Isle of Night (25 page)

The first to return.
We were the only ones who'd made it back so far. I bit my cheeks to keep from smiling. I'd show these Initiates I could be as stoic as they were.

Redheaded Trinity glared at us. Unflinching, I met her eyes. Never before had I let my gaze linger on her for so long. Her eyebrows and lashes were the palest shade of orange, making her dark eyes pop from her face. They were chocolate brown, and full of menace and hate. “Nothing found you?” She sounded skeptical and annoyed.

I stood tall, my chin up, even though all I wanted to do was collapse into my bed. Emma was a quiet presence at my shoulder. I'd relied on her in the wilderness, and she was relying on me now.

“Something found us. We killed it.” I was proud of the matter-of-fact tone I'd managed, when what I really wanted to do was
squee
and jump up and down, telling everyone in great, dramatic detail all that'd come to pass.

“Truly?” Masha feigned a patient smile. I wondered if she thought she'd caught us in a lie. “What did this . . . thing look like?”

I met her eyes and refused to let myself look away. “It was human-shaped. With black skin, like a rotted corpse. Its eyes seemed to glow red.”

I'd spent much time considering those eyes on our hike back. Vampires had the same basic body parts as the humans they'd once been, and our monster had struck me as a vampire that'd somehow gone wrong.

The Initiates still glared at us, and, feeling I had something to prove, I busted out the academic speak. “Though if the thing really had been a person once, I don't know how glowing eyes would be possible, biologically speaking. They were luminous, reflecting ambient light in the darkness, like a cat's might.”

“It was a Draug,” Amanda said.

It was a relief to hear my Proctor, a relatively friendly voice. I hadn't seen her leaning against the far wall.

My smile flickered at the sight of her, but I forced my face back to stone. “Whatever it was, it didn't seem . . . rational. It was frenzied, seeming to operate without reason.” I thought of the closest counterpart in my experience. “It acted like an angry gator.”

Amanda nodded. “Draug are barely sentient. They are id.”

I felt Emma shift. I doubted the concepts of
ego
and
id
were ones she and gramps had explored on the old homestead. I clarified for her benefit, but subtly. “So they act without thought,” I said, rephrasing. “On pure impulse. Instinct.”

“That's the way, dolly. They're hungry; they eat.” The other Initiates frowned at Amanda as she spoke. I suspected they'd rather we be kept in the dark. “You're lucky it didn't eat you.”

“It wasn't luck,” Emma said, her voice uncharacteristically bold. “I had my knife. We fought it. Drew killed it.”

A faint ripple of movement washed across the room as Initiates parsed this information. Her delivery seemed like it might've been disrespectful. But she'd simply spoken factually and without emotion. If they wanted something to reprimand, they weren't going to find it in Emma.

“Acari Drew took it down, eh?” Masha stared at me.

I forced myself not to pale. I wondered how many of these Draug
she'd
killed. I gave her a brief nod.

“Nicely done, Drew.” Proctor Amanda didn't risk a smile, but her features did warm momentarily. That was something. I couldn't bear being hated by
everyone
.

I thought of Ronan. He must be furious. Would he hate me for sneaking my iPod? Worse, would he be blamed for it? I hoped my kill would at least make him proud.

“Very well, then,” Trinity said briskly. “Go wash. You smell foul. But come back here. You'll not sleep tonight. You stand vigil with us. Waiting to see which girls come back.”

Which girls.
That meant they didn't expect everyone to return. Dread unfurled in my belly. I tried not to think how it was all my fault that everyone was in this situation in the first place. Tried not to think how any death tonight would be on
my
head.

Lilac's group returned not long after we'd finished dressing. Her eyes found me the instant she entered the common area and they lingered there, as cold and sharp as the edge of a knife.

She spoke for the girls as their leader, which was no surprise. What was a surprise was how they could've possibly made it back, and in such good time.

“Tell,” Masha ordered.

“I burned them.” Lilac pulled off her gloves. Black char marks smudged her fingers and the backs of her hands.
Fire.
Fire was how she'd kept everyone alive. Fire was Lilac's gift.

Them.
She'd taken down more than one. I shivered. My unpredictable pyro roommate unnerved me more than any monster I might face in the dark.

 

 

IT'D DAWNED CLEAR, AND BRIGHT bolts of sunlight sent a million shards of crystal glittering atop last night's snow. The place looked like a winter wonderland. All the more obscene an atmosphere in which to hear the news.

The final group had returned. All two of them. The others had been slaughtered. By a single Draug.

The French girl with the pixie-cropped hair—I'd learned that her name was Stefinne—vomited repeatedly in a trash can in the corner. Her friend with the short bangs had been among the victims.

I'd
been responsible for her friend's death. Me and my iPod and my mother's picture, too. Though I knew in that moment I'd have risked it all to keep alive any connection to my mom. But that connection was lost now, forever. I wondered if they'd destroyed the photo.

I wished
I
could get sick. To vomit and scream and weep. But I refused to let my face show any of it. Staring at Stefinne's stupid hair—dyed black, the roots growing in a mousy brown—I forced the thoughts from my head.

Her companion, a generically pretty Idaho girl, repeated the story. Meanwhile, the Initiates sank into the chairs and couches of the common area like they were settling in for movie night.

“It came. It took us one by one. We threw stuff at it.” She was traumatized, covered in blood and scratches, speaking in a lifeless monotone. A tic in her cheek was all that told me there was a person in there somewhere. “Rocks. Tried to hit it. But it just kept grabbing girls. Like it wanted to hug them. Smell them. It pushed them down. Climbed on. Biting . . .”

With a sharp inhale, life slid back into her eyes, lighting her face with horror. “Oh, my God!” she shrieked. She began to shake and scream, as though still fighting the monster. “Oh, God! Make it stop!”

“Congratulations.” At the sound of Lilac's voice, my head shot up. I saw her reflection in the window, hovering at my back like an assassin. She'd showered and somehow managed to look perfect in her gray uniform, despite the lack of sleep. “You must be so proud.”

Amanda sprang from the couch, putting her arm around the Idaho girl's shoulder. “It's all right, dolly. You're back safe. How about we get you and your mate washed up?”

“Five down.” Guidon Trinity looked at her nails. She might've been discussing a football score, for all the emotion that was in her voice.

Emma and I shared a quick look, then glanced away. Instinct told me to show no emotion, no allegiances.

Five girls. Dead. It was my fault.

Finally, we all dispersed. Numb, I staggered up to the room.

Crawling into bed was such a blessed relief—I didn't remember the last time I'd slept. I almost didn't care who my roommate was. Von Slutling could torch me in my sleep, for all I cared.

Her voice chimed into my consciousness, just as I began to drift off. “Watch your back, Charity. So many girls want to take you down, they're going to have to start giving out numbers.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

T
he gym lights flickered to life with a loud
click-click
. Yasuo stood in the doorway, looking skeptically at the heavyduty fluorescent domes. “Are you sure we're allowed to be in here?”

“Ronan says we're encouraged to use the gym after hours. As long as it's before curfew and all.” I slung my bag on the floor against the wall and pulled off my coat. I shot him a challenging glare. “Don't tell me you're backing out now.”

“Trainee Yasuo Ito doesn't know the words
back out
.” He joined me, shucking off his black wool peacoat. “I just don't get why you need me. Aren't you learning how to fight in combat class?”

“Yeah, sure. Combat rocks—or it will. They're still mostly having us do intro stuff, like basic fencing or tai chi forms.” I climbed over the ropes into the ring. “I didn't exactly have an épée handy when that Draug came at us. I can't help but worry it was dumb luck that saved me.”

Yas smiled. “Sounds like Emma was pretty cool about the whole thing.”

I heard something in his voice. Emma was attractive in a refreshingly scrubbed, prairie sort of way. If it were the normal world, I might think about setting them up. “So you think Emma's cool, huh?”

“I don't know.” He wandered around the gym floor, stopping at the hanging rope, giving it a tug, as if he might need to test it out. “I've never met anyone like her. Especially not in Hell-Lay, California.”

I leaned over the edge of the ring, trying to get a good look at his face. “Are you blushing?”

“Guys don't blush.”

“Uh-huh.” I shoved against the side of the ring a few times, but the ropes barely gave. There were five of them, fully padded and sturdier than they looked. “Come on, then. Unless you're chicken. I want to see some of your good old L.A. street-fighting moves.”

He prickled. “You think because I'm from Los Angeles and I'm Asian, I'm in some sort of gang?”

I gave him my
don't-go-there
look. “No. . . . I think because you're a guy who claims to have killed his Yakuza father that maybe you know a thing or two.”

Smiling, he shook his head, and like that, the tension was gone. “Yeah, I guess I've got some choice MMA moves.”

“What's MM . . . ohhh.” Understanding dawned. “Mixed martial arts? That's, like, late-night, cable-TV, cage-fighting stuff, right?”

“Drew, I'm shocked.” He hopped into the ring, his movements lithe as a cat's. Clearly, he'd done this before. “MMA is a highly respected form of fighting.”

“Forgive me if I'm not acquainted with the vernacular.” I stared as he bobbed from foot to foot, shaking out his arms. “Jeez, Yas, you are
such
a guy.”

“I should hope so. Now get ready. I'm going to teach you my favorite move.” He flashed me a brilliant smile. “
Ground and pound
, baby.”

I approached him warily. “Sounds like a cooking thing.”

“Nope. It's the thing that's going to save your ass someday. When you're fresh out of those ninja stars or you drop your fencing . . . foil, or whatever those wussy-ass swords are called.”

I had to agree with him on the fencing. The moves were elegant, and I could see how repeating the same series of stances increased arm strength and built the foundation for stronger overall fighting. Only I'd seen the eyes of that Draug, and it'd wanted to eat me. All the hopping and feinting in the world wouldn't save me if I were caught off guard.

But Yasuo had dissed my throwing stars, and
nobody
dissed my throwing stars. “My weapon is known as the shuriken.”

“Wakatta yo
.
”
He shot me a look of exaggerated annoyance. “As in,
Duh, Drew
. I think I know what they're called in Japanese.”

“Okay, okay, sensei. So let's ground around this thing.” I stretched my arms in front of me, cracking my knuckles, but it kind of hurt, so I shook them out with a scowl instead.

“Ground and
pound
,” he said distractedly. He'd begun to circle me like a tiger about to pounce.

It put me on my guard, and I squatted in a standard defensive posture, hands bracing the air in front of me. He was taking too long to attack, so I taunted, “What's the problem, Yas? Afraid to hit a girl?”

But then he pounced, and the breath whooshed from me as I hit the ground, shutting me up. I knew he wasn't my real enemy, I knew this was a friendly grapple, but still, adrenaline dumped into my veins.

Memories tumbled into my head. The breath whooshing from me when Daddy Dearest shoved me to the ground. The creak of my ribs when he'd grip me tight, flinging me into my room and slamming the door. I forced the images from my head. I'd survived my father and it'd made me stronger. That other girl wasn't me anymore.

Because now I had the tools to fight back.