Ayden pulled out his own gun, and Tegan slid her sword out of the sheath. The vampires turned to them and then disappeared. Leaving Izzy slouched against the wall.

  Tegan snarled, "Get her out of here."

  Ayden ran to Izzy and wrapped his arm around her to help her stand straight. "We need to get you patched up." He looked up to find Tegan gone. Chances were she didn't want to be associated with the chaos. He wished he'd gotten more of a chance to talk to her about Nuala and the Originals waking, but clearly now was not the time.

  He helped Izzy to the car before the police got there. He backed out of the parking spot and headed back toward the Hunting Society. "What the hell, Izzy?"

  "There was only one of them when I got into the alley," she muttered and touched her neck. "Two more appeared after I stabbed the first one. They rushed me. I shot one in the shoulder. That'll hurt."

  "I'm sure your neck hurts as well," Ayden tossed out. "So much for going to The Corner."

  Izzy crossed her arms. "I could still go."

  "No, we need to go and get that bite cleaned up and see a witch to make sure it's clean."

  The thought of the bite not being purified made her cringe. Vampires had abilities tied to their bites. Seeing a witch was one of the only ways to make sure no connection was made. "We're going to get in trouble."

  "Oh, I think that's probably an understatement." Ayden snorted. "Come on, let's get you back."

  "Take me to Joey, I don't trust anyone else."

  Ayden sighed as he pulled onto the highway. "Joey doesn't like me."

  "No, he doesn't. He says there's something off about you." Izzy shrugged and then dug in her glove compartment to get a napkin. She pressed it on her neck.

  He took a deep breath. He shouldn't worry about her so much. She was just a piece of the puzzle to make his time at the school look believable. She was human through and through. She would get old and die. Or be killed by a vampire if she continued to be so reckless. "What the hell were you thinking?"

  "I felt the vampire. When I got in the alley, he was pinning a human against the wall. He escaped, and I took on the vampire." She shrugged. "I wasn't expecting two others to show up."

  He tightened his hands on the steering wheel. "You shouldn't have gone alone."

  "Who was the chick you were talking to? Also, who the hell brings a sword when they hear gunshots?" Izzy rubbed her eyes. "Had we not stopped, we could have made it to The Corner."

  "That's Tegan. I know her from before, and I was hoping she had some information that would be helpful." He ignored the question about the sword. The truth was that Tegan's weapon choice had to do with how vampires played politics.

  "From before? When you were at the other Academy?"

  He simply nodded. He didn't want to explain further. He didn't want to lie to her more. Eventually, the web of lies would grow, and he'd have to disappear before it fell apart.

  Lucius growled as his phone rang. It was the tune that Tegan had set for herself, so he knew he had to answer it. The two of them could communicate without the phone, but he swore she used it to annoy the hell out of him. "Yes, Tegan?"

  "I just had a visitor that I think you'd be interested in." Her voice was soft.

  Panic itched at the back of his mind. He had to remind himself that he would know if she was in danger. that Orion was with her, and he would have gotten her out of there if something had gone wrong. "Who?"

  "Ayden just stopped by. He said that there had been lesser vampire activity at Nuala's crypt."

  Lesser vampire activities meant two things, they'd found the crypt, and they were trying to dispose of Nuala. "Why isn't he there to protect her? Why is he here?"

  "I don't know. We didn't get a chance to talk because someone was shooting vampires in the alleyway. A young Hunter by the looks of it."

  Levi growled. "Hopefully, they knew what the hell they were doing. If Ayden shows up again, tell him that he needs to contact me."

  "Will do."

  "Tegan?" Lucius asked before she could hang up. "Are you well?"

  She let out a long sigh. "As well as I can be," she answered before hanging up.

  Lucius pressed his lips together. It wasn't like Tegan to close him off, especially when it came to Markus. The vampire had tortured her, tried to kill her, and had she been human, he would have succeeded. Of course, it seemed when it came to Markus forcing her actions, it caused her pain. She might have just been trying to avoid that. He put the phone in his pocket and looked up when Josh walked in.

  "Aren't you working at the bar tonight?"

  "Tegan sent me home early. I was hoping to see Kassity. I wanted to talk to her."

  Lucius motioned to the lycan wing. "Go ahead. She hasn't told me much about where she came from, but if you can get information from her, I'd be grateful. It's hard to protect her when I don't know what is coming after her or why she is running."

  Josh nodded. "I'll chat with her and see what I can learn. Is she strong enough to walk around the mansion? You're going to scare her away if you keep her locked in her room."

  "I told her that when she was well enough, either you or Tegan could show her around. Since you're off early, go ahead. If she shows signs of shifting, take her back to her room."

  Josh nodded and headed to the lycan wing. Lucius waited for the vampire to disappear into the hall before going to his office.

  If Markus had been around, it was possible whatever lesser vampires had been around the bar had been sent by him. None of his vampires would dare feed near Tegan's bar or from a non-willing donor.

  He sat at his desk and pulled out a map of the city. Tegan's bar was downtown, on the opposite end of The Corner. When the wolves wanted their own club, they made sure to put it far enough away so that they wouldn't compete against the bar. Lucius had no problem with it. His alliance with the wolves was strong, and though he didn't really agree that it catered to humans as well as the supernatural crowd, it did bring in a lot of business.

  He picked up his phone and called The Corner.

  "The Corner, Coran speaking." The voice came over the music.

  Lucius knew the wolf well. He was an immortal werewolf that had traveled from Europe with them. "Coran, Tegan had some vampire activity tonight. Have you?"

  "No, but there's been an increase in Hunters tonight. Apparently, they lost one of their own recently."

  Lucius nodded. "I saw that on the news, an animal attack. They're probably all there hoping that they'll get information on the animal."

  "All of the wolves are accounted for. Derrick had us all in a meeting that night." Coran called over the crowd and then returned to the phone. "Look, I have to go, things are getting rowdy." He hung up.

  Lucius thought for a moment. It wasn't his panther who had killed the Hunter, and it wasn't a wolf. That meant there was someone else crawling around his territory. He couldn't allow that.

  "You did what?" Joey snarled, and Izzy flinched at the anger in his voice. "You know that you aren't supposed to be off of campus." He ran a hand over his face. "Especially without an Elite."

  Izzy looked to Ayden for help, but he held his hands up as if saying she was on her own.

  "We weren't planning on running into a vampire. We were going to The Corner to see if anyone was talking about what happened."

  Joey touched her neck, and she pulled back. "You know better than to be off campus," he said again. "Now, we have to find a witch, and you're going to get a write-up."

  Izzy sighed. "The bastard had someone pinned to the wall. What was I supposed to do? Let him drain that human?"

  "Look, you did the right thing, but you wouldn't have been put in that position if you weren't breaking the rules. I know the bar you guys were near. They would have taken care of the situation."

  Izzy narrowed her eyes. "So, you know the creepy girl with the white hair and sword to?"

  Joey's eyes shot to Ayden. "Know her, Ayden?"

  "I know her from my past." Was all he said.

  Izzy waited in silence, knowing that Joey was trying to use his ability to get more information from Ayden. Ayden simply stood there with his arms crossed, staring Joey down.

  "Ayden, you're dismissed. I'm calling a witch for Izzy. She can go back to the dorms when the witch is done."

  "I’d rather wait for her and walk her back to the dorms." He pulled up a chair and sat down.

  "I said you're dismissed." Joey's voice held more of an edge. "I can walk her back to the dorms if she wants someone with her."

  Izzy frowned at the weird power struggle going down in front of her. "Ayden, it's okay. I'll talk to you later." She'd hate for him to make an enemy of Joey, especially since she and Ayden were becoming closer. She remembered seeing the look in his eyes when he realized that she was hurt and the gentle way he kept hold of her hand the other day.

  Ayden stood. "Okay, I'll see you later." He walked out of Joey's home.

  Joey waited in silence for a few minutes, sending a few furious texts while Izzy laid her head on the kitchen table. "Isadora, you are lucky that you weren't killed," he hissed.

  "I couldn't just sit there," she said again. "Look, we would have made it to the club if Ayden hadn't demanded we stop at The Disappearing Act."

  "You said he knew the woman there?" Joey sat down across from her.

  "He said he knew her from Florida, but she's been here for years. She's always run The Disappearing Act, so he was lying about knowing her from then." Izzy pulled the gauze off her neck. "So, my question is, why is he lying to me about that?"

  "I think there's a lot of things he's hiding. I couldn't force my way inside his mind." He shook his head. "With everything going on, you need to be careful, and no more leaving the campus."

  She huffed. "Fine."

  "When you get closer to your mission, they'll let you off grounds to hunt with an Elite or a Master." Joey stood as a knock came at his door.

  Izzy sat in the chair, waiting for Joey to come back in with the witch. She wished Ayden could have stayed, but she knew Joey wouldn't allow it. Joey didn't trust anyone that he couldn't read. It meant people had secrets that needed to be hidden.

  The witch walked in and shook her head. "Really, you're the first one of this semester to get bitten. Out of all the people who sneak out, it had to be you."

  Izzy narrowed her eyes at the woman. Her black hair was up in a messy bun, and she wore sweats. She dropped a bag on the floor and huffed. "Do I know you?" Izzy asked.

  "No, but I know you. Isadora Sidel, you're as much trouble as your mother was."

  Izzy rolled her eyes. "Just get the bite cleansed so I can go to bed."

  "Mm, yes, you're going to want to sleep after this." The witch looked at Joey. "Hold her down, I don't want to get a black eye."

  Izzy grasped the arm of the chair to keep herself from lashing out. Cleansing wasn't easy, and it hurt like hell, but it broke any magical connection. The witch pulled a bottle out of her bag and poured some liquid on her hand. She stepped up to Izzy, laid her hand over the bite mark, and started chanting.

  Fire shot through Izzy from the bite down to her toes. She locked her jaw, refusing to scream or whimper at the pain, reminding herself that had she reacted properly and shot the vampire first, she wouldn't be going through the pain she had right now.

  The witch pulled back and crossed her arms. "Good as new. Now, I suggest you wear a scarf or something so that you don't get written up. Joey called me on good faith."

  Izzy nodded. "Thank you."

  Joey handed her a cup of water. "I won't say anything either. So it's up to you to just keep it a secret until the bite heals. The good news is that it's a small clean bite."

  Which meant it'd be harder to notice tomorrow when she went to class. "Thank you." She stood. "I'm going back to the dorms now."

  "I'll walk with you."

  Izzy shook her head. "No, I need to spend a few minutes thinking. I'll be fine."

  Ayden looked over his papers. Izzy had tried to take on three vampires tonight. He'd come to her rescue, and though part of him was angry that she put herself in that position, he knew he was also to blame. He'd wanted to stop and talk to Tegan, but that didn't go as planned.

  He had no choice but to take her to Joey. Any of the other professors would have written them both up the instant that they came in, and he needed to stay off the radars of the professors if he could. Joey was already on to him. Ayden had felt Joey press against his mind. Luckily Nuala had taught Ayden how to protect himself from such attacks because many vampires were able to do that. The secrets that Ayden had needed to be protected.

  Name by name, family member by family member, Ayden had tried to track down the Keepers whose families had been missing. He was Nuala's, Tegan was Z's, Liam Smith was another's, Nora Alexander as well, but that still left three unaccounted for. He was in contact with both Liam and Nora. They had said activity was quiet around their vampires.

  But there was something else pressing as well. Whatever was going on at the Society.

  A knock at his door had him throwing a blanket over the sheets on the bed before he went to answer it. Izzy stood there, and she stared at him for a moment.

  "Hey, glad to see you're still standing." He stepped to the side and let her in the room, hoping that all the papers had been properly covered up.

  Izzy stepped in and shut the door. "I need you to answer something."

  "What?"

  "Are you connected to the vampires at all?"

  Ayden raised his brows. The question was so off the wall that he wondered why she thought to ask. "Izzy? Did Joey say something to make you ask?"

  She nodded. "He said that your mind is blocked from him. There are very few who can do that. It's a skill that takes years to learn."

  "How do you know that?" Ayden frowned. "I was taught when I was younger by someone very similar to Joey."

  Izzy wrapped her arms around herself. "Because Joey taught me after the attack. I could hear Markus in my head and in my dreams."

  Ayden tried not to snarl at the name. He knew Markus, and he knew what cruelty the vampire was capable of. "Did Markus feed from you?"

  Izzy's hand started to rise to her neck, but she stopped it halfway there. "He did, but it was cleansed."

  Ayden watched her for a moment. "Izzy, you know not all vampires are bad."

  She glanced at him. "My experience says otherwise. Look, I know that other supernatural creatures still have human sides, like Susie. She is still human. She still maintains a moral compass, but the vampires?" She shook her head. "Without souls, they have nothing to worry about, so they have no morals, no reason to be good. Many of them are too old to even remember what being human was like."

  He wished he could show her a different side. Nuala could be fierce, but she had all the tenderness in the world. He'd seen her bring down evil kings with her kindness. Of course, he also saw her help bring down the Vampire king with her fierceness. "Sometimes, Izzy, not everyone is as they seem."

  "Are you?"

  The question caught him so off guard that he stared at her for a moment. He tried to come up with an answer quickly, but she walked toward him.

  "Izzy." He took a deep breath. He couldn't tell her. She'd see it as a betrayal to the Academy, betrayal to her. Before he could say anything, she leaned in and kissed him.

  He closed his eyes and returned the kiss. She pulled back, looking at him with wide eyes. "Uh, um, I should go." She shot out his door, and it slammed shut behind her. He let out a groan. Now he was going to be thinking of her all night, and she ran away.

  Fucking shit. She kissed him. That wasn't what Izzy meant to do. She meant to get in there and get answers from him. Not kiss him. She closed her eyes and remembered how soft his lips were on hers. He'd returned the kiss, but it hadn't been demanding, no, just a perfect meeting of lips. She shook her head to snap out of it. She needed to get in bed. Classes resumed tomorrow, and she needed to make sure she could hide her bite mark and not get in trouble.

  Because she didn't want a write-up, a write-up was one step closer to being kicked out of the academy, which meant she'd have no choice but to become an independent hunter. Without the support, training, and protection the Academy offered her, it could be deadly.

  The Academy provided a cover. She knew that when she was released on her first mission, she'd be issued a badge. It would have a government sector on it, 404, and if the police or anyone else tried to get involved and saw that, they'd back off and leave the Hunters to their job.

  She wanted that badge. She wanted the tattoo. She wanted to dedicate her life to the Hunters, and she wanted to kill the creatures that put her there.

  Ayden flashed in her mind, and so did his words.

  A lot of people thought there were good vampires, but creatures who survived off blood and killed without remorse couldn't be good. They were evil by nature. The first of them were evil and passed it down the bloodline.

  Assuming that the myths had a kernel of truth to them, the Father of All Vampires was an asshole, and he created all the other little assholes in one way or another.

  She sighed, sat down on her bed, and hung her head. What was she going to do? How was she going to face Ayden tomorrow after she kissed him like that? Would Susie know that something had happened between the two of them?

  Izzy fell back on her bed and closed her eyes. She'd have to worry about it tomorrow because sleep was pulling her down.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  "So!" Susie proclaimed cheerfully as she sat down next to Izzy at breakfast. Izzy looked up at her with a questioning look.

  "Why are you so happy this morning?"

  Ayden barely looked up from his tray. He hadn't said much this morning, and Izzy had a feeling it probably had to do with last night.

  Susie grinned. "I learned two very important things last night." She put up one finger and ticked it off. "The Alpha's name is Derrick, and he's great. He's welcoming all of us into his pack and even offered to hire us at the club when we're old enough." She put up the second finger. "Apparently, it is THE thing to go out and get drunk when a Hunter dies, and people love to chat."

 

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