“One of the vampire Trainees will assist you. The Australian. Joshua.”

CHAPTER NINE

Josh? Former Lilac-flirt-buddy Josh? As in the guy who looked like a blond Aussie surfer boy but really was a Harvard smarty-pants and winner of my Most Likely to Be an Evil Supergenius Award? That Josh? Tutoring me, in German? What was with the boys’ club?

The news made me peevish and testy. Not in the mood to talk to anyone, I ended up avoiding the dining hall that night. Besides, after my lunchtime brawl, I wasn’t exactly eager to bump into any of the Initiates. I didn’t know if Alcántara had disciplined Masha yet or not, but I wasn’t about to be anywhere nearby when it went down. Put simply, unlike the intrepid Watcher I hoped one day to be, I chickened out and hid in my room for the rest of the day.

And so I went to bed feeling hungry. And angry. And vulnerable. And with a lot on my mind.

A lethal cocktail.

By the time I ran into the boys the next day, I’d worked myself into a lather, with a thing or two to get off my chest.

Alcántara had told me to meet Josh in the languages building, which, ironically, was the one building I hadn’t spent much time in. Seeing as I was already fluent. In several languages. Including German.

Scowling, I heaved open the door. I wanted to slam it, but the stupid, heavy wood didn’t cooperate.

I heard them from all the way down the hall. Predictable. I stormed toward the sound of goofball boys, goofing in the lounge area.

I glowered at the lot of them, and it just made me surlier. I estimated they ranged in age from seventeen to nineteen, each good-looking in a clean-faced, strong-boned sort of way. It was as if I’d stumbled into the varsity soccer team on their break.

I’d come rehearsing the piece of my mind I was going to foist on Josh, but it was Yasuo I saw first. And I was angrier with him, anyway—I had a feeling he’d been there to witness yesterday’s dining hall debacle yet hadn’t come to my aid. It’d nagged me all night.

He glanced at me, and I could tell by the hesitant look in his eye that my suspicions were correct.

I crossed my arms at my chest. “You saw it all, didn’t you?”

His deer-in-headlights expression told me his mind was racing for a reply.

“Dude,” I said, not giving him a chance, “what is your problem?”

Yasuo flinched. “Yo, D. And hello to you, too.”

“Don’t Yo D. me. You left me hanging yesterday.”

A couple of the Trainees laughed and backed off in an exaggeratedly I’m-outta-here sort of way.

“What was I supposed to do?” Yasuo ignored his departing friends and focused only on me. It mollified me—a little.

I exhaled heavily, realizing it wasn’t so much that I was angry; it was that I’d felt betrayed. “I don’t know. You could’ve done more than just stand there, maybe.”

He stood and came closer, pleading his case. “You have no idea. It was killing me, watching those girls go after you and Em.”

Emma. I’d thought for sure he had a crush on her, but he hadn’t spoken up for her, either. I was ready to throw that bomb in his face, but a quick glance told me too many Trainees had hung around to watch our spat. And although I’d have thought nothing of embarrassing Yasuo, I wasn’t about to throw Emma under the bus.

My stomach dropped just thinking of her. “She could’ve used your help, too. For all we know, she’s out there right now, becoming the main ingredient in some vampire cocktail.”

“Emma’s fine,” Yas said. “I just saw her. They had her clean toilets and do push-ups and stuff. But that’s all. Seriously.”

He knew how Emma was. My shoulders sagged—from relief but from some other thing, too. Something that should’ve known my friend was okay before Yas did. It took the wind out of my sails, and my tone was petering out when I said, “I just…I’d have liked being able to—I don’t know—see you in the crowd at least.”

But then I wondered, what would I have done if our roles had been reversed? Would I have risked everything to stand by his side? The way that question gave me pause bummed me out even more.

“Little D.” His eyes skittered around the room, and when he spoke again, it was in a whisper. “There are rules. I can’t challenge the Guidons.”

He seemed nervous, and it threw me. I’d seen him concerned-nervous—as when I went into the ring to fight—but I’d never seen him like this, scared-nervous. A few more Trainees up and left us, and it struck me as significant.

“They’re priming us to be vampires, D.” He stressed the words as though trying to impart some message.

I heard it loud and clear. “Yeah,” I admitted, “I get it. And you’ll be one of the ones in charge someday—unlike us lowly girls. Best to keep your place above the rest of us.”

“Not like that.” His shoulders slumped, as if he really wanted me to understand. “You think you get it, but you don’t. If I stand up to an Initiate? Hell, if I stand out at all, I’m as dead meat as you are. No. Deader.”

“That’s not a word,” I grumbled. Boys could be such…boys.

Sighing, I broke down and shook my head. He was right. Kids like me and Yas didn’t make the rules—we lived and died by them.

I gave him a rueful smile. “I get that I have no idea what it’s like for you. I just…I wish you could tell me…” I gave him an opening even though I knew I could cajole all I wanted, yet never would he divulge the Trainees’ secrets.

Yas was quick to return my smile. “So we’re okay?”

“Yeah, we’re okay.” Yet I couldn’t help but wonder what the implications were for our future friendship. There seemed to be a line drawn in the sand, carving a deep divide between guys and girls. Trainees and Acari.

Vampires and Watchers.

If Yasuo and I survived this, someday I’d be taking orders from him. He’d be the one able to take my life on a whim, the one telling me where to go and what to do. I wasn’t ready to think about how that dynamic might play out.

It was all the more reason for me to hightail it out of there. Escaping from an island tightly guarded by a bunch of vampires and located in the middle of a freezing sea seemed eminently easier to navigate than the new-to-me waters of friendship.

“Later, then. Off to class.” He thumped his chest and gave me a fist salute. “Peace out, Blondie.”

“Yeah, you’re such a gangsta.” I’d tried to be playful but was feeling a little too out of sorts to sound it.

That left just me and Josh.

I’d burst in there on the warpath, but then my interaction with Yas ended up less showdown and more Dr. Phil. Honestly, it’d just made me kind of depressed. I turned on Josh, eager to make him my next target. “You.”

He was cute and scruffy and blond. We were on a place called the Isle of Night—so how the hell did he still seem to be sporting a tan?

I cut him off before he could open his mouth. “You say gidday and you’re a dead man.”

He raised his hands. “I’d not deign to greet you, oh rampaging Acari.”

Damned if his stupid comment didn’t startle a laugh out of me. I blamed the accent. But my flash of good humor gave him an opening I hadn’t wanted to surrender.

“Go easy on Yas, eh?” he urged in a chummy tone, his accent making Yasuo’s name sound something like Yaehz. “He’s got a lot on his mind, and you know he can’t tell you the lot of it.”

“Well, aren’t you two cozy,” I said, feeling defeated.

But Josh remained calm, refusing to rise to the bait. “We’re roommates. We talk.”

Well, that was news. There was a lot the girls didn’t know about the creepy castle on the hill that was the guys’ housing, but someone’s roommate situation seemed like pretty basic information. “How did I not know that?”

Josh paused. “We aren’t supposed to talk much about things. But…” He met my eyes, thought for a moment, and decided to continue. “Don’t be mad, mate. It was new this summer. Our last roommates were…They died. So they put us together to make room for more. They just did—I swear. I’m sure Yas would’ve told you himself if you hadn’t come in here ready to tear him a new one.”

His Australian accent had loped along, rough and lazy, making his words sound more offhand than they really were—because he was talking about boys dying, and it chilled me. As did all the mystery—I knew Acari dropped like flies, but I had yet to find out what killed the Trainees, or who.

I realized he hadn’t spoken, and I looked up to catch him ogling my mouth. “Goddammit, mate.” I lunged closer and gave him a shove in the chest. Though the gesture was playful, I let my hand push a little harder than was strictly necessary. But then I fisted my hands at my sides, assuring myself those were definitely not rock-hard surfer abs beneath his uniform sweater. “Not you, too. What is with you guys?” I licked my lip, feeling the scab there. “It’s almost healed up. Learn a little control, would you?”

“Control is difficult, where you’re concerned.” He winked, and I didn’t know if he was flirting with me or just making fun.

“Do not go there. Seriously, this”—I waved my hands between us—“this tutoring thing is unpalatable enough.”

He clapped a hand to his chest. “I’m not to be palated? Harsh.”

“Palated? Not a word, Harvard boy.” I put my hands on my hips, fighting a smile. “I swear, you are asking for it. If you can’t even speak English, what could possibly be this arcane German knowledge you possess that I don’t?”

“Easy, easy.” He reached down to grab his messenger bag and slung it over his shoulder. “Look, my father worked for one of the big pharmaceuticals, and we were based in Germany for a while. I know you speak the language, but some of the business etiquette is…different. When to be formal, when not—stuff like that.”