Page 10 of The First Year Continued (Marked Blood Academy #2)

Roxy

The shower helped. At least it stopped the shivering.

I’d never been cold in my fur before. Nor had anyone I knew ever mentioned feeling something like I just experienced while in wolf form.

Of course, generally I made the choice to shift, and in this case, that decision had been made for me.

Standing under the warm spray, I tried to fix in my mind everything that had happened.

It felt a lot like a dream, even the part before my wolf took over. I never wanted to experience that level of pain again. Sure, I knew that all those bodily changes happened, but before, it had always been muted, the first few times a little uncomfortable, but never like this.

“You okay, Roxy?” Evander called from the doorway. “Need anything?”

“No. I’ll be out in a minute. I’m all right.” At least I hoped so. I was better, for sure.

“Desi is here, too.”

“She knows what happened in the office,” I called. “I filled her in.”

“So she says. And we’re doing that with what just went on. At least as much as we know.”

He left me alone, then, and I turned the water off and grabbed the fluffy towel from the rack nearby. At least they had good towels here. It helped because my skin felt completely raw. Muscles ached. Bones throbbed. Hell, if this was what a forced shift felt like, count me out in the future.

I needed to protect you.

Now you talk to me. My wolf had been conspicuously silent while taking me to hell and back. Why would you do that?

I already told you. In your weak two-legged form, that thing would have eaten you. Eaten us.

What is it? A vampire?

Not like what we fought in the wars, no.

“Roxy, are you coming out ever?” Desi was in the doorway, holding up a pair of my pajamas. “I thought you’d want these.”

“Thanks.” I let the towel drop, not shy in front of my bestie. “Would you look and see if I have any more mystery bites? I don’t want to ask the guys.”

“Sure.” She walked around me, examining me as carefully as any healer might, even checking a few embarrassing places, but I could put up with whatever I had to in order to be safe.

I was fairly sure the thing hadn’t bitten me again.

If it had been the one who had. And since I didn’t remember that other bite, and I’d been out there all alone for who knew how long, who was to say it hadn’t?

It was going to kill you this time.

“I don’t see anything,” she said. “And the one on your abdomen is healing. Roxy, what if we’re all getting bitten and don’t know it?”

“Want me to check you?”

She was fine, not a mark on her, but by the time we finished, they had to be wondering.

Sure enough, when we emerged, Sol said, “My father would have asked if someone fell into the toilet if they stayed in there that long.”

I laughed again then sobered. “We were checking each other for bites.”

“We’d have been glad to check you, Roxy,” Evander said with maybe the tiniest bit of flirtation in his tone.

“Sure, and leave me unchecked. I get it.” Desi started for the door. “I’ll leave you all to it.”

“No, wait.” I grabbed her hand. “We need to keep you in the loop. If something happens to the rest of us, you’ll need to get hold of someone on the outside.

This left scary behind long ago. You’re the one that the headmistress and Tyrol, or whatever his name is, doesn’t know is in on everything. Okay?”

“All right. Cindy is expecting me for the night, though. We’re working on a project together, so she thinks we’re just being sneaky to get it done.”

“That’s good.” Odin went to the hallway door and peeked out. “It’s getting close to curfew, so we need to get you filled in fast and off to Cindy’s room before you get stuck here.”

“Also, we drew straws. From now on, one or the other of us is going to stay with you overnight, and tonight it’s me, so the other guys have to go.” Evander did not look unhappy about this.

“You drew the short straw?” I asked.

“Hardly.” Sol shook his head.

They each held up a cut drinking straw from the collection we had in a desk drawer, and Evander’s was definitely the longest. “I won.”

“Okay, before we’re out of time,” Sol said, “Odin and Roxy, you tell us what you saw and what happened. Make it fast.”

We both launched into the story, talking over one another in our hurry to get it all said and get things settled for the night.

Between us, we were able to come up with a description of the thing we’d been chasing.

Tall, very thin, gender uncertain. Okay…

not very much of a description, but Desi suggested we all meet in the library in the morning, since it would be Saturday and no classes, and take the information we had from Tyrol and our own experience as minimal as it was and see if we couldn’t learn more.

A gene mutation seemed key here. If the creature was vampire and could be in daylight, they for sure weren’t anything I’d ever heard of before. The question was whether it was natural or lab mutation.

Everyone went their own way just before curfew, and Evander and I settled in for the night. In our own beds. Which I didn’t love at all, but after what I’d done to Odin, I was afraid of what might happen if he had no space to escape and I was overtaken by blood lust again.

Being a real vampire must suck.

The next day, we spent eight hours in the library and found nothing at all that helped us in our quest. That sucked too.