Chapter 9
SADIE
Ihad to be in shock. That’s the only explanation for letting a vampire lead me away from a public, crowded area to a small box room inside the academy building. She left the door cracked open, as if anticipating my nerves, but I was so numb that I wouldn’t have protested even if she closed it.
“You’ve never killed before,” Rogue said as a statement, not a question.
She guided me across the small room to a wooden examination table, and left me leaning against its thin padding as she riffled through the small drawers on all sides of the room.
It was a crafter’s dream, this room. So many drawers, cupboards, and shelves.
You could fill it with the contents of an entire Hobbycraft and still find space.
But it wasn’t paper and Copic markers that Rogue took from a drawer that looked hundreds of years old; it was a paper bag.
“Here, eat one of these,” she said, and bundled the bag into my hands. I accepted it numbly, peering within to find paper-wrapped sweets. “They’re lemon, I’m afraid.”
“What’s wrong with lemon?” I asked, my voice as scratchy as my eyes.
“Not a lemon hater,” Rogue said, as if making a mental note. “Any serious thoughts on strawberry?”
I shrugged. Debated doing as she advised and eating a sweet. But I wasn’t that stupid, and clearly I was coming to my senses because I realised how much danger I was in all at once.
“First time being alone in a room with a beautiful vampire?” she asked, lush mouth curled on the corner as she rummaged through cubbies and drawers.
“Who said you’re beautiful?” I found the strength to snark, putting the bag of sweets aside.
“You did when you kept looking at my boobs on the way inside.”
That shocked me into alertness, and I blinked—and promptly regretted it when grains of ash scraped my eyeball. “No, I did not.”
“Yes, you did. Thrice.”
I groaned and closed my eyes. Worse—that was worse.
“I’m going to heal your eyes,” she told me, that amusement still threaded through her voice. “But first, we need to rinse the ash from them and it’s going to be unpleasant.”
I groaned. “No, thank you.”
I cracked my eyes open a slit when she slammed a drawer, a glass bottle of clear liquid in her hand.
“It’s just treated water,” she said when my stomach tightened. As if she could hear my panic, smell my fear. What abilities did vampires have in this world? Were any of the human stories and folklore true—all the garlic, sunlight, have to be invited inside shit?
“Tip your head back,” Rogue instructed, not particularly harshly but firm, as if she was used to being obeyed.
“No.”
She smiled, and it was frustrating really, how attractive she was. Some girls got all the luck. Amazing body, killer smile, and a voice like smoke and velvet.
“Are you gonna compel me?” I sassed. “Or is that just an Earth-vampire thing?”
“That’s an everywhere-vampire thing, and no I am not. I only compel for battle and fun.”
Great, I was alone in a room with a vampire who got off on controlling people. Just my fucking luck. “I’m leaving now,” I told her, pushing off the table—
I squeaked when she set down the bottle and in the same fluid movement, grasped my hips and lifted me onto the padded cushion. Insistent fingers found my chin to tilt my face back.
“Eyes open,” she instructed, a little steel entering her tone.
“So you’re not going to kill me or compel me, but you’ll boss me around?” I muttered.
“Yes,” she agreed. “I shall. Eyes fully open, kitten. I won’t tell you again.”
“Stop calling me that,” I muttered.1
“But you remind me of a kitten,” she argued mildly, not allowing me to pull my chin free. “Ferocious and brave. And tiny.”
I scowled. I could never be called tiny with my hips, thighs, and boobs.2
“Eyes open.”
“I will—”
“Thank me when I heal the scratches on your cornea?” she cut in. “I should hope so.”
My eyes widened automatically at her nerve, her audacity, and she took advantage of it to pour that clear liquid over my eyes. It—didn’t burn, actually. It didn’t feel like anything but water, even if it was still an unpleasant sensation.
“Now you get to close your eyes,” she said, moving closer, until the scent of orange blossom drowned my sense of smell.
“Why?” I asked suspiciously, trying to pull my chin free of her iron grip and failing. “What are you going to do?”
My heart quickened, a knot twisting in my stomach.
“You’re scared about my nefarious plan to heal your eyes?” she drawled.
“Well, now I am,” I muttered. “Why are you helping me? I thought this academy was more dog eat dog than girls’ girls.”
A smile deepened in her cheeks. “What about girl eat girl?”
“That’s cannibalism.”
“Not the way I do it,” she laughed. “Eyes closed. I’ll make it quick.”
“Just what a woman likes to hear,” I muttered, and jumped hard when a wolf’s howl sounded in the distance. “They can’t get into the academy, right? The wolves.”
Rogue laughed. “No. And they’d regret it if they ever did. Every one of us is trained to kill them; a wolf entering the academy grounds would be a death sentence.”
Well, at least that was something.
“Eyes closed, then you can go watch your friend’s fight.”
Shit. Elix!
I forced my eyes shut even when it went against every instinct I had, and held my breath as I waited for…
actually, I didn’t know what to expect. Rogue touched one eyelid, her finger wet with the glass bottle’s liquid, then the other eyelid.
A moment passed, and then cool relief coated my eyes, every bit of pain and discomfort wiped away.
“Look at that, you survived,” she remarked with a laugh. “Come on, I’ll show you back to the training field. If you’re like me, you’ll get lost trying to find your way around this place.”
I blinked my eyes open, a newfound appreciation for how normal they felt. Not irritated, not painful, not weeping or burning. Even the aches in my ribs and lungs eased considerably. “Thank you,” I said, more than a little confused. “Why did you help me?”
Rogue shrugged as she wiped blood from her fingertip, the movement making the sweetheart neckline of her corset shift.3
I hurried off the table, pulling at the sleeve of my long t-shirt, looking anywhere but at her chest. This was just what I needed on my first day at murder school. Give it an hour, and everyone would know about my reputation as a boobs ogler.
A cheer rose outside as Rogue led me back through the warren of hallways to the main doors, and my breath hitched. That had to be the end of the fight—but who had won?
I quickened my steps, leaving Rogue behind as I ran across the lawn to the training field where the arenas were surrounded by a crowd—and where Elix was stumbling out of a circle, covered in blood, the victor.