadn’t known at the time, and I hadn’t learned until a few months ago, was that thewraiths considered themselves the rightful owners of any children born because of such bargains. I didn’t know what that meant, really—though to judge by their attacks on me at Evernight, it meant they didn’t want me to live as an ordinary vampire. Well, I agreed with them on that score. I’d left the school and my parents, and I remained convinced that I would never kill a human being and become a full vampire.
    Apparently that wasn’t enough for the wraiths. I wondered what else they would want. Would the ghosts keep intruding into my dreams? If they were still after me, why weren’t they attacking me again? Were they only biding their time?
    Then I realized I was worrying about something that would never happen—because I was walking alongside iron railroad tracks.
    Iron! According to Balthazar, the wraiths were repelled by certain stones and metals. Obsidian, like my pendant, was one of them. The most powerful repellants of all were the metals found in the human body, like copper and iron. That meant that Black Cross headquarters was naturally, well, ghost-proofed.
    Slightly relieved, I started to relax. It occurred to me that, now that I had a bit of alone time, I could maybe hunt for a few mice in the tunnels. Lucas’s blood still warmed me, but I was in no hurry to be that hungry again.
    That was when I heard the tapping.
    Click, click, click, click.
    I stared upward into the dark. Even my vampire-enhanced sight couldn’t make out much more than a tangle of pipes andshadows. Once again— click click click click. The sound of metal on metal.
    Maybe it’s nothing.
    Maybe it’s not.
    I ran back toward the subway-car cabins, looking for Raquel. Instead, I ran into Eliza, but that was even better. “Something’s going on farther down the tunnel.” I panted. “This weird knocking sound.”
    “Stuff sounds odd underground.” Clearly it took a lot to rattle Eliza, and a couple of strange noises didn’t come close.
    “Listen, I know you’re freaked out right now, and no wonder. Just stay calm, okay?”
    That’s when I heard a tremendous roar—and the end of the tunnel caved in.
    Concrete tumbled down, great blocks of it the size of rooms, and the air instantly choked thick with dust. Eliza grabbed me to tow me backward; the section of the roof above us remained solid, but how much longer would that be true? “Jesus!” she shouted.