Free A Dark-Adapted Eye by Heather Crews Page B

to check out Stars and the surrounding area, while Ivory and Aleskie, who’d finally woken, talked in his room. Since he’d said she could be useful to us, I assumed they were discussing vampire-related things. I hoped whatever she had to say was helpful, but it was beyond odd having a vampire in the house when I’d been taught they were evil killers—and when I’d seen evidence of what they did to people.
    Thinking about helping made me feel strangely peaceful. I took the phone up to the roof and called Criseyde during her break. She filled me in on some work gossip while I trained my tel escope on Saturn. Fine-tuning the focus, I looked at its rings of ice particles that were like tiny moons and cast shadows on the surface of the planet.
    “So he’s probably getting fired,” she said, wrapping up a story about a time thief coworker.
    “That sucks. I’m looking at Saturn.”
    “You are such a nerd.”
    “Oh yeah? Wait till you hear this.”
    I didn’t tell her about the dead girl, but I filled her in on our unexpected houseguest and what Les had asked me to do. She remained silent after I said I was considering it.
    “So? What do you think about it?” I asked.
    “ I wouldn’t do it,” she said. “Just thinking about those vampires at Shiver . . . I’d never voluntarily put myself in a situation like that again.”
    “But it wouldn’t be a situation like that. There’d only be one vampire, with Ivory and Les ready to attack at the right moment. I’d never be in any real danger.” My tone was almost fli ppant, masking my apprehensive feelings. It was true, though, that if everything went right I wouldn’t get hurt. If I was going to do this, I had to believe that.
    “Still,” said Criseyde.
    “I could be useful. I could prevent other girls from getting killed.”
    “If you think it will impress Les, go ahead. But you’d better be sure you wouldn’t mind d ying for him.”
    I bristled at her insinuation. “I wouldn’t do it to impress him,” I said stiffly. “I’d do it b ecause I want to, and because it’s right. And I don’t need your approval. I just wanted your opinion because you’re my friend.”
    “I did give you my opinion.”
    “Well. Thanks. Talk to you later, I guess.”
    After we hung up, I continued to explore the sky for a couple hours. Somehow I was calm enough to appreciate the stars and the spaces between them. My mind turned Les’s request over and over even though I already knew what I would tell him when he woke up tomorrow. Ever since he’d asked, I’d intended to help him and Ivory. There had never been any question of me saying no.
     

six
     
    e ccentricity: deviation of a curve or orbit from circularity
     
    Anxious. Impatient. Tense.
    I was feeling all these things over breakfast the next morning. Up until now I had been largely useless. I had never done a thing of consequence. Now, suddenly, I was putting my life at risk to help catch a killer of girls my own age. Lucinda. Maybe she’d killed girls Cris or I had known in school. If she weren’t stopped, maybe one of us would become her victim someday.
    Tonight was important. I couldn’t mess it up.
    After I finished eating, I walked back down the hall to my room. It was in the bend of the hall, right between Les’s and Ivory’s. Pausing at my door, I could hear muffled voices from i nside Ivory’s room. It seemed he and the vampire girl had a lot to talk about.
    I studied my constellation book most of the morning. When I heard Les come out of his room, I put the book down and found him in the kitchen. Ivory and Aleskie entered together a moment later, though they didn’t look any friendlier toward one another. My brother was e xhausted, judging by the purple beneath his eyes. Aleskie looked better, most of her bruises and cuts having faded completely.
    “Aleskie and I have talked,” Ivory said. “She’s here to help us. She didn’t become a vampire of her own will and doesn’t have any loyalty