Page 17 of A University of Betrayal

“What an evening, my beloved family.” It came energetically from the door, through which Adrian’s other friend strolled in. The grin on his lips widened when he spotted me. He came up to me with his arms open, patted me on the shoulder as if we were old friends and circled me, only to take the empty seat next to me.

“Nice to welcome you here.” Even though his grin was charming, I quickly realized how much irony it contained. Then he leaned sideways toward me and whispered for all to hear, “Or should I say:my condolences.”

I looked at him worriedly and his grin widened.

“Miles, can you be serious for once?” Adrian asked, visibly tense.

“You’ll be waiting a long time for that, Adrian,” Camille added dryly and finally looked at Miles, who seemed to be enjoying the attention. “You’ll scare her.”

It sounded like a warning, and Camille was right. I was scared, even if Miles wasn’t the main reason.

Miles looked around, sighing. “Let me guess, she doesn’t know anything?”

The table fell silent. Bastien gave him a warning look. And Miles turned back to me.

“Let me cut it short.”

“Miles!”Bastien tried to interrupt him sharply.

“You were bitten by a Ruisangor and, because you carry a certain gene, you’re now one too, but you think you’re dreaming or something like that, and they want to teach you in a harmless way that from now on, you have to feed on blood and be trained as a fighting machine to serve the brother- and sisterhood.”

My jaw dropped.

Had he gone completely mad?

But when I looked at the others, they didn’t look amused. Quite the opposite, they seemed to be staring at me, waiting to see how I would react.

“First of all, you’re immortal now, and even though we would be able to, wewon’tkill you unless you break the rules. Andyes,you have time to accept these facts. Because no one here will let you go before that happens.”

Miles raised his hands and clapped twice. A young man then appeared with a tray in his hand, on which stood a huge silver goblet. Immediately, the sweet smell from earlier caught my nose. Whatever kind of lemonade it was, my body was craving it.

Miles took the drink from the plate and bent it over his wine glass, which instantly filled with a red, thick...

I jumped up.

No! That couldn’t be... no.

I backed away. And everything that Miles had just told me was falling into place in my head.

“It’s blood…” I gasped and was about to catch my breath when I realized that I hadn’t breathed at all since entering the room.

I sucked air into my lungs, but it felt completely unnecessary. As if I didn’t need it at all.

I stared at the glass again and when Miles grinned again, I backed away further.

What were they? What had they done to me?

“Miles, we could have avoided all that…” the blond began, but Miles interrupted him, only to turn back to me.

“Theywouldn’thave. You would have freaked out either way.”

Miles just smiled, lifting the glass and holding it out to me, making me flinch even further, even though my body was screaming for the liquid.

“Come on, I know you’re thirsty. It smells sweet, doesn’t it?”

Stunned, I stared first at him, then at the others, only now noticing how their eyes had turned red... the one in the back had them black, like the other day. They were all staring at the glass. Hungry, greedy.

But the bizarre thing was that I felt just such a hunger. The fact caused me confusion, shame, but no disgust.