I got home that evening physically and mentally exhausted. When I got into the dorm room, Toby sat up from where he lay on the bed.

“What did you learn?” he asked. Then-- “What is that smell?”

“What?” I checked to see if there was any vomit on my clothes. I couldn’t smell it anymore--which was good, because it was touch and go for a while that afternoon. I didn’t want to admit how much of the vomit was mine.

I could see Toby turning green.

“Oh my god.” My face flushed with embarrassment. Of course vampire senses were heightened. “I’m going to shower.”

“Okay,” he choked. I backed out of the room.

I had to shower three times before the smell went away, according to his super-scent. When I was done, I crawled straight into my bed and faced the wall.

“That was awful,” I said.

I felt Toby sit on the bed behind me and put a hand on my shoulder.

“It’s okay,” he assured me. I shook my head. “You smell great now. What’s that conditioner you use? Jasmine?”

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay.”

“I’m going to tell you a story,” he said. “And you cannot tell anyone ever, okay?”

“Okay,” I sniffed.

“When I was in elementary school,” Toby said, “a long, long time ago, my best friend Andy bet me that I couldn’t eat thirty figs.”

“Where did you get thirty figs?”

“Shhh,” Toby said, “listen to the story.” I giggled. “He had a fig tree, and had brought figs for the whole class. But first, he dared me to eat all of them. And I’m a sucker for a good dare.”

“Oh no.”

I had to smile. The image of a tiny Toby on the playground, puffing up his chest to accept a dare was too cute.

“Oh yes. I ate thirty figs. My stomach hurt, but you better believe I ate those figs. And right around three o’clock, just before the bell rang… I heard my stomach start to make some other noises, too…”

“Oh no!”

“I don’t usually tell this story in front of pretty girls. But… my nickname for the rest of the year was Mr. Poopy Pants. Right up until Sarah Salinas sneezed in the middle of math class, and a huge booger flew all the way across the classroom and stuck directly to the teacher’s butt. I went back to Toby, and she got stuck with Snotty Sarah Sah-neez-us.”

I rolled over to look at Toby, a reluctant smile starting to cross my face.

“Thank you for telling me that story,” I said. He smiled back at me.

“Did it make you feel better?”

I nodded.

“Good.” He lay down next to me. “How was your day otherwise? Did you learn anything from your coworker?”

I squeezed my eyes shut again, unwilling to face more disappointment.

“No,” I said finally. “She was born a vampire.”

“Damn,” Toby said, tucking his chin on top of my head. I buried my face in his neck, soft but cool to the touch. One more indication of Toby’s transformation. “We have one more option.”

“What’s that?” I murmured.

Toby pulled back to look me in the eye.

“If you’re up for it… Miguel would know. The Daybreakers would know.”

Daybreakers club. My heart started to beat faster, and I could tell Toby heard it too. The club that started it all. I had assumed they were just a bunch of nerds playing pretend… until I found out they were right.

Now? I didn’t trust that any of them wouldn’t kill Toby the minute they found out.

Not to mention… the thought of walking back into that room full of boys after disappearing into the woods with Toby for a night didn’t sound like my idea of a party.

“Maybe I could just find Miguel after class,” I said, but Toby shook his head.

“They’ll want an update from our search party,” he said. “And he’ll be suspicious if you single him out.”

“Maybe you could talk to him?”

Toby looked away, and my heart broke for him. Until that moment, some part of me believed that none of this would matter. That Toby would recover like he’d had a bad cold, and go back to his life like nothing had changed.

But he’d changed. And so everything had changed, for him.

“He’s a true believer,” Toby said finally. “I was always on the fence, but Miguel… He used to lead the club, actually.” Toby paused. “He’s not much of a people person, so we just decided it worked better if he was the man behind the curtain. I didn’t mind taking the lead, but I wasn’t hardcore about it. But if he found out…”

He would kill Toby. I couldn’t believe that archaic law mandating murder--even for anyone as horrific as the Averus clan--was still on the books. Or that anyone remembered it. Or that anyone would follow it.

But that archaic law was how we ended up in this situation in the first place. And if anyone was going to follow it to the letter, it was the Daybreakers club.

The club I had to go back to.

“I’m not a good liar,” I said.

“You don’t have to lie. Just… be curious. You’re a curious person,” Toby said. “It’s one of the first things I noticed about you.”

“Because I was nosing around in your office?” I said, trying not to flush with embarrassment again. Why did my cheeks always turn so red? Not even a cute pink, either. Beet red.

“Before you came to office hours,” Toby said, and I looked at him, surprised. I didn’t think he’d noticed me at all in those first couple classes. “Most students try to talk a lot for participation points, but you were mostly quiet. But every class you would ask one question that no one had ever asked before. I started looking forward to your one question.”

“I always thought no one was asking them because they were stupid questions,” I said.

“You know what,” Toby said with a grin, “there is such thing as a stupid question. But you were never the one asking it.”

“I don’t know… Going to Daybreakers club alone just makes me so nervous.”

“I thought you said you loved danger,” Toby teased. I rolled my eyes. “I never would have gone into the woods if you hadn’t volunteered to come with me.”

“I only volunteered because I thought you were cute,” I admitted, starting to smile.

“I’ve met a lot of smart girls, but none of them were as brave as you,” Toby said. “If anyone’s gonna get us out of this mess, it’ll be you.”

“But--”

“Will you learn to take a compliment?” Toby said, and then he leaned in and kissed me.

In all of the panic and all of the insanity of everything that had happened that weekend, I almost didn’t realize that we’d never truly kissed.

My eyes floated closed, and I felt his fingers run through my hair as his lips pressed to mine. I wanted to stay there forever, limbs tangled on my tiny dorm bed, where nothing else in the world mattered.