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But Jack wasn’t listening. He used his grip on my hair to drag me from my seat. I yelped and reached for his hand, trying to pry it loose. I might as well have been grappling with a boulder. He drew me close enough that I could smell the blood on his breath. There was something not-quite-sane glimmering far back in his eyes.
“I think you’re a liar,” he said in a deadly whisper. “You think you’re so damned powerful that you can handle whatever goes on after curfew.”
“Let go!” I said, slapping at his forearms as real panic started to take hold of me. If he didn’t let me go soon, I was going to do something drastic. Like hex him. Or cry. “Please let go!”
Jack’s lips tilted upward in a mocking smile. “Ooh, please, is it? Well, if you’re going to say please...”
He let me go so abruptly, I swayed and nearly fell over. Which was when the last of the hexes decided to play its nasty hand, tilting me just a little further off balance. My foot came down wrong, slipping off the edge of the top stair. I had just enough time to let out a breathless shriek as gravity wrenched me down. I hit the next stair on my shoulder, the impact so jarring that it sent lightning streaking down my arm. My momentum dragged me down the rest of the way down the descending staircase, hitting every corner or uneven patch of stone until I lay battered and bloody on the ground floor.
And then my head hit the edge of a lectern. Stars burst behind my eyes, and I felt something warm and thick sliding down one side of my face. The room spun in dizzying circles when I tried to lift my head. Bile crept up my throat, and I turned my head to the side, just in case I threw up what was left of my lunch. I blinked blearily and found a group of the night students standing over me, though I could only bring the nearest two into focus.
“Nice going, arsehole,” the one with the British accent said with a sigh. He was shorter than Jack, with wavy brown hair and pale green eyes. “We’re going to be expelled for this.”
“I didn’t push her, Dan!” Jack raged. “The bitch fell on purpose! She knows if she shows up with so much as a bruise, we’re in trouble.”
“Yes, I’m sure she risked breaking her neck just to spite you,” Dan drawled. “Just step away from her, you bloody imbecile. I know that look. Go find your girlfriend if you’re peckish.”
Jack’s nostrils were flared wide, eyes glittering with barely suppressed hunger as he stared down at me. It reminded me so viscerally of Janeth that I curled into a ball, trying to make myself smaller. If Jack sank his fangs into me and took a significant amount of blood, it was over. I’d be dead.
Dan looked interested too, though he was hiding it better than Jack. If I was a betting woman, the others were probably leaning forward, scenting the air, enjoying the smell of my blood, even if they weren’t going in for a taste. Thanks to one little hex, I was bleeding in front of a crowd of vampires and it would only take one of them losing control to do me in.
Jack began to reach for me but froze in place when a voice directly behind him snapped, “Lay a fang or finger on her, and I’m going to break every useless bone in your body, Collins. You’ve been warned about this before.”
Jack backed away so quickly that he almost left an afterimage with a hasty, “Yes, Professor.”
It left a man of medium height and build standing where he’d been a moment before. He was very… stark. He was dressed in black. Shiny black dress shoes, tailored black dress slacks, the standard Blood Rose dress shirt with its obligatory crest. The only spot of color in the ensemble was the ruby earring that hung like a droplet of blood from his right ear. He looked to be in his late thirties, with a few streaks of gray threading through the sleek darkness of his hair. This must have been the man that Jack mentioned. Professor Valserak.
His lips pursed in distaste as he stared down at me. “Can you stand, girl?”
I pushed up on my elbows, slowly, swallowing convulsively as nausea rose to choke me. I made it about halfway up before I retched and had to lie flat again. The professor sighed.
“Chesley, take her to the nurse’s office and stay with her until they determine whether or not she has a concussion.”
Another vampire elbowed his way through the crowd and knelt next to me. One of his arms slid beneath my shoulders, while the other cradled my knees. He lifted me without effort, keeping me pressed close to his chest. I prayed that the smell of my blood wasn’t as enticing to him as it was to Jack, or I’d never make it to the nurse’s office alive.
My rescuer took the stairs two at a time, ignoring the mutters of the vampires and demons behind us. Then we were sweeping down the hall, the stone arches streaking by in my periphery. I struggled to focus and found myself staring at a familiar, chiseled profile.
“Rook?”
His dark eyes flicked to my face, somber and unhappy. “What?”
“Don’t take me to the nurse’s office, please. I don’t want Vivian to know her hexes worked.”
His mouth twisted, and he spat a curse. “She did this to you?”
I shrugged. Or at least, I tried to. The motion jarred my arm, drawing a whimper from me. Rook picked up the pace.
“I’m not going to let you suffer or die for your pride, Depraysie,” he said after a moment.
“I won’t,” I said. “I have healing ointments and elixirs in my room. I just have to… close the wounds before I lose too much blood.”
Rook gave me a long, searching look. “What did you do to piss her off?”
“None of your business.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “It is my business if you want my help. Quid pro quo, Carrot Top.”
I glowered at him. Infuriating vampire. I hated that he was cute—actually, with that square jaw, Roman nose and large eyes, he was really cute. If he’d been as unlikeable and plain as Jack, I could have held his gaze longer. As it was, I was just grateful that I didn’t have enough blood to waste on blushing.
