As soon as it was dark outside, Anna grabbed her keys and headed out the front door. She took the bus going south, heading over to Carmine's house. She knew Carmine wouldn't be out this early – she had to wait until her parents went to bed before she could actually sneak outside. But Anna wanted to be there the instant Carmine was ready. Besides, it was better than being at home alone.

As she waited in the shadows across the street from Carmine's front door, Anna couldn't help but think back to lunch that day. It had been obvious that Mia hadn't been out recently; she was jittery and looking like she was ready to attack someone right there in the middle of the cafeteria. Anna had to work hard not to be horrified, but she knew that look; Mia had been trying to decide who would be the easiest target to get right there. And Anna knew exactly what Mia would do once she made her decision. Anna was just glad Carmine had stopped her.

When Mia had run over to the lunch line, Anna knew it was bad. If she was so desperate for something to eat that she was willing to get actual food, Anna knew she wouldn't be able to wait much longer. When she saw that, Anna had really wanted to go over there and demand that Rudi stop stalking Mia. But she didn't; she knew it would only make things worse. Especially since Anna's concern might look like Mia really did have something to hide. Besides, with all of Rudi's friends sitting there, it would only make more people suspicious. Instead, she went and joined Mia in the lunch line.

"She's still following you?" Anna asked. Mia nodded reluctantly.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Anna wanted to know. "We would have helped you."

"I didn't want you to worry – I thought I could handle it. Besides, she already suspects me of something, and if you and Carmine showed up, it would only get worse. I didn't want her suspecting you guys too." she said, barely pausing for air.

Anna didn't like how distracted she seemed. She knew she'd felt that same way herself before – more times than she'd like to admit, actually. But it had been years since she'd let it get that bad. She tried not to think it, but the last time Anna had felt like that, she'd let someone die.

"Does she follow you a lot?" Anna asked hopefully. But she already knew the answer even before Mia started nodding her head.

"Every night. I don't know what to do."

"How long has it been, since...you know..."

"Since we went out last time." Mia said quietly.

Anna tried not to look worried, but she couldn't help it; that was about a week ago. Anna had gone out herself twice since then, and she could only imagine how bad Mia must be feeling.

"You don't understand – I'm so hungry." Mia told her. "Think a sandwich would help?"

"...Couldn't hurt, I guess." Anna said after a slight hesitation. She knew it wouldn't have helped her, but what was the harm? And anything to get her from thinking about any of the other students had to be a good thing.

As Mia waited impatiently for her order, she turned to Anna.

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked.

"Can you wait until tonight?" Anna asked worriedly. She'd never seen Mia so fidgety.

"...I think so." Mia said, after more hesitation than Anna would have liked. "But it's so hard."

"I know. But we'll find someone for you, don't worry."

"What about Rudi?" Mia asked, glancing vaguely around the cafeteria. "If I have to wait much longer..."

Mia didn't finish the thought, and Anna wasn't sure she had to.

"Just meet me tonight, and I'll figure something out."

Mia nodded but didn't say anything.

Once Mia had her food, the two walked back to the table. Anna saw Luke was just sitting back down, and she wondered vaguely where he'd gone. She would have asked him, but she wasn't entirely sure she should be talking to him anyway. Instead, she just sat down with Mia.

Of course, the first thing Carmine had done after lunch was pull Anna aside and demand to know what they were going to do. Anna knew there was only one thing they could do – they'd have to sneak out with Mia and make sure she didn't kill someone.

So now, Anna was sitting here in the dark, waiting for Carmine to sneak out. After what seemed like forever, the lights finally went off. Anna stood up, ready to leave as soon as she saw Carmine.

Carmine snuck out the front door, looking around.

"We need to hurry." Anna said, stepping out of the shadows. "Mia's parents just went to bed – she'll be out soon."

"Where are we meeting her?" Carmine asked.

"Downtown."

"That doesn't give us much time." Carmine said dubiously.

"I know. And we need to make sure we find someone before Mia gets there."

Going all the way to downtown might have been really inconvenient, but they'd have the best chance of finding people if they went someplace busy. And no place was busier this time of night. The big problem was that Carmine didn't live much closer to downtown than Mia – which was why they needed to hurry. Finally, Carmine nodded.

"Can you tell her to wait like half an hour?" Carmine asked hopefully. "I mean, I'd do it myself, but she'd probably listen more to you."

"I told her to wait forty minutes, but I doubt she really will." Anna said. "It's hard to wait that long when you're...like that."

Carmine nodded, thinking. Slowly, she turned to Anna.

"Let's take the car." she said.

"Are you sure? You never take the car." Anna knew she was paranoid about her parents waking up and finding it gone.

"I know. But just this once – it can't hurt, right?"

They hurried back across to Carmine's house. Her car was parked on the street. Carmine gave one last look at her darkened house before unlocking the doors and hopping in. Anna had barely buckled her seatbelt before Carmine took off, driving even faster than Luke did; they made it to downtown in less than fifteen minutes.

"We need a group of at least four." Anna said as they pulled into a parking lot near a fairly busy intersection.

"Four?" Carmine asked. She tried to say it casually, but she didn't manage to keep the worry completely out of her voice.

Anna hated to admit it, but she was just as worried. If it was just the two of them, that meant Carmine would have to grab two people by herself. And Anna had never seen her try for more than one, except last time they went out. But even if Mia wasn't exactly helping, she was at least providing a distraction for Carmine. But what about this time? Anna wasn't completely convinced Carmine could do it, but what other options were there?

"Is that ok?" Anna asked, trying not to sound like she was having doubts herself. "I know you haven't been doing this for very long."

"No, I'll be ok." Carmine said, trying to sound confident. "I'm just glad Luke talked to Rudi already."

"He did?" Anna asked, trying not to sound surprised.

"Yeah." Carmine nodded. "At lunch today."

"Well, that's good." Anna tried to say it neutrally, but she wasn't sure she succeeded. She never was that good at keeping things from her friends.

"So what's going on with you two, anyway?" Carmine asked.

"Nothing." Anna shrugged. She really didn't feel like telling either of her friends that she was having her own problems with Rudi. At least, not until they could sort out Mia's.

"Anna, really?" Carmine gave her a look, and Anna sighed. She knew Carmine would never drop it when she got like that.

"Rudi wants me to break up with Luke." she admitted.

"Then you should make sure you stay with him forever." Carmine said instantly.

"Really?" Now that was probably the last thing Anna expected either of her friends to say. Especially since Mia had hinted in science that Rudi had mentioned her proposition to her earlier in the day.

"Yeah – don't do anything someone like Rudi wants." Carmine told her firmly.

"I'll try." Anna said even though she knew it wasn't that simple. Both of them lapsed into a thoughtful silence for a minute. Finally, Carmine spoke up.

"If anything goes wrong tonight..." she said slowly.

"Don't worry." Anna told her, giving the best smile she could under the circumstances. "Just get two of them dazed. If you can't get them all the way under, I'll help."

"Thanks." Carmine nodded.

They waited in the car, silently watching. Carmine was keeping an eye on the people leaving the store, while Anna watched the people walking down the street. Anna wondered for a minute if it would be easier to just grab two sets of two – maybe Anna and Carmine could take care of themselves before worrying about getting anyone for Mia; it would definitely be easier on Carmine. But what if Mia showed up before they got that second group? Anna suppressed a sigh; she knew they couldn't take that chance.

"So...any tips?" Carmine asked after a minute.

"I thought you did this last time?" Anna asked.

"Yeah, I know...but Mia ended up being a pretty good distraction for the girl." Carmine said, confirming what Anna had suspected. "...I just don't want to mess this up."

"You'll be fine." Anna told her. "Just separate the two. Get one under before turning to the second one."

"Sorry if I'm making you nervous." Carmine mumbled. She tried to look confident as she added, "We'll be able to do this."

"It's actually not us I'm worried about." Anna said quietly.

"You're not?" Carmine seemed surprised.

"Well, I mean I am." Anna corrected herself. "But mostly I'm worried about Mia. These kinds of problems are why we didn't want you to be like us. You've never seen what can happen."

"I'm starting to." Carmine said slowly.

Anna tried to think of something reassuring to say to Carmine. It was the first time Carmine had ever seen just how serious this whole thing could be, and she was probably feeling even more nervous than Anna. Anna was about to tell Carmine that maybe it wasn't really as bad as it seemed, but she stopped, pointing out the window instead.

"There." she said.

Carmine looked. There was a group of college boys walking towards them – five of them, to be exact.

"Let's go." Carmine said.

"You get two, and I'll get two. Whoever's done first can worry about the last one." Anna said as they got out of the car.

She wasn't completely sure if this would work, but she had to be confident enough for Carmine not to fall apart. If they couldn't do it, it would almost certainly result in them being remembered. And that would create incredible problems for all three girls. They walked casually over, meeting the boys just before the corner.

"Hey, can we ask you something?" Carmine said, picking the one on the far right.

Anna was glad she was taking the lead. It was true Anna was more skilled at the hunting aspect, but Carmine was much better at talking to people and putting them at ease. Anna still said things every now and then that she could tell registered with people as being just a little odd.

"What's up?" the guy asked.

"My friend and I were wondering if there's anything good happening tonight." Carmine told him.

She flipped her hair casually over her shoulder, blocking the second boy from her line of sight. Now he wouldn't be able to see what she was going to do to his friend. Anna took that as her cue, looking as sweetly as she could at a boy on the left.

"Do you know anyplace?" Anna asked.

She touched his arm lightly and took a small step back. He followed automatically. The boy looked at her intently for a minute, thinking. As soon as she had his attention, she set about trying to get him to relax. She didn't want him to pass out – that would make his friends too suspicious. But if she could get him pretty groggy, he probably wouldn't notice when his friends passed out. Anna realized she'd forgotten to mention that to Carmine. Hopefully, Carmine could figure it out on her own.

It wasn't long before Anna's target started to wobble. The second kid looked over, surprised.

"Are you ok?" he asked his friend. Anna turned her attention to him.

"He looks tired." Anna said as innocently as she could.

The first boy nodded along with her suggestion sleepily. Anna tried not to look happy about that.

"How can you be tired?" the second kid asked his friend in disbelief. "It's not even midnight yet!"

"Why don't we just give him a minute." Anna suggested, turning her attention to him.

She stared at him as sweetly as she could. She didn't even bother to say anything; she already had his attention, and that was all she needed. It took less than two minutes before he passed out. Anna helped him carefully to the ground before turning back to that first boy.

He was still pretty groggy; he didn't even seem to register what had happened to his friend. Anna decided to take a minute to finish him off before he had a chance to take notice. When she was done, she turned back to that fifth boy.

Carmine already had two of them out, and she was about halfway through getting the final one under. In a few minutes, all five of them would be ready to go. With nothing left to do for the moment, Anna got her phone out of her pocket to let Mia know where they were. After Carmine laid the final kid down, she turned back to Anna.

"Very impressive." Anna told her. She would have said Carmine was a natural at this, but she wasn't sure it was actually a compliment.

"Thanks." Carmine shrugged, seemingly knowing about Anna's mixed feelings on the subject. She got out her phone, mumbling, "Where's Mia, anyway?"

"You guys got people already?" someone behind Anna asked.

She turned around and saw Mia coming up the sidewalk behind them.

"Thanks." she added, grinning.

"How did you know where we were?" Carmine asked, slipping her phone back into her pocket.

"I sent her a message a few minutes ago." Anna said.

"You're getting good at that." Carmine told her.

Anna would have been almost happy with the compliment, if she didn't already know that Carmine secretly suspected Anna was too old to ever understand technology.

"So who do I get?" Mia grinned hungrily.

"Any three you like." Anna told her.