Free Stolen Night by Rebecca Maizel Page B

took a shallow breath. We
did not break our stare and his gaze lingering on mine was enough to make my head spin. Much to my confusion he sighed, closed his eyes and broke the spell.
    ‘Lenah,’ Ms Tate said, ‘you’re in your old seat. We have a junior who placed for this class and once she comes you’ll sit together.’ I nodded and tried to
keep my eyes away from Rhode as I walked towards my desk.
    I loathed that empty chair next to mine. Tony’s. I was about to sit down when Ms Tate spoke again. ‘Oh. Hmm.’
    Justin and two other students had walked into the class. Ms Tate looked down at her list. ‘On second thoughts, Justin, you sit with Lenah. And, Margot – actually, we’ll put the
two newbies together; you sit with Rhode here. Caroline . . .’ Ms Tate continued to the other new girl who had just walked in. ‘You sit at the back with . . .’
    I stopped listening to the jumble of names. Avoiding my eyes, Justin sat down, and when he placed his books on the table I noticed his knuckles were wrapped in white gauze. He gripped his
textbook and his knee bounced up and down, trembling from either excitement, rage or possibly too much caffeine.
    I swallowed, unnerved by his silence. I twisted the onyx ring again, round and round, and finally, as I opened my mouth to talk to him, Ms Tate called the class to order.
    ‘Let’s get to today’s plan. We’ll review some basics.’
    Justin stared forward purposefully. The aching in my gut surprised me. Why wouldn’t he talk to me or even look at me? For a moment I expected the familiar touch, his warm hand on my knee
or my lower back.
    ‘OK, today we’ll be analysing the pH levels of local water samples from Lovers Bay. I know it’s very elementary, but I think we need to revisit some basic skills before we go
forward in our experimentation process.’
    I looked over at Justin again and he pressed his lips together.
    ‘What?’ he said coldly, and blinked a couple of times, keeping his gaze forward. It took me a moment to realize he was speaking to me.
    ‘Oh. Nothing,’ I replied, and looked back down at my notebook. ‘I just . . .’
    ‘What?’ he said again, this time with a slow turn of his head. The green of his eyes was hard, cold. ‘Want to humiliate me some more?’
    ‘Humiliate you?’ I whispered, and glanced at Ms Tate, who was writing on the board.
    ‘Your boyfriend is up there. You should be sitting with him,’ Justin hissed.
    ‘I just want to—’
    ‘If you talk to me again, Lenah, about anything other than this assignment, I’m leaving the room.’
    ‘Hand me the litmus paper.’ Justin’s tone was icy. Silently I handed it over.
    ‘Seven,’ he said. ‘What’s yours say?’
    I checked the colouration of the paper and then recorded our results. As soon as we finished, he scooped up the papers, dropped our classwork on Ms Tate’s desk and swiftly left. At the
front of the class Rhode gathered up his pens and notebook. His jaw was clenched and he winced as he placed his bag on his shoulder. I followed him out of the room.
    ‘Rhode,’ I called quietly once he was out the door and a few paces down the hall. ‘Rhode!’ I called again, a little louder. He walked quickly down the hallway. I’d
had enough of being treated like the Invisible Woman. ‘If you don’t turn around, right now , I’ll scream bloody murder.’
    He turned on his heel and looked at me.
    ‘There was a vampire in a herb shop,’ I began. ‘Here in Lover’s Bay. I recognized her from Hathersage. The maid I killed before my hibernation. And she knows,’ I
added, ‘about the ritual.’ I stood a foot or so away from Rhode and watched for his reaction. ‘Vicken and I wanted to tell you earlier, but you were unreachable.’
    ‘Were you hurt?’ he asked, keeping his stance the same, arms folded, back straight.
    ‘She’s already killed one friend of mine,’ I said simply. ‘She said she’d be back for the ritual.’
    It was as though Rhode was