Page 80 of Lethal

Cyrus! Help me! Please!

As though my prayers have been answered, a flash of light sweeps through the air. Heat touches my skin, and a burning scent fills my nostrils. Octavia stumbles back as she emits a screech of pain that ricochets off the coastal rocks, splitting the air open.

I drop to the rocky ground like a bag of sand. Then I hear feet moving quickly, crunching the pebbles. I can’t see them.

“Kira!”

I lift my chin to glimpse Cooper sprinting towards me.

He crouches by my shoulders and places a hand on my cheek. “You’re hurt,” he says.

I have just enough energy to nod. Cooper turns to Octavia, watching her rise to her feet. Her vampiric face is contorted into a hateful grimace, and her eyes are as black as storm clouds. Her hair blows out behind her, caught in the salty wind, moving like tentacles in water.

“What’s going on?” Cooper says, slowly backing away.

I can barely open my mouth to explain. I’m not sure what he saw from a distance except for me being attacked. Now he’s realising that his headmistress is the person doing the attacking—someone he trusts. Or trusted.

“She took Nathan,” I finally mumble. “I think she’s killed him like she killed Dina and Jenny.”

His jaw gapes wide open. “What?”

But there’s no time for me to explain, because Octavia lifts a hand and whispers a spell. Cooper quickly protects himself with a ward.

The headmistress sneers. “You shouldn’t have come here, Cooper McCoy. But then, teenage boys tend to let the wrong part of their bodies make decisions for them.”

She grins at me as she brings Cooper’s ward down. He lets two large fireballs fly, and Octavia throws up her own ward. It blocks the first fireball, but the second makes it through.

I drag myself along the beach, stumbling onto my feet.

Cooper sees me on the move and starts backing towards me.

We need to get out of here.Octavia isn’t the head of Aura Academy for nothing. Her well of power runs deep. I can see it happening when she regroups after the fireball strikes her on the shoulder.

“I know you’re trying to run away,” she snarls. “I knoweverythingyou’re thinking.”

Her hand reaches out to attack, but Cooper grabs me and wraps a ward around us. The invisible shield barely gives us seconds of respite before Octavia pulls it down. Then we’re both shoved to the ground, our bodies squirming against the pebbles.

“This boy thinks he can protect you, Kira. I wonder how he would feel about you harbouring a vampire in the crypts of the castle.” Octavia’s grin is wide and mocking.

“What happened to you?” Cooper says, voice full of pain,staring at Octavia. “What are you saying?” His eyes, full of questions, flick over to me.

I don’t know where to start, but I want to tell him everything. Especially if we’re going to die. But before I can speak, Octavia continues.

“There is a vampire in this school. One that Kira knows very well. One that Kira has bonded with. Maybe even had sex with.”

“Shut up!” I scream. “That’s a lie!”

But it’s enough to distract Cooper. Enough to allow her to lift him from the pebbles and smash him against the rocks.

“Cooper!” I scream, watching his body crumple.

Then I’m pulled up as Octavia draws me across the beach, dragging me to her. Bony fingers grasp hold of my shoulders, and she brings my neck close to her lips. Her teeth rest against my skin, and I smell the scent of her coppery breath before she bites into me.

Pain.This is nothing like my experience with Cyrus. It’s not gentle or exhilarating—it’s like being stabbed hard in the neck with a dagger. Octavia isn’t a vampire, she doesn’t have real fangs, but she still bites hard enough to tear the flesh. I scream, but the sound is lost to the waves as soon as it leaves my mouth.

My already-weakened body sags lower and lower. I’d drop to my knees if Octavia wasn’t holding me up.

But just as suddenly as she bit me, Octavia releases me. I fall back down in the pebbles, shivering and weak, as a shadowy blur rushes past. Someone screams. It takes me half a heartbeat to realise it isn’t me.

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