by LJ Swallow
This ends. Now.
"Where is she?"
Jamie drops his hold. "Who?"
"Becci." I pull myself from the wall and stride back through the groups and force my way to the exit. "She must be at Walcott. I'm finding her now and she'd better tell me the bloody truth or I'll make her."
"Maeve!" Jamie hurries beside me. "You need to be subtle. Don't barge in there yelling—she'll run."
"But isn't that the point? I hide from what I can do; I don't use every skill I have." He attempts to seize my arm, but I shake him off and scan the groups ahead of me. "I'll follow Yvette. I bet she'll go to Becci."
Yvette isn't around. Cursing, I knock past people and grab the metal stair rail, propelling myself downstairs and shoving past groups.
Behind, I hear Jamie apologising as he weaves around students. Leaving the building, I pick up my pace as Jamie urges me to stop as I run into Walcott.
Out of breath and my heart hammering in my ears, I barge into the common room. Two girls who're chatting over a book stop and stare at me as I fly around the room, into the kitchen and back out again. Jamie stands in the doorway and catches me as I make my way back out. "Stay calm."
Glowering, I move from him. "Whose room is Becci staying in now?"
"Yvette's. I think."
I pause at the top of the staircase where Yvette and her friends gathered to watch Andrei leave last night. The night is clearer than yesterday, the moon at its pinnacle, and I can't help but glance out and picture Andrei climbing into the van.
Something else catches my attention. Most students below are headed into the doorway below the window, but one walks from the Walcott building towards the academy with a suitcase trundling after her and her curly hair pulled into a ponytail.
Chapter Thirty-Two
MAEVE
"No!"
Jamie's face fills with alarm as I push my way down the steps.
"Maeve?"
"Outside. We don't have time to ask Tobias for help."
I speed towards her as she makes her way to the main building, the cool air hitting my face. "Becci!"
The girl halts and glances over her shoulder.
"Stay there!"
But she doesn't, and instead rushes through the open double doors.
I've no choice. I don't care if somebody sees; I need to take control. "Becci!"
My chest tightens as I stumble through the door, and I catch sight of her heading across the hallway towards the offices.
She hurries, but the suitcase wheels squeak behind her and slow her down.
I catch up to Becci and step in front of her. She halts to avoid bumping into me. "Why are you running?"
Her hair is as wild as her eyes, the quiet girl who moves mouse-like around the academy can't scurry away. "Because I knew you'd try to talk to me. Because of him," she says in a small voice and points at Jamie behind me.
"I saw something," I pant. "In your mind. On the stairs yesterday. Jamie saw something too. Tell the truth, Becci. Someone's life is at stake."
"Yes, mine!" she shouts and immediately clamps a hand over her mouth. I capture her terrified eyes with mine and shove so hard inside her mind that she staggers. "Stop that!"
Becci attempts to fight off my intrusion but I hit harder, waves of angry energy spilling out. I'm not as skilled at locating memories, but I can make her speak.
"Who killed Lorna?" I demand.
"Andrei."
"Bullshit. Who killed Lorna? Tell me."
Becci's fear helps me and I grip hold of her mind like a dog with a bone. "I don't know."
The truth. "Because you didn't see, or because you don't know the person?"
Becci half-shrieks and holds her fingers to her temples. "Leave me alone, Maeve. I can't tell you."
Jamie looks between Becci and me. "Shit, Maeve. Get out of her head. This is coercion."
I'm unable to pay attention, my sole focus on intertwining my mind with Becci's.
"Lorna liked vamps," stammers Becci. "Not Petrescu. Older. One of them."
Let me in, I whisper in her head. Let me in, or I'll hurt you. You don't know what I'm capable of.
I don't know what I'm capable of, but I can scare her into talking.
If you do this, you'll pay a price, comes my reply. From Becci or someone else, the way I heard the voice when I was with Ash?
Drawing every ounce of the fury-fuelled magic coursing through me, I tear apart her mind and plunge into the darkest recesses of her mind.
Her secrets and the events the night Lorna died tumble into my head.
Lorna. A secret meeting with a vampire who doesn't live at the academy—the same one she's met every weekend for months. The one who's never told her his name, adding to Lorna's thrill. She wants Becci with her as a guardian as usual, but Becci refuses this time. I cringe as Lorna becomes upset and the meek Becci caves to emotional blackmail, worried for her friend's safety.
A pain similar to earlier with Ash stabs behind my eyes and I hurry to flick through her memories in case I lose them.
They meet at the back of the academy grounds, close to the gate Vincent was dumped at that night. The vampire tells the pair that he doesn't worry about guards and mocks how easily he could control them if needed. He's powerful—more skilled than any student, guard or professor—and tells them how weak the people are at the academy.
But he needs Lorna to allow him through the academy wards.
I feel Becci's spike of panic as if I'm experiencing it as she begs Lorna to see sense, but Lorna ignores her. The guy whispers something close to her ear and Lorna opens the gate.
A car returning to the other side of the academy draws the vampire's attention and he steps into the shadows. I recognise the distant figures as me and Andrei supporting the drunk Jamie and we disappear into the night. Placing his fingers to his lips to shush Lorna, eyes shining, the vampire's figure blurs as he heads towards the academy.
Becci's panic rises. Where are the guards? Becci pleads with Lorna again, who brushes her off, eyes shining with excitement. She admits he feeds on her secretly, the wound on her shoulder always hidden, and mocks that Becci would never be brave enough to experience the high this gives her.
Becci's conclusion matches mine: he's instilled persuasive magic in her blood so that nobody can see anything in her mind.
A whining starts in my ears along with the sensation someone's pushing something sharp and hot into my head, but I can't stop now. I see two figures ahead, and as I move closer to them, the pain intensifies. Becci's memories blacken and my mind hits something solid, which breaks as if I've hit glass with my head, shattering shards that pierce my mind.
As I focus, the pain becomes agonising and things begin to blur.
No. Push on.
Becci. Outside their dorm room. She tries the handle, but the door is locked so she turns away. Until she hears something. Not a scream, but voices. A guy's voice.
Was Lorna insane enough to let him into her room?
Trembling as she takes a key from her pocket, Becci unlocks and opens the door. Nausea joins my agony, and I can barely look at the scene in front of me. Lorna lies face upwards on her bed, her dead eyes open, the pink duvet and pillow patterned red from her blood. I hear the current-day Becci whimper as she relives this too.
I can't comprehend the amount of blood on the floor and bed—on the vampire's face. His back is to me, a tall guy in black jeans and a black shirt, perfect for blending into the night. The guy paints a pattern on the wall, dipping his fingers in Lorna's blood as he creates a symbol I recognise.
The Tepes crest.
Becci's too shocked to scream, and she's with me now, begging me to stop. Alerted, the vamp sends the door flying shut with a flick of his fingers and turns, giving a bloody grin as he silences her.
The whining in my head has grown and even though the vampire's mouth moves, I can barely hear.
His voice is a whisper as he holds the terrified girl tight and murmurs threats
into her ear. The gruesome detail. How nobody could detect him if he did come back for her. She's petrified and believes every word, silently thankful he's allowing her to live.
He whispers why he needs to leave her alive—because Andrei Tepes would come to his senses and only kill one witch before he regained control. Two would be excessive, he whispers with a laugh, the metallic stench of blood overcoming her.
Becci's mind blanks as he instructs her to leave. Influences her to return to the common room, lie on the sofa and sleep.
Clawing aside the blurred face for the first time, I take in every detail. He wears his hair like Andrei and the whites of his eyes are reddened from feeding, his sculpted features a mask of blood-soaked savagery. His bloodied lips pull further into a smile and he whispers, "I told you that you'd pay, Maeve."
I sense his evil as if he's standing in front of me and the room around us grows darker, walls closing in, the oxygen sucked away. This time when I hurtle towards oblivion, I fall backwards to the tiled floor, Jamie unable to catch me as I head towards the spiralling darkness.
A girl screams. Me?
Images race through my mind as I stand on the precipice of the darkness. I'm in a place beneath the academy, standing over the black hole close to my feet and ready to suck me in. I'm rigid with terror and a sinking inevitability that I'll die.
Behind, people call out. They fight. The world around trembles and when I look around, I see why the heat dizzies me. A tall ring of blue flames surrounds me, obscuring everything happening behind and I'm unable to step out. I sink to my knees and the ground beneath is covered in my blood, my palms in front of my face slashed with runic symbols I don't understand. Looking between them and the darkness visible beneath me, I sense an evil a hundred times greater than the vampire who killed Lorna.
The malevolence inside the hole is coming for me.
Chapter Thirty-Three
ASH
Keeping shifters cooped up for the day isn't a wise move, and when Professor O'Reilly bans rugby practice too, even Clive and Remi become unsettled. Emotions run high, because many shifters have vamp and witch friends. Some were close to Lorna and want to be around her friends too. Separating us is unfair and stressful.
I attempt to talk to Clive and Remi again, with no success. There's a strange tension between us that I pick up as a friend, but also as a shifter. They say little, look at me less, apart from when I'm away from them. Their family are different types of shifter—Remi's a wolf and Clive a bear—but there's a bond I can sense between them through their pheromones. We can literally sniff chemical changes and new bonds out.
I can't remember what happened that night with Vince, but I'm positive these guys can.
The trio hang in Vince's vicinity, eager for a word or look, like young pack members wanting to gain favour with the leader. Packs exist, especially amongst the wolf shifters, but fewer than the past. The remaining packs are from the old world and so have old school values. They keep themselves away from humans and are easy recruits for Vince when the time comes.
My phone is still missing, and I've had no chance to buy a new one yet. Forced to use someone else's, I borrow from Sienna, charming her into helping. She promises not to share or say anything about the texts I send, but I'm uncomfortable. I message Maeve but can't send love and hugs or sentiments that'll cause teasing and giggling from Sienna and friends.
A simple text with no undertones:
I grit my teeth in frustration. How is Maeve after her eyes bled earlier? That was scary shit. I hope Tobias has an explanation or a fix.
The after effects in my mind linger too. Maeve gave me a mother of a headache when she was in my head, and I tolerated the pain as long as I could. I gritted my teeth at the sensation of ice-cold fingers on my brain, scraping at the edge like trying to clear ice from a car windscreen.
This switched to feeling as if she'd taken a heated metal rod and skewered between my eyes before I told her to stop. That was too much to handle.
But that's nothing compared to what happened to Maeve, and I picture the blood suddenly flowing again. Why the fuck am I being held here as if we're the ones in the wrong?
Tobias has to know what happened to her and why.
I take to boredom eating, working my way through two family-size bags of crisps and a bar of chocolate, as I wait for Vincent. He appears in the common room, scanning as if looking for somebody. Not me, because when I approach him, he looks over my head.
"What's going on, Vince?" I ask, stepping in front of him before he can leave the room. "Why are we still segregated?"
"The world is exactly as I said." He rolls his shoulders. "We shouldn't get involved with the witches and vampires bullshit."
Clive and Remi look over at us, ready to jump to Vincent's defence. "I don't think Theodora would be happy if she knew about your attitude."
He says nothing and makes to walk away. I step in front so he can't move. "What happened to me, Vince? Why can't I remember?"
"Are you talking about our trip away where you got blind drunk?" His lips quirk into a smile.
"That isn't what happened. The other guys—they're being weird."
"How?" He walks over to me and looks down. "Because they agree that Gilgamesh are the superior house in the academy?"
Superior? He's taken another step in his strange crusade. "The houses are equal, Vince. You don't teach here; you can't start calling the shots."
Leaning forward, Vince's smirk grows. "Oh, but I do, Ash. And I have plenty to teach."
His words echo in my mind, as if someone else spoke them. Are the others right? Is he a construct or whatever the hell they said? Because he doesn't sound like my brother. He isn't behaving like my brother—which may be this person's downfall.
"Who are you?" I demand in low tones.
He ruffles my hair and I step back, smacking his hand away. "Your big brother. Why? Don't you like my new views? What's wrong with my standing up for Gilgamesh and keeping you safe?"
"We're not unsafe."
"You know my thoughts on this. Professor O'Reilly is old school. You're not reaching your potential—few of you are—and we need strong students to become leaders."
The zealousness enters his voice again, almost as if he's reading a script.
"Who's 'we', Vince? You can't have these ideas alone. Are you planning a rebellion?"
"Why? Would you be involved or would you side with your witches?"
"Answer my question," I say, taking on a harsh tone even though my heart races.
Confusion crosses his face, fleeting but enough for me to notice. "Talk to me again when you've come to your senses. And remember, the no visiting witches rule includes you and your..." He chews the edge of his lip. "Girl."
That wasn't the word he meant to call her, clear from his disgusted look.
"You know your witch fucked the vamp who killed the girl?" he adds with a sour look.
I cringe, not at the situation but his words, and bite back my defence of Andrei. "Yeah. So what?"
"One of the top Gilgamesh students should have a girl who only wants you. To support you. Do what you say. Come on, you can be head of the school next year, if you don't humiliate yourself. Our family is going places, and I don't want you embarrassing me. Find a shifter or two—there're plenty around the academy who'd happily fulfil all your needs."
Anger knots my stomach. "Maeve means a lot to me, and my other friends outside Gilgamesh are just as important. I prefer them to those who are only interested in what I can do for them."
He presses his lips together and looks over my head again. I won't push the issue, remembering how heated he became last time. If he isn't my brother anymore, this person's opinions don't matter to me—but his fists might.
"Omigod!" A girl's voice calls out, voice wavering. "Look." Arabella, a girl I saw with Lorna in the past, waves her phone at a fr
iend who rushes over. In seconds, several girls are crowded around her, on the small blue sofa and behind as they all express their horror.
Vince snorts. "I guess the cat videos aren't any good today."
Arabella looks up at me and whispers to her friend. Then they all look at me. Foreboding shivers through my body as they drop their gaze, and the whispering continues.
"What's happening?" I ask as I stride over. Arabella looks up before glancing at her friend warily.
"I-I don't know. It's bad. Ash..."
"Shit. Not another death." I snatch the phone of the girl and she protests as I read the text onscreen.
Beneath the words is a grainy photo taken from a distance. Jamie kneeling on the floor with Maeve in his arms, her body limp and head tipped back.
My body is seized with horror and I grip the phone harder as I read Arabella's response and the question I need the answer to.
Typing bubbles appear on the screen until the person texting replies.
I drop the phone as if it burnt my hands and blindly cross the common room towards the door, the world retreating into an echo as I stumble through. Vince calls my name as my footsteps thunder along the hallway towards the building's exit.
No. No. No.
"Ash. Stop. Now." Footsteps as heavy as mine follow and a steel grip takes my arm when I'm less than a metre from the exit. From going to Maeve.
I summon as much energy as I have left, but my attempt to pull away fails. Instead, Vince catches my arms and turns me to face him, gripping my upper arms until they bruise. "Don't you fucking dare."
"I have to go. Maeve's hurt."
For a moment, Vincent looks like I slapped him before his brow furrows deep and cheeks redden. "What? I told you to stay away." Struggling is useless and the black anger in his face grows. "You step foot outside that door and I'll beat you until you see sense."
"I don't care," I rasp back, heart beating away the seconds that I'm wasting by not being with Maeve. "Don't you understand what she means?"
