Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince
Chapter 17

When Dr. Edwards handed me thepaper my heart rejoiced when I saw the score - a beautiful three digit, 100.There was even a note scratched in the margin ‘perfect!’ But then I spotted thefamiliar title, and the structure of the paper. My smile slowly turned into anexpression of mixed shock and horror. How did he know? This wasn’t some typedup spur-of-the-moment paper written and handed in by Finn. This was my paper, my hand-written paper lying on mydesk back at my apartment.

I hurriedly flipped through it,heck I even read it. There was no masking that it was my paper, down to thelast written sentence and flair that I had given it. The only difference wasthe typing. This essay had been typed and printed. I didn’t own a computer or aprinter.

Now, I knew for certain I had seenthe paper lying on my desk the night before. I stared at it every day when Ireturned home wondering if Finn’s substitute work would be as good as all myother papers. And that turned out that he had gotten a hold of my exact paperand not created a fake. There was only one way he could’ve retrieved this, andit was not something I wished he’d know about.

The bell rang and I gathered mybag. As usual, I was the first out of the room, but I stopped in the hallway,infuriated by his actions. I did what every normal girl would do when she wasovercome by powerful emotions - I ran into the nearest bathroom.

No one else was in here, thankgoodness. I stared at myself in the mirror and took several deep calmingbreaths. It helped that I was completely alone in here and not bothered byother girls and their shrill voices. If anyone had been in here talking 90miles an hour on their cell phone I would’ve probably lost it. My emotions werenot in check, and in this state I didn’t need to be around anyone because I usuallyacted rashly and quickly. Human lives were threatened whenever I was like this.

Once I calmed down and felt like Iwas up for a confrontation, I left the room. I strolled into the thunder domewhere everyone ate lunch. How he withstood the noise in here I’ll never know. Ispotted my friends on the far wall. Unfortunately they had seen me, and alreadygestured to the empty seat at the table, but I averted my eyes and searched forFinn.

I found him at his usual table inthe middle, sitting alone with his bodyguard friends behind him at theirregular table. An empty chair stood beside him, probably reserved for me, but Iwas past friendliness after this atrocity.

Grasping the paper in hand Istormed over. When I arrived I stopped and slapped the essay down on the table,giving him my best glare possible and trying really hard not to use my power,although knowing me it probably leaked out with my near uncontrollable anger.

At first he stared at the paper,his face unchanging from his lazy body posture. But eventually a smile brokeout across his perfect face. “You got a perfect score.”

“That’s not what I’m upset about,”I stressed angrily. He avoided my eyes on purpose.

His smile faded as he sighedheavily. He straightened his posture and finally met my glare. “I thought you’dbe happy.”

I leaned over so my face could beat his level. “That’s not what this is about. How did you get in there?” Idemanded.

From behind him, my eyes caughtmovement in my peripheral vision. His friends looked up, alarmed by my harshwords. They didn’t look happy, because I had probably just threatened him withmy tone, but he deserved it after I discovered he had knowledge of where Ilived after I expressly wished he didn’t know. They seemed curious about thesituation, which made me wonder if they knew what he did at all hours of theday or if they only knew what transpired at school. From Emery’s explanation theother day, I thought that he knew what kinds of activities Finn participated inboth within these walls and outside in the world. Apparently this was not thecase.

“You knew I’d discover it sooner orlater,” he stated smoothly like his actions justified what he did.

I stood back up right. He should knowbetter. My personal life was not his to invade and bother. Where I lived was mybusiness, and not his. I left the paper on the table and stormed away, butbefore I completely left his presence I bent down next to his ear. Thebodyguards stiffened from my quick reaction, and from their behavior thestudents next to us at the other tables glanced over wondering what caused thesudden shift in the atmosphere. Chatter died almost at once.

“You have no right,” I harshlywhispered.

I didn’t wait for his reply andquickly retreated.

I had spent a lot of the lunch timecalming myself down in the bathroom. The bell rang as soon as I entered thehallway and I ran off to gym, escaping the noise that would soon follow. Myemotions were all over the place, out of control. I felt weakened by the use ofpower I exerted in trying to control them. I would need sustenance soon. Butfor the moment I could exist as a shell and make it through gym class.Unleashing some of this anger on whatever sport we played would help me survivethe rest of the day.

I changed into the blue and blackshort/shirt combo that was required by all gym students, and used my rage byplaying volleyball aggressively. Surprisingly enough no one blocked my servesand spikes, when they normally did. I usually played fairly, giving people achance to hit the ball back. The game wasn’t fun when people got toocompetitive. This wasn’t one of those games, but in my head all I saw was red.The ball and the colour merged together in which I pushed all my anger into theobject so that it flew around the court with so much force that it couldn’t bestopped by anyone in its path. In fact everyone moved out of the way becausethe ball passed onto the opposite court with such power that it nearly explodedfrom the pressure I exerted on it. Though the last ball I served busted as soonas I swung my left hand at it.

Coach Seely excused me from classafter that, clearly noting that I was upset over something and not my trueself. I had always been athletic, but this was beyond normal behavior for me.The others melted into sighs of relief that I no longer played on the court,though they snuck looks and glances in my direction as I ran into the dressingroom. I know they wondered what caused this new development in my normallyeasygoing façade. No one asked me outright what was wrong, but once I emergedfully dressed from the locker rooms, after taking a long hot shower, I ranright into Krista who had gym right after I did. She bumped into me as I wasleaving the room, and steered me back inside before I could completely escapeher grasp.

“Alright, what’s crawling on yourskin missy?” She questioned while leading me over to her locker. She dialed thecombination code.

“Nothing,” I muttered. I couldn’texplain this mess to her. It would give me and Finn away and I couldn’t dothat.

She shook her head. “You need abreak from that Finn guy. Every time you two get together you walk away lookinglike he pushed on a nerve.”

I whipped my head back around andmy breath caught in my throat. She saw that? Great. I really didn’t think heaffected me that badly, but now I knew better.

“You don’t have to tell me thedetails, but he did something to you.” She opened her locker and pulled out hergym clothes, shrugging on the blue shirt over her current clothes. “You shouldcome out with us tonight,” she offered. “We’re going to the movies andafterwards to Blue Lagoon.”

What was this new place? I hadn’theard of it before, but I couldn’t help wondering if it was like the club I hadfinally gotten them to stop hanging out at. After the last incident, one thatNate hopefully didn’t remember too much of, they didn’t need to be going intovampire territory. “What’s the Blue Lagoon?” I asked, suspicious of it already.

She pulled on her shorts and thenproceeded pulling out her red top from under the gym clothes. “It’s a dinnerclub, not a dance club. It’s really rich and upscale. We don’t go very oftenbecause it can be too expensive, but every once in a while it’s worth thetrip.”

“No alcohol.” It wasn’t exactly aquestion for her but a command.

She nodded once. “Exactly.”

Good. I knew she wasn’t about tostart drinking again or hanging out in sketchy dark rooms, or worse yet,meeting a boy she didn’t know and allowing him to lead her on.

“It’d be great if you could come,”she offered while pulling on her sneakers.

Her conversation left me feelingslightly better. I was still angry with Finn for what he did, but I wasn’t seton killing a volleyball anytime soon like I had been earlier. “I’d like tocome, but I have an errand I need to run tonight and it can’t be put off.”

Her face fell, but she nodded. “Iunderstand. It was kind of unexpected and late. I’ll ask earlier next time.”

The bell rang again, and the girlsfrom my class period walked in and started changing.

I smiled and repeated her lastwords back. “Next time.”

I needed to get back home now thatI felt better.

I walked past everyone, listeningto the pitter patter of their feet in order to avoid conversation and sanelywalk out of the building. But the downside of listening to their feet meant Imissed other things, like the sound of an expensive engine flaring to life.

I made it out onto the sidewalkleading from the building to the bus stop before I heard it. I never paused andlooked for the direction it drove in, never wondered if it was heading towardsme. But as soon as my feet hit the curb near the parking lot, a flash of yellowaverted my eyes. I paused from the distraction and found the passenger dooropen in front of me.

I peered across the black leatherseats and caught Finn’s eyes on me.

“Let me take you home,” he offered.

My anger flared anew. I turned awayand stormed off.

He was out of the car and in frontof me faster than lightning. Surely someone noticed that he moved too quicklyto be human. Classes may still be in session for most of the studentpopulation, but there were windows on this side, including Ms. Ingram’s lab.

“Abelia…” he began but stopped.

I lost it then. “What? You’re notgoing to say you’re sorry? Please excuse me? You were in my room! My house!” Ishouted at him.

He stuffed his hands in hispockets, all the while the yellow car was running. “You gave me your permissionto help you,” he muttered.

Seriously? That was his excuse.“And you took that to mean, replace out where I live, break in, and steal mypaper?”

He shrugged. “You got a satisfyingscore on it. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

I shook my head. “You’reunbelievable.” I tried to move past him, but he caught my arm and stopped me.

I really should have pushed himaway from me, but the way he touched my arm made me pause. It wasn’t commandingor halting, it was soft and gentle, completely unlike him. And again I feltthat tingling sensation jolt my nerves. I had yearned for him to touch meagain, deep down inside, and now that he had I was breathless, even as upset asI was. If the situation had been completely different, I might have relishedthis gesture.

“I know in your mind I deserve tobe yelled at, but please hear me out.”

I waited for his explanation.

His hand dropped from mine and helooked back up at me. “You wanted a passing grade, you wanted your paper, and Iwanted to help you. I wish you could’ve seen yourself that day. You were acomplete mess. I figured I gave you too much information too quickly that itkept you from focusing on your work, and that was my fault for not knowing Icouldn’t spring what I was onto you. I needed to help you recover, and so Ileft here that day and found out where you lived.” He shook his head. “Itdidn’t take me long after talking with Sylvia that you rented one of herapartments. She let me in, and I copied what I needed. I had it printed andturned in before you ever walked in the door to Mr. Edwards’ class that day.”

He stepped closer to me. “If it waswritten by me, you would’ve gotten less than you deserved. And if I had excusedyour work for another day, you would’ve lost ten points. This was the betteralternative. So I’m sorry that I invaded your privacy.”

I had been so mad at him. I still wasto some degree, even if this was a good apology and I had to admit that it was.“I still don’t think you understand why I’m so angry with you.”

He smirked. “Enlighten me.”

“You put me in danger by goingthere. Now every vampire in the city will know where I live, and that putshuman lives in danger. Your clan can come after me at any time, if they everfound out,” I whispered.

He sighed and smiled like the jokewas on me. “No they can’t, actually. Sylvia’s one of us, but she keeps herpatrons’ separated from our lives. She scolded me for even dropping by.” Hisblue eyes twinkled. “I wonder what she’ll do once she replaces out what you are.”

I took a step backwards. Great,just great. “I keep food in the house. I can eat both you know.”

His eyes gazed into mine like thatexcuse wasn’t good enough. “But you need blood to live,” he finished thesentence I didn’t openly reveal. He understood a part of me that no one elsedid which I found intriguingly odd. “Let me take you home. You’re weak enoughas it is.”

He was right. I was weak. Facing mychances, I didn’t have much strength in me left to make it back to theapartment on my own without breaking down and going on a rampage for food, plusI still needed to hunt. My anger had sapped away what remaining strength I hadleft in me, taking it out in pieces on the volleyball. “Alright. Penance forwhat you did.”

He smiled happily and led me to thedoor. Once I was seated, he shut my side and was soon behind the wheel. Hedrove over to the gate and pulled out some kind of key card. With one swipe, itopened for him.

I felt my mouth drop open in shock.“Where did you get one of those?” I pointed to the thing before he sneakily putit away in the pocket of his pants.

He flashed me a smile, but didn’trespond.

I grumbled, knowing I would neverknow the answer to it.

He drove quickly, sweeping thestreets easily as any race car driver. I figured that’s what he did in his freetime, race cars up at the Breaking Point – a small canyon of curves and hillsthat was notorious for night time races. When we pulled up the country lanethat my home was located beside, he parked away from the office building on theside of the street, and actually got out to walk me to my door like he was theperfect gentleman.

He opened up a little iron gatethat I had seen before, but never used. It ended up being a shortcut for me tomy tiny cottage, because that’s what it was now that I caught the outwardglance from the back of the main house. He walked me up to the door, and I tookout my keys.

“I was wondering if you would liketo go to dinner with me.” His sudden offer left me jolted and I nearly droppedthe keys I held.

“What?” I turned to him with shockplastered all over my face.

“Dinner,” he repeated.

I didn’t know what to say. I didn’tknow how to respond. His request was so sudden.

“I’ll pick you up at eight.” Heturned away from me and left, while I just stood there.