Lycan Blood (Alex Vane: Demon Stalker #1)

Shock

‘He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.’

Friedrich Nietzsche said that. Smart man. Although actually, I learnt it first from my Granddad. He was reciting to that to me long before I was old enough to realise they weren’t actually his words. And I always laughed back in response, rolling my eyes and insisting that no, I would never let it get that bad. And then he’d always smile and say ‘I know that Alex bear. I just hope you do.’

But Granddad wasn’t here anymore.

It took a few good minutes for me to calm myself down, at least enough so that I could leave the toilets. I had to think about this rationally, not get carried away. There really hadn’t been that much blood. Adam had just been shocked because he wasn’t used to it, not the way I was. Luke Jenkins would be fine. A bruised nose and a bruised ego, nothing more. Still, I knew I had to find him. If nothing else then I would need to apologise to the brute.

“Miss. Vane!” I flinched at the sound of the voice, knowing instantly who it belonged to. Mr. Wheaton, our head teacher. I had encountered him once or twice in my short school career, mostly to have talks about attendance or lack of effort in lessons. He was harsh but he had always been fairly reasonable to me. I think he felt sorry about my parents or something. Anyway, there was no sign of that sympathy today. His eyes were like steel, narrow and brewing with fury. I was in serious trouble and it wasn’t too hard to figure out why.

“You need to come to my office, right now.” I followed him obediently, not that it did anything to quell his mood. Sure enough, when I stepped into the room I saw Luke sitting smugly at his desk. The first thing I did was scan his nose, which thankfully had stopped bleeding. His face and clothes were still encrusted with the stuff though, and one of his eyes was so bruised it looked black.

I only felt worse, seeing my handiwork. How could I have felt triumphant over this? Luke was a jerk but even he had never roughed anyone up this bad.

“Take a seat Miss. Vane.” The way he said it made it clear it wasn’t a request. I’d been planning to comply with everything he said anyway. I’d done something bad and I knew that meant I’d have to face the consequences.

I just wish one of those consequences wasn’t seeing Luke’s stupid smug grin.

“Now, am I to understand that you attacked Mr. Jenkins over here?”

“I punched him, yes.” I think he was surprised when I admitted it. His bushy eyebrows shot right up, before he got control of them again anyway.

“Well then, you know our policy on school bullying. Any physical violence results in immediate suspension for a three day period.” A suspension? Actually, that didn’t seem so bad. Still, I had to make him feel like he was punishing me or else things could get much worse. Dipping my head, I sighed despondently.

“I know. I am very sorry though. I shouldn’t have punched Luke like that. Even if he did provoke me, it wasn’t right.” Out the corner of my eye I saw Luke squirm. Obviously he hadn’t mentioned how he had provoked me to Mr. Wheaton when he was ratting me out.

“Provoked?” I could hear the hesitation and I felt a faint glimmer of hope. I might not be able to lessen my own punishment, but perhaps I could take Luke down with me. That might be enough to stop him trying to get his revenge on Adam at least.

“Well, I only punched him because it looked like he was going to hurt the new kid-”

“That’s a lie!” Luke jumped in, slamming his hand down on the desk in anger. Mr. Wheaton raised an eyebrow. Luke had basically just signed his own death warrant.