“Just watch your back. School’s tense right now,” Jenna added.

I thought about Ben and his cronies. “I’m getting that.”

“Even Hunter’s getting crap from Ben and Jody,” Jenna said, reading my expression. At least I finally knew the girl’s name. “And after that doctor changed Spencer to save him, everyone’s been extra jumpy. She was fired.”

“But Spencer would have died.”

Jenna shrugged one shoulder. “Better dead than undead.” She smiled apologetically. “Old Helios-Ra motto.”

I ground my teeth. “Racist. Or specie-ist, whatever.”

She held up a hand in defense. “Hey, I like Spencer, fangs or not.”

“I know. Sorry. It makes me cranky.”

“Makes Hunter cranky too. Should’ve heard the mouth on her. I had no idea she knew words like that.” She grabbed a bottle of water from her gym bag. “Anyway, just be polite and Bellwood shouldn’t come down on you too hard. She’s kinda mean but she’s fair.” She nodded toward the office. “Don’t keep her waiting though.”

I glanced at my watch and forced my rubbery legs into a jog. I had to make this fast if I wanted enough time to meet Nicholas before campus curfew. I’d break it if I had to, but I’d rather not. I was already on the school radar as it was.

Bellwood’s office was at the end of a row of empty classrooms. It was ruthlessly organized and neat, almost as ruthlessly organized and neat as Bellwood herself. Sarita must just worship her. I waited in the doorway for her to acknowledge me. She didn’t glance from her computer screen. “Sit.”

I only barely resisted the urge to bark like a dog.

Instead I sat down, wondering which of my many infractions I was about to be busted over. She finally looked at me after a squirming moment of awkwardness. There were laugh lines at the corner of her mouth, implying she must at least know how to smile. You wouldn’t know it to look at her now. I reminded myself that I’d survived Lady Natasha and countless vampires, not to mention Solange’s mother. I could survive a high school principal.

“You did very well on your placement tests,” she began without preamble. “Which is why you were put in eleventh grade despite your admitted inexperience with the League. Your grasp of vampire customs is impressive, Lucky, but your knowledge of the Helios-Ra is considerably less impressive. You’ve been assigned a private tutor to help you catch up. You’ll have to work hard if you intend to graduate with the others.”

“Yes, Ms. Bellwood.” Should I have called her Headmistress Bellwood? It sounded like something out of a Victorian boarding school.

She looked at me finally, stern but not unkind. “I know this must be a big adjustment for you.”

“I guess so.” Understatement.

“It’s an adjustment for our students as well.” Had she already heard about my run-in with Jody and Ben? Impressive. “Which is part of the reason I agreed to this transfer when Hart requested it. He runs the League, Lucky, but he does not run this school.”

“Um, thanks?”

“If the events of the last few months have taught us anything, it’s that the world is clearly changing and we need to be strong enough to adapt if we want to endure. My sole purpose at this school is to train my students in the best way possible so they’ll survive. I don’t need to tell you a vampire hunter’s life can be abbreviated.”

I nodded.

“I understand you have special allowances because of your association with Hart, but that will only get you so far.”

I hadn’t even taken advantage of any special allowances yet. I wasn’t even sure what they were.

“I’m trying to say that taking out seasoned hunters who were technically doing their job by attacking a vampire nest is frowned upon,” she continued. “But since you also saved Hart’s nephew by bringing him to the infirmary last night, you’ve already managed to balance out your transgressions. Which is fairly impressive in itself. However,” she added sharply, “I would greatly prefer for your name not to come up with such frequency.”

Me too. It was hardly stealthy.

“We’ll be watching you.”

“’Cause that’s not ominous,” I muttered. “Yes, ma’am,” I added out loud.

I didn’t bother telling her she wasn’t the first person to say that to me today.

Chapter 5

Solange

Sunday, sunset

The first thing I heard when I woke up was my mother’s voice.

I hadn’t noticed her at first, waking with the fiery hunger that blurred my vision red and made all of my senses too sharp. I drained two bottles of blood before I could remember who I was. I wiped my mouth clean and felt better. Then I thought about Kieran and felt worse.

“Solange Rosamund Drake.”

Mom’s voice reverberated down the metal stairs into the underground safe house. Her tone could’ve been used as a rapier, and my head already hurt, but I couldn’t tell her that. She’d know I drank fresh human blood last night, to wake up with what I considered a blood hangover. Constantine assured me it was normal. It took some time for vampires to process so much blood, and live blood from the vein was so much more potent than blood bottled and refrigerated. You needed less, but wanted more.

“Solange, get up here. Now.”

I sighed and climbed up the metal ladder reluctantly. The tents were guarded day and night, but they were still vulnerable. Sunlight couldn’t be staked; the wind might blow a ceiling off and we’d be weak as kittens. So we slept underground during the day, and gathered as a family in the evenings in the tent. The tunnels under the mountains and under the forest were currently crowded with vampire families.