Surviving Plagues (Artemis University Book 3)

by Erin R Flynn

  Bingo! She was letting me know I could. I gave her a nod of thanks, understanding she was telling me without sounding like she sided with me. Cool, I could handle that.

  Yeah, and I was pretty sure I even knew which councilman I was calling. If Blake could really stop the shit with me, then I wouldn’t fight her coming back next year… As long as the council saw there was a difference and serious level of fucked up to glamour, drug, and gang-rape one of their own to try and smear me. Seriously, I wanted more than a year out of school.

  I wanted a real debt paid or I would gut them.

  Just when no one was watching this time and they’d never be able to prove it was me.

  13

  The next few weeks were nothing but normal school. Well, as “normal” as a school like Artemis would ever be. It was all school-related stuff like a senior losing control of a rune in a demonstration and blowing a hole through the side of the building.

  You know, normal stuff like that.

  The vampire council ruled on what had happened and I didn’t hide my displeasure about the whole thing. The layers of malice weren’t even addressed besides a footnote that the girl they had pulled the prank on was dating a vampire.

  Seriously? That was what they could lower it all down to when the whole thing had been an attack on me?

  Oh, and the vampire freshman they had drugged was treated even worse. The guys got in trouble for drugging her but her parents also got a lecture about raising their daughter to be smarter and not go off with boys she didn’t know better.

  Um, those were grown ass men of twenty-two, not little boys who lifted her skirt to see her underwear or something boys did.

  The ruling made it clear that not only was she stupid for going with them, but to learn from her mistake and get clearer terms as to what people want from her upfront. Yeah, because no one ever would lie with such high moral standards. Not when they clearly left out a lot of the plan. That was on her though for not getting that information.

  Ass. Holes.

  And there was another section in the ruling chastising her for making such a spectacle of the whole thing. It was a vampire matter that should have been handled privately and in the future, she needed to do so to keep in good standing with the vampire community.

  Un-fucking-real. She was pulled from school and I couldn’t even imagine how her family probably wasn’t dealing with the trauma she’d been through.

  “It’s like they’re trying to provoke me or something,” I had hissed when the dean of vampires had informed me of the outcome.

  “Yes, it is,” he agreed, his tone laced with warning. “But they wouldn’t if they knew what you were. And for the record, it would be very bad if they learned what you were.”

  Thanks for the warning, but I’d long since figured that out. I would think it would take one of them three seconds to slit my throat, drink me down, and enjoy all the estates if they thought killing the last fairy would unlock that magic.

  They couldn’t get around the laws on glamouring people, as if they ignored that, then other species would too. But they were out the rest of the year and some bullshit punishment. That was it.

  Mel wasn’t thrilled when I sent a package to the council with a reply saying sex offenders protected sex offenders and if they didn’t start punishing their perverts and sick fucks harsher—at least up to the lower human standards—I would take a page out of their book and start acting like a pervert as well. I was pretty sure they understood my meaning by all the severed dildos and a potion to castrate someone.

  That had cost me a pretty penny and a promise I wasn’t using it on someone, but to make a point. I was fairly sure it was a loud point I’d made. Fuck them.

  And I hadn’t even told her about the extreme anal play pictures I’d printed out and taped the heads of the students over. If they wanted to allow shit that was way over the line, they did not want to test me what I’d be okay with doing to sick fucks.

  Or I had in the past. Maybe mailing them case files of what I’d done in the past like Katy and Holly had tried to use against me. Maybe they wouldn’t leave me as just a footnote.

  All around it put me in a fairly grumpy mood that didn’t go unnoticed. I had thought a world with magic and so much potential for good would do better than humans.

  I didn’t like that hope shattered when I had been holding onto it to get me through so much else.

  I had taken another trip home over the weekend to harvest what would probably be the last of the fae fruit for the season given snow was predicted soon. I liked snow so I was excited, and the hobgoblins had done everything from prepare pies to pickle the fruit to making jams so we’d have a bunch of it over the winter. I was really excited for break and not just from the school but so many people.

  Just a few more weeks and finals would be over and my first semester done.

  A heart-stopping scream cut through my thoughts—and over my music—and my morning jog. I realized it came from the dorms and took off, running faster than I even thought possible. I flew the last mile in under two minutes, which wasn’t even humanly possible.

  And something I’d worry about later.

  I got the door open just as more screams echoed in the dorm.

  “It’s not me,” Izzy announced as she took in how I was coming in with a worried look. She pointed to the bathroom and let me take the lead.

  Izzy was a lot of things, but the first person to go through the door when someone was screaming, she was not.

  I yanked open the door and found our suitemate, Mary, hysterically whimpering as she tried to dry off with her towel. My eyes went wide when I saw blood all over her head and dripping down her.

  “Are you hurt?” I bellowed, having to ask it a few times.

  “Blood came out,” she screeched, pointing to the shower.

  I moved her out of the way and pulled back the curtain before turning on the water. Sure enough, fucking blood came out of the showerhead. It smelled like real blood, that copper and acidic smell that always filled the air when too much blood was present.

  “It’s just a prank,” I told her, as I grabbed her arms and tried to give her a slight shake. “Someone probably put a rune on the water tanks. Just let it run out, okay? It might be cold but they couldn’t have turned all the water in Kansas to blood.”

  “Um, they might have,” Izzy interjected, holding up one of our backup water bottles. We got ours from the joint one by the dorm exit, but just in case that went down or we were just too lazy to go over there at night, we kept a case in our room. “They’re all like this.”

  “Well, I’ll bring it to the vampires,” I drawled, wondering who was pulling shit now.

  Couldn’t we just ever have a regular college life? Fuck.

  It took a few more minutes but the water ran clear and I brought Mary over there. I quickly wrote out the rune for fire so I had a good-sized fireball as she got under the cold water. It wasn’t much help but it was better than just being under freezing water. She rinsed off, not risking a full shower, and I changed runes to dry her some so she could warm up.

  “Thanks, Tamsin,” she muttered before ducking into their room, leaving a huge mess in the bathroom.

  Even I’d give her a pass this time.

  “Can you start on this and I’m going to find out who’s fucked in the head now?” I grumbled, glad when she nodded. I grabbed the case of water and headed over to the vampire dorm. I saw we weren’t the only dorm in chaos and most were gathered in the main lounge off the entrance. “Here, thought you might want this.”

  “Very funny, freshman,” one of the women snapped.

  “I’m not kidding,” I threw right back. “Yeah, the prank or whatever turned the water into blood but why waste it, right? I mean is it not human blood?”

  “It is,” a different woman answered. “I got some in my mouth in the shower. I don’t know we should ingest it though.”

  I snorted. “I know I shouldn’t. I guess just toss it
if the teachers say you can’t drink it. I just didn’t want to leave it to go bad.” I glanced around. “Does anyone know what the deal is?”

  “No, not yet, but they timed it so most of the student body was taking showers,” someone drawled.

  “Yeah, our water took a bit to run clear again but it will. No one’s got the juice to change all the water in Kansas.” I really hoped not at least. I maybe shouldn’t tempt someone to go bigger. “I’m not taking a freezing cold shower though. Fuck it.”

  It seemed most agreed with me on that so I didn’t know what was going to happen with classes, but all the pipes had to be flushed and I couldn’t even think what that meant for the cafeteria working on breakfast.

  Probably nothing good.

  I was almost to our dorm again, realizing it would be better to message Craftsman for answers, when I heard fluttering. What now? I sighed as I looked up and saw what looked like hundreds of flyers falling from the sky. I snagged one when it got close enough and then I just wanted to go back to bed.

  “No unknowns in our world. Declare or ELSE!”

  Under it was a picture of me walking on the quad with a sniper scope view over me like someone was aiming for me.

  Mother. Fucker. I hated people.

  I stormed back into my room and showed it to Izzy. She frowned as she looked it over. “So like your blood is going to run all over campus? That’s the message here? Seriously? They do it before issuing the threat? That’s just fucked up.”

  I flinched when a speaker crackled… And there wasn’t a speaker in our room.

  Right, school with magic.

  “All students report to the quad near the cafeteria immediately. Thank you.”

  “If I wanted this much excitement I would have applied for a party school, not Artemis,” Izzy grumbled as she hurried to throw on enough clothes to be presentable.

  “I wasn’t really given an option when I was abducted,” I bitched quietly, locking up behind us. “And you might not have met me, the best friend you always needed who raced here thinking you might be in danger.”

  “Yeah, you were seriously hot coming into the room looking ready to gut someone if they touched me.”

  “I even handle spiders if needed.”

  “Good. I don’t.”

  I snorted. I already knew that as she’d woken me up once to handle the tiniest spider ever. I’d given her a warning look and smacked it with my hand before going right back to bed.

  I absolutely knew I would always have spider duty.

  The flyers littered all over the quad snapped us out of our banter. They were just everywhere and I swallowed my annoyance at the poor trees wasted for this drivel. There wasn’t a patch of visible grass over the football field–sized quad. All flyers.

  “This is your fault,” Mary shouted as she found me in the large group already gathered.

  “Oh, hey, Judas,” I drawled. Not ten minutes ago she was thanking me for helping her and now she was ready to throw stones at me. “I didn’t do this.”

  “It’s because of you. Just fucking tell people what you are. Enough with this shit!”

  “Nice loyalty, really.”

  “Are you one of us?” she threw right back.

  It ruffled my feathers and I stepped into her space. “Is that really all you care about? If I’m a witch like you and then I can matter? This is the wrong time to pull that species bullshit. I’m one of you. This is bigger than my species or your species. This happened to a student at Artemis. Doesn’t that register with you? It’s me today and you tomorrow but yeah, just cave.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense. Just tell them what you are,” she argued.

  “Tell who?” I purred, smirking when she frowned. “It’s not a student.” I snorted when she gave me a confused look. “You think a student is that fucking stupid to pull this? No way. The faculty has been all over busting anyone who so much as steps a toe out of line but you think they wouldn’t bust someone for this? So that means someone outside the school did this to one of us. Use your head.”

  “They just want you,” someone else argued. “And I want to pass finals, so enough and just declare.”

  I turned and looked at the guy, tilting my head to study him. “So in your mind I declare and they what? Say they’re sorry? Just go away now that they got what they wanted? You have no idea what they really want and now you just showed you’re that easy to make cave.” I shook my head when he opened his mouth. “So I declare and that’s the end? No, you’re smarter than that even before coffee.

  “Tomorrow it will be a new demand because now they know they can make the monkey dance if they demand it. That we’re so weak any little thing and we’ll fold like cheap chairs. You’ve lost your leverage and all credibility because you caved. So what’s to stop them from doing more? Demanding more? Think for a minute and see the bigger picture.

  “It could be another school who just wants to fuck with us and laughs how easy it is to make Artemis bend. The rich kid school just cries and breaks with one prank. Hell, I wondered if it was a test from the teachers to see who would turn in their fellow student like a coward. What if it’s those Underground guys and you just bend to their demands? What then?”

  “She’s right,” Mel said firmly. “It’s basic K&R rules.” She sighed when people stared at her blankly. “Kidnap and ransom. You don’t just cave to demands as they’ll up the price next round. You don’t give anything until you identify who the bad guys are, whether they’ll honor the deal, or you’re still screwed in the end. There are a hundred reasons someone could pull this crap and nothing to do with Tamsin.”

  “Agreed,” Headmaster Edelman called over everyone, using magic to make his voice heard over the thousands of people. “As of right now we were able to determine that this was in fact done outside of the school. Our wards would block such a distasteful prank if done on campus. It was someone touching a main pipe from outside the wards and the spell spread from there to other water sources.

  “The guards spotted drones and shot one down. That was how the flyers all came in. At this time we feel confident stating it was not a student here. That doesn’t mean it’s not a student from another school. As Instructor Rothchild said, it could be a group from another school who wants to distract us during the end of the semester to drop our ranking should we not perform as usual.

  “We will be launching a full investigation and get to the bottom of who was behind this. However, classes will be canceled for today and all teachers will email students with their lesson presentation and everyone will get full participation points. The cafeteria’s kitchen was exposed to the blood as well so everything they were cooking was contaminated or far from health code approved.

  “Hopefully they can get back up and running for lunch but everyone is on their own for breakfast. If you have snacks or food in your rooms, I hope you’ll share with your dormmates, and there are the vending machines in the lab building. Take the day as extra free review and have questions ready for your professors on Wednesday. We will keep you updated with what you find.”

  “And if any of you can help the kitchen so we can have lunch service, that would be greatly appreciated,” Professor White added. “It will be a while before the water heaters can warm enough water for everyone’s showers so keep that in mind. All faucets need to be flushed, including the toilets. If you need help with cleaning runes that disinfect so you don’t have to handle more, I suggest bribing the upperclassmen.”

  Everyone broke up after that but I headed over to Edelman.

  “Anything I can do?”

  He shot me an amused—but tired—look. “If you could not threaten to kill or gut anyone for the day, that would help. Also cutting the students some slack and not being alone to stand as the target for their anger. We’ve a mess to clean up—not only literally—so it would be nice if nothing added to it for one day.”

  “I say that all the time,” I drawled before heading for the cafeteria. I couldn’t even i
magine how messed up it was if blood contaminated everything, including all the water stocked in the cafeteria.

  Oh no, not just the water. It was all the bottles of liquid and the water in the fountain drinks dispensers that syrup was added to so pop came out. It was so gross I knew I couldn’t have anything from there for a while. Still, what a waste. It was a huge mess and I couldn’t even deal.

  So I was thrilled Irma asked me to watch the hobgoblin children. It was all hands on deck and they were freaked out so they could use some distractions and happy… Away from what looked like a scene from a horror flick. That I would gladly handle as we had tons of food in our room.

  I burst out laughing as she had them all climb into a utility cart and I pulled them to my room that way. It made sense since they were so small and it was a long walk for kids the size of toddlers, but it reminded me of like parents who put those leashes on their kids in malls.

  Of course I couldn’t just pull it like a normal person though.

  I brought up “HandClap” on my iTunes and played it, getting the hobgoblins to dance in the cart and clap with the music. I danced along as I pulled them.

  I wanted to play with runes to make them laugh but I hadn’t been cleared yet to do it just anywhere and I wasn’t wearing my conduit, which would raise a lot of eyebrows to do runes without.

  So I stuck with normal silliness, spinning the cart until they squealed and fell into each other. Then I went fast or twirled around them.

  Basically I was pretty tired by the time we got back to the dorm. I took the elevator up with them instead of the stairs like normal and Izzy burst out laughing when she saw us coming down the hall.

  They all cheered her name and jumped around when they saw her. We brought them into the room and kept the music and party going, giving them permission to jump on our beds.

  I danced around as we shared the muffins I’d made this weekend at home. I’d needed a break from studying and the next thing I knew I was pulling out a fairy cookbook of the Townsend family’s and making muffins.