Chapter Five

It was harder than expected for Daisy to get some time to read, with all her friends around her on the train. Especially Zane, who had managed to engineer a way to sit right next to her.

He spoke the whole time, and she felt him getting more and more in her space. Skye was straight across from her, and Daisy gave her pleading looks.

“Zane,” Skye said, “why don’t you and Pierce go and get us some lunch from the shop. It’s just two carriages along.”

“Yeah, we could do that,” Pierce said. “Are you coming, Zane?”

“No. I think I’ll stay here and keep Daisy company,” Zane said.

As he said it, Daisy felt him push his leg tightly against hers, and his hand sneak onto her thigh. Daisy jumped.

“I’ll just go to the bathroom. Can I get past you, Zane?”

Zane reluctantly moved.

“Are you okay?” Skye asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine now.”

When Owen and Trista saw her on the move, they got up from their seats in the next booth.

“It’s okay, you two. I’m just going to the bathroom, right there.”

They nodded and sat back down.

Thank goodness, Daisy thought. She needed space to read her notebook. When she walked along to the end of the carriage, instead of going into the bathroom, she walked straight onto the next carriage and got a seat on her own. She brought out the notebook and opened it at the next entry. Daisy touched her fingertips to the words and was sucked into a new memory. She wasn’t in a marketplace this time—she was in a wheat field.

Daisy heard Angele say, “We began to meet every day, in secret. Neither of our families would be happy about it. Vampire hunters making friends with vampires, it just isn’t done. In fact, if our families found out, it could be extremely dangerous.”

Daisy heard laughter and voices a few yards away, so she followed the sound and found Victorija and Angele, lying on the grass side by side. This was a Victorija she never expected to see.

Daisy kneeled beside them so she could eavesdrop on their conversation.

“I’m going to tell him, Angele.”

“Tell him what?”

“That I don’t want to become a born vampire. I want to remain as human as I can be, for you and me.”

“I appreciate you feel like that, but you’d need to leave here. Imagine what he’d do to you. Look what he already does to you, Torija.” Angele caressed Victorija’s cheekbone, which was bruised black and blue.

Daisy couldn’t believe it. Victorija’s father abused her, and she also didn’t want to be a vampire?