Page 9 of Ever Dark Academy: Vol. 1

I should have practiced. I should have!

But it was too late for this encounter. And what was more disturbing was that this woman didn’t seem afraid of him or what he could do. She was studying him like a bird of prey. Normally, the simple evidence of his telekinesis terrified the predators, but not her. Not her at all.

“The police are coming,” Grayson lied, not believing it for one second any longer. He didn’t know if his call had been intercepted or if the police were simply in on it. Both sounded as insane as he felt, but the evidence in front of him told him that one of those things had to be true. Yet he insisted to her, “You need to leave.”

“Because I’m the one showing paranormal powers?” She smiled at him.

Were her eye teeth pointed?

“They won’t look at me,” Grayson told her even as his heart hammered in his chest. That wasn’t true. They’d looked at him before. They hadn’t thought he could move things with his mind, but they had thought he’d done something bad. “I’m just a store clerk. I’m no one important.”

She stared at him without blinking. The irises of her eyes moved like liquid. “You’ve gotten good at hiding. I suppose you would have to. Someone so unique. Someone so interesting. I guess getting two for the price of one makes up for this mess.”

The “mess” wasn’t stabbing Gregory, Grayson guessed. It was letting Gregory get away. And now, she acted like Grayson was another prize. Like the bloody letter in his back pocket.

A wash of arctic cold went through him. Normally when he’d used his powers, people were sacred. But he’d always feared the day when someone was more interested than afraid of him. And she was that person.

The weight of the door was growing and he swallowed hard. Soon he would have to drop it to the ground. Better to drop the small bits of metal first so he could use his remaining strength on the door. But the moment he let one nugget of metal drop, her head snapped towards it and those luminous, silver eyes narrowed while her smile grew. She knew he was tiring. Grayson did not let another metal piece drop. He fought not to shake visibly.

He gritted out at her again, “The police–”

“Aren’t coming, dear. No one is coming,” she said almost wearily.

No one is coming, those words echoed inside of him, reminding him of so many times when he’d been in danger and a predator had sing-songed that dark promise to him. No one is coming to save you. No one is coming to stop me. No one is coming to end this. No one...

Sam made a low sound of fear and began to slap Gregory’s face. “Grayson! Grayson! I think–oh, damn, I think–”

“He’s dead, yes, but I wouldn’t mourn Gregory too deeply,” she said.

Grayson’s heart seemed to stop. He hadn’t known Gregory. And that was wrong for a man to die among people he didn’t know. When he had been on the cusp of something great. But Gregory was gone. He felt it. There was an absence in the room.

The Kaly Vampires say there is something beyond this life. I pray that Gregory finds it and it is wonderful, Grayson prayed.

She took another step closer. It was a small step.

“Don’t,” Grayson said through gritted teeth.

“Gregory was a very naughty person,” she continued as if he had said nothing at all.

She actually reached for one of the spinning metal pieces and touched it. Her eyes widened in pleasure as it spun away from her.

“I don’t believe anything you say,” Grayson told her.

He pushed the door towards her. It wobbled, but only a little. She backed up again. A single bead of sweat ran down his right temple. He prayed she wouldn’t notice, but her eyes went directly there and she licked her lips as if imagining tasting his sweat. If he hadn’t already been alarmed, he was now. He needed to get himself and Sam the hell out of there.

She’s likely not the only one involved in this either, Grayson thought. Others are probably out front. Waiting on her. So that’s not an escape route.

The convenience store’s back door was blocked by one of those large, industrial trash bins in the alleyway behind the store. It was a fire hazard and he’d complained about it loads of times, but there wasn’t enough space back there unless the trash bin was pressed right up to the door so nothing had been done. He was glad about that now. He figured the Sect or whoever had done this to Gregory wouldn’t be waiting back there. But he could use his powers to bust through and run.

I have to take Sam, too. Grab him and run after sending the door hurtling towards her, he thought.

Another bead of sweat trailed down his right temple and then a third down his left. A shudder went through him. He had to build up the energy to do what he needed. He concentrated on the flicker of flame inside of him that he’d always imagined as powering his gift. He imagined throwing in logs to this fire to build it up. He wasn’t sure what truly happened when he did this, but his gift did grow. He shoved this imaginary “wood” into the flames.

“Gregory worked for us, you see,” the woman continued. She looked at her nails. They were beautifully painted a black-red color that changed depending on how the light hit them. “He analyzed everything we knew about the Bloodlines and, of course, the two people most responsible for choosing the students. Balthazar and Caemorn are not exactly shrinking flowers in the Vampire World. Their personalities are well known.”

Grayson fed another log into his fire. Sweat though was now freely coursing down his face and dripping off of his chin. Sam had drawn his legs up against his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He was rocking and moaning softly, sure that he was likely to die.

“Gregory was… well, a student of human nature. He was brilliant at it,” she said with a small smile at her nails. The sleeve of her coat on her right arm slid up towards her elbow and he saw a tattoo there. A lightning bolt.

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