As soon as the Vyken appeared in the doorway, I tossed a ball hard. He dodged it by jumping up along the side of the wall, his nails and bare toes somehow finding a hold in the thin cracks of the wall. I threw another one, but he was already moving, scrambling alongside the stones like a spider. He was grinning.
I rolled away from the wall until I was in the middle of the room. I lost sight of him for just a fraction of a second, but that was enough. The Vyken was gone, or, I should say, hiding. He was still here. I could feel him. I looked up toward the rafters of the tower roof. It was pitch black.
At the bottom of the tower, I heard Christian begin to ascend the stairs. “I’m coming, Llona!” he yelled.
Still staring up, I created Light again in the palm of my hand and willed it to rise. The closer it got to the rafters the faster my heart beat. Sweat rolled down the small of my back.
Light began to fill dark spaces, exposing that which wished to remain hidden. My Vyken was there, but he wasn’t alone. Another sat crouched on a beam. Where his left eye should’ve been there was an empty hole.
I screamed when my Vyken dropped from the ceiling, extinguishing the light. He fell onto my stomach, pushing my shoulders into the floor. I tried to create Light, but it was as if he knew what I was going to do because his hands slipped up and pinned my wrists together. He bent forward and inhaled my skin. The warmth of his breath steamed my ear when he said, “I’m going to eat every part of you.”
Just then Christian burst into the room, breathing hard and eyes burning with a rage I’d never seen in him. Panic tore through me. He was too emotional, too upset. He wouldn’t sense the other Vyken until it was too late.
“Christian,” I cried, but the Vyken on top of me shoved his hairy forearm into my throat, cutting off not only my warning, but air too.
Christian rushed forward, failing to see and hear the Vyken falling from the beam behind him. He was almost to me when the Vyken behind him raised his hand. Moonlight shined off the blade he carried.
I struggled, trying to do something to warn him, but something else stopped him before I could. Before the blade sliced into Christian, a thin strip of a shadow, shaped like an arm, swept out from the darkness, catching the Vyken’s leg. The Vyken fell forward and stumbled into Christian. Christian turned around and stared in shock. He looked back at me, and I knew he realized his blunder.
Before he turned to fight his Vyken, he quickly kicked at mine, knocking him partially off me. I squirmed the rest of the way out while Christian scooped up the knife from the floor and moved backward toward me. The two Vykens also paired up and stared in our direction, hunched over and fists ready.
“You okay?” Christian said, his eyes darting around the room.
“Fine. You?”
“Never better.”
The Vyken with the missing eye lunged first. Christian swung the knife but missed. The Vyken caught him in the back with his foot, sending him across the room and away from me.
The other Vyken, the one who had smelled me, rushed forward. I dove out of the way at the last second. We did this a couple of more times before I realized I was actually enjoying this cat and mouse game. Maybe it was because I didn’t feel like a mouse anymore.
I smiled, and once again searched inwardly for the darkness that gave me the addicting power. I found it, a little too quickly, and embraced it. Just like before, new strength filled my being, and this time when the Vyken lunged, I didn’t move. I let him crash into me. We fell to the ground, punching and shoving, but I managed to position myself on top of him this time.
I should’ve used Light right then, but instead I wanted hand-to-hand combat to see what I could do. I swung hard, he caught my fist and twisted it back. If it wasn’t for my new strength, I probably would’ve cried out and rolled into a ball from the pain. But not now.
“Use your Light!” Christian yelled. He had his Vyken pinned up against the wall. Both of them were fighting for control of the knife.
I ignored his advice. What I was feeling now was far more powerful than anything I thought Light could do.
With my arm pinned behind my back, I threw my body forward and head-butted him. Dazed, he let go of my arm, which was already cocked and ready to go. I swung it at his cheekbone; it shattered under the force.
The Vyken looked at me, in both pain and surprise, but his expression quickly turned to anger, and he bucked me from him. I somersaulted away and stood up, grinning.
“Who are you?” he said as he circled around me. I kept up the game, letting him move.
“What are you doing?” Christian shouted. He had his Vyken pinned to the ground.
Having fun, I thought. I charged the Vyken and leapt into the air, legs forward. My feet connected with his chest, sending him several feet back into the wall. He bounced off it and fell forward, face first. Dust billowed up around him, and when he looked up, his fangs were bared and eyes glowing.
I nodded my head. “Let’s go, creeper.”
Snorting, he rushed forward. I dove out of the way but wasn’t fast enough. His clawed hand raked the back of my head, and I felt his nails slice into my flesh. I dropped to the ground on all fours, blood dripping from my neck and turning my hair red. It was the first time my hair had ever been another color.
I stood slowly, trying to shake away the pain. By the time I was up, the Vyken had his arms around my chest and was tightening. I glanced at Christian. Somehow in his scuffle the knife had been knocked from him. He still had the upper hand, straddling the Vyken, raining blows on his head, but without the knife he wouldn’t be able to do much more.
The grip tightened on my chest, but it didn’t hurt as much as it should’ve. With blood running down my gown and Christian needing help, I acted fast. Taking advantage of my shorter height, I bent forward fast, flipping the Vyken over me. He landed on his back, gasping.
Before he could do anything else, I picked up his head—the feel of his matted hair and hard skull felt like a rotten melon. I twisted hard and actually laughed when I heard one “pop” after another as his vertebrae snapped. The Vyken let out an agonizing cry of anguish and pain. While he writhed on the floor, I walked to the knife and picked it up. I felt Christian’s eyes on me, but I didn’t look over.
Raising the knife above my head, I said, “Ashes to ashes,” and slashed the knife down into the Vyken’s neck. The blade slid into his pale skin and stopped only when it hit the wooden floor. His head burst first; the ashes stuck to my blood-soaked hair. I inhaled deeply and closed my eyes, feeling like I could conquer the world.
“Knife!” Christian yelled. I turned to him. He was breathing heavy and had sweat dripping off his forehead. But it was the way he was looking at me, like he didn’t know who I was, that made me look down. I hurried over to him and gave him the knife. The Vyken beneath him was still struggling, but his one good eye was such a mess that he couldn’t see out of it to properly get at Christian.
With one swipe of his hand, Christian beheaded the Vyken. Before it had even turned to dust, he was coming toward me. “Let me see that wound,” he said.
“It’s fine,” I said, brushing his hand away. I still didn’t look at him. I was afraid of what he’d see in my eyes.
“Llona—”
“Where are the other Guardians?” I asked. “How come you’re the only one out here?” I went to the window and looked out. All of Lucent was asleep, unaware of the danger. Christian came up behind me. I felt him lift my hair to examine the wound. I was careful to keep the bite marks on the opposite side of him.
“There was a miscommunication,” he said. “Spencer and Jackson were supposed to be out here, but apparently Spencer’s nose got broken, and he failed to find anyone to replace him. This looks bad, Llona.” I heard a rustling of material and then felt something warm press against the back of my head.
“It will heal,” I said. I reached up and replaced his hand on the material, which I realized was his shirt, and continued to press it to my head.
I turned around. “About Spencer—”
“That’s why I came out here. I was hoping to find Jackson, or even better, you, to see if it was true. That’s when I saw the Vyken chasing you.” He looked at me, but, again, I averted my eyes. “Did you really punch Spencer?”
“Yes.”
Christian was quiet for a moment before he said, “I’m sure he deserved it.”
“Maybe.”
Christian stepped by me and looked out the window, searching left and right. “One thing I don’t get is where Jackson is. He should’ve heard you screaming or me yelling. I don’t get it.”
“Maybe he was fighting his own Vyken out there.”
“Maybe.”
I turned to him, meeting his eyes, but I was careful to step to the side of the window, where shadows covered my face. “Why are there so many?” I asked.
Christian shook his head. “I don’t know. Something’s wrong here. I felt it the moment I first arrived at Lucent.” He took hold of my hand. Moonlight covered him, illuminating his blue eyes and accentuating the muscles on his bare chest. I, however, remained in the darkness.
“You could’ve died tonight,” I said.
He smiled. “Lucky the Vyken tripped then, eh?”
It was then I remembered what really happened: a thin shadow slicing forward, catching the Vyken’s leg. But that was impossible, right? Maybe I’d imagined it.
Christian squeezed my hand. “You okay?”
I lowered his shirt from the back of my head. “You were careless. You rushed in when you shouldn’t have.”
“I thought he was going to kill you.”
“It’s me, Christian. If I had been anyone else, you would’ve noted your surroundings first. Listened closer. You probably would’ve been able to see him with that Guardian eyesight of yours.”
“You don’t know that.”
I sighed.
“I get where you’re going with this,” he said. “Really, I do. You think that I’m only thinking of your safety, and guess what? I am. But that’s what boyfriends do. Forget about me being a Guardian for a minute. If I was just a regular dude, I would’ve done the same thing.”
“But you’re not regular. You’re special, and because of me you’re not using your gifts, which is going to get you killed.”
Christian pulled me into the moonlight with him and wrapped his arms around me. The skin on his chest was warm. “You worry too much. At least about the wrong things. We need to figure out what’s going on around here.”
I nodded. He was partially right.
“I’m going to see you back to your room, and then I’m going to talk to some of the other Guardians.” He turned me around. “Let me see that wound again.”
I stepped away from him. Already it was feeling better, and I didn’t want him to see how fast I was healing. “I’m fine. Really.” I held out his shirt. “Do you want me to throw this away?”
His expression pained. “Yes. I don’t ever want to see that much blood outside of you again.”
I lowered the shirt. “Let’s get out of here.”
Christian said nothing to me the rest of the way back to Chadni, and I didn’t speak either. I was still too stunned by what had happened, specifically with me. I was hoping it had escaped Christian’s notice, but when we stopped just beneath my window, he said, “I have to ask, Llona,” he paused as if searching for the right words. “What happened back there? Why didn’t you use Light to kill the Vyken? And how come you were so strong?”
I looked beyond him, past Lucent and to the forest beyond. What could I say? I hardly knew the answer myself, other than Mr. Steele’s bite had left something inside me, and I . . . what? Sort of liked it now? How disgusting was that?
TWELVE
Morning finally came, but you wouldn’t know it by looking outside. The sky was a deep gray, promising rain. I’d been listening to the wind howl all night. It started up just after I said good-bye to Christian. I hadn’t been able to give him a good reason why I was able to fight the Vyken the way that I did, but, gratefully, he didn’t push the issue. He seemed to have bigger things to worry about.
Because I had no appetite, I decided to skip breakfast and take my time getting ready. Whether I would admit it or not, I really didn’t want to face May and Kiera. Or Christian, if he showed up.
My door opened. Tessa stood in the doorway holding an armful of towels, looking surprised. “I’m sorry,” she stuttered. “I thought you’d be at breakfast.”
“No problem. Come on in.”
She disappeared into my bathroom.
“You know I can get my own towels, right?” I said loud enough for her to hear. Ever since I had asked Tessa about the smell in my room, upsetting her, I’d made it a point to be as friendly as I could. I figured we’d become friends eventually, and then she’d tell me the truth. But now I didn’t want to wait. While she was still in the bathroom, I darted across the room and shut the door.
Tessa walked out of the bathroom and said, “You are not required to—” She saw me blocking the closed door. “What are you doing?”
“I want answers.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she stammered.
“My room. I asked you once before about the funny smell and you bolted. You know something. Tell me, please?”
“How can you even smell it?” she said, her voice low.
“So I’m not crazy! What happened in here?”
“We’re not supposed to talk about it.”
“If anyone has a right to know, it’s me. I’m the one who has to live here.”
Tessa sat down on the bed, facing the window. She looked small and helpless with her hands resting gently on her lap. “A girl named Britt lived in this room before you. I was her servant for over three years. She was beautiful and kind, loved by everyone. But something happened. She stopped smiling. She stopped talking. Eventually she even stopped going to classes. The teachers tried to talk to her, but she would get angry. I remember finding holes in her walls where she had punched them. I had never seen an Aura get that angry before; none of us had. One day I came in here and found her crying. She kept saying, “I can’t control it anymore,” over and over. I tried to comfort her, but she wouldn’t be consoled. The next day I found her. There was blood everywhere.” Tessa stood up. “Right there. That’s where she did it.” She pointed to a spot across from the bed.
“Did what?”
“Killed herself.”
The air in the room turned thick, and it caught in my throat. Tessa was pale, and I felt my own head begin to spin. I dropped to the bed next to her. “Why?”
Tessa shook her head. “I don’t know. Nobody does. It’s the first case of an Aura suicide. Ever.” She stared at the floor.
“So that’s why the other girls keep giving me a hard time about my room.”
“The other girls don’t know it was suicide.”
“What do you mean?”
“The teachers told them she died of unknown causes.”
“And they bought that?”
“Could you see any of the girls here questioning them?”
“No, I guess not.”
“They didn’t let anyone in here for several weeks while Lizens remodeled the room. I scrubbed the floor for hours, but there was still a stain so we had to put in carpet.” For the first time her voice cracked.
I put my arm around her. “I’m so sorry.”
“Sophie told me not to tell, said there would be consequences.” Her bottom lip began to quiver.
“It’s okay. I promise I won’t say anything.”
“I hate keeping this secret. And I hate this place and what it does to people.” She began to sob, her shoulders shaking violently. “So many lies.”
I held on to her—rather, she clung to me. I rubbed her back. “It will be okay. We’ll fix it, I promise.” I continued to say soothing words until she stopped crying.
When the bells chimed, she pulled away. “I’m sorry. You’re
going to be late.” She dried her eyes with a tissue from my nightstand.
“I don’t care. Some things are more important.”
She smiled at me. “Thank you.”
“Have you always lived here?” I asked.
She nodded. “This is our home.”
“Are there other Lizens outside of Lucent?”
“There are more colonies, but at the other Auran schools in Ireland and Australia.”
“How come there aren’t more of you?”
She swallowed. “We have a difficult time having children. Something in our genetics.”
“I’m sorry. Maybe there’s something medically that can be fixed?”
She shrugged, her eyes sad.
“Has your kind always served Auras?”
“I don’t know. We don’t keep a history.”
“That’s weird. There’s got to be something. I’ll look around in our library.”
“But why? It won’t change anything.”
“Knowing the past can be very powerful. You never know. The Lizens could have once been a powerful society where Auras served them.”
“I doubt that,” she said. There was a hint of bitterness in her voice.
“Do you hate it?”
She looked at me. “It doesn’t matter. I have no other choice.” She stood up and went to the door. “I really should be going.”
“Um, okay. Do you want to hang out some time?”
“I don’t think that would be proper, but thanks.” She reached into her pocket. “Oh, and this is for you.” She tossed me a folded up note.
After she left, I opened the letter. As I suspected, it was a note from Christian. It didn’t say much, but his words gave me comfort. “I’m here for you,” it said. I dropped to my bed and curled into a ball, thinking of him, Tessa, . . . and the girl who had killed herself.
THIRTEEN
It was a beautiful Sunday morning. At least, that’s what I told myself. I was determined not to let the events of the dance ruin the last of my weekend. It was going to be great, despite the fact that the gray sky and pregnant clouds screamed rain. Again.
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