Balthazar

Page 8

But what did that mean, in this context? How were they supposed to get the vampires to leave her alone? Kill them all? She remembered seeing vampires lying on the grounds of Evernight, stakes buried in their chests, and wondered if that was what they’d have to do. Skye had never asked herself if she could kill anyone or anything except for Eb, in some nightmare scenario in which he’d broken his leg.
Maybe she wouldn’t have to attack anyone. Balthazar would keep her safe. After seeing him today—swooping in just when she thought she was dead, wiping the floor with that vampire, smashing through that wall to get her to safety—Skye could believe that there was nothing he couldn’t handle.
Her phone dinged one more time, signaling a final text from Clem: Use protection.
As Skye silenced the phone, hoping desperately that she wasn’t blushing, Balthazar said, “Why did you want to be alone?”
“Huh?” She had to backtrack past her overheated thoughts about Balthazar to remember what they were actually talking about. “Oh, this afternoon. My first day back at school just—it wasn’t good. Although now that I compare it to getting repeatedly attacked by vampires, it doesn’t seem so awful.”
“Why was school so rough?” He frowned, looking genuinely concerned, like bad times at Darby Glen High could possibly compare to the situation they now found themselves in.
Then again, she was going to have to go back tomorrow, wasn’t she? Unless she was dead by then. Skye sighed. “Someone died in my anatomy classroom.”
“What?”
“Not today! Long ago, I mean. But I can still see it.” The horror had been buried under the sheer panic of the afternoon, but now it welled up again, cold and bright. “I’m going to have to watch this guy die of a heart attack every single day.”
“Can you transfer out of that class?”
“Maybe. I’ll have to check.” Evernight Academy hadn’t allowed transfers; she had no idea what the rules were here.
“The effect could stop over time, or lose power, maybe.”
“Maybe,” Skye said doubtfully. “I’ve been avoiding every … death place I’ve found, so I haven’t tested that. It feels like it’s always going to happen. You’re right, though. I don’t know. I guess anatomy class is where I’ll find out.”
“We might still figure out a way for you to manage your—psychic gift.”
“That would help,” she admitted. “But it’s not the worst part about school. The rest sucks, too. I mean, I fell out of touch with most people back here while I was at Evernight. Now they all think I’m some kind of stuck-up snob who doesn’t want to have anything to do with Darby Glen.”
“They’ll see past that,” Balthazar said gently. “And there must be some people from before that you were glad to see.”
A lump formed in Skye’s throat as she thought about the only person from before who had really counted. “Well, I saw my ex-boyfriend, Craig. With his new girlfriend. So you can imagine how much fun that was.”
“Ouch.” Balthazar made such an exaggerated face of pain that she had to laugh despite herself. “This is the guy who dumped you right before the Autumn Ball last year, right?”
“How did you know about that?” She hadn’t thought Balthazar More paid much attention to her at Evernight Academy, much less that he was keeping tabs on her love life.
“Lucas told us. He was nervous about asking you to the ball just as a friend. Sounds like this Craig guy has rotten timing.”
Remaining her constant boyfriend for two and a half years, then dumping her for someone else only a couple months after they’d had sex for the first and only time—and not even half a year after her brother’s death: Yeah, that counted as rotten timing. “To say the least.”
“Forget him,” Balthazar said simply. “I know—easy to say, hard to do. But any guy who doesn’t appreciate you isn’t worth keeping.”
Which sounded like maybe Balthazar appreciated her. No—she was reading too much into it, surely. Balthazar glanced away, no longer meeting her eyes. Skye didn’t know whether to feel awkward or elated; she knew only that it was impossible to look away from Balthazar, his handsome profile outlined against the dark, frost-rimmed glass of the window—
Wait. The frost was—growing. Lacing over the entire window—on the inside of the window, too, turning everything white, blinding out the night.
The sudden chill in the air made Skye’s skin prickle, and she wrapped her arms more tightly around herself as the cold became almost painful. Her lamp flickered, the electricity failing, but the light didn’t die out. Instead it changed into an eerie blue-green color that seemed to shimmer, almost as if they were underwater.
She remembered one of Dakota’s last photos from Australia, a scene from an underwater cave, and she wondered if this was what he’d seen before he died. Terror and sorrow seized her at the same time, paralyzing her.
At least, until the ceiling started to move.
“Oh, my God.” Skye backed toward Balthazar; she didn’t know what was happening, but knew she wanted him close. “What’s going on?”
“We just got a lot safer.”
Startled, she looked up at him. Balthazar’s face was alight, like he’d just been given the most marvelous gift in the world.
The rippling on the ceiling broke free, came forward, took shape. First it was a swirling, glittering shape, like a cyclone of snowflakes, but then it acquired the form of a young woman with flowing red hair and wide, gentle eyes—but not just any woman. Balthazar said her name first: “Bianca.”
“I like your room,” Bianca said. “It reminds me a little of the one I had back in my hometown.”
Skye, still not sure she was able to speak, nodded. Bianca seemed to understand her shyness; at any rate, she didn’t press Skye for more, just turned back to Balthazar, who hadn’t stopped grinning at her. He said, “I’m glad you could make it. I didn’t really have a plan B.”
“You usually come up with something,” she said, folding herself up on the window seat beside Balthazar. Bianca seemed more at ease in her pajamas than Skye was in hers—and more comfortable with Balthazar, too.
Dim memories of Evernight Academy gossip floated back to her, stuff she hadn’t paid much attention to at the time. Skye had known that Balthazar was dating someone during her second year at Evernight. She was still in love with Craig at the time, so Balthazar was just a hot guy for her to get a thrill out of walking past in the hallways. It hadn’t mattered which girl he was with. But now, as she watched them together, Skye was pretty sure Balthazar had been with Bianca.
As in Bianca, girlfriend of Lucas, the single best guy friend Skye had ever had.
As in Bianca, the ghost Skye had saved at Evernight.
How was it possible for her day to get even weirder?
Skye asked the first question that came to mind: “Where’s Lucas?”
Though Bianca had already been smiling, her expression took on a greater light, a greater tenderness, than before. Any doubts Skye had about Bianca’s loyalty toward Lucas faded in that instant. “He’s up in Maine with some friends. We’re lying low for a while. Taking some time to just be together. These past few months were hard.” A shadow seemed to dim Bianca’s unearthly translucence, but only for a moment. “Lucas says he doesn’t care about the cold or the snow or anything. He’s enjoying being alive. And I’m enjoying being with him.”
“That’s good,” Skye said. Lucas had been so angry and wounded last year; it was a relief to hear that he’d found peace.
“He says hi, by the way,” Bianca added. “And he’s sorry he couldn’t get here himself. I travel faster than most people.”
“Yeah, looks like it.” Which was as close to a joke as Skye could manage. Growing up with a ghost in her house had been one thing; sitting around in her room calmly chatting with one was another. Plus there was a vampire on her window seat. Her whole definition of weird was changing fast.
Bianca’s face shifted into delighted surprise, and she disappeared from Balthazar’s side—only to reappear across the room. “You have one of Raquel’s collages!”
“Oh, yeah. Right! I saw her making this in one of the arts rooms at Evernight our first year there, and I raved about it so much she ended up giving it to me. Mostly to shut me up, I think.” Talking to a ghost was feeling more natural all the time. Skye joined Bianca by the collage, which showed several guys making dramatic gestures or big faces, with a ticked-off girl in the center. “Raquel titled this Save Your Drama for Your Girlfriend.”
“I love her stuff,” Bianca said. More quietly—not hiding her words from Balthazar, but making it clear that she was speaking only to Skye now—she added, “Lucas told me about the visions you’ve been having.”
“Do you know what it is? How to stop it?”
Bianca shook her head. “You’re unique, so far as any of us know—which isn’t that far.”
Skye hadn’t really expected any other reply, but the disappointment hit her harder than she would’ve thought. Maybe it was only that so many bizarre, frightening issues were piling up on her at once; she would have been so relieved to get an answer to any one of them.
“You probably had some innate ability to begin with,” Bianca continued, “but when your mind was opened to the world of the dead for so long, when I possessed you—something profound changed inside you.”
“Something profoundly awful,” Skye muttered.
Gently, Bianca added, “What I do know is that this happened to you because you saved me at Evernight. I know that’s not a risk you meant to take. I just wanted to say… I don’t even know what to say. That I’m sorry, I guess. And that I’m more grateful than you can ever know.”
“I knew it was a risk. I took my chances. We all got out of there, so it worked.” Somehow, putting it like this made Skye feel better. It was better to consider the death-sight as the natural result of something brave she’d done, instead of scary visions from out of nowhere. She decided to always try thinking of it that way from now on.
“It’s getting late,” Balthazar said. His attention was fixed outside the window now. Had he seen something? “After midnight. Sometimes that’s when Redgrave likes to strike.”
“Who is Redgrave, exactly?” Bianca asked.
“A vampire I know. Not someone you ever want to meet.”
So—Balthazar clearly cared about Bianca, but he hadn’t told her everything about himself. Not even the few snippets of his past that Skye had learned the last couple of days. That was interesting… Wait. Had he said Redgrave was about to strike?
Skye said, “Are they coming right now?”
“They’ll be more likely to come after they think you’ve gone to bed.” Balthazar went to her lamp and snapped it off. Instantly, her room went from cheerily bright to shadows, illuminated only by Bianca’s faint aquamarine glow.
“Hold on—we’re trying to get them to come in? Is that really a good plan?”
“They’re going to come,” Balthazar said. “Better now, when we’re expecting it, than later when we aren’t.”
Which was logical, if terrifying. Skye slowly nodded. “We ought to get it over with now, before … before my parents get home. I don’t want them in the middle of this.”
“Don’t worry,” Bianca said. She was fading into transparency, her glow hardly more than a shimmer now. “Balthazar’s here if I fail.”
Bianca was their first line of defense? What exactly were they planning?