Ghostly shadows, p.10
Ghostly Shadows, page 10
part #3 of Unfortunate Blood Series
It took Ember a second to realize he meant the injured girl Harry had attacked. “You do?” She blinked after she said it; of course he did. An unsettled feeling formed in her stomach. “Wait, do you mean you know her, or you…knew her?”
Reid looked down, and she knew he understood what she meant. His lack of an answer was enough to tell her the truth, and she felt a sudden, inappropriate flush of jealousy. She tried to stamp it down by reminding herself that the poor girl had just gotten attacked by a ghost, and she hadn’t come out of it nearly so well as Ember had. But still, a little nasty part of her was just a tiny bit glad.
Maybe sensing her dark thoughts, Reid raised his head and looked at her, a shimmer of guilt in his eyes. “It was just once. Last year, before I ever met you. Her name’s Evie.”
Oh good, he remembers her name.
He frowned as if he’d heard that thought, which she was only partially sure he hadn’t. “Anyway, she’s a good person. She doesn’t drink or smoke or party. What happened with us…I mean, when I…” He paused, realizing there was no good way to put it.
Ember sighed. “When you slept with her. Yes. What about it?”
He was still frowning, but he went on. “Well, it was kind of a fluke. She didn’t mean for it to happen. She regretted it right after. Her boyfriend broke up with her–”
“Whoa,” Cris said from behind them. Ember hadn’t realized he was listening, but his scowl was full of disapproval. “You slept with a girl when you knew she had a boyfriend?”
Reid made an irritated noise, but the anger in his eyes was all for himself. “I didn’t say I was proud of it. We were both drunk and I was…hungry.”
Cris looked disgusted. Honestly, Ember felt a little sick herself. With a growl, Reid shoved both hands through his hair in frustration. “The point is, I can’t imagine what Evie could have done to piss Harry off. Like I said, she’s a good person; she doesn’t break the rules.”
Through the green haze of jealousy, Ember finally saw what Reid was trying to say, and a cold wave of horror swept through her, banishing her petty envy. She stared at the spot on the floor where Evie had lain; there was still a smear of blood.
She opened her mouth to say it, but Cris beat her to the punch: “He’s not just going after people who misbehave anymore,” he said grimly.
Reid nodded. “Which means he could go after anyone at all. He’s breaking his own rules.”
Ember scowled. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
The sound of voices and footsteps caught their attention, and they all fell quiet, listening. It was two girls talking. “…just heard Evie was taken to the infirmary. She had some kind of accident.”
“Oh my God.”
“I know, right?”
The footsteps got closer, and the two girls walked right past the door without even glancing in. One of them shook her head and said, “What the hell is going on in this school?”
That, Ember thought, is a very good question.
Reid swiped up the last of the blood on the floor using some more tissues, and then they beat the hell out of that room. Cris stuck with them, since Ricky hadn’t come back yet – he was probably reluctant to leave Sherry alone with Evie in the infirmary. Together, they wandered through the hallways with a vague idea to head toward the canteen if for no other reason than Cris needed to eat to regain some of his strength, and since Harry was no longer just going after rule-breakers, they’d kind of halted their plans for Operation Mischief.
They didn’t talk much as they walked; even Reid seemed subdued after the latest attack. He didn’t once glare at Cris until they reached the canteen. Cris flicked a glance at him, and Reid scowled. “What?”
“I was just wondering…do you guys eat real food?”
Reid snorted. “Real food? You mean, do I savour a juicy cheeseburger like a human does? Yes, I do. I’m a born vampire – we function just like humans most of the time. We just have to drink blood once in a while to replenish the energy that keeps our hearts beating and brain cells working.” He paused. “I thought you knew all about vampires, you know, being an ancient and knowledgeable faery and all.”
Cris rolled his eyes. “I never said I was ancient. And I only know what I’ve heard from me father and other Fae. But born vampires are almost as rare as Elementals and there isn’t a whole lot of information on them.”
The corner of Reid’s mouth twitched. “Rare, huh?”
For a second, Ember thought Cris had unintentionally just inflated Reid’s already-swollen ego, but then she realized he wasn’t smiling about that; he was silently laughing because there were not just one, not just two, but four born vampires in the school. Either born vampires weren’t as rare as Cris thought, or it was a huge coincidence that a group of them happened to have gathered here in this tiny town…
Actually, when she thought about it, maybe it wasn’t such a big coincidence; Reid had said that the vampires had built the school here because there was an energy in the town that drew supernatural creatures to it. That was why the forest was infested with Fae and ghouls of various species.
While Cris and Reid went to hit up the sandwich bar at the far end of the canteen – it was closed, and all the kitchen staff had gone home, but everyone knew that they left the extra stuff from lunch over the weekend for students studying in the library to grab and sometimes even made up little extra things like shortbread biscuits – Ember took a seat at one of the tables and leaned her head in her hands. She had a headache and her stomach was roiling, and her teeth were aching, probably from gritting them to keep from throwing up.
Reid and Cris returned from the kitchen and took places at the table with her, Reid dropping down next to her and Cris taking a seat opposite her. Reid had found the left-over pizza – pepperoni – and piled a paper plate with three slices, though it must have been cold. Cris had a chicken sandwich, and the smell made Ember gag – even if she hadn’t already felt sick, the smell of chicken would’ve done it; she couldn’t stand that smell.
“You okay, Emz?” Reid asked as he slid a plain cheese sandwich and frosty can of Coke in front of her.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten, and oh God, caffeine! That was probably why her head hurt. Caffeine withdrawal kicked her arse every time. Snatching the can, she popped the top and lifted it to her mouth, guzzling the sweet, cold liquid heaven within.
Reid chuckled. “Thought you might need that.”
When she’d drained half the can, she finally lowered it and sighed in relief as the pounding behind her eyes started to ease. “Oh my God,” she breathed in bliss.
Reid laughed. “Christ, you’d have thought it was an orgasm in a can.”
Heat flushed up her face and she shot Reid a death-glare. Cris covered his mouth as he choked on his sandwich, laughing.
Ignoring her scowl, Reid nudged her sandwich closer to her. “Eat already. You’re pale as…well, as Harry.”
“Not funny.”
He shrugged. “Sure it was. You just have no sense of humour when you’re hungry. Eat.”
She growled at him, but picked up half of her sandwich and bit into it. It was cool and the cheese was only a little soft, so the sandwiches had obviously been in the giant kitchen fridge. It didn’t taste amazing, but it was the first solid food she’d had in hours. She chewed her sandwich in silence while the boys talked – Reid was being amazingly amiable – and ate at the same time.
She was still only halfway through her sandwich when Reid finished his third slice of pizza, and Cris had already polished off his chicken sandwich. They’d moved on to debating – amicably – the proper way to deal with an angry Pillywiggan, whatever that was. Ember wasn’t really listening. She sipped her Coke. The caffeine had erased her headache, and the food had settled her stomach a little, but her teeth were still aching…in fact, she thought they were hurting worse now, and enough that trying to take another bite of her sandwich caused her to yelp in pain. She bit her lip by accident, and a sharp sting let her know she’d broken the skin.
The boys broke off their conversation and stared at her. She set her sandwich down, frowning, and reached up to touch her lip. Sure enough, her finger came away with a drop of blood and she knew immediately that the sandwich wasn’t what she needed. The scent of her own blood hit her hard, and her fangs suddenly sprang free with a throbbing urgency. Horrified, she covered her mouth and looked at Reid.
He cursed softly and stood up as Ember stumbled back from the table. “Bugger, I should’ve thought…when was the last time you fed? The night you escaped from Owen?”
Yes, that night she’d fed on a guy at the all-night petrol station down the road. She hadn’t meant to, but she’d used a lot of power that night to get rid of Owen and the witches, and she’d been exhausted and weak, and when the hunger hit her, she hadn’t been able to resist. Sherry had been with her, and Ember didn’t like to think what might’ve happened – what she might’ve done to her best friend – if they hadn’t come across that petrol station when they had.
That was two weeks ago, and Ember hadn’t felt the hunger for blood since. But now, it was fully upon her, and she couldn’t believe it was happening in front of Cris. She was embarrassed he was seeing her like this.
To make it worse, Reid pulled back the sleeve of his shirt to expose his wrist and held it out to her. She shook her head violently, and he frowned. “Emz, you need to feed.”
She shook her head again. She couldn’t talk without uncovering her mouth, and she wasn’t about to do that. She shot a pointed glance at Cris, who was half-risen from the table, looking caught between concern for her and wariness of getting too close.
Reid followed her gaze and scowled. He rubbed a hand over his face. “Cris, can you–”
Cris, obviously understanding Ember needed privacy to feed, was already nodding, backing toward the door. But before he reached it, the door burst open and Ricky came flying in, a whirl of messy brown hair and wide eyes. “Reid, I need your help, there’s–” he spotted Ember and blinked. It took him less than a second to put things together, and then he looked twice as freaked out. “Oh, shit.”
It didn’t take Ember long to realize what merited a curse from Ricky; as soon as the door had opened, a gust of air came in from the hallway, and the smell of blood – not her own, someone else’s – slapped Ember in the face. Red fog clouded the edges of her vision, and her fangs ached so fiercely she wanted to rip them out, and her gut gave a pain-rending twist.
Before she knew what she was doing, she was lunging for the doorway, desperate to find the source of the blood. Ricky caught her around the waist half-way there and yelled for Reid as she thrashed. “Reid! Dammit, she’s strong!”
Suddenly, a second pair of arms looped around her from behind, hauling her out of Ricky’s grasp. Ricky disappeared for a second, reappearing at the door. He slammed it shut, and the smell of blood weakened, but it was too late. Ember had lost control, and even Reid was having trouble holding her. “Ember! Jesus, Ember, calm down.”
“Can’t you Compel her?” Cris yelled, reminding Ember he was here.
“She can’t be Compelled!”
“What do you mean, she–”
Ember’s snarl tore across his words and she whipped around in Reid’s grasp, focusing her attention on the easiest prey in the room. Cris went still the second her predatory, feral gaze fell on him.
Reid swore. “Cris, get the hell out of here NOW! Travel to the dorms!”
But Cris didn’t seem to hear. He was rooted to the spot, staring into Ember’s eyes as she hissed and snarled. She could hear the rapid pumping of his heart, smell the intoxicating sweetness of the blood beating below his skin. She could imagine biting into the soft, warm skin of his throat, ripping open a vein, hot blood gushing out into her mouth…
She shrieked, clawing against Reid, reaching for the faery boy.
Cris didn’t flinch. He stared right into her eyes and a voice crawled through her mind – his voice, calm and firm. Ember, stop, he said.
She bared her fangs, hissing, and tried to block his voice out the way she did to Reid and Ricky, but his mental presence was immovable. She could feel that itching at her temples that meant someone was in her head, only worse than she’d ever felt it before – it was maddening. She could feel Cris sifting through the edges of her mind, mental fingertips brushing against her skull, searching out the core of primal hunger roaring over the rest of her thoughts.
Ember, stop. Think. Control the hunger. Focus, Ember. Control it, he insisted, his mental voice strong and steady. The fingers of his telepathy spread a sort of calm from everywhere they touched, soothing, pushing back the fury and hunger until the red receded from her vision and realization of what she was doing broke through the haze.
Her next snarl ended in a choked noise and she recoiled so fast Reid nearly lost his hold on her. Gasping, shaking, she sank to her knees and Reid came with her. Her fangs were still throbbing, the hunger was still there, but it was manageable now.
Gripping her shoulders, Reid looked over at Cris. “What the hell did you just do to her?” he snapped, but he sounded more shaken than angry.
Cris looked pale, half-slumped against the edge of a table now. “I Compelled her.”
Reid’s eyes widened, then narrowed. “What? What do you mean you just fucking Compelled her!? She can’t–”
“Reid,” Ricky cut him off, his voice quiet, but laced with urgency. “Reid, I really need your help. Sherry–”
Ember’s head snapped up at the mention of her best friend, and for the first time, Ember panicked about where that smell of blood had come from. Sherry. If Sherry was hurt, it explained Ricky’s obvious panic.
“Go,” she croaked at Reid. He looked at her, and she saw he was conflicted; he wanted to go and help Ricky, but he didn’t want to leave her while she was still in such a state, still hungry. She grasped his wrists, hard enough that she would’ve broken bones if he’d been human, and pleaded with her eyes. “Go, Reid. Help her. I’ll be fine with Cris, I swear.”
He hesitated a second longer, and an expression of anguished indecision ripped over his features. But then he nodded and pulled her to her feet. He glared at Cris. “Take her to the dorms. There’s blood in my room – she knows where. Make sure she feeds. If anything happens to her, I will kill you.” And then he was gone, disappearing out the door with Ricky in a blur of vampire-fast motion, leaving Ember alone with Cris.
She swallowed and turned reluctantly to face him. Cris stood a safe distance away, his fingers tight on the back of a chair, watching her carefully. “You’re not going to eat me, right?”
Shame and guilt made Ember’s face flame. She shook her head. “Cris, I’m so sorry–”
He held up a hand to stop her. He smiled. “It’s okay. I was kidding.”
Ember still felt awful. “I know, but–”
“But nothing. You were hungry, and I was the easiest target in the room. Now come on, I’ll take you back to the dorms.”
“I’m still hungry,” she warned him. “You don’t have to walk me, I can go myself.”
Cris made a mock-scared face and waved his hands at her. “Shh! Do you want Reid to kill me?”
Despite herself, she laughed.
Cris grinned and crossed the space toward her. He held out his arm like a proper gentleman. “Shall we?”
Chapter Eight
** Ember **
They made it back to the dorms with no trouble, walking with Ember’s arm linked through Cris’s. He kept a hand on top of hers, and she realized that he wasn’t just being a gentleman – he was trying to make sure she didn’t run off and munch on anyone.
As they walked, Ember distracted herself from the jaw-clenching hunger by asking Cris questions. “When Reid told you I can’t be Compelled, you sounded surprised. Isn’t that part of being an Elemental? I mean, don’t your stories mention it?”
Cris shook his head. “Not that I’ve ever heard. The one Elemental I met – the Water Elemental I told your friend about; his name was Rory – he had a vampire buddy who said that when they figured out what Rory was, they’d tested all sorts of things, and Compulsion was one of them. Rory could be Compelled, no problem.”
There was a note of something in Cris’s voice that caught Ember’s attention. She eyed him curiously. “You sound like you know him pretty well – Rory, I mean.”
His responding smile was thin and skewed. “I did. He was my best friend.” The sadness in his voice was palpable, and a faded sort of pain crossed Cris’s face.
She hadn’t missed the past tense he used – Did. Was. Quietly, she asked, “What happened?”
He sighed heavily, grief pulling down the corners of his mouth. “There were three of us. Me, Rory, and the vampire I mentioned, Jaime. A Bitten vampire, not born – Turned at seventeen. Anyway, I don’t even remember how old I was when I met them, or how. I was still in Ireland at the time. It seemed like we’d just always been friends. We did everything together, though their parents didn’t like them hanging around with me – Reid isn’t the only one with a faery prejudice.” His smile was bitter, and it faded quickly. “Then one day, out of nowhere, Rory and Jaime announced they were together. You know, together.”
Ember blinked hard.
Cris caught the look and a more genuine smile turned up his lips. “Did I forget to mention Jaime’s a girl?”
“Oh.” Ember frowned as she realized how that sounded. She didn’t have anything against homosexuals or bisexuals, or anything, she really didn’t. She was just a little surprised was all. “I didn’t mean–”
He waved a hand dismissively. “I know you didn’t. Anyway, I was taken totally by surprise, of course. I hadn’t seen it coming at all, but I was…happy for them, I guess. But at the same time, I was disappointed. They started spending all their time together, just them two, and I…”
Ember made a sympathetic face. “You were left out.”
He nodded, guilt and sorrow all over his features. “I got in a big row with them about it, and we stopped talking for a while. And then…” He paused, and Ember felt the muscles in his arm tighten as he made a fist. She sensed they were getting to the really sad part and she squeezed Cris’s arm. He sucked in a deep breath, his gaze turning inward as he remembered something obviously very painful. “Then I woke up one morning to find me da’ standing over my bed. He didn’t say anything – he didn’t have to. There was just something in his expression…” Cris swallowed, blinking the shine from his eyes. His voice turned rough and quiet. “I found out that Jaime and Rory had had an argument, and Jaime had snapped. She’d lost control of her temper and bitten Rory and…and she killed him.”
