Page 27 of Ashvale: The Vampire's Thrall

He raised an eyebrow and it was the first time I'd really seen true irritation on his handsome face. "Because I think you're all idiots for going."

"That's why you should come," I needled. "It will be good to have someone there who doesn't think the trip is a good idea and can try and keep us in check." He looked unconvinced and I lowered my voice, looking up from under my lashes. "Please? For me?"

His eyes softened and the sigh that left him made him look deflated. "Fine, but I still think this is a terrible idea. You never know what you're going to get with a mage, they may work with us when the money is right but that doesn't mean they don't hate what we are. Unnatural. Damned."

"Do you really think that's true?" I hadn't given the spiritual ramifications of my transformation much thought, wasn't sure I believed there really were any.

He shrugged. "I believe that they think it's true."

"I’m not sure I ever had a soul to be damned in the first place," I mused and he shook his head.

"You have a soul, Leonora."

It felt like the case less and less these days. "Maybe," I murmured and a sigh escaped him.

"All I'm saying is... be careful, okay?"

"Always," I teased and pouted when he didn't smile back. But really, how could he take the word of a murder victim that they knew how to be careful?

ChapterFourteen

"So you realiseI don't have any money, right?" I quipped to Hayes as I jogged to reach his side in the busy corridor. He had class, I had a one-on-one meeting with Elowen that had come as a surprise and I couldn't help but feel concerned about whatever it was she wanted to say to me.

"What?" Hayes said, looking at me sharply and I could feel his confusion and irritation as clear as day through the bond.Great, it seems like it's only getting stronger."I assumed you weren't talking to me."

"Why?"

"Judging by the hole in the wall where my door handle hit it, thanks to you, I assumed that meant you were angry."

"Yes, well, nothing brings me as much joy as pissing you off," I said sweetly, bright smile winking my fangs at him. His eyes darkened to thunderstorm blue and I smirked.

"Why are you prattling on about money, love?" he said, a sigh lacing his words that was at odds with the warmth I could feel through the bond, making me squint at him suspiciously.Lovewas new too, but I tried not to read into it.

"The mage," I said quietly, "Rowan mentioned we would have to pay him."

Hayes' eyes narrowed and I wondered what I'd said wrong. "You don't need to worry about it. It's taken care of."

I raised an eyebrow. "What—" A cool breeze was my only response as Hayes decided he was done talking and ran off at incredible speed to his class. I was begrudgingly impressed. He was almost as fast as me, and that speed would only increase when he became a true undead.

A trickle of amusement came through the bond and I rolled my eyes as I rounded the corridor, ignoring the looks of anybody still milling the corridors as I headed towards Elowen's office. I hadn't been in there since I'd bitten her and I felt strangely nervous, like I was revisiting the scene of a crime.

The door opened as I approached and I halted at the entrance until Elowen called out for me to enter. Despite everything, I wasn't sure I'd ever get used to seeing magick used so casually.

"Please, have a seat." She gestured to the one in front of her desk with a delicately pale hand and I obeyed, feeling a strong sense of deja-vu calling back to my first night where I'd sat in this exact chair. "Do you know why I asked you here?" she said once I was sitting comfortably watching her.

I thought about it, biting my lip as I spoke slowly. "A lot of my first day as a vampire is a blur, but I remember Hayes saying that his job was to get me into the sanctuary discreetly. I wondered if this was because you knew something about how I came to be in the state I am, so close to Ashvale?"

Elowen watched me carefully, her cool face a blank mask for whatever she was thinking at that moment. "Nothing quite so exciting," she said eventually. "I asked Hayes to be discreet as your appearance and circumstances were not that of the norm and I did not wish to alarm the other students."

"But how did you know where to find me if you knew nothing of my murder?"

A small smile made chills erupt on my skin as Elowen sat forward, resting her elbows on the hardwood desk. "I discovered the details of your death after the fact and sent Hayes to retrieve you. We have our own contacts for such cases—you didn't think we just sent our children out into the world without anyone to watch them at all? Watch," she clarified when I opened my mouth, "not intervene. What will be, will be."

Our children,she’d said. Did that mean Elowen had a child out there somewhere?

As if she could sense the questions brewing in my head, Elowen sighed. "I know nothing more than you about the circumstances surrounding your death, Leonora."

Lie.

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