“Cool,” I say, and I’m glad that Julia doesn’t smile, because I don’t want to force one, either. A painter, she said. I think of my roommate’s books. What ifsheis my roommate? I look about the table, taking them both in. Two vampires.I can do this.I’ve done small talk with vampires before. It always ended with them turning to dust, that’s true, but if anything, this should be easier. I just have to think of them as human.
“And what about you?” Ife asks. When she looks at me, I don’t get the feeling she’s trying to get through obligatory small talk. Her attention is genuine.
“I’m—My parents work in logistics. They want me to take over the company, but I’d rather work in the Council.”
“Which department?” Julia asks, still busy with her sketch. I glance over to see she’s drawing a train cabin, shadowy silhouettes filling every seat.
“Ethics,” I say.
“I assume you’ll be looking at a lot of Familiar contracts then,” Ife says. “Making sure everything is aboveboard, and that sort of thing?”
“And that no one is sired against their will,” I add, though I highly doubt theethicsdepartment of the Vampiric Council does anything whatsoever. I watch the two vampires, trying to figure out their impression of me. I’ve told a few lies in the last minute, but neither Ife nor Julia seems to have noticed.
“You’re staying in Iolairean Hall, right?” Iolairean Hall, orTaigh nan Iolairean,as it’s labelled on the campus map, is on the edge of the campus village, built on the riverbank.
“No, Tynarrich,” I say. Her mouth makes ano,and I furrow my brows. “Is that strange?”
“I didn’t know they’d let humans into Tynarrich. I thought you were all in Iolairean.”
Why, exactly, am I not in the human hall of residence? I pause, try to hide the panic rising inside me, residue of when I saw that bloody coffin. “I guess that explains why my roommate is a vampire.”
Julia’s pencil, which had been busy scratching the corner of her page, stills. Ife’s eyes widen. “No way,” Stephan says.
“Aye,” I say, frowning at the three of them. “You don’t have a vampire roommate?” I ask Stephan.
“Iwish,” he says. “But it’s already a miracle that Tynahine’s managed to get Heritages and Converts to coexist.”
“Why?” I ask. Despite knowing there are two types of vampires, I never stopped to think about how they see each other.
“Heritagevampires usually think they’re superior,” Julia says. “Ifeis an exception to this rule, of course.” She smiles at her friend, who in turn grins back.
“So you’re—”
“A Convert,” Julia says, her dry voice telling me she isn’t interested in sharing anything else about herself.
“There’re only a couple hundred Heritage vampires here,” Ife says. “The Council doesn’t have a single Convert on their board, even though their population far outnumbers ours. So you can imagine why there’s some tension between us.”
“Seems a bit unfair,” I say, and Ife nods.
“Definitely. I have a classmate who was persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition back in the day, and I’m always telling him that he should apply to be on the board. He’d be fantastic.”
“You have a classmate who survived theSpanish Inquisition?” I ask.
“When he was human. Five hundred years ago.”
“Why—” I lean back. “Why the fuck is there a five-hundred-year-old in your class?”
Stephan laughs, and Ife shakes her head, as though I’m an ignorant child.
“Vampire and human education are not the same, Cassie.”
“How so?”
“Well, when a human studies, unless they want to stay in academia their entire lives, it’s mainly to get a job, isn’t it?”
I think I know where this is going. I nod anyway.
“A human life, a mortal one, islinear.Structured, too. It’s not the same for vampires. Our interests change every century. My brother was a famous opera singer before he became a doctor. And I’m not sure if you’ve gone through Tynahine’s website, but we have an undergraduate degree—philosophy, I think—that lasts sixty-two years.”
