My stomach growled, and I put a fist to it. “Jeez, will nothing cooperate?”
Josh gave me a funny look, trying not to laugh. “Does that mean Acari Drew is actually human? Because I’d been under the impression you were some rare breed of supergenius wunderkind.”
“Shut up. I haven’t been to the dining hall.”
“Since dinner?”
I paused a moment, then confessed, “Since lunch yesterday.”
A look of understanding dawned on his face. “Oh, that.”
“Were you there?” I lost my appetite just thinking about it. Masha wasn’t done with me yet. And I needed to eat sometime.
“No, just heard about it.” He chucked my chin. “But I’d have come to your aid.”
I laughed, more cynical than amused. “Sure you would have. Real knight in shining armor, right?”
“I might be.” He waggled his eyebrows. “How would you know when you never try me?”
“I tried last semester, but Lilac blocked the view.”
He barked out a laugh, then said in a teasingly somber tone, “All is not what it seems. Maybe I was actually secretly pining for you.”
I felt my cheeks flush red—I was so not used to guys talking to me this way. “Flirty banter is not what I signed up for.”
He leaned down to whisper in my ear, “You think I’m flirty?”
I flinched away. “Is this part of the German instruction?”
“No, but lunch is.” He put his hands on my shoulders, turning me down the hall. “You can’t learn if you’re hungry.”
Grudgingly, I fell into step with him. “Yeah, like you actually have something to teach me.”
“Look, don’t take this out on me. You’re hungry, and you’ve got to go back to the dining hall sometime. Come on. I’ll walk with you.”
Willing to stand by my side in public? It was more than Yasuo had done yesterday.
I began to waffle. My traitorous stomach growled again as if it wanted a vote.
He steered me toward the exit. “We’ll talk on the way—no vampires, no Lilac. And if we walk, and we talk, and we get there, and if you don’t hate me by the end of it, I’ll tell you some things to read. You can give it a go, and if you want, we’ll meet next week to talk more. Easy, right?”
I stopped at the door. I really was starving. “Okay. I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Maybe yes, or maybe no?”
“Maybe yeah.” I nodded reluctantly. “I guess so.”
“You don’t have to look so happy about it.” He held the door open for me. “I promise I won’t bite. Yet.” He flashed a wide grin, and I realized what I’d thought were a couple of regular teeth were actually halfway-grown-in fangs.
I looked away quickly, as if I’d accidentally walked in on him in the bathroom or something. “You’ve got…teeth.”
His fangs were more developed than Yasuo’s, but I guessed my friend’s teeth couldn’t have been far behind. He snapped them playfully. “The better to nip you with.”
I swatted him a little harder than necessary as I stormed out the door.
He caught up to me, rubbing his arm where I’d hit him. “Crikey, Drew. They said you were strong, and they weren’t lying.”
His unexpected comment made me self-conscious. “They who? Who says I’m strong?”
He shrugged, refusing to buy into the drama. “Some of the other Acari. It’s cool, though. You are strong, right?”
“I guess so.” I’d never given it much thought. But he was changing the subject—I didn’t want to talk about me; I wanted to talk vampire teeth. “I thought you arrived when Yasuo did.”
He nodded.
“So, why do you have fangs and he doesn’t?”
He grew wary but kept talking. “Some of the changes happen fast. Yas will get his soon, I imagine.”
What the hell other changes happened? I shuddered to think.
I decided I’d gotten enough information out of Josh, and this time I was the one who changed the subject. And anyway, I wanted to get this business German nonsense over with as quickly as possible.
As we headed across the quad, he actually did have some stuff to teach me.
Some stuff.
We arrived at the dining hall, and the specter of those heavy oak doors had my chest clenching tight. “Look. Maybe this was a bad idea.”
“The indomitable champion, Acari Drew, nervous?”
I looked up to glare at him. Stupid boy was unexpectedly tall.
He gave a little tug on the strap of my bag. “Come on, it’s early yet.” He glanced at his watch, a larger version of the girls’ standard LED digital. When he spoke again, his voice was kind. “Really, Drew. It’s just eleven forty-five. We’ll be in and out before the Initiates even get there. I promise.”
“Okay.” I let him drag me in.
The sight that met me didn’t strike fear in my belly, but it sure did make my heart sink. Ronan was there. And his wet suit was slung over the chair beside him.
I guess I knew what I was doing after lunch.
CHAPTER TEN
As I headed to the table, I caught Amanda and Ronan sharing a secret glance, their eyes glinting with some private joke. I tamped down a spurt of jealousy.
So there was something going on between them—it made perfect sense. Because…what? I’d thought he’d been hanging around at mealtimes because of me?
I slung my bag down where they sat with Emma and a few girls from our floor. It was common for Acari to sit with their dorm Proctors—in our case, Amanda—and now it was obvious why Ronan came with the territory.
“We good?” Josh gave me a nudge, pulling me from my thoughts. He glanced at a table of Trainees, and I could tell he wanted to go sit with them.
I nodded. “You’re released.”
“Wait. I’ve got something for you.” He pulled a book from his bag.
“Something for me?” I read the title: Etikette und Protokoll für Machengeschäft in Deutschland. “Gee, thanks. And to think some girls like flowers.”
“Business etiquette and protocol. Riveting stuff for a little ripper like you.” He gave a gentle punch on my arm. “We’ll meet next week, then?”
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “Why not.”
I would’ve agreed to anything, just to get one step closer to the lunch line. Now that I was inside, I was practically weak with hunger. Snagging a tray, I filled my lungs with the rich smell of curry and chips, and my stomach grumbled with joy.
But then I heard a deeper call and made a beeline to the fridge first. I’d skipped last night’s dose of the blood and was feeling as jittery as an addict with D.T.’s. It was unnerving. I’d become more dependent on the stuff than I’d realized, and I tried not to think what it might mean for me if I ever did find my way free from this rock.
Balancing a full tray, I rejoined the others. As I approached, I spied as Ronan slipped Amanda something under the table. A chill prickled up the back of my neck. Surely a relationship on this isle was forbidden. I willed them to be careful—I might have been green with envy, but it didn’t mean they weren’t my friends. I wanted them to be safe.
I pushed the prickly feeling away, donning temper as my armor, and cast a beady eye at Ronan’s wet suit as I plopped down. “Don’t tell me. We’re swimming later. And me having such a banner week already.”
He held back a smile. “Aye, I’ve heard it’s been a difficult couple days.”
“That’s one way to describe having Initiates out to get us,” I said, catching Emma’s eye.
She gave me a nod, looking her usual stoic self, though I knew she’d be feeling as nervous and vulnerable as I’d been back in the dining hall.
Amanda tossed her dreads over her shoulder. There was such calm self-possession in her movements, it added a shade of despondency to the jealousy I’d been feeling. “Don’t forget you’ll soon have a mission to survive,” she said. “These birdies are a walk in the park compared to that.”
I gave her a flat look. That was so not the point. “Getting whipped at lunchtime hardly qualifies as a walk in the park.”
“Forget the other girls. Focus.” My Proctor scooted her chair closer, and it made a big scraping sound on the floor. “The only thing you should be thinking about is your little field trip off-island.”
“I’m trying, Amanda.” I pushed big lumps of curried chicken around on my plate. “It’s not that simple.”
“Trinity hates me,” Emma said matter-of-factly.
I added, “Masha’s had it out for me since day one.” I debated cutting a chunk of meat in half, then just speared the whole thing on my fork and shoved it into my mouth. I chewed and swallowed too quickly, eager to add the snarky comment that’d just occurred to me. “You’d think she had a thing for Alcántara, and I was fronting on her territory.”
Ronan and Amanda exchanged a look. It was a quick one, but something about it turned the chicken in my belly to a cold lump.
I leaned forward on my elbows. “I saw that.”
“Saw what?” Ronan was the picture of innocence.
“That look.” Though, considering their relationship, they probably gave each other looks all the time, and I just hadn’t noticed before. The notion put an edge to my voice. “You looked at each other.”
This time they really did look at each other.
I put my fork down, my belly gone sour. “What did that mean?”
Amanda stacked the dishes on her tray in a neat pile, considering. “It means you should mind your words, dolly.”
“And mind your own business,” Ronan added.
Emma wiped her mouth with her napkin and pushed away from the table.
I gave her a pleading look. “Where are you going? I just got here.”
She glanced around as though there might even now be Initiates hiding under the tables waiting to get us. “I’m taking their advice. And…I don’t know, Drew. Maybe you should, too.”