"Kai!" Martin snapped, clapping his hands together in front of my face to drag me out of my panicking.I blinked at him. "What?""What are you panicking about this time?""Everything?" I replied meekly."Go through one thing at a time."I stared at them for a moment and realised that I was being surrounded by grownups. Even Ali wasn't a kid anymore like I was back then. I felt a little isolated, but knew that I was in good hands so I wasn't too worried."Well, I just didn't quite think about the severity of what would happen once the truth got out. I mean, I might say that I prefer to have people know me for who I am rather than me as a royal, but I guess I never really took into account how such a secret might affect them after it gets out. My friends are going to be seriously shocked, I know that much, but it's impossible to tell how they'll react. And well… hearing that Ozera thought so highly of the Ivashkov princess six years ago, it makes me think that I want him to be the last
"Um… is there something on my face or something?" I stammered nervously."No…" Dan trailed off with a somewhat breathy voice. "It's just, it was a little unexpected.""What was?" I frowned, not understanding what he was talking about."Your smile." Drew said, surprise still gleaming in his eyes."What about it? I've smiled before." I commented a little defensively to hide my own embarrassment."But not like that." Dan shook his head. "And if you have, we've definitely never seen it.""Even if I haven't, was there really a need to stare like that?""I wish we had a camera. Jackson and Quinn are going to be so jealous.""A camera? Really? Is that necessary." I grimaced at the suggestion. It wasn't like I held an immense hatred of having my picture taken, after all, I've had to deal with it over the past year or so as a singer, but during my everyday life, I wasn't particularly fond of cameras. "Anyway, you guys forgot to answer my question. Is Trace going to the dinner as well?""I'm no
Throughout the rest of the time until my extra lesson ended, we discussed how we were going to help the twins change their relationship with little Trace and guide it towards a more friendly direction. I noticed how ever now and then, Drew would sneak a look at me and it was that same strange gleam of recognition. I did my best not to let it get to me and just pretended that I didn't notice. There was no way that I was going to confront him about it because chances were, he would manage to force the truth from my mouth and I definitely did not was him finding out any time soon.Once the two hours were up, which passed a lot faster than usual since it wasn't actually a lesson, the others suggested that the sooner we got started on the work the better. Knowing us, we would take forever since we were all rather easily distracted. I agreed with the idea and left my books with the twins while I headed off back to the dorms to find the three dhampir girls. It didn't really matter if they ha
Damn Drew and his versatility.He wasn't kidding when he said that he could multitask. One minute we'd be going through our assigned work, the next he'd so casually drop in another personal question when none of the others were listening. He could definitely multitask better than I could. I was no good at focusing on two completely unrelated things at the same time but he made it seem easy the way he skipped from one thing to another. Thankfully, I wasn't so engrossed in my work that I accidentally answered any questions I shouldn't have.As the other girls became more relaxed around the quartet, we didn't manage to finish our work by the time dinner came up. We were still only just over halfway through since we still had today's assignments to deal with. Not to mention the dozens of distractions we had by going completely off topic and joking around.While we all headed to the dining hall together, leaving our books neatly in the library on our reserved table, I couldn't help observe
I blinked in surprise and saw the stern expression on his face. My cheeks warmed in embarrassment and I looked away. "Crispin spoke to you about that, didn't he?""He mentioned that things looked a little weird between you two. So, what's going on?""Nothing's going on. It's just a little weird, that's all.""Weird how?""I haven't worked it out yet." I told him honestly. "But I do know that I need to break it off with him soon."Joe watched me for a lengthy moment and took my hands in his. "Kai, the guy is decent and has a huge reputation. He's the most popular guy in school but…""But?""I might not have known you for the past six years, but I wouldn't have thought that he was your type. To be honest, we're all rather surprised about you and Cooper being a pair.""We're not a pair." I explained to him. "We have a strange compromise going on.""A strange compromise?""I'm not a saint, Joey. I'm just a girl who found it flattering that an attractive guy like Eric was interested. He as
Christian shifted again. "You don't come across as someone who cares much about what outsiders think.""You're not really an outsider though, unless you'd prefer to keep it that way." I told him pointedly.He stared at me for a good long moment before he smiled. "No, you're a very interesting person, Kylie. Life with you would never be boring.""Pfft, anyone can tell you that." I snorted."You're someone who doesn't take any bullshit. Evidently, you don't take insults about people you like and would sooner beat the shit out of them than take a moment to control your temper.""Hey, they deserve the beating.""I didn't say they didn't. You are very strange, Kylie, and you're very different. I can't place it but from the times I have seen you around, you seem strangely at home here even though it's only been a week. It's almost as if you were always meant to belong here.""Well, you sure do know how to make someone feel like they've really settled in.""You don't need words to tell you t
I watched as realisation and understanding became horror and disgust and then to concern for me. "No wonder you make him sound like a monster. He is being a monster.""Precisely." I whispered."You're scared.""Why shouldn't I be? I'd never had to fend off a vampire I couldn't stake before. The very idea of it terrifies me, Christian. It's so primal and not in a good way. It's almost like he wants to tie me to him.""A vampire's bite can do that. That's why Moroi usually change their humans after a while and they almost never take from the same human on two consecutive days. They'd always alternate so that the bond would never become strong enough for the human to become attached and vice versa. Of course, there are some humans who are more vulnerable than that but it's rare.""That must be one heck of a difficult system to try and manage. I'd hate to be in the department that administrates all that.""It must be so boring as well and if something goes wrong, you'd end up in serious t
"Hm…" I hummed and fell back onto the mats so that I could gaze at the ceiling as I reminisced about when I broke out six years ago. "I wanted to keep the name Kai no matter what. I wanted to keep something of me rather than changing completely so I thought about a bunch of names which would logically have the shortened name of Kai and eventually settled for Kylie. As for Valentine… I don't really know. I think it just sounded cool."I turned my head so that I could see what Crispin's reaction would be. A pensive look settled on his face, and then confusion. "Why is your name Kai?" he asked, a confused frown occupying his face. "From your name, I would've thought that the right nickname would be Kal.""Kai are my initials." I explained to him. "The 'a' stands for Adriana.""Well, that definitely makes more sense," he chuckled in understanding. "There was one other name that I didn't quite understand. Why did Maria call you Skylar?""You're on first name basis with Maria?" I blinked in