Isle of Night (29 page)

Ronan told me he'd been asked to watch out for me. I knew now: The one keeping an eye on me had been Master Alcántara.

“Understanding dawns on your face as vividly as the sun in the sky.” He touched a finger to my chin, and fear thrummed through me. He could snap my neck as easily and thoughtlessly as plucking a flower.

A low laugh rumbled in his chest. “You betray every thought. I see I must teach you guile. For once you are silent, Annelise. Have you nothing to say?”

What were all these words he was saying to me? They freaked me out. “I'm just . . . confused. I mean, surely there are other girls in the world who know a thing or two about math.”

“None such as you.” He canted his head, and his attentions made me intensely uncomfortable. “You are the full package, as they say. I've suffered centuries of dim-witted beauties. Or girls with looks so repellent as to negate minds that shone like diamonds. I seek strength, too, and yet have had my fill of Amazons whose brawn lacks loveliness and grace.”

I stared dumbly. What was I supposed to say to this little revelation?
Thanks. You're smart and cute, too?

“But you,
querida
, your mind is luminous. You, a crude but radiant light. Your courage, your edge . . . Nurtured in a hothouse of cruelty, you've grown into a rosebud with deadly thorns.”

“Thanks . . .” My words faltered. I was uncertain what to do. Uncertain what was expected of me. I opened my mouth to say more, but didn't know what.

“Do I frighten you with my words? You'll be unaccustomed to men, I think.”

“Yes.” I inhaled deeply. That was a good train of thought to cling to. “That's it exactly.”

And speaking of boys, just where was Yasuo? It was surely well past midnight now. Had he seen Master Alcántara and been scared off? I was all alone with him, and I thought I might suffocate from the tension.

“I don't usually talk to a lot of boys,” I added.

He gave me a look that I prayed was more
kindly uncle
and less
here's a live one for me to deflower.

Master Alcántara stared up at the moon. “How many nights I've sat beneath this sky. How many stars have circled, how many times?” His gaze swung to me, pinning me. “And now I sit here with you.”

Crap.
It was the
deflower
one.

I made myself look away, staring blindly up at the stars. Looking anywhere but at the vampire. I had to keep my wits. This scenario couldn't end well for me. I'd seen the movies. When Dracula got the hots for a girl, it always ended with him draining her dry.

“Perhaps it means you're meant to win my award,” he mused.

The vampire mesmerized me, but mentally I pushed back. Mustering my wits, I dragged my mind from its spiral. “Yes, I'd really like to win,” I said, speaking as though I were addressing any teacher. “I've been working very hard. I feel I've made good progress, too. Plus, I'd really like to take a trip off-island.”

And how.
More than ever, I knew I had to do whatever it took to get the hell out of here.

“Is that why you've come looking for me?” His voice rose, waiting for some response.

I cleared my throat, imagining it cleared my head, too. Why
was
I there? Master Alcántara hadn't summoned me—
Yasuo
had. Award or no, I had the strong feeling I needed to clarify. What if it was
Alcántara
who'd sent the note, and this was all some elaborate test? “That's not exactly why.... It's . . . I was given a note.”

He laughed, but I wasn't sure if it meant he was amused or angered. “I see you are incapable of lying. Do you know you just saved your life, little Acari? I dislike lies—I kill for less.”

I swallowed hard. “I'm not a liar.”

“I had to make certain.” He gave me a courtly nod, as if granting me a point in a chess match. “Now tell me of this note you found. No”—he stopped me with an upraised hand—“I think
I
shall tell
you
. For I know more of it than you do.”

My belly turned to ice. Had Yasuo been found out? Was he in trouble? “How do you know about the note?”

He shook his head in mock sympathy. “Poor, sad Acari. I will
always
know more than you do.”

He studied me, and I wanted to squirm under his gaze. “Though you like that, I think. You've always dreamt of being instructed by one who knows more than you. It's why I wanted you. You relish learning—you're amused by the not knowing. You are
seduced
by it. Ever desirous of those moments your curiosity is finally gratified.”

He made it sound like a sexual thing, and my heart thudded in response. I became aware of his arm pressed against mine. What was happening? I felt out of control. I was drawn to him against my will. Because I didn't want him. Did I?

“Your note isn't from young Yasuo. Though I have been watching him. Just what is it about that child that appeals to you?” He tilted his head in brief, almost aggravated, speculation.

“What do you mean?” I asked warily.

Master Alcántara inhaled sharply, visibly shoving thoughts from his mind. “Your note is from Lilac. Yes, she laid a trap for you.”

Fury flared, roiling like acid in my belly. It made sense now. Of course it'd been Lilac. She'd had someone plant that note.

But then I felt cool relief quick on its heels prickling through me, loosening muscles I hadn't known I'd tensed. “So Yasuo is safe?”

“You are fascinating to me,
cariño
. To endanger your life, to risk a prize I know you covet . . .” His look implied I might yearn for something—or some
one
—more than just the Directorate Award. “That you'd jeopardize it all, and for someone you met mere months ago.”

“Yasuo is my friend. I thought he was in trouble.”

He stared as though I were a particularly entrancing specimen of butterfly. “I value loyalty. And it is why you won't die tonight. Any other girl caught as you have been would be made an example. But I find I want to spare you.”

He stroked my hair, easing closer. I became utterly still, thinking for a moment that he might kiss me. I held my breath. Did I want him to kiss me? I didn't think I did. But still my eyes kept returning to those perfect lips.

Absurd notions flooded my head. Did vampires even kiss? Did they simply bite? Did Master Alcántara have fangs, and how is it I'd never seen them? Would his mouth be soft or hard? I felt my cheeks flame red, fearing he could read my every thought, but I couldn't stop my mind from its musings.

He licked his lips. As though in answer to my unasked questions, they parted suggestively, flashing a glimmer of fang.

“Don't be mistaken,
querida
.” His whispered words held me in thrall. But this time I was unable to push back, unable to look away. He grazed a thumb lightly over my lower lip. “My mercy has a price. But I've decided you shall owe me.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The words replayed in my head as I adjusted my sparring uniform, securing the black wraparound top into a snug knot at my waist. They'd haunted me all night, echoing in my dreams. They repeated over and over as I pulled my hair into one long braid down my back. As I tugged on the metal mesh face guard and gauntlets.

Watcher Priti had announced that today's class would be spent practicing for our final combat tournament. Today's weapon would be a Celtic short sword, with an additional dagger strapped to each student's calf.

I did a few squats, making sure everything was in place. I generally felt good about my sword work, but Master Alcántara's words distracted me, and that was bad.

Owe him
what
? I knew enough about vampires by now to surmise that couldn't be good.

And then there'd been our weird conversation. His declarations had been almost intimate—that he'd sought me, that he'd chosen me. I'd found him mesmerizing. But creepy, too. The guy was technically dead, and yet he'd touched me like we were on some kind of date. Stroking my hair, cupping my cheek, rubbing his thumb along my lip. I shivered.

“You scared, Charity?”

Lilac.
All day, I'd been trying to ignore the feel of her eyes boring into my back. Heaving a sigh, I faced her. “Of you? Hardly.”

She was silent. If Master Alcántara hadn't told me already, the look on her face would've spilled the truth. She'd been giving me the same suspicious glare since we'd woken up.

She was shocked to see me alive.

She'd been the one to lay the trap. She'd convinced me Yasuo's life was in danger, knowing that leaving our dorm at midnight would mean almost-certain death.

It was time to show von Slutling she was messing with the wrong girl. I plopped next to her as we all gathered on the bleachers. “I hope I didn't wake you when I got in last night.”

I nonchalantly tightened the empty scabbard at my calf. “And don't even think about tattling like you did with the iPod. There's no way you can prove I went out after curfew.” I gave her my most sparkling smile. “You wouldn't believe what goes on at those standing stones at night.”

Her shocked, gaping stare almost made my unsettling interlude with Master Alcántara worthwhile.

“It's time, Acari.” Watcher Priti called us to attention. She went to the sparring ring and leaned a small chalkboard alongside. “Find your name listed among the pairs of challengers. You should already be familiar with our combat-sparring rules.”

She was right—I had them memorized. The Rules of Combat:

I scanned the board and found my name three lines down.
Drew vs. Claire
. It was the pretty Idaho girl who, with Stefinne, had been the only other Acari to survive her group's night hike.

She glared at me.

Great.
My buddy Claire. She'd had me in her sights—and had been Lilac's bosom buddy—ever since that night.

Two students were stationed at the weapons locker, handing out our short swords and daggers. We didn't get the real thing for sparring. Instead, we were issued special blades that had the heft of real steel but with blunted edges.

Girls clustered in a circle in front of the locker. The humming sound of their whispers reminded me of a swarm of bees. Lilac stood at the center, the tall and leggy queen of them all. She caught my eye. “Good luck,” she told me brightly.

I gave her a wary nod. Her words had come out too friendly, and it worried me. I wondered what she had up her sleeve.

But I didn't have time to give it much thought, because the matches began soon thereafter. The first two challenges went quickly, neither lasting the full allotted time. The first winner finished with five points to three, in an impressive two minutes of combat. The second scored a knockout blow to the back of her competitor's skull in the first minute. For a moment, I'd thought Priti might need to call for the Tracers, but the girl shook it off and staggered from the ring.

It was a shock seeing girls go at one another so brutally. But in our sparring, no body part was off-limits. In fact, contact with sensitive anatomy—kidneys, head, kneecap, groin—earned higher points. Priti told us, as I'd been told so many times already, that this was because there were no handicaps in the real world. Real opponents would aim precisely for something like our eyes, and so we needed to prepare accordingly.

“Acari Drew versus Acari Claire,” Priti announced, calling us to the mat.

I climbed into the ring, bobbing on my feet, shaking out my hands, rolling my shoulders. I'd secured my sparring dagger at my left calf, and held my short sword in my right hand, swishing it, testing its weight with diagonal slices.

Idaho Claire stood in the other corner. She had a few inches on me, and some wiry, nature-girl muscles, but my small size made me fast, and I felt pretty good.

Watcher Priti struck the gong and the tournament clock reset, its numbers blinking to 5:00 for the challenge countdown. She struck the gong again, and we met in the center of the ring.

Claire hopped from foot to foot like a monkey, but I concentrated on the feel of the mat beneath me, repeating Priti's mantra in my head.
I am roots in the earth. I am water that flows. I am grounded. I am Watcher.