“Aliz Astra,” a voice says, and gasps travel around the table.
“No,” the girl at the head of the table says, her voice tight.
“She fucked you once, three years ago,” another vampire drawls. “Get over her, Jannet.”
“If we get caught killing an Astra, the Council will make us sunbathe. Choose someone else.”
A pause. “How about Elia Tamarit?”
No one complains at this suggestion. Who’sElia?
“And which human?” Jannet asks.
“Stephan Lazaar, the one with the vampire girlfriend.”
A gasp escapes me, and although a human would definitely not have heard it, the vampires beyond the old wooden door most certainly did; Jannet looks straight through the gap, meeting my eye. I’m not sure if she sees me, but that doesn’t matter. I run, and I’m only three steps away when I hear the door swing open, and a vampire shouts, “Get her!”
Vampires are fast. But I’m faster. I leap down the staircase. They didn’t see my face. And I’m hopefully not the only human with red hair. I can hear them behind me, swearing. I know I could take them out. I feel for the stake in my satchel. But that would make a mess, wouldn’t it? I take three tunnels, until I find one leading to the humanities building, still empty. I don’t stop running until I find an exit. Only when the rain hits my forehead, do I start to calm down, grasping my knees and getting my breath back.
My boots sink into the mud, and as much as I want to look back, I’m afraid they’re watching me. A part of me is disappointed. I shouldn’t have run away. I should have stayed and fought.
But at least I know what they’re planning.
The ice-cold drizzlestarts to lighten by the time I reach campus security, located in a low building with a thatched roof, right next to the other hall of residence.Taigh nan Iolairean,or Iolairean Hall, is the slightly more modern building that Stephan—and most of the other newly arrived human students—are residing in. And had Penny not told me to remain in Astra’s room, I would be living there, too.
I stop next to a willow tree, not yet going inside, and press the dial button on Stephan’s contact. I don’t know what I’m going to say. The dial tone rings out five times before he finally picks up, voice croaking as he says: “Cassie?”
“Are you awake?”
“No, I’m sleep talking,” he grumbles. I hear a mattress creaking. “It’s nine o’clock.”
“I—”You’re being targeted by the vampire supremacist cult.I can’t seem to get the words out. “I need to talk to you. All three of you. Meet me in Tynarrich’s dining hall in half an hour.”
I hang up before he can protest.
I see a light switching on in one of the hall’s rooms and make my way into the headquarters of campus security. A bell rings when I step in, and there’s only one person here. It’s the man who picked me up from the train station. The Familiar. He’s taking notes, phone attached to his ear as he listens to what the person on the other end of the line says. He glances up at me, and then tells whoever he’s speaking to that he’ll call them back.
“Miss Smith,” he says, as I close the door behind me. His office is quite bare. There are a dozen posters on the wall, most of them related to the dangers of spiked blood, but there is no sign of any weapons that would protect a human from a vampire, which is what I imagined the office existed for. “You’re up early.”
“Still working on changing my sleep schedule,” I say. If he’s a Familiar, why does he also work here? Does hismasternot pay him a living wage?
“How can I help you?”
He doesn’t offer me a seat, despite the cushioned chair at the other side of his desk. I swallow, the adrenaline from the chase down in the tunnels slowly leaving my system. “Have you heard of the Red Ribbon Society?” I ask. His phone rings again, and he declines the call.
“I have not.” A frown creases his brow as he stares at me. “You’re from Edinburgh, aren’t you?” he asks.
“Aye,” I say. “The Red Ribbons are—”
“I’m not really getting Edinburgh from your accent,” he says. A clock ticks from the wall, and for a moment it’s the only sound in the office, louder than the drizzle outside.
Shit.
“I’ve moved about,” I say. I did ask Penny, after she gave me a rundown of Cassie Smith’s fictitious past, how I was going to convince people I was from Edinburgh when I don’t have the accent. All Scottish people must sound the same to her, because she didn’t think it would be an issue.
His phone rings a third time, and he lets it ring out as he stares me down.
“As I was saying,” I start again, trying to ignore the tension in the room. “There’s a group of vampires, the Red Ribbon Society, who’re planning on framing a human for murder.”
