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Why not? I thought. If you lived for all eternity, better to be served by an army of teenage hotties.
And I was the odd one out, yet again. Because I had a brain. The only Skipper in a sea of Barbies.
“Look at your peers,” he pressed. “Only fifty of you will rise to the next level of training. Then but twenty-five the following year. You will eventually be whittled down to an elite group of five. ”
I wasn’t ready to consider what happened to the remaining, oh, several dozen other girls.
“Your training will be intense. You will work hard. You will learn strength and fortitude. You will learn to toil and to do without. Through the years, you will cultivate yourselves, learning elegance, embracing lives of intellect and sophistication.
“The crème among you shall be chosen to be our representatives in the world. But it is a dangerous world, as many of you have experienced. ” It seemed like his eyes lit on me, and I told myself it was my imagination. “And so your training must also be dangerous. ”
He chuckled, and I felt that warmth flood me again, despite myself. “But you are my hothouse lovelies, and if you let me, I shall teach you to gavotte as expertly as you garrote. ”
I shoved the warmth away, focusing on his words, on his gruesome little pun that likened dancing to strangling.
But then, in the darkest recesses of my mind, I went there, just for a moment. I’d felt the urge to throttle someone before—Daddy Dearest came to mind—but never could I bring myself to actually kill someone. Right?
“For the next year, you will be known as the Acari. That is from the Greek. It means ‘mite. ’ Like . . . a tick. A parasite. And, like parasites, you shall feed off of our knowledge. ”
This time he really did look at me, like I was his student and he wanted to explain some fascinating linguistic bit just to me. I made my face like stone, even though I thought my heart might explode from my chest. Being noticed was the last thing I wanted. His lips peeled into a smile as he turned his attention back to the rest of the crowd. “Indeed, you will gain strength by feeding off our very lifeblood. You already have. ”
I gulped back bile. He meant blood. Like, real blood. As in, our little in-flight cocktail.
“Our lifeblood will aid you. Fortify you. ” He waved his hand impatiently. “But I touch on topics that are for others to broach. You will reside in the Acari dormitory, where you’ve each been assigned a roommate. Every floor has a Proctor. The Proctor is ahead of you in your training—she has ascended to what we call Initiate. Your Proctors and teachers will inform you of any details I’ve withheld. ”
He narrowed his eyes. I couldn’t tell where he was looking, and the effect was that he looked at all of us simultaneously. “And remember. You will show your dormitory Proctors and all Initiates respect. Never forget, you are merely Acari. ”
The snow drifted down, and it cast its own shroud of silence over the crowd.
The headmaster’s voice pierced the calm with one final proclamation. “Stand warned, lovelies. Initiates are encouraged to teach you cruelty. And you should thank them for it. For to understand cruelty is to know strength. ”
And then Headmaster Claude Fournier simply disappeared.
CHAPTER NINE
The crowd was dispersing, splitting into smaller groups and piling into a fleet of monstrous SUVs. I gave a last backward glance to the fortress on the hill. What was that place? Was it where all the vampires lived? Did it house stuff like dungeons and underground catacombs and imperiled virgins?
Either way, I was relieved it wasn’t going to be my new dorm. The thing looked haunted. And those standing stones had given me the creeps, too. Archaeologists may not have known what megalithic stones had been used for, but it sure seemed to me that I’d just seen my first human sacrifice.
I should’ve listened to my doubts and not joined him on that damned plane, but Ronan had made me feel safe, with those stupid green eyes and that stupid husky voice.
I caught up with him. “Don’t tell me you’re a vampire, too. ”
I felt that heavy, green-eyed gaze on me. “Do I look like a vampire?”
“How the hell should I know?” Bracing myself, I forced my eyes to him. “I don’t understand why I’m here. Why would you bring people to this place? I knew I should’ve trusted my instincts, but no. All you had to do was look at me, and—” I froze, understanding coming like the flash of a bulb in my head. I glared accusingly. “You used some sort of vampire mojo to get me on that airplane. ”
He opened his mouth to speak, but snapped it shut.
Aha
. I was onto something. But before I could press him, he grabbed my arm, leading us toward a super-oversized version of a Ford Excursion. It reminded me of those ghastly stretch Hummers that kids rented for dances.
I stopped in my tracks. By this time I was panicked and scared and freaked and angry, feeling capable of either sarcasm or hysteria. I chose the former. “Wow, now that’s a real date getter. It’s like vampire prom night. ”
“Annelise. ” Ronan stopped walking. “You must never mistake human for Vampire, nor should you even joke about it. ”
“In the same way you’re not supposed to joke in line for airport security?” I felt his exasperation and stared him down. “Well, how should I know, Ronan? I’d never seen a vampire before today, so I’m not exactly an expert. So, what, did you fail your vamp final exam? Is that why you’re not one . . . ov zee undead?”
