9. ROGUE MOVEMENT

9

ROGUE MOVEMENT

T he cacophony of voices in the cafeteria did little to help the pressure behind Aiden's eyes as he moved into the crowded space. It wouldn't be long before the headache passed, but it still didn't mean the wait wasn't uncomfortable.

Another night of little sleep. Another night where fragments of an event he couldn't quite remember haunted him. At least Charlotte eased some of the discomfort, even if her revelation made him itch to drive up there.

Needing to avoid the noise or suffer a never-ending loop of a reoccurring headache, he fired off a text to his friend Lukas, who sat in the back corner at their usual table with their other friends. He couldn't stay.

Shoving his phone into his pocket, he turned and moved toward the canteen on the other side of the hall. He didn't feel like anything too filling, so he opted to grab a bottle of electrolytes and a protein bar for later. Anything more than the drink right now might make him throw up.

Why couldn't he shake the headache? It never lasted this long before. Something felt off.

Taking the stairs at the back of the building at a fast clip, he made it to the bottom floor in no time. The sunlight on the ground floor filtered through the stained glass in shades of red and black on the high-standing walls, painting the marble floor in shades of crimson. He welcomed the darker lighting from the color of the windows; the pressure on his eyes eased with each passing minute.

The cafeteria on the top floor of Blackthorn Academy didn't follow the old-style Renaissance and Gothic architecture that the bottom floors of the main building, the library, and the interior of the staff and administration buildings displayed. The academy restored the exterior of the centuries-old buildings on campus but kept as close to the refined architecture the region was known for, leaving the stained glass and stonework intact. The aesthetic had become a calling card in the public eye representing Blackthorn Academy with not only the university branch bearing the appearance, but also the branch locations for elementary through high-school-aged students in neighboring towns.

While they kept the interior of the administration and staff building true to the original style from when the school was founded hundreds of years ago, the school renovated the dorms and the upper floor of the main building to bring it to contemporary standards to fulfil the needs and wants of university students of this century.

The front of the main building from top to bottom displayed arched windows and stonework covered in hanging ivy, but on the top floor at the back of the building overlooking the forest behind the academy, floor to ceiling windows all around the modern cafeteria allowed students to take in the Georgia sky and the lush greenery below.

While the bright cafeteria was nice to eat and socialize in on any other day, it felt like torture today. He needed to get away.

Walking down the hall through the shafts of diluted sunlight, beneath the warm amber glow of elaborate chandeliers hanging overhead every few feet, he made his way toward the front of the building where a set of large, heavy wooden doors stood between him and the bright courtyard on the other side.

"Hold up!"

At the sound of Seth's voice, Aiden looked up toward the stairs that ran parallel to the hallway he exited into the main foyer. Seth hurried down the wide staircase, followed by Riley and his other friends, Lukas, Blaire, and Mera.

"What's going on?" Seth asked when he reached the bottom.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw the text you sent Lukas."

"Oh." Aiden sighed. "I couldn't tell you, man. I keep having a reoccurring headache and it lasts a lot longer than it should." He opened the bottle of sports drink and took a gulp. "I can't really stomach a lot of food either."

"What about blood?"

"Nope."

Riley stepped around Seth and propped her hands on her hips. "That's dangerous. When's the last time you had a packet?"

Aiden craned his neck from side to side, trying to recall. "Last night, after I got off the computer with Charlotte. Got one from the canteen."

"That alone could be why you have a headache," Riley said, sounding a lot like their mother.

"Possible early signs of sanguis manie ," Mera added, her expression neutral as she gave him a slow assessment with her eyes. She always unnerved him when she put on her medical hat.

"What the hell?" Riley snapped. " Sanguis manie , Aiden? Really?"

"Maybe." He didn't think so, but he didn't want to risk it. He also didn't want to upset his little sister. Especially when he often lectured her about the same thing. She too often forgot to eat or drink blood, and sanguis manie meant certain death if sustained for a long period.

No one, no matter how strong their willpower, could avoid blood mania.

"I'll be right back." Riley ran down the hallway Aiden exited, the buckles on the sides of her knee-high boots jangling with every stomp of her platforms.

"You know you're gonna have to drink it now, right?" Lukas said leaning on the banister, a small grin bowing his lips.

Blaire peered up at him. "What do you mean?"

"Pretty sure she went to the canteen or cafeteria to get him a blood packet."

"Riley is relentless," Seth said. "I don't think she'll give up until he does."

Blaire looked down the hall and hummed. She turned to Aiden. "Do you need to go to the health department?"

"Nah. I mean, if this keeps up, I will."

She looked at Mera. "Does he need to go to the health department?"

"Why didn't you ask her to start with if you weren't going to take my word for it?" he asked with a chuckle.

His rapid healing should have kicked in and rid him of the headache sooner. Not only had healing been slow to take hold, it didn't last long before his headache came roaring back. The logical conclusion sounded like the start of blood mania, as his sister suspected; but he didn't feel any other symptoms, and he could go longer than this without blood. He'd done it before.

"If he doesn't improve, yes," Mera said, crossing her arms. "If it gets worse, absolutely."

"I need to sit down somewhere quiet."

"Text Riley and tell her to meet us in the hedge maze's center courtyard," Lukas said, looking at Blaire. He turned to Aiden. "Can you handle the sun?"

"Not really. It was one of the reasons I avoided the cafeteria. This heat wave is brutal."

Blaire looked up from her phone at Aiden, tucking her long blonde hair behind her ear. "What about your dorm room? We can hang out there."

"Works for me. I don't have anything else going on today. I thought about borrowing Mom's car to drive up and see Charlotte tomorrow, so I wasn't going to do much today."

"Charlotte?" Blaire tapped her phone, presumably texting Riley where to meet them. "Why?"

"I'm a little worried about her," he said as he started toward the doors that led outside, the others following. "Ever since she settled up in Athens, and we returned from Europe, she's seemed more and more stressed." He wouldn't tell them what she confided in him about. He didn't know if she'd want them to know.

As soon as the heavy double doors swung open into the courtyard, he regretted not finding a quiet spot in the library to hide in. The bright sunlight was oppressive, the humidity stifling. The sound of students laughing and talking as they walked around the expansive cobblestone courtyard sounded like his eardrums were being raked over a cheese grater. Even the sounds of bubbling water from the massive tiered fountain in the center court in front of the main building made his eye twitch .

"Come on, we need to get you back inside. You look pale," Lukas said, stepping around Aiden and descending the wide stairs, the chain on his hip swinging and clinking in a way Aiden hadn't paid attention to before in all the years Lukas had worn one.

With the headache bringing the surrounding sounds into sharp focus, Aiden wanted to rip the chain from his best friend's belt and toss it to the ground.

Once they reached the dorm building and took the stairs to his room, he finally relaxed. His room had the curtains pulled shut, blocking out the hot sun, and the air conditioning kept it chilly. A slice of paradise.

He set his things on his desk before collapsing on his bed against the wall and throwing an arm over his eyes. A weight settled next to him on the edge of his bed.

"If the blood doesn't work, I'm calling a nurse," Seth said from beside him.

"I'm sure I'll be fine."

In the pause, Aiden imagined Seth turning his sharp, steel-hued gaze to Mera when she said, "He's more than capable of assessing his own symptoms. Not everything requires medical intervention."

Seth groused. "But what if this has to do with you being shot?"

Aiden didn't want to think about it. Every night he had to think about it. Wake up with memories that didn't feel like his own. How could he remember something he wasn't alive for?

"I didn't even think of that," Blaire said from far away. He suspected she was sitting on the bed on the other side of the room that used to belong to Seth before he moved out. "I thought with your healing, and everything that happened, there would be no lasting effects."

"None of us have ever come back from the dead," Lukas said. " Not like this."

"What do you mean by ‘like this'?"

Lukas must have been lost for words, because after a long pause, Mera took a scant breath and said, "Like you humans, we can come back from clinical death, but once we reach legal death, we can't heal through that."

"I thought death was death," Seth said.

Aiden lowered his arm now that his eyes had adjusted to the room's dimness.

Mera gave a brief shake of her head. She sat at the foot of the far bed near Blaire and Lukas with her legs crossed. Her foot swung back and forth, the metal ends of the shoelaces on her combat boots tapping lightly with the motion. "Clinical death happens when the heart stops, and legal death is when the brain stops."

He hadn't heard of that before but knew for certain he went beyond clinical death when a rogue put a bullet into his skull. Shuddering at the memory, he refocused on Mera, who continued to explain things to Blaire.

"—top of that, there are some injuries too severe for our healing to react to fast enough before we either bleed out or something equally severe."

Seth shifted on the bed. "Remember what Kai said?"

The corners of Blaire's lips turned down as she studied Seth. "About?"

"When you first joined the academy and asked about our kind, you asked questions about vampire myths and legends."

"Oh yeah," Blaire said, a hint of embarrassment in her tone.

"Yeah. Decapitation, wood through the heart, and even fire would kill anyone, not just our kind."

"I know that now. "

Seth nodded. "We have a higher survival rate because our healing allows things that can slowly kill you to heal before they have the chance to take us." He leaned forward, clasping his hands in front of him with his elbows resting on his spread knees. "And while it's rare to survive a gunshot wound, our healing is no match for what Aiden went through. I'm just wondering if there isn't some lasting effect associated with his dying and resurrection."

"I've tried to research it," Mera said. "But I've found no records. I can't talk about it with the leaders of the department without raising unnecessary questions and bringing more scrutiny on Blaire."

None of them had the answers. Aiden doubted the medical staff at the academy would know either. None of them were prepared to face the new reality they found themselves in.

They could only rely on facts.

A rogue shot him. He died. Ancient magic housed inside Blaire brought him back to life.

Beyond those facts, everything remained speculation.

If he experienced detrimental aftereffects, did it mean he would die sooner than he was meant to? He wasn't immortal, but if he took care of himself, he had hundreds of years left. His chest seized, and he rubbed roughly at his sternum. Panic had been a constant companion since their return from Europe.

"Speaking of Kai, where is he?"

Mera looked over at Blaire. "Meeting with a professor about next year. I need to return to California for a brief internship, which acts as part of my accelerated learning, but since we can't be separated, he will have to work out a virtual learning program. If approved, we leave this summer and won't return for a year—at minimum."

He remembered Kai telling him and Lukas something about missing a year of school, but he didn't realize it would be so soon .

When Professor Velastra took over as headmistress a few months ago, she implemented a change to the structure of classes—much to everyone's relief. Blackthorn Academy students now received a longer summer break from mid-June through end of July, instead of only one month in July. It was only two additional weeks, but next summer it would be a full two months. She hadn't been able to adjust the exam schedules this year in time to grant anything more. The new change allowed students to catch up if they fell behind so they didn't fail, and it gave a proper break to those who needed it.

The door to his dorm room swung open and Riley rushed in, carrying a blood packet. She pushed Seth out of the way, forcing him to the foot of the bed while she dropped down beside Aiden.

"Here. Drink," she ordered, holding out the packet.

When he looked up at her pale blue eyes, the slightest shimmer reflected the light from his desk lamp. Red rimmed her lashes. She was worried about him.

Choosing not to argue, he sat up and took the packet. Even if it made him sick, he'd feed to rid his sister of her pain.

He never again wanted to see the look of anguish he saw when he told her he loved her right before being shot in the head. The image remained etched in his retinas. He couldn't erase the look of horror on her face from his mind; couldn't stop hearing her cries. It played on repeat in his dreams nightly.

The thick liquid soothed the hunger he'd felt all day, but he feared the nausea that usually accompanied his headache. He didn't want to vomit.

"I don't like this," Riley said.

"I'll be fine."

"Seth thinks it might be from when he got shot."

Riley whipped her head around to look at Blaire. "How? You healed him."

"But what if it didn't get everything? I don't know how this magic stuff works. I don't even remember what happened."

From the way they told him it went down, Blaire's entire eyes glowed gold, and he and she were both enveloped in gold and red magic. That when he took the first breath, coming back to life, she collapsed. She had her own out-of-body experience, it seemed—or her body acted on autopilot.

"So what can we do? How can we check?"

Seth clasped Riley's hand in his. "He said he'll go to the nurse if it doesn't improve."

"All we can really do is wait to see if the blood helps," Mera added, her eyes on Riley.

"My headache is easing," he said, hoping to reassure Riley. "I think the low lighting and finally putting something of substance besides sports drinks in my body is helping."

The blood had helped. Only halfway through the packet, he felt stronger and less floaty. No headache, no nausea. Emboldened, he sucked down the rest.

"Don't freak me out like that again," Riley said, smacking him on the chest.

"So, what about visiting Charlotte?"

Riley turned toward Blaire. "What about Charlotte?"

"He mentioned visiting her while you were gone."

"Yeah," he said, tossing the empty packet into the trashcan beside his bed. "I dunno what it is, but something seems off. Maybe the stress of starting college, but she seems down. Figured she could use a distraction."

"A distraction? Meaning you?" Riley cocked her head to the side. "I saw those texts you sent her. "

"What texts?" Seth smirked.

"Aiden's been flirting with Charlotte." A saccharine smile spread across Riley's face. "And she's been flirting right back."

"We haven't. I mean, not much. We're friends. Just playing around."

Blaire tapped her fingertips on Lukas's thigh as she studied Aiden. "I thought y'all couldn't date humans." She looked up at Lukas. "Except in our case, I mean."

"We can. There're no laws prohibiting relationships between our kind and yours, but it's frowned upon and not recommended," Lukas said, brushing a strand of Blaire's hair from her face with his fingers, tucking it behind her ear.

"Why?"

"Because in the end, we can't form a lasting relationship if they are going to die while we live hundreds of years. Questions will pop up. Not to mention the whole blood thing."

He'd heard it all before. He and Lukas already discussed the possible fallout if Charlotte found out about who he was when Lukas asked if he was interested in her before. They discussed how it might shake her relationship with Blaire. How the Blackthorn Clan might order her memory wiped.

He hadn't told Lukas he felt something for Charlotte because he still had to sort through his feelings himself. He liked the girl, and she was fun to be around, but there couldn't be anything long lasting. If he found his Korrena mate, or she discovered what he was, anything they built between them would have been pointless.

He also didn't want to put her in danger.

He wouldn't hurt her, but if she discovered his secret, or someone at the academy got wind of his involvement with a human, they might hurt her .

He cracked his neck. "I'm not getting into anything with her."

The day at the diner when he first spoke to her, when Blaire first introduced them, wasn't the first time he'd seen her. Before they discovered how her old boss had conspired with Blaire's stepbrother against her, he and his friends often visited the diner where she worked, but because of her status as a human, he never spoke with her.

When he finally got the opportunity to meet her, he had the strangest feeling he knew her. Something felt familiar and nostalgic. The others reasoned it was from their previous visits, but he wasn't so sure. Even her scent seemed familiar.

A sweet combination of pineapples, vanilla, and warm, buttery brown sugar, reminding him of homemade pineapple upside down cake.

Great. Now he was hungry.

"I swear, it's just friendship," he said, ignoring how his stomach rumbled. "I thought about going up there and playing some video games to take her mind off things."

Seth asked, "What's wrong with her?"

"She's been telling Blaire and me she hates her major," Riley said.

"Same here," Aiden said, shifting to sit against the wall, giving Seth and Riley more room. He felt better, but he didn't want to risk another sudden headache by moving around too much. If it came back, he would visit the nurses. It wasn't normal.

Blaire asked, "When are you going?"

He looked at her. "Thought about early tomorrow, since I'm not feeling it today. Come back in the evening. Think I should?"

"It can't hurt. Want me to come too? I miss her already."

In truth, he wanted to go on his own.

While he wasn't lying about only friendship existing between them, part of him didn't balk at the idea of something more, even if short-lived. He wanted a lasting relationship. He wanted his Korrena—his other half. But it didn't mean he couldn't have a meaningful relationship in the meantime. Both his friends and little sister had found their pair, so now he felt like the odd man out.

"About that…" He rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous habit he disliked about himself.

"He wants her all to himself," Riley said with a sharp nod. She added in singsong, "Someone has a crush."

He chuckled at her taunt. "It's not like that."

"Hey, we're not judging," Seth said, pulling Riley into his lap. She sat sideways, leaning against him, and he wrapped his arm around her waist. "I don't see the big deal if you do. Personally, I think the clan should allow her to know. She's been involved in our lives but kept in the dark since Blaire joined the academy."

"I didn't know you felt that way," Blaire said, looking up from typing on her phone. "I wish she could know. It would make things easier. I miss her."

"Yeah, well, I saw the way she acted at Tybee Island when we went," Seth said. "Whenever something slipped, or we stopped talking about things when she came into the room, I could see it on her face. She seemed unhappy."

Leave it to Seth to notice things before the rest of them. The quiet observers always did.

"What?" Riley twisted to look up at his face. "Why would she be unhappy?"

"Wouldn't you be if your best friend suddenly became part of a clique that you weren't really a part of?"

"She is part of our group!"

Seth arched an eyebrow at Riley's outburst. "Baby, think about it. We have to keep her at arm's length. No matter how much we try to include her, there's always gonna be a wall."

"I don't like that." Riley's shoulders slumped. She stared at her lap, picking at the sparkly black polish on her nails.

"Me either," he said, tightening his arm around Riley's waist. "I know she means a lot to you and Blaire, which is why I think it's stupid for her to not know."

"She's human," Mera said at the same time Blaire said, "But it's against the rules."

"And there lies the problem. With her getting closer to everyone in the group, I think reevaluating the rules or making exceptions should happen, but I doubt they'll give a shit. She's one human and we're a bunch of students."

Mera's lips pressed into a tight line, the only sign she felt anything about the situation. Maybe she agreed with the rules. Maybe not. She wasn't as familiar with Charlotte as the others, but she didn't have a problem with Blaire, so Aiden doubted her expression was anything less than a support for change.

Lukas sucked his teeth. "Blaire isn't just any student, though."

Maybe the Blackthorn Clan might extend an exception to someone meant to save their kind from certain destruction. One little human not descended from the magical bloodline only Blaire belonged to couldn't upset the balance that much, right?

"Yeah, well, as much as I agree, I doubt anything will change," Aiden said with a sigh, moving to stand when someone knocked on his door.

"I got it," Lukas said. He strode to the door and opened it. "How'd you know where we were?"

"Blaire told me," Dominic said, holding up his phone.

In the short time after Dominic joined the academy as the eyes on the ground for King Adrian Blackthorn, he found a comfortable place with their small group.

Aiden glanced over at his little sister, cuddled in Seth's arms.

It surprised him how much Seth accepted Dominic, considering the circumstances of his arrival.

Dominic had wanted to date Riley; he'd asked her to become compatible pairs, since neither had yet found their Korrena. Aiden found it disrespectful to both Seth and Riley when he discovered Dominic knew of Riley's feelings for Seth and still pursued her.

Once he discovered Riley's effort to distance herself and move on with her life, it all made more sense. She remained clueless to Seth's feelings for her, despite numerous attempts to make her aware of them.

He also didn't fault Dominic; once Riley said she couldn't commit to him, he accepted the rejection with grace and expressed genuine happiness for them when he learned Riley and Seth were Korrena pairs.

Dominic entered the room and squinted. "Why's it so dark in here?"

"Aiden has a headache," Riley said.

"Not anymore, but I did. You can turn the overhead light on."

Collective groans sounded when Dominic flipped the switch, several of them shielding their eyes as they adjusted to the brighter room.

Dominic glanced around at everyone with a sober expression.

Aiden sat up straighter. "What's wrong?"

Dominic moved over to the desk and pulled out a chair, then straddled the chair back, facing the room.

Blaire tucked her phone away. "Dom?"

"I just got off the phone with my cousins."

"Which one?" Riley asked .

He looked at her. " Cousins . It was a conference call with the entire clan and a couple members from the extended court." He placed his hands on the back of the chair and leaned forward, his eyebrow piercing glinting as it caught the light. "I said it wouldn't be long before we had rogue issues over on this side of the world, and don't you know it, it's on our doorstep."

"What?" Blaire swung her gaze from Dominic to Lukas and back again. "What does that mean?"

"The clan has received many reports of rogue movement along the Eastern seaboard. It's foolish to think they weren't around, as I said long ago, but the problem is their movements have become more organized, and it's no longer petty gang crimes."

Aiden's brow pinched. "What are they doing?"

"Shipments of weapons in high volume and Folinarin have trickled into the country for the last month at an alarming rate."

Mera's finely sculpted brows rose. "Folinarin? The suppression drug?"

Dominic nodded.

They had told Mera and Kai all about their experiences with the new drug while in Europe hoping Mera knew about it, but she didn't. There wasn't a lot known beyond the drug's ability to suppress preternatural abilities, making Vasirian nothing more than humans while the effects lasted.

Humans that still required blood to survive.

"What? But why?" Lukas looked at Dominic with lowered brows and frustration clouding his eyes. "What's the point of all that?"

Dominic rolled his neck from side to side, as if steeling himself. "Gabriel thinks they're preparing for war."

Riley looked at him with big eyes, twisting in Seth's lap. "War?"

Dominic inclined his head .

Aiden looked from his sister to Dominic. "War with who?"

Chocolate brown eyes shifted to Blaire, and Dominic's grip tightened on the chair. "With anyone who supports her awakening."

When they learned about the existence of rogues while in Europe, it didn't surprise Aiden. Most species had outliers who didn't adhere to the social structure and accepted hierarchy. Different animals drove out those who disrupted the balance. Humans had gangs and other criminals. Prisons were full of those who went against the system and lost. His kind had Cresbel Asylum—a place rumored to be several stories high and spread across a lot of acreage. They didn't even have photos in their textbooks of the asylum. The rule of thumb was that no one wanted to go; and if they knew what it looked like, they likely weren't leaving.

"I don't understand how the rogues can be so against Blaire becoming a Vasirian," Riley said, nose wrinkling like she smelled something foul. "Our kind needs that to happen to survive."

"Know how we guessed some didn't believe it or didn't hear that piece of information?"

"Uh huh."

Dominic dropped his hands in his lap. "Well, Tobias and a few other members of the extended council captured and interrogated some rogues when they seized one shipment. Turns out they are aware of the prophecy, but the rhetoric spreading through the underground is that it's false. That the Oracle is becoming too old to have clear sight."

"I'll be damned," Seth muttered.

Lukas's brows tightened as they pulled together. "So these idiots are going to risk the future of our kin on the off-chance the Oracle is, what? Senile?"

"They're desperate. They don't want Blaire to return the bloodline to what it used to be. Strong. With magic. Allowing those of us without Korrena mates"—Dominic looked at Aiden—"to perhaps find them with humans who would be born with magical blood or have dormant blood now. As long as Blaire remains human, those with latent blood will remain dormant. No future magical children will exist."

Lukas raked a hand through his long hair and rested his head against the wall. "What the fuck? They won't believe the restoration will save us but believe the rest of it?"

"You can't cherry-pick what you believe and don't believe. It either is or isn't," Seth said.

Aiden crossed his arms over his chest. "If they don't think she'll save us, then she won't return our bloodline back as it was, either. How do they even believe any of the Blood War information and that there ever was magic if they don't believe the Oracle knows what she's saying?"

"Again, cherry-picking."

Dominic let out a long, drawn-out sigh. "The semantics of it aren't what's important. It's that they are moving and becoming more organized than ever before. Both Adrian and I believe it won't be long before they make a move this direction." His eyes connected with Blaire's. "Before they come for you."