Free The Path of Razors by Chris Marie Green Page B

her, even as he mourned Violet’s passing. He had told Mrs. Jones that, perhaps, she would have summoned animals in such a case, too, if she had chosen to take advantage of the talent she—and even he—rarely utilized these days.
    All in all, he had made a case for her to show mercy until he could talk with Della himself.
    The housematron lowered her voice, her tone like the snap of a whip.
    “Wolfie,” she said, “insists that we finally return home. Our new home, where the rest of this will be settled.”
    The main Underground?
    Joy trembled in Della’s chest, even if she would receive a postponed punishment there. Even if Mrs. Jones was once again employing dread to stretch Della upon a mental rack.
    “Thank you, Mrs. Jones,” Della said.
    “Your gratefulness is premature.”
    A catlike flicker lit her eyes, the pupils clicking to slits, then back again.
    Something inexplicable flashed in Della’s mind: two vampires with featureless faces in a cottage in the woods, one healing the other. Somehow she knew they were blood brothers, and they had a blond girl with them, on the floor, her eyes closed....
    She remembered all of it, the entire waking dream, and she blinked, raising a hand to her throat. But it was still there, whole.
    Mrs. Jones left Della to stand in place, but Della’s mind fuzzed with consequent flashes, mainly of a white ribbon soaked in blood.
    Although she blocked her thoughts, both against Mrs. Jones and the assaulting images, the fear rose again to burn like slick black ice in the middle of her chest, causing rationality to slip and slide. But the ice did cool Della as the images faded, then thankfully disappeared altogether.
    Behind her, the elder vampire was speaking to all the girls. “Both Wolfie and I feel it’s time to get you to your true home after dusk tonight, mostly so he might have the opportunity to handle Della’s latest issues. Besides, the attackers haven’t shown themselves again, and I’ve started to believe they’re not much more than last night’s nuisance. So it’s full speed ahead, young ladies.”
    Noreen asked, “We’re not going to school yet, Mrs. Jones?”
    “Not for the time being.”
    The idea of the main Underground held such powerful appeal that the two other girls twittered, excited about going back to the main Underground even before promotion, when they would have otherwise been transferred there.
    As if she were the lone one who recalled Violet’s death, Della stood rooted to her station. But it was only because she was hoping the images wouldn’t return.
    “Ready then?” Mrs. Jones asked Polly and Noreen.
    Della could hear her classmates springing to their feet, already gathering their books and rushing to their bags.
    They were so busy that they couldn’t have possibly seen Mrs. Jones come back to Della, leaning close to whisper in her ear.
    “Ready, my sweet?”
    An inner alarm screamed within Della as the housematron backed away, smiling in feline menace.
    Then, as Mrs. Jones moved toward the door to wait for her charges, Della’s mind once again flickered on that white ribbon swirling down, down to the ground, where it withered over the hair of a girl who had probably been a lot like her.

    SEVEN

    THE BLADED TUNNEL

    Earlier
     
    BEFORE the sun even rose, Dawn had told the team all about what Violet had shown her via their mind connection. Then, a couple of hours before classes would even be in session at Queenshill, she’d taken a refresher nap for the big day ahead.
    Generally, she didn’t need many z’s to operate, but a little slumber would give her that extra bit of energy she might have to rely on during this second trip to the exclusive girls’ school.
    Yup, she thought while standing under the pound and steam of a shower, a second of quiet under some hot water and a nap should do it.
    Dawn slathered her skin with a neutral soap of Breisi’s invention that would hopefully throw off any vampire’s sense of smell. The soap