But Serena just shook her head. “No. I think I’ll sleep today away.” She looked up to Eva, the first real motion since she had propped herself up against the desk. With a sorry smile, she said, “I’m sorry that I won’t be able to accompany you.”
“That’s fine.” Eva put on a hopefully comforting smile as she stood up. “You’re free to stay here for the day. Use my bed, the one you’re leaning against, if you want.”
“Thanks. I think I will.”
So she said, but Serena glanced back to the floor, resuming her unmoving pose.
With a mental shrug, Eva turned to face Juliana. She didn’t have a chance to speak for Juliana opened her mouth.
“I’m coming with you,” Juliana said, trying as hard as she could to not look at Serena. “I can unpack later,” she said with a glance towards the open suitcase. “I want to know what’s going on as well. And I’m sure mom will want to find out sooner rather than later. Were it not for Zagan, I’m sure my father would have turned the car around the moment he saw the investigation notices.”
Eva nodded towards the door. “No sense wasting time then.”
Juliana didn’t need further urging. She pulled a light sweater out of her suitcase and slipped it on as she walked out of the room.
With one last look at Serena, Eva followed her out.
Hopefully nothing bad would come of leaving her alone in the dormitories.
Together, Juliana and Eva walked in silence. Given both the early hour and the fact that it was summer, not many other students were out and around the academy. They found no one on the stairs and, once they arrived outside, found no one wandering around the campus.
The silence lasted up until the two reached the sidewalks outside the dormitory.
“Vampire–” “So you–”
Both girls’ mouths snapped shut as they turned to each other.
After a moment of silence, Eva smiled and shook her head.
“You first.”
“Just to make sure that I heard you correctly, that vampire is friends with our professors?”
“Yeah. I don’t exactly know how that came about, but they’re familiar enough that Serena gave Zoe a hug and Zoe returned the hug.”
“Huh,” Juliana said with a frown. “Not really what I would have expected.”
“Like I said, she’s normally a lot nicer than you saw. Teleporting had some adverse effects, I guess.”
“I meant Zoe. Friends with a vampire? Not really something I’d picture given all of mother’s stories about vampires.”
Eva shrugged. Her only real experience with other vampires were those in Idaho. They had been half threatened into playing nice, so their behavior probably wasn’t all that typical. And, even before they had been threatened, they had been under the impression that Eva and Nel were some kind of servants owned by Serena.
“But you were saying that Zagan kept you from going to a different school? That seems nice of him.”
There was a sharp intake of breath from Eva’s side. After a quick stumble, all of Juliana’s blood fled from her body to concentrate around her face and ears. Her ripe tomato impression was going exceedingly well, but it was somewhat worrying.
“Are you alright?” Eva couldn’t help but to ask.
“Fine,” she said with a forced cough. “Just swallowed a bug down the wrong pipe.”
Eva frowned. Bugs had blood. Granted, they weren’t something that Eva normally paid attention to. With it pointed out, she tried looking and couldn’t see anything that might have gotten caught in her throat.
“If you’re sure…”
“Yeah. Zagan,” she paused to cough again. “When he helped out in Willie’s domain, we had a sort of agreement about me leaving the school. Or not leaving it.”
“An agreement with Zagan?”
That didn’t sound good. He hadn’t really done anything to do permanent harm to Eva. Though, after their conversation before her treatment, she now believed that to solely be because of her unique position as a ‘non-template’ demon. Juliana didn’t have any such insurance.
“It isn’t anything big,” Juliana said, face as red as before. “But it is a bit personal.”
Eva waited, but Juliana fell silent and did not continue. Whatever it was, she wasn’t going to elaborate if she didn’t have to.
Taking a deep breath, Eva said, “I just–”
“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
“That only makes me worry more. Zagan is a powerful demon who essentially wants for nothing. If he wants something from you, it’s all the scarier.”
“I know what he wants.”
Again, Eva waited to see if Juliana would explain.
She didn’t.
“So,” Juliana said after a few moments of awkward silence, “Sawyer’s dead?”
Though she had to frown at the obvious topic change, Eva nodded her head. “As far as I can tell. He was a necromancer, so I’ve been expecting all kinds of ways he could have cheated death. Nothing has popped up so far. Though, he only died last night. Maybe it will take a little longer.
