Evernight 2
Claudia Gray
Bianca sneaks into the headmistress’ house, trying to find out why Mrs. Bethany is allowing human students into the school. She finds a couple of applications (one accepted, one rejected) but can’t see much difference between the two students. She sneaks back out of the house and into the school. She sees a girl looking into the great hall. The girl disappears and Bianca almost convinces herself that it was just her reflection.
Bianca watches the students coming in from her parents’ apartment window. Eventually, she goes down for orientation and starts seeing people she knows. Balthazar tells her about his summer working. When snobby Courtney approaches them, Bianca gets a little snippy. They listen to Mrs. Bethany give the same speech as last year, except she asks the vampires to be nice to the humans. Bianca goes up to her dorm room and spends some time with her new roommate: Raquel. Raquel tried everything to get out of coming back, but her parents refused any alternative. On the grounds, Bianca meets up with Vic, who gives her a letter from Lucas, and they make plans to hang out later.
Bianca reads the letter from Lucas. He knows that he should let her go her own way and be with her own kind, but he still loves her. He tells her to meet him at the train station in Amherst the first weekend of October if she still wants him too. Later that night, Bianca and Raquel are looking at the constellations in the sky. Vic and his new vampire roommate, Ranulf, join them.
Wondering why students aren’t allowed to have cars, Bianca has to come up with a plan to get to Amherst. She also has to carefully plan her feedings from her thermos. During one of those, she hears a weird crackling noise and thinks that she sees something, but is interrupted by Courtney. She tells her parents and Raquel that she will be going out into the woods to watch a meteor shower that Friday night. Balthazar offers to help her with her fencing, but she has to turn him down for her trip to see Lucas. As she’s getting ready to leave the dorm, Raquel asks her about her telescope. Bianca forgot to plan that part, so she says she has a smaller one that she is taking out. She sneaks into the back of a laundry truck to get to Amherst.
Upon arriving in Amherst, Bianca starts walking around the town square. A young looking vampire girl approaches her and asks to walk with her. Bianca agrees to walk her out of town square. The vampire tells Bianca that a guy is following her and she is trying to loose him. Bianca agrees to let her stay until the reach the train station. When Lucas shows up to meet her, the vampire reveals that Lucas was the one following her. Bianca tries to tell each of them to back off, but there is a scuffle. Lucas grabs Bianca and they run. Lucas tries to draw the vampire off of Bianca by hiding her and running off. The vampire stops where Bianca is hiding to make sure she is okay. Bianca tells her that she already knows that Lucas is Black Cross. The other vampire leaves and Lucas’ mom, Kate, and Dana show up.
Eduardo, Lucas’ stepdad, gives him some guff for his actions when they get to where the Black Cross members are holed up. Lucas and Bianca are only able to spend together before Lucas is told that he has to go back out on the hunt. They think that the young looking vampire girl is part of a deadly gang. Dana explains to Bianca that most Black Cross members are sort of vagabonds. Bianca decides to go on the hunt to stop them from killing the innocent vampire.
The whole Black Cross group goes out to where they last saw the vampire. Lucas and Bianca head in the direction that Lucas’ night vision saw her go off in. They end up in the blood bank of a hospital and find her in a body bag. They try to tell her that she’ll be safe from them and get information on the vampire gang that has been doing all of the killing. Before she can tell them anything, Kate and Dana show up. The vampire gets away, but ends up stabbing Dana with a scalpel first. They get back to the hide out to take care of her. Lucas and Bianca are allowed to spend the day together in town, so they do. They decide to meet again in Riverton next month, and Lucas takes Bianca back to Evernight.
Balthazar catches Bianca in the act during her return to Evernight. He is completely set on telling everyone what is going on until she mentions how Lucas helped her save a very young looking vampire. Balthazar asks about the vampire and realizes from the description that it is his sister, Charity. After a week of the two hoping the other won’t spill their secret, they decide to make a deal. Bianca will help Balthazar track down his sister through the Black Cross. Balthazar will pretend to date Bianca so that he can take her out to meet Lucas.
Bianca goes up to the records room to try to figure out why Mrs. Bethany is now allowing human students to attend Evernight. She drains a mouse and then the room starts to get really cold. A wraith (ghost) appears and manifests itself in the glass, telling her “stop.” She asks Raquel if she believes in ghosts, but Raquel yells at her and starts avoiding her. Bianca asks Balthazar and he tells her that they are real. They come up with a story Bianca was waiting for Balthazar in the records room for some alone time and he tells Mrs. Bethany. This will hopefully take care of the wraith problem as well as start the rumors of their new relationship. Vic approaches Bianca about cheating on Lucas. He says he doesn’t care as long as she’s happy and tells Lucas what is going on.
Mrs. Bethany confronts Bianca about keeping the wraiths a secret. She then goes to change for dinner with her parents and when Raquel starts asking questions (trying to become friends again), she flips out on her. At her parents, Bianca and Balthazar determine that they will go to the Autumn Ball again together. After dinner, Balthazar explains that he knows she is with Lucas and not him. When Bianca gets back to her room, Raquel apologizes and explains that there is a ghost at her parent’s house that rapes her. They make up.
Bianca and Balthazar make plans for the Riverton trip. They decide that he will keep Raquel entertained while Bianca slips off to meet with Lucas. They feel a little queasy going over the river, but make it safely into town. Bianca goes off, saying that she’s going to say hi to her parents. She waits for Lucas, but is greeted by Dana instead. Dana explains that Lucas is stuck in lockdown. She is there to plan their next meeting. Raquel approaches them, and they pretend like they are life-long friends from Bianca’s hometown. After a while, they head back to Evernight.
Bianca’s mom helps her get ready for the dance. Balthazar picks her up and they proceed to the great hall. They dance for a little while before sneaking off to the records room. They are unable to find any connections between the human students and the vampires. They return to the great hall and resume dancing. Balthazar is pricked by some girls dress and he offers the blood to Bianca (vampire flirting, gives the recipient insight to the other’s feelings). They go back to dancing, but suddenly, it’s very cold and everyone has trouble standing on ice. The wraith drop shards of ice and writes out “OURS.” Everyone is left scared and Bianca wonders what the wraith is laying claim to.
Mrs. Bethany explains the mythology of vampires and wraiths (the first murdered man was split into two: body and soul. The vamps are the body; the wraiths are the soul). They all decide that they will have to get rid of the wraiths. Balthazar uses this opportunity to ask Bianca’s parents if he can take her off campus. They happily agree and get permission for them from Mrs. Bethany. Balthazar borrows the driver’s ed car to take Bianca into Riverton. Lucas is not happy to see her arrive with the vampire, but eventually understands that the act is a necessity. They break into the observatory and start making out. Lucas thinks they are about to have sex and Bianca thinks he wants her to change him into a vampire. Lucas tells her that he never wants to be a vampire and she feels rejected.
Making plans to meet up again in January, the couple goes their separate ways. Back at the school, the students are speculating about the ghosts. Vic informs Bianca that most of the human students have already had experiences with ghosts, so they weren’t surprised to see them at Evernight. Bianca takes Balthazar to her parents on Christmas Eve. The two get to talking alone in her room and find out that Mrs. Bethany allowed the human students to attend Evernight so that she could track down the wraiths.
Classes start up again and some of the vampire students don’t return. Courtney tries to make a big deal of seeing Balthazar looking for someone alone in Amherst, but Bianca doesn’t react. Balthazar takes Bianca to Albion to meet up with Lucas to find Charity. Bianca tells Lucas that Mrs. Bethany is allowing human students because they are tied to wraiths. He says this doesn’t do them any good because it would get a different Black Cross group assigned to the area and they would be separated even more. They find where she has been staying and try to talk her out of hanging out with the nasty gang that has been killing people. She is very disagreeable and the gang is also there watching from outside. They barely get away in the truck and head back to town. Bianca and Balthazar are in such bad moods upon their return to Evernight that they just let people assume they are fighting. Bianca goes to stay with her parents for a night and asks what will happen if she doesn’t kill a human and become a vampire. They refuse to answer. Alone in her room, Bianca sees a wraith in the form of a girl.
The wraith tells Bianca that she belongs with the wraiths rather than the vampires. Her parents walk in and her mom completely freaks out about the ghost, which leaves them. Balthazar confronts Bianca and asks her to practice fencing with him. They end up talking about Charity. Bianca wonders if his little sister has changed, and Balthazar points out that the dead don’t change.
Mrs. Bethany lets her English class out early but makes Bianca stay behind. She says that she doesn’t think Bianca is learning from Balthazar taking her out on weekends because she talked to the ghost. Bianca, upset that her parents betrayed her, explains that she doesn’t understand the wraiths, but they said that she was like them. Mrs. Bethany suggests that they are trying to lure her over with kindness as Lucas had done. Balthazar and Bianca return to Amherst to meet with Lucas. They decide to split up to search for Charity. Bianca sees Courtney and decides to follow her all the way to her family’s house. Courtney catches her spying and they agree to keep each other’s secrets until Balthazar and Lucas come up. Courtney tries to run as everyone else tries to explain the situation. They start to talk and then Charity stakes Courtney. Charity explains that she kills humans before beheading Courtney. Bianca and Lucas get into a huge fight because neither of them has made any changes to their lives to be together. Lucas stalks off and Bianca leaves with Balthazar to burn Courtney’s body.
Bianca mopes in her room until spring. Raquel tries to get her out and back to normal, but Bianca is still trying to get over Lucas. Raquel even offers for the whole group to go star gazing. Bianca turns her down to help Balthazar with a project on video games. Eventually, they drink from each other. Bianca realizes that she is a lot like Balthazar’s wife from his human days. They are about to have sex when an angry wraith appears.
The wraith freezes Bianca and tells her that it must kill her to protect her and the promise must not be broken. Someone stabs the wraith with an iron rod and Bianca is freed. Raquel takes care of her that night. The next day, Bianca goes to talk to her parents about why the wraiths are after her. They try to change the subject, but Bianca forces it out of them. The two vampires needed help creating Bianca. The wraiths possessed them briefly and she was on the way. However, the wraiths said that when Bianca came of age, she would be theirs. Bianca states that she is leaving and tells her parents not to come after her.
Mrs. Bethany gives up her house to Bianca to keep her safe from the wraiths, figuring that the copper roof will be enough protection. On the night of the blue moon, Bianca goes out to the gazebo to watch it. She is surprised to find Lucas there. They apologize to each other, explaining what has been going on. They make plans for Bianca to run away with him on the last day of school when there will be so many parents picking up students they will have some camouflage. Bianca stops paying attention to what is going on in school completely. Mrs. Bethany comes to the cottage house to collect some things and Charity arrives shortly after asking for sanctuary.
Bianca’s father approaches her, telling her how she is hurting her mom. However, when her father still won’t tell her what will happen if she doesn’t kill, she storms off again. Mrs. Bethany comes to collect Bianca in the middle of the night to confront her accuser. It turns out that Charity has told Mrs. Bethany about Bianca and Balthazar’s contact with Lucas to track her. Bianca is ready to be expelled, as Mrs. Bethany claims this is an unforgivable offense. Charity eventually spills that she convinced the Black Cross that they are killing their human students that night. The Black Cross is coming to save the humans.
Mrs. Bethany pulls the fire alarm to alert the students. Balthazar heads for the boys’ dorm while Bianca tries to get to the girls. However, she is blocked by the battle. Her mom and Dana are fighting and both tell her to get out. Eduardo tells the Black Cross to burn the building. Balthazar tries to drag her out, but she is determined to get to the girls’ dorm. She runs across the roofs to get there, and after a fall, finds that the dorm is in worse condition than the rest of the building. Lucas finds her there and they get out only to be confronted by Charity. Lucas is able to temporarily stake her on a tree branch, which gives them some time to get away. They witness Mrs. Bethany kill a Black Cross member and so does Raquel. They take her to the transport van that is waiting. Once they are in their safe house (a warehouse), they explain everything to Raquel, who wants in. Bianca also agrees to join Black Cross.
Evernight:
Evernight
Stargazer
Hourglass
Afterlife