by Jayme Morse
“I get stuck in a coffin a lot more often than you’d think,” he said with a chuckle. “In fact, I’m in one right now.”
“We all are,” Slade added sleepily.
“Well, you’re all used to it, then! Way more used to it than I am. Especially Noah. He’s had a hundred years of practice. Being in a coffin is awful.”
It felt so traumatizing. I didn’t have claustrophobia before, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I walked away with it after this.
“Now that you mention it, I kind of need to tell you something, Riley,” Noah began.
“You better not be telling me that you were the one who put me in here,” I warned him.
“I wasn’t actually in the coffin for a hundred years,” he said, avoiding my comment completely, which made me think that he really had put me into this coffin. “I might have made that part up. I was only in there for a year before you helped me get out.”
I knew it. I knew that he hadn’t been in there for the amount of time he’d told me.
“I didn’t think it mattered,” he went on. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again after I drank from you. I knew you had the ring, but I had no way of knowing that the ring would actually link you to us. I thought that our coven would always be just the four of us. Me, Julius, Tristan, and Slade. The same way it’s always been.”
“I don’t care,” I replied, and that was the truth.
I just wanted him to stop talking.
I didn’t care about any of it anymore. I didn’t care about their stupid coven, or this academy. I just wanted to get out of this coffin.
I heard Drew cursing and pounding on his coffin.
“We’re in our dorm room,” I called over to him.
I didn’t know how much to tell him. I didn’t even know how much I really knew. I wasn’t getting any of the guys’ thoughts anymore. I wasn’t hearing snippets of their conversations. I didn’t have knowledge of things that I’d never experienced anymore, when yesterday I did have that knowledge.
It felt like, yesterday, I had been linked to their thoughts, to their minds, and today, I wasn’t.
It felt like there was something missing from me. It felt like there was a giant hole within me, a hole that would only ever feel complete if I could hear their thoughts again—their full thoughts, not just the thoughts that they were allowing me to hear on purpose.
As much as I didn’t want to admit it.
As much as I hated it, I really wanted to connect with them in that way again.
“I’m pretty sure that I’m in a coffin,” Drew argued. “But if I’m not, then this is the tiniest dorm room I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Or felt in my life, since I can’t see shit in here.”
A scratchy crackling noise filled my coffin.
What was that?
“Oh, shit, I think there’s a mouse in here with me,” Drew said, his voice filled with panic, at that same exact moment.
“It’s definitely not a mouse,” I said, trying to reassure him. “I have a weird noise in my coffin, too.”
Then I heard microphone feedback.
“Good morning students,” a chipper high-pitched feminine voice poured into my coffin.
It sounded like the speakers were right above my head.
I let out a deep sigh, but it did nothing to relax my nerves. I was completely on edge.
Calm down, Riley, I told myself, knowing that I wouldn’t be calm until I got out of here.
“I hope you are all well-rested as we start off our Friday morning,” the woman continued.
“How is it Friday?” Drew asked.
“It was Sunday when we went to the graveyard. I’ve been asleep for almost a week?!” I asked.
“We’re in a different time zone,” Noah explained.
“We’re in a different time zone,” I repeated, loud enough for Drew to hear.
“On our menu for today,” the woman began. Her voice was so… melodic. So soothing. I wasn’t sure how else to explain it. It definitely sounded like she practiced her Do Re Mi’s before she gave her speeches to the school. “Are pepperoni pizza with a side salad, ham and cheese on a pretzel bun with roasted carrots, and A negative and A positive blood. All other blood types are currently unavailable.”
I shuddered at the thought of where that blood had come from.
“That was nice. She was really soothing,” I told my coven. “I love her voice. I could listen to it all day.”
“That’s because she’s a siren,” Slade told me after her announcements paused.
“She sings us a bedtime song,” Tristan added.
“A bedtime song?” I asked skeptically.
“After we’re all in our coffins. The song is supposed to make us all fall asleep. You slept through it last night,” Tristan explained.
So the Academy lulled us to sleep with a bedtime song before they locked us into our coffins for the night? How kind.
“You might see some new faces this morning,” the woman went on. “We have some new students joining us today. I hope that you’ll make them all feel at home.” She paused. “Would all new students please report to the grand hallway?”
I groaned. This was so frustrating. How were Drew and I supposed to report to the grand hallway from the inside of our coffins? And not only that, but I didn’t even know what the Academy looked like. I would have no way of knowing which hallway is the grand hallway.
“You could, like, ask somebody which hallway it is,” Julius’s voice swam into my thoughts.
“But then I would have to talk to someone.” And by someone I meant another vampire, who may or may not have been a good vampire.
“Good call. Don’t talk to strangers,” Slade joked. At least, it sounded like he was joking, anyway. I could hear amusement in his voice. “I’ll walk you.”
“Why do you get to walk her?” Noah asked.
“I call dibs on walking her home at the end of the day,” Tristan said.
I rolled my eyes. They were making me sound like a golden retriever.
But honestly?
I kind of liked having them fight over me.
Chapter 15
Riley
The coffin lid made a clicking noise and swung open, revealing a black tiled ceiling.
“Freedom!” Drew said, his voice full of excitement as he quickly scurried out of his coffin.
“Kind of. It’s as free as we can be at this academy,” I corrected him as I climbed out, too.
He stretched. “That’s the last time I ever want to be in one of those.”
“I’m pretty sure we have to sleep in one every night for the rest of our lives,” I said, breaking the bad news to him.
Technically, I didn’t know if that was true.
“It’s not. We can sleep anywhere. It doesn’t have to be inside of a coffin,” Noah’s voice came into my thoughts again. “Though most of us do prefer to sleep in dark spaces. But that’s what they make blackout curtains for—vampires. We probably purchase more of them than any humans do.”
“Nightshade Vampire Academy really likes to keep things traditional. Traditional vampires sleep in coffins,” Julius explained.
“What they really like is locking us into our coffins,” Slade said.
“I guess that’s where you learned to lock people into cages,” I replied with an eye roll.
“That was just a matter of space,” Slade said defensively.
“It looked a lot worse than it actually was,” Tristan said.
“That was Slade’s dog’s cage. He didn’t want to take the cage out of the car, so the easiest alternative was to put you guys into it,” Julius said.
“It was an expensive cage,” Slade replied, trying to justify it.
“It’s going to be years of PTSD,” I replied, even more annoyed now than I had been when I’d thought they had locked us in there intentionally. “Now I have a fear of cages.”
“On the bright side, you know how to get out of them now,” Slade offered.
“I’d just like to let you know that I had no part in any of that, Riley. I wasn’t even there when they put you into a cage,” Noah said.
“Yeah. He was off drinking from some humans,” Slade told me.
I wasn’t sure why, but a twinge of jealousy ran through me.
Having Noah’s fangs inside of me had been so… intimate.
I didn’t like the idea that he’d bitten someone else with them.
They were mine.
“I’m sorry,” Noah replied quietly.
“Look at this place, Riley. It’s amazing,” Drew said, sounding awestruck.
“Do you guys have to listen to everything?” I yelled out loud at the guys instead of answering Drew.
I was too distracted to answer him.
My cheeks flushed as my embarrassment rose to my cheeks. I couldn’t help it that my mind had wandered to that. It wasn’t like I’d tried to get jealous on purpose.
“Sorry,” Noah replied quietly.
“Get out!”
I glanced around the dorm room that I’d be calling home for… hopefully not much longer.
As much as I didn’t want to be here, though, I had to admit that the room was gorgeous. I would have removed the shiny white coffins and replaced them with an actual bed, but aside from that? It was more than I ever could have wanted in a dorm room.
Silky looking long black curtains covered the floor to ceiling windows. Pulling them open, I found that we had the prettiest view ever. Our room overlooked the mountains below us. It was dark outside, but the full moon shone brightly, casting its glow over the lake. So many stars were reflected in the water.
I wasn’t sure why it surprised me that it was still nighttime.
I supposed that was probably how Nightshade Vampire Academy had gotten its name.
Turning back to the room, I took in the crimson red glittery walls. The sparkling teardrop chandeliers. The sleek black tiled floor. We even had our own bathroom.
The room felt so elegant. If I’d seen a picture of it, I would have thought it was a celebrity’s house from a magazine. I never would have guessed, in a million years, that it was a dorm room.
It felt like a badass vampire lair.
“You’re right. It’s so pretty in here,” I murmured.
Drew didn’t respond. When I glanced back at him, he was staring at me with a worried look in his golden-brown eyes.
“You okay?” he asked, studying my face.
I nodded.
“I think maybe you spent a little too long in the coffin,” Drew suggested.
I shook my head. “Maybe,” I muttered. “I have a question. Do you have voices in your head, too? Can you hear the guys talking to you?” I asked.
Drew shook his head slowly. I could tell he thought that I was losing it, but he didn’t say anything.
“We already told you that only you can hear us,” Julius said, sounding annoyed.
“You could have been lying. I had to fact check you,” I replied.
To Drew, I said, “I have a lot that I need to fill you in on, starting with the voices that I hear in my head at all times now. They’re driving me nuts.”
Drew raised his dark eyebrows at me. “Damn, I missed a lot. I feel like I’ve been sleeping forever,” he replied with a yawn.
I noticed then that he looked so different.
“Drew, you got hotter,” I told him as I pointed to the silver framed floor-length mirror that was hanging on the wall. “Go look at yourself.”
He shot me a confused smile but went to stand in front of the mirror. “I do look different, don’t I?”
“You look good as a vampire,” I said, testing the word out on him.
It was the first time, that I knew of, that I’d made it sound like being a vampire could be a good thing.
“You do, too. Look at you,” he said.
I came to stand next to him.
Even though I didn’t feel like I looked that much different, I could see the changes in me. I’d gotten a little bit taller. I wasn’t five feet tall anymore, though I didn’t know how much taller I’d gotten, either. My waist was a little bit thinner. My breasts and hips were a little bit larger. Drew let out a laugh when I turned to glance at my ass.
“I’m just curious,” I said as I laughed with him.
My ass looked a little bigger, too.
“I can’t wait to see,” Tristan’s voice said.
He wasn’t the guy that I wanted to notice the changes within me.
I didn’t know, until that very moment, that I already had favorites within the coven.
Noah and Slade.
I rolled my eyes at myself.
They’re the enemies, I reminded myself. I had to keep thinking of them as my enemies.
Still, though. A girl could keep her enemies close, couldn’t she?
Close was right where I wanted them to be.
Chapter 16
Riley
A bell rang over the speakers. Then the siren lady’s voice came over the speakers again.
“This is the last call for all students to be in their assigned homerooms,” she said.
“I guess we better go,” Drew said, looking as disappointed as I felt.
“It’s bad enough starting a new school year back home. This is going to be even worse. We don’t know anyone. No one is human. Everyone is a vampire. It’s going to suck,” I complained.
“Suck is an understatement,” he agreed with a nod.
“I’m surprised you’re handling this so well,” I told him, studying his face curiously. “You were completely human yesterday and now you’re a vampire at an academy for vampires.”
“Well… no, I’m not handling it that well. I’m just happy we’re in this together. But I knew Dylan was a vampire, so it’s not too shocking. I got over the shock of vampires being real a long time ago.”
“Dylan was a vampire?” I asked, unable to hide my shock from my voice. “How did you know that and I didn’t until just now?”
He glanced down at the floor, unwilling to meet my gaze.
“I walked in on him and Jessica Brooks in the bathroom at his house during one of the parties he’d thrown a few months before he died. There was so much blood dripping down her neck and it looked like he was biting her. I kind of just walked back out of the bathroom and pretended that I didn’t know what I’d seen. He never brought it up to me. We just pretended it had never happened. It seemed crazy at the time, so I didn’t think I could tell anyone, but I still knew what I saw. Even then, I didn’t doubt it for a second. Are you mad at me?” he asked, his golden-brown eyes searching mine.
“No. Of course I’m not mad,” I told him. “Not at you, anyway. I’m more mad at Dylan than anything else. I remember which party you’re talking about. Dylan bit another girl while we were together.”
“You two were a couple?”
My eyes widened.
Oops. I hadn’t meant to let that cat out of the bag.
“He was my biggest secret, aside from the whole faerie thing.” Now it was my turn to ask, “Are you mad at me?”
He shook his head. “No. I always kind of figured you guys were into each other. It doesn’t surprise me one bit. I get why you kept it a secret. Jordan was…” he trailed off.
“Overprotective of her brother? Yeah, she was,” I told him.
“Where is she?” he asked, glancing around the room. “She was gone last night, too. Where did she go?”
“She ran into the woods. We have to go find her. Then the three of us can escape. But for now, we have to blend in and pretend to go to school. Keep your eyes open for an exit,” I said.
I opened the door to our dorm, finding Slade and Noah leaning against the wall across the hall, waiting for me.
“Hi,” Drew said awkwardly.
I could see just how nervous he was.
Slade gave him a little nod with his head as his bright blue eyes flicked down his body, taking him in. Ju
dging him.
I shot Slade a glare.
“’Morning,” Slade mumbled back to him.
“Hey,” Noah said.
“Ready to go?” Slade asked me.
Before I could respond, Noah said, “I broke curfew to go pick this for you,” as he handed me a red rose bud with a tiny stem.
Giving me a flower didn’t fix anything.
“I know,” he replied quietly, his eyes glancing down at the floor.
“But it’s better than you not doing anything at all,” I replied with a small smile.
“It has a deeper meaning, like the rose in Beauty and the Beast,” he explained.
Then, in my mind, I heard him say, “I don’t want you to feel like I’m holding you hostage. You can be the Beast.”
As I started walking down the dimly lit hallway, leading the way, I rolled my eyes.
“I don’t want you or me to be the Beast. The day you sank your fangs into me turned you into my enemy.”
How could I be the Beast? It didn’t feel like I was in control at all. Noah was still in control. So were the other guys.
Actions spoke louder than words.
“If you really want to make up for it, you’ll help me block you out of my thoughts.”
“I can’t help it that you think about me so often,” he said playfully.
“You know what I mean,” I replied with a huff.
“I’ll teach you,” he agreed with a nod. “One day.”
“Is today that day?” I asked.
“Nope,” he replied, glancing over at me. “But today I can start looking for Jordan.”
“We have a meeting today,” Slade reminded him from behind us.
I glanced over my shoulder at him, catching his blue eyes snaking up and down my body as I walked.
“Oh,” I replied.
“We don’t have to go to the meeting until midnight,” Noah told him. “That gives us plenty of time to look during the day.”
Noah sounded hopeful.
I could have been imagining it, but it sounded like he actually wanted to help me find her.
Then again, he could have just been trying to win me over.
It was kind of working.
Then something dawned on me.
“Wait. Midnight? I thought the coffins lock for bedtime. They only open back up in the morning, don’t they?” I asked.
