A pause. “Oh. Good point. Hand me that lipgloss.”
More laughter.
By the time they left, my trembling legs could barely support me. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that the two girls had been talking about me. Which meant . . .
I had just met my roommates.
Standing under the shower’s spray until the water chilled, I turned over their words again and again, my stomach a mess of knots. Sickly? Did I really look that bad? I held up my arm and studied my bracelet once more. Was I bound? What did that mean exactly?
I prolonged my time in the bathroom, waiting for a lull in traffic when only a couple of girls were present. They were at the sinks, so I chose the farthest one away from them and hurriedly brushed my teeth. But I made a mistake then. I glanced at my reflection in the mirror.
Familiar silver-gray eyes stared back, but there was something wrong about them. They were too big for my face. The weight loss was painfully obvious in the sharpness of my cheekbones, and there was no masking the dark smudges beneath my eyes, despite my olive skin tone. My one day with Lochlan at the cabin hadn’t been enough. If being apart from him really was causing the loss of appetite and restless sleep, then my health would only decline further.
Unless . . .
Unless I rejected him and our bond.
“No,” I immediately hissed at my reflection, baring my teeth. Startled at my fierce reaction, I looked away, only to find a few sets of wide eyes on me. Cursing under my breath, I gathered my supplies and quickly left the bathroom.
Noah was still waiting for me in the hallway, looking half asleep on his feet. Poor guy. He should have eaten something like I asked him to, yet he refused to go anywhere without me. But he’d also refused to let me use his phone to call my “other” friends, so a tiny vindictive part of me gloated at his tiredness.
When I approached, he took in my school-issued black yoga pants and red sleep shirt with a faint smirk. “Thornecrest red suits you.”
I glanced down at the T and A crest emblazoned on the shirt’s left breast pocket. “It’s better than what I woke up wearing,” I replied with a shrug. If I wasn’t seriously thinking about leaving in three days’ time, I’d ask for some of my belongings to be sent from home.
If I even had a home anymore.
My throat tightened and a sense of loss swept over me, this time genuine. Where would I go after this?
Anywhere you want, my mind tried to assure me.
Yes. Anywhere. But what if I didn’t know where I wanted to go?
I mean, I wanted to see Isla, but she still lived with her dad—who I didn’t want to see. I’d rather finish out my senior year at Rosewood High like a regular human, but my very presence could put my friends there in danger. I couldn’t for a second forget what I was or who was still after me. As soon as I stepped foot outside these walls, I would be hunted again. If not by Lochlan, then by some other vampire.
Lochlan.
How twisted was my head that I still wanted to see him? No, not just see him. I wanted to be wherever he was. My skin, my bones—every drop of blood in my body—wanted to be near him. It had to be this bond between us making me feel this way. Aunt Tess had been right. She’d taught me to be on my guard, to be safe. Yet here I was, daydreaming about a guy who’d spent a century hunting down my kind, only to kill them.
I needed to reject this, this thing between us, before I stupidly got myself killed over someone who’d brought countless dangers to my doorstep.
But how? What was I supposed to say or do? I reject thee, Lochlan D’angelo, henceforth and forevermore? Maybe a tad overdramatic, but rejecting a bond seemed to be an archaic ritual by the sounds of it.
“Where’d you go?” a voice said directly in front of me. Startled by the sound, I flinched, and a tube of toothpaste slipped from my grasp. Noah flicked out his fingers and the toothpaste froze midair. I gawked as it slowly rose again, hovering inches from my hand.
A little wigged out, I gingerly plucked it up with a nervous laugh. “Well, that’s kinda useful. Can you do that with anything?”
“No, but I’m working on it. Magic takes a toll on the wielder, and exerting too much energy can have fatal consequences. It’s why most parents enroll their magically-inclined children into supernatural academies such as this. Learning how to properly control your magic and understand what you can and cannot do is beneficial for everyone. Magical accidents are hard to cover up, especially since the invention of camera phones.”
“So, what do you do if a human sees your magic?”
“Use a mind-altering spell on them. But sometimes it backfires, and . . . well . . .” He coughed, muttering, “It can take away too many memories and, in extreme cases, cause brain damage.”
“What?” I hissed, and a few girls passing by gave me strange looks. I almost cajoled Noah into continuing this conversation inside my dorm room, but my super-judgmental roomies were no doubt in there. Instead, I lowered my voice, murmuring, “I actually prefer the way vampires protect their identities. At least thrall doesn’t harm you.”
Noah’s devil-may-care expression morphed into startled bewilderment. “You’re joking, right? Doesn’t harm you? That’s bull. It lowers your inhibitions, for one thing. What did those bloodsuckers do to you?”
Heat slapped my cheeks. “They’re not bloodsuckers. They have names—”
“Yeah, yeah. So does the devil,” Noah interrupted with a sardonic snort. My eyes narrowed to slits, but before I could say anything, he held up a hand, cautioning me with a look. “Let me be real with you for a sec. Defending vampires is a surefire way to get lynched at this school. Witches and vamps don’t mix. There’s too much bad blood, too many instances of one race trying to control the other. We keep our own council, and so do they. The only neutral supernatural party is the werewolves, who usually stay far away from the ongoing feud. It’s been like this for centuries, long before the curse that forced all vampires to expose their true forms at night.”
My breath hitched. “Wait, curse? So you know about the prophecy?”
He gave me another “you’ve got to be kidding” look. Then proceeded to recite the prophecy from memory.
“Three dark princes, monsters were they.
Cursed in their true forms, they must pay.
Bound to the night, along with their kingdom.
‘Til the hundredth year, or a cure can free them.
Beyond that time, the curse remains.
But night becomes day, a monster to stay.
Only one can free all, before it’s too late.
An elusive maiden, with a touch that slays.
Drawn to her blood, the three must choose.
As one follows another, but never two.
Together or divided, they must agree.
A threat, she is, but also the key.
A sacrifice must be made, to end this curse.
A choice given, the hardest to learn.
Without this choice, doomed their kingdom be.
And in shadow it falls, for an eternity.
“Yeah, all witches know of the prophecy,” he went on. “First Years are required to memorize it, but most have already learned about the vampire curse and the sole witch powerful enough to break it from their parents. It’s a matter of pride, being able to tell your children that a single witch could bring the entire vampire race to its knees.”
Well, then. A tad tyrannical. And overwhelming, when put that way. “Kind of ironic that a werewolf was the first to tell me about it then,” I muttered.
Noah made a strangled, choking noise. “Lord almighty, leaving you in the dark was not the right move. You’ve experienced everything backwards.”
“Yeah, kinda like Isla.”
He rolled his eyes, but acknowledged my jab with a good-natured grunt. “Just do me one favor so my sister doesn’t kill me for letting you get hurt. Don’t defend vampires here. In fact, don’t even mention them.”
I frowned. “But you’re a tea
cher here. Even if I say the wrong thing, can’t you just tell everyone that I’m new at this? Maybe if they know that I’m a—”
“Sana obstructionum,” Noah uttered swiftly, closing his eyes as he raised a brightly glowing hand. This time, electric blue crackled between his fingertips. I blinked, too surprised to speak. When he lowered his arm and reopened his eyes, the stormy blue of his irises were filled with exasperation. At my questioning look, he said, “Sound-blocking spell. Witches thrive on gossip and we’re standing in a girl’s dormitory, for heaven’s sake. No one can hear us now.”
He shuffled closer to me anyway, lowering his voice. “Here’s the thing, K-Bug. You’re here so we can keep you out of vamp captivity. The staff has been alerted to your presence and know who you are, but the students don’t. If they did, they’d either do one of three things: treat you like a celebrity, fear you, or shun you.”
Uh . . .
“But I’m just a Syphon. I-I’m a witch like everyone else here. I’m not that different.”
He barked a laugh, then another, shaking his head at me like I’d said something stupid. I squeezed the tube of toothpaste in my hand, tempted to chuck it at him. “Sorry to break it to you, baby witch, but you’re not like the rest of us. Prophecy aside, history has always revered or ostracized your kind. But if you lay low—and don’t start spouting off to everyone that you’re the one and only Syphon—then you might have a chance of surviving this place.”
Goosebumps erupted across my skin. Well, crap. So much for fitting in.
* * *
The second I stepped foot inside my dorm room, I knew a warm welcome wasn’t in the cards. Both of my roommates were still awake, but the lights were off. I spotted them by the glow of several flickering black candles placed in a circle on the floor.
The black girl tucked in the far left corner was practically drowning in a sea of green. Potted plants adorned the window’s ledge and her bedside table. Some even hung from the ceiling. Her springy black hair shot out in every direction, wild and untamed like the vines creeping freely up the wall behind her. I could have sworn the vine arched toward her as she lovingly caressed its leaves.
The other girl was sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounded by the candles. Hunched over a deck of cards—tarot cards, maybe—it was hard to guess her Asian descent. Her hair was dyed cerulean blue, swept atop her head in twin space buns. Instead of school-issued pajamas, she wore a midriff-baring white tank and polkadot underwear. Nothing else.
The tension rose the moment they spotted me in the doorway. Their eyes sharpened, openly scrutinizing me from top to bottom. As they took in my wet hair and arms laden with toiletries, realization slowly dawned on their faces.
They knew. They knew I’d overheard them in the bathroom.
The usual instinct to avert my eyes, to avoid confrontation, shivered through me.
No more being cowed, I inwardly chided myself. I could lay low without allowing people to walk all over me. Right?
Straightening my spine, I firmly shut the door and ambled over to the unoccupied bed, pretending for all the world like their stares didn’t affect me. Dumping my stuff on the red and black bedspread, I turned to them. “Hi, I’m Kenna, your new roommate. And you must be Jordan and Mei.”
Despite how badly my knees were quaking, I wanted to do a little victory dance. The looks on their faces. Pure shock! Isla would be so proud.
A lump formed in my throat, threatening to expose my internal state. I missed Isla. I needed my best friend. She would undoubtedly handle this situation so much better than I could.
The silence stretched a little too long. Crap. Reeling in my emotions, I swallowed the lump, saying, “Anyway, nice to meet you. I’m pretty tired though, so . . .” I let the sentence hang, letting my actions say the rest.
Every rustling noise was agonizingly loud in the continued silence as I readied for bed. Doubt niggled at me that I’d gone too far. I shut that thought down posthaste. I’d met all types of people during my years of moving across the country. Instinct told me these girls spoke one language: self confidence. Whether it was fake didn’t matter, only that vulnerability wasn’t visible through the mask. So I wouldn’t let it. I could endure them for three days. I seriously doubted anything Clarice could say would convince me to stay longer.
Not waiting for or expecting a reply, I crawled into bed, facing away from them. Thank the fates my bed wasn’t wedged in between theirs. An hour slowly ticked by, one where I listened to the occasional squeak of bedsprings and flip of a turning card. No one spoke though, not even a whisper.
Trying to sleep was pointless. I could feel their eyes on me, like prickly thorns poking at my skin. Even with Noah right outside the door, forced to keep vigil until Headmistress Mayweather relieved him, I felt all sorts of uncomfortable. I wished he wasn’t there though. His presence heightened my awareness—and probably everyone else’s—that I was different.
My churning mind kept me wide awake, thinking about all I’d learned today. If only I knew who the headmistress had gone out to speak to. Did Lochlan’s brothers have drothen too?
A bell suddenly shrilled in my ears, and I bolted upright in bed, heart in my throat. I glanced at my roommates and was startled to see their mildly amused expressions at my reaction.
“Lights out,” the springy-haired girl said, whom I guessed was Jordan, based on her voice’s bored inflection. She exchanged a sly look with Mei before adding, “Sweet dreams,” then snapped her fingers.
Just like that, the room plunged into darkness.
Mei snickered under her breath. The hair raised on my arms as I listened to the wood floor creaking and sheets rustling while she crawled into bed. Only when the sounds quieted did I finally settle back against my pillow, pulling the bedspread up to my chin. It was a long time before my death grip on the blanket loosened and my eyes drifted shut.
4
KENNA
“What is she?”
“I don’t know. It’s weird. I can’t feel her aura at all.”
“Do you really think she’s bound?”
My roommate’s hushed voices had immediately woken me up, but I didn’t move an eyelash. I nearly gave up the ruse though when a finger feathered over my left wrist. It took all of my concentration to keep my breathing even, to not jerk away from the touch. Even with the newfound knowledge of what my bracelet could do, I still didn’t want to risk contact with another supernatural.
“Could be. I’ve never seen that symbol used for a binding spell though. Should we try taking the bracelet off?” The higher lilt of Mei’s voice sent alarm bells clanging through my skull.
“She could be dangerous. If the rumors are true that she was sedated when they brought her into solitary, then she might not have control over her magic.”
A light flickered behind my lids and I couldn’t keep still any longer. My eyes shot open and both girls froze above me. A green orb of glowing light illuminated their faces as they both eyed me warily.
“What—?” I began, but Jordan held a finger to her lips. When I scooted back against the metal headboard and opened my mouth again, something shot toward my face. A scream lodged in my throat, but before I could scramble away or utter a sound, a long strand of something snaked around my face—once, twice, three times—gagging my mouth.
“Shhh,” Jordan commanded. When I reached up to yank the thing off my face, she grabbed my arm, Mei the other. “Settle down, it’s just a vine. You can still nod or shake your head, which is all I need you to do. First off, were you brought to this school because you’re dangerous?”
What the freaking crap? I struggled against their grip, frightened and furious at their joint attack. The vine tightened around my face, painfully digging into the corners of my mouth. A muffled scream garbled out of me, which only forced me to lick the plant. Yuck.
“She’s stronger than she looks,” Mei grunted when my knee connected with her side.
“Stop struggling and the vine will lo
osen,” Jordan hissed at me, digging her nails into my arm. At the point of skin contact, I willed the red glow of my ability to burst forth between her fingers. Nothing happened. Clarice must have spoken the truth: my bracelet stopped me from stealing other people’s magic.
I stilled, breathing heavily through my nose. They had gotten the drop on me, but I wouldn’t let it happen again. My bracelet was coming off, once and for all. I was sick of feeling helpless, of feeling weak when my life was threatened.
Lochlan wasn’t going to swoop in and rescue me. Not this time. Maybe never again. I needed to start defending myself, but I couldn’t do that without supernatural leverage.
After a moment, Jordan nodded and the vine stopped biting into my face. “Good. Now, tell me. Are you dangerous?”
I hesitated, remembering Noah’s warning. But what was I supposed to do? I was an interrogated hostage in my own bed. Plants were attacking me. I very much doubted they’d let me go without answers.
So I nodded. Mei gasped, almost dropping my arm.
Jordan’s eyes narrowed and the glowing orb of green shot toward my face, halting inches away. A crisp scent permeated the air, similar to how a forest smelled during winter. Must be the magical ball. I squinted to see past it, wondering who had conjured the orb. My guess was Crazy Plant Girl.
“What subsect of witch are you?” was her next question. “Mei’s an Oracle. I’m an Earth Elemental. Nod when I say yours.”
Crap. So much for laying low.
“Elemental? Cosmic? Oracle?” Her brows inched upward at each head shake. “Darken?” At my head shake, her brows slammed downward. “You’re lying. Mei, pry the truth out of her.”
Blue hair dangled above me as the girl crawled onto the bed and straddled my hips. I was too shocked to react when she lowered her head toward mine, our mouths a breath away from touching. “Open to me, witch of mystery,” she crooned seductively, trailing a pointed nail down my cheek. “Spill all your secrets, let me see. Who you are, what you can be. Do not deny me, this one thing.”
The vines loosened, allowing me to speak, and she straightened with a self-satisfied smirk. But when all I did was gape at her, her lips formed a pout.
Curse Touched: A Paranormal Vampire Romance (A Touch of Vampire Book 2) Page 4