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"No, but the school's guardians can when I call and tell them you're here."
Call it blackmailing or being a tattletale; the effect was the same. The three of them looked at
me like I had just simultaneously gut-punched them all.
"You'd really do that?" asked Mason. "You'd sell us out like that?"
I rubbed my eyes, wondering desperately why I was trying to be the voice of reason here.
Where was the girl who'd run away from school? Mason had been right. I had changed.
"This isn't about selling anyone out. This is about keeping you guys alive."
"You think we're that defenseless?" asked Mia. "You think we'd get killed right away?"
"Yes," I said. "Unless you've found some way to use water as a weapon?"
She flushed and didn't say anything.
"We brought silver stakes," said Eddie.
Fantastic. They must have stolen them. I looked at Mason pleadingly.
"Mason. Please. Call this off. Let's go back."
He looked at me for a long time. Finally, he sighed. "Okay."
Eddie and Mia looked aghast, but Mason had assumed a leadership role with them, and they
didn't have the initiative to go on without him. Mia seemed to take it the hardest, and I felt bad
for her. She'd barely had any real time to grieve for her mother; she'd just jumped right on
board with this revenge thing as a way to cope with the pain. She'd have a lot to deal with when
we got back.
Christian was still excited about the idea of the underground tunnels. Considering he spent all
his time in an attic, I shouldn't have been all that surprised.
"I saw the schedule," he told me. "We've got a while before the next bus."
"We can't go walking into some Strigoi lair," I argued, walking toward the mall's entrance.