by A. Vers
Harrington gasped. “That is an old tale, Mr. Giroux. Surely you do not believe—”
“It is founded in fact. All legends stem from a grain of truth. If she is indeed innocent, then she is free to go. If guilty and the sun takes her, it would be just punishment in the human’s eyes. A preemptive strike, as it were.”
My stomach knotted at how callously he spoke of my possible death. How cold and simple he made it.
Still Harrington hesitated.
I shifted more to face her. “Headmistress, I swear, I did not hurt the human girl. I couldn’t. Let me prove that in any way I can. Just please don’t involve anyone that doesn’t need to be.” My words were as careful as I could make them.
As grateful as I was to Giroux for suggesting his little test, he wasn’t the one I really needed to prove my innocence to. And he didn’t need to know of my past. But if Headmistress Harrington still didn’t buy it, I was as good as in the Council’s hands.
She looked me dead in the eyes with a heavy sigh. In that moment, she appeared to have aged a hundred years. “Goddess have mercy on you, Morgan,” she said softly. “Because if you are guilty, the sun may not.”
***
Sometime after the dark ages, vampires stopped believing the sun would roast us alive. Did it burn us? About as much as it would a human. We may have been quicker to sunburn, though I had never tested that particular theory.
But there was an old tale. One that stated if we drained a human out of greed, the sun would reject us. But it was just that. A tale.
I thought.
As I walked out into the stone courtyard between buildings, I couldn’t deny that my pulse sped. Or that my breathing quickened as the sun crested the tops of the trees.
I stood stock still, eyes tracking its approach.
Lokworth’s schedule kept me asleep during the daylight hours, and even on the weekends the same held true.
When was the last time I saw a sunrise? A sunset?
In my mind, I knew that I was innocent. I hadn’t hurt the human girl. My fangs did not pierce her skin.
But I also had not protested louder when the announcement came that humans would be attending Lokworth. I had sat by and idly grumbled that it would be an epic mistake to mix both races. Especially in such volatile circumstances.
But being right did not make me guilty either.
My racing heart did not understand that though
Behind me, under the courtyard overhang of Lokworth manor, Headmistress Harrington, Professor Giroux, and Officer Tim Douglas waited.
The nice officer had shown up right as we were leaving Harrington’s office. He was here to make an arrest on behalf of the city of Easthaven. Someone had already spread the word of the girl’s death, and the officer knew just where to find us.
Easthaven was out for blood.
And unless I proved my innocence, they were coming after mine.
“That is far enough, Ms. Read,” Officer Douglas called. “And no sudden moves.”
I peered at him over my shoulder.
His hand was near his duty belt, close but not quite touching his sidearm. He expected me to run.
It had taken quite a bit of fast talking for him to even allow this, but so far he was willing to try. Then again, if he could watch a vampire turn to ash, namely the one accused of killing a human, he was all for it.
The sun was slowly creeping over the flagstones of the courtyard. Small bits of mica glittered in the old bricks, creating a burst of color. I tried to focus on that. On how each speck had been added to form something bigger. Stronger.
This was like that.
I wasn’t exceptionally religious, even knowing the world was filled with creatures from legend. But I believed I was right. Just.
And I would face the sun with that surety.
There was a soft gasp off to one side and I turned.
Riki and Roman stared at me as the doors behind them opened continuously on a flood of other students.
Roman glowered. “What are you doing?” he hissed at me, holding his shaking twin in the curve of his arms.
“Ro—”
“The sun is coming up, Mor. Get out of the courtyard.” His expression turned thunderous and he whirled on Headmistress Harrington. “Tell her to come inside.”
Harrington blinked. “She claims innocence. There is no foundation to this myth.” But even she seemed unsure. Or maybe uneasy.
Riki twisted in Roman’s arms. Her eyes were vibrant blue and threaded through with specks of gold light. “Mor. Don’t.”
It was then I realized two things.
One, that the myth of sunlight killing a vampire was so ingrained in our kind, we all actually feared it. It was why we never drained our donors.
And two, they all believed I had killed the girl.
My heart fractured a bit.
Even after knowing me for almost four years, none of them truly thought I could control my thirst. It was there in the way Riki was crying, Roman’s stony expression, and the darkness of Harrington’s face.
They believed that at the first sight of a human, everything I had endured for four years disappeared. That I had succumbed to my baser instinct.
I looked out over the crowd that had formed. Even the other professors were barely making an effort to shoo the students back inside because they were gazing at me with knowing expressions. I scoured the masses for someone. Anyone that seemed unbelieving.
Most of the shifters were aloof. Vampire business was vampire business after all. A handful of the Fae turned away as my eyes met theirs. And even the witches could not hold my gaze for long.
My lips trembled, and my gaze halted on a pair of familiar irises.
Ames was visible near one column, his striking face lined in shadow and his gold eyes glowing like the sun rising behind me. His gaze locked with mine and his jaw rippled.
But he remained silent. Steadfast. He made no move to come after me. To stop any of this.
Did he believe my innocence?
He gave a slight nod, almost in answer, and jerked his chin for me to turn back around.
My heart slammed wildly, and I was sure my knees would buckle.
A small commotion off to the side had my head turning again.
The humans pushed closer to the courtyard edge, scanning the surrounding crowd. In the lead was the male from earlier.
Hanlon, wasn’t it?
But what was his first name?
He stared at me, his hazel gaze narrowing. In the rising light, his gold and brown hair was vibrant, and his tan skin near flawless. Smooth. “What is this?” he demanded. “What’s going on?”
Officer Douglas started over the grass to him. “This is a vampire trial, boy. Never fear. It will all be over soon.”
“Trial?” he asked. His head turned from Harrington back to the rest of the staff. “A trial for what?”
Ames pushed off from the column. “This doesn’t concern your kind,” he said, voice level. “Take your people and go. Mor will be fine.”
I stared at Ames as my stomach quivered again.
He believed I was innocent. Of all those present, Ames believed in me.
The human male raised a brow. “Tell me what this is, and then we’ll go.”
Ames parted his lips to retort, and I knew him well enough to know it would not be a polite remark.
“Ames,” I called. He peered at me, and I tried to convey through my eyes what his stance meant to me in that moment. “It’s okay.”
He still looked like he wanted to argue, but for once he listened and moved a step back after a graceful bow to me. It was a sign of difference, of fealty. And it made my stomach flutter more.
I shifted my gaze to the human male. “What’s your name?” I asked softly, unwilling to call him Mr. Hanlon.
His eyebrow arched again. “Ryder. Ryder Hanlon.”
Ryder.
It suited him.
I nodded. “Ryder, I will face the sun to prove my innoc
ence in the death of your fellow human.”
His jaw dropped. “You want to run that by me again?”
“If the sun shines on me, and I don’t burn, I did not take her life by my fangs.”
“And if you burn?” There was nothing in his tone or on his face that I could understand. His faculties were empty. Devoid of emotion. It was odd for a human, how blank he seemed.
“Then I killed her, and your justice is served,” I said, grateful my tone did not waver.
We stood there in silence. Even the humans seemed unmoving in the early morning.
A slim girl pushed out from behind him, her flaxen hair loose around her face. “I say let her burn.” The coldness in her voice froze me to the bone, and I quaked a bit.
“No.” It took me a second to realize it was Ryder speaking.
I peered at him as he pushed farther through the throng of people until he was level with the edge of the stone walk.
“What?” I asked.
“This is barbaric,” he spat. “This is not how humans get justice.” He tried to grip the girl’s arm. “This isn’t what Eliza would want, Stacy.”
She pulled away, her eyes flashing with true rage. With hate. “Eliza’s dead, Ryder. It’s not about what she would want now, is it?”
“Mor!” Riki’s voice was a harsh gasp. I whirled to her, going rigid by the very real terror in her voice. She pointed behind me. “The sun.”
I spun in place, my uniform heels digging into the stone beneath them.
The sun had risen and its glow was inches from my toes. Heat washed over my front. I stopped breathing as it crept closer and closer. That bright line of gold landed on the tips of my shoes.
There was a shout behind me. Strong arms went around me and I was slammed into the ground with force. All the air left my lungs on a gasp.
Then a heavy body rolled with mine, pinning me beneath a muscular form. The light vanished from behind my closed lids.
I opened my eyes.
Ryder was above me, his tousled hair hanging around his face as the sun blazed behind him. His gaze widened. “Don’t move.”
There was no chance for me to do anything. To speak. Between breaths, Ryder was hauled off of me, leaving the sun to soak into my uniform and down into my skin.
Chapter 8
Ryder
As the sun rose higher and the morning bloomed with a red-gold wash, the crowd took a collective inhale. Morgan seemed lit from within. Her moonlit skin was almost translucent in the early morning light. She had slammed her eyes back shut, her breathing coming in shallow pulls as she held herself rigid in the grass.
But she did not burn.
I was released abruptly as a dark form pushed past me.
It was the male from the hallway. The one Morgan had called Ames. He crouched at her side, his coloring so like hers. They could have been twins, save for their eyes.
“Mor?” One pale hand stroked down the side of her cheek hesitantly, like a shy lover’s caress.
Were they together?
Her eyelids fluttered open, and she peered up at him. Her full pink lips parted on a whimper that could have been incredulity or relief. Then his arms went around her, crushing her to his chest.
My gut twisted, though I couldn’t understand why.
I climbed to my feet as the vampire pair held each other in the narrow patch of grass between sidewalks.
Behind us, the buzz of numerous voices filled the air. More of Lokworth’s students broke loose and rushed out, including the twins that had been so close to Morgan on the sidewalk.
I ran a hand through my hair and picked out Headmistress Harrington from the crowd. She was deep in conversation with the police officer from town. This was only the beginning of the questioning that was to come.
With Morgan cleared by their own mythology, they would have no choice but to look elsewhere. But I needed to start from the beginning.
My eyes dipped to Stacy where she remained with the others. Her expression was murderous.
I had chosen a side without meaning to. One that I could not take. And now one I could not take back without losing face all around.
But I knew Morgan was innocent. She ran into me on the way to the nurse’s office. Not running away from it. Whoever killed Eliza had probably done so moments before her arrival. If Morgan had not collided with me, would she have been in time to see the killer with her own eyes? Was it possible she had seen them without realizing it?
Or would she now be dead too?
Stacy’s gaze locked with mine. I gave a small shake of my head. Though her lips mottled, she turned away, pushing back through the crowd and leaving me to deal with the aftermath of my decision.
I jerked my chin after her and Thomas and Rhett followed suit. They would tail her from a distance. To make sure she did not come to harm. Either by her own hand or any other.
Though I believed Morgan to be innocent, I had no delusions that there was a real killer among the crowd. And we all needed to be very careful.
I finally pivoted to face Morgan and Ames once again. They had broken apart, but Ames kept a steadying hand on the small of Morgan’s back as he ushered her into the shaded overhang of the courtyard. I followed at a distance.
In the sunlight, they had seemed cut from the same cloth. Tall, lean. Graceful. It was like watching dancers made of alabaster and midnight. And it was so poetic I wanted to puke.
But under the archway, Morgan was a bit more porcelain where Ames seemed a shade darker. Like he spent more time outdoors.
He gently pushed her onto a bench before sitting at her side, his shoulder tight to hers.
Morgan’s lilac eyes roamed over me in a casual sweep as I stopped before them. Something in my gut seemed to respond like heat. I stomped it out. “I don’t know if I should say thank you or call you an idiot,” she said into the quiet.
My lips curved against my will. “Either is fine.”
She dipped her head with an answering small smile. The posture was shockingly demure. And it was then I remembered O’Brien had said she was a dignitary.
No doubt she was the daughter of a high-ranking vamp somewhere.
“Did you really believe the sun would set you on fire?” I asked finally.
Ames scoffed. “Despite the myth’s roots in legend, I have seen it,” he said and Morgan trembled. There was a slight flexing around his jaw line when he continued, “Vampires were created to fight off evil. If we take an innocent life, are we any better? No, we aren’t.”
I assessed him. He seemed to mean every word, but he also wouldn’t have been the first guileless appearing fangface I had met.
“I suppose not,” I admitted. “But someone still killed Eliza. The good townsfolk are going to want someone to blame it on.”
Morgan sighed. “And they are within their right to demand it.”
I looked at her with a touch of surprise and opened my mouth to comment.
“And who better to aid in finding the killer, I say.” We turned as one to find Professor Giroux walking closer from the shadows of one dim doorway. His dark hair was flat in the gloom of the overhang. Even his dark eyes seemed so lifeless they were like rock. Unfeeling. “Mr. Hanlon and you, Ms. Read, seem to have formed quite a bond,” he said.
Her cheeks flushed a sultry shade of pink, but she kept her gaze averted from myself and Ames. “I don’t know what you mean, sir.” But I knew she did. Just as I did.
My act of heroic idiocy was not going unnoticed. By anyone.
“I think you do, Ms. Read,” Giroux said softly as he closed the distance, calling her out. “Which is why I believe you will be Mr. Hanlon’s ambassador during his stay at Lokworth.”
Ames’ gold eyes flashed and a hint of fang grew visible behind his lips. “Morgan has dealt with enough today.” As sad as it was, I actually kind of agreed with him. “Can’t this wait until later?”
Giroux smirked coldly. “Though, perhaps she has not gone through as much as Ms. Marks, yes?�
�
Anger simmered under my skin, hot and wild. “Don’t assume to know the first thing about Eliza.” I pointed my finger at him. “She was one of the loudest voices in this whole charade. And for what? To have her throat bitten out?”
The professor’s smile never faded. “See? You know about the victim and Ms. Read knows about vampires. You are a fit pair to help find the girl’s killer.”
“But isn’t that the police’s job?” Morgan asked, her voice soft.
Giroux scoffed. “Oh, they will be looking. But there are no leads, no trails to follow. That will require someone with an inside edge.” He pointed between us, effectively knocking my hand out of the air like it wasn’t there. The impact jarred up my arm, but I was careful not to show any reaction. “And you two are that edge.”
I looked at Morgan, but her eyes were already fixed on me, the previously smooth line of her nose scrunched in thought. I couldn’t tell what she thought of the whole thing now.
But that was the way with vamps. Most of them were hard to read.
“Could I have a word with you, Morgan?” I asked, an idea forming. If I could get her to trust me, I could use that trust. And use her as a way to better scout Lokworth. It was a win-win for me.
She blinked. “Yes, I suppose.”
I stepped a few paces away and she followed. It wasn’t distance from Ames. I knew enough about vampires to know if he was a full-blood, he would hear everything that was said. No, I wanted away from Giroux. There was something about him—something I couldn’t put my finger on.
Regardless, I didn’t trust it. Or him.
“Look, I don’t know how I feel about this whole thing,” I began as soon as I stopped, hoping to make her feel more comfortable. Even ground always leveled the playing field. “But I want to find out who killed Eliza. If that means working together, then so be it.”
“Don’t you think it’s odd, though? That Giroux has this sudden epiphany that we should work together to figure it out?”
I smiled. “Not really. I was planning on questioning you as soon as I got a moment anyway.”
