Page 8 of The First Year Continued (Marked Blood Academy #2)

Roxy

He took off. Odin did. Before I could do much more than register the fact that there was a danger, the male I’d nearly drained dry was flying across the grounds after the racing figure.

It had burst out of the bushes and torn away.

I was on my feet, too, but they were both running so fast, I couldn’t keep up.

How was that even possible? In our training to fight in the vampire wars, we learned that drinking blood was where they got their strength.

And shifter blood was like caffeine or something.

An energy drink. So, in theory, shouldn’t all that shifter blood I’d drunk have given me super strength or something?

Or at least helped me to be as fast as the one I’d weakened?

I ran after them, but I was not only not catching up, I wasn’t positive I was still going in the right direction.

But what choice did I have? The grounds here were more extensive than at the Urban Academy, since we weren’t in the middle of the city like that wonderful school was, but they weren’t so big that I should be able to lose Odin and whoever he was chasing.

I spotted the trees where I’d sat with Desi, coming up on my left and paused to glance at the glade inside, but there was nobody there.

I hadn’t expected to find them because if Odin had caught up to the other, there would likely be noise of some kind.

Feeling more than foolish but unable to think of an alternative, I ran on, staying in the shadow of the walls as much as possible.

We wouldn’t be alone out here even in the evening.

Security was out here. Had they been told not to do anything about us because of our special mission?

I had no idea. But certainly I was not accosted on my way.

After a while, my steps flagged, my breathing harsh.

Drinking blood had sure not given me any superpowers.

If anything, I felt weaker than at any point in my life save after my injury in the wars.

And yet, I didn’t even have a memory of being bitten that second time.

The first one had nearly killed me. I stopped, hands planted on my knees, panting, heart pounding.

Maybe there was a delay in the reaction of the second bite and it was only now kicking in?

And maybe the reason the blood I drank didn’t give me the ability to fly or at least run fast was because I wasn’t a vampire?

I’d begun to think I was, and if it weren’t for the fact Odin was out there chasing someone or something that could bring him harm, I would be relieved at the likelihood that I was not.

When I got my breath again, I straightened, ready to go but with no idea where that might be that I should be headed.

The grounds were silent, the lights from the buildings where the rest of the student body and the staff were going about their evening in calm and relative safety, shining out onto the lawns.

Time to go find Sol and Evander and tell them what was going on.

This wasn’t a situation I could handle by myself, anymore.

If it ever had been. The moment I lost sight of Odin, I should have gone right in for them.

My racing aimlessly around campus might have cost him his life.

As would standing here chastising myself. I could wallow in guilt later.

But before I could act on my sudden burst of sanity, the figure that had exploded from the bushes came out of nowhere, charging back in the direction we came from.

No sign of Odin, but hell if I was going to let them get away this time.

What if they’d harmed him? They were going to have to tell me where he went, or I’d do whatever it took to make them.

Without thinking, my tongue ran over my upper teeth. In search of fangs?

I’m not a vampire!

It would be handy to have fangs or maybe claws.

I didn’t let my exhaustion slow me down this time.

Whoever I chased, I would catch them, but within a couple of minutes, they were out of sight.

What the hell? How fast was this thing? The vampires I’d fought had been very fast too, but I wasn’t sure that was what I was after.

Leaving the walls behind, I moved closer to the buildings, searching, watching, and then there it was again, as if it appeared from darkness, shooting past me again.

Was it toying with me? What had it done with Odin?

I stopped, shuddering, unable to control myself or anything else, as my wolf took over and carried me into a shift that shredded my clothing from my body.

I’d been shifting since adolescence, and never before had my wolf done this.

Or had it been this brutal. Instead of the smooth shift I’d grown to expect, I felt every bone break and remake itself, every hair force itself from my skin.

Fangs appeared, but not of the vampire variety. The wolf ones burst from my gums in a spray of blood and pain. Exquisite agony in every cell of my body held me in place.

What are you doing? I screamed in my head, but my wolf only growled. I can’t bear it.

While I stood shivering in my fur, I heard noises from behind me. Wolves, and a voice.

Odin! He was alive!