“She’s not in the hospital.”
Paris and I exchanged dark looks.
“Is she at the station?” Brittany either didn’t grasp the situation – or she just didn’t want to. Denial is a powerful thing.
The younger officer seemed to realize that Paris and I already knew what they were going to say. He also knew Brittany did not. “Why don’t you sit down,” he prodded her gently.
“Why would I need to sit down?” Her voice was shrill now. “Why don’t they have to sit down?”
Paris turned to Brittany and put her hand on her shoulder. “Brittany … I don’t think they’re here to tell us Tara is at the station.”
“What do you mean?” Brittany’s lower lip was quivering.
“She means that Tara is dead,” I snapped.
That was it. Brittany started wailing and threw herself into the younger officer’s arms. He looked uncomfortable as he tried to comfort her. He turned his pleading dark eyes to Paris and then me. When he saw the resolute look on my face, though, he must have realized he was on his own when it came to comforting her.
I turned to Officer Obnoxious unsteadily. Even though I knew she was dead, I was hoping – even if it was just for a second – that he would tell me I was wrong. He didn’t.
“How did she die?” Paris’ voice seemed like it was coming from a million miles away.
“We found her in the alley behind The Haunt,” the officer said.
“She was just left in the alley?” That didn’t make sense. Why didn’t they take her back to the frat house?
“Yeah. She was left in the alley like garbage. I’m guessing you didn’t look in the alley for your friend?”
Fuck this guy. “Why would I look in the alley?”
“Why would you just leave her?”
“She’s an adult. I thought she might have left with a guy or something.”
“Had she done that before?”
“No,” I admitted grudgingly.
“How did she die?” Paris asked the question again. She was clearly in some sort of shock.
I turned to Officer Obnoxious again expectantly. Now he looked uncomfortable.
“We’re not exactly sure.”
“How is that possible?”
“She didn’t have any marks on her that would explain her death,” he said finally.
I blew out a sigh. “No marks?”
“Just two little marks by her throat,” the younger officer volunteered from his spot where he was sitting on the couch rubbing Brittany’s back as she sobbed uncontrollably.
“By her throat?” I shot a glance at Paris. She was staring off into space.
“Yeah, does that mean something to you?” Officer Obnoxious was trying to make eye contact with me. I didn’t back down. I didn’t want him to see weakness.
“No, it just sounds weird,” I lied.
“That’s what we thought, too.”
“That obviously wasn’t the cause of death,” I said. “So, what was?”
The officer narrowed his eyes as he regarded me. “That’s a weird question to ask.”
“I told you, I watch a lot of television. Law and Order. CSI. Stuff like that.” I left off the part about how much Dark Shadows I used to watch.
“All the blood from her body was drained.”
“What?” Officer Obnoxious’ answer took me by surprise – even though that’s what I expected.
“All the blood in her body had been drained,” he said again.
“Like a vampire?” Oh, great. Now Brittany was participating in the conversation.
“Vampires aren’t real,” the older cop scoffed.
Paris seemed to have snapped out of her funk. She shot a glance toward me and then turned her attention to Brittany.
“So what now?”
The older cop turned his attention back to me. “Now we contact her parents so they can hold a funeral and we wait for the full toxicology results.”
“How long will that take?”
“It could take weeks,” he admitted.
Great.
“Do you have your roommate’s contact information for her parents?”
“No.”
“Well, neither does the registrar.”
“How can that be? We had to fill all that stuff out in the buckets full of paperwork when we applied.”
“It must have been some clerical error, because there’s no contact information in Ms. Thompson’s file.”
I pointed toward Tara’s bunk and her part of the room. “Her stuff is over there.”
The older officer made his way into the room and started going through her stuff. Obviously he didn’t find what he was looking for. “There’s nothing here.”
“She probably kept her information in her phone like everyone else does. Just look in her phone.”
“She wasn’t found with a phone.”
“She had one with her when we left last night.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. We all had our phones.”
“What kind of phone was it?”
“I think it was an Android,” I said. “I can’t be sure, though.”
“It was an Android,” Brittany piped up.
The police officer nodded. “We’ll look again.”
The younger officer had finally managed to extricate himself from a clingy Brittany. He moved toward the door with the other cop.
“If you can think of anything, give us a call,” he said, slipping a card out of his pocket and handing it to me. Brittany looked disappointed he hadn’t handed her the card. Even in death, she needed to be the center of attention.
After the two police officers left, I couldn’t stop pacing. It was Sunday, but I knew exactly where I had to go.
I didn’t shower. Instead I jumped in a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and a hoodie and tore out of the room. Paris didn’t ask where I was going, but I could tell she knew exactly what was running through my mind.
I raced through campus – which was decidedly empty since it was Sunday – until I reached Professor Blake’s office. The door was shut and I didn’t bother knocking. I threw open the door dramatically and stepped into the room. He was sipping from a cup of coffee – and he didn’t seem surprised to see me.
“I’m in.”
Thirty-One
The next day everyone went to classes as usual. I heard snatches of conversation here and there. Everyone was talking about the dead student and how she died. For her part, Brittany was making the most of the situation and crying on every cute boy’s shoulder she could find. I was trying to ignore the situation – but it was literally everywhere around me.
“I heard she was stabbed twenty times.”
“I heard she was gang raped on a pool table and then strangled.”
“I heard she had her head bashed in by a brick.”
The rumor mill at a school this size couldn’t be trusted. That was the only thing I could rely on. No one really seemed to know how Tara had died.
After all three classes, I met Blake at the athletics center. He was waiting for me in the lobby. He hadn’t asked a lot of questions the day before, but he also hadn’t been surprised when I told him about Tara’s death.
“I knew a student had died. I didn’t realize it was your roommate, though.”
He never offered his condolences. It both irked me and encouraged me at the same time. This wasn’t about personal relationships. It was about action.
Once we made it to the other side of the security doors, I turned to Blake expectantly. “So what’s up first?”
“I thought we’d ease you in today,” he replied. “Just kind of a meet and greet with the other students and then a physical training session.”
“Great.” I tried to sound enthusiastic. It wasn’t one of my better efforts.
Blake led me to a classroom at the far end of the basement corridor. Inside, there were about twenty different students. I followed Blake into the room. Professor Worth was le
cturing from the front and she turned to greet Professor Blake with a flirtatious smile. Good grief.
I took the opportunity to look around the room. Unlike before, I did recognize one face in the crowd this time. Mark lifted up his head and met my gaze. His face broke into a wide grin when he saw me. What the hell?
Professor Worth introduced me to the class and then asked me to take a seat. I expected Blake to leave, but he sat in a chair in the corner instead.
“We were just talking about the murder the other night,” Professor Worth said happily.
Professor Blake cleared his throat when he saw me glare at Professor Worth. She turned her apple-cheeked face to Blake expectantly. “The girl killed was Zoe’s roommate,” he supplied.
“Oh, I’m s-s-s-sorry,” she stammered.
“It’s fine,” I dismissed her.
“No, you must be really upset.”
“More like pissed off.”
If Professor Worth was surprised by my vehemence, she didn’t show it. “Well, what do you think happened?”
“I think a vampire killed her.”
“Why do you think that?”
“She was drained of blood and the only marks on her body were on her throat. What else could it be?”
“How do you know that?” Professor Blake seemed curious.
“The cops that came to the room told us. Why?”
“We’ve been trying to get some definitive information on the attack, but we haven’t been able to. I’m surprised they told you that.”
I merely shrugged.
“Well, at least we know now.”
“Why? What did you think it was?”
“We weren’t sure,” Professor Worth admitted.
“Then how did you know it was a supernatural?”
“What else would it be?” She asked simply.
“Humans kill humans, too.”
“Not around here,” she laughed.
“Oh, that’s a bunch of crap.”
Professor Worth looked taken aback. “Now listen here young lady … .”
“No, you listen. I don’t believe for a second that there is no human-on-human violence here. If that’s the load of bull you’re selling, then I’m not buying.”
“Then why are you here?” Professor Blake asked.
“Because a vampire killed my roommate. I want to kill the vampire that did it.”
“We want to kill all of them!” This came from a blonde boy in the back row. The rest of the class erupted in agreement. A couple of guys even got up from their seats and high-fived the loud mouth with all a wave of bravado.
“That’s enough, Brian,” Professor Worth warned.
“Yes, that’s enough Brian,” I mocked.
Brian glared at me. His cool blue eyes were suddenly regarding me as the enemy. Good.
Brian got to his feet and swaggered over to me. He reminded me of Cato in The Hunger Games for some reason. I bet he was just as much of a dick. “Listen, little lady, I’ve been doing this for a year now. I’ve seen things that would make a little girl like you crawl under her bed and hide for a week.”
Mark sucked in a breath as he turned to me. I’d only known him for two weeks, but he knew I wasn’t going to take that lying down.
“Really? Because I’ve been attacked by a vampire that I had to kill and went to a wolf pack meeting.”
“You’re lying,” Brian protested.
Professor Blake jumped to his feet and moved to my side. “What wolf pack meeting?”
Uh-oh.
“Um, that was just a figure of speech,” I offered lamely.
Professor Blake’s eyes narrowed. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Her boyfriend is a member of Alpha Chi,” Mark offered.
I turned to him and glared openly.
“You didn’t tell me that,” Professor Blake admonished me. “You were dating a werewolf?”
Everyone in the room looked at me in a different light all of a sudden. Now I truly was the enemy.
“I didn’t know he was a werewolf,” I argued. “I broke up with him when I found out. How do you even know about the frat?”
The class dissolved into giggles.
“We’ve been monitoring them for quite some time,” Professor Blake said. “I wish I had known about your boyfriend. We could have used your proximity to infiltrate them.”
“And why would I want to do that?”
“We want to know what they’re up to.”
“They’re drugging girls and playing video games.”
Professor Blake looked surprised. “What do you mean drugging girls?”
“I mean they’ve drugged at least two girls I know of.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You didn’t ask.”
Professor Blake looked nonplussed. “That’s no excuse.”
“Hey! I hadn’t decided if I could trust you yet.” Honestly, I still hadn’t decided. The only reason I’d owned up to the fact that Alpha Chi was full of werewolves was because they already seemed to know. There was no sense in lying about the situation.
Professor Blake blew out a sigh. “I understand that but … .”
“But what?”
“But this situation is bigger than you.”
After the information exchange, Professor Worth dismissed the class and Professor Blake led everyone to the gym. After a brief workout, he paired us off in twos to spar. Thankfully, I got Mark.
“So you’ve been keeping secrets,” I said to him.
“You, too,” he smiled.
“How long have you been a part of this?”
“Just a week,” he said. “They recruited me, too.”
“Why?”
Mark looked hurt. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” I offered.
“They want my computer skills,” Mark answered.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. They haven’t told me yet.”
“Doesn’t that make you nervous?”
Mark shrugged. “No.”
“Do you believe in all this?” I motioned around the room.
“Do I believe in fighting monsters? Yeah. Don’t you?”
“Fighting monsters? Yes. What if they’re not all monsters, though?”
“Like Will?”
I was thinking more of Aric and Rafael, but I didn’t want to tip my hand. “Yeah, like Will.”
“If he’s not a monster, why did you break up with him?”
“I didn’t break up with him because he’s a wolf. I broke up with him because he’s a sheep.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that he completely stopped being himself and started being just like them. That’s not the guy I knew.”
I took advantage of Mark’s thoughtful expression to flip him over my back and toss him on the mats below me. I pinned him quickly. “There are all types of monsters Mark. They’re not all supernatural.”
I got up and started to move out of the room. I caught Professor Blake watching me. I paused, just for a second, and then walked out into the hallway. I desperately needed some air.
Unfortunately, Blake had followed me. “You’re leaving?”
“Just getting some air.”
“Are you hiding anything else from us?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?” Professor Blake’s gaze was probing.
“What do you want from me?”
“Your allegiance. You’re too important to not be a part of this.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that you have a natural ability. That’s something the rest of these people don’t have. They have oodles of enthusiasm, but no ability. You have no enthusiasm, but tons of ability.”
I didn’t know how to respond, so instead I studied my cuticles. I could definitely use a manicure.
“We can’t afford for you to join the other side, Zoe.”
I raised my eyes
and met Professor Blake’s steady gaze. “I’m not joining any side. I’m here to make sure that the monster that killed Tara doesn’t kill anyone else.”
“And then what?”
“What do you mean?”
“After you get one monster, are you willing to let all the other monsters live?”
“Who decides who the monsters are? You?”
“You seem to think it’s you.”
“I don’t know who is and who isn’t a monster,” I admitted. “I just don’t think that being a werewolf or a vampire necessarily makes you a monster.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Maybe they’re like humans. Maybe there are good vampires and good werewolves.”
“That’s a simplistic thought.”
“Or maybe it’s just logic.”
I didn’t wait for Professor Blake’s response. Instead I trotted down the dark hallway. I didn’t stop until I reached the light outside.
Thirty-Two
After returning to the dorms, I told Paris about my afternoon.
“I’m not sure joining up with them is a good idea,” she admitted.
“I’m not sure either.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“Knee-jerk reaction to Tara’s death?”
“You can still get out of it.”
“Can I?”
Paris and I decided that we needed a mundane evening, so we hauled our laundry to the basement. Thankfully, it was empty except for Mark. I hadn’t told Paris that Mark was part of the monster-fighting academy yet. I didn’t figure it was my secret to tell.
Mark didn’t seem to be embracing all the secret society nonsense, though.
“Did you tell her about kicking my ass this afternoon?”
Paris’ eyebrows nearly shot off her forehead. “You’re a part of the academy?”
“You didn’t tell her?” Mark seemed surprised.
“I didn’t feel it was my place,” I grumbled.
Mark’s enthusiasm couldn’t be dampened. He launched into a long – and extremely tedious – story about how Professor Worth had seen his work in the computer lab and recruited him.
“Didn’t you think it was weird?”
Mark shrugged. “I don’t know. I just thought it sounded cool. Like a really awesome comic book or something.”
Witchy Dreams Page 121