Page 41 of A University of Betrayal

“You should have seen them, the night you were bitten and everyone thought you were dead.

“The way they stood there, all around you. And then there was your mother, really distraught. Dad had taken her in his arms, trying to calm her down, as if they’d known each other for half an eternity. Alarik barely paid any attention to her.”

“Alarik had been there?”

Julian laughed. “Emely called him.”

“Emely?”

“We’d been at the party, and then you were in our heads.”

“But that can’t be…”

The more I thought about it, the more Julian’s words made sense.

“But you were…”

“I promise you, I didn’t do anything,” I tried to reassure him. Whatever connection there was between us, I hadn’t made it.

“I don’t know, Bay. Anyway, you were in our heads, and when we got here, you were lying there.” He paused for a moment and stared off into space, toward the road.“God,there... there was so much blood.”

He looked up and our eyes met.

It seemed as if he was associating it with negative emotions, almost as if the memory was painful. But why?

I tried not to break away from his gaze. Something I found hard to do, because he had these beautiful, olive-green eyes, and his gaze began to touch me, to do something to me until he finally looked away.

“Anyway, Alarik showed up then and Amara a little later. And as if that wasn’t enough of a clash between Quatura and Senseque, one of those DeLoughreys had suddenly appeared and wanted to take you away.”

I widened my eyes.“WhichDeLoughrey?”

“One of the men who used to come to campus with Adrian and the other guys. The dark blond one, probably in his late thirties.”

“Why did he want to take me with him?”

“I didn’t understand, either.”

I just realized that I must have caused a huge mess. For a reason, the Quatura had sent Julian’s family away, even if it remained a mystery to me what exactlytheyhad done wrong. After all, Ruisangors, or whatever those people were called, had attackedus.Larissa...

“Did he take Larissa with him?” I was hopeful that maybe Julian and Emely had been there in time. Maybe they’d noticed something.

Julian’s expression darkened.

“Your memories. I saw what you saw, and... Bayla, Adrian had been there before us.”

“Adrian...”

“Was it him? Did he attack you?”

“No,” I said hesitantly as images of the disgusting psycho who’d chased after us like we were his playthings popped into my head.Hehad attacked us, had hurt Larissa too, I was sure of it. But then he had disappeared down the street.

I realized that my memories were too sketchy, and in half of them I didn’t even know if I’d been dreaming. After all, I had been unconscious for three days.

“If anything had happened to you...” I looked at Julian in surprise. “The town wouldn’t have been the same,” he finished the sentence quickly, and I didn’t know why I wished he would have said something else. I had apparently taken plenty of damage from the bite.

“And you?”

“What about me?”