Eternal (3 page)

“For always,” I said, my voice thick as a wave of hopelessness washed over me. “He’s gone, remember? He’s not coming back.”

A sharp, fiery pain shot through my shoulders—both of them at once. With a cry, I pitched forward, doubling over in agony.

In an instant, Matthew was by my side, one hand on my back. “What happened?”

“I—I don’t know,” I sputtered, trying to catch my breath. “It’s my shoulders.” Hot, searing pain continued to radiate down toward my elbows.

“What can I do? Do you need ice or something?”

“No, I don’t think so.” I forced myself to sit up straight and unzip my hoodie, exposing the tank top I wore beneath. I examined one shoulder, then the other, not quite sure what I was looking for. Considering the magnitude of pain I was experiencing, I half expected to find torn, ragged flesh, broken bones. Instead, everything looked perfectly normal, my skin unblemished.

I shook my head as the pain receded, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. “It’s gone now.”

“Something to do with that old fencing injury?”

“No. This was
both
shoulders. And the pain was totally different—like I was being stabbed or something. Like my skin was tearing.”

“That’s odd. They look fine.” He was examining me now, his brow knitted with concern. “Maybe you should have it checked out.”

“Maybe I’m losing my mind,” I countered.

“What about Sophie? Can you call her, ask her to come over and check it out?”

I nodded. “That’s a good idea. She just got back from Saint Bart’s last night.”

“Perfect,” he said, pulling out his phone and glancing at the time. “I’m supposed to be somewhere in a little bit anyway.”

“Let me text her and see what she says.” Maybe I’d ask her to sleep over. I hurried to my room and grabbed my phone, quickly typing out the message and hitting send. She answered before I’d even made my way back to the living room.

“She’s on her way,” I called out.

“Great. I’ll stay till she gets here, and then I’ve got to run.”

“You really don’t have to stick around,” I said, wanting to
avoid the awkwardness of a Sophie/Dr. Byrne meet-and-greet. “Seriously, she’ll be here in half an hour. I think I can survive on my own till then.”

He just glared at me, unmoved.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Wow, you really take this whole ‘protector’ thing seriously, don’t you?”

His phone began to buzz, the name “Charlie” emblazoned across the screen. “Sorry,” he said, rising and moving toward the window. “I’ve got to take this.”

“No problem,” I said with a shrug. Hurrying over to the dining table, I busied myself with the remains of our dinner, closing up the containers of food and moving everything into the kitchen.

He kept his voice low, but I couldn’t help overhearing little bits and pieces of his conversation. “I know . . . didn’t forget . . . I told you, it’s complicated. Just give me a half hour, okay?”

“Sorry about that,” he said at last, looking a little discomposed as he followed me into the kitchen.

“Everything okay with him?”

“With who?”

“Your friend,” I clarified. “Charlie. Sorry. I saw the name on the screen.”

“Oh, right.” He shoved his phone back into his pocket. “Yeah, she’s fine.”

She
’s fine?

“Her apartment’s around the corner,” he continued. “I can wait for Sophie. I want to see what she has to say about your shoulders.”

“Suit yourself,” I muttered, my cheeks flushing hotly as I fought back unwelcome stirrings of jealousy. Who was this Charlie, and what did she mean to my
Megvéd
?

And more to the point, why did I care?

*  *  *

“Okay, that was kind of weird, right?” Sophie said as soon as the front door closed behind Matthew.

“Welcome to my world.” I collapsed onto the sofa, frustrated. Matthew had made Sophie check my shoulders the minute she’d walked through the door, but she hadn’t found anything that would explain the pain I’d experienced. Apparently, the joints were free of inflammation, the muscles and tendons perfectly normally.

Which meant it was all in my head. I really
was
losing my mind. “Thanks for coming over,” I said, scooting over to make room for her beside me.

She kicked off her shoes and sat, folding her legs beneath her. “Hey, no problem. Trust me, I’ve had just about enough of my parents.”

“How was Saint Bart’s?”

“Nice. The weather was great. Anyway, where’s Aidan? I thought you two were supposed to stick together over break?”

I took a deep breath, bracing myself. I hadn’t called her to tell her what had happened. I couldn’t. After all, I knew that she genuinely liked Aidan. They
all
did, my friends, but Sophie most of all.

And, okay, there was more—the more people I told, the more real it seemed. Besides, I had hoped to have some answers before I told them that Aidan was the Vampire Stalker. Instead I had nothing.

“What’s going on, Violet?” Sophie asked, her brow knitted. “You just went ten shades of pale. Is Aidan okay?”

I shook my head, my windpipe constricting painfully. “I don’t know. He’s at the Tribunal right now. For all I know, they might have destroyed him.” But they hadn’t—couldn’t have. I would have felt it. I was sure of that.

Sophie’s eyes went wide, the color visibly draining from her face. “Destroyed him? What? Why?”

I swallowed hard. “Tyler was right. Aidan is . . . he was the Stalker.”

“No way.” Sophie shook her head. “Not Aidan.”

“He had no idea what he was doing, Soph. It was the serum
he was working on, doing something awful to him. He was in a trance, completely disassociated. It was Aidan, but it wasn’t.”

She covered her mouth with the palm of one hand. When she let it fall, I saw that her fingers were trembling. “How do you know? I mean, are you sure?”

“I had a vision last fall. I thought it was a dream, since I wasn’t able to replay it. But on the last day of school, it happened just like I saw it. He went after my friend Whitney in Central Park. Matthew and I got there just in time. I was able to stop him, but”—I shook my head—“but yeah, I’m sure. He left that night to turn himself in to the Tribunal. He’s not coming back,” I choked out, tears welling in my eyes. “Not in this lifetime.”

Sophie scooted closer, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “And you didn’t call me? You’ve been here all by yourself?”

I wiped my eyes with the back of one hand. “Matthew’s been around. A lot,” I added.

Releasing me, she shot me a glare. “I still can’t believe you didn’t call me, even if you
did
have Dr. Hottie hanging around.”

“There wasn’t anything you could do. Anyway, I didn’t want to ruin your vacation.”

“Well, what about Cece? Does she know?”

I nodded. “She’s been trying to project to Mrs. G. Cece thinks she must have some sort of shield around herself, around Aidan,
too. I’ve got to find her, though. I need to tell her about my vision. I think I saw something that might clear Aidan.”

“Okay, slow down.” She held out a hand. “What vision?”

“One I had just before break. I saw something in the lab, but I didn’t realize what it meant at the time. I think someone was tampering with Aidan’s serum. Mrs. Girard needs to know that it wasn’t Aidan’s fault, that someone
did
this to him. Intentionally.”

“Do you know who it was?”

“No. I couldn’t see anything but hands. At the time, I thought they were Aidan’s. I wasn’t really paying much attention. It was just boring, everyday science stuff, as far as I could tell.”

“So you can just replay the vision, right? Look for clues this time.”

“Matthew’s been trying to talk me through it, but so far, nothing. I don’t know . . .” I shook my head. “What if
he
’s the one who tampered with the serum? I think that’s why I’m having such a hard time with the replay.”

“Do you need him to talk you through it? Or can you do it on your own?”

“It’s easier with him, but sometimes I can do it on my own.”

Sophie scooted to the edge of the sofa. “Okay, let’s do this. What do you need?”

I sat up straight, looking around the apartment. “I wish we
had an old-fashioned clock here. You know, one that ticks really loud.”

A slow smile spread across Sophie’s face as she reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone. “There’s an app for that. Hold on a sec.” She started tapping her screen. “It’s got all kinds of sounds that are supposed to be relaxing. Okay, check this out.” She tapped an icon that looked like an antique grandfather clock, and there it was—
ticktock, ticktock.

“That’s perfect!” I cried, closing my eyes and settling myself back against the cushions.
Ticktock, ticktock.
“Okay, just stay really quiet and let me focus. I can do this.”

A deep breath, in through my nose, out through my mouth—once, twice. I emptied my mind of extraneous thoughts, hyperfocusing on the sound of the clock. Seconds passed, a minute, maybe two. And then the room fell away.

I was in the lab back at Winterhaven. Just like before, microscopes lined the far wall, a Bunsen burner on one of the black-topped tables. I saw the hands, holding a dropper, extracting a liquid from a small vial and dropping it into a test tube. One drop. Two. Three. Then the vial was capped and put into a little wooden rack. As the hands reached for a second vial, I forced myself to pull back, to look around the room. The clock on the wall read five forty-five; one long, rectangular fluorescent light was flickering, making a faint buzzing sound. I
pulled back farther, mentally moving myself toward the door. Turning my head to the left, I found him—the owner of the hands. His back was to me, but I could tell he was tall. Blond. Familiar. He capped a second vial, placing it in the rack, turning slightly so that I could just make out his profile . . .

“Oh my God!” I cried, my eyes flying open as I was pulled from the vision. “I know who it was.”

A
s soon as we were all back at Winterhaven on Sunday afternoon, I gathered everyone in Cece’s and my room and told them about the vision—and about my successful replay.

“It was Jack,” I said.

“Seriously?” Kate chewed on her lower lip. “I mean, yeah, he turned into a total douchewaffle, but still. Why would he do something like that to Aidan? I thought they were friends.”

“I have no idea,” I said with a shrug. But it had been his face I’d seen in my vision—Jack’s. I was one hundred percent sure. My visions didn’t lie.

“Maybe I should start tailing him,” Cece offered. “You know, astrally speaking. See what the boy’s up to.”

“No way. That’s against the COPA. I don’t want you getting in trouble.” I shuddered, remembering the vision I’d had last fall—the one where Cece had been expelled. It had something to do with me sending her out snooping for clues. There was no way I was going to risk it. Nope, not a chance.

“So . . . what now?” Sophie asked. “What does Dr. Byrne think?”

“I haven’t told him. Aidan’s kind of a—a sore subject with him. I’m pretty sure he thinks it’s better this way. That I’m better off without him.” I glanced over at the window, where fat, soft snow fell silently against the glass, and sighed.

Where was Aidan, and what were they doing to him? I’d asked myself these questions a million times a day, and yet I was no closer to answering them now than I’d been two weeks ago. The moment I’d arrived back at Winterhaven, I’d gone straight to the headmistress’s office, ready to confront Mrs. Girard. Only Mrs. Girard wasn’t there. Just as Matthew had said, she’d taken a temporary leave of absence and Dr. Ackerman was acting headmistress. No one could tell me where Mrs. Girard was or when she was expected back.

What the hell is going on?

Anger shot through me, quickening my pulse. Jack had done
this to Aidan.
Jack
, whom I’d always considered a friend. He’d been on our side, one of our Scooby Gang. I was going to find him and kill him. Okay, maybe not literally, but—

“Hey! Earth to Violet!” Cece was gesturing toward my desk. “Isn’t that your phone?”

It was Matthew’s ringtone.
Great
.

I let it go to voice mail. I was pretty sure he was over at Charlie’s, which is apparently where he went when he wasn’t here at school. I knew it shouldn’t bug me, that I had no right to care one way or the other. But it
did
bug me.

I mean, he took the
Megvéd
stuff so seriously. And according to the legend, that meant he was supposed to be my “mate” in every way. So what the heck did that make Charlie? Also, what kind of name was “Charlie” for a woman? It sounded silly and immature, like she was trying too hard to be cool or something.

Jealousy thrummed through me, and I forced myself to shake it off. I was
so
not going there. Matthew was a teacher—a
teacher
—and besides, I was in love with Aidan. I was going to find Aidan, even if it meant slaying the entire freaking Vampire Tribunal to get to him. If they doubted I was capable of it, then they were going to be in for a surprise when—

“God, Violet—snap out of it!” Cece peered up at me with drawn brows.

“I—I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I’m just . . . really distracted right now. I need to find Jack.”

Kate rose, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. “I’m going with you.”

I shook my head. “I think I need to do this alone.”

Kate’s determined gaze met mine. “No way. He may need a little helpful persuasion to talk. I’ll make sure you get your answers.” For such a tiny thing, she looked fierce. I almost felt a little bit afraid of her.

Sophie glanced from Kate to me, a scowl on her face. “So, what do you want me to do? Just sit here twiddling my thumbs while the two of you go gangbusters on him?”

“Where’s Marissa?” I asked her, stalling.

Sophie wrinkled her nose. “Where do you think? Somewhere with Max.”

“Hey, speaking of, have you seen Tyler yet?” Kate’s expression softened a measure.

For a moment there, Sophie looked confused. “What does Tyler have to do with—oh, right. Roommates. Didn’t you see him over break?”