Shadow Embraced (Haven Academy Book 1) [Completed]

Chapter 16

"You alright?" Rayne asks as she takes a seat beside me. Her little cadre of friends parks themselves at the other chairs around the table.

"No," I snap. I don't mean to, but I'm pissed off — stupid Talon.

Talon's idea of a private lesson involved me running an endless number of laps while throwing rocks at me. What is it with running in this place? The sadistic old bat just kept torturing me until I passed out. I'd probably still be doing them if she didn't have a class to teach. I've been hiding out in the cafeteria ever since.

"What's your problem?" Rayne says, with a bitter tone in her voice.

"From what I heard, she's taking private lessons with Talon," one of Rayne's friends says. He's a vamp with blond hair, blue eyes, unlikely name of Jet. Looks like a surfer. "Real slave driver if you catch her attention. Must be tough."

"Yeah, Little Miss Special might chip a nail." Snow glares at me from across the table. The only reason I'm not reaching over and tearing her pretty little throat out is I'm too exhausted to do it.

"Cool it, Jynx," she says. "Special training from a master of vampiric techniques can't go astray. Has she shown you anything cool?"

I toss up the choices of ignoring her, giving her the truth or lying outright. In the end, I go with somewhere in the middle.

"Nothing much, just a lot of running. Though, she did show me this trick involving sticking string into someone's forehead and messing with their head."

"You're kidding! She showed you Lambert's Sickle? That's a high-level interrogation technique used almost exclusively by the Regulators. Did she teach you how it works?" another of Rayne's minions says. Tyler, I think. He's a lanky vamp with mottled red hair. Most of the times, he doesn't speak; these are the most words I've heard him string together.

Tera speaks up. "Of course she didn't, Bonehead. Tal was probably showing off her vastly superior ability, so her new pet would be in awe of her amazing talent. No offence, Scar." The vampire with a catty attitude, with light, tanned skin and shoulder-length mousy brown hair leans her elbows on the table. "That woman is just chock full of self-righteous arrogance."

I don't know where Rayne found these people. There's the spacey surfer, stoic mute, tarty cat, and psychotic albino bitch; it seems like quite a mixed bag until you see how loyal they are to her. If Rayne told them all to swan dive off the roof, they'd probably fight over who gets to go first. They're a bunch of lemmings.

"So, she's giving you private lessons, eh? Told you we'd change her mind."

Everyone at the table stops to gawk at our newest arrival, Daemon. How long has he been standing behind us? From the look on Tera's face, at least long enough to have heard her comments about Talon.

"Just stopped by to make sure you don't forget about our date tomorrow."

Shock rips through the table like a shotgun blast. Daemon walks away; the smile spreading across his face suggests he is happy with the incident he's created. Rayne's jaw is halfway to the ground. I can feel the murderous rage blazing within Snow's eyes. I don't think their finding out is such a good thing.

"What date?" Rayne says as soon as she regains herself.

* * *

"What are you going to wear?" Rayne asks.

"What? Won't this do?" I look at myself in the mirror. My standard hoodie and jeans combo. If people see me and assume this is the only outfit I own, what of it? It's a classic, and I like it.

The thought of my upcoming date has left Rayne all bubbly and eager to help. She wants to dress me up like a dolly and parade me around, no doubt. The problem is, I'm not a very cooperative clotheshorse.