In Vendetta House (The Vendetta Series #1)

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The cold torrent hits my face as soon as I shut the door with a quiet click. My teeth chatter slightly despite my thick layers. I inspect the long hallway, rubbing my hands together.
We are on the first floor of East Wing. There are three floors of dorms in total, and the fourth is a common room with toilets. Let's see: the infirmary could be reached through the center corridors, then through a few random hallways that I used the paintings to mark my path, and finally into the left of North Wing.

I haven't even tip-toed a few steps down the hall before someone grabs my wrist. My head snaps back, anxiety rocking my core from getting caught. But I see nothing.

I furiously brush the invisible grip off my wrist and throw myself against the wall, my eyes swiveling for the offending spirit.

Then I remember spirits are not the only invisible thing in this place.

I blink a few times, making my mind expect a person. His silhouette begins to appear before me, but in the dark, all my attention focuses on are two glowing rings of neon green where his irises are, floating right before me.

I bite back one of those OMG-worthy gasps.

"Holy mother of god, your eyes!" I whisper. "It's bloody scary. Why do they do that?"

Jesse's illuminated green face raises its eyebrows. I realize with horror the green hue on his face is coming from the light in my own eyes.

I'd always wanted a more unique eye color than just brown, but alien green seems like a bit too much. Maybe the nice dark blue Jesse has. I had thought Jesse had a blend of blue-green irises, but up close I see they are really just blue near the pupil with a ring of green. Unlike mine, where the brown and green had too much of a contrast, his blend together due to the similarity.

"All spirit-seer eyes have a green ring that glows. It's our marking, the alteration," he whispers back.

"Scary," I say. "We've got mini torches in our eyes."

The two rings roll up at my comment and back down again.

"You smell like pine," he suddenly remarks.

I jerk back in surprise, unaware I had totally violated his personal bubble.

"Sorry," I mutter.

"No problem," he replies, amusement lurking in his quiet tone. "And here I was thinking you were going to ask me why I was stalking you."

I frown in the dark. "Why are you out here?"

"You're just lucky I am," Jesse whispers. "You were two steps away from walking into the sensors."

"Sensors...?" My voice trails off as I squint to see tiny little red beams, no thinner than a tenth of an inch, moving slowly right in front of me. My back straightens, and I take some cautionary steps back.

"There are sensors?" I hiss. "And no one bothered to tell me?"

"Technically, you shouldn't be sneaking out and running into them in the first place."

"What if someone accidentally stumbles onto them to go to the bathroom? Girls use the South bathrooms, don't they now?"

"Girls in the East Wing either..." he pauses, as if this is such a funny conversation, "...use the bathroom before lights out, which is when the sensors switch on, or they use the boys'."

"Well, what happens if someone sneaks out and steps into the beams?" I whisper.

"Silent alarms. Then Dr. Hood gets all mad, stormy, snappy and no breakfast," he mimics. "It's not pleasant, trust-"