Chapter 11 #2
I winced. Because of me. Didn’t qualify because of me .
He shrugged. “I’m over it. It is what it is.”
Was he? He didn’t sound like it, but maybe he was. Maybe he got mad, processed stuff, and then moved on. That sounded healthy.
We walked down the rest of the pathway until we reached two redbrick buildings. The one on the left was the boys’ dormitory and the one on the right the girls’. Ivy crept up the corners, and tall windows reflected the afternoon light.
It was total chaos. There were students and parents and boxes and bags everywhere. The registrar had said that the first day of school wasn’t really a school day. It was just to get your schedule, settle into the dorms, and get your hunter runes. Tomorrow was when the real classes started.
We dipped into the lobby of the girls’ dorm and came to a halt in front of a woman with a clipboard. “No boys past the lobby, Asher Voss.” She eyed him.
He dropped my duffel bags and nodded to the woman. Harper and Luna walked over to a girl with reddish hair and began animatedly chatting with her as I peered at Asher.
Black T-shirt, faded jeans, stake hanging off his belt. He was so unassuming. No flashy designer gear, his hair tousled and not styled. He was exactly my type.
“Thanks for carrying my stuff. My fingers are regaining blood flow.” I pulled them out of my pockets to show him.
He grinned and my knees went weak. He shoved his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet, making no move to leave. I stood there awkwardly as I decided whether to leave or stay. Was he going to say something?
“I’m sorry for blaming you about my not passing the final exam. It must have been really scary to suddenly see a hundred bloodsuckers at your birthday,” he said. “I would have run too.”
Whoa. A heartfelt apology? I hadn’t expected that.
“Thanks. I’m sorry I kneed you in the balls when you were just trying to protect me. I hope you can still have children.”
He burst into laughter, a low, rumbling sound. “You’re funny, you know that, Stella?”
I shrugged. “Trauma response.”
He was smiling, like nonstop, and it made my heart beat frantically in my chest.
“I’m also sorry about saying that stuff about your mom and inheriting money. My parents didn’t leave me anything when they died, and the only way I’m going to survive is if I get hunter runes and graduate and become a licensed hunter. It’s a lot of stress and… I shouldn’t put that on you.”
Whoa. Heartfelt apology number two! Go, Asher. “I’m genuinely shocked that you know how to apologize so well,” I told him.
He licked his lips, the grin not fading. “Well—” He stopped talking, his gaze went to something behind me, and the color drained from his face.
“Babe!” a shrill female voice called from behind me.
Asher tensed as a pretty blond popped into sight and rushed to his side.
“Did you come to visit me? You’re so sweet.”
She was at least five feet ten inches, with long blond hair that fell in thick glossy waves to her perfect twenty-six-inch waist. She wore a buttery yellow sundress that contrasted her candied red lips, and I swear she could be a Taylor Swift vampire hunter version.
Babe?
It was like a knife had suddenly been imbedded in my chest and I couldn’t breathe.
Was this how Luna felt when looking at Byron and Chloe?
“Hi, I’m Daphne.” The girl extended her perfectly pink manicured hand to me.
“Stella,” I managed and shook it.
Her skin was so soft, and I could smell her perfume from here. It was like flowers and sunshine.
She was perfect. Daphne.
“I know, silly. Everyone knows who you are. Welcome to Veil Haven,” she said earnestly.
“Thanks.”
She looked at Asher. “Ash, you want to get lunch?”
Ash. Right. I needed to leave. This was awkward.
“Well, see you around,” I told them both as I grasped my bags and found the will to lift them. I beelined it for the back hallway as fast as I could.
Asher and Daphne. They sounded cute together.
Ashne. Dapher. Okay, not the best celebrity couple name, but still. They were iconic.
Perfect. I guessed when Harper said he was recently single, she’d been misinformed.
I pushed them from my mind and managed to fit through the hallway and find room four.
I dropped the bags down in front of the closed door and peered to the left, to the open number three.
Luna and Harper were inside with Celia and Luna’s mom.
They were finishing making their beds, and I grinned at the sharp contrast in the style of the room.
The left side was light green and pink with fairy lights and butterflies. Harper.
The right side had black bedding, a black macramé wall hanging, and black lights. Luna.
“Stella!” Harper jumped in excitement when she saw me.
“Check this out.” She pulled me into the room and went to a door at the side wall.
When she walked into it, I found myself in a nicely tiled bathroom with a double sink and shower.
Passing through the bathroom, she opened the door on the far wall and into the room next door.
Mine.
“We can go back and forth whenever we want!” Harper exclaimed.
I stepped into the room and took stock of what was there.
A queen-size bed was in the center of the room with a desk and little kitchenette on the far wall.
“Oh, I’m totally using your kitchen.” Luna came in behind me.
Their room didn’t have one. Must be a legacy thing.
The bed was already made with powder-blue floral sheets and a navy comforter, and a stack of gray towels sat neatly folded at the end.
“I didn’t know your style, but you didn’t strike me as the pink girl type, so I went for blue?” Celia called out as she came into the room.
She bought that for me? And made my bed? My throat pinched with emotion.
I wasn’t a pink girl. “My favorite color is powder blue,” I told her, and she grinned.
“Nailed it,” she told Harper, who reached out and fist-bumped her.
I felt uncomfortable when people did nice things for me, which I knew wasn’t normal or healthy. I felt like I owed her now and that I wasn’t worth this kind of attention.
“Thank you. Let me pay for the stuff you got.” I dug into my duffel where I had a hundred bucks, but Celia put out her hand to stop me.
“The school store has a cute dorm aisle with things to decorate if you want to grab anything else with your money, but this was a gift from Derek and me.”
Why did I feel like I wanted to cry? Foster parents bought us bedding all the time. But they were given money from the government to do it. This was Celia’s money. A true gift.
“Thanks,” I muttered, unsure what to say.
Celia opened the door to my dorm and dragged my two bags inside, placing them on the bed. Luna and Harper walked back to their dorm to finish getting things set up, and Celia went over to my desk.
“Come here. I wanted to show you something,” Celia said.
I stepped over to the desk.
She opened the top drawer and pulled out a photo album.
“All these are copies, so don’t worry if you lose one or tear it.
This is every photo I have of your mom. I want you to know her like I knew her.
I know you have a lot going on right now, so maybe this sits in this drawer for a few weeks, but I figure you might want to know more about her eventually…
” She stroked the photo album, smiling. “If the shoe were on the other foot and Harper showed up after eighteen years, I would want her to know me.”
I nodded. I did want to know more about Molly, but I was overwhelmed right now. “Thank you.”
She put it back in the drawer and closed it.
Then she moved to the closet, opening it to reveal a single black nylon jumpsuit and black combat boots.
“Academy issued. They have sewn-in pads for when you practice. There is a rack for your weapons.” She gestured to the wall-mounted system that was currently empty but for one steel stake.
“Academy provides some. The rest can be bought or earned. It’s really fun to compete in tournaments and earn weapons.
I still have a harpoon gun I got my second year for winning the Eclipse trials. ”
Eclipse trials? Winning weapons? I definitely wasn’t in Spokane anymore.
Goodbye, ultrasound tech. Hello, vampire killer.
But when I really stopped to think about it, this was better. I never saw myself as a hero by any means, but knowing I could fight the evil that lurked in this world gave me a sense of purpose I had never had but had always wanted.
“Oh, one more thing.” Celia held up her finger.
“I’m meeting with the guild to arrange for you, Asher, and a few others to retry the final and be able to get your hunter marks.
You think you could be ready in a month?
I have you added to my special class for extra training with the others who didn’t pass. ”
A month…for a final exam I knew nothing about?
“What do I have to do to pass the final? I just learned about this world.” I shifted on the balls of my feet.
She nodded. “It’s not a written exam, and if you fail, then you can retake it one final time at the beginning of next year. Going a whole year without hunter runes though…” She paused.
“Career suicide?” I asked.
She nodded. “You’ll get a desk job for the rest of your life.”
Ouch. Not that there was anything wrong with a stable desk job, but now that I’d gotten a taste for these bastards, I wanted them all dead.