The thoughts in my head grew louder and louder until the questions in it threatened to burst my brain.

My curiosity grew. Sooner or later, I would give in to it. I would find out what the rich kids of this town were hiding. And what damn drugs were doing such a sick mess to their eyes.

I turned around, letting my adrenaline-filled legs carry me through one of the side corridors, hoping to put as much distance as possible between me and these maniacs before I could change my mind and follow them. Then suddenly, a strained cursing sounded.

I stopped and scurried behind the nearest column. The corridor I was in was empty, and only the sunlight of another courtyard, with Greek statues, was dancing on the stone floor...as well as on the tousled dark blond hair of the Copeland guy twenty meters away.

Wasn’t that the rowdy guy? Emely’s brother? Nash Copeland?

“Damn it!” it escaped him, and he ruffled his hair. “Damn it, Mady!”

He kicked a pillar so hard that the stone snake’s head began to crumble.

“Why are you still here?!” he snapped, and I had never seen anyone kick a stone pillar so desperately.

The buzz of a cell phone sounded, and a few seconds later, Nash reached into his pocket and read the message he had received. He pressed his lips together, ruffled his hair again, and then disappeared through the courtyard into another hallway.

I stayed behind the column a bit longer, trying to process the first few days at Vanderwood, while I watched a black raven balance around on the arm of the courtyard statue, slip, and fall into the pool.

Could it be that everyone here was nuts?

Chapter 25

Adrian

I didn’t know how David knew about this room, but I didn’t really care either. I was glad that there was a place here at all where one could communicate undisturbed.

The only unusual details were all the pictures on the wall and the bright sunlight coming in through the big windows.

I felt the infernal burning on the back of my hand and watched Miles avoiding the light as well. We both didn’t bring our black moonstones.

There were advantages and disadvantages to using our powers during the day. And like with all of us, it was my skin that was affected. Even if the Legacy Ruisangors had a clear advantage and didn't have to walk around with a moonstone all day, as the Changed had to.

Actually, it should have stopped long ago, but the burning had already occurred regularly for half an hour as soon as UV radiation hit my skin.

I joined Miles in a corner where no light entered, and David followed me.

“Is it still burning?” David finally asked. He knew it wasn’t normal.

“Yes,” I replied curtly, because I wanted to get to the point. “But it will go away soon.”

When I had manipulated the girl’s memories earlier, it had been different than usual. It had felt like I was fighting a certain resistance. And then her look, which had been different from the others. Instead of horror and emptiness, it had been curiosity. As if she had enjoyed it before I had taken away the rest of her memories of the conversation. Almost as if she had enjoyed every bit of it. There had been a strange gleam in her eyes. A glow I neither knew nor could place. And then that smell...

I remembered a few other of my prey bodies that I had slept with before. Their eyes had been empty. No gleam, no curiosity, nothing. And they had never smelled like a goddamn feast.

“That’s what happens when you don’t use your powers often enough.”

Miles patted me on the shoulder, laughing.

I looked at him in annoyance, even though he was right.

“Unlike you, I don’t use them to bang random girls and plant false images of me in their minds,” I countered unenthusiastically.

“You just erase their memory afterward. How boring...” Miles waved off, and I raised my brows.

“When was the last time you drank from them?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

Miles’s expression darkened. I had hit his sore spot. Point for me.

“Hey, focus now,” David murmured. “These topics have no place at Vanderwood.”

“Don’t get jealous. After all, you can pretend to be a witch if you ever get in trouble.”

David raised both brows in response to Miles’ words. Normally, he always reacted pissed off in regards to such teasing. Even though he was very much in control of his emotions. The way it should be and not the way it was with Miles.

We’d probably teased David too much about the telekinesis thing, so that perhaps he no longer cared.

“At least I don’t treat women the shameless way you do.”

That had more than sunk in. And as expected, Miles jumped at David’s argument.

“Not everyone knows how to live life to the fullest.”

At that, he looked at me as if he were making some kind of reference. I knew what he was getting at.

“Don’t confuse recklessness and unbridled sexual drives with fun,” David returned. “Bastien taught you – and by that, I mean both of you – that you don’t play with your prey or take advantage of your superiority over it.”

This time, he looked at me.

“Bastien wouldn’t be Bastien if he could take a joke,” Miles laughed.

There was mockery in his amusement. I don’t know if it was directed at Bastien, the rules, or the whole Ruisangor ruling system, but one thing was clear. He handled it differently than we did.

“Can we please stop wasting our time on this subject?” Miles finally murmured.

“It’s in our nature, though,” I replied dryly. He couldn’t run away from it forever.

“Maybe it is, but we’re not like the wolves or the...” Miles stopped mid-sentence. I knew exactly what he had been trying to say.

“What are you trying to say?”

I took a step toward him, and his expression darkened.

“Adrian, Miles...” David began impatiently, but I had really gotten into it for the first time in a while. I took another step.

“Are you saying I’m one of them? One of those out-of-control monsters?”

They were like us. Genetically speaking. Other than that, we had nothing in common. If we killed people like they did, we would automatically be one of them. But mere drinking was harmless. When was he going to accept that?