After failing as a vampire hunter, 17-year-old Cleo is sent to an academy full of vampires as a false peace treaty. Her true objective is supposed to be finding the hidden heir to the dark world while befriending the current one, but the current hei...
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When I awoke, I found myself in bed with Claude.
It took all of five seconds of staring at a mess of raven hair plastered to his forehead for me to jolt up in shock. Once at a higher viewpoint, I realized I wasn't in bed with Claude, but in a separate bed, just pressed up next to each other so our faces were close together. I also noticed Kaz, folded over, cheek pressing against his arms, breathing evenly as he slept on Claude's blanket-covered thighs.
The overhead lights were dimmed in the room and a curtain was pulled around our beds. It wasn't either of our bedrooms. I grimaced as my muscles protested as I pulled myself up straighter, an onset of dizziness falling over me as I did. I gave myself a second before trying to slide off the bed. A strange jerking sensation came from my wrist and I gaped as I noticed an IV sticking out of it. I hated needles. I carefully rested my forearm back on the bed, afraid of pulling it again, and laid back into the pillows.
Were we in the school's infirmary? I peered at Claude again, noticing then that half my vision was obstructed. Raising my hand to my face, feeling a gauzy eyepatch over my eye and bandages over half my face. Trailing my hand down, I found more around my neck, which stung horribly as I pressed down on it. I yanked my hand back, biting my lip to keep from crying out. Dang. That hurt. Even my lips were sore.
How did I get here? It took only thinking that question for me to remember what happened. I turned back to Claude, staring hard at his chest. It rose and fell. He was alive. There was a bandage wrapped around his head and shoulders, disappearing under the loose cloth shirt he was wearing. The rest of his body was hidden out of view under the blanket. How badly was he injured? What about all the blood he lost?
What time was it? What happened after I passed out? I held my questions in, letting the other two sleep.
My head throbbed, and I rubbed a hand over my forehead, trying to ease the pressure. I felt terrible. Drained, and as I felt the hot skin on my forehead, I could tell I'd developed a fever. A flashback of my hand covered in blood shot through my mind and I jerked my hand away, staring at my palm. Free of gore, but with small cuts from holding onto the old bed frame. I flipped it over, noting even my fingernails were cleaned of any sign of the fight. No dirt, no grime, no blood.
Embarrassment spread through me at the idea that someone had scrubbed me down so thoroughly. Who?
Well, it was better than waking up a bloody mess. I tried to remember what happened to get here again, but couldn't. I remembered fighting the Leecher, stabbing him, being unable to kill him, him trying to kill me... and Adora killing him. My throat seized up as the sound of his last gurgling breath replayed over and over in my ears.
He deserved it, I told myself, trying to block the sound out of my mind. Even if Adora didn't kill him, someone would have been dispatched to eliminate him. He had been a threat to not only humans but vampires, too. He had to die.
