Page 7 of The First Year Continued
They’d missed classes, missed dinner, and who knew what other violations of the rules I didn’t even know about. Not counting the elephant in the room—one I hoped was hiding behind the curtains. I had to take the blame I’d earned because Sol, Evander, and Odin deserved the best they could manage under the circumstances.
Nauseated, slightly dizzy, and feeling generally like crap, I struggled to focus on everything going on around me. To make good decisions for everyone concerned.
“What’s all your fault?” The suit guy loomed over me. When had he moved?
“I—”
“The library book.” Odin cut in. “She left it out in the rain and is afraid to return it.”
Headmistress was on her feet and joined the man in his looming. “Are you sure that’s it? She’s confessing to a wet book?”
My lips were parted to spill more things I didn’t need to say, things that would submarine me and save the guys, but before I could, the suit man sneered and said, “Books? Don’t waste my time. I came a long way to get here.”
“Well, that’s all I had to report,” I said, suddenly getting a feeling that there was more going on here than I’d expected. “Sorry to offend you.”
“If you aren’t here because of the book, why are you?” Sol asked. “Because we’ve already missed a couple of classes and lunch.”
“And you think those things are important in the grand scheme?” The suit man’s expression grew even more condescending. “I need to find some students here to help us figure out what is going on in the school. There is a vampire among you, we believe, but we are unable to determine who it might be.”
“Well,” Odin said, “wouldn’t it be someone who couldn’t stand sunlight? Isn’t that their hallmark?”
If so, it meant that I wasn’t one because I’d had no issues going outside on my way to class. I had also understood that vampires would turn to ash in daylight, but somehow I’d never considered that might apply to me.
“Not necessarily,” the man said. “Not in every case. We’ve identified a genetic mutation that makes it possible for some to go out in daytime, so that would not be a way to find our enemy among you.”
“That is why Mr. Tyrol believes you can help. You three boys are popular. People like you.”
“And me?” I asked, wondering how I fit into this. I was definitely not popular like them. “Why did you call me in here?”
“Because we need a female to get into conversations that the males cannot. Something is going on here, and we believe it is a vamp infiltrator, but it may be something else. We need to eliminate that as an option first. Are you willing to help us?”
“I am certain they are. It would be a shame if any irregularities were to come up otherwise.” Headmistress stared us down. “Am I correct?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Did that mean we were getting a pass? Or they weren’t going to be looking too closely at us? And could we trust any of that? Probably not, but it served my purpose tofind out who the hell bit me. Who—besides me—bit Odin. Yeah, I was all in, but not because we were getting vaguely threatened. I was heartily sick of being bitten by vampires and had a terrible feeling that enough bits would add up to something I didn’t want to consider at all.
Like, if I became a vampire, would my wolf leave me? Could she leave me? How did that even work?
“I’m glad you’re all going to cooperate. My superiors will be glad to hear it.” The suit man nodded and gave us an icky thin-lipped smile. “It is far better than the alternative, I assure you.”
In the corner, his assistant, or whoever he was, tapped away on his tablet, taking notes, presumably, making a record of our agreement to go along with the plan.
Who were the superiors he referred to?
I was starting to have way too many questions and not nearly enough answers, but at least we weren’t being sent away, and if the administration and whoever the suit guy was knew about the past twelve or so hours, they weren’t admitting it.
We had our marching orders, but we still sat there in a row while the headmistress and her guests put their heads together in the assistant’s corner and spoke in low tones. So low, that even my shifter hearing only gave me the odd word and none of them added to my understanding of what was happening here.
“Well?” The headmistress broke herself away from her meeting and arched an eyebrow. “What are you waiting for? You know what you need to do. Report back as soon as you know something. Now, go! You’re missing classes.”
We’d already pointed that out, hadn’t we?
Chapter Five
Sol
We were all but pushed out of the office and we went, stunned into the hallway. We stood there for a few minutes before we were told to stop dawdling.
“Sol?” Roxy asked as I didn’t immediately move with them.
