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Lukas had no idea what Blaire was talking about, but sensing her panic made him uneasy, and he needed to do something to help her. “Who was drinking blood?”

“I don’t know!” She threw up her hands. “I was coming back from the canteen after a meeting about switching my math courses with Professor Hidaka, and I saw two students in the hall making out.”

“Okaaay…”

Blaire dug around beneath her bed and pulled out a thick leather binder with worn edges and dropped it on her bed.

“So, that’s not really that strange. People kiss.”

She glanced at him briefly, and her cheeks were tinged pink. “But when they heard me approaching, this girl lifted her head, and she had blood running down her chin.”

Lukas hummed knowingly. “A pair, then.”

“I guess. Riley said pairs drink each other’s blood.”

“They do…”

Blaire’s full body shuddered, and he sighed. He hated how difficult it was going to be to get past that hurdle with her. But with Blaire being human, he accepted the long road ahead.

She kicked off her loafers and dropped down on the bed, crossing her feet beneath her as she sat on the comforter and dug through her bag. She pulled out a couple of chocolate bars, a package of M&M’s, and a bottle of peach tea.

“Sweet tooth?” Lukas said with a smirk.

Blaire looked over at him and shrugged. “I dunno. I haven’t eaten much recently, and I’m craving chocolate.” She opened the worn binder in front of her, revealing several photographs on the pages.

He shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that.”

After a brief pause, Blaire held up one of the chocolate bars. “Want some?”

Lukas stood from the bed and crossed to her side of the room, taking the chocolate bar from her outstretched hand. Their fingers grazed as he took it from her. He opened the wrapper and took a bite, looking down at the photos absorbing Blaire’s attention.

“Who’s that?”

Blaire looked up at him and swallowed the mouthful of M&M’s. “Who?”

Lukas leaned down and pointed to a group of three girls in soccer uniforms. It was obvious the girl in the middle was a younger version of Blaire, probably a preteen. He smiled; she was cute with lopsided pigtails and stickers on her cheeks.

“Oh. Just some old friends from middle school.”

She slid over on the bed, and he took it as an invitation to sit down next to her.

“And this one?” Lukas sat down beside her and pointed to a picture with Blaire holding a small trophy, standing between a man and a woman he already knew was her mother from the picture she kept by her bed. She’d told him as much before. But he didn’t know the man. It couldn’t be her real father; she was a teenager in the photo. Stepfather, maybe?

“My old track coach, Mr. Cooper, and Mom. I won second place in the eight-hundred-meter middle-distance competition.”

“Impressive.” He didn’t know much about track and field but placing in a sports competition was worthy of praise.

Blaire smiled and looked back at the photo.

Her pulse had calmed from the hallway incident, but when she flipped the page, the tension in the room increased. He looked down at the photos on the new page, searching for what could make her react that way.

“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly.

Blaire sighed. “I don’t know how I’d never seen it before…”

Blaire tapped a photo of her and a younger version of her stepbrother. Lukas growled under his breath. They stood together, and she was smiling brightly at the camera. Caleb’s arm was tight around her shoulders, and he looked down at her. He also smiled, but it was obvious he wasn’t looking at her in a way a brother would look at a sister. Aiden never looked at Riley the way Caleb looked at Blaire in that photo.

“You said you’re an only child… had you not had the chance to be around others with siblings?”