Chapter 10
1035 Words
Chapter 10
I automatically grab Val’s wrist and pull, but it’s like steel. I look down into his bright blue eyes, silently begging him to stop because I don’t have the ability to speak right now.
He doesn’t, and Kratos begins to narrate my death.
“You can see by the way her color is changing that the oxygen has been cut off. First the skin will go gray—”
At their desks, students lean in closer, taking notes on my skin tone. Tina is in my line of vision and her gleeful smirk enrages me. My lungs are on fire, black spots popping in my vision. I claw and scratch at Val’s hands, but I’m not even leaving marks on his skin. My vision begins to darken and my chin slumps onto my chest.
I’m about to pass out. My eyes flutter closed. Suddenly the eyes of the thing inside me stare back. They are angry. And they remind me that I’m not completely defenseless.
My wings pop. I open my eyes and glimpse them in my peripheral vision. They are lustrous and bright red with anger. The sight of them gives me strength. I give a gigantic push, both wings wafting around me, creating a draft that makes Val unclench his fist and sends him sprawling back onto his a*s.
There’s a gasp from the whole class as I settle back onto the ground, and I don’t know why. Surely on a campus full of vampires and werewolves, a girl with wings is not a big deal? But people aren’t looking at my wings. They’re looking at Val—who is on fire.
“Oh s**t,” I yell, but Kratos is already on it, casting a heavy blanket over Val and rolling him across the floor until he’s just a tube of cloth, with feet sticking out the bottom and hair out of the top. Singed, smoking hair.
“I’m so sorry,” I say, running up to Kratos, who gives me a shove that sends me rolling down the aisle.
“Don’t approach without permission,” he shouts, casually flipping the blanketed Val into the air, unrolling him. He hits the ground, blackened skin smoking. There are only scraps left of his t-shirt that I’d admired a few moments ago. His perfect face is still perfect, but the rest of him…
He’s ruined. He’s dying. The skin on his chest is peeling away, revealing white bones beneath.
And somehow, I did that.
Tina stands over Val, trembling. “What did you do to him?”
I’m crying, or at least I think I am. The tears are evaporating on my cheeks, sending steam into my eyes.
“I’m so, so sorry,” I keep saying over and over again as I kneel next to Val. I look up at Kratos, who is standing dispassionately over us.
“Fern! We need a medic over here!” Kratos calls and a girl who was standing off to the side of the class rushes over, a bag at her side.
She pulls a metal thermos from the bag and gives Val a drink of whatever is inside. His skin stops bubbling and his eyes flutter open. The open skin closes back up. But it’s still black and ugly. Like a burnt piece of paper. He looks like he could easily crumble.
“Finish fixing him,” Tina screeches. She picks the medic up with one hand and gives her a little shake.
“That’s enough,” Kratos says, easily removing the shaking medic from Tina’s grasp. “Remember this young witch is also in training. She did what she could, but Val will need a trip to the infirmary to finish healing.”
Even as he says the words, two older medics bustle in with a stretcher between them.
As they lift Val, his mouth goes back to its normal position—but not before I spot his elongated fangs. He’s a vampire.
“He’s fine,” Kratos says. “Burns can be tricky but vampires naturally defy most injuries. Fire is the most difficult for them, though. Good thinking, new girl.”
“Yes, good thinking, Swamper,” Tina echoes, her ire focused on me once more as the young medic exits with Val. “If this were a defense class.”
“What was I supposed to do?” I ask. “Just die?”
“No,” Kratos says. “But Tina has a point. This was a demonstration. I assumed you were a vampire, because you are rather attractive. That was my mistake. I should have known your limitations.”
“She’s wearing a regulation uniform,” Cassie argues. “You should’ve known she wasn’t a vamp.”
Kratos only shrugs. “Human clothes don’t interest me.”
“Awesome,” I mutter. “I almost died because you didn’t do your research.”
“No,” Tina is quick to counter. “Valentino almost died. My brother better be okay or you’ll only wish you were dead.”
“You’re…” Almost immediately my brain makes the connection between Valentino and Valentina. Yep, those are definitely twin names. Terrible twin names, but twin names just the same. “Oh.”
Tina turns to the class, hands on her hips. “I demand to know what she is. These classes require a certain amount of trust. They make all of us vampires take blood oaths, disclosing any extrasensory abilities. But this one just waltzed in here, a complete unknown. Did we learn nothing from the incident last semester? I think I speak for all of us when I say that we can’t trust this Swamper, this thing, when we don’t even know what she is.”
I wait for the teacher or Cassie or someone to defend me. Instead there are head nods all around and even some scattered applause.
Kratos turns to me and even before he speaks I have an idea of what he’s going to say. “That’s fair. And Tina makes good points.” He frowns, thinking. “Also, you breathed fire and that’s not something we’ve seen—ever.” Kratos tilts his head up toward the ceiling, the same way Hermes did back at the foster’s house. “This is above my pay grade,” he tells it. He waits a moment, seeming to listen, before focusing his attention back on me.
“Themis wants to see you. Says she’ll straighten this all out.”
Tina smiles, making it clear her fangs are out. “That’s all I wanted, sir.”
I remember Cassie saying Themis was a stickler for the rules. Was there one against burning your classmate? And if so, what is the punishment?
“Now?” I ask Kratos.
He nods.
I gulp. I guess I’m about to find out.
- Writer
