As if the DJ had a heart for me, he played There she goes by Taio Cruz and a few more people came onto the dance floor too.
Grace threw her arms up and immediately started dancing. And she could dance. I tried to keep up and move, but my body was weakened, and so I kept stumbling into people who luckily didn't pay much attention to me. In my mind's eye, everything slowly began to spin.
“Don't take offense, but I need to get you back to our place. You really don't look well,” Grace said, pulling me back to the seating area where a group of half-drunk guys had almost sat down.
“Grace...” I gasped, a little out of breath. “What did your mum do to me there?”
“You mean the rite of passage?”
I nodded and had to cough. My lungs felt like someone was putting pressure on them. And this pulling in my chest...
“She used a full moon ritual, which is conjured by the strength of the Circle's blood, ebony splinters and incense.”
I looked at her to let her know that I didn't understand.
The DJ switched to Scream & Shout, which my headache seemed to take personally.
“Why do you ask?”
“Ever since that stupid ritual, I've been feeling like shit.”
She eyed me. “But that can't be right. This ritual is one of the safest and most commonly performed rituals. Amara is the Domini.”
“Maybe something has gone wrong. Otherwise, you wouldn't want to do this to me a second time.”
Grace laughed for a moment before her expression became serious again.
“You're the first one it's gone wrong with.” She put a hand on my shoulders. “And I hope everything turns out well, of course. However, your strange condition can't be caused by the ritual. But if it makes you feel better, I can ask Amara.” She pulled out her cell phone and held it up. “I'll be right back, okay?”
Then Grace disappeared outside.
My eyes darted around.
Don’t stop The Music by Rihanna started playing, which fortunately wasn’t that bad. But it didn't get any better. My hands started to shake, and I looked down, only to realize with a shock that my veins were standing out again.
I shuddered and reached in a daze into the small black leather bag I'd borrowed from Mum. I frantically opened it and rummaged around for my pills, but they weren't there.
“Shit,” I cursed. A slight panic rose inside me, because if I had a seizure now, I was on my own.
I hadn't been able to speak to Julie again in private, either. She had made me curious yesterday, and I wanted to know if she knew anything about my attacks.
I pulled out my phone and tried to distract myself with one of the mobile games that Larissa had downloaded onto my phone ages ago.
“Hey, Bay!” Grace came back after what felt like five minutes. “Good news. Amara can see if she can do anything about your pain tomorrow. But she told me that something might be blocking your magic, maybe even the pain itself. Perhaps that will solve the whole problem.”
She smiled at me as if she had just found a solution to all my problems.
I didn't know whether to be happy that I might soon no longer be in pain, or whether I wanted to sink into the ground on the spot because I might be one of them after all.
Grace sat me down again and handed me a headache pill.
I looked at her in surprise.
“I don't know how much this will help you, but you should try it.”
I nodded and pulled the small bottle of water out of my bag that I had smuggled in here. Unnoticed, thankfully, because it saved my life.
“Thank you, Grace,” I said sincerely, and she stroked my shoulder.
“No problem.”
I swallowed the pill and hoped it did some good. Maybe some of their ingredients were part of my specialty pills, and fewer headaches automatically meant less chance of having a seizure.
“Oh no, what are they doing here?” I looked up and followed Grace's gaze to the entrance, where three very familiar figures had just made their way in.
The DeLoughreys.
“Are they some of them?” I asked Grace, who looked back at me. “Julian said they were vampires.”
Grace looked at me worriedly.
“First, you should use the correct species names. Secondly, yes, they are Ruisangors. Please stay away from them! And thirdly, speaking of which, finally stay away from Julian.”
I gave her an annoyed look.
“Julian is my neighbor. He's really okay.”
“He's a Senseque. There's nothing okay about that.”
