“The cult of Carmilla?” Petra exclaimed. “What were you guys doing? That is not part of our book club.”
“It’s something we do on our own. Or at least something the creeps at Vina Fields do on their own,” Kira said.
“We’re not creeps,” Tyler said. “It’s not my fault if my folks send me to school there.”
Vina Fields was one of those private academies where diplomats’ and entertainers’ children mingled with the heirs to Chicago’s great fortunes. Parents shelled out the equivalent of the price of a new home to give their children an early leg up in the race of life.
“You’re not even part of our book club, but you came barging in like you owned it!” Kira said.
“That’s not fair. I’d come if my dad would let me, but he won’t, it’s only ’cause he’s out of town this weekend that I even got permission to spend the night at Arielle’s,” Tyler said hotly.
“Only, really, you came to Kira’s,” I said.
Tyler started picking at the skin around her cuticles. For the first time, I noticed how raw her fingertips were.
“Yes, she came here with all the big girls and then Kira left, even though she’s supposed to mind me, and I was all alone and I was scared. And I’m going to tell Mama!” Lucy’s indignant treble startled all of us, she’d been standing so quietly.
“Whoa, there, missy. Two in the morning and you’re in the living room? That’s what I’m going to tell your mama, unless you hop like a bunny back into that bed of yours!” Petra said firmly.
Lucy eyed my cousin, trying to gauge whether she meant it. Petra scooped her up and carried her from the room. I guess those five younger sisters had given her plenty of experience. We heard water running in the bathroom, Petra’s bright chatter, a giggle from Lucy. After another moment, my cousin rejoined us.
“She was asleep before I left the room. Too much for a little one in one night.”
“Too much for all of us in one night,” I agreed. “But it’s high time I started hearing some truth. Fast, before Kira’s mother gets home. Let’s start with the simple stuff—names and phone numbers of the girls who were there tonight.”
Kira and Tyler exchanged glances and shrugged. I looked at my cousin. “We know Arielle and Nia. We have Tyler and Kira. Who were the other three?”
“Lucy told me Beata Mizwa was here. She’s one of our Malina girls, like Kira here,” Petra said.
“So Tyler and the others aren’t part of Malina?” I asked.
“They’re from Vina Fields. I told you last winter, Vic: my boss started this experimental program, pairing girls from Malina with Vina Fields. The VF girls get community-service points for participating, and the theory is they’ll be kind of like big sisters to the Malina girls.”
“What, patronize them, make them go to cemeteries? Sounds very sisterly!”
Petra made an impatient gesture, but Kira was startled into a spurt of laughter.
“Even though school’s not in session, your book group is still going strong?” I asked.
“The book clubs meet year-round so that kids who aren’t reading at grade level can use the summer to play catch-up,” Petra explained.
“Is it working?”
“It is for my groups, because we’re reading Carmilla,” my cousin said. “Kids just gulp these books down! I can’t believe you never heard of them.”
“I spend too much time reading about the vampires in our financial institutions,” I said. “That’s all the excitement I can handle. Let’s get this business here sorted out. You girls need to tell me what was going on in the cemetery tonight. Tyler, what happened when you were in the middle of that circle with Arielle?”
Tyler stared at me blankly. “Nothing.”
“You said you hated them and their stupid club and you didn’t care what they said about you. What—they’ll put it out on Facebook that you’re a coward? Is that what worries you?”
“Maybe.” Tyler began picking at her cuticles again.
“You said this initiation into Carmilla isn’t part of your book group,” I said to my cousin. “Do you know what it could be, or what reprisals the girls wield against people who squeal?”
Petra’s mobile face displayed a pantomime of ignorance. “There are clubs, I know that much, you write in and get a charter or something. When my friends and I got hooked on the books, only the first two or three had been published. The clubs and things came later.”
“So is Carmilla a vampire?” I was thinking of the cry—Tyler’s cry?—that she’d seen a vampire.
“Good grief, no. She’s a shape-shifter—the Raven! Vic, I’m embarrassed that my own cousin is so illiterate!”
“They were initiating Tyler,” I persisted. “Everyone warned her it would hurt, but she wanted to go through with it anyway. Were they imitating a raven? Did Arielle peck your eyeballs?”
Tyler giggled nervously, but Kira said, “No. Arielle and Nia, they stick—”