Chapter Eleven
Chapter
Eleven
My neck is itchy. I start scratching before I’m even fully awake, pulling at my skin as though there’s something stuck inside. I open my eyes, and search through my bedsheets for my phone.
It’s already eleven. If Jannet and Stella told anyone about last night, campus security would have barged into my room by now. The black curtains that separate our room are wide open, and for the first time, I’m not perturbed by the sight of her coffin.
Why would she help me? I let out a shaky breath, trying to get her out of my mind. Until now all she’s wanted was to get me out of here. And yet last night, for some reason, she helped me.
I scratch my neck again, my blunt nails not alleviating the feeling.
I wonder if this itch is some kind of side effect of her blood.
Either way, I don’t have time to sit around pondering.
I rush into the bathroom, fighting with the demonic silicone cup.
And I almost, almost, don’t see my reflection.
But I look up for just a second as I brush my teeth and see it.
At first, I think it might be some kind of spot, or maybe a scar.
But then I peer closer.
The place that Jannet stabbed, and Aliz healed, is tattooed with a small black moon, two thorny vines surrounding it. It’s beautiful. And I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere before.
Still holding my toothbrush, I step out into the room, turning on the light. I walk over and stare, without a word, at the design that decorates her coffin. Hers is gold, mine is black. But it’s the same. A crescent moon, surrounded by a tangle of thorns.
I take a step back, nausea almost knocking me off my feet. I put my toothbrush down on the desk, swallow the toothpaste, and knock on her coffin, trying to remain calm. There must be an explanation for this. Whatever this is.
“Go away,” she groans from inside, and I hear her turning.
There’s an empty paper cup on her desk, stained red, next to a large book about colour theory. A pile of notes, some of them crumpled up. I find the handle on her coffin, and I pull it open.
Despite being a vampire hunter, I’ve never seen the inside of a vampire’s coffin before.
It actually looks comfy, although far too narrow to be able to sleep in.
The sides are padded with velvet. But the only thing I can look at is her, her bare legs kicking off her black silk sheets, her toned arms trying to hide her face from the light.
“Aliz?” I say, keeping my voice calm.
“No,” she says, trying to pull the lid back down.
“Aliz,” I repeat, keeping the coffin open, light flooding into it. She hisses, showing her fangs. “Look at me!”
“Go away,” she croaks, her voice low and hoarse.
I grab her arms, pulling them away from her face, and she finally looks at me, glaring. It takes a few seconds, but she sees it.
“When’d you get the tattoo?” she asks, sitting up, and I feel like screaming.
“What is this?”
She rubs her eyes and looks at my neck again.
She reaches out to touch it, and with the contact, the unbearable itch subsides.
Her skin is like a cooling balm, and I breathe out an involuntary sigh of relief.
I almost step closer to her, but then she speaks.
“It’s my family crest,” she says in a small voice.
I swat her hand away and the itch returns. “Your family crest?”
“Well…” She clears her throat then yawns.
“A moon bound in thorns. That’s the Astra crest.” My heart thuds against my ears, and she grabs my arm without a care in the world, pulling me closer to get a better look at it.
She touches it again, lips ajar. My breathing hitches, but for once, she doesn’t react.
Focus, I tell myself, prying my arm free from her grip. “What the fuck is this?”
“Uh…” Her expression is lost, inching towards panic. “I don’t know.”
“But you did it!”
“No, I didn’t,” she protests. “You think I can draw? I would be an art major if I could.”
“Aliz, this is where the cut was. The one you healed with your blood.”
She blinks. Her white brows settle into a frown, and she narrows her eyes. “That happened,” she says. “And you still haven’t told me who attacked you.”
“What happened to the last human you healed?” I ask, my heart thudding.
She rubs her eyes, still half asleep. “I’ve never healed a human before,” she says.
“What?”
“You’re the first human I’ve given my blood to.”
“You better be joking,” I say, anger coiling inside me.
“I was trying to save you!” she says. “You would have died.”
“Fine,” I snap. “But I want to know what this mark is.”
“I don’t know,” she says, exasperated.
“Well, figure it out,” I say. My teeth grit as frustration continues to bubble within me. “I’ve got class, but by lunch you better know how to get rid of it.” I scratch it, and Aliz simply stares at me, bewildered. I have a terrible feeling about this. But she nods.
“I will,” she says.
I grab a tartan scarf to wrap around my turtleneck, just for good measure, and hope that whatever this mark is, it’ll be gone before I see her again.
Between each class, I stop in a toilet, hiding in a cubicle, using my phone to look at my neck. It’s still there.
The itch in my neck starts to subside around dinnertime.
I’ve been jumpy all day, waiting to see Jannet and Stella step out of the shadows, but they don’t.
When I spot Stephan and Julia at our usual table, playing cards, I finally feel a little normal again.
“Where’s Ife?” I ask, and when I sit, Julia’s shoulders tense. She stares at me, lips ajar.
“I like your scarf, it’s very fashionable,” Stephan says. He places a queen down on the table, and Julia picks it up.
“Thanks,” I say. I steal a glance at Julia, who doesn’t say anything. Why did she look at me like that?
“Did you-know-who bite you?” he asks, resting his chin on his hand.
“You know they’re not allowed to do that.”
“Sure, but maybe the heir to the most powerful family in Europe can get away with things an ordinary vampire can’t,” he counters.
“Well, she didn’t,” I say. Instead, she gave me her blood. The more I think about it, the worse it sounds.
“What’s your dissertation on, Cassie?” Julia asks, changing the subject.
“I’m not sure yet,” I say. “Maybe Ravel’s post-conversion pieces.”
“Ravel?” Julia says. “Nice.”
“Have you met him?” I ask, and Stephan, who was shuffling cards, starts laughing.
“Uh, how old do you think I am, Cassie?” Julia asks, leaning one arm on the table.
I look at her. Truth be told, she looks my age. Younger, even. Converts, like Julia, are frozen forever at the age they were bitten. So, although she looks like she’s in her late teens, she could easily be thousands of years old.
“Sixty,” I say, which seems a fairly reasonable number.
“I’m twenty-two,” she says. “Got bitten four years ago. I was an ordinary human until I was eighteen.”
The word ordinary catches me off guard.
“We’re the same age,” I whisper. I could have been in Julia’s shoes.
Four years ago, our lives were identical. Four years ago, vampires changed everything. I feel as though she wants to say more, and for once I want to hear it. But instead, her gaze drops to my neck, eyes narrowing. I touch my scarf. It’s still in place.
Aliz enters the canteen. I don’t see her, so I have no idea how I know that she’s here, but when I look up, she’s cutting her way through the crowd, ignoring her flock as she heads straight to the blood stall.
The itch returns to my neck, and I scratch it through the scarf. She doesn’t look over at our table.
Ife joins us shortly after sunset, pressing a kiss on both Stephan’s and Julia’s cheeks.
“By the way,” Ife says, leaning on the table. “I spoke to the Night Dean last night. I know we only had one name, but he says he’s been looking into the Red Ribbons. And he won’t let any harm come to his dear human students.”
Considering I was almost crushed to death and poisoned, he’s not doing a particularly good job. I play with the fabric of my scarf, forcing myself to stay calm.
“For some reason, they all stopped wearing their ribbons, but he told me he’s caught a few of them already. Even if they don’t give him names, the rest will chicken out.”
“Right.” What if it’s Jannet and Stella?
If he caught them last night, their silver-inflicted wounds would still have been visible.
And what would stop them, at that point, from telling him I was the one who wounded them?
Panic rises from my stomach, and I bite my lip.
It’s all right. I haven’t been called to his office yet. He doesn’t know what I am.
When I look up, Aliz is staring in my direction.
She makes a short gesture with her head, nodding towards a back entrance of Ambrose Hall.
I let out a sigh of relief. She’s figured out what the mark is, hasn’t she?
And she’ll know how to get rid of it. “I’ll see you later,” I say, and they watch me, not without suspicion, as I rush off.
I spot her in one of the wider tunnels, connecting Ambrose Hall to the history department.
She’s waiting in front of a painting, and before I can reach it, she pulls it open and steps inside.
A secret tunnel. The painting depicts a canopy of white flowers and a sky free of clouds, the sort of landscape that a vampire will never see in person.
I tug at the painting’s ornate frame, finding a door behind it.
The dark tunnel smells damp. It’s cold, with puddles reflecting the dim lanterns that fringe the old stone walls. Aliz is under one of those lanterns, hair dyed orange by the light. An odd warmth spreads through me as I get closer to her, and the itch in my neck slowly starts to fade again.
“So,” I say, hands on my waist. “Do you know what the mark is?”
She hesitates, and only when I see her expression do I realise that something is wrong. Her eyes are wide, jaw tense. She’s got her hands clasped together, rubbing them without pause. “I—Yes.” She takes a deep breath, not looking me in the eye. “We fucked up.”
“What do you mean, we?”
“We’ll go to Kinsnet,” she says, ignoring my question. “I’m sure we’ll find a cure for it.”
“Cure?” The itch in my neck increases. “But didn’t you cure me last night?”
“I should have realised it when I saw it. But you woke me at that unthinkable hour, and well—”
“Yes?”
“It’s a Familiar’s mark.” She looks away, her lips pursed tightly together. “I’ve never given my blood to a human before, so, you know—I didn’t think that would happen, but why don’t we head to the library? The sooner we get to work, the sooner you’ll be rid of it.”
I breathe in, trying to stay calm. “You’re joking, right?” I say. I laugh, waiting for her to laugh, too. But her face remains frozen in a picture of guilt.
“I’m afraid not,” she whispers, biting her lower lip.
“No,” I say in a small voice. Familiars are the lowest scum in the vampire world. Humans who exchange their freedom for a chance to be sired, for a promise of immortality. They do a vampire’s dirty work. Luring other humans into blood parties, just to please their masters. “I’m not your Familiar.”
“Well,” Aliz says, scratching the back of her neck. “According to that mark, you are.”
I hear Penny on the phone, warning me about the Astra power. My throat tightens, and I run my fingers across the mark. A Familiar’s mark.
“You knew this would happen, didn’t you?” My voice, sharp, echoes on the curved walls of the tunnel. “That’s why you were so friendly last night. Because I didn’t move. Because you didn’t get what you wanted.”
Hurt flashes across her eyes. My mouth dries as I wait for her to say something.
Tell me I’m right. But instead, her breath trembles, and she looks at the ground.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was on the verge of tears.
The sound of dripping echoes in the distance, and I hear my own laboured breathing.
I have to stop myself from hyperventilating.
This isn’t happening. “You don’t have to believe me,” Aliz whispers after a pause.
“But I had no idea this would happen.” Bullshit.
“I’ll fix this,” she says. “We must have accidentally performed some kind of blood contract last night.” Her voice trembles. “There was a full moon, wasn’t there?”
“Blood contract?”
“I’m sorry,” she whispers.
“How,” I start, my voice low, “do I get rid of it?”
“I don’t know,” she replies. “We’ll figure something out, all right?”
I should kill her right now, right here. I agreed to her giving me her blood, but I did not agree to this. “There is no we,” I hiss, trying to keep my trembling hand from slipping into my bag and grabbing a stake.
It still hasn’t hit me. I can’t be.
A vampire hunter cannot, under any circumstances, be a vampire’s Familiar.