My heart races. They wouldn’t dare. Not in public. I pull at the toggle on my watch, touching the cold metal of the chain inside. I’m outnumbered. I knew that already. But I’malwaysoutnumbered. And no vampire who’s faced me has lived to tell the tale.
“Faster!” the same voice cries as I slip between two rows of bookcases. I hear a sound now, a scuffling of sorts, and something wet. My brows knit together before I realise what I’m hearing. “Fuck!” the airy voice moans. “Bite me, damn it!”
I tug at my watch, pulling out the silver chain and whipping it until it hardens into a blade. Vampires won’t—can’t—drink from someone without consent. But consent doesn’t mean shit if they can compel their victims.
“My turn,” the same voice says, just as I slip into a row behind them, silver blade at the ready. “Can I bite you?”
“No,” a lower, breathless voice replies. “You’ll stain my shirt.”
Two vampires,I realise, staring at the books.What the fuck.I can only vaguely make out their shadows, pressed against the case, their breathing uneven.
“Plus, we’ve got company,” that same low voice replies.
Shit.
My heart is beating far too fast. Only then do I realise that I’m standing too close to them, well within the five-metre radius in which a vampire can hear a human’s heart. I need to get away from them, fast.
I make my way down the stairs, avoiding eye contact. No one got hurt. So it’s fine. It could have been worse. I could have seen their faces. They could have seen mine. If I hadn’t taken my garlic, the scent of my blood would have certainly left an impression.
I glance around the ground floor. Stephan and Ife are gone, but to my surprise, some of the students seated at the tables are human. A few even send me sympathetic smiles. As though they, too, have just eavesdropped on two leeches fucking.
And I don’t know why I do it, but I lookup.
My mind tells me I just want a last glance of the painted vault, the golden strings of stars carried by cherubs. But that’s not where my gaze lands. I look at the banister on the fifth floor, and someone is standing at the exact spot where I had been.
She’s dressed in black from head to toe, so her white hair, short and windswept, stands out even more. She’s striking. Unlike any vampire I’ve ever seen, with warm skin and black eyes that somehow see right through me. And despite being this far away, I can see the smirk tugging on her bloodstained lips.
I walk backto Tynarrich Hall in a daze. That leech’s face is engraved in my mind already, and I want to scrub it out. I want Penny to call me, but I can’t show signs of weakness on my first night. That’s not the kind of hunter she trained. I can’t fail when promotion is almost within my grasp.
I already miss my narrow room back in our satellite base, a stone cell once inhabited by a nun, next to the refectory. But when I find my door, 904, my muscles start to relax. At least I’ll be safe here. I hit the light switch, letting out a sigh that’s instantly interrupted by what I see in front ofme.
My room, which had an abundance of curtains, has doubled in size. The right wall, which when I last saw it was adorned with black drapes, is missing.
I remain still, air gone from my lungs.
It can’t be,I think. But my eyes aren’t trickingme.
On the right side of my room, opposite my bed, is a coffin.
Chapter
Two
It’s a beautiful coffin. Long, elegant, built upon a cabinet. A golden moon, surrounded by a ring of thorned vines, decorates the lid.
I squeeze my eyes shut, certain that it’ll be gone when I open them again. But it remains there.
Where there’s a coffin, there’s a vampire.
I rush back outside. The number etched into the wood is 904.Jesus Christ.
I take a deep breath. I’ll head to the registration office. Contact the human dean, if necessary.There’s been a mistake,I’ll say. I clench my hands to keep them from shaking, and step further in. If I’d explored the room in its entirety before the welcome lecture, I would have seenit.
I don’t blink as I stare at the coffin. After a moment’s hesitation, I tug at my watch strap, pulling out the silver chain. I can kill the leech now. But it’s dark outside. Meaning myroommateis probably up already, and on its way to class.
I slide the chain back into my watch and explore the bathroom. Ithas a large old-fashioned tub and a walk-in shower. All the appliances look old but are impeccably clean. There are two sinks, one with a mirror, the other with a screen and a camera. I press a button, and the screen comes to life. The creature’s sink has a toothbrush balanced on top of a blue bottle of mouthwash. I can always drop one of my supplements into the liquid. A quick and easy kill.
I take off my glasses and splash my face with water. The cold helps. As much as I don’t want it to be true, my roommate is a vampire.
