Page 63 of Mortal Blood
“It’s just me,” I said quickly. “The others aren’t here yet. I was hoping to have a quick word with Sam.”
“One second, I’ll call him.”
She pushed the door to, and I heard the muffled sounds of movement behind it. A few seconds later it opened again and Sam stepped through. I frowned as I took him in.
“You look pale.”
He shrugged. “One of the vampires stopped by for an early feed.”
“Oh. Um, sorry.”
“Don’t be. It all counts towards my debt. At this rate, I might be out of here in two years, especially with the deal you made with Princess Thessalia.”
“Yeah, well, I figured if Thaden’s going to have my blood, it might as well helpsomeone.”
“It seems unfair that someone isn’t you.”
“If fair existed, you wouldn’t even be here.”
He gave me a lopsided smile. He’d only come here in the first place because Astor had promised to have the academy’s healer treat his dying sister. I don’t think he’d have cared about paying that price—and I couldn’t blame him for that—if she hadn’t beenkilled in a car accident shortly after. Astor, of course, had refused to release him from his deal. So far as she was concerned, she’d fulfilled her end of the bargain, and he had no choice but to fulfil his.
“It’s not all bad,” he said softly, and then looked away quickly. “I, uh, I mean it’s much more comfortable now. With the new furniture.”
“How is everyone getting on with the training courses and educational stuff—did you need anything else?”
“They’re great. I think it’s giving them a lot of hope, knowing there might be something out there for them other than being fed on, when this is all over.”
“Them,” I said carefully. “But not you?”
He shrugged. “There’s not a whole lot waiting for me, and that’s not something schooling can fix.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shook his head and forced a smile. “You’re apologizing to me, after everything you’ve done for us? I’m grateful, truly. We all are.”
“You don’t have to—”
The main doors swung open, and I cut off what I was saying. Our conversation was private, and vamps had good hearing.
I expected the students to start filtering in, but what I hadn’t expected was for Demir to stride in with them. He usually arrived a little after the students.
“I should…” Sam said, hooking his thumb at the door behind him. Humans weren’t meant to be in here unless they were summoned by a vampire—and technically, I wasn’t.
“Stay where you are,” Demir commanded him, stalking towards us from across the room. Sam froze, the panic on his face immediately hidden behind a carefully blank mask. He bowed his head respectfully as Demir reached us.
“We’re going to start this lesson with a little demonstration,” the instructor said, raising his voice so that everyone could hear. The chatter of the arriving students quickly died, and they all turned to stare at us. Shit. Being the center of attention for twenty hungry vampires was a never a good day, but the predatory gleam in Demir’s eyes made it a hundred times worse.
“Today, class, we will discuss the duality of the…” His lip curled in disgust. “Dhampir.”
A shiver ran the length of my spine, and I felt the intensity of the other students’ stares ratchet up a notch. Great. Another ‘Cali sucks’ lesson. Just perfect.
“The dhampir, as you all know, is half human, and half vampire.”
I didn’t bother to point out that I was at leastpartshifter, because interrupting Demir’s lectures never ended well. And besides, shifters were one of the few things the vampires hated almost as much as dhampirs. I scanned the gathered faces, but there was no sign of Thaden. Probably for the best. It wasn’t like he was going to come to my rescue, anyway.
“A dhampir can, of course, survive on human food. They also can exist on human blood.”
“We can?” I blurted.
