Bloodlust (The Blood Series #1)

Chapter 24

  I keep nodding off during math class. My teacher is really surprised when she asks a question and my hand doesn't shoot straight up. I know the answer, yes, but I can't conjure up the energy to raise my hand. Troy and I stayed up until dawn to practice breaking compulsion. I suck, bad. Troy says that it's a miracle that I'm even to able to know when someone is trying to compel me but I disagree. In my opinion, recognizing compulsion only matters if you're able to stop the person from compelling you.

It was weird to train with Troy because it wasn't weird. He was still the same person I have been counting on for all these years. But I'm not a total fool, I made seven different memos about everything I hated about Troy and was relieved to notice that even after our training session I could remember them all. That meant that Troy hadn't compelled me to forget his mistakes and we were still broken up when I wandered back to my room just before my mom's alarm clock buzzed.

I got a couple hours of sleep and was only able to get up from bed because Nathan texted me that he'd come by to drive me to school even though he wouldn't be coming in. When I tried to ask why not, he got really evasive and simply said that it was Blood business. It annoys the hell out of me but what can I do? I know that he won't tell me no matter what I do. So I fell silent just like I did last night and had decided to repeat also my cold departure but Nathan wasn't having it. He pulled me to him and kissed me until my lips were numb.

"I'm sorry", he whispered then and I know he really meant it.

"Uhum", I mumbled feeling a little lightheaded and I heard him chuckle slightly when I stumbled out of the car. I ignored the weird glances thrown my way and waved to Nathan until he was gone. Then I sighed and walked to my first lesson, math, which is where I'm now. I try my best to stay awake and alert but I'm pretty out of it and the teacher even stops the lesson for a second to ask me if I'm okay. I claim to be fine and simply blame a horror movie for keeping me up. My teacher rolls his eyes at me but doesn't doubt the story.

I'm debating with myself whether the horror movie story was really lie (I've got some seriously weird and literally monstrous stuff going on in my life) when I spot the real surprise of the morning. Drea and Callum are passionately locking lips in front of my locker when I walk there after first period. What the hell? She has forgiven him but I'm still being iced out? I make a gagging sound.

Andrea looks up, her mouth ready to snap at the intruder but when she sees that it's me, she smiles instead. "Hey Hales", she says happily. "Just the girl I was looking for."

"I rarely reside inside Callum's mouth", I state a little coldly. What is she doing with Callum? If anyone, she should forgive me. I know I slapped her boyfriend, but let's be honest, he so had that one coming. Except that Drea doesn't know that. Right.

Andrea giggles. "Only on Thursdays, right?" she jokes and Callum laughs but I stay silent. "Look, Cal has told me everything. We're cool now. I know now that you were just looking out for me, like you always are. Thank you for that but I can handle it from now on."

I smile excitedly. I can't wait for this feud to be over. I miss my best friend and cannot listen to my rebound bestie Jody talk about weed every single time I try to eat. "Finally, I missed you like crazy when -- wait, what did Callum exactly tell you?" I ask with sudden suspicion clouding my mind.

Callum's smile falters and he stiffens. "I don't think this is the place to discuss it", he interrupts before Andrea even has the chance to open her mouth. He's glaring at me over Drea's head and that's how I know that whatever Callum has told her it is not the truth.

I ignore him and pull Drea with me to an empty classroom that someone has left unlocked. "Drea, tell me", I urge as soon as the door shuts behind us. I notice that Callum has followed us here but don't let that bother me even though his eyes are throwing daggers in my way.

Drea shrugs. "Well, you already know but okay. So basically Cal has gotten these magical powers or whatever and you saw him use them and freaked out. But you don't have to worry. He's like a superhero, he intends to only use them for good."

A superhero? Callum Winchester? Excuse me while I laugh until my guts burst out.

I shake my head. "He's lying, Drea." Whatever powers Drea is referring to, they didn't just appear, like Callum has made it sound like. He got them from somewhere and I'd bet my house that 'somewhere' was from the Blood family. My family has been collecting abilities for centuries, had Nathan once told me. What if they had a way of transferring those collected powers into new recruits? It'd certainly explain Callum suddenly having powers. But did receiving new powers mean that Callum was now a full-fledged Blood?

"Haley, shut up", Callum suddenly spits at me.

Drea's big smile has long ago disappeared. "What do you mean he's lying?" she asks with a sharp edge to her voice.

"He's a--"

"Do I need to remind you about a conversation we had a while back?" Callum hisses at me but I don't back down. I'm too angry. What is with these guys lately, thinking that they can just lie their way out of everything? Callum, Troy, even Nathan sometimes. Where do they learn to be such idiots? Have they not heard that truth will always out?

Drea decides to speak up. "Callum, shut up", she orders. Then she turns to me. "Haley, tell me. What is he lying about?"

I don't miss a beat. All this secrecy has got to end and it might as well start with these two. "He has gotten some new powers but they didn't just randomly appear, he worked hard to get them by doing things I don't even want to start guessing. He's a Blood prospect, Drea!"

Drea breathes out, tears starting to pool in her eyes. Callum tries to speak to her, convince her, plea her to listen but she picks up her hand and silences Callum with one move. You got to admire Drea, even in the midst of a catastrophe she's still elegant. I would have yelled and slapped Callum but Drea is scary calm.

"Enough. Callum, don't talk to me. Just go away, please", she says with a shaky voice and Callum tries to argue but she keeps on insisting so he leaves, after casting one last deadly look in my direction. I know I have just made an enemy for life and he looks thirsty for my blood, no pun intended. But Drea needed to hear the truth.

Drea wipes off her tears and breathes in while having a staring match with her reflection. Then she says bleakly: "I need to get to my tutoring session. Oliver has promised to do that both at lunch and after school."

"Oliver? No, Drea, listen, he's a--" I start to warn but Drea makes me fall silent. She is shaking her head until my mouth shuts.

"Haley, don't. I can't handle any more revelations right now", she says quietly and disappears from the classroom.

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I need to be a part of that study group. I'm going to have to make some sacrifices but I'm not leaving Oliver and Andrea alone. I already sat outside the window of the history class where they met up during lunch and Andrea walked out of there intact. But had Oliver tried to kill her, I would have been too late to save her. I've seen how fast he is and it would take a lot longer for me to break through a window than for him to slit Drea's throat.

I know just the way to get into Oliver's study group. I'll purposely flunk a quiz in his class and then ask to be added to his tutoring session. I'm in luck: we have a small test today. I hide my smile and deliberately give a wrong answer to every single one of the questions on the test Oliver hands us in the beginning of the lesson and can barely wait for him to check the tests while we are doing quiet reading. It kind of amuses me how only couple weeks back I was terrified to get an F and now I'm getting one on purpose. Well, I like to think that I'm that kind of a person to whom best friend's life means more than academic success.

When he's returning the quizzes to us, he slams my pathetic test on my table. It has a big red F on it like my bad grade has annoyed Oliver so much that he wanted to emphasize his disappointment in my failure.

I look up at him with big innocent eyes. "I guess I need tutoring", I say and stifle a smirk but by the look on his eyes I know that he noticed it.

"I guess you do", he admits with an unreadable expression before he continues to hand out the tests.

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The tutoring session is a bust. The classroom isn't empty like it was on lunch when Drea and Oliver were the only people inside. This time the classroom is filled with people, mostly girls but there are a few embarrassed looking boys who probably actually need the tutoring unlike many others who are batting their eyelashes at Oliver and begging him to explain something really simple for the third time.

I already know everything they are discussing so all I have left is dodging Drea's strange looks. She's sitting next to me and she keeps looking at me weird. She knows that there's no way I need tutoring since I study a lot. Well, in reality I don't really study that much. I just pay attention in class and I remember things easily.

I try not to look at Oliver but every now and then I notice him giving me a gloating smile. He must have guessed why I had failed the test. He enjoyed greatly my shocked expression when I came to notice that these after school study sessions weren't a cover for murdering Andrea but an actual study session.

I'm about to answer Nathan who asks if I need a ride home when the phone is snatched from my hand. I'm about to make a gross threat when I realize that the person who is now holding my phone is Oliver. As much as it may entice me, I can't curse out a teacher in front of the class. So instead I bite my tongue and wait for him to speak.

"Are we boring you, Miss Roberts?"

I know he has seen what I was going to text back to Nathan. It reads: No thanks, I've got that shrink thing that my mom arranged for me after this. I'm at Psycho's study session and bored out of my mind. Some girl keeps asking the most ridiculous questions and I feel like screaming. Who the hell doesn't know when this country gained independence?? ARGH.

Oliver's lips curve up after reading it. "You'll get this back after this psychotic study session is over", he says tauntingly but the joke is lost on everyone else but me. Just the way he likes it. I glare at him but don't argue, knowing it'd be pointless. Instead I focus on not listening to a word he says after that and put my mind onto something else. I try to figure out what the heck I'm going to tell that therapist my mom has made me an appointment to go see. I need to make up some crap about my sadness over the divorce of my parents and be convincing enough that the therapist won't think I need to come by again.

After the hellish fifteen minutes left have gone by, the tutoring session finally comes to an end. I stand up as soon as Oliver dismisses the class and wait impatiently for the room to empty. Drea is the last to leave, she casts yet another strange look in my direction. I try to smile at her reassuringly but I don't think I was that convincing.

Oliver is writing something in his papers and doesn't look up when I walk up to his desk and stretch out my hand. "My phone."

"Oh, right", he says as if he has forgotten even though we both know that he hasn't. He pick up my phone but doesn't give it to me. Instead he starts throwing it in the air with one hand and skillfully catching it with another. "You know, there are easier ways to get my attention than purposely flunking just so you can join our little group."

"I didn't come here for you", I snap. Now that everyone is gone, I don't have to pretend to feel the respect reserved for teachers. Now I can act like he's the murderous psychopath I know he is.

He grins wickedly. "I know. You came here for you friend. Andrea, right? The girl with blonde hair and one pink streak in it? She's such a sweet girl. Would be shame to see something happen to her."

"Why are you doing this?" I blurt out. I didn't mean to ask that, I meant to call him names and then quickly retreat in time to catch up with Andrea before she leaves so maybe I'll get a ride to that shrink's office. But the one thought that constitutionally haunts me blobs out instead of all the cruel things I've thought about him during the time I've known him.

Oliver doesn't answer right away, he just stares at me with those strange amber eyes boring into mine. There's no malevolence in his eyes now, he looks simply curious and estimating, like he is trying to figure out whether I'm worthy of an answer or not. When he finally answers, I've nearly forgotten the question.

"To test you."