“I was trying to save you!” she says. “You would have died.”
“Fine,” I snap. “But I want to know what this mark is.”
“I don’t know,” she says, exasperated.
“Well, figure it out,” I say. My teeth grit as frustration continues to bubble within me. “I’ve got class, but by lunch you better know how to get rid of it.” I scratch it, and Aliz simply stares at me, bewildered. I have a terrible feeling about this. But she nods.
“I will,” she says.
I grab a tartan scarf to wrap around my turtleneck, just for good measure, and hope that whatever this mark is, it’ll be gone before I see her again.
Between each class,I stop in a toilet, hiding in a cubicle, using my phone to look at my neck. It’s still there.
The itch in my neck starts to subside around dinnertime. I’ve been jumpy all day, waiting to see Jannet and Stella step out of the shadows, but they don’t. When I spot Stephan and Julia at our usual table, playing cards, I finally feel a little normal again. “Where’s Ife?” I ask, and when I sit, Julia’s shoulders tense. She stares at me, lips ajar.
“I like your scarf, it’s very fashionable,” Stephan says. He places a queen down on the table, and Julia picks itup.
“Thanks,” I say. I steal a glance at Julia, who doesn’t say anything. Why did she look at me like that?
“Did you-know-who bite you?” he asks, resting his chin on his hand.
“You know they’re not allowed to do that.”
“Sure, but maybe the heir to the most powerful family in Europe can get away with things an ordinary vampire can’t,” he counters.
“Well, she didn’t,” I say. Instead, she gave me her blood. The more I think about it, the worse it sounds.
“What’s your dissertation on, Cassie?” Julia asks, changing the subject.
“I’m not sure yet,” I say. “Maybe Ravel’s post-conversion pieces.”
“Ravel?” Julia says. “Nice.”
“Have you met him?” I ask, and Stephan, who was shuffling cards, starts laughing.
“Uh, how old do you think I am, Cassie?” Julia asks, leaning one arm on the table.
I look at her. Truth be told, she looks my age. Younger, even. Converts, like Julia, are frozen forever at the age they were bitten. So, although she looks like she’s in her late teens, she could easily be thousands of years old.
“Sixty,” I say, which seems a fairly reasonable number.
“I’m twenty-two,” she says. “Got bitten four years ago. I was an ordinary human until I was eighteen.”
The wordordinarycatches me off guard.
“We’re the same age,” I whisper. I could have been in Julia’s shoes.
Four years ago, our lives were identical. Four years ago, vampires changed everything. I feel as though she wants to say more, and for once I want to hear it. But instead, her gaze drops to my neck, eyes narrowing. I touch my scarf. It’s still in place.
Aliz enters the canteen. I don’t see her, so I have no idea how I know that she’s here, but when I look up, she’s cutting her way through the crowd, ignoring her flock as she heads straight to the blood stall. The itch returns to my neck, and I scratch it through the scarf. She doesn’t look over at our table.
Ife joins us shortly after sunset, pressing a kiss on both Stephan’s and Julia’s cheeks.
“By the way,” Ife says, leaning on the table. “I spoke to the Night Dean last night. I know we only had one name, but he says he’s been looking into the Red Ribbons. And he won’t let any harm come to his dear human students.”
Considering I was almost crushed to death and poisoned, he’s not doing a particularly good job. I play with the fabric of my scarf, forcing myself to stay calm.
“For some reason, they all stopped wearing their ribbons, but he told me he’s caught a few of them already. Even if they don’t give him names, the rest will chicken out.”
