Chapter 10

Tyrren

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After I make sure Lea got back to her dorm safely, I stick to the shadows, sneaking to my glorified cinderblock cell.

Earlier, I was in my room, unable to sleep. Apparently, vampires are nocturnal. I stared at the city skyline, trying to trace a route back there when I saw movement on the lawn below. Sure enough, several students were sneaking past. I figured it was Cole and the others, but I’ll never mistake Lea—it helps that vampires also have super-sight. It’s like all of my senses are heightened. Especially at night. By day, the sun burns, but it’s really no worse than being at the beach too long.

At a distance, I followed Lea to the auditorium until she vanished inside. The space was dark, quiet. I poked around. The faint strains of music wavered in and out. I moved deeper into the auditorium. I could feel Lea’s presence beyond a broken-down wall. There was a second when the wall flickered like a guttering candle. I threw myself against the wall until it smashed and entered a room. Loads of fae spun around the space in a trance-like dance.

Lea was no different. Then she faltered. I caught her just as I met a pair of dark and somehow familiar eyes.

I checked to make sure Lea was okay, but the guy was gone.

Now, I’m sneaking into my dorm through a bathroom window. When I land with both feet on the tile floor, someone says, “Out for a late-night snack? Rendezvous? Why didn’t you just use the front door?” Cole leans against the wall with one foot propped up and his arms crossed as though he was waiting for me.

My shoulders tense. I don’t hide my annoyance.

“Late night, Tyrren?” he asks. “I know where you went, traitor. Rizon rules the vamps. Emeric is the fae king. He’s organizing something big and you’re going to tell me what.”

I shake my head. “Who’s Emeric?”

“Playing dumb?” He flicks my collar. “You don’t stand a chance. I see the way you looked at her.”

I thought he meant I don’t stand a chance resisting the vampires, but I think he means if Lea has a choice between this Emeric dude and me, the answer is not me.

“We’re best friends,” I grind out.

“Not if Emeric wins her over.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” I say and storm off.

My room is still trashed. Aaron isn’t here. I’d like to be able to go to sleep. I’m over six feet and the bed is too short. It’s also lumpy and a spring digs into my back. I close my eyes and try to order my thoughts.

Being turned, getting arrested, being thrown in here, and finding out Lea was too. The almost-fight in the quad and then Aaron’s strange change and warning. Lea dancing with that guy. It must’ve been Emeric, but it happened so fast, I don’t remember what he looked like. I hated seeing her like that. The image of her enraptured and then nearly falling is burned into my mind.

I blink open my eyes.

It’s three a.m. Three more hours until the sun comes up.

When I close my eyes again, I see Lea, her hair shining by the lantern light, her skin soft and smooth. My Lea.

An alarm sounds. For a moment, lost in thoughts, I forget where I am. I find the clock under a pile of things from Aaron’s night table. Six a.m. He’s still not here.

I review the schedule I received. I have a workout first thing. Then breakfast. As I drift downstairs, all the vampires go in one direction and the fae in another. I waffle between following the fae to find Lea, but that deadly combination of hunger and thirst compels me to the vamps.

After getting my blood ration from the dispensary, I go to the track to run. Mist hangs low, muting the buildings. We have half an hour to run the track. It’s only when I complete the eighth lap that my mind goes quiet except for my footfalls. I never want Lea far from my mind, but I feel relief in the distance from my thoughts.

Back in the locker room, the banter is similar to that of my regular high school. I snort. Two brothers, here on charges of assault, get into a tussle. The CAs have to break it up.

Even if my brothers find out I’ve been sent here, they won’t bother bailing me out. My parents are gone. Lea is all I have...and she’s back squarely in my thoughts.

Cole and Felix’s familiar voices rise and fall from the end of the row of lockers. I pause and listen, but a CA calls, “Santos. Tyrren Santos. Report to the Headmistress’s office at once.”

From the other side of the lockers, Cole and Felix snicker.

I take a deep breath and meet the correctional assistant. “Yeah? That’s me.”

He smirks. “Today is not your lucky day.”

As he leads me across campus, a black splotch covers the wall of the auditorium. As it comes into focus I read, Die, Scab.

Being privy to Lea’s Brooklyn Vampire Club world, I know what the term scab means. I also know that vampires can’t die...at least not easily. But what does it have to do with me?

As I enter the administration building, Lea stands at the other end of the hall. I stop.

Her hair is slightly wild as if she didn’t brush it this morning or maybe she didn’t sleep. I give a little wave, feeling slightly awkward.

She lowers her gaze.

Led by CAs, we both enter the Headmistress’s office and sit in wooden chairs.

“Thank you for being so courteous as to join me this fine morning,” Headmistress Jurik says.

“Did we have a choice?” Lea mutters.

The woman’s sharp eyes land on Lea.

“I believe I run a fair facility that gives those who’ve made bad choices the opportunity in a safe environment to learn and reform.”

I should tell her about Aaron.

“I outlined the rules yesterday, but it seems you’ve both already been involved in an altercation and were discovered out of the dorm last night. Now, we have a new piece of artistry adorning the old auditorium. Either of you care to explain?”

We’re both silent.

“As a former professor, I do offer participation points.” Her smile simpers. “No? You didn’t spray paint that on the wall, Lea?” Jurik turns to me. “You’re not willing to confess that you know that she did it? Very well. This is how it works. You get three chances. Three strikes, if you will. This is number one. Any more infractions, you go directly to RIP. For now, you’re on probation.”

“But you can’t prove the graffiti was done by me or that Tyrren isn’t telling the truth,” Lea says.

“I don’t have to prove anything. That’s also how this works.” Jurik stabs her desk with her pointer finger. “Also, Tyrren hasn’t said a word so what truth could he be telling?”

“My roommate attacked me yesterday. My room was ransacked. There was something wrong with him. He was weak, almost gray. It was the weirdest thing.”

“How unfortunate. I know everything that goes on and it’s being dealt with.” Either her eye twitches or she flickers. For a moment, it looked like her face was pale and marred by acid green lines.

I blink a few times. Must be a weird vampire-senses glitch.

“I’ll be watching you.” She presses her palm flat on top of a file. “If you want to participate in the Fae Court Ball and the Rjoklund Games, I suggest you behave yourselves.”

With that, Jurik dismisses us.

I’m quiet until we exit the building. “Morning,” I say to Lea, knocking the rust off my voice. “Feel like breakfast?”

Her bottom lip softens. “Starved.”

We walk to the cafeteria as we did so many times at our old high school but for lunch. Nothing is different except for the uniforms, the perimeter fence, and the tension pulsing between us.

I reach for a bagel and then stop myself. Vamps only eat food for show. It doesn’t do anything to nourish us. After Lea grabs a chocolate chip pancake, we sit at the end of a long table.

“About last night,” I start.

“I didn’t do it. I would never spray paint that.”

“I know, but I meant that secret meeting or whatever it was where everyone was dancing.”

“It was for fae. Amelia has explained a lot, but Emeric was amazing. There’s so much I didn’t know about my kind. I mean, I’m not against vamps at all, but there are a lot of problems between supernaturals. Emeric said—”

I ignore all the details highlighting how amazing he is and remember what Cole said. He’s the fae king, at least at RIP Jr.

“What does that have to do with dancing?”

“It’s an old Fae Court thing. You’ve probably heard about it from fairytales.”

I’m stuck on trying to figure out how she went from denying that she was fae to full-fledged accepting it.

“Thanks for not letting me fall.” She hasn’t touched her pancake.

My thoughts snag on fall and Emeric and how amazing he is.

“I never would let you.” The words are as hard as stone and as unyielding.

“I know.”

“About Emeric? A guy in my dorm said he’s like the fae king. Big man on campus,” I joke as I venture into dangerous water. We never talked about Lucas or anything remotely having to do with relationships or love—the word I attach to the word fall.

The way Lea is batting her eyelashes when talking about Emeric makes me queasy and thirsty for blood at the same time.

“He’s amazing, isn’t he?” She repeats that word.

Yeah, violent thirst is taking over. “You mentioned that he’s amazing. That chocolate chip pancake looks amazing. I could call someone walking across Antarctica amazing. The seven wonders of the world are amazing.” You’re amazing.

I get an eye roll.

“You should have heard what he was saying about people like me, Tyrren.” Awe fills her voice.

“Sounds dangerous. As Jurik said, we’re on probation. We have to be careful.”

Anger flashes across her face. “You just don’t get it.”

“No, I don’t. I don’t get why I’m here. Why you’re here or what’s going on between us.”

“Between us?” Her fork stabs the air. “What’s going on is you don’t understand what it’s like to have to deny who you are for years and years.”

“You’re right. I don’t, but I never asked you to. As of last week, when I became a vampire, I was unwittingly forced to learn how to do that. I don’t like this, Lea.”

Her nostrils flare. “You never asked me what happened that night.”

“Sophomore year? You’re right because I figured it was too painful. None of my business. That you’d tell me when you were ready.”

“But you knew that I wasn’t normal.” She spits out that last word.

“You were always Lea. My Lea. The Lea that I—” I trap that last word in my mouth. I won’t say it right now. Not like this.

“So then you agree. I’m not normal.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.” My tone is harsher than I mean.

“After what happened to your parents, I’m pretty sure you became wary of all supernaturals.”

“They were killed by vampires and that didn’t stop me from hanging around your house, which is usually filled with vamps.”

She shakes her head with disgust. “I knew you weren’t different from everyone else. Judging, scorning, and rejecting.”

My brow wrinkles. “How did I reject you? I’ve been by your side all along. I slept on your couch so you wouldn’t be alone, endured your terrifying uncle for weeks after what happened sophomore year. I brought your schoolwork. Sometimes did your schoolwork. Made sure you ate. Taught you how to drive, took you all over Brooklyn. I was there, Lea.” And now I’m here. I hate this conversation and what she’s implying.

Lea doesn’t look at me. “We’re just different, Tyrren.”

“What’s so bad about that?” I feel as if she’s slipping from me.

She shakes her head. “We come from different places. We want different things.”

“No, we both come from Brooklyn. From broken families. Love music. Driving fast. Pizza. Books. Movies. Long walks along the East River. Dreaming of backpacking around the world.”

“No, that’s a life for a nat. I’d been trying to fit myself into that mold. It’s not who I am.”

Then again, I haven’t calculated how any of that might work for a vampire. But I’m not ready to let go of the life and dreams we shared. “What about both? Can’t you have both?” I don’t like the plea in my voice.

“Right now I have nothing,” she says.

The comment wedges between us.

“What about me? What about us? We’re here, locked up together. We have each other.” My chest craters.

“You don’t belong here.”

“That isn’t true.” I pause a beat, trying to read her expression, tap back into how we could always read each other’s mind, and finish each other’s sentences. “Did Emeric make you think all this?”

Fury rolls across her features like thunder. “I can think for myself. I’ve had a lot of time to think the last couple of days. I’m done ignoring that I’m fae. For your information, Emeric didn’t fill my mind with anything, but he did dance with me.” She gets to her feet.

I stand up. “I already told you that I would’ve.”

We’re toe to toe. If this were a different kind of moment, I could count the freckles on her nose and cheeks. I can’t help but stare at her then pull back, realizing what I was unintentionally doing—using my vampire abilities on her. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to how my body and mind have two different agendas now.

“You had four years to ask me to dance,” she says.

“I didn’t know you liked dancing.”

“Exactly. You hardly know me at all.” Lea turns and storms away.

More than a few pairs of eyes stare at us, but I don’t care. What concerns me is that the best thing in my life just left it.