“Right.” What if it’s Jannet and Stella? If hecaughtthem last night, their silver-inflicted wounds would still have been visible. And what would stop them, at that point, from telling him I was the one who wounded them? Panic rises from my stomach, and I bite my lip. It’s all right. I haven’t been called to his office yet. He doesn’t know what Iam.
When I look up, Aliz is staring in my direction. She makes a short gesture with her head, nodding towards a back entrance of Ambrose Hall. I let out a sigh of relief. She’s figured out what the mark is, hasn’t she? And she’ll know how to get rid of it. “I’ll see you later,” I say, and they watch me, not without suspicion, as I rush off.
I spot her in one of the wider tunnels, connecting Ambrose Hallto the history department. She’s waiting in front of a painting, and before I can reach it, she pulls it open and steps inside.A secret tunnel.The painting depicts a canopy of white flowers and a sky free of clouds, the sort of landscape that a vampire will never see in person. I tug at the painting’s ornate frame, finding a door behindit.
The dark tunnel smells damp. It’s cold, with puddles reflecting the dim lanterns that fringe the old stone walls. Aliz is under one of those lanterns, hair dyed orange by the light. An odd warmth spreads through me as I get closer to her, and the itch in my neck slowly starts to fade again.
“So,” I say, hands on my waist. “Do you know what the mark is?”
She hesitates, and only when I see her expression do I realise that something is wrong. Her eyes are wide, jaw tense. She’s got her hands clasped together, rubbing them without pause. “I—Yes.” She takes a deep breath, not looking me in the eye. “We fucked up.”
“What do you mean,we?”
“We’ll go to Kinsnet,” she says, ignoring my question. “I’m sure we’ll find a cure for it.”
“Cure?” The itch in my neck increases. “But didn’t youcureme last night?”
“I should have realised it when I saw it. But you woke me at that unthinkable hour, and well—”
“Yes?”
“It’s a Familiar’s mark.” She looks away, her lips pursed tightly together. “I’ve never given my blood to a human before, so, you know—I didn’t think that would happen, but why don’t we head to the library? The sooner we get to work, the sooner you’ll be rid of it.”
I breathe in, trying to stay calm. “You’re joking, right?” I say. I laugh, waiting for her to laugh, too. But her face remains frozen in a picture of guilt.
“I’m afraid not,” she whispers, biting her lower lip.
“No,” I say in a small voice. Familiars are the lowest scum in the vampire world. Humans who exchange their freedom for a chance to be sired, for a promise of immortality. They do a vampire’s dirtywork. Luring other humans into blood parties, just to please their masters. “I’m not your Familiar.”
“Well,” Aliz says, scratching the back of her neck. “According to that mark, you are.”
I hear Penny on the phone, warning me about the Astra power. My throat tightens, and I run my fingers across the mark. A Familiar’s mark.
“You knew this would happen, didn’t you?” My voice, sharp, echoes on the curved walls of the tunnel. “That’s why you were so friendly last night. Because I didn’t move. Because you didn’t get whatyouwanted.”
Hurt flashes across her eyes. My mouth dries as I wait for her to say something. Tell me I’m right. But instead, her breath trembles, and she looks at the ground. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was on the verge of tears. The sound of dripping echoes in the distance, and I hear my own laboured breathing. I have to stop myself from hyperventilating. This isn’t happening. “You don’t have to believe me,” Aliz whispers after a pause. “But I had no idea this would happen.”Bullshit.“I’ll fix this,” she says. “We must have accidentally performed some kind of blood contract last night.” Her voice trembles. “There was a full moon, wasn’t there?”
“Blood contract?”
“I’m sorry,” she whispers.
“How,” I start, my voice low, “do I get rid of it?”
“I don’t know,” she replies. “We’ll figure something out, all right?”
I should kill her right now, right here. I agreed to her giving me her blood, but I did not agree tothis.“There is nowe,” I hiss, trying to keep my trembling hand from slipping into my bag and grabbing a stake.
It still hasn’t hit me. I can’tbe.
Avampire huntercannot, under any circumstances, be a vampire’sFamiliar.
Chapter
Twelve
I leave Aliz in the tunnel. Well, my exact words to her werefollow me and I’ll pull your fangs out.I don’t need her help. I willneverwork with her. But I rush to scour Kinsnet for some kind of cure. It must have one.
A Familiar may be a leech’s lapdog, but they are awillinglapdog. Which I am not. So undoing the blood contract should be simple enough. Maybe I have to pour my own blood into an open wound on Aliz’s neck. My garlic will kill her. What a pity.
