Page 22 of Slayer

Things just got very confusing.

Celia nodded to the headmistress. “I’ll get her DNA profile into the system and file the paperwork.”

Rubina looked surprised at that. “You will be filing her paperwork?”

“Yes.” Celia tipped her chin up in defiance, and I had no idea what was going on but I loved her already because it seemed like she was sticking up for me. “Wouldn’t want any issues.”

“Fine,” Rubina growled, moving toward the door. “You have twenty-four hours.”

Rubina left the room, and the door closed more loudly than one would if they were being polite, the sound snapping through the quiet space.

Celia rushed to my side. “Hey, kid, how ya doing?”

I just blinked up at her, my head still swimming. “Overwhelmed. Confused. I want to go home.”

She sighed, pulling up a chair and taking a seat beside me, her posture angling toward me. “I know this is a lot to take in, but I need you to accept that this is your home now. And that you can’t ever go back to the mortal realm.”

The mortal realm? I laughed, a short, uncertain sound, but she didn’t return the smile. Oh, they really called it that?

“Listen.” She leaned in closely, lowering her voice. “Headmistress Rubina is good friends with Molly’s mother, who stands to absorb your inheritance if we don’t prove you are Molly’s kid, and I don’t trust her not to interfere. So I need you to lock in with me for the next twenty-four hours, and then I can slow down and properly teach you about our world.”

“Inheritance? What?”

She grabbed a clean set of folded clothes and handed them to me before drawing the curtains closed and giving me her back, blocking the light from the window.

“Get dressed,” she ordered.

I stood and began to change clothes.

“Tell me about this Molly woman,” I said to her.

“Your mother went missing almost twenty years ago, she was my best friend in the entire world, and you look just like her.”

Her words sliced right into my heart.

I stopped in the middle of buttoning up my jeans, my fingers freezing on the button, and had to take two slow breaths to steady myself, the room suddenly feeling too close.

“I do? I have a mother?” I finished dressing, and Celia spun around.

“Of course you do. Everyone does. We just need to prove yours was Molly Sinclair.”

I slipped on the black leather jacket she’d given me and looked down at the outfit, taking myself in. I wore faded ’90s jeans, a white tank, and a vintage black leather jacket with matching boots. A pretty cool outfit that was just my vibe.

Celia grinned. “Even her clothes fit you.”

My face fell, and I reached up and touched the worn leather jacket, my fingers brushing the softened seams.

Celia walked over and grasped my shoulders, steady and warm. “You ingested a Celestis Astra rune without dying. I’m sure you’re Molly’s kid, but even if you’re not, you belong here at Nightguard where you can be properly trained and protected.”

At this point, I was just nodding and going along with it, because I was too overwhelmed for anything else. My thoughts were lagging behind the conversation.

“And what would I be trained for?” I asked as we moved to the door, hesitating half a second before following her.

“To protect humans against vampires of course.” She peered back at me with her eyes narrowed.

“Right. Because vampires feed off humans. Like in the books.” I nodded, clinging to the only reference I had.

Celia pulled me into the hallway, her hand firm on my arm. She nodded to a few people in white lab coats as we passed by, and then we made our way outside.