Kristi gave her a look. “Vampire bats…or the Count Dracula kind? Oh, wait, I get it. You’re putting me on.”

But Lucretia was serious. “This isn’t a joke! Some of the kids run around with fangs and vials of blood hanging from their necks, and they are so into Dr. Grotto’s class that it’s almost like an obsession. Totally out of line.”

“But they don’t really believe there are vampires who sleep in coffins during the day and run around and drink human blood at night. The kind that are only killed by wooden stakes or silver bullets and can’t look into mirrors.”

“Don’t be that way.”

“What way?” Kristi asked.

“So…harsh. And I don’t know what they believe.” Almost guiltily, Lucretia played with a gold chain encircling her neck. Between her fingers a small diamond-encrusted cross dangled.

“So, Rylee was into this vampire thing,” Kristi said skeptically.

“Yes. Oh, yeah…” The diamond cross glittered under the huge suspended lights of the dining hall.

“What do they do? This vampire cult?”

“I don’t know. Rylee was…secretive.”

“What do you know about her?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call her the most stable girl on the planet,” Lucretia admitted. “She had quit college once before, maybe in winter or spring term of last year.” She cleared her throat. Looked away. The cross winked.

“And—” Kristi prodded, sensing there was more.

“And, well…she was…is a bit of a drama queen. Well, not just a bit, I would say. She did try to commit suicide once.”

“Suicide?”

“Shh!” Lucretia lowered her voice and quit playing with her necklace. “I know, that’s a cry for help and I’m not sure she ever got it. Her mother spent so much time worrying that Rylee would get pregnant, she never saw how much pain Rylee was in.”

“Her mother ignored her suicide attempt?” Krista asked incredulously.

“The way Rylee told it, she gave her mom a lot of trouble as a teenager—staying out late, partying, the wrong crowd, drugs, boys, you name it. So she washed her hands of her, turned her back on her own kid. How about that?” Lucretia said the last phrase bitterly and Kristi was reminded of Lucretia’s own disengaged parents. At least disengaged emotionally.

Lucretia cleared her throat. “Anyway, from what I understand, her mother thinks Rylee’s disappearance is just one more of her ‘stunts,’ a clamor for attention.”

“But you think it’s this…cult.”

“Yes.”

“And that she got mixed up with something or someone evil within the cult.”

Lucretia swallowed hard. “I hope I’m wrong.”

“You think she took this vampirism thing too far, really believed it, and got in over her head.”

Lucretia was obviously turning it over in her mind. “Yes…yes…I think it’s possible.”