Luck wasn’t on Rachael’s side as she went back into the database to look for anything that might help her figure out what could either lock Sasha in a similar place as the one she’d recently broken out of or a weakness that could take her down once and for all. Like all vampires, a silver-tipped stake to the heart should do her in, but Sasha was strong, powerful, and fast. She was also always surrounded by an army of goons who protected her at all costs. So far, no one had been able to get the stake in, though Chell had been close once, getting her in the shoulder just before her bloodsucking hooligans were able to force the hunters away. That had been the beginning of the ongoing rivalry between Chell and Sasha. After that encounter, Chell had considered Sasha her archenemy, and the vampire had done the same. They’d tangled time and again until Chell figured out how to get rid of the vampire once and for all.

Except, now that Chell was gone, Sasha was back, and Rachael needed to find out how to stop the vampire’s killing spree.

Hours passed as she looked through report after report, some of them so old they’d been scanned from microfiche into the data system. Sasha had been around for ages. Rachael wondered how many lives she’d claimed in that time. So lost was she in reading all of the accounts of Sasha’s murderous rampages, she ignored her growling stomach and her phone until a knock on her door alerted her that not only had she worked through lunch, it was dinner time.

Setting her laptop aside, she hurried to the door, hoping it was Graham, but she wasn’t surprised when she pulledit open to see Jazz standing there, her arms folded, and a serious look on her face. “You lose your phone, girl?”

“Sorry. No. Just… busy.”

“Well, Rex and me are headed down for supper. You wanna come, or are you too busy?”

Before she could answer, Rachael’s stomach rumbled. Jazz grinned at her. “I’ll get my phone.”

“Oh, sure, now you gotta phone.”

Leaving the door open so Jazz could step inside, Rachael headed back to her bedroom to grab her phone and slide her feet into her shoes. Seeing a prospective petter, Scrappy bounded across the room to Jazz’s leg.

“I didn’t know you had a cat,” the girl said, leaning over to scratch the kitty’s ears. “I didn’t think we were allowed to have animals except for fish.”

“They made an exception for me,” Rachael explained, closing her laptop and sliding her phone into her back pocket. “Scrappy has a thing for Graham.”

“Don’t we all,” Jazz muttered, making Rachael laugh. “I’ll see you later, kitty, kitty,” she said, giving the cat one last pat.

Rachael let Scrappy run her head along her leg and then breezed past her to the door, letting Jazz out first and following behind. A few seconds later, Jazz knocked on Rex’s door, and without a word, he fell into step behind them. Rachael smiled at him, but he had his phone in his hands, and it was obvious he was engrossed in something else.

Once they reached the cafeteria, Rex managed to unglue the screen from his hand to get food. Rachael went through the line ahead of him, deciding it was a good night for pizza, and asked him what he’d been watching.

“More vampire videos,” he confessed, taking twice as many slices of pepperoni as she had put on her plate. “Trying to see if she has a weakness.”

Nodding, Rachael considered telling him she’s spent her day doing exactly the same thing but decided against it. She didn’t want anyone to know she’d been using Chell’s logon information to access a database she wasn’t supposed to know about.

They found an empty table, despite the fact that there were a lot more students in the cafeteria than there had been before. Jazz got hung up talking to a different attractive boy, and Rachael found the guy she’d been flirting with the day before, watching him carefully. He didn’t look happy that Jazz was talking to this other guy, and the girl sitting next to him looked even more upset seeing him notice Jazz.

“Drama,” Rachael mumbled, chuckling, but Rex had his phone out again and wasn’t listening.

Eventually, Jazz made her way over, smiling about her newest conquest. She said this guy was a Lower Fall she’d met in the work-out room that morning--which was really more like noon from what Rachael could tell from Jazz’s schedule. He had friends in the class that would be graduating Saturday night and asked Jazz to sit with him during the ceremony.

“I didn’t even think about graduation,” Rachael muttered, shaking her head. She should’ve been thinking about it. She was the one who had set that date….

Jazz went on, talking about the various guys she’d met, and Rachael did her best to listen, even though her mind kept wandering to the situation with Sasha--and also to Graham. It wasn’t until Jazz got up to get a refill of soda that Rex lowered his phone slightly and said, “Damn, that girl talks a lot.”

“Did you get a chance to talk to Trip?” she asked, glad Rex had put his phone down long enough to speak.

He shook his head. “No, I couldn’t find him before he left. I wanted to talk to him in person.”

Her forehead furrowed. “I saw him in the library after lunch. He brought me my badge and a few other things.”

Rex shrugged, as if it was no longer a huge concern to him that Sasha was on the loose and the trainers needed to know.

Rachael wanted to say more, but he raised his phone before she could say anything else. Deciding he must have his reasons for keeping the information to himself for now, she took a bite of her pizza, almost full, and thought about excusing herself. So far, the reports weren’t doing her any good, but she was at a loss for what else might help.

Jazz was across the cafe, chatting with yet another dude. With no one to talk to and finished with her food, Rachael tossed her napkin on her tray and set her glass in the corner, ready to head back to her room.

A tap on her shoulder kept her from pushing up from the table. She turned to see familiar eyes boring into hers and held her breath. Something was up, and by the expression on Dr. McCall’s face, it wasn’t good.