I slept heavily until morning. I went to my first class tentatively, nervous that word about last night had gotten around. As it turned out, peoplewere talking about last night, but their attention was still focused on the queen and the reception. They knew nothing about the rabbit. As hard as it was to believe, I'd nearly forgotten about that other stuff. Still, it suddenly seemed like a small thing compared to someone causing a bloody explosion in Lisa's room.

Yet, as the day went on, I noticed something weird. People stopped looking at Lisa so much.The

started looking atme.Whatever. Ignoring them, I hunted around and found Lisa finishing up with a feeder. That funny feeling I always got came over me as I watched her mouth work against the feeder's neck, drinking his blood. A trickle of it ran down his throat, standing out against his pale skin. Feeders, though human, were nearly as pale as Moroi from all the blood loss. He didn't seem to notice; he was long gone on the high of the bite. Drowning in jealousy, I decided I needed therapy.

"You okay? " I asked her later, on our way to class. She wore long sleeves, purposefully obscuring her wrists.

"Yeah…I still can't stop thinking about that rabbit…It was so horrible. I keep seeing it in my head. And then what I did. " She squeezed her eyes shut, just for a moment, and then opened them again. "People are talking about us."

"I know. Ignore them."

"Ihate it, " she said angrily. A surge of darkness shot up into her and through the bond. It made me cringe. My best friend was lighthearted and kind. She didn't have feelings like that. "I hate all the gossip.

It's so stupid. How can they all be so shallow?"

"Ignore them, " I repeated soothingly. "You were smart not to hang out with them anymore."

Ignoring them grew harder and harder, though. The whispers and looks increased. In animal behavior, it became sobad, I couldn't even concentrate on my now-favorite subject. Ms. Meissner had started talking about evolution and survival of the fittest and how animals sought mates with good genes. It fascinated me, but even she had a hard time staying on task, since she had to keep yelling at people to quiet down and pay attention.

"Something's going on, " I told Lisa between classes. "I don't know what, but they're all over something new."

"Something else?Other than the queen hating me? What more could there be?"

"Wish I knew."

Things finally came to a head in our last class of the day, Slavic art. It started when a guy I barely knew made a very explicit and nearly obscene suggestion to me while we all worked on individual projects. I replied in kind, letting him know exactly what he could do with his request.

He only laughed. "Come on, Rose. Ibleed for you."

Loud giggles ensued, and Mia cut us a taunting look. "Wait, it's Rose who does the bleeding, right?"

More laughter.Understanding slapped me in the face. I jerked Lisa away. "They know."

"Know what?"

"About us.About how you…you know, how I fed you while we were gone."

She gaped. "How?"

"How do you think?Your 'friend' Christian."

«No,» she said adamantly. "He wouldn't have."

"Who else knew?"

Faith in Christian flashed in her eyes and in our bond. But she didn't know what I knew. She didn't know how I'd bitched him out lastnight, how I'd made him think she hated him. The guy was unstable.

Spreading our biggest secret- well, one of them-would be an adequate revenge. Maybe he'd killed the rabbit, too. After all, it had died only a couple hours after I'd told him off.

Not waiting around to hear her protests, I stalked off to the other side of the room where Christian was working by himself, as usual. Lisa followed in my wake. Not caring if people saw us, I leaned across the table toward him, putting my face inches from his.

"I'm going to kill you."

His eyes darted to Lisa, the faintest glimmer of longing in them, and then a scowl spread over his face. "Why? Is it like guardian extra credit?"

"Stop with the attitude, " I warned, pitching my voice low. "You told. You told how Lisa had to feed off me."

"Tell her, " said Lisa desperately. "Tell her she's wrong."

Christian dragged his eyes from me to her, and as they regarded each other, I felt such a powerful wave of attraction, it was a wonder it didn't knock me over. Her heart was in her eyes. It was obvious to me he felt the same way about her, but she couldn't see it, particularly since he was still glaring at her.

"You can stop it, you know, " he said. "You don't have to pretend anymore."

Lisa's giddy attraction vanished, replaced by hurt and shock over his tone. "I…what? Pretend what?…"

"Youknow what. Just stop. Stop with the act."

Lisa stared at him, her eyes wide and wounded. She had no clue I'd gone off on him last night. She had no clue that he believed she hated him.

"Get over feeling sorry foryourself, and tell us what's going on, " I snapped at him. "Did you or didn't you tell them?"

He fixed me with a defiant look. "No. I didn't."

"I don't believe you."

"I do, " said Lisa.

"I know it's impossible to believea freak like me could keep his mouth shut-especially since neither of you can-but I have better things to do than spread stupid rumors. You want someone to blame? Blame your golden boy over there."

I followed his gaze to where Jesse was laughing about something with that idiot Ralf.

"Jesse doesn't know, " said Lisa defiantly.

Christian's eyes were glued to me. "Hedoes, though. Doesn't he, Rose? He knows."

My stomach sank out of me. Yes. Jesse did know. He'd figured it out that night in the lounge. "I didn't think…I didn't think he'd tell. He was too afraid of Dimitri."

"Youtold him? " exclaimed Lisa.

"No, he guessed. " I was starting to feel sick.

"He apparently did more than guess, " muttered Christian.

I turned on him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh. You don't know."

"I swear to God, Christian, I'm going to break your neck after class."

"Man, you really are unstable. " He said it almost happily, but his next words were more serious. He still wore that sneer, still glowed with anger, but when he spoke, I could hear the faintest uneasiness in his voice. "He sort of elaborated on what was in your note.Got into a little more detail."

"Oh, I get it. He said we had sex. " I didn't need to mince words. Christian nodded.So. Jesse was trying to boost his own reputation. Okay. That I could deal with. Not like my reputation was that stellar to begin with. Everyone already believed I had sex all the time.

"And uh, Ralf too.That you and he-"

Ralf?No amount of alcohol or any illegal substance would make me touch him. "I-what? That I had sex with Ralf too?"

Christian nodded.

"That asshole!I'm going to-"

"There's more."

"How?Did I sleep with the basketball team?"

"He said-they both said-you let them…well, you let them drink your blood."

That stopped even me.Drinking blood during sex.The dirtiest of the dirty.Sleazy.Beyond being easy or a slut. A gazillion times worse than Lisa drinking from me for survival.Blood-whore territory.

"That's crazy! " Lisa cried. "Rose would never-Rose?"

But I wasn't listening anymore. I was in my own world, a world that took me across the classroom to where Jesse and Ralf sat. They both looked up, faces half smug and half…nervous, if I had to guess. Not unexpected, since they were both lying through their teeth.

The entire class came to a standstill. Apparently they'd been expecting some type of showdown.My unstable reputation in action.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? " I asked in a low, dangerous voice.

Jesse's nervous look turned to one of terror. He might have been taller than me, but we both knew who would win if I turned violent. Ralf, however, gave me a cocky smile.