“You should be in class,” he said. My mouth gaped open. His eyes were bloodshot. That was saying something for a vampire. Their healing ability was second only to the shifters. If his blurry eyes weren’t a giveaway, the fact that he’d missed buttoning two buttons on his shirt was. A vein in his neck pulsed and his bottom lip was stained with crimson. He’s been feeding. That explained why it had taken so long for him to come to the door. It didn’t explain why he was inside Jacqueline’s office.
“I need to speak to the headmistress.”
“She’s indisposed at the moment.”
“Indisposed?”
“You heard what I said.”
“When will she be back?”
His brow jumped. “Whenever she’s ready. Why aren’t you in class?”
“I…” For better or worse, if Jacqueline wasn’t here, it meant that he was acting headmaster. “I think there’s something wrong with the school. Everybody is so exhausted. It’s like they’re being drained while they sleep.”
His red lips curved into a smirk. “If there was something wrong with the school, you would be the last one to notice. Now get back to class before I give you detention.”
He slammed the door in my face. Where was Jacqueline? She would never leave the Academy high and dry when something like this was happening. The faculty lived in off-campus housing on the outskirts of the Academy. It gave them privacy as well as offered a measure of protection for anything that wanted to get at us from outside the magical wards. The wards also served as a warning should demons try to break through the magical barrier.
The Nephilim had placed them there when the Academy was built. I glanced up to the sky. It occurred to me just then that I hadn’t seen any guards floating by. In fact, Jacqueline had set up guards to watch my room. I’d been away all night and not one of them had raised an alarm.
Instead of pacing around the empty corridor, I ran to the infirmary. Why I hadn’t thought of it earlier was beyond me. The place was full to the brim, but not a single scrap of noise could be heard outside of the scraping of Doctor Thorne’s clawed feet on the linoleum.
I stalked past the admin office and into the right wing. Nobody stopped me. The care staff was walking around on autopilot. It certainly looked like they still knew what they were doing because whenever a patient groaned, they arrived to provide comfort. From what I could tell, they weren’t doing the patients any harm.
Supernatural healing wasn’t something that could be categorised in the same way as human injuries. They either took care of themselves through their own considerable healing abilities, or one of Raphael’s bloodline would heal them. Now that Malachi was the last of Raphael’s line, relying on that contingency wasn’t really an option.
Most of the patients seemed to be asleep. “Can I help you?”
I turned to find Doctor Thorne peering at me. “Ahh, I just came to see if one of my friends was in here.”
I cringed at the pathetic lie. Thankfully, Doctor Thorne wasn’t a professor so the chance of him knowing I had no friends was minimal. “Oh, well, try and stay out of the way if you can.”
It was his breezy tone that had my palms sweating. “Doctor, do you think something unusual is going on here?”
He cocked his head to the side. “Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary.”
“You don’t think there’s a higher than normal number of patients?”
“Oh, you know how it is. School starts and some students don’t make the transition very well. Lots of students begin to show signs of distress right about now.”
I backtracked slowly out of the door. The attendant at the reception desk smiled at me as I left. I forced my mouth to tip up at the sides even as my heart jack hammered in my chest. Before coming to the infirmary I had hoped that whatever was happening would bypass the para-humans. They had a slightly different biology than the other supernaturals. Now I knew everyone was affected.
Darkness greeted me as I stepped outside. My head tipped up towards the sky. Clouds blanketed the moon that was tinged red at the edges. It was just past noon. I made myself slow to a brisk walk on my way to the portal field.
The field was set up on top of a convergence of the Ley lines beneath the Academy. It focused the magic so that magical travel would be possible. It was also heavily guarded by the Nephilim.
I waited on the field in the darkness for what felt like hours. Not a single guard flew by. Debating whether I should set off a flare, I stood by the checkpoint and let my gaze wander up the Gothic balustrades of the junior Academy. If I drew attention to myself, whatever was behind this might know I was still free of their mind control. If I didn’t try, I would be on my own. Pressing my palm against the small mirror, I pulled the magical trigger.
A soft pink flare erupted into the night sky. It rose high up enough that it would catch the notice of any guard on the premises. I waited for the time to tick over. The Nephilim could teleport from wherever they were. Nobody came.
I was alone, and now I’d put a target on my back.
15
There was no more time for stealth. From the portal field, I ran as hard as I could to Professor Mortimer’s cottage. Not bothering to knock, I pushed the front door open to find the professor slumped over his wooden table. His head was rested on his arms as though he’d decided to take a quick nap and fallen asleep.
“Professor?” I approached gingerly and nudged his shoulder. He didn’t stir. I shook harder. “Professor!”
My only consolation was that he was breathing. That was good. Breathing I could work with. Out
