by Kat Cotton
I checked his answers. “If you’re heir to a financial empire, you need to get better at math or that empire will crumble around your feet.”
He rolled his eyes again but he couldn’t argue with my logic.
Most of the students had left the study room. I guess they’d expected something more risqué than Ren doing algebra. That meant I could grab a snack from the fridge. I couldn’t starve just because people hated me.
“I’ll be back in a minute.”
Ren nodded without looking up.
A few conversations stopped when I walked out of the room but I could handle that. I opened the fridge door.
It slammed shut.
Oscar.
Great. Just what I needed.
“You’re not going to the dance with Ren.” He folded his arms, his hip firm against the fridge so I couldn’t reopen it.
I could’ve just told him I had no intention of that but the way he stared at me annoyed the hell out of me.
“You have no say in this. What? Were you expecting Ren to ask you as his date?”
He leaned over, way too close. “I know you did something weird in the hallway. No matter what you say, no matter what Ren says. It wouldn’t be difficult to do some digging about you and your freaky friends and find out all the dirt.”
I gulped. That was the absolute last thing I wanted. Sure, we kept our powers hidden, mostly, and sure we tried to stay in the shadows but mostly we escaped attention because no one care what we did. If anyone, especially someone with the money and pure malice of Oscar, snooped around, we probably hadn’t covered our tracks that well.
I hated to let him think he was winning but if that’s what it took, I’d play along. Pride had no place here.
Nodding my head, I tried to look as angry as possible. “Okay, you win.”
Oscar laughed as he walked off. I shouldn’t have minded, I shouldn’t have cared one bit but the truth was, I did.
Chapter 23
“Have you found out anything yet.” Ren tapped his pen against the edge of the desk.
It’d only been two days since we’d sent the samples to Britney’s aunt. We’d tried to ask around but hadn’t come up with much. Farran had kept to himself. At least since my chat with Oscar, everyone had gone back to normal. Normal as in ignoring me. I don’t know if he’d told them he’d sorted me out or if they’d just realized the rumors weren’t true but two days of no bullying suited me just fine.
“Maybe. I’m waiting for things.”
“Maybe? I expect a full report. I’m not paying you for nothing. I need you to report back to me with a full accounting for your hours.”
“I’m at a very sensitive place in my research. I can’t compromise the investigation. So, get to work on those trig exercises. We've got a test tomorrow and I expect you to get at least a B.”
“You have found something?” Ren did that thing where he stretched his arm across the desk and rested his head on it. Then he looked up at me, all big, brown eyes and stupidly long eyelashes.
He thought he was so darn appealing when he did that. Like, not a person on this earth could resist him. Didn’t work on me. He could do those puppy dog eyes all he liked and I wouldn’t budge a bit. But man, the glimpse of his collarbones where his V neck t-shirt dipped down... why did I have a thing for collarbones? And why were Ren’s more appealing than anyone else’s? Surely he could have something about him that was just average.
I didn’t want to say a thing until we got the report back from Britney’s aunt, and even then, I wasn’t sure if I could just tell him about vampires. He’d think I was nuts.
“When I asked you to investigate this, I didn’t mean for you to exclude me.”
“Well, buddy, you are excluded so deal with it. That was our deal, you stay out of things. You know what you’re not excluded from? Math test. Get working on those exercises.”
While Ren did that, I tried to determine which was the better smoothie favor, the raspberry or the banana. Then I decided to combine them.
“What are you doing?” Ren stared at my smoothie mixture.
“Never you mind. Eyes on the paper.”
“I’m done.”
He might be but I had serious smoothie work to do.
“Well double check it. You rush to finish and make stupid mistakes. It’s better to double-check than lose easy marks.”
Ren seemed quieter than usual but he worked through the exercises. I took the chance to do my own homework.
“I’m done,” he finally said.
I looked through his work. Almost perfect. I handed the paper back to him.
“If anything major breaks about Farran, I’ll let you know. But now, our time’s up and have to go hang with my poor friends. I’m sure you have plenty of money to count or something.”
I rushed from the study room down to the dorms, happy to get away from Ren. Sometimes he made me laugh, and it was hard to hate someone who did that. And sometimes the glow of his smile melted my heart. I didn’t want my heart melted. I wanted to keep hating Ren because hating Ren was what I did. If I stopped hating him, I’d have to reassess my entire world view.
When I got downstairs, Britney wanted us to go back to where we found Farran’s clothes. Outside, the light faded fast.
“I know you can do that light thing and all but spending too much time in the woods after dark is not a smart idea.”
“It’ll be fine.’ Britney smiled.
“You can say that but every time we go in the woods, every single time, something horrible happens.”
“We just need to get some more samples. My auntie said the ones we got were inadequate. It’ll only take a minute. And we’ll have fun.”
Fun for Britney, maybe.
Still, we went looking. We needed any evidence we could find. At least it wasn’t too dark, not yet. Maybe we could get this done and be back for dinner before it got completely dark.
Lucas and I walked together on the path while Britney skipped ahead. She seemed at her happiest in the woods. Me, not so much. I’d happily never venture outside.
“Did you talk to Farran’s friends?” I asked Lucas.
“He doesn’t have many, but his dorm mates didn’t think there was anything unusual going on. He’d seemed happy to be back at school. No more than the usual teasing going on. I didn’t get much of an idea about the vampire thing either. I couldn’t exactly ask if he hated eating garlic—”
“That’s a myth anyway.” Britney turned back to us and grinned. “They have no problem with garlic or crosses.”
“Yeah, I know. I was joking.” Lucas grinned back.
“It’s a bummer he has no friends. I mean, a bummer for him but also for us. If he’d been in contact with someone since he left school, we’d know he was still alive. Just an email or something. Pity he has no social media at all.”
I wanted to believe that Farran wasn’t dead, no matter how much it looked otherwise. I refused to use past tense when I spoke about him.
We walked further into the woods, the trees closing around the narrow path. Only blotches of sunlight penetrated through the leafy canopy. A noise behind us startled me.
“Did you hear something?” I asked.
“Nope.” Lucas sniffed the air. “Can’t smell anything either.”
That reassured me. Lucas’ wolf senses beat the heck out of my hearing. The woods always made me jumpy. All those branches brushing against me and the crackling underfoot. I tried to ignore the prickling on the back of my neck.
“What does your aunt need?” I asked Britney.
“She wants samples of bark from the trees around where he disappeared. She’s pretty sure he was a vampire but she wants to confirm what happened. You can tell a lot from bark.”
That really sounded like a branch snapping behind us. If I said anything now though, I’d look super jumpy.
We got to the spot. That creepy tree face stared at us. I really didn’t like that tree.
“Does it se
em colder here?” Britney pulled her jacket tight around herself.
Strange. It wasn’t like Britney to feel the cold. Sometimes she freaked me out with her bare legs and arms while I wore about three layers to keep warm.
“I don’t notice it but then I’m always cold.”
Lucas shook his head too.
Britney got a pocket knife out of her backpack and carefully removed a small bark sample from one of the trees.
“This doesn’t hurt the tree.”
I’d never thought of that. I guess she had a much closer connection to the trees than I did.
Lucas and I hunted around the ground while Britney collected her samples. We weren’t looking for anything in particular but it never hurt to search again.
Then Lucas and I both jumped.
He’d heard it too? That smashing around like a wild animal stomped along the path?
Britney turned to us. “I hope those horrible guys haven’t followed us.”
I hoped so too. “They aren’t supposed to be bullying anyone. That was the deal I cut. But then, who knows?”
I sure didn’t trust Oscar and Blake. It wasn’t like Oscar hadn’t threatened me after I’d made that deal and if they thought they could attack us in the woods, they’d take the chance.
“There’s definitely someone.” Lucas sniffed the air. “I couldn’t smell them before but now I can.”
The three of us exchanged glances then crept back down the path.
A yelp broke cut through the silence of the woods.
I knew that yelp.
Ren.
What was he doing following us? I’d told him to stay out of this. The woods were full of danger, and the biggest danger for Ren would be me when I found him. I’d kill him for getting involved in this.
We walked around a curve in the path to see Ren jumping around, going crazy bashing himself.
“What are you doing?” I tried to suppress my giggle but the sight of Ren jumping around, hitting himself, was too funny.
“Leeches.” He slapped his leg. “Horrible leeches.”
“Slapping won’t help. It might make things worse.”
“Let me help.” Britney rolled up the leg of Ren’s jeans, tapping the leeches with a small flash of light. They fell off, all bloated with his blood.
“What are you doing?” Ren said, trying to push the legs of his jeans back down.
“You’re damn lucky they were just leeches, not vampires.” She put her hands on her hips. “You idiot, following us here.”
So much for me not mentioning vampires to him. His eyes widened.
“I had to find out.” He folded his arms and glared at me. “I couldn’t just stay at the school and miss out on the fun.”
I made a mental note never to make agreements with Ren again.
“Fun? Fun?” I pushed him, hoping to knock some sense into him. “This is a murder investigation.”
“You think he was murdered.” Ren’s eyes widened even further.
I still wasn’t sure he wasn’t involved in this. Could anyone really look that innocent and not be guilty?
“I have my samples,” Britney said. “We should take him back to the school. I don’t think he’s safe on his own.”
“I don’t think the leeches are safe.” I grimaced.
“Those leeches should be grateful they got to drink my blood. I come from the best bloodlines.”
Seriously, he said that? “Blood is blood. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Ah, Cherry...” Lucas pointed to the ground.
The leeches on the ground glowed bright yellow, like little wormy highlighter pens. I thought Britney had killed them but they still squirmed, fat and juicy with that luminous blood. I’d never seen leeches like that before, but then I was no leech expert. It was possible, I guess, that some leeches glowed.
“Are they supposed to do that?” I asked.
“She did it. She lit them up when she got them off me.” Ren folded his arms but he didn’t sound so confident.
“Of course I didn’t. I just burnt them off. They’re glowing from your blood.” Britney squatted down to look at the leeches. “I could send a sample to my auntie but I’m not sure how to ship living creatures.”
Ren walked over and squished one under his foot. “You can ship that one.”
Britney pushed him, almost knocking him to the ground. “Why did you do that? You killed it. That poor leech didn’t do anything to you.”
Ren stared at her, open-mouthed. No one pushed Ren and no one yelled at him. But Britney didn’t know or didn’t care.
“He sucked my blood, that’s what he did.”
“You really are an idiot.” She pushed him again. “For one thing, you don’t kill living creatures, and for another, you don’t kill things that contain your blood.”
Ren dusted himself off. “Stop pushing me around. Don’t you know who I am?”
“Do you know who you are? That’s the question we should be asking here. There’s something weird about you. You’re not human.” She picked the squished leech up off the ground. “But I have no idea what else you could be.”
A fluttering noise started up around us, like a flock of birds swarming. I caught Britney’s eye. Had she done that? But she frowned, looking as worried as I felt. The branches on the trees swayed and the leaves rustled. Even the ground under our feet seemed to move.
“Yikes. This isn’t good.” Lucas looked at the sky that had gone black above us. “Not good at all.”
I moved closer to him for safety. The wind took on an eerie howling.
Ren’s head turned. “Should we run for the school?”
But when the howling quietened, I knew it was too late.
Chapter 24
“We’re screwed.” I shivered. We’d have to fight. But fight what?
“Vampires.” Lucas barely whispered.
Then I smelled it too. Blood and decay.
“I know that smell.” Ren moved closer to me. “It smells like one of my father’s business associates but what would he be doing here?”
I tried to move away from Ren, wanting to hide in the shadows. If he was doomed, I wouldn’t earn my money but that’d be better than being doomed with him. After all, this all started with his blood.
“We could try running...” Britney glanced in the direction of the school.
“You run. Get the others.” Lucas gave her a little push. “You’re faster than anyone.”
Britney took off, so fast she seemed like a streak of light. I wanted to run too but I couldn’t leave Lucas here to defend Ren. That was my job.
“I should get back too,” Ren shuffled toward the path. “I’ve got things to do.”
“They’ll follow you.” Lucas began shifting.
As Lucas’ face elongated, Ren gawked at him, open-mouthed. I jumped between them.
“Nothing going on here.” I spread out my arms, hiding Lucas from view even though there wasn’t much chance of concealing what he was when he became fully wolfie.
“He’s a... a...”
I’d been shocked myself the first time I’d seen Lucas shift, and I’d been a lot more prepared than Ren.
“Just ignore him. We have bigger issues to deal with.” Hopefully, Tarragon could make a potion to make him forget this once it was over.
If we survived. The fluttering came closer, chilling me to the bone.
“We should hide,” I whispered.
But Ren couldn’t hide. He couldn’t run. They had the scent of his blood. Still, I grabbed his arm to drag him I had no idea where.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
We turned to find a creature standing on the path behind us. I froze.
His chalk-white face looked almost human. More human than the other vampires we’d fought but still unsettling. He wore a leather coat that flowed to his ankles and the smell of him made me retch.
I’d have to fight him but this cold sweat breaking out all over my body didn’t help one
bit.
I reached for Ren but he swaggered toward the vampire. “You can’t just...”
The vampire reached out his hand to Ren, extending claw-like nails.
“Come with us.” His voice rumbled with authority.
Crap, I was pretty sure he was trying to compel Ren. If that happened, we’d be screwed.
I rushed to Ren’s side, grabbing his arm. “Don’t listen. Block your ears.”
“Of course I’m not listening.: he shook me off. “Why would I go with him? I’m not a stupid kid and that guy is creepy.”
Ren wasn’t compelled? He sure sounded his usual arrogant self.
“Sorry, buddy but you can find another victim.” I glared at the vampire. “This one already had all his blood sucked out by leeches.”
Behind us, Lucas growled. Just a friendly reminder that he was around.
The vampire put out his hand again, this time aiming at me. “He must come with us. I have no issue with you or your wolf friend but I have orders.”
Looked like that vamp was out of luck with his compelling today.
“I don’t think so.”
He lowered his hand. “I will take him. One of theirs for one of ours.”
Ren backed away but that vampire moved at lightning speed. He grabbed Ren, his claws digging into Ren’s arm. Ren swung and punched, a punch that would’ve floored a regular man, but his fist bounced off the vampire’s abs. The vampire laughed.
“My master wants you.” He twisted, pinning Ren’s arms behind his back.
Ren’s face twisted in panic. I lowered my head ready to rush the vampire but Lucas, now fully shifted, sprung at the vampire. He knocked them both to the ground. The vampire tousled with him as Ren broke away.
“What the hell is going on here?” Ren got to his feet, then blinked a few times as though he didn’t believe it.
Lucas lunged for the vampire’s throat but the vampire smashed his arm across Lucas’ chest. It’d take more than that to stop Lucas but it made him pause.
Ren started to rush in but I pulled him back.
“Stay behind me.” I didn’t want Ren getting attacked or bitten, but I was mighty impressed that he thought he could help. He seemed more the running away type. “Get behind the tree.”
