Page 64 of Ava: Part Three

So fucked up. Especially since he didn’t know when they would be forced to decide which students to sacrifice. Everyone he cared about was stuck in this school with him, and they would all pay if he and Ava failed.

The school gates opened before they reached them. Council soldiers stood guard, and their eyes followed them as they walked through. He knew that if he made one wrong move, they would still do the job they were trained for despite the Council’s interest in them. When he reached the turn to go to his house, there were guards there, too, and they moved as a unit to block his path.

“No students allowed in the residences during lesson time,” one of them said.

“She’s injured. She needs to rest.”

“Take her to the Infirmary.”

He shook his head and turned towards the Infirmary. He knew by the time he got there, Ava would have healed, and he would be accused of wasting their time.

“They weren’t all dead,” Ava whispered.

“Who?”

“Those things. Claire and her friends. Some of them were still breathing, so I think he...”

Finished the job. The Council had finished the job because it was part of their plan.

“Shh,” he whispered.

By the time they reached the Infirmary doors, Ava asked him to put her down.

“I feel a bit better. I don’t think we need to go in,” she said. “I’ll find a place to sit for a bit until I feel completely better and then find the dean because I don’t know what my classes are now.”

“Okay. I’ll find you at lunchtime.”

They had a meeting in the basement, but he wasn’t sure if that was safe anymore.

He turned away from the door and stopped when he felt a prickling at the back of his neck. Ava must have felt it, too, because she stopped and turned back to the Infirmary doors. They opened, and two Omegas walked out with their gazes down. Parents. And the woman couldn’t hide her sniffles or her pain.

Ava made a sound that had them all looking at her, though the Omegas looked down again quickly.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Ava whispered.

The murdered Omega's parents. He lowered his head and offered his condolences, too, and there was surprise in the man’s tone when he answered. The system told them they had to accept all the bullshit that happened in their lives, and with men like Mr Hansson in charge, that would never change.

“Thank you.”

They didn’t linger, and he knew why. That prickling was still coming from somewhere inside the building.

When the doors opened again, councillor Andrei walked out with his hands in his pockets. The vampire watched the Omegas hurry away before he turned his gaze to them.

“They came to collect her body.”

“Did you tell them it was you who killed her?” Ava hissed.

She seemed to remember who she was talking to because she lowered her gaze.

“I did. And I told them to do a better job with the rest of their children.”

Like he didn’t even give a shit. Ava gasped as if she couldn’t believe the audacity of this centuries-old vampire.

“It’s a job, and the sooner you two realise that, the better,” Andrei said. “You have to make the right choice because you really have only one option. If you refuse, he won’t kill you. He will kill your families, your packs. He will kill anybody and everybody you care about and make you live with that guilt for the rest of your life. And then he will own you anyway and still make you do what he wants.”

The vampire sounded like he had intimate knowledge of that punishment.

“It’s not too bad,” Andrei said. “After a decade or two, you really stop giving a shit one way or another. If we're lucky, we’ll all die eventually, right?”

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