Page 32 of Deadly Alliances

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to see—maybe students linedup like cattle, waiting to give blood to thirsty vampires—but the room I stepped into was rather normal. Almost mundane. The modest furniture looked comfortable, the common area warm enough, the human students lounging around looking relaxed. At least until they spotted me. Then they buried their heads again, as if by not looking at me, I wouldn’t be in their space.

After a few awkward seconds, I decided to speak up. “Does anyone know where Kendall stays?”

A few startled glances met mine, but no one responded. I was about to go search on my own when a petite girl whose head barely reached my chin stepped forward.

“He’s on the fourth level down,” she said without making eye contact.

“Thank you.”

The girl merely nodded, dipping into what felt like a small curtsey, and quickly swept back to the chair she’d been in.

This treatment was so vastly different from that of my fellow students at the Dome that it left me feeling shell-shocked. These people obviously felt like they couldn’t talk to me, their fear evident in their stiff postures and apprehensive silence. While it was preferable to being ridiculed and mocked, I didn’t want to be feared. I wondered if I would ever find a place where I was just treated like an equal by my peers.

With a sigh, I followed the stairs down until I reached the fourth level. It wasn’t until I was there that I realized there was still another set of stairs leading deeper. I turned toward it, curious about just how many levels there were when a hand caught my arm.

“I don’t recommend going that way.” It was Kendall, his voice low, his hand around my arm just tight enough to tell me howserious he was. My guards eyed him warningly, but I waved them away.

“Why not?” I asked, casting another curious glance toward the stairs.

Kendall looked around the common room, which only had one or two Initiates in it, and at the guards still standing on the stairs leading to the next floor. He nodded his head to the side. “Come on.”

I planted my feet. “Not until you let go of my arm.”

Kendall let go and held his hands up in submission. “You know I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.”

“Do I?” Even though I had sought him out, I still didn’t trust him to get too close.

Kendall’s handsome features crushed, but he nodded. “I understand your hesitation. Can we talk? Alone? I’ll even let you cut my tail off yourself if I so much as look at you funny.”

Okay, maybe I enjoyed being feared a little bit, at least where Kendall was concerned. After what he’d done, he should be afraid of me.

I followed Kendall into a hallway as necks craned to watch us go. Doors dotted either side of the long hall, and I wondered just how many humans were housed here.

At last, we reached the final room in the corridor, and Kendall opened the door, stepping aside so I could enter before him. I nodded to the guards, who took up some wall space in the hall as I went in with Kendall.

The furnishings were stark—a bunk bed, a couple of cubbies with drawers underneath, some chairs and a small table. It wasn’t much, but then again, the rooms at the Dome hadn’texactly been luxury suites. Truth be told, the only real difference here was that the walls were all the same dark obsidian as the rest of the citadel, casting a permanent gloom on pretty much everything.

Kendall closed the door and sat in one of the chairs, and I followed his lead, sitting in the other.

“So what are you doing way down here?” he asked, looking at his fingers in his lap.

“I just...” I took a deep breath. “I’m trying to decide...”

“Whether to trust me or not?” he supplied.

I shook my head. “I’ve been spending time with Alex—”

“And the little guy has stolen your heart,” Kendall said, the corner of his mouth pulled into a half-smile.

“Yeah.” I grabbed a strand of my hair and gently tugged, curling it around a finger. “I was brought here against my will, but now? I need the whole story. I thought maybe you’d be able to help.”

Kendall sighed and leaned back in his chair, running his hands through his hair. “If you’re looking for me to badmouth Hadrian, you’re fishing in the wrong pond.”

“No. I just... Are they happy here?” I asked, pointing at the ceiling. “Areyouhappy here?”

“I don’t know if I’d call it happy, but they’re notunhappy,” he replied. “And I’m confident I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

I frowned, unsure of how to ask the right questions to get the answers I wanted. “I guess I mean, are you treated well here? Are the other humans treated well?”

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