Free 2. Darkness in the Blood Master copy MS 5 by Vicki Keire Page B

and glared straight at me.

    ***

    I don’t know how he managed to single me out so immediately amongst all those students in that auditorium, but the second his hands clutched the podium and he turned to face us, I felt as if the room melted away and it was nothing but the two of us alone in a very dark universe.
    I clutched my coffee, dimly aware that I was crushing it, but strangely unable to move. The class had come fully alive at his presence, as if they’d suddenly been given a wonderful treat. I could hear them buzzing at the edge of my hearing, like the soothing drone of insects on a pleasant summer afternoon. Only it wasn’t a pleasant summer afternoon. It was an awful gray morning and I should be drowsing peacefully through a power point lecture on ancient Egyptian tomb relics or cave paintings in France. Instead, Dr. Christian pinned me with his awful blue eyes until I had to remind myself to breathe.
    “I am sorry to bring you all very sad news,” he announced. “Mrs. Kenner has been the victim of a very serious incident.” My classmates, especially the female ones, responded with an appropriate amount of rapt sympathy. Amberlyn was strangely quiet beside me, her origami flower forgotten. I could only stare at the impossibly attractive professor with growing horror. “She was brutally attacked in her home last evening. Whoever did it has not been caught and is presumably still a danger.”
    Brutally attacked? In Whitfield? The only crime we ever had was the occasional act of petty vandalism. His words seemed even less plausible than the presence of angels and demons and tattooed Nephilim descendents. Blood roared in my ears. I fought the urge to bolt for the safety of my warded apartment and Ethan’s arms.
    A girl with brown hair secured into a messy ponytail hesitantly raised her hand. Dr. Christian nodded sharply down at her, giving her permission to speak. “Will she be all right, sir? Do you know?”
    Dr. Christian managed to look both grave and dismissive at the same time. “I do not, Tabitha, but your concern is touching.” Messy-haired Tabitha turned bright tomato red at this praise and ducked her head in her hands. Those sitting near her clutched at her arm, either in support, or to absorb some of Dr. Christian’s magnetic attention by osmosis.
    I felt sick. I thought I had escaped this last semester. Not only was he back, but his charm seemed stronger than ever. Why was I immune to it? Why wasn’t everyone else as horrified by the news he brought as I was? I realized my fingers had curled around the edges of my desk. Maybe Dr. Christian was just filling in temporarily. Oh, please, I silently begged the universe.
    My hopes and my stomach plummeted when he announced, “I will be filling in for Mrs. Kenner until she recovers.” Dr. Christian smiled, slow and brittle. “I am afraid that means I may be with you all semester.”
    The buzz of approval swelled around me. What was wrong with these people? Mrs. Kenner was a sweet old lady who’d been with the school for ages. And Dr. Christian was… if not evil, then at least wrong on many levels.
    “So generous of him,” I heard a girl whisper.
    “Far beneath him, to take a class on this level,” another added.
    What the hell? A surge of hot anger shot through me as my shallow, traitorous classmates whispered excitedly around me. Excited, because Mrs. Kenner was so badly hurt she wouldn’t be with us for the rest of the semester.
    I felt myself standing without any conscious intention of doing so. My classmates noticed me, and one by one the noise began to subside. Dr. Christian waited until everyone was silent before singling me out. “Miss Chastain? You have something to say?”
    “Um, yes actually.” Was that hostility I saw in my classmate’s eyes, or was I just being paranoid? I dragged my gaze back to Dr. Christian’s plastic perfection. “What about Mrs. Kenner, sir? Do you know anything more about her condition?” The silence