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mom, who was an actual Romany, aka Gypsy, might give Thompson a heart attack.
    Nikolai.
    If I went to the potluck, it would be almost impossible to avoid my ex; as both an initiated witch and a vampire hunter, he was part of the inner Inner Circle. I wanted to ask Bea if she’d heard whether Nik was bringing anyone, but part of me didn’t want to know. What could I say? I still wasn’t over him. It didn’t help that his band kept getting more and more radio time. I couldn’t listen to Cities 97 without hearing about whatever venue Ingress would be playing at next.
    I looked at the last text he’d sent me. I had it saved in my in-box. He’d sent it last week. “Thinking of u.” I hadn’t replied, because I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with that. I thought about him all the time too, but we were supposed to be trying to move on, weren’t we?
    “What r u wearing?” Bea asked.
    “Not sure I’m going,” I typed.
    My thumb had barely pressed Send when her response chirped. “What? U can’t not go!”
    “What about Nik?” I wrote.
    “Forget him. Bring T. He’ll be jealous.”
    Well, that wasthe best argument for bringing Thompson I’d heard so far. I was kind of curious if Nikolai would care if I showed up with another boy, and it wasn’t as if I could bring Elias—too much sun and too many witches. “Maybe.”
    I almost dropped the phone when it rang. The display said it was Bea. I answered. “You must really want me to go.”
    “You have to. I can’t go by myself.”
    “Aren’t you going to bring Malcolm?” Bea had recently started dating another one of our theater pals. Actually, he’d hounded her for months until she finally caved in.
    “I can’t really gossip with him.” She had the same problem with Malcolm that I did with Thompson. He was normal. She couldn’t talk to him about all the witchy and vampire stuff.
    Which reminded me, I totally wanted to get her take on Luis. “Hey, guess what? I got a visit from another vampire prince today.”
    “Seriously?”
    I told her all about what happened, including the near betrothal.
    “Wow,” she said. “Who knew vampires were so liberal about gay marriage?”
    I’d been thinking about that aspect, because my brain really went tilt if I thought about Elias kissing Captain Creepy. “It’s not marriage,” I said. “They have another word for it. The whole thing seems so political. Luis even said love had nothing to do with it.”
    “Do you really think Luis is a dhampyr?”
    “I don’t know. I kind of think he is, because he reacted so strongly to the word but didn’t deny it. I guess I feel like if he wasn’t and it was such an awful thing to be, he’d just say something, you know?”
    “Yeah,” she said. “I suppose it is kind of … different.”
    That wasan understatement. Silence hung in the air between us for a moment, and I remembered how horrified everyone had been when my true nature had come out at my non-Initiation. For a while, I hadn’t thought my friendship with Bea would survive the revelation. And we’ve been tight since kindergarten.
    “Anyway, promise me you’ll come tomorrow?” she asked. “If you bring Thompson, I’ll bring Malcolm.”
    For a moment I could still feel all those judging, disgusted eyes on me. “I have to think about it.”
    “Well, don’t think too hard. My mom’s bringing her famous pastries.”
    “Oh, well, that changes everything,” I said in all seriousness. I would never miss Bea’s mom’s food. Bea’s mom was a failed Initiate like me, but she made the best treats the coven ever tasted. “I’ll be there.”
    We spent a few more minutes talking about the latest reality show Bea had been following and other inconsequential things. Bea wouldn’t let me off the phone, however, until I absolutely solemnly swore I’d be going to the potluck tomorrow after Festival tryouts.
    Elias didn’t come home until after three a.m. I’d been waiting for him, just to make sure