Vampire Shifter Academy, page 19
The two men stirred out of their reverie. Sorwyce got up and walked over to the steaming cauldron. He lifted the lid, and the sweet aroma of soup permeated the place.
“Now, how about that soup?” he asked again, already setting up the plates on a small, flattened out piece of rock that served as a miniature table.
Eva wolfed down the soup hungrily, wiping her mouth with her fingers, at the lack of a napkin, but it didn’t matter. Ladylike behavior was the last thing on her mind right now. She was hoping to stay here with them but she wondered if that was safe.
“It’s almost morning,” her father told her. “You need to get back to the school. No one should see you were missing the whole night. It might raise unnecessary questions.”
“I understand,” she nodded.
“This is the map to the church,” Sorwyce offered her a piece of paper, with a clearly marked road from the school up to the mountains, where the church lay hidden. “It needs to happen in two days, at midnight. The star alignment will be in our favor, and we need all the celestial and earthly help we can get. Now, when you return, just follow the moss.”
“Are you sure you’ll find your way back?” her dad worried.
“Dad, I’m about to be chased down by two Hellhounds,” she grinned, “I think I can find my own way back pretty easily.”
“Yes, I know, but the woods are treacherous, and the roads aren’t paved, and…”
“Roman,” Sorwyce rested his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Give your daughter the credit she deserves. Let her try and find her inner vampire.”
“But, I’m not a vampire,” she frowned, a part of her wondering why she just didn’t let any of the guys bite her and get it over with. But then, she remembered what Amelie said.
Do not let anyone bite you.
“You are, you just don’t know it yet,” Sorwyce nodded gently. “Now go, little one. You must rush back.”
“Thank you,” she hugged Sorwyce, who was a little surprised at this outburst of affection, but his arms quickly locked around her in reciprocation.
Then, she turned to her father and gave him an even bigger hug.
“I’m so proud of you,” he told her.
“I haven’t even done anything yet,” she objected.
“You didn’t have to,” he kissed her forehead. “No matter what happens, I will always love you and I will always be proud of you.”
Those words brought on more tears and she quickly waved, then turned to the hole, rushing outside. When she looked around, she realized it was already a well lit morning. She doubted it would be possible to sneak back into the dorm without anyone noticing. During the night it was possible, but early mornings - not so much.
She wondered what Bella must be thinking by now. Was she worried sick? She wanted to rush back and explain it to her, and to the guys. She wanted them by her side in this, whatever it was. An adventure? A life changing event? Their possible death? She didn’t know. But she did know that she wanted to be by the side of the people she loved the most, no matter what happened.
Chapter 24
It was already 8 am by the time Eva returned to her dorm room. Luckily, it was both late enough and early enough for no one to be suspicious as to why she was going back to her room already. Eva knew that many girls, including Bella, occasionally, went for a morning jog on the weekends and, seeing it was Saturday, she just figured she’d say she went for a very early morning jog if anyone asked. Bella would, of course, get the whole story.
But, when she entered the room, she found Bella standing in the middle of it. All their stuff was lying on the floor, carelessly thrown about. Frames were broken, drawers were emptied onto the floor. Their panties, socks, bras - everything was out.
“What happened here?” Eva shrieked and, at that moment, Bella turned around to face her.
“I have no idea,” Bella replied, equally weakly, “I went for a jog at about 6:30, and came back a few minutes ago. I found this,” she gestured at the room with her hands.
“Who did this?” Eva kept voicing her questions out loud, even though the rational part of her brain already realized that Bella knew as much as she did.
She immediately started walking around the room, grabbing her belongings off the floor. She picked up the picture frame, the one which held the photo of the three of them: her mom, her dad and her. They looked so happy, like nothing in the world could ever come between them. Eva carefully took out the broken glass, placing it on the desk.
“Watch out for broken glass,” she warned Bella.
Bella immediately looked down. She saw a few pieces scattered here and there, making it difficult to move about the room.
“Is anything missing?” Bella asked.
“I don’t know,” Eva shook her head. “I have to check. Did you have anything valuable in the room?”
“You mean like, money and stuff?” Bella asked. “No, I don’t think so.”
“No, I mean jewelry and similar.”
Bella walked over to the wardrobe. There was a small box with birds and birdcages pictured on it. She opened it, taking out a chain, a few pairs of earrings and a ring.
“I’d say it’s all here. Whoever broke in, wasn’t after my jewelry.”
“What did they want then?” Eva wondered.
Then, she saw it. Her own jewelry box was lying open on the desk. The metal lid was bent, as if someone tried to force it open, and finally did it. She didn’t have any expensive jewelry, though. Most of it was just emotional value, important only to her and no one else. She went through what was inside. A few pairs of earrings, two bracelets, a few rings. She swallowed heavily. Her chain with the sunflower pendant was missing.
“What is it?” Bella noticed the worried look on Eva’s face.
“Can you try and find my chain, the one with a small sunflower pendant?” she asked.
“Sure, let’s look around.”
The girls spent the next hour cleaning up the mess and looking for the chain. It was nowhere to be found. By the time they were finished, the room looked normal again, even though neither of the girls felt at ease.
“Anything?” Eva asked, even though she wasn’t hopeful.
“No, sorry,” Bella shook her head.
“Why would anyone steal a chain and a pendant?” she wondered aloud.
“Are you sure that’s all that’s missing?”
“I think so,” Eva nodded. “That’s why it’s so weird. Nothing else is missing. I mean, there were more expensive things than that chain and pendant here in the room. Why not take that?”
“Maybe it wasn’t about the financial worth of the thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“What if someone wanted something emotionally valuable to you?”
“Like my mom’s pendant?”
“Exactly.”
“But, who would take it? And why?”
It just didn’t make any sense. But, she didn’t have any time to think about it more. There was a knock on the door and Bella shouted to enter. An unfamiliar head popped between the door and the doorway. It was some girl Eva didn’t recognize. She wasn’t smiling or frowning. She was serious, as if she was there on business.
“Um, are you Eva?” she asked.
“Yes?” Eva frowned.
This didn’t sound good. First the break in, now someone is asking for her.
“Katrina told me to give you this,” she revealed the purpose of her visit, then offered a piece of paper to her.
Eva walked over to the door, taking the paper.
“When did she give this to you?” she asked.
“She was just downstairs,” she explained, “she said she needed to rush, otherwise, she’d give it to you herself.”
“Thanks,” Eva nodded, then closed the door, almost in the girl’s face.
She was too pissed off to think about cute pleasantries at this point.
“What does it say?” Bella asked, as Eva was opening the folded piece of paper.
“Hope you had fun cleaning up. When you give up what’s mine, I’ll give up what’s yours,” Eva read it out loud, so they could both hear.
“So, she broke into our room,” Bella gasped.
“Are you surprised?” Eva snorted. “Because I’m not.”
“Do you think she took your chain?”
“I’m sure of it,” Eva spoke furiously.
“Was she talking about Dorian?”
“What else?”
“That girl is really crazy. You should watch out,” Bella warned her.
“After what I tell you, Bella, you’ll see why she’s the last thing on my mind right now. But, I will get my chain back. One way or another.”
“What do you have to tell me? Does it have anything to do with you spending the night out again? Were you with the guys again?”
“No, even better,” Eva smiled. “I was with my dad.”
“What!?” Bella jumped with joy. “That is wonderful news!”
“Shhh, quiet,” Eva looked around, even though the door was closed, she felt like someone could be listening in anyway. “Something horrible is about to happen, and I need your help.”
“My help?”
“Yes, yours, and I also need the guys.”
“What is it?” Bella fretted. There was worry in her voice, but Eva knew she would help her no matter what.
“Let’s go get the guys, and we can talk then.”
“But, we don’t know where they are.”
“We’ll go looking. It’s a school with a small campus somewhere in the mountains, and we’re not allowed to leave the school ground. I mean, how many places can they be in?”
So, the two girls went looking for the boys. Frey was easy to find. He had just finished a few laps at the pool and was about to go for a run, but instead, he agreed to join them and go look for Dorian and Sebastian. Dorian was playing basketball for fun with some friends, so he apologized to the rest of them for cutting the game short and joined up with Eva.
“Where do we find Sebastian?” Bella wondered.
“The only two times I found him anywhere was at the library,” Eva said, thinking where else someone like Sebastian would hang out on the weekends.
“We can try the library,” Frey nodded, “maybe we’ll get lucky.”
The rushed over there. Even though the library was occupied, Eva saw no sign of Sebastian.
“Any other ideas?” Bella wondered.
Eva had to admit she didn’t have any. She sighed. She wanted him involved. Not that the rest of them weren’t enough, but she knew she’d feel safer if all of them were there.
“We have no time to look for him all over the campus,” Eva sighed. “If he doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be. That’s just how he is.”
“So, what now?” Frey asked.
“Let’s just go to the abandoned house. We’ll have some privacy there,” Eva spoke quietly, making sure no prying ears could hear them.
They all started walking in the same direction. Bella started talking to Frey, and from the looks of it, she was having fun. Eva, on the other hand, walked alongside Dorian, and she still felt a little uneasy around him, all because of Katrina.
“I’d ask if we’re okay, but I can sense that you still shy away from me,” he spoke to her, both of them looking in front of them, at the small gravel path, leading up to the edge of the school grounds, where their destination lay.
“It’s not you, it’s this whole thing which I’m about to lay on you like a ton of bricks,” she said, but only half of it was true.
“Are you sure?” he asked again.
She felt his hand search for hers, and she gave in. His touch was warm and reassuring. She didn’t care that someone would see them holding hands anymore. There was nothing that Katrina could do anymore, nothing scarier than what Eva was about to do. Katrina had lost all of her authority as a bully in her eyes.
“I am,” Eva smiled.
“Whatever it is you need help with, I’m glad you came to us,” he smiled back. “Like we told you before, for Frey and me, this is not just a fling. I can only speak for myself when I say this, but I…”
“Not now,” she interrupted him, even though she had longed to hear those words for quite some time now. Mostly, because she felt the same way. “This is not the time or the place.”
He could see in her eyes that she wasn’t saying this to push him away. On the contrary, she was pulling them all inside, towards her, hoping she would never have to let them go again. Whether they said those words or not was irrelevant. What mattered was that they all felt it.
They finally reached the abandoned house, and making sure no one saw them, they entered through their little crawl space, one by one.
“What took you guys so long?”
A voice greeted them as soon as they got in, and Eva was ecstatic to see Sebastian lying on the bed, with a book in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
“You know, you really shouldn’t smoke in here,” Eva told him, in a scolding but gentle way.
“Here,” he extinguished the cigarette on the cement floor. “Happy?”
“Thank you,” Eva grinned.
They all got comfortable, unconsciously creating a circle. Bella shivered a little and Sebastian offered her the cover from the bed. She seemed distrustful, at first, but she took it, without a word.
“Thank you all for coming here,” Eva started, looking at each and every one of them straight in the eyes. “There is no one else I trust more than you, and right now, I need your help. We need your help. I already told Bella, that last night, I went to see my dad.”
As she spoke, she could see the look of shock on the Dorian and Frey’s faces.
“You and I all believed that he died in that car accident, that robbed me of both my parents, but it turned out that he survived and had to hide so he could recuperate. I saw him last night. He was with Sorwyce.”
“Sorwyce?” Frey was the one who spoke for all of them when he repeated this name. “You mean, Principal Sorwyce?”
“Yes,” Eva nodded. “I’m sure you all know the story of Holmerry and what happened.”
They all nodded.
“So, I won’t waste time on that. But, what you don’t know is the following..”
Eva had no idea how much time it took for her to tell them the whole story, everything she’d heard from Amelie, Sorwyce and her father, combined. She told them what they needed to do and how to do it. When she finally finished her monologue, she felt her throat was dry, like she had just crossed the desert. She exhaled loudly, with obvious relief.
“When do we need to do this?” Bella asked.
“In two days,” Eva replied.
She paused, eyeing them all. Their faces revealed a plethora of human emotion. She saw fear, curiosity, determination, doubt, suspicion. She understood every single one of those emotions, because she had felt them herself. Now, she was only left with determination and desire. There was no fear. She knew what her job was and she was set on doing it.
“I’m in,” she heard Frey say.
She knew he would be. She looked at the rest of them.
“I’m in, too,” Sebastian was the next one to join officially.
Bella and Dorian eyed each other. It was as if she was waiting for him and vice versa. Neither wanted to be the first.
“You don’t have to do this,” Eva smiled at them. “You can just go back and I won’t hold it against you. Against either of you.”
The tone of her voice and her smile assured them she was telling the truth. She could lay down her own life, but not the life of others. Everyone had to choose their own destiny.
“I’m in,” they both spoke the words at the same time.
Bella giggled. Eva laughed. Then, everyone joined in. It felt good to be so close, surrounded by loved ones, at such a dangerous time. Eva didn’t know what the night would bring, but she was determined to find out.
