I could have said I was fine as I was, but in truth, I’d always wanted to be a better version of myself. Or at least a less outcast one. Now, I had not only a boyfriend, but friends. And they wanted me to be like them.
Yeah, I’d had to die to really do that, but it wasn’t like they’d killed me.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked, jumping up from the bed. I was feeling stronger by the second. It might be gross to drink blood, but it felt like I’d just had an intravenous shot of espresso. I couldn’t deny the addictiveness of the rush. I already wanted more.
“We haven’t been out,” Viktor said. “We found you, and we didn’t want to leave you in case…”
“In case what?” I asked, glancing between them.
“Mr. Ravenwood killed you, Timberlyn,” Viktor said. “I gave you my blood, but…”
“But…?” I prompted when they started sharing looks I couldn’t read.
“We didn’t know if it would take,” Svana said. “Usually, you’d have to drink some of our blood first.”
“Oh,” I said slowly. They didn’t know that I’d bitten Mr. Ravenwood. I’d had vampire blood before being drained, before Viktor had tried to save me. Maybe that hadn’t been enough to turn me, and I’d been too weak, but once I’d been infused with Viktor’s blood, it had put me over the tipping point.
“Yes,” Viktor said with a quick nod. “Mr. Ravenwood thinks you’re dead, Timberlyn.”
“Oh,” I said again, this time a startled exclamation. “So, you’re saying I have a super old, powerful vampire after me?”
“He’s not after you,” Viktor said. “Not yet, anyway.”
“He will be if he realizes you didn’t die,” Svana said.
“It wouldn’t be a year at Ravenwood without someone wanting to kill me.”
Instead of laughing at my bad joke, Viktor grimaced. “We brought you here because there’s food,” he said. “And a place to keep you without suspicion for a few days. But others come here to eat. You shouldn’t stay here any longer than you have to.”
“So, let’s get out of here,” I said. “I’m ready.”
“It’s not that simple,” Svana said. “Not unless you want to kill a lot of people.”
“So, what do we do?” I asked, looking around at the six beds. With six people on them. Who all smelled so good I was suddenly salivating. A sharp, stinging pain stabbed into my teeth again, and I gasped, reaching up to cover my mouth.
“Until you’ve learned to control your impulses, it would actually be better for you to be locked somewhere safe,” Svana said softly.
“Locked up?” I asked, my gaze flying from her to her brother. Yes, I was hungry, and my teeth hurt, but it wasn’t that bad. I could totally handle it.
“Everyone has to do it,” Viktor said. “We’ll come and feed you every day and teach you some techniques for controlling yourself.”
“We’re not going to throw you in a jail cell,” Svana said. “If you don’t want to go into hiding for a few months, we won’t make you. But it’ll be a lot harder to hide the evidence if you’re slaughtering people in the middle of class.”
“No,” I said, backing against the bed and sinking down again. I remembered the administrators telling me why humans were at Ravenwood.
And I wasn’t going to be a heartless animal who treated humans as food. Amy had told me she’d had to learn to control herself before she could see me. It had taken her a summer. Which meant that I’d have to stay in Ravenwood for the summer instead of going home. But if that meant my family would be safe, I’d do it. There was no way I was going home and risking the lives of my family members, even if I had a lot of questions I’d like to ask my parents.
“Okay,” I said. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. So, where’s the daycare for baby vamps?”
Chapter Two
“What about the wolves?” I asked as we hurried across the parking lot to Viktor’s car. As we went, I glanced around, searching for a familiar figure hidden between the trees in the forest behind the clinic.
“They’re fine,” Viktor said, opening the passenger door for me.
I slid into the leather seat, not missing the way he tensed that the mention of the Wolf boys. “Why didn’t Alarick come find me?” I asked Svana, twisting around in the seat while Viktor circled the car.
“Listen, Timberlyn,” she said. “No one knows you’re alive. That’s how it had to be. To keep you safe.”
Shock rocked through me. “He thinks I’m dead?”
“It was the only way to keep you safe,” Svana said, avoiding my eyes.
“Alarick is not unsafe,” I gritted out. “He’d never hurt me.”
Viktor pulled out onto the road and turned toward Ravenwood Academy. “Amy doesn’t know either,” he said. “No one knows.”
“I’m fine with going somewhere safe for the summer,” I said. “But Alarick needs to know I’m okay.”
“Wolves hate vampires,” Svana warned.
“Yeah, well, he won’t hate me.”
Viktor glanced sideways at me. “This changes everything, Timberlyn. Your life isn’t going to be the same. You’re one of us now.”
“I don’t hate y’all,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “And he won’t hate me. No matter what I am.”
“I hope you’re right,” Svana said. “I just… I’d hate to see you get hurt.”
“Then don’t hurt me,” I snapped. “You’re the ones who lied to me. Alarick has never done anything but try to protect me.”
“We were trying to protect you, too,” Viktor said quietly.
“Then how come you told Mr. Ravenwood about me?”
“That’s not fair,” Svana said. “I didn’t know he’d go after you. We have to report back to the council every week, just talk about everything that goes on at Ravenwood.
