Tainted Blood (51 page)

“Game?” I questioned with my mind but I wasn’t sure that he heard me.

He continued on about Mr. Morgan. “Morgan is sloppy, that I know from experience, but this seems…almost purposely sloppy. It’s like someone wants him to get caught…” he trailed off for a moment, his sky blue eyes getting a distant look, one I’d often seen in Oliver when he was deep in thought. “Whoever it is, I do not think they are done setting their trap and I plan to stop them before it can be set.”

“Do you think the slayers have started recruiting again?” I asked with thoughts of Ashton standing beside Paul the slayer in Professor Morgan’s room the previous night.

“I am afraid that they have,” he said solemnly. A chill ran through me. “They aren’t the only ones,” Felix said almost as an afterthought.

I wasn’t sure what he meant by that so I asked, “Is Brookehaven recruiting?”

“Nah, we don’t need to.” He popped a few more fries into his mouth. “It’s the other species that have begun gathering their forces.”

Super…

After I had finished my burger and Felix was nearly done with his, I pulled the vial of my blood from my pocket and held it out to him. “Can you explain this?”

His eyes widened as he sipped from his vanilla milkshake. “Where did you get that?” his voice was almost a thin, deep whisper.

“Ashton’s bedroom. It’s mine, isn’t it?” He nodded in response. “How did he get it?” I asked.

Felix took the half empty vial from me and examined it. “I had assumed that Marcus had snatched it when I banished him from the hospital,” he told me as he turned the vial and watched my blood slide back and forth inside of the tube. It was slightly unsettling.

“You knew it was missing? Even back then?” Not that it was all that long ago. He nodded and continued to tip the vial back and forth. “Why didn’t you say anything?” I felt my temper start to flare.

His attention turned, and his eyes focused on me. “Why would I? What good would that have done?”

Okay, I’d give him that. I’d have just freaked most likely. “Why did he take it?” I asked.

He returned his attention to the vial between his fingers. “I have no idea…”

“Should I be worried?”

“Always,” he said in a distracted way. “But, I wish for you not to dwell upon this. Yet.”

Again, super…

Chapter
27 - Angels and Demons

I yawned several times as Carter and I headed to class for the night. I was tired due to how little sleep I’d gotten at Zoey’s the previous night. Between Carter’s soft snoring and his mumbling in his sleep—something about needing to use someone’s sink—it had been pretty hard to get any sleep. Plus, Zoey’s rat, Chatters, digging all night didn’t help, either.

Then there were the thoughts of Oliver that had kept me awake for hours. If he had any clue what was going on in his absence, he’d probably be flipping out. Especially since I’m involved and all.

Even though I was tired, I was also seriously keyed up. There was a plan in place and Carter and I were ready to play our parts. We didn’t know the entire plan, we only knew what we needed to do as Felix had told us. What we knew outside of our instructions was that there was going to be some sort of werewolf catcher division from Brookehaven there to help out. Although the full moon wasn’t due to show itself for some time, the Weres were strong even when they weren’t in misshapen wolf form. We also knew that Amber had a part to play.

We were ready. Well, maybe…

Carter and I settled into a couple of seats midway down the stadium seating in Professor McBaldy’s old English room. Other students were taking seats as we all waited for Professor Morgan and our scheduled werewolf guest. Professor Amber was at McBaldy’s old desk; she had a stack of papers in front of her and appeared busy, but Carter and I knew differently. We knew the papers were for show.

Professor Morgan entered the room from the passageway that led to our little gray, windowless classroom. I held my cell just out of view of the instructor and dialed Felix. Then I put my phone on speaker hoping that Felix had his muted like he had said he would do. Any sound coming out of my phone would surely bring me unwanted attention.

“Well, students,” Mr. Morgan smiled up at the class. “Our guest will be joining us shortly. How about we head back and get started?”

“Actually, Professor Morgan, we will be staying in the lecture hall this evening,” Amber told him very casually. She glanced at Carter and me briefly, a silent acknowledgement, then she returned her attention to her stack of papers.

Professor Morgan looked momentarily surprised then he quickly composed himself. “Well, as my colleague says we shall remain here, in the main class, for the evening. Let me just grab something from the backroom and we shall get started.” He made to head back down the corridor and Professor Amber stopped him with a simple, “That won’t be necessary, Mr. Morgan. I have already brought the students’ notebooks.” She nodded toward a crate beside the desk. Amber was good. Very to the point and firm.

Mr. Morgan was stumped. You could see him watching his devious plan slipping away before his eyes. “Okay, students. Come on down and get your notebooks and we’ll get started.” The tension forming within him was obvious.

Carter headed down the steps with the rest of the class and grabbed both of our notebooks. He hurried back and took his seat beside me, giving me a nervous glance as he handed me my notebook.

Professor Morgan, visibly trying to conceal his uneasiness, began his lecture. It was apparent he hadn’t prepared any new material as he repeated his lecture from Tuesday night.

Carter was nervous; he clicked his pen repeatedly until I hissed for him to stop. He shot me a surprised looked and then set about executing his portion of the plan.

When Carter was nervous he laughed. Using this as a strength, Felix told Carter he was to treat tonight as if zombies would soon be invading. You know, because what we already feared wasn’t enough. So, told to keep the mood light and make jokes, Carter got started. He was to repeatedly interrupt Professor Morgan’s lecture with various zombie related questions. He raised his hand high in the air.

“Yes, Mr. Thomas?” Morgan replied.

“Zombies. You said there’s a response team. Who makes up this team and what is their job?”

“Mr. Thomas, this is neither the time nor the place for such questions.”

“I think this is certainly the place,” Carter retaliated, sitting forward in his seat. “Now, has this response team ever had to go into action?”

Professor Morgan, sporting his bowtie and sweater vest, glared up at Carter. “What is all this about, Mr. Thomas?”

“Pure curiosity,” Carter told him as he settled back into his seat.

“May I get back to my lecture?”

Carter gestured, a bit overconfidently, for Mr. Morgan to continue.

“Vampires, werewolves, and zombies, oh my!” Carter joked loud enough that surrounding students heard and snickers filled the room.

“Don’t forget the angels,” a male voice said as he passed by us.

“Whoa…” every student in the room breathed.

An actual angel was walking down the steps that descended through the center of the classroom. His feathered wings were massive and dark, black actually, with a small patch of white feathers toward the base his left wing. He was wearing weathered jeans, boots like I often saw Felix wear, and some sort of black vest that laced on the sides, covering his chest. Well, not much of it anyway. It fit around his wings like it was made for him. This vest revealed the angel’s long, lean muscles, and I noticed the few girls in the class leaning forward with dreamy looks in their eyes. Some of the boys seemed just as entranced.

Professor Morgan’s face was stark white and his eyes bulged as he watched the angel approach. Professor Amber looked up from her paperwork and a smile touched her lips as the angel stepped down into the classroom.

“Cyrus,” she said, standing to greet him.

He took her hand, bowed, and before pressing his lips to her fingers he said with a delightful accent, “Ambrose SaVan, my immortal moon. Always a pleasure.” Her reaction was what amazed me, and I was surprised at how he was able to sway her.

Professor Morgan looked like all the blood had drained from him, and I thought he might pass out at any moment. He stuttered, “Wh-wh-what are y-you doing here?”

The angel, Cyrus, turned his attention to Mr. Morgan, rounded the front of the desk then he scooted his bum on top of it. He rested his forearms on his thighs and clasped his fingers together as his large black wings shifted around him, blocking anyone’s view of Amber. I was fairly certain that this was part of the plan.

“So, Morgan, where is tonight’s guest?” the angel asked with a hint of a wicked smile and a voice you could listen to for hours.

A text from Felix flashed over my still open phone call.

Be ready.

My pulse raced as I showed Carter the message. He straightened his back, ready for whatever came at him.

“Wha-what are you doing here, cousin?” Mr. Morgan asked again, this time with much less stuttering.

Carter and I exchanged a puzzled look. “Cousin?” Carter mouthed.

From what I’d read, demons were fallen angels that had not fulfilled their duty. Morgan was the offspring of a demon. Cyrus was clearly an angel so it was possible they were relations… I’d explain my conclusion to my puzzled friend later. For the moment, we needed to be ready for whatever it was our demon-halfling teacher was planning to throw at us.

“Well,
cousin
, it has been brought to my attention that you have been misbehaving yourself,” Cyrus said. With another wicked grin, Cyrus’ eyes lifted to the doors above us.

We all turned to see what he was looking at. Three burly men stood at the top of the steps, clearly surprised by the angel’s presence.

“Ah, our guests have arrived,” Cyrus said. “Come on down, gentlemen. I do believe you have a presentation to share.” His accent was suddenly gone.

Cyrus gestured for the men to come down the steps and join him and Morgan. That’s when all hell broke loose.

The men at the top of the steps, our supposed guest speakers, went instantly on the attack. They rushed down the steps, and as they did so Felix and several other vampires rushed into the room from the doors at the top of the class and from both sides of the corridor at the bottom of the classroom.

Screams erupted from the students and most of them hit the ground and watched the commotion from under their desks. All but one: the guy I’d recognized from my math class joined in the fight and not on our side.

Sadly, he did not survive.

Carter and I stayed out of the way. I gathered that the first part of Carter’s duties had been fulfilled and the second half of his job was to keep me out of harm’s way. I’d only had the one job, and it had been fulfilled once Felix entered the room. After that I had been told that I was to stay out of it, so, I shoved my phone into my back pocket and huddled near Carter.

As Carter held me close to him, I caught a glimpse of curly-haired Jack cowering under his desk just a row behind us. I gave him a reassuring smile and told him to stay where he was. He nodded frantically and gripped the back of the seat in front of him—his fingers turning white from gripping the wood so hard.

I turned my attention to the floor down below. The angel was swift. His wings only moving as a part of him, they never opened and he didn’t use them, and they didn’t seem to be in his way. It made me wonder, amongst all of the chaos, if they even worked or if they were just for show.

Several more of what appeared to be Mr. Morgan’s followers filed in through the doors above us and the vampires took them down in turn. The sounds of bones cracking, flesh ripping, and bloody screams filled the room. I was close to covering my ears in the hopes of cutting off the brutal sounds, when a terrible thought occurred to me. If Oliver had been here, he’d have been a part of this mess and that thought terrified me. This is what Oliver did when he went to work! For my own safety, I had to give myself a mental shake to come back to the present and pay attention.

Morgan’s cohorts were seriously outnumbered, and as a few more entered the room, they continued to be taken down.

Amber was playing her part. Even wearing one of her usual fancy dresses, she had a struggling Professor Morgan pinned, facedown to the ground. A group of vampires stood protectively around her as she put handcuffs on Morgan. Whatever was on the handcuffs or whatever they were made from wasn’t agreeing with him. He was crying out in pain and I saw a bit of smoke rising up from where the cuffs touched the skin around his wrists.

All was looking good and in our favor until a large wave of Morgan’s minions entered the room. Carter and I were still midway up in the seats, keeping out of the fight, when Carter tackled me to the ground, pinning me down with his body as a figure flew over us.

“Fancy meeting you here,” he said with a smile, his thin, messy hair falling forward.

“Would you mind getting off of me?”

“Maybe,” he smirked crookedly and his scar crinkled over his eye.

I rolled my eyes at him. Even in the midst of this mayhem, he still had his sense of humor. He pushed himself up so that he could take a quick survey and it caused other parts of him to push into me. I felt myself blush as he scanned the area. Thankfully, he didn’t look at me before he bounced to his feet and pulled me off of the floor.