The wind whipped at him, and he covered her as he looked around the oval-shaped campus, which was anchored by two stone buildings. One was massive and appeared to be the hub of the school; the other was smaller and much closer to an edge.
She leaned against him and looked at the nearly knee-length grass. “I don’t understand. Everyone should be attending fall semester.”
“How many people attended with you?” he asked, draping an arm over her shoulder and drawing her toward the biggest building.
“There were twenty-five students,” she murmured.
He nodded at one of his soldiers who stood at a post near blooming, bright red flowers. The soldier opened the door for them. “We clear?”
“All clear,” the vampire confirmed. “No electricity, though.” He handed over a steel-barreled flashlight. “We have lanterns placed throughout, so you won’t be in the dark at any point. Guards are stationed at every landing and level.”
“Good.” Garrett drew her inside to a stone vestibule with a high wall ahead of them.
She gasped. “The crest should be up there.” Her hair spun as she looked wildly around. “All of the pictures and furniture are gone.”
This was getting odder by the minute, and he didn’t like it one bit. “Were you in school with the same girls for all those years?”
“Yes.” She moved toward a double wooden door and pushed it open. “This was the cafeteria.”
The stone floor was polished, but the space was empty. The smell of some kind of meat hung in the air. “Where are those girls now? They were your friends?” He pulled her away and walked across the landing to a matching door, which led to hallways housing what appeared to be a series of offices, all without any furnishings.
“We were very close,” she said hollowly. “The best of friends.”
He turned and gently put her against the wall, ducking his head to better see her eyes. “Then where are they, Dessie?”
She blinked, and her eyes grew slightly unfocused. “I don’t know.”
“But you were the best of friends for years. Over a decade. If you’re all out in the world, why aren’t you in touch?” He kept his tone calm with a note of command, which she seemed to respond to well.
She frowned. “I don’t know.”
* * * *
Dessie’s head felt as if it was in a cloud. Her temples ached. “I miss my friends.” But she couldn’t see their faces in her mind. Why not? That was weird. She could feel them, or feel what it had been like to have friends, but she couldn’t remember what they looked like. “I, um, I don’t remember their names.” How was that possible? The more she tried to remember, the more her head ached. She pressed a hand to her temple. “It hurts, Garrett.”
He tugged her hat farther down. “Stop thinking about it for now. Let’s just search this place, and you tell me what you do remember. Don’t push it.”
That sounded like a decent plan, considering her brain felt as if it was leaking out of her ears. But there was a hollowness in her chest at the thought that somebody had manipulated her mind. It was the only scenario that made sense. “All right. The classrooms are on the second floor, the living quarters on the third. It’s an all-girls school, and most of the professors are women, save for Professor Samuelson, who gave me the knife upon graduation. We did have a few male professors visit for a semester at a time. They were quartered in the other stone building, along with the monks.”
Garrett stiffened. “Monks?”
“Yes. The school is affiliated with the Church of the Righteous. We had bible studies as well as secular classes, and the monks took care of the land and buildings but mainly stayed to themselves. Most of them had taken a vow of silence, so only three ever spoke. There were ten of them.” She’d never spent much time with the monks, and since they couldn’t speak, she hadn’t minded.
“Have you ever been in their quarters?” Garrett led the way up to the second floor, which had also been cleared of all furnishings. Their voices and footsteps echoed hollowly across the vacant area.
She shivered. “No. Of course not.” It was forbidden for any of the students to bother the holy men. “They were here to find enlightenment and didn’t want anything to do with us except during chapel on Sundays. Then they silently sat and prayed, except for Father Thomas, who always gave the sermon.”
Garrett looked down at her. “You understand how bizarre that situation was, right?”
She rubbed her nose, noting it was colder than she’d expected. “Not really. This island is the perfect place for monks, enlightenment, and contemplation.” It had not been the perfect place for a teenage girl to live. Not at all. She shivered and rubbed her hands down her arms. “It’s not usually so quiet here.” Although the wind was beginning to shriek in an announcement of an oncoming storm. She used to love watching the skies open up over the tumultuous sea from her small window. “Do you want to see my room?”
“Yes.” Even though he still seemed emotionally distant from her, she couldn’t help but notice that he covered her with his body, keeping her against the wall. “Show me.”
She didn’t have enough time left in this life to hold on to anger or hurt. Plus, as bossy as Garrett was, he had seemed fine with mating her and saving her life.
It was a kind thought of his, even though it hadn’t worked. She knew herself and understood that she wasn’t dangerous or deadly or immortal. There was no way she was the woman he’d dreamed of for so long, even if she had training she couldn’t remember.
Yet she took his hand as if she had every right to do so. “This way.” They climbed to the third story, and she turned down the hallway, walking along the now-bare stone floor to the farthest door on the left. “In here.” She shoved open the door and walked into what had been her space for over a decade. The minuscule room looked bigger with the bed, dresser, and small desk now gone. “I spent a lot of time sitting on my desk and looking out that window.” She pointed.
