I shrugged and secretly prayed he wouldn’t come over. “Are you excited to be moving back into your house?”

“Not really, I like staying on campus. It’s fun and I don’t have to walk as far.”

It was a bit of a hike to and from Mila’s house, but at least she’d be safe. Loud giggles erupted from the pack of girls sitting at the end of our table. I turned my head toward them—of course it was Raina and her posse. It always was. As Mila had said, the newest addition to the clan was pretty, dark-skinned Ava. Ava glanced nervously at me.

“You’re glowering. You aren’t going to start a fight, are you?” Mila asked.

I brought my attention back to Mila. “Nope. It’s not worth it, besides, I can’t complain now that I get all your awesomeness to myself.”

Mila laughed. “You really are my best friend.”

“I know.”

Mila reached out and grabbed my wrist. “Cute bracelet! Where’d you get it?”

I pulled my wrist out of her grasp and into my lap.

“It’s a really long story.”

“Well, we’re stuck in here for another twenty minutes… is that enough time?”

I sighed and gave in. “Last night when a vampire got into the school, it was Hunter.”

Mila gasped dramatically and covered her mouth.

“He came to my house and—” I waved my wrist in front of me and lowered my voice. “Strapped this stupid thing to my wrist.”

Her expression became confused. “He broke into Sage to give you a gift?”

I scoffed. “Some gift. It blocks my Heelian power.”

Her blue eyes narrowed in on me. “You’re not serious?”

“Dead serious.”

“It doesn’t sound like something Hunter would do… intentionally hurt you, I mean,” Mila said as she twirled a lock of her long blonde hair around her index finger.

I shrugged. “He isn’t himself anymore. It isn’t his fault entirely, though. He’s trapped in some kind of sire-master bond thing with Lucian and he does everything Lucian asks of him. He also seems to think we’ll run away together once Lucian takes me away from here.”

“So he’s a vampire and he’s delusional? There’s no way Eli would let Hunter, or Lucian, take off with you. Neither would any of the other guardians here.”

I shrugged again. “Sometimes it’s better to cut your losses and stop any further damage.”

I focused on a small scratch that ran across the otherwise perfect varnish of the table. Hunter ruined my only chance of staying alive and I worried that if my blood couldn’t cure vampires, then maybe they’d leave me for dead.

After lunch, it was time to evacuate the dorms. I waited as Mila and the students poured from the hall. When the crowd dispersed, I exited the hall and stepped out onto the cracked pavement.

“Why am I not surprised?” a deep voice growled at me. I turned around and met Gabriel’s sullen face. He still had the same blond hair and light splattering of freckles across both cheeks.

“Excuse me?”

“You show up and the next minute the school is being evacuated. What’d you do this time?”

I turned away from him and walked in the direction of the girls’ dorms. His hand pulled me to a stop, twirling me around. Our eyes were level and his were angry.

“I’m not finished talking to you.”

“No? Well, I’m finished talking to you.” I tried to turn away, but his hand squeezed my shoulder, preventing me from turning fully. I shrugged his arm off. “Don’t touch me.”

“What, you think because you have that guardian uniform on, you’re better than everyone else?”

“No.”

“Tell me. What’d you do? Who died for you this time?”

“Nobody,” I growled.

“Why’d you come back? Things were back to normal, then you show up and as always, there’s someone after you. Wherever you go you bring nothing but pain and death.”

Greif rolled through me, jamming at the base of my throat. I wasn’t going to contest him… not when everything he said was true. I’ve caused death since the night my mother was murdered. I tried not to cry because Aaron was standing behind Gabriel, arms folded, looking as scary as ever, and also because it was my first day as a guardian. I wasn’t going to ruin it by crying.

“That’s enough,” Aaron barked.

Gabriel didn’t turn around. He kept his blue, angry eyes focused on me. “Too many people have died and yet the cause still lives. You tell me how that’s fair.”

He pushed past me, nudging my shoulder.

“Don’t listen to him,” Aaron mumbled, uncomfortably. “In our world, people die all the time. That’s just the way it is.”

I nodded, even though I agreed with every word Gabriel said.

“C’mon, we’re going to the girls’ dorms,” he added.

I followed Aaron, fighting back tears the whole way. In the lobby of the girls’ dorms, Mrs. Ploit sat behind her desk, sipping on a cup of tea. “Ahh, Mr. Foley. If you could supervise rooms 108 to—” She cut off her words as she saw me step out from behind Aaron.

“Miss Moore, what a pleasant surprise.” I could tell by the tone of her voice she really meant horrible surprise.

“Likewise,” I replied, thick with attitude.

“Rooms 108 through to 123 need to be supervised.”

Aaron nodded and headed in that direction. I turned away from her glowering eyes and narrowed brows and followed Aaron.

“The school is being evacuated,” she said, keeping her tone low enough for only me to hear. “I should have known you’d pop up somewhere.”

I ignored her. I didn’t want my anger getting the better of me. I assumed it’d reflect pretty badly on Mr. Aleksandrov and the whole guardian team if I punched a semi-old lady regardless of how much of a bitch she was.

We waited in the halls, supervising as students jammed their belongings into boxes and suitcases. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get to supervise Mila’s room. Instead—as luck would have it—I was stuck staring into the girly depths of Raina’s room. She glanced at me occasionally as she folded her pretty dresses and over-decorated shoes into her suitcase. Awkwardly, I skimmed my gaze up and down the hallway. I hadn’t seen Raina since I first discovered my Heelian power and gave her a rather bad case of sunburn. Looking at her now, I still didn’t feel sorry for her—I still hated her for being the reason Eli was sent away and for pitting Rylan and Hunter against each other. In fact, she was technically at fault for this whole mess. I tightened my ponytail, placed my hands on my hips, and watched as Raina struggled to close the lid of her bright pink suitcase.

“Can you help me?” she asked sheepishly.

I stared blankly around the hallway, processing what she’d asked me. I studied her curiously. She watched, appearing uncomfortable under my stare.

“Nothing is going to jump out and kill me, is it?” I asked.

“I should be more worried about you killing me.”

My lips twitched. “Touché.”

Raina pulled her long, blue dress up to her knees and sat on her suitcase, forcing the lid down. I knelt beside it and grasped the warm metal zipper. It jammed a few times, but after a few tries it managed to close completely.

“I overheard Gabriel…” Raina blurted, “…talking to you.”

I ignored her. I hadn’t noticed anyone standing near us other than Aaron, but it didn’t surprise me if she was lingering around to get some new gossip and make my life even more of a living hell. I rose to my feet and took a step toward the door.

“I don’t blame you,” I heard her mutter.

I turned abruptly. “What do you want, Raina? You’re crazy if you think we’re friends because I helped you close your obnoxious suitcase.”

Her expression changed, she seemed offended by my outburst. “Nothing… I don’t want anything. I thought I’d let you know that I don’t blame you. This isn’t your fault.”

“And whose fault is it? Hmm?”

“It’s mine.”

A gasp escaped me. I thought it was her fault, but I never in a million years thought she believed it was.

“If I wasn’t jealous of you, or Mila, this never would’ve happened. I—I didn’t plan for this… I’m sorry.”

She dropped her gaze to her hand. I wrapped my arms around myself, confused, trying to wrap my head around Raina’s words and decipher whether she was sincere or not. I wanted to point my finger at her and make her shout at the top of her lungs that this was all her fault, but in reality, we were each just as much at fault as the other.

“There’s no point sulking over what happened in the past. It’s too late. It can’t be changed or forgotten, so take that as a lesson—learn from it and move on. If you’re truly sorry, you’ll make sure the past doesn’t repeat itself.” I stepped back into the hallway and turned around to face her. “And it isn’t me you have to apologize to, it’s Mila.”

“Ruby, we supervise from outside of the rooms,” Aaron called from down the hallway.

I gave him the thumbs up, indicating that I understood him. In my back pocket, my phone vibrated twice, letting me know I had received a text message. I pulled it out and read the text. Apparently, the parents had started showing up. I looked at Aaron, who was glancing down at his phone as well—I guess it was a group text.

Several guardians helped escort students to the car park—me included. Sports cars in every color weaved their way around the predominately black car park. It was so surreal. For reasons I couldn’t explain, I assumed that everyone at this school was orphaned. It didn’t cross my mind that they had parents and siblings that missed them. Needless to say, the parents were pissed off, and thankfully, none of them seemed to know who I was. The evacuation was total chaos. There wasn’t enough room in the car park for parents to pick up their children, so the guardians set up a no stop pick up zone. As a car pulled up, a guardian would get the name of the student that needed to be picked up and call it out. It was a big mess at first, but once everyone realized that if they wanted to get out of here before dark, they needed to be quiet and wait for their name.

After an hour of standing in a line with the other guardians forming a wall between the school and the car park, I was getting bored. There were still hundreds of students left to go.

“Is this all you do?” I asked the tall guardian next to me.

Using the word tall to describe this guy was an understatement. He was so tall he made Kareem Abdul Jabbar look short—I was exaggerating, slightly, but I think I made my point. I wondered if he could hear me from all the way down here.

“Standing together provides a united front.” His voice was deep. “And it’s professional.”

I brought my attention back to the cars and sighed. I hope I don’t have to do this for too much longer. In this extremely short time of being a guardian, I realized that it sucked.

FIRST NIGHT

Nightfall was approaching quickly. The last rays of the late afternoon sun were just disappearing below the trees. Once all the students and teachers left, the guardians kicked into gear and began preparing for the attack. It was only Monday and Hunter said Lucian was coming on Wednesday, but who knew if that was the truth? Nobody wanted to be caught off guard, so they’d be prepared every night until Lucian shows.

In the dining hall, a handful of guardians were circled around a table with a huge map of the school spread out in front of them. They spoke in phrases and terms that I didn’t understand—some head guardian I turned out to be. When they decided the best way to go about things, Eli addressed the whole room. He stood in front of us, his arms folded tightly across his chest, looking godlier than any real god ever could. Eli skipped the pleasantries and got straight to business.

“We are fifteen minutes out from nightfall. We’ve agreed that plan B is the best defensive plan. The students are no longer here, so our attention must be focused mainly in the areas of our homes…” Eli’s gaze fell on me, “…and Mr. Aleksandrov’s house. We don’t know how many vampires Lucian will bring.”

All the guardians nodded in agreement. I was the only one looking like I had no idea what the hell he meant. I stood silently and watched the guardians organize themselves with amazing efficiency as Eli began sending groups of them away to different segments of Sage Sanctum. They grabbed silver chains and weapons that were customized to inflict as much damage to a vampire as possible. The guns came with silver bullets, the knives and swords had silver blades, and the stakes were tipped with silver for extra reassurance. When the guardians thinned out, I stepped forward.

“Is there anything I can do?” I asked Eli.

“No. I’ll take you to Mr. Aleksandrov’s before nightfall comes.”

I sighed. “I thought that you of all people would let me help…”

Eli laughed, but stopped when he saw I wasn’t particularly amused. “Oh, you’re serious.”

“Yes, I am.”

“Okay, you can help.” I perked up. “I’m on my way to the field by Mr. Aleksandrov’s, why don’t you come with me and keep Mila company?”

I exhaled and slumped my shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” he added, lowering his voice. “I can’t let you get hurt. If you’re around Mila, then I can find a way to protect you both, but if you separate, well, I have to protect her…”