Fang And Claw (Nocturne Academy 2)

I pushed the tray as far away from me as I could, praying I wouldn’t throw up because that would give away my new status as a Nocturne for sure.

Nothing quite says “Hey, everybody, look—I’m a vampire!” like puking a huge gout of blood in the middle of a crowded Dining Hall.

“How do you stand it? Being around human food, I mean,” I asked Griffin, ignoring Avery’s nonsensical statement that Ari actually cared for me. “I mean, how do you keep from being disgusted all the time?”

Griffin looked thoughtful.

“You get used to it, after a time,” he told me. “It’s difficult for you now, because you are so new, but after a while you’ll be able to block out the smells. Once you manage that, it is simply like watching the people around you eat sand or dirt—you don’t want any yourself and you know that it couldn’t nourish you, but you are no longer disgusted or appalled by watching others eat it.”

“Disgusted and appalled?” Emma asked, lifting her brows.

“Eating dirt?” Megan cried, putting a hand on her hip and glaring at him.

Griffin shrugged.

“Forgive me but that’s how it is. For me, anyway—I can’t speak for other Nocturnes.”

“We’re getting off the subject here,” Avery said, frowning at me. “Very clever, Katydid, trying to get us all talking about something else, but I believe we were discussing how Ari swooped in and rescued you yet again in your History of Magic class. So go on…” He made a gesture with one hand. “Do tell.”

“There’s not really much to tell,” I mumbled, looking down at the table. “He caught me and took me to the, uh, Drake Den and—”

“Wait a minute—the Drake Den?” Avery interrupted, clearly excited. His eyes were shining with curiosity, as they so often are when he’s talking about other people’s relationships. “You mean that really exists?”

“I guess so, since I was in it. Why?” I asked, mystified at his excitement.

“Because it’s one of those semi-forbidden rooms in the castle that only certain people can access,” he said. “I mean, it only opens for the Drakes at the very top of their social order—the crème de la crème as it were. In fact, some years it just doesn’t open at all—if there are no high-ranking Drakes to use it.”

I sighed. “Well it opened right up for Ari.”

Megan looked thoughtful. “I guess he really is a big deal in the Sky Lands. I mean, you hear all those rumors about him being some kind of a prince but this kind of confirms it, right?”

Of course, the only thing it confirmed for me was my feeling that Ari was too important to be interested in insignificant little me.

“He said it would open for me, too,” I told them. “He said it only opens for him or whoever he invites in and it seems like I…” I cleared my throat. “I have a permanent invitation.”

“You do? What does that mean?” Emma asked, interest lighting her plain but sweet face.

I sighed again. “I means that he expects me to meet him there thirty minutes before breakfast and again right before dinner every day so he can, uh, feed me.”

Just saying those words made my cheeks get hot, especially when I remembered the intense emotion that flowed between us when I took his vein.

“See?” Avery exclaimed, pounding on the table with one hand. “Didn’t I tell you? He does care for you, Kaitlyn!”

“He doesn’t even know me!” I protested. “He’s just, uh, keeping his oath—that’s all.”

“And he is keeping it very well indeed, too.” Griffin sounded approving. “I have heard it said that the honor of the High Drakes is beyond reproach and Ari is proving that to be true.”

“I wish he wouldn’t,” I mumbled, looking down at my hands again. “I wish he could just…just leave me alone.”

“Kaitlyn, you don’t mean that!” Megan protested. “If he wasn’t being faithful and giving you his blood, you’d dry up and blow away! You nearly did that this weekend.”

“I know,” I said looking up at her earnestly. “And I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I mean, his blood tastes amazing and it feels so good when I drink from him…too good, actually,” I went on in an embarrassed whisper. “Like…like we ought to be married in order to have feelings like this flying between us good.”

“Wow…” Megan looked at me speculatively. “That’s how it is when Griffin bites me, too. But we’re Blood-Bonded.”

“As if you could ever let any of us forget it,” Avery said dryly.

“No, seriously Avery—it sounds like Kaitlyn is having, uh, feelings with Ari that shouldn’t be possible unless the two of them had marked or bonded each other,” Megan said.

“I agree.” Griffin frowned thoughtfully. “I suppose it could just mean that the two of you are extremely well-suited for each other.”

“But we don’t even know each other!” I protested, though that was no longer strictly true.