A strange, new light was burning in Yasuo’s eyes, and it kept drawing my attention, mesmerizing me. I didn’t know what that expression meant. I had to see what he’d do. Who he’d become.

He reached out and pulled one of Curly’s ringlets straight. It sprang back into place as he let go. “Well? Do you have a name? Or are you mute and deaf?”

This wasn’t the Yasuo who’d sat next to me that first day of class, the guy with the spiky mussed hair and the crooked smile. This Yasuo was unsmiling, bitter. His eyes had been drained of their warmth, and for an instant, he looked like a marble version of himself.

This Yasuo was becoming Vampire.

“My name’s Regina.” She gathered up every inch of what I estimated was her five-foot-zero frame and gave her best contemptuous smile.

I could tell it wasn’t practiced, though—she hadn’t been one of those girls in her high school—and I read her story in a flash. It was all in the way she held her shoulders, that flicker in her eye. She’d thought herself a loser back home. Maybe she’d been knocked around like I had, or maybe she just thought about things too much, seeing flaws where there were none, which was kind of like me, too. Either way, the whole thing gave me a painful pang.

“Regina!” Danny crowed. He’d rhymed Regina with vagina—of course he had—the joke exaggerated by his thick British accent.

No friends, I reminded myself. No pity. Just survival. I crumpled my napkin and tossed it on my tray. I wasn’t getting involved this time.

Regina marshaled her expression and spun in her chair to face him. “Like I haven’t heard that before.”

So not the way to deal with this particular problem, Curly. With a quiet sigh, I couldn’t help but pause and watch just a second longer.

Gangly boy bodies closed in, looming over her, blunting the fury in her eyes. But she had spunk, this one, and she snarled, “Go crawl back under your rocks.”

I should’ve left then and there, but it was like watching a train wreck—one that I’d been on before myself. My feet were poised to leave, but my butt was glued to the seat. Here it came, in five, four, three…

“Aw, don’t be like that.” A Trainee named Colin plopped down at the table. He was blond and cute, looking like the high school star quarterback.

I hated Colin.

“We’re the welcoming committee,” he added, and something about his lizardy grin morphed him from high-school-quarterback into high-school-quarterback-who-buried-victims-in-the-backyard.

Bingo. That was my cue. I scooted back my chair. Outta here.

I picked up my tray, but Rob had appeared at my shoulder. “Acari Drew,” he said, using my official term of address. I might have ascended to Initiate, but I’d still be called Acari, at least until the time when—or rather, if—I survived to become Guidon. Acari—the word itself originally meant a subclass of bloodsucking arachnid, as though we girls were ticks, and Rob had enunciated it like he wanted to remind me of this fact.

He slammed my tray back down again. “Going so soon?”

CHAPTER FOUR

“Actually,” I said, “I was thinking I’d skip this particular party.”

Keeping his hand planted where it was, Rob eased into the chair next to me. “But we’re just getting started.”

“And I was just finishing.” I tried to tug my tray back, but his hand was splayed across the black fiberglass, my fork tilting up under the pressure of his palm. I gave up and let go—there’d be no battle of strength with these guys. Ever. I’d always be the weaker one, and I hated it.

He slid the tray away, grinning at me like he’d read my mind. “That’s right. You’re gonna stick around here with us for a little while instead.”

I was in it now. I’d learned there were times to show fear, and this wasn’t one of them. “What’s your problem anyway?”

“We’re just trying to talk to some pretty girls…and you.” He guffawed, like he’d just made the funniest joke ever.

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”

He scooted closer, grinning suggestively. “Though maybe we can work something out, you and me. If you’re nice enough, I might forgive you for being such a bitch.”

I scowled. “Thanks, but no, thanks, Romeo. Not in the mood.”

“Hey,” Colin called from the other end of the table. “El Trainee Roberto. A little focus here. Eyes on the prize. Isn’t that right, ladies?” He gave a smooth grin to the dark-haired girl. But she was staring at her lunch like she was trying to bust out some telepathy and bend her cutlery with her eyeballs, so he turned his attentions to Pretty Girl instead. “You need to come to the castle,” he told her. Then his eyes lit. “In fact,” he added, “all you first-years have to.”

The girl actually said, “Really?” She was studying him like she might find some good there if she peered hard enough, as if he might’ve been cute enough to look past his evil little soul.

I rolled my eyes. Don’t pass go, Pretty Girl. Just go directly to the door to collect your Darwin award now.

“Oh, totally,” Colin said, sensing her interest.

Redheaded Dan added, “You new girls get assigned what are kind of…buddies, like.”

“The vampires in charge didn’t tell us anything about that.” Regina was more skeptical than her friend, and I gave her better odds.

“They sent us to tell you,” Yasuo said.

Pretty Girl looked from one to the other. “You’re not joking?”

Dan grinned and nodded. “You’ll be ambassadors, like.” He sure liked the word like. Maybe it was a London thing. He clarified, “You know, mates.” That, I knew, was a Britishism, but still, the boys guffawed at the double entendre.

“Seriously?” I muttered to myself. I couldn’t decide which angered me more: the girls for being blinded by a couple of cute faces, or the boys for taking advantage.

Colin scented Pretty Girl’s weakness and had her cornered like the doe-eyed creature she was. “We take you on a tour,” he told her with that creepy grin.

“Get real,” I whispered.

But Yas had heard. His eyes instantly zoomed to mine. “What did you say?” He wasn’t dumb. He knew me, and he’d know exactly what I thought about these clowns. It was what he used to think. So why was he hanging out with them?

“I said you’re a real big deal,” I lied.

Dan, the ginger moron, actually smiled. “Jealous?”

“In your dreams, Danny Boy.”

Colin angled away from me, giving his full focus to the girls. “Don’t you ladies listen to Drew. She’s an Initiate—she’s just trying to screw with you.”

Dan was staring at me now, with a combination of macho bluster and flat-out stupidity. “Little D is messing with you. It’s what the older girls do.”

The new Acari looked like they were actually buying his story, and I told them, “They’re the ones screwing with you. Not me.”

“Not true,” Dan protested. “We’re supposed to explain things to you.” The way he said things sounded like fings.

Colin added, “Show you around.”

I shot a glance at Yasuo. He was silently watching the proceedings. The look on his face was unreadable, like a combination of amusement and scorn. Why was he even involved with these knuckleheads?

“But we can’t go off the path,” Regina said warily.

“Oh, you won’t. You won’t. We just need to…” Dan gave Colin a loaded look, uncertain how to finish what he’d started.

Colin caught the ball and ran. “You have to come with us so we can explain the curriculums that you’re going to take while you’re here.”

I groaned. The guy had the IQ of a tennis ball. “The curriculums?”

“What?” Dan’s glare was meant to challenge me, but I just thought it made him appear slack-jawed.

I sat forward, planting my elbows on the table, leaning forward, bracing for a fight. So much for leaving. Because, seriously, nothing made me madder than dumb and mean. “It’s staggering.”

“What?” the guys asked in unison.

“Your stupidity,” I said, louder now, enunciating slowly and clearly as though speaking to a couple of deaf and doddering old men. “It’s staggering.”

I turned to the girls. “Don’t listen to these idiots.” The dark-haired Acari looked scared and confused, while Pretty Girl was acting like she wanted to trust the guys and not me. Whatever. “They’ve got nothing to show you.” I pinned a look on Rob and added, “Trust me.”

He looked like he was considering gutting me then and there. He could try. I knew for a fact I could give him a run for his money, and even if I couldn’t, I could see in his eyes, he knew I had a vampire for backup.

I stood. “Your little joke is done, gentlemen. Take the clown act somewhere else.”

Dan attempted a last-ditch effort. “But we have to take them to the castle.”

“Yeah, D.” Yasuo finally spoke. His eyes glittered at me from across the table. “Tell them how all good girls end up at the castle.”

I felt his comment like a physical blow.

I locked my knees. I wouldn’t show my pain. “All good girls get back to the dorm.” I aimed the next words at Regina. Maybe it was because she’d reminded me of me, or maybe it was just because I could tell from the hormonal glow radiating off Pretty Girl that she was a goner. “And if they’re smart, they’ll go now.”

I walked away, refusing to look back over my shoulder. But still, I felt Yasuo watching.

His comment had slashed like a knife, and I needed to stay alert. One of these days, there just might be a real blade and it would be aimed at my back.

I couldn’t believe I had to go back only to find Audra—excuse me, Frost—in our room. I didn’t bother to say hi. I simply slung my bag on my desk and flopped on my bed.