Mia sat down to lunch feeling better than she had in a long time. The banshees had been taken care of, and she'd found out that Zev really wasn't a dangerous person; everything seemed to be working out. Now all she had to worry about was doing one more thing for Summer before she could ignore that girl once and for all and start worrying about more normal things.

"So how's Heath been?" Anna asked, looking over at Carmine.

Mia had forgotten all about him. She'd had so much going on lately that he'd completely slipped her mind.

"Yeah, I haven't heard you mention him in a while." Mia said, pretending that she wasn't the type of person who could forget what was going on in her friends' lives.

"Oh. Yeah." Carmine said, but she didn't sound very happy. "I haven't talked to him in a couple of weeks."

"Why not?" Mia asked. "What happened?"

"You two seemed to get along well together." Anna told her, sounding disappointed.

"Did you know that Heath is Summer's cousin?" Carmine asked, sounding annoyed at the mere thought of whatever conversation she'd had with him.

"Really?" Mia asked. He always struck Mia as being so calm - not at all demanding and ungrateful like Summer!

"Yep." Carmine said, turning back to her homework.

"So he's like them, isn't he?" Anna said, more thinking out loud than actually asking a question.

"Exactly." Carmine told them. If anything, she looked even more upset.

"So what happened?" Mia wanted to know.

"We were talking, and I said something about Summer - I don't remember what. And he said, 'Oh, I know her. She's my cousin.' So I asked if he knew what Summer had been telling us about banshees and the Dullahan."

"And did he?"

"Yep. He'd actually known about it since the beginning!" Carmine said, almost yelling. She took a deep breath to calm down. "Sorry." she said, her tone normal again.

"He never mentioned that he knew about all this before?" Anna asked, surprised.

"Nope." Carmine said. "He knew about everything we had to do this year, and he never mentioned it. Never offered to help, or talk to Summer, or anything. He was actually fine with the way things were! So, I haven't talked to him since."

"Wow." Mia said. "I'm sorry it turned out so bad."

"Me too. He seemed so nice." Anna said wistfully.

"Well, don't be." Carmine told them. "I didn't know him that well - obviously. And now I have time to worry about more important things."

"He wouldn't have been able to help much anyway - even if he had offered." Mia told Carmine, trying to cheer her up.

She knew it was bad that he hadn't even lifted a finger for them, but what could he really do? After all, he wouldn't have been able to catch the banshees with them - if he was part of Summer's group, they would have run away at the sight of him. And if Luke and Zev's reactions to Summer were any indication, he'd be more of a distraction than a help when it came time to deal with the Dullahan anyway.

"Yeah, you're right." Carmine said. When she saw that both her friends were still looking like they felt sorry for her, she laughed.

"Come on, it's not that bad." she told them. "It's not like I even really liked the guy - he just seemed nice."

"Well, that's good." Mia tried to make it sound like she was happy that her friend wasn't hurt over Heath. But part of her knew it was just as well that Carmine had ended it when she did. If her relationship with Zev was any indication, it was probably easier to have a normal boyfriend anyway.

***

It was Monday morning - there was less than a week before the group planned on tracking down the Dullahan, and Mia couldn't take it anymore. The more she thought about it, the more she knew things weren't going to be able to stay this way for long.

"Zev, I need to talk to you." she said as the two headed out the gym doors after class was over.

"Sure, what about?"

Since they'd talked about him being a werewolf, he seemed much more comfortable around her - as if a weight had been lifted from him. But it still surprised her that when she'd asked to talk to him, he'd acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Mia marveled at this; she knew if someone had asked her to talk only a week or so after she'd told them about her being a vampire, she'd be worried.

"I need to tell Anna and Carmine." she told him.

Suddenly, all of Zev's good-naturedness dried up.

"What? Why?" he asked sharply.

"If they don't know, they'll be too worried about you when we go for the Dullahan. They won't know you can take care of yourselves - they might not pay enough attention to what they're supposed to be doing."

Zev thought about it for what seemed like several minutes. Mia could tell he saw her point, but he wasn't saying yes just yet.

"Ask Luke." he said finally.

"Why?" Now it was Mia's turn to be surprised. Zev shrugged.

"I'm not going to make that decision myself. It's up to Luke."

Mia nodded. There didn't seem to be any point in arguing with him. Maybe he just didn't want that kind of responsibility to fall on his shoulders alone. Whatever the reason, Mia could see that his mind was made up. So as soon as English was over, Mia went over to Luke's desk before he had the chance to leave.

"Zev said I need to talk to you." she told him.

"Ok." He seemed confused. "About what?"

Mia waited until the room was almost empty before leaning over to him. "I want to tell Anna and Carmine about you and your friends."

The color seemed to drain from his face, and he looked at her with wild eyes. Mia couldn't remember ever seeing him look so scared.

"No, please. You can't." he practically begged.

"I have to."

"But everything's going fine." he said. "Nothing's changed - you don't have to tell anyone anything."

"It'll be ok. I promise." It was an easy promise to make, especially since she'd already told them. "If they're going to risk their lives, it's only fair that they know."

"No way." Luke said, completely unconvinced. "I'm not going to risk ruining everything because it might be helpful for one night."

"You should tell her anyway." Mia persisted. "Are you going to keep it from her forever?"

"That was the general plan, yeah." Luke nodded.

"Well that's a terrible idea." she said bluntly.

In the back of her mind, Mia could understand; she was still trying to figure out if she was ever going to tell Zev about herself. But this was different. Luke might not know it, but since Anna had already found out, there actually wasn't much risk for him at all.

Students started walking in for the next class, so Mia grabbed her bag and walked with Luke out the door. She thought she would walk him to whatever class he had next, but he just walked a few feet down the hall and stopped. Seeing that there was no one close enough to hear their conversation, Luke picked up right where they'd left off.

"Would it be better to tell her and have her not talk to me anymore?" he asked pointedly. Mia chose to ignore the accusation in his statement and focus on the question.

"Anna wouldn't do that." she said. "She's not like most people." In more ways than one, she added silently.

Luke looked at her, setting his jaw. She could tell he wasn't convinced, and she was running out of reasons to give him.

"How could you be sure about that?" he asked.

Mia thought for a minute. What could she tell him? Finally, she thought of one thing that might do the trick.

"Did you know she's not even mad at Summer?" Mia asked.

"What?" Luke said, obviously not following.

"They were in the same class last year. And even though Summer's been forcing us to do all these things for her, Anna still kind of thinks of her as a friend."

"Really?" Luke asked, his surprise obvious.

"Yeah. I can barely stand to be in the same room with her. But Anna actually still talks to her when she sees her."

"But that's different." Luke started. But Mia cut him off before he could finish the thought.

"It's really not... Do you like Summer?" Mia asked, deciding to try a different tactic.

"Of course not!" Luke practically spat.

"Do you think you're a better person than Summer?"

"I would really hope so." Luke said, giving Mia a look that said it wasn't hard to be better than Summer. Mia agreed, but that wasn't the point. He opened his mouth to say something - probably that it didn't prove anything. But Mia continued on; the less time he had to object, the better.

"Well, Anna knows you a lot more than she knows Summer. And if she can overlook the fact that Summer's nothing but a pain, I'm sure she'll be ok with you."

Mia waited for Luke to realize what a brilliant argument that was. He stared down at the ground in front of him for a full minute. The longer Luke sat in thought, the more worried Mia became. She'd used absolutely every argument she could think of. If this didn't work, Mia didn't know what she was going to do. Finally, he looked up.

"I'm sorry." he told her, shaking his head. "I just can't."

Mia sighed. She never would have thought it would be this hard to convince Luke. If she had, she probably wouldn't have brought it up in the first place. Suddenly, a thought struck her: Why was she even here? When did this start being about getting Luke's permission?

"I'm going to tell them." she said flatly. "And I promise everything will be ok. But if you don't believe me, you can ask them yourself - or, you could just tell Anna instead of having me do it."

Luke had looked absolutely horrified when Mia announced that she was going to be telling her friends about him whether he liked it or not. But he managed to look even worse at the suggestion that he could tell them himself. He thought for a minute, stuck with choosing one of two terrible options.

"I won't let her break up with you." Mia told him when the silence started to last longer than she could stand. Finally Luke nodded slowly.

"Just make sure she knows I won't hurt her." he said, still looking sick.