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“Kira.” The way Cyrus says my name does things to my body. “Tell me why you’re afraid.” He’s giving me puppy-dog eyes.
Still in a panic, I start to ramble. “You just sucked my blood. You fed from me. You’re a vampire.”
“And that scares you?” He frowns. “I thought you were an aura.”
“I am, but I don’t understand all this, and I don’t think you’re supposed to be alive.”
“You’re right,” he says. “We need to find out what’s going on.” He takes a step forward and lifts my hand. Every one of his movements is so swift and smooth that I barely see him in action. “First, you need medical attention. We have a healer here at the castle.” He stops. “Wait, no, the healer might not be here. Oh, and wait a moment, Kira. You gave blood to the seal.”
“I tripped…”
“Only the blood of the spellcaster can open the seal.” His eyes meet mine and they flash. “No one but Belvedere would want to cast the spell. Which means you must be…” Then his mouth opens, and his fangs elongate. Thin veins of red travel from his eyes to the bridge of his nose.
His expression is savage and animalistic, and my heart ices over with terror.
Eighteen
“Who are you?”he snarls.
I back away slowly. Never have my insides turned to water so quickly. I don’t know how “gorgeous guy” can transform to “terrifying predator” in the length of a heartbeat, but it’s like someone flipped a switch, and Cyrus became an animal.
A vampire, I remind myself.
The last vampire, but I’m not sure he knows that yet.
“I’m not an enemy,” I tell him. “I’m just related to one.”
He snaps his teeth together. Despite the terror, the thought of him biting my neck again makes me shiver with pleasurable memories. The thought of him ripping my throat out, however, is definitely less pleasant.
“Explain,” he demands.
“My name is Kira Grant. I woke up puking blood on my eighteenth birthday, and that’s how I found out I’m an aura. My mum’s name is Rita Belvedere—”
“Belvedere.” He hisses it again.
I keep backing up, slowly making my way to the opendoor. “Yes, but she isn’t even a witch. She works in an office at an insurance firm and drives a Skoda.”
Cyrus frowns. “I don’t know what a Skoda is.”
It could be my imagination, but I sense him calming. Maybe my rambling is helping.
“It’s a car, like a small, reliable car that people drive, and it just goes to show how freaking normal my mum is,” I say. “She and my dad divorced five years ago, and it was tough. I lived with her for a year, and we fought all the time. I meanall the time. Over stupid stuff. Me using the last of the milk, her not buying me a Nintendo. Guess what? My dad bought me the Nintendo, and I got all excited and wanted to move in with him. So I did. But that was hard too.”
He is definitely less feral now, so I keep going. “We don’t fight, but it was kinda the opposite, like he was so obsessed with his new wife and didn’t have time for me anymore. Mum was so upset about me moving that she didn’t speak to me for a month. We’re still not good. And I miss her.” I pause. “I really miss her. So maybe I should start calling myself Belvedere. After her. Everyone calls me that here anyway.”
When I take a breath, Cyrus holds up a hand. “I don’t understand a word you’re saying,” he says. “You talk too fast. What’s a Nine-tindo?”
I smile. “A Nintendo is a games console. You can playAnimal Crossing.”
He shakes his head, and the red veins disappear. I let out a long sigh of relief.
“You’re not a vampire hunter?” he asks.
I lift both hands. “Very much not. This is my first day at theacademy, and I’m not sure I was supposed to resurrect a vampire.”
His shoulders slump. “I keep forgetting that I was dead for all these years.”
“How did you… die?”
