Chapter 11 – — Professor Cane, Fracture and Form #3
Malric’s grin falters. His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t argue and steps back.
Bale considers them both for a moment. “Alucard, you’re up.”
He calls him by his last name. There’s definitely history there. If Lux knew who Draven is, then it makes sense Bale does too, but why is he letting him do this instead of Malric?
I realize everyone is still staring at me, and I straighten quickly as Draven approaches, his usual stoic expression in place. His eyes scan me once from head to toe.
He leans in close enough that only I can hear. “Remember what I said about hesitation?”
He pulls back before I can respond.
“Defensive stance,” Bale orders. “Block what you can. Evade what you can’t. Don’t die.”
Hilarious.
I raise my hands and try to remember everything from the last couple hours. Feet apart. Weight centered. Guard up.
Draven bursts into motion. One second he’s standing there, and the next his hand is past my guard and shoving my shoulder hard. I stumble back and catch myself.
He’s already reset. Expression blank.
I raise my hands again. I want to shout this isn’t fair and that he’s a fucking vampire, but I don’t want to play the weak human card.
He comes faster this time. I block one strike and miss the next. His palm hits my sternum, and I’m on my back before I understand what happened. Stone cold through my shirt. Air gone from my lungs.
Someone laughs. Sounds like Killian, that asshole.
I get up, my hands shaking, and ready myself.
Draven watches me with those honey eyes. He doesn’t taunt me or smile. Then he charges again. I try to evade and almost manage it. His leg sweeps mine, and I’m down, hip hitting stone, pain instantly blooming up my side.
I push myself up slower this time, palms scraped and ribs aching, something warm trickling down my arm. Blood. I don’t look at it.
“Stay down, Freckles,” he says under his breath.
I get up anyway. Fuck him for trying to make me look weak in front of everyone. It’s not enough that I froze in front of my group during the autopsy, but now he wants everyone to see how weak I am out here too.
His eyes narrow, and he delivers three more strikes. Faster. Harder. I block one, and it sends pain shooting up my forearm. The second catches me across the jaw, snapping my head to the side, and I taste blood.
The last one hits my ribs, which were already hurting.
I go down hard and lie there staring at the gray sky through the enchanted ceiling. Everything hurts in a way that feels permanent.
“Enough,” Bale says, sounding irritated. “That’s what real conflict looks like. The rest of you, take note.”
Draven walks away. I don’t watch him go, but I hear what he says to Malric as he passes, loud enough for the people around them to hear. Loud enough for me.
“She’s not cut out for this. Give her a week. She’ll be gone.”
It feels like a sucker punch considering how much I want this, and I have to reign in the tears.
Bale dismisses the class. I don’t move and don’t cry, keeping it together even though I feel humiliated.
Lux is beside me in an instant, helping me sit up. “You okay? Maelis, talk to me.”
“I’m fine.” I’m not. Everything hurts. My jaw. My ribs. My fucking pride. But I say it anyway.
Jace appears on my other side. He’s looking at Draven’s back as he walks away, and there’s something in his expression I’ve never seen before. Something dangerous.
“Jace.” I grab his arm.
He looks down at the blood on my lip and the way I’m cradling my ribs. His jaw tightens so hard I can see the muscle twitch.
“He didn’t have to go that hard.”
“I’m fine,” I insist. “Don’t.”
He wants to go after Draven, but he stays and keeps his hand steady on my back as I find my balance.
“Can you walk?” Lux hovers at my elbow.
“I think so.”
“I’m going to trip him in the hallway later,” she announces.
“I’ll assist,” Ellavee chimes in on my other side. “I know some demons who owe me favors. We could make it look like a training accident.”
I laugh, and it hurts. “I appreciate the loyalty.”
“I told you,” Lux says as we start toward the changing rooms. “Those vampires are assholes. Every single one of them thinks they’re better than everyone else. And Draven Alucard?” She shakes her head. “He’s the biggest dick of all.”
I keep replaying it in my head as we walk. The way Draven looked at me with nothing in his face. The way he whispered about hesitation before we started like he was setting me up to fail. The way he announced to everyone that I wouldn’t last a week.
I didn’t think we were friends, but after we talked on our way to class earlier, I thought maybe he wasn’t so bad. I thought there was something underneath the cold exterior.
Now I know I was wrong.
He wanted to hurt me. He wanted everyone to see me fail.
And the worst part is some small, ridiculous part of me still doesn’t understand why.
“I’ll talk to my father tonight,” Lux says as we walk. Her voice has an edge to it. “That was bullshit. He shouldn’t have let it go that far.”
I shake my head. “Don’t.”
“Mae—”
“I mean it. I’m already a target for being human. I don’t need people saying I ran to a professor the second things got hard.” I run my hands through my hair, tucking wild strands behind my ears. “I can handle it.”
“No one could hate you, Mae. You’re not a target,” Jace says as he peels off toward the men’s changing room. I want to roll my eyes. Clearly he hasn’t been paying attention.
The door swings shut behind him, and Ellavee snorts.
“He’s sweet, wrong but sweet.” She tilts her head, examining me.
“Here’s the thing. The other bloodlines might hate you because you’re different, and they think it’s unfair that someone weak and fragile got into Ashwell when so many of their kind didn’t. But the guys don’t hate you.”
Lux makes a strangled sound. “Ellavee.”
“What? I’m being honest.” She shrugs. “Half the males in our year would trip over themselves to get your attention, some of the chicks too. The ones who hate you are jealous. The rest just want to sleep with you.”
My face goes hot. “That’s not—”
“Oh please, you’re either naive or in denial. You’re human. You’re new. You’re pretty. To these bloodlines that barely interact with humans, you’re exotic like forbidden fruit.” She smirks. “You don’t have to be strong for them to want you. You just have to be interesting.”
“I’m really not.”
“Your angel thinks otherwise.” She glances toward the door Jace disappeared through. “That boy looks at you like you hung the moon and he’s grateful to be standing in the light. He’d walk through fire if you asked him to and probably wouldn’t even ask why.”
I don’t want to think about the way Jace looks at me, not when everything else is already too much.
Lux loops her arm through mine as we push into the changing room. “Ignore her. She’s trying to get a reaction.”
“I’m trying to prepare her,” Ellavee corrects. “This place is going to eat her alive if she doesn’t figure out how things work.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I mutter.
“Anytime.” She winks. “That’s what friends are for.”