Yet, the tall Nocturne didn’t seem bitter about it at all—just contented to have found Megan and bonded her to him—(I thought with possibly just the tiniest twinge of envy.)
“Well, I warned you that breaking the Edict’s magic wouldn’t automatically get rid of the older generation’s prejudice about Others of different kinds dating and bonding,” Avery remarked. “It’s been against the law to even look at an Other that’s not from your own race for hundreds of years. That kind of hatred and intolerance doesn’t just fade overnight.”
“You know what I wish would fade? The lunch ladies’ desire to feed us crap,” Emma said, glaring at her stew again. She looked at Megan appealingly. “Now that you’re so powerful, can’t you just magic us a better lunch? Or at least make this one taste halfway decent?”
Megan sighed. “You know I wish I could but I’m not allowed, Emma. That was one of Headmistress Nightworthy’s conditions when she allowed me and Griffin to continue going to Nocturne Academy. I’m not allowed to do any magic at all outside of my magical classes.”
Which was a rule the Headmistress had laid down after Megan had tried to heal my scars. I think she might have felt the outpouring of powerful magic coming from the Norm Dorm—or else one of the teachers had and had alerted her to it.
“Not even good magic?” Emma wheedled. “Honestly, what’s the point in having so much power if you can’t use it to turn tuna soup into something nice like pizza or fresh sushi or something?”
“I believe the Headmistress’s exact words were, ‘Your magic may not be used outside of class for good or ill or the consequences will be severe,’” Griffin said dryly. “She made Megan promise faithfully that she wouldn’t shed a single drop of blood to benefit herself and her friends or to harm her enemies. So I am afraid that those of you who insist on eating your sustenance are stuck with what the cafeteria sees fit to provide.”
“Amen, brother.” Avery lifted his own cup of mostly cream and sugar coffee. “You girls should just drink your calories, like Griffin and I do.”
Griffin nodded and lifted his own bottle of blood in agreement, answering Avery’s toast with a silent smile.
“Well, we can’t all live on blood and coffee,” Emma grumbled. “I hope you’re planning to make us something nice for dinner tonight, Avery, or we’ll all starve,” she added, looking at him appealingly.
Avery had a habit of sneaking out at night to “borrow” ingredients from the castle’s kitchens and had become an excellent late-night chef and our main source of edible food during the school week as a result. However, this time even the thought of one of his excellent roast chicken dinners—cooked over a spit on the small fire in the common room of our dorm—didn’t stir my stomach.
I really must be coming down with something, I thought. Usually I loved Avery’s late-night dinners.
“Yes, yes—I promise, Emma my love,” he said loftily. “Maybe a nice rare roast beef tonight. I noticed last time I looked that they were stocked up on those. They must be planning to make something special for the Drakes—who apparently live on red meat—and they won’t miss a roast or two.”
Megan clapped her hands.
“That’s sounds delicious, Avery!”
Griffin nodded thoughtfully.
“I agree. It should give a special flavor to your blood, little witch,” he added, looking at Megan meaningfully. “The next time I bite you.”
Avery and Emma groaned and Avery said, “Get a room, you two! And anyway, aren’t you afraid you’ll give Princess Latimer here a taste for blood herself if you keep on biting her?”
“You mean do I fear I will turn her into one of my kind? Or at least, an imitation of my kind—a ‘Made Vampire’?” Griffin asked.
I perked up my ears at that.
“You mean you can turn someone into a Nocturne just by biting them?” I asked uneasily. I had been living with the Breedloves for years but this was the first I had heard of any such possibility.
“Only a human,” Griffin assured me. “And only if there was prolonged and continuous biting over a period of time. A different kind of Other cannot be turned for they already have magic of their own.”
“Which means my sweetie can bite me whenever he wants to,” Megan said perkily, which made Avery and Emma groan again.
“Come on, Megan—don’t rub our noses in it,” Emma exclaimed. “We’re happy for you and Griffin, of course, but the rest of us are sadly single.”
“And likely to remain so,” Avery sighed, casting another longing glance at the Drake table.
“Sorry, you guys,” Megan said contritely. “I don’t mean to be so in your face with it. I’m just so, well, happy. I can’t help myself, you know? I mean, being Blood-Bonded to the right person is amazing.”
She smiled at Griffin, who smiled back, making Emma and Avery groan a third time. I didn’t join in, however—I was too busy mulling over what Griffin had said about a “Made Vampire.”
My mind slipped back to little Allegra, biting me for a “midnight snack” last night, as she had so many times before. I wondered uneasily if maybe I ought to curb that little habit of hers…
But surely not—probably Griffin had only been talking about romantic biting, the way he bit Megan for pleasure more than just for blood. I doubted a child could pass on the vampirism germ or virus or whatever it was that would cause a human to turn into a Nocturne—or a kind of facsimile of one. It was probably only present in the fangs of grown Nocturnes.
I shook my head, pushing my stupid worries away. It was just this awful cold I felt coming on that was making me feel paranoid and anxious. Not to mention light-headed and clumsy—I had tripped over my own feet in my
