I search for Evan in the crowd once I make it into the ballroom. He’s so tall, he usually sticks out, but there are so many people, I’m having a hard time spotting him. I’m jostled to the back of the room and decide it’s better to just stay put than to try and fight the wave of people.
With my back to the wall, I continue to search the crowd for Evan and Griffin or for a clue as to what the heck is going on. I’m sure this is something they would have mentioned to me if they knew it was happening, so it mustn’t have been planned for very long.
I think back to the voice saying to ‘proceed to the main ballroom unless you’ve been instructed otherwise,’ so some people must know what’s going on.
For all the people milling about, the room is fairly quiet, but the noise drops further when Griffin and Evan emerge from a curtained panel. No wonder I couldn’t spot them. Evan’s eyes search the back of the room, like he knows right where to find me. I tilt my head to the side, mouthing, “What’s going on?”but he doesn’t give me any indication that he understood.
Griffin moves forward, his eyes scanning the room, never landing on me. I notice his coat is unbuttoned, which is unusual, and even the top two buttons of his shirt are undone. He looks disheveled. What the heck has happened in the last few hours? I lean to the left when someone blocks my view, and that’s when I notice Griffin’s hands. The rings he always wears are missing, except for the black carbon ring I put on his finger this morning.
The doors to my left snap closed with a thud that vibrates through the large space. Everyone’s heads swivel as they look around, including me.
“There have been some recent developments.” Evan doesn’t need to raise his voice to be heard. The room is eerily silent. “You are all aware that the drug the kids are calling Wethas been circulating at the school, it’s also in Bakersville, and more than likely in the other schools as well. This drug is being soaked in blood and given to unblooded vampires with the hope it will elicit bloodlust when they transition.” Evan pauses. “It’s true the organization HERO is behind this in an attempt to increase the divide between humans and supernaturals, and to prove that supernaturals are too dangerous to be mixing with humans.”
I take in everything he’s saying, but I already knew this, so I start to relax. They’re just letting everyone know what’s going on, like Evan mentioned yesterday when we got back to the school.
What I didn’t expect was for the people around me to start looking at me as if I had something to do with this. A few people shuffle away from me, while others cast suspicious glares in my direction. I pretend not to be affected and keep my eyes trained on the front.
Griffin steps up to Evan’s side, and his eyes are now on me as if he knew where I was the entire time. He probably did.
Griffin
Quinn is standing among the staff, her posture stiff after some of the people near her distanced themselves. I knew this would happen, knew that the timing of her arrival at the school and revealing that HERO is behind this wouldn’t go unnoticed. One whisper leads to another until murmurs of doubt and distrust are circling the room.
“What we find most unnerving, however, is the fact that at least two of our own were willing to work with the humans to accomplish this,” Evan continues. More of the staff sneak looks at Quinn. She fidgets but keeps her chin up. If the room was full of humans, her façade would be well constructed, but her peers at Havenfall are predators. The uptake in her pulse and the anxious energy she’s exuding can easily be misread as signs of guilt and responsibility.
An eager voice chimes in from the middle of the room. “Who is the second?” The shifter who spoke up looks directly at Quinn as if he thinks he already knows the answer and he’s waiting for her to be called out.
This is one time I would have been more than happy to be proven wrong. She’s probably not going to be very happy with me in a few moments, but it’s unavoidable. I’ve already made it clear her safety is my number one priority.
“Ms. Shaw,” I call, working hard to keep my voice even. Instinct tells me to rush over to her side and snarl at anyone who casts her a wary glance. Quinn’s eyes widen as if me addressing her was the last thing she expected. My timing could have been better. It almost seems like I’m calling her out as one of the perpetrators, but the truth is, I just can’t have her among the group anymore. It’s a hazard to everyone’s health around her. “Would you join us please?” I add, but it doesn’t curb the whispers in the room. Damnit, I should have let Evan answer the shifter’s question first. Now everyone really thinks she’s involved.
“I didn’t have anything to do with this,” Quinn snarls, showing me part of the reason I can’t help but love this woman.
“I know, sweets, bad timing on my part, but I promise it was necessary to save lives.” I don’t mention who was in danger. She gives me a glare, then stomps past everyone as if she doesn’t give a shit that half of them were just looking at her as if she’s a traitor. I reach out and pull her to my side.
Evan gives me a side-eyed look over her head. He had more confidence in the people he considers friends and colleagues. He didn’t think Quinn would be an immediate suspect. Too bad I was right.
“Quinn isn’t and never was involved beyond what was done to her to make it seem like she was,” Evan tells the group.
After finding Quinn’s blood on the drugs, it was clear we needed to address how that could have happened, or people might begin to suspect she was involved. I don’t give a shit what they think, but keeping it a secret could risk her safety, and if anyone found out, they might conclude she was working with HERO. The fact that she’s human makes several of our kind already mistrustful.
“Most of you know Quinn was attacked by a student several weeks ago. That student was involved in distributing the drugs to the kids here at Havenfall and working directly with HERO. At the time, we weren’t aware of that. We believed it to be random and opportunistic. Since then, we’ve learned about the drugs and her involvement. Rand helped Michelle escape, hoping to avoid her implicating him and leaking information about the drugs.”
Evan doesn’t tell everyone we suspect Quinn was targeted for her blood specifically, even though there are a few reasons why I believe that to be true.
The first and most likely one would be to give enough of her human blood to the kids so they would come to recognize it, crave it. Being a human would make her easy prey, and having a human attacked by a bloodlusting vampire at a supernatural school would definitely raise some alarm about the safety of humans among us, and that’s exactly what HERO wants.
The second is more far-fetched and stems simply from her being mine. I’m trying to convince myself it’s unlikely, but I’m still having a hard time not assuming everything around me ends in ruin when that’s how I’ve felt for more years than I care to remember.
I’m coming to terms with Iris’ death not being my fault, but I’ve blamed myself forever, so it’s easy to think anything bad that happens to Quinn would be my fault too.
“Last night, we located Michelle in Bakersville. She had possession of drugs and Quinn’s blood,” Evan intones. Quinn turns her head abruptly to look at him. We didn’t tell her why we were so late in coming back last night. I don’t think she would be keen knowing I wanted to kill a seventeen-year-old girl. The only thing that stopped me was knowing Quinn wouldn’t approve, even after learning how deeply involved in everything the girl was. Michelle wanted power and was willing to do anything to get it.
More suspicious glances are shared among the staff before they turn their questioning eyes back toward Quinn. I want to tell them turning their gazes inward would be more useful than the hateful glares thrown at Quinn. If anything, she is the innocent in this. She came into our world with the intention of making things better for everyone, and she’s already proven her motive was true.
I’m very good at masking my emotions, it’s become second nature to me, and I’m almost reluctant to let everyone feel the full scope of my anger, but I let my shields drop.
The wave of rage that emanates from me can be felt like a physical force. I let everyone get a look at the creature they’ve long suspected me of being, at the potent fury that simmers just beneath the surface of my civility. “Do not forget you are all here because I allow it.”
