Vampire Academy: New Generations

Chapter 15

Bash and Cayden got the books. All of them. They found me the next day before school and after practice. "We got them," they said. I smiled. I'd asked them after practice last night and they already had the books? Better than Amazon. "Hurry and take them before you get in trouble for talking to us. You're still on thin ice, right?" Bash asked as I took some and led them to my room, dumping the books outside my room. "Jasper gave you these? He's still afraid of me?" I asked as Cayden laughed. "Poor guy. Don't know what you did but he's terrified." He said as I laughed. "We managed to talk to him without anyone noticing. That all?" He asked. I nodded."Thanks. This means a lot." I said as they nodded and walked off.

I hauled the "loot" into to my room, fully aware of how weird it was that someone who hated to study as much as I did was about to get buried in dusty crap from the fourteenth century. Somehow, I roped Vegas into coming as well and soon the both of us were reading. Vegas sprawled out on my bed and me on the floor. When I opened the first book, though, I saw that there must be reprints of reprints of reprints, probably because anything that old would have long since fallen apart. Sifting through the books, I discovered they fell into three categories: books written by people after spirit was discovered, which was fairly new. Books are written by other people around the time St. Vladimir was still alive, and one diary of sorts written by a Dashkov. Thinking back to what a book had said about the Dashkov family being open to experimentation, I decided to go with those pages first.

Whoever wrote those first pages really had a thing for St.Vladimir. And Anna. And "shadow-kissed." The writer talked about them a lot, among other things. Most of the time he wrote long sermons, just like what I'd hear in church. Super boring. But other times, and further on, the book read just like a diary, recapping what the writer did each day. But the whole Dashkov experiment note-taking thing was towards the end and I didn't want to skip anything. Not a few minutes later someone rapped at my door, and I jerked out of my memories. Vegas sat up straight, walking over to the closet and hiding next to it. No one had visited me, not even staff, since my suspension. When I opened the door, I was dumbstruck to see Cayden in the hall. "Twice in one day?" I asked. "And how'd you even get up here?" He flashed a smile. "Someone put a lit match in one of the bathroom's garbage cans. Damn shame. The staff's kind of busy. Come on, I'm springing you." I shook my head. Vegas was not even 3 feet away from me and I could see him already groan from the outcome. Setting fires was a pretty good plan but I couldn't. "Sorry, no saving me tonight. If I get caught—"

"Eden's orders." He said. I shut up. "Lead the way," I said, pausing to wink at Vegas as I closed the door behind me and left. I knew he could leave in his own time. He took me over to the Moroi dorm and miraculously got me in and up to her room unseen. I wondered if there was a distracting bathroom fire in this building too. Inside her room, I found a party in full swing. Eden, Stella, Carly, Walt, and a few other royals sat around laughing, listening to loud music, and passing around bottles of whiskey. No Mia, no Ian. No Maddy. Natasha, I noticed a few moments later, sat apart from the group, clearly unsure how to act around all of them. Her awkwardness was totally obvious. Eden stumbled to her feet, the fuzzy feelings in our bond indicating she'd been drinking for a while. "Evie!" She turned to Cayden with a dazzling smile. "You delivered." He swept her an over-the-top bow. "I'm at your command." At his words, I hoped he'd done it for the thrill of it and not because of any compulsion. Evie slung an arm around my waist and pulled me down with the others. "Join the festivities." She said. "What are we celebrating?" I asked as she shrugged. "I don't know. Your escape tonight?" A few of the others held up plastic cups, cheering and toasting me. Xander Badica poured two more cups, handing them to Bash, who was already here and Cayden and me. I took mine with a smile, all the while feeling uneasy about the night's turn of events. Not so long ago, I would have welcomed a party like this and would have downed my drink in thirty seconds. Too much bothered me this time, though. Like the fact that the Royals were treating Eden like a goddess. Like how none of them seemed to remember how much I'd been teased by them. Like how Eden was completely unhappy despite her smiles and laughter.

"Where'd you get the whiskey?" I asked. "Mr. Nagy," Walt said. He sat very close to Eden and on her other side sat a drunk Jasper Ozera, who went pale when he saw me but at the nod of my head, he composed himself. Everyone knew Mr. Nagy drank all the time after school and kept a stash on campus. He continually used new hiding places—and students continually found them. Eden leaned against Jasper's shoulder. "Jasper helped me break into his room and take them. He had them hidden in the bottom of the paint closet." The others laughed, and Walt, surprisingly, gazed at her with complete and utter worship. Amusingly, I realized she hadn't had to use any compulsion on him. He was just that crazy for her. He always had been. And now that she was with Jasper... he looked jealous. Not enough to be a problem later on but jealous nonetheless.

"Why aren't you drinking?" Bash asked me a little while later, speaking into my ear because of the loud music. "I'm used to stopping you." He said with a smile as I glanced down at my cup, half surprised to see it full. "I don't know. I guess I don't think guardians should drink around their charges." I said as he patted my back. Full on big brother style. "She's not your charge yet! You aren't on duty. You won't be for a long time." He said. I knew he was right but I was thinking about what Vegas had said about balancing fun and obligation. It just seemed wrong to let myself go wild when Eden was in such a vulnerable state lately. Wiggling out of my tight spot between her and the sofa edge, I walked over and sat beside Natasha. "Hey Nat, you're quiet tonight." She held a cup as full as mine. "So are you." She replied. I laughed softly. "I guess so." She tilted her head, watching Eden and the Royals like they were some sort of science experiment. They'd consumed a lot more whiskey since I'd arrived, and the silliness had shot up considerably. Even from Cayden and Bash, but I knew they'd stop the moment something went wrong. "Weird, huh? You used to be the center of attention. Now she is." I blinked in surprise. I hadn't considered it like that. "I guess so. But I like this. It's... peaceful." I said as she looked at me, as surprised by my words as I was. "Hey, Evie," said Xander, nearly spilling his drink as he walked over to me. "What was it like?" I gave Natasha a weird look as I asked him to clarify. "What was what like?" I asked

"Letting someone feed off you?" The others became quiet, a sort of anticipation settling over them. "I wouldn't know. It's never happened to me." I said as Eden nodded "I told you." She protested as he shook his head. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But you guys did it, right? While you were gone?" He asked. Eden was scrambling through her bag for my wanted poster but I shook my head. "Course not. I know it's wrong." I said as Eden continued to look through her bag. "I mean, it's cool and everything. You guys did what you had to do, right? It's not like you're a feeder. I just want to know what it was like. Danielle Szelsky let me bite her once. She said it didn't feel like anything." There was a collective "ew" from among the girls. Sex and blood with dhampirs were dirty; between Moroi, it was cannibalistic.

"You are such a liar," said Stella. "No, I'm serious. It was just a small bite. She didn't get high like the feeders. Did you?" He put his free arm around my shoulder as if I was going to get persuaded by him doing so. "Did you like it?" He asked as Eden stopped. She looked up and her face went still and pale. Alcohol muted the full force of her feelings, but I could read enough to know how she felt. Dark, scared thoughts trickled into me—underscored with anger. She usually had a good grip on her temper—unlike me—but I'd rarely seem it flare up before. I hoped she wouldn't do anything drastic and she let me defuse it. "Just a little blood," Xander was saying. "I won't take much. I just want to see what dhampir tastes like. Nobody here cares." He said as I slipped out from under his arm and smiled, looking for a funny retort rather than one that might start a fight.

"I broke Alexander's kneecaps with a brick last time he talked like that to me," I said, noticing it came out as a threat. "Don't wanna ruin anything now do we?" I asked. Looking back at everyone, I looked confused at everyone else. They seemed to be under a trance. Shoot. I'd... I used compulsion on everyone. I immediately felt nauseous and wanted to barf but I held my stance till they got distracted again. Finally, the tension disappeared, and he started talking to the other royals about how much he loved his hair. Across the room, Eden met my eyes with relief. She didn't feel what I did, and I was happy about that. Because I felt so sick, so nauseous that I'd already thought of excuses to leave. For the rest of the night, I smiled fakely at people and pretended I didn't hate each and every one of them.