Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince
Chapter 12

Even though I arrived with ninety percentof the uniform on, disheveled and flustered, none of my teachers brought up thesubject. It seemed I was allowed to look this way one day out of the month - atleast other kids got away with it more than once. I handed in every assignmentand quiz I had finished, except the essay that I had written for English whichsat on the floor of my bedroom several streets away. I still couldn’t believe Ihad left it…

But once I arrived in English, Dr.Edwards didn’t ask where my essay was. He greeted me by smiling, and instantlyrelated the news that Finn Tierney found my paper on the floor in the southhallway and directed the material to him rather than go about searching thestudent body for me which was completely ludicrous because I suspected thatFinn knew exactly where I was.

The interesting component here wasthat he hadn’t used compulsion on the man. He had typed, printed or handwritten a huge assignment and plastered my name on it so that I would get somesort of grade, plus he made sure it was turned in on time with an elaborate liethat wouldn’t make it look like I cheated. Bravo, Finn. Most days I’d be angryabout this type of behavior, but I didn’t care at this point. I was exhausted,and tired of looking like I rolled out of bed.

Once I hit the cafeteria, I wasready for the end of school. And it was in there that one of the older Prefectstook it upon themselves to bar my entrance into the room until I presentedmyself in the official school uniform. They caused a scene. Already severalpeople watched in earnest, wondering what the outcome would be. Unfortunatelyfor the two of them, Finn chose that moment to walk up and excuse us both,allowing my entry into the noisy room. For once I had the perfect answer of howI could avoid the thunder dome, but that simple idea was tossed into thedumpster in a matter of seconds once Finn manipulated their words.

I abhorred the thought that I mighthave to thank him publicly so I threw him an exasperated look and hurried awayto the table where my friends talked before he could say anything more. Thegood thing about only carrying assignments you handed in was by the time yourclasses were over, everything you carried was gone. I had nothing, except mykeys. I stomped past his table where his bodyguards sat, and flung my body intothe open seat near Nate.

They stopped conversing upon myappearance, and each one of them took turns judging my clothes and wild hair.Though they never said a word, I imagined the thoughts that went through theirminds. Obviously they knew something was wrong. It wasn’t until Seth fell intohis seat that the conversation opened up again.

“So what happened?” he continuedour chat from chemistry. “You look a little upset with Finn.”

I resisted the urge to roll myeyes. Of course I was upset with him, but I didn’t want Finn knowing that. Somepart of me knew he listened in on this conversation. “It’s not Finn. I was upall night studying and nearly didn’t make it here.”

“Where’s your bag?” Mallory noticedI didn’t have it in my possession. She peered under the table, making sure Ihadn’t brought it with me. She wouldn’t be disappointed.

“It’s at home.”

All at once they gave me looks ofpity and understanding. And then they did something I never thought wouldhappen, at least to someone like me. They all took pieces of their food offtheir trays and handed them to me. They even handed me a spoon and a piece of anapkin, so I could eat something. I had apple slices and a half of a banana,the crust and part of left over pizza, which Nate sawed away from where histeeth touched it, shredded chicken, and a cupcake all pushed in front of me. Istared at the food and looked at each of them in return.

“I can’t have this,” I whined.Hadn’t they noticed by now I didn’t eat here?

“Why not?” Krista cocked her head.

I pushed the selection back towardsthem. “You guys eat it.”

“I don’t need the cupcake,” Kristasaid. “I’m trying to watch my figure.”

The rest of them mumbled excuseslike that, though I was sure the two guys commented on the fact of being fullrather than gripe about their weight. They weren’t going to eat it, and theywouldn’t take it back even though I tried sneaking their food back onto theirplates when they weren’t looking. Whatever the outcome, I ended up eating thestuff and found that it tasted good, much better than what I expected. I hadn’teaten a lot of human food in a few hundred years, so I expected it to tastebland and boring, like it was stuffed with vitamins and minerals for thegeneral populace.

Toward the end of lunch they alldiscussed what plans they had for the weekend, but didn’t make anythingdefinite. With about five minutes left to go, the atmosphere shifted, and Finnstood up, facing in my direction. I heard him move the instant he set his footon the ground and his chair was displaced backwards. As he walked towards us,the students behind him quieted down. Several couples and neighbors stoppedtalking and looked in our direction, noticing that he approached our table.

Almost at once, my friends realizedthe sudden change in climate. Krista’s jaw dropped open and Nate tried tomanually shut it, until she swatted him away, closed her mouth, and pointedright at Finn. Then Nate naturally looked alarmed by his sudden presence at ourtable, and Seth’s eyes went wide while Mallory froze in place. Only I replacedmy calm demeanor into a taciturn, suspicious façade.

“I saw you didn’t have anything todrink,” he began, staring right at me. “So I got you one. I think you’ll likeit.” He set a smaller bottle of grape juice down before me. It was alreadyopen, and the rich scent of blood filled my nose.

Mallory looked like she wanted totaste the contents of the bottle, not even knowing what was hidden in itsdepths. It must’ve been a huge honor to see him offer one of his speciallybottled drinks to someone else. He walked away from me, without waiting for ananswer.

I stared at the thing, and heardhim mumble from somewhere near the door. “It won’t drink itself, and you coulduse it.”

I gritted my teeth. How did heknow? And yet how dare he? I don’t know what angered me more, the fact that heknew about the blood or that he offered me a share in his partaking of thestuff. All this time he had been drinking blood over at that table, in view ofthe entire student body, disguised as mediocre sparkling grape soda, otherwiseknown as cheap wine for eighteen year olds. No wonder he felt so at ease. Nowonder his complexion was always flawless. And no wonder his compulsion was sopowerful.

I was so angry right now my furydidn’t even encompass the entire room. I didn’t dare touch the bottle. If thatstuff was meant for vampires then that meant the blood was human and notsynthetic. The others had no clue what the contents held, they wouldn’t evensmell the difference until their nose got near the neck.

Mallory’s hand snaked out and shenearly touched the bottle, “If you’re not going to drink it…”

Before she could lay her hands onthe object, I snatched the thing out of her reach and stood up. “I need toreturn this.”

The four of them clamped theirmouths shut like they tried to keep their laughter inside, but I saw theirbodies shake and ripple with the effect. In fact, other people had the samereaction.

I stormed my way out of thelunchroom hearing whispers of Finn’s exploits flood my ears as I passed. Theother kids were awed by what he accomplished, and I wondered if he knew whatexactly he did himself. Before I completely left the dining hall I overheardone girl telling her pack of friends that this was how he picked out his bootycalls.

I resisted the urge to replace out whosaid that and make them change their mind, as it was idle gossip, lunchroomchit-chat that only ended with more rumors and speculation than the actualtruth. Besides, it was better that they thought we were some insanely in lovecouple when we weren’t, rather than her replace out the truth of things.

WhenI emerged into the hall, he was nowhere in sight, having made his escape to whoknows where. I sniffed the bottle, replaceing it smelling less delicious than thehuman food, but still nonetheless alluring. I tasted it with my tongue, only tosee if I’d like it. I didn’t. I found the nearest sink and drained the suckerbefore throwing away the bottle. He’d never know the difference.