things being common in antiquity. Nothing more is known until fifteen years later, when the sister

was on the verge of blooming. He could no longer keep her a secret, so he drank her dry.”

My stomach turned over hard. “He what?” It burst out of me.

Beaufort actually winced. “He, ahem, killed her. Drank past the point of bonding, past the point of

the blood-dark, past the point of crippling. He absorbed his sister. And used the strength in her

blood to become something the wampyr could not stand against. At least, something the taproot of

their species could not stand against. Without that taproot—”

“Whoa. He ate his sister?” It was the guy in front of me. I was feeling kind of glad someone else

was having the same reaction. Guess chivalry isn’t dead.

Beaufort sighed. It was a Dylan-class sigh, but without the shades of patient aggravation Dylan

could have put into it. “Essentially, yes. He absorbed her essence and used the resulting aura-dark to

strike at the Vampire King. Who was, incidentally, Scarabus’s master for most of his life.”

“Wait. The aura-dark.” I remembered that term faintly. “What is that?”

Nobody breathed or moved for a long few seconds. I was getting used to that, whenever I asked a

really basic question. They took all these things for granted, since most of them had been raised

djamphir . It kind of made me wonder what I’d be taking for granted if Mom was still alive.

Now there was an uncomfortable thought.

Beaufort looked up over my head, and a faint tinge of pink touched his cheeks. “It is what happens

when a djamphir drinks blood. After a certain point, the, ah, the nosferat part of our heritage rises to

the surface. We gain more strength, more speed—and less ability to withstand sunlight. It burns us

just as it burns them, when we give in to the craving.” His mouth pursed. “We’ll cover more of that

later, Milady. With your permission?”

So that was why Christophe had hidden from the sun after biting me. I nodded, pulled my jaw back

up. Closed my mouth with a snap. Gee, I was just learning new things all over. I wished I had my

hoodie on. Gooseflesh crept up my arms, spread down my back.

“Without the King, the Court scattered and gradually lost their ability to walk during the day. Which

brings us back to the point of this lecture. Why do you suppose Scarabus had to hide his sister?”

I just knew I was going to say something snide. “For snacking later?”

There were a couple of gasps, one horrified chuckle, and several snorts. A few of the boys looked

down at their notepads or books, one or two of them with bright crimson cheeks.

I never used to wise off in class. Things were just changing all over.