“I…I do?” I remembered seeing his nostrils flare when he got near me—and Headmistress Nightworthy had done the same thing—as though she was smelling me—when I was in her office. Was this what the two of them had been smelling? The fact that my scent was changing from human to Nocturne?
“You do.” Griffin nodded firmly. “Given all that, it’s clear that someone—some Nocturne…” He looked accusingly at Alastair Breedlove. “Has been biting you on a regular basis. And since biting almost always goes with sex—or in this case, abuse—”
“It’s not like that,” I said hurriedly. “Mr. Breedlove was never the one who bit me. It was…it was Allegra.”
“What?” Mr. Breedlove looked shocked all over again. “You encouraged my daughter to bite you?”
“No, I never encouraged it,” I said quickly. “It’s not anything weird—it’s just something she does after she has a nightmare and needs comforting. She just bites me on the wrist and takes a few swallows of blood—it’s never been a big deal.” I held out my hands to him appealingly. “I have so much scar tissue I can barely feel it. It just comforts her—that’s all. And I never knew there was anything wrong with it or any kind of…of consequences. Oh, Mr. Breedlove—I’m so sorry!” I exclaimed, feeling like I was going to cry.
His face went from shocked to cold as ice in an instant.
“I’m sorry we never explained that there could be consequences for such an action but it wasn’t something we even thought we had to discuss. Mrs. Breedlove and I would never have dreamed that you would allow our daughter to draw your blood!” He shook his head. “In light of this, I’m afraid we’ll have to sever our relationship with you, Kaitlyn.”
“What?” I felt as though he had slapped me. “What…what does that mean?”
“It means exactly what it sounds like,” he said sternly. “You will no longer stay with us during weekend or summer or holiday breaks. We will continue to pay your tuition to Nocturne Academy but only on the condition that you never tell anyone it was our daughter who turned you.” He pointed a finger at me. “Allegra’s life and prospects would be ruined forever if she was ever implicated in the making of a Made Vampire.”
“But…does that mean I can’t see her again? That I can’t see Allegra?” I whispered.
“No, never.” He frowned. “I’m surprised you would even ask such a thing. Clearly Allegra must be taught that what she did was wrong and she must be separated from the mistake that she made—permanently.”
A mistake. I was just a mistake. His words seemed to shake me—to ring my body like a bell. I felt as though he had slapped me. But more than that, I felt physically ill.
It was as though someone had told me I could no longer see my own child, ever again. I thought of Allegra waiting for me out in the cool leather depths of the Breedloves’ Mercedes, thought of her asking where I was and then crying when she was told she would never see me again.
“Please,” I begged brokenly, reaching out my hands to him. “Please, Mr. Breedlove—don’t do this! I love Allegra like she was my own. This was a mistake—just a mistake. Can’t it be undone so we can all just go on with our lives? I promise I’ll never let her bite me again. I didn’t know it was wrong—please!”
But the cold, remote look on Alastair Breedlove’s perfect features remained. I thought he looked like a marble statue of a god. One so far above me I would never be able to reach him or his family again.
“I’m sorry, Kaitlyn, but there is no going back once a human has been turned,” he told me. “Please don’t try to contact us or see any of my family again—especially Allegra. If you do, I’ll be forced to cut off your funding. Good day.”
And he turned and walked out of the Healer’s office, as casually as though he was leaving a mildly boring business meeting.
He had discarded me like trash—like the mistake he had named me. But it wasn’t his abandonment that hurt me so much—that stabbed me to my core.
I thought of Allegra’s chubby little arms reaching for me, of her calling my name and crying for me in the night—having a nightmare with no one to comfort her…and I dissolved into sobs.
The Breedloves hadn’t been a real family to me—I hadn’t had one of those since my parents died—but they were something. And Allegra was everything to me. I’d been watching her since she was a baby. Losing her forever was like ripping my heart out.
“Oh, Katydid!” Avery exclaimed, sitting down on the cot beside me and putting an arm around my shoulders.
“I’m so sorry, hon,” Megan murmured, sitting on my other side.
Emma stroked my hair and Griffin stood helplessly by, a look of disbelief and uncertainty on his face. Clearly this had been the last thing he had expected—he’d truly thought that Mr. Breedlove was abusing me in some way. He’d had no idea I would be stupid and naïve enough to let myself be bitten repeatedly by a Nocturne child.
The tears rolled down my cheeks and pattered onto my scarred hands. As I looked at them, I realized that they weren’t normal tears at all—they were red. Red tears…blood tears.
I was crying blood.
Suddenly my stomach turned and I knew I was going to lose every last bit of the big cup of blood Griffin had given me.
“’Scuse me,” I gasped and pushed my way off the cot and past my concerned friends.
Having been to the Healer’s office
