Kristi threw off the covers, disturbing Houdini, who had ventured close to the bed as she was sleeping. “Sorry,” she said as the cat scrambled to his hiding place. She padded barefoot into the kitchen area, flipped on the faucet and, holding her hair away from her face, took a long swallow of the tap water.

How many times had Tara done this?

Kristi twisted off the tap and wiped her lips by turning her head, using the shoulder of the oversized T-shirt she used as pajamas. She leaned her hips against the counter and stared into the room where she and the ghost of Tara Atwater resided. The desk chair had come with the place, probably used by Tara to study for the same classes that Kristi was now taking.

She listened as the clock ticked off the seconds, the refrigerator hummed, and her own heart kept a steady beat. It was almost as if she was tracing Tara’s life, walking in her footsteps, becoming the girl who had just left class one day and never shown up again.

It didn’t make any sense.

Tara had no car, but she did have a credit card, a computer to log on to the Internet, a MySpace page, and a cell phone, none of which had been used since. The last person Tara had seen was the head of the English Department, Dr. Natalie “No comment” Croft. So far Kristi hadn’t been able to get through to her.

Kristi’s mind jumped to Rylee. The last person she’d met with was Lucretia Stevens, something Kristi’s ex-roommate had failed to mention. “Curiouser and curiouser,” she said to Houdini, who’d slunk to the far side of the room, luminous eyes focused on Kristi. Closing her eyes and rotating her neck, Kristi took in five deep breaths; then knowing that sleep would be far too elusive, she rolled out her desk chair, sat down, turned on her computer and, ignoring the charts she was making, logged on to the Internet. She’d found several vampire sites and some of the kids were chatting with her anonymously.

Maybe tonight she’d get lucky chatting with people who had names like ILUVBLUD, or FANGS077, or VAMPGRL or whatever. She hadn’t had much luck with getting information about a cult or whatever, nor had anyone yet admitted to knowing any of the missing girls. Either they knew something and were keeping it secret, didn’t recognize the coeds’ real names as opposed to their screen names, or were totally clueless. Kristi was betting on the last, but she still kept up a conversation while checking out the missing girls’ MySpace pages, reviewing their “groups” and pictures, trying to find a clue that she might have missed before.

Surely she’d find something.

People didn’t just vanish off the face of the earth.

Even if they did believe in vampires…

Right?