The Den of Shadows Quartet - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [71]
After the incident, Dominique had decided to move her daughter away from the constant excitement of the city and into a dull Massachusetts suburb named Acton. Caryn and her family lived there.
Dominique returned upstairs to sleep, and Caryn caught Sarah’s good arm.
“I should warn you. There are a few vampires in the school.” Upon Sarah’s look, she added sternly, “They’re harmless, and they have every right to be there. If you hurt any of them —”
“If they’re harmless, I’ll just ignore them. I can’t afford to get kicked out of another school, anyway. Okay?” Sarah offered. Caryn nodded.
Sarah’s pride, already ground into the dirt, deflated even more when the door opened again and her sister entered the house.
“Hey little sis,” Adianna greeted her. Noticing the cast, she added, “Rough night?”
Adianna Vida, one year Sarah’s senior, was almost as perfect as their mother — intelligent and controlled. She had graduated last year, but was taking a semester off before starting college to train harder, and to “look out for” her little sister.
Right then Adianna’s blond hair was tousled, and Sarah saw a smear of blood on her dark blue jeans as if she had wiped a knife clean. She had obviously been fighting, and she had just as obviously won.
Adianna patted her sister’s shoulder as she passed toward the stairs. “Rest up. The world will survive without you for a week or so.”
CHAPTER 3
SEVEN-THIRTY-FIVE is a beastly hour to begin school, Sarah thought, as she opened her locker. The bell rang and she sighed. Hopefully being the new girl would excuse her tardiness. It certainly had no other perks. She thought fleetingly of the hunting companions she had left behind, with whom she had crashed bashes and stalked the darkest corners of the city By morning, rarely had a blade been left clean.
She forcibly banished such thoughts. She was here now, and it was time to begin this new life.
Her first block was American history, and though she located it easily, the class had already begun when she slipped through the door.
“Sarah Green?” the teacher confirmed as Sarah turned over the folded pink pass from the office. Mr. Smith was a balding, tired-looking man whose crisp suit pants and shirt seemed out of place in the high school. He gestured toward the class. “Take a seat … there’s one open right next to Robert —”
“Actually, someone’s sitting there,” one of the boys in the back of the room called. As Sarah’s attention turned to Robert, she realized that he looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place his face in her memory. He had looked up just long enough to see who had come in the door, and was now writing something in a notebook. The desk next to him appeared empty to Sarah; the chair was vacant.
Mr. Smith looked surprised, but he skimmed the class again.
“There’s a seat here,” someone else called, and Sarah glanced to see who had spoken.
Black hair, fair skin, black eyes. Vampire. She recognized him instantly, but Mr. Smith was already hustling her toward the empty seat.
“Christopher Ravena,” the leech said, introducing himself as she slid into her chair. He nodded across the class. “That’s my sister, Nissa.” The girl he had gestured to waved slightly Though her hair was a shade lighter, the resemblance between the siblings was marked — including the mild vampiric aura.
“Nice to meet you,” she answered politely though inside she grimaced. This could be a very long year.
The aura of the vampire beside her was so faint that her skin wasn’t even tingling. He was either very young or very weak, and she could tell that he did not feed on human prey. Probably SingleEarth, harmless as Caryn had said. His sister was almost as weak, and although her aura showed a hint of human blood — probably from one of the plethora of humans at SingleEarth willing to bare their throats — it was obvious she did not kill when she hunted. Neither of them would be able to sense Sarah’s aura, so unless they