by Kat Cotton
Mr. Norton and the security guys herded them into a corner of the terrace but none of them were going inside.
“It’s not a show. They’re attacking Ren.” Angela tried to break away from the other students but one of the security guys grabbed hold of her. She kicked and screamed. “She’s evil and she’s trying to kill him.”
I wanted to slap Angela but this wasn’t the time for it.
Meanwhile, Ren started convulsing again, falling to the ground. Mr. Norton rushed to him, shading him from the other students.
Britney and Lucas moved closer to me.
“We’re got this,” Britney said.
“You’re kidding. We’re sitting ducks and the other students are an all you can eat buffet for those vampires.”
Then I glanced at Lucas and yelped. His face had started elongating. He couldn’t shift. Not here in front of everyone.
“Britney,” I hissed, and nodded at Lucas.
I knew Britney could help him. She could stop the shift, or calm him, maybe get him away from here. She could do so much more for him than I could.
Debris flew around me as the wind whipped my hair. So much for all that time spend curling it. The band kept playing inside, that thudding bass beat reverberating around the terrace as more students flooded out the door. I shivered, suddenly feeling small and powerless. I huddled into myself. We were just kids. We couldn’t take on something so powerful.
Britney dragged Lucas away. Back down the stairs. Mark and the others helped security with the crowd. Seth held out his hands, creating a barrier to keep them back.
The terrace went quiet. The band stopped playing, maybe because no students were inside. Everyone stopped chatting and the air turned really still.
Darkness encircled me. Not just the darkness of the vampires filling the sky but a darkness that reached deep inside. A void. I trembled, back in that place with the smell of sour milk and rotting food, the sound of leather hitting skin, the need to escape. The tight band pressing into my head.
I screamed, a sound that didn’t reach the outside of me.
I had to escape, to flee to the shadows. I’d hide. I’d make myself so small that no one would ever be able to find me. My legs wobbled. I didn’t have the strength to support my own body. All I could do was sink into this void and disappear forever.
All I knew was that I couldn’t stand on that terrace and fight those vampires. I’d never be safe again.
What the hell was I thinking? Stay under the radar? I thought going to the dance with Ren was going to be way too much attention. Turning all vampire slayer with the entire school as audience would ruin me.
The stench of death and decay filled the air, so strong that I reeled.
“Give me the boy!” A voice thundered behind me.
I spun around.
Three vampires faced us. The two who’d taken Ren before and another one, taller with white hair. He wore a white suit and exuded the power of a leader. His eyes. They looked familiar.
Something about that man told me that he was Farran’s father. And that man craved vengeance.
I pulled myself from the void. I might be weak and powerless but I couldn’t hide. I couldn’t go down without a fight. All my life I’d hid in the shadows but this was time to make a stand.
I grabbed my arms around myself, wishing for some armor or protection, something more solid than this flimsy cherry dress.
“Never!” the strength of my voice shocked me.
Prickles run down my spine. I turned slowly, glancing at the rooftop. Black-clad figures sat all along the roof, like rows of birds perching. More black-clad figures lurked around the edges of the terrace. A vampire army.
We were screwed. Outnumbers. And still the shadows called to me. The shadows were my home.
“Give me the boy.” Mr. Quiller said. Quieter this time but with an assured authority.
I shivered. But Mr. Norton would know what to do. I looked to him for confirmation, a plan.
Mr. Norton stepped forward, Ren flopped in his arms. I gasped. Mr. Norton held Ren out like an offering.
“No. Mr. Norton. No. You can’t give Ren to him.”
Mr. Norton didn’t meet my eyes. “It’s the only way. There’s going to be a massacre if we don’t.”
What he said was true. There were too many of them and too many students. This whole plan had gone to shit and the best way out was to give the vampires what they wanted.
But we couldn’t sacrifice Ren. I had no idea what the vampires wanted but it couldn’t be good.
“Ren didn’t kill Farran. Angela did.” I shouted it out, pointing to Angela. If anyone was going to be sacrificed tonight, it should be her.
Angela sobbed but she couldn’t deny it. She’d killed Farran.
“No matter. They took one of ours, we take one of theirs. That’s the way it’s always been.”
“Well, take Angela. She’s expendable.”
Mr. Quiller didn’t answer, he just kept walking, his gaze never leaving Ren.
He took a step forward; Mr. Norton took a step. I gritted my teeth.
This was really going to happen. The vampires would get Ren.
The band tightened around my head, making it hard to think. Only one thought pounded in my head. I had to save Ren, no matter what. I couldn’t hide in the shadows. I couldn’t disappear. Because, for some stupid reason, I knew that, without Ren, there’d only be shadows. Mr. Norton had told me to find my safe place. Ren might be a bully, he might’ve been my nemesis but deep inside me, that voice screamed that Ren was my safe place.
Chapter 33
Mr. Norton dropped Ren as soon as I hit him, the electricity charging through us as our bodies contacted. I kept hold of Ren, letting that power surge from me to him. Thunder crashed and the air crackled. I was sure if the vampires did that or Ren and I.
Ren got to his feet, shaky at first but becoming steadier as the energy filled him. I needed him strong and whole if we wanted to do this. The two of us stood side-by-side, our bodies touching. The birthmark on my hip burned but filled me a strange sense of strength.
I grabbed hold of Ren, ignoring the jolt of my body, ignoring the way we both shook as we made contact, ignoring everyone around us.
The two vampires from the woods surged forward. Mark and Seth jumped on them, tackling them out of the way.
Mr. Quiller stood strong. Not even Mark was prepared to take him on.
I needed that burst of anger that I’d used before with Oscar. I dug deep inside myself but I no longer had anger. I had pride and I had strength but that didn’t seem to work for me.
I bit my lip. Just when I thought this was all over, of course the worst was yet to come. That man had a power that made me shudder. I wouldn’t be able to dust him as easily as I had the others. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to stake him at all.
He extended his hand.
“Come to me,” he called to Ren.
I laughed. That wouldn’t work. Ren couldn’t be compelled. The vampires had tried before.
But Ren took a tentative step forward.
“No.” I grabbed his hand. The air around us quivered.
“Give him to me.” Mr. Quiller seemed a bit crazed with his need for Ren.
“You can’t have him. I’ll protect him with my life.” I hadn’t gone through all this just to let Ren go with that man.
Mr. Quiller called to Ren again. He didn’t look at me. He ignored me. Before I’d thought he was being dismissive but there was more to it than that.
I moved, putting myself directly between him and Ren. But Ren grabbed me, pulling me to him, his arms around my shoulders.
“Kiss me.” Ren could barely speak, his voice hoarse.
Huh? He wanted me to kiss him? Now. The idiot. I couldn’t kiss him. There were a million reasons why not.
“Kiss me.”
Was that a deathbed wish or something? The cruel, cold light in Ren’s eyes, the part of him I hated most, faded away leaving nothing but
a nothingness. I’d have given anything to have that cold glint return. I couldn’t deny him this.
The vampires moved closer.
I’d never imagined my first kiss would be like this.
As I pressed my lips to his, the electricity flowing between us would’ve made me recoil if I hadn’t held him so tight.
We kissed.
My first kiss.
A kiss I’d dreamed of for years.
As my body pressed against Ren’s, I drowned. Swirling into darkness. The vampires, the terrace, the other students melted away. I clung to Ren, the darkness around us growing, thickening. There seemed to be no end to it.
My body became weightless in this place. It seemed so comfortable, like a memory from another life.
Then light met the dark, exploding like fireworks. The light moved through my body, curling through me until it reached into the dark corners, the parts of me I locked away. There no longer was any me, there was no Ren. There was only the explosion of light meeting dark.
My body trembled so much, I thought I would fall apart. I’d break into atoms swirling into the atmosphere.
Chilled hands gripped my shoulders, freezing the bare skin, pulling me away from Ren. An ache spread from the pits of my stomach as though my soul was wrenched from my body, as though I no longer knew how to survive without Ren’s touch.
Those hands ripped Ren from me.
“Put me down!” Ren screamed.
The color returned to his face, the light back in his eyes. Ren stood firm, facing the vampire who wanted to take him.
He threw Mr. Quiller’s hand from him.
The two of us together. We could do this. I dropped the stake from my grip as reached out for Ren’s hand.
“Cherry...” Mr. Norton hissed.
“Huh?”
An aura of light surrounded Ren and I. I had no idea what that meant. I had no idea why. The lights sparked around us, seeming to shatter and refract. I pulled Ren tighter as those sparks could fall and burn us.
Mr. Quiller backed away from us. “The prophecy,” he mumbled. “The prophecy.”
Crazy old man. His eyes widened. He bent over, visually weakened. Then, with a sudden trembling of the terrace beneath us, he was gone.
I blinked. He’d really gone? We’d won?
No way.
But all around me, that fluttering started up. The vampires took to the air, returning to where they’d come from. The music started up inside, the students all began talking.
I slumped to the ground, exhausted and drained. Ren slumped beside me. The cold wind hit my clammy skin and I shivered, wanting my room and my bed and my hoodie.
I had no idea what any of this meant, just that we were safe. For now.
Chapter 34
“I just want to go back to my room.”
Mark and Seth had stayed at the dance venue to clean up and make sure there were no further attacks while Mr. Norton had taken the rest of us back to the school but he wanted a meeting in the training room.
“You’re bleeding. We need to check out any injuries.”
I sighed and followed him, exhausted now the fighting was over. Ren came too, no one arguing his right to be with us.
“You were so cool.” Lucas walked beside me. “You glowed. Literally glowed.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure how cool that will be when I have to turn up to math class tomorrow.”
“How are you feeling?” Mr. Norton asked Ren.
“Good. Better than good. I’m not going to be a vampire and that means my golden future hasn’t been compromised.”
I hated to rain on his parade but I had to say it. “We might’ve killed those vamps but Mr. Quiller is still out there and he’s after your blood. We might’ve won tonight but this is far from over.”
Mr. Norton sighed. “I’m afraid that’s true. But first, we have to investigate what happened out there. That thing between the two of you...”
He meant our kiss. Even though I had zero kissing experience before that, I knew that had been pretty extreme for a kiss.
“And we have to deal with Angela. She’s a killer.”
“That’s going to be a problem.” Mr. Norton ran his hand through his hair. “There’s no body. No proof. Just a few words she muttered in shock. That’s not a murder case.”
My heart sunk knowing that was true.
I remembered what Mr. Norton had said before, too. About how if this got out of hand, there could be a war between vampires and humans. I wish we’d staked Mr. Quiller. I wish we’d ended this for once and for all, because I wasn’t just on the radar of the entire student body now, I was on the radar of a creepy old vampire.
If I hadn’t been so exhausted, the thought of a war would freak me out but that’s something I’d worry about after a night’s sleep because I felt totally drained.
“How are we going to explain things?” Lucas asked. “I mean, the entire student body almost saw us fight vampires. I started to shift. And that whole thing.”
“Say someone spiked the punch with acid.” Ren laughed. “That’s the best way to play it, right.”
Yeah, that might explain most of it but everyone had seen me kiss Ren. Now that the danger was over, I cringed at the thought. I had no idea how Ren felt about it. Jeez, I had no idea how I felt about it. I didn’t exactly want to sit down and discuss our feelings but I’d have liked some indication of what it meant.
We’d reached the training room.
Mr. Norton did a debriefing with us. There was nothing else to add really. He had no explanation for the kiss thing, no idea where I got my power.
He dismissed the others but wanted to dress my wound.
“It’s nothing much.”
“I just want to check to make sure there’s no bite.”
“There’s more damage to my dress than my body, I think. The one time in my life I have a pretty dress and it gets wrecked in less than an hour. And the lovely curls Britney did in my hair are fried.” Mr. Norton’s hand lingered on my leg a little too long. “Hey, Mr. Norton, you’re getting awfully close to inappropriate teaching touching there.”
Mr. Norton’s face turned scarlet and he dropped his hand from my leg.
“Ah, sorry. That birthmark on your leg...”
“Yeah. It’s kind of sore and burning right now. It does that sometimes.”
I rubbed my hip. Now that I thought about it, that birthmark really bothered me.
“It’s shaped like a star. You never told me about that before.”
“It’s just a birthmark. Nothing interesting.”
He gave a long sigh and sat down. It was just a birthmark, right? It sure didn’t seem that way from Mr. Norton’s reaction.
“I’m sorry about that. I mean, I wasn’t touching... just curious.”
Yep, things had gotten really awkward. I’d only been joking but I guess teachers have to be careful about things like that.
“There’s a prophecy. A stupid thing with no real proof behind it.”
“Yeah, right. I’m the chosen one. I’m going to save the world.”
I laughed. Mr. Norton didn’t.
“A prophesy saying the world will be saved when the daughter of darkness meets the son of light.” He sighed.
A shiver ran through me. A shiver right to the bone.
“But it’s just a stupid prophesy, right? I’m not likely to save the world.”
Mr. Norton smiled but that smile didn’t meet his eyes, a teacher smile not the smile of a friend. “The prophecy says the daughter of night has the star mark.”
I had to shake this off. I couldn’t believe in something so stupid. I bet loads of people had star-shaped birthmarks. Why did he even tell me about it? I didn’t want to think about something so strange.
“I’m going back to my room if we’re finished. Let’s talk about this tomorrow. After I’ve had a good nights’ sleep.”
Mr. Norton nodded. “Good idea.”
Before I reached the door, he called me
back.
“Cherry, how did you feel about killing tonight?”
“The vampires? I did a good job, right?”
I smiled but he didn’t return that smile. That’s what he wanted though, that’s what this was all about. We protected people, and do that, we had to kill the things that hunted them.
If I thought I could creep back to my room unnoticed, I was wrong. Ren Worthington leaned on my door.
“Hey poor girl, that was some kiss.”
His gaze met mine and something stirred like crazy in my chest. I nodded. I didn’t want to talk about it but I’d never forget it either. The kiss lingered not just on my lips but deep within me.
Ren pushed away from my door, heading for his room.
“Not bad for a pus-filled boil on the buttocks of society, hey, poor girl.”
He shot me the finger guns before disappearing into his room. I sighed. No matter what I wanted, it seemed my fate would be tied to Ren from here on in.
THANKS FOR READING Scholarship Girl. The next book in the Shadow Academy series will be out real soon. To be notified when it’s released and to get lots of cool stuff, join my VIP list.
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About me:
I write character-driven Urban Fantasy with kick ass chicks and pretty boy vampires.
I’m a digital nomad, although I hate that term because it makes me sound like a wanky hipster. Which I’m not. Okay, I am a bit snobby about coffee and I sometimes wear twee vintage dresses but that doesn’t make me a hipster.
On my travels, I love visiting weird and macabre places. Mummified hands that remove curses, museums of infectious diseases, collections of taxidermed frogs riding Penny Farthings - hell yeah!
I love hearing from readers so if you’ve got questions about my books, cool locations I can visit or just want to say hi, email me - [email protected] or visit my website – http://www.katcotton.com.
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