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  He continued as he paced in front of the stage. Old Victorian mansions close to campus had been renovated and turned into sorority and fraternity homes, and the lake north of town was notorious for its perfectly flat coast of which hosted a driftwood bonfire every year.

  “For those who believe Greek life is for them, just outside the entrance there are four booths for the Greek houses on campus,” Professor Thomas stated. “If you have not received a tour of the campus, please meet me at the back of the auditorium. Congratulations on your acceptance to Clover Bay University, and don’t let the vampires bite.”

  Lana was one of the first to stand and scoot her way past Rae. Professor Thomas’s eyes followed the young Fury and Seer until their frames disappeared into the mass of students exiting the building. Rae grabbed hold of Lana’s arm and pulled her toward the sorority tables to the right of the auditorium doors.

  The girls standing at the table looked them up and down, “Welcome to Clover Bay U, my name is Vanessa and this is Alexa. We’re sophomores here and oversee recruiting for Beta Psi. Are you ladies interested in joining a sorority?”

  Lana’s mind remained preoccupied with thoughts of Professor Thomas, knowing he stood just a few steps behind her with other students preparing to take their campus tour.

  “Yes, we are,” Rae said, tugging on Lana’s arm. “I’m Rae and this is Lana.”

  “Well, it’s certainly nice to meet you both! Beta Psi has around fifty girls currently, but we are always looking to add incoming freshmen. Our motto, which was originally penned by our founding sister Abigale Jenkins, is the more the merrier,” Vanessa smiled. “Please take a brochure and keep us in mind while you rush next week!”

  Rae took two pamphlets and led Lana away from the booth. They walked, elbows linked, through the festival until Rae spotted the newspaper booth across the common area.

  “Go, I can handle myself,” Lana said, squeezing Rae’s arm.

  “Is everything okay?” Rae asked. “You’ve been acting weird since we got here.”

  “You didn’t even recognize him,” Lana sighed. “That was Kyle. When he found out about me, he freaked!”

  “Oh, I forgot about that,” Rae’s eyes met her feet. “At least he hasn’t confronted you yet.”

  Lana shook her head and shrugged, her friend taking a few steps back. “I’ll catch up with you in a bit.”

  She turned and walked past a few more booths until stopping at the art booth. It sat empty except for a few painted canvases of various posed models. A young man with his hair swept to the right approached from her left before hopping over the empty table next to them.

  “Like what you see?” he asked.

  “Are there live model classes here?” Lana asked.

  “Yep, I take it you’re into art?”

  “Kind of,” she said, looking up. He had bright blue eyes and dark brown hair, his jawline chiseled. She had her arms crossed, her fingers playing with the chain around her neck. “Are you one of the instructors?”

  He shook his head, “Just a student. Professor Baldwin is wonderful though.”

  Lana knew that name and smiled, glad her old acquaintance was still teaching.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Lana, yours?”

  “Aiden.”

  “I’ll see you around then,” she said, looking back at each canvas. One had the body structure of a young woman with short brown hair and light gray eyes. She sat with her legs tucked beneath her and a dark book of some sort in her hands on her lap. Another was a painting of the young man behind the booth, Aiden, leaning up against a pillar in jeans and a loose-fitting t-shirt. Lana looked back at him, now sitting in the chair focusing his attention on a sketchbook.

  Chapter 4

  February 7, 1840

  “She is breathing normally now, and her fever has gone down,” the doctor said. “When she wakes, she will still be very weak.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Adams. We really appreciate all that you have done for her,” Elijah said.

  “It was so kind of you to take her in,” Dr. Adams said. “You are a fine young man. Your mother would be proud.”

  Elijah motioned for the housekeeper to escort the doctor out, Abigale watching the girl from beside the window.

  “She should be waking up soon,” Elijah said, only half-believing his own statement.

  “And then we can send her on her way?” Abigale asked.

  “She still needs to regain her strength, Abby. She is not going anywhere,” he answered.

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? For her to stay?” Abigale said. “She is a distraction, Elijah. Nothing but a damn distraction!”

  “Do not raise your voice, you will wake her,” he said. “Go for a walk or something, please. You need to calm down.”

  After Abigale left the room, Elijah sat on the edge of the bed. He wrung water out of a wet cloth, pressing the material lightly to the girl’s forehead and then her cheeks. She turned her head toward his hand, opening her eyes slowly.

  Startled, she quickly moved away from him, grabbing at the sheets to cover her barely clothed body. All she could do was stare at him as she tried to find her voice but couldn’t.

  “My name is Elijah. I found you while I was traveling, and you were unconscious. You were very sick and my family took you in,” he said.

  “Lana,” she said softly, her voice cracking.

  He moved closer when she backed up against the headboard, trying to keep distance between them.

  “Please don’t be afraid. I will not harm you,” he said, smiling. “What was your name again?”

  “My name is Lana,” she said again, still cautious about the young man in front of her.

  “Do you remember anything?” he asked.

  Another man entered the room after knocking briefly. “Eli, I was wondering what you were planning on…”

  His statement trailed off as he locked eyes with Lana. Hers were dark gray whereas his were light green.

  “I’m sorry for the interruption,” he said.

  “Micah, this is Lana. And I won’t be too much longer,” Elijah said. “I’ll meet you in the parlor in a few minutes.”

  Micah didn’t take his eyes off Lana as he responded, ‘all right’ to his brother.

  “It was nice to meet you, Lana. I look forward to the day when you have fully recovered.”

  Lana watched as Micah left the room, and at that moment, she realized she had found people who seemed to care about the wellbeing of a stranger: the man trying to calm her fears of him, the other man wishing her a successful recovery. These were characteristics of people she had been longing to find. She relaxed a little, lowering the sheets and looking back at Elijah who sat on the bed with her.

  “I do not wish that you trust us, but I ask that you give it a thought. You have nothing to fear, Lana. You are welcome here, so please stay as long as you would like,” Elijah said.

  After that, he placed the rag in the water bowl and exited the room, closing the door behind him.

  Lana slid back under the covers, turning onto her side. She thought of what she had considered home and how things had changed so much since she left. For so long, she traveled, thinking she would not find anything close enough to call home again.

  As she thought of the kindness the men had shown her, Lana figured she should trust them. They took her in, a stranger they’d never met before, and helped her become healthy again, helped her recover from her illness. Elijah had said she was welcome here, and that alone told her there was hope, hope that she had finally found somewhere to call home again.

  ~

  Lana watched as raindrops pelted her roses while beads of water slid down the glass diligently. A ring dangled from the chain around her neck with a purple gem glistening in the light. Her hair was braided messily, strands of her bangs tucked behind her ear as she leaned her forehead against the window. The glass was cool, a circle of fog under her nose.

  She could still se
e Elijah vividly, his jade eyes in deep sockets, his canines’ sharper than any human she’d ever met. She remembered the way his hair fell in his face after a long day of work in the stables, the way he followed Abigale around like a lost puppy. Abigale. Of course, she’d be part of the founding sisters of the university.

  A leather-bound journal sat in her lap, her left hand playing with a ribbon meant to keep her place. Lana lifted the cover and fumbled through worn pages until the maroon ribbon loosened from the creases.

  Why do I do this to myself?

  Her breathing stayed steady as she pictured Professor Thomas pacing back and forth in front of the stage. His story of vampires and his view on whether they were real or not reminded her of the day he confronted her regarding the photo of her and Micah in a frame worn down with age. She could still feel the compression of his hand around her bicep when he grabbed her, could hear his words, his voice begging her for an answer.

  Lana ran her left hand up her arm, massaging where Kyle’s was that day. Her knees pulled up to her chest, the journal falling to the floor with a thud.

  “Hey, I was looking everywhere for you at the festival,” Rae said, dropping her folder on the divan across from the window seat. “What happened to you?”

  The rain dwindled to mist, rose petals littering the ground around the bushes.

  “I didn’t feel well.”

  “You’re lying,” Rae said, sitting across from her friend. She reached over, tugging on her chin until Lana looked at her.

  “Kyle being at the school bugged me,” Lana’s eyes focused on her fingers intertwining each other. “And then the art booth had a canvas painting of me done by my old art teacher. I thought I could handle coming back, but I don’t know if I can.”

  “I know what you need,” Rae smiled. “There’s a party tonight at one of the frat houses. That girl from Beta Psi invited us!”

  Lana’s eyes met Rae’s, a light blue ring of light circling her pupil. “Why are your eyes different?”

  “This is what happens when I use my powers,” Lana said. “I was depressed, and I wanted it to rain.”

  “Shame on you for playing with the weather,” Rae said, slapping Lana’s leg. “C’mon, let’s get ready.”

  She heaved Lana off the window seat and closed the curtains. “You really like shaming me.”

  The girls went upstairs, Lana pulling on a pair of dark skinny jeans and a flowy maroon blouse. She tucked her necklace into the shirt and unbraided her hair, twirling it into a messy bun, tendrils of lavender-colored hair curling around dark brown strands. The blue in her eyes had faded, leaving light circles on her skin beneath them.

  Lana rubbed some concealer and foundation on her cheeks to get rid of the circles, lining her eyelid with a light red liner and her black lashes grew a quarter inch with mascara. Rae stood in her doorway once she left the bathroom, grabbing her arm as soon as she got close.

  “You’ve gotta stop that, you’re going to make me trip one of these days,” Lana laughed.

  ~

  Boys in button-downs and khakis stood on the front porch of a two-story Victorian home holding solo cups filled with questionable liquid and talking up girls dressed in everything from Sunday best to sweats and a t-shirt. Rae and Lana snuck past them until they found Vanessa from orientation.

  “Rae! I’m so glad you could make it,” she said. She had sun-kissed skin and light brown eyes with shoulder-length black hair. “Lana, it’s good to see you again.”

  “I’m sorry I seemed a little distracted earlier,” Lana shook the girl’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  Vanessa guided them to the refreshments where they grabbed drinks and looked around at the desperate college girls looking for a cute frat boy. She pointed out each of the Beta Psi sisters, some of the prospective pledges, as well as those Delta Sigma brothers and their pledges. Rae grabbed the attention of a boy sitting against the wall sipping his drink, Vanessa naming him as Austin. He’d been a student for a year and refused to rush a fraternity but still hung out at the parties.

  The girls left Lana at the table to talk with Austin. She poured a drink and looked around, the boy from the art table making his way toward her.

  “I guess you were right, I would see you around,” he joked, grabbing a cup and pouring a drink from the punch bowl. “Lana, right?”

  “Right,” she covered her mouth with her cup, sipping at it.

  “What brings you out here? Not a lot of freshmen come to these parties,” Aiden said, walking toward some bar stools a few feet from the table, Lana following. She took a seat, keeping Rae within eyesight.

  “Beta Psi invited my friend who dragged me along,” Lana said, watching Vanessa leave Rae with the suspicious boy on the wall. Rae’s smile got bigger and bigger as she twirled her hair with her finger.

  “Is she the one talking with Austin?” Aiden asked, taking a sip of his drink.

  “Yeah, she’s a flirt,” she huffed. “So, what do you study?”

  “History.”

  “Good for you, we need more historians in this world,” Lana said.

  “What about you?”

  “Psychology and art,” Lana said. “I want to help people.”

  “Good for you, we need more psychologists in this world,” Aiden smiled, earning one from Lana. “What did you think of the portraits on my booth today?”

  “I thought they were very well done and that they deserved to be hung in a gallery,” Lana made a rainbow with her hand as if wiping away Windex on a window.

  “You’re lying,” Aiden said. “Honestly, as an art major you’re to analyze and critique.”

  She looked at him, his eyes a deeper blue than earlier that day. “I recognized one of the pieces from Professor Baldwin when she taught at the high school a few years back. And I also saw the one of you.”

  “And?”

  “They need work,” Lana said, looking back where Rae had been standing. She saw the cups the two had been drinking from on the stairwell banister. “I’ll be right back.”

  She set her drink on the bar and scooted the stool underneath before turning from Aiden and heading up the stairs. At the top, an oval mirror and entryway table forced her to go left. Doors on either side of the hall were closed, lights either on or off. The end of the hall turned right, another set of doors on either side yet the only open one was the one straight ahead, no lights on.

  Lana peaked her head into the room, the shadow of a man all she could see lying on the bed. She flicked the light switch, what she thought was Austin rearing his head back to see her. His eyes were pitch black, his hand holding Rae’s head back so her throat was completely exposed. He launched himself off the bed, knocking Lana into the door, the hinges breaking at their combined weight. Austin stretched his mouth wide, revealing razor sharp teeth and tar dripping from the roof of his mouth. Lana pushed him away, the overwhelming smell of rotting garbage sickened her, her eyes watered.

  Aiden slid around the corner, the black figure hunched on the other side of the doorway. He spun a small dagger around in his hand ready to launch when the figure stood, his eyes locked on Aiden. When Austin charged, Aiden sunk the dagger into his abdomen. He disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. He was by her side, heaving her from the ground and leading her to the bed next to Rae.

  “What happened?” they asked simultaneously.

  “Not sure, but he’s gone,” Aiden said. “I’m gonna go talk to Lance and I’ll be right back.”

  After he left, Lana and Rae looked around the room for an alternate exit. The window behind the bed slid open without a sound, Lana’s blouse clinging to her skin. She slipped through it, her feet barely reaching the slanted overhang beneath them. Once steady, Rae followed, sliding the window down as she descended. They hopped off the overhang, following along the side of the house toward the front lawn. Lana’s Elantra, parked across the street, came to life when she reached into her pocket and pressed the auto-start button on the key fob.

 
; Back in the hallway, Aiden pulled his phone out of his pocket as he rounded the corner. He dialed the last incoming number, letting it ring.

  “Hey D,” Aiden said. “You were right.”

  “We’ll get the clubhouse set up,” the voice said on the other line. “Call us if anything changes.”

  ~

  The cabin was cold as a young man clothed in dark sweats and a white t-shirt knelt by the fire. The tip of a glistening blade poked away at planks of wood feeding the flames.

  The floor creaked, followed by another male figure, his hair slicked back with grease, clearing his throat.

  “What news have you brought me, Rayaz?” the man at the fire asked.

  “Alric has failed, sir,” Rayaz said.

  As the fireman sighed, he took the scorching metal in his hand, the skin beneath the blade sizzling like bacon.

  “Do you know why I endure this pain, Rayaz?”

  The man shook his head. “I am not sure, sir.”

  “Inflicting pain to myself helps me keep my mind off inflicting pain on my subjects,” he said as he stood, facing the man in the doorway. “I could harm you Rayaz, but I fear that if I do, then no other person will be capable of leading me where I need to go.”

  “I do not mean to insult, Mr. Donovan. But why can you not go there yourself? Clover Bay is not enchanted. It is not protected,” Rayaz said.

  “Innocents do not deserve to die because of a hunch,” Donovan said, glossy eyes reflecting ember flames as he spoke.

  “Sir, you are speaking in riddles,” Rayaz whispered.

  “I cannot return to Clover Bay until I am certain that I have a reason to,” he said.

  “What reason would that be, Donovan?” Rayaz asked.

  “You know me, give me one.”

  ~

  “What was he?” Rae asked as Lana drove home.

  “He was a member of the Darkness,” Lana said, rubbing her neck. “I thought it was odd how quickly he drew you in and then when you disappeared, I knew something was wrong.”