Chapter 10
Julian
I had to be careful not to step on one of the many pieces of wood that were still lying around from the weekend. We had had three days to fix up this hovel, and the result was depressing. The fence had received a new coat of paint and now shone in the morning sun. But that was it already. Yesterday morning, we had to replace a few weathered wooden boards on the front of the house, which were now scattered all over the front yard and the porch. The same porch that was still creaking as I walked up to the front door and knocked on it. I had accidentally ripped the doorbell out of the wall yesterday.
Ashamed, I tried to conceal the spot by leaning against the wall, which creaked just as unpleasantly.
To be honest, I would have rather helped my father with this house instead of going to Vanderwood. Just at that thought, my stomach clenched.
The door opened, horribly loud as always, and Ms. Adams smiled at me as if that hadn't burst her eardrums.
Too often, I forgot that not everyone was as sensitive as my kind.
"Good morning, Julian. Bay will be here in a minute. Wait..."
She turned around in her simple outfit of rather classy gray pants and a white blouse and headed for the stairs.
I wondered what she was up to as a molecular biologist at DLSC. I just couldn't imagine one of the witches working for the DeLoughreys. The Quatura and the Ruisangors did get along, but only as long as it wasn't about the property dispute in town. Otherwise, they avoided each other with generous suspicion.
"Bay, come on down! Julian's here!"
I heard an annoyed groan from upstairs, then footsteps. A loud "I'll be right down!" followed, and then a door was thrown into the lock.
Ms. Adams rolled her eyes before turning back to me.
"Why don't you come in? It'll probably be a few more minutes."
She went into the kitchen and poured hot water into a pot, and immediately, the pungent scent of mint hit me.
The sounds and smells here were pretty darn intense, and you didn't have to be a supernatural being with very good hearing to notice Bay's extremely good mood.
Since the Adams had moved here, you could hear doors slamming and angry voices. The house had already had a creaking life of its own before, and – of course – we had other neighbors, but they were retired and on vacation for what felt like more than half the year. The loudest thing you ever heard from them was a lawn mower or soft music from Elton John. The Adams, on the other hand, were a very lively family, even though there were only two of them.
I looked at Ms. Adams, who gestured to the kitchen with an inviting hand wave.
"Very nice, but my sister is waiting outside."
I didn't mean to be rude, but I could sense Mia's impatience from here. She wanted to get to school earlier than usual for whatever reason...
"Oh, I almost forgot," Ms. Adams said in a rush. "Bayla! Hurry up now, please . You're not the only one who has to be on time today!"
"Yes, Mum, I'll be right down!"
This time, she sounded like she had something in her mouth. A toothbrush? The thought made me smile.
"I'll be right outside. Have a nice day, Diana," I politely said goodbye and left the house without closing the door behind me.
"You too, Julian," Ms. Adams called after me.
Indeed, she was the complete opposite to the other witches, and I was beginning to wonder if she was even one of them.
I didn't care about the Quatura. As long as they left me alone, I would play by their rules.
A glance at the car told me that my sister had overheard everything. She grinned at me from the back seat. Then she turned back to her cell phone, busy.
I got in on the driver's side.
"She doesn't like you, Julian," it came immediately from the back.
"You must know," I groaned, looking through the mirror at her mischievous face. Her eyes sparkled playfully. Who had she inherited that from?
In any case, she couldn't fool me. Mia Bardot was a little beast. And had been since birth.
I grinned back, shaking my head.
"No, really. She always curses when you're around. I can hear it all the way up to my room."
"She's a witch."
"She likes me, though," Mia explained, as if this were a contest.
"Because you suck up to her."
"She doesn't know about us, you nut, which definitely means it's because of your personality and not our powers."
I looked over at the house where Bay had appeared in the doorway. She was standing there in a brown, rather comfortable-looking knit sweater, black trousers, and a leather backpack over one shoulder, talking to her mother.
"You'll be fine, honey. I can drive you next week, okay?"
"Are you sure she's one of them? She smells different somehow."
Mia's words snapped me out of my stupor and I looked straight ahead to where a mother was crossing the street with a stroller.
"Do you think so?" I asked because I was aware that she smelled different, but until now, I had thought it was because of me.
"Yes. Whatever it is, it smells different.... Neither unpleasant nor pleasant, you know what I mean?"
Basically, all witches smelled the same. The strong and pure-blooded among them usually had a more penetrating scent than their kind. But Bayla Adams smelled like nothing . Whatever Mia was smelling, I never even started to smell it.
"It's quite possible that she might not have any powers. After all, Ms. Adams didn't tell her. Surely you also know about there being Quatura who are so weak they can't work magic."
No, I actually didn't know that.
Witches were usually vain, prudish, and very arrogant when it came to their territory and affairs. That was all I knew.
I looked back over at the Adams. Ms. Adams waved, and I instinctively smiled back. But I noticed that Bay was no longer standing with her.
A clack made me wince, and I looked through the rearview mirror to the back seat, where Bay was tending to her suitcase.
"Do you need help?" asked Mia kindly to the side, knowing full well that this phrase meant as much as Julian, now give her a hand .
But I didn't even have to get out of the car because from behind came a quick, strained, "No.... I'm fine." The car door dropped with a loud crash, and this time it was Mia who flinched.
Bay hadn't exchanged a word with me the entire ride. Not even when Mia had gotten out at Blairville High and wished us a nice first day. She just sat there staring at the passing houses as if I didn't even exist.
Admittedly, I was a touch interested in what others thought of me. Especially the opinion of some Blairs and their followers could stay away from me. But Bay didn't even know who she really was, or that she was one of them .
Somehow, I envied this girl for her lack of knowledge and the life she had led there in the States. No rival clans as concentrated as here, a carefree student life, no annoying obligations, not even powers with which anything could go wrong.
If she knew where her mother had brought her here... I wonder how she would react?
California to British Columbia. Those had to be two different worlds.
"How was California?"
"Don't even try," she hissed back, not taking her eyes off the window.
By now, we were far from the center of the city in a greener part of town. A street scattered with isolated houses and trees, and I hated this place. Because only a few hundred more meters, and we would be in the pack's territory.
Their territory was the most extensive, but they didn't own much that had influence on the city, except for the university. Two more reasons to expand the pack.
I wanted to distract myself, so I tried again.
"I would miss it if I were you. The sun, the beach, and most of all, that carefreeness."
This time she glanced at me with a look that for a moment showed longing, but then it turned into one that suggested that one more word would make her explode. I noticed that she was pulling her sleeves down further. Was she cold, perhaps?
She must have noticed my searching gaze because, finally, she folded her arms and looked back at the street.
How did she see me? Maybe the way I really was? A clumsy jerk who didn't know how to behave?
A sobering thought occurred to me.
What if she saw me as I really was?
"I'm sorry," I sighed, wondering to myself what had just slipped out of my lips. Yet I didn't even know exactly what I was apologizing for. It was almost as if I had apologized for my past. A past that, to this day, had far-reaching consequences.
I shook my head.
No. Not here . I was on the road with a passenger. Not a good place for such thoughts.
Bay just kept silent, and I interpreted her silence as a final leave me alone .
So be it. If she didn't want to talk to me normally before I dropped her off in the wolves' den, it was her choice.
I turned on the car radio—a mistake, as it turned out because Joe Bexley's annoying voice blared out at me.
"...Maybe no new wolf sightings, but a much more exciting topic! It looks like the DeLoughreys are ready to buy up the Copelands hospital."
I almost laughed. Those bastards deserved it.
"It's no secret that the Copelands are in a tight financial spot. Whether their university's revenue can save them this month is unclear. However, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Copeland disputes the situation. The university director, Professor Alarik Copeland, is avoiding making a statement."
I pressed my lips together.
Why was everything about this family?
" Blairville Daily wishes all Blairville students a Happy New Semester!"
Indie music from a local group began to play.
Only now did I notice Bayla's concentrated look on the car radio.
"Who are these Copelands?" she asked.
I wanted to be honest with her, but I also knew not to tell her anything wrong. This was her mother's job, and I wasn't going to mess with Diana.
"People you don't want to have anything to do with, trust me."
Bay looked at me, but I didn't take my eyes off the road.
"So, you know them?"
"Old acquaintances." That almost sounded like a compliment to this scum.
"And the DeLoughreys?", Bay probed further.
God , how long would I be able to lie to this nosy girl without her noticing?
"Dangerous rich people, better to stay away from..."
Luckily, that was her last question, even if her look revealed that she was far from satisfied with my answers.
I steered the car along the sweeping curve that, after five minutes, led me into a street – or rather a long double-lane driveway – where deciduous trees decorated with green and white flags, as well as metal and very noble-looking lanterns adorned with the Vanderwood crest framed the street at regular intervals on the left and right.
I had been here many times before and by now found it unimpressive.
Bayla's attention, however, was focused on the huge Gothic-style building that loomed directly in front of us, in the middle of the campus, with its tall tower in the central nave. This was the main building with its two magnificent side sections of the university, which had been built during the founding times.
Behind the large parking area, on which cars were already massively jammed, stretched the spacious campus lawn full of oaks, framed with isolated buildings, such as the campus bar, the Law School, also in Gothic style, and the traditional housing complexes for the master's students.
This was possibly the most beautiful university in this country, the heart of this cursed city. Neither Oxford nor Yale University came close to Vanderwood in the aesthetics of their buildings.
I almost laughed bitterly. Yale . The college I had actually wanted to go to. But then Granma had died, and my father had started sitting in front of the beer bottles again, staring at them.
If I had left, Mia would have had to take care of him, and I couldn't put her through that. She was fifteen. But I knew that she was the one of the two of us who held everything together.
I pressed my lips against each other and concentrated on finding a decent parking spot. In the process, I noticed the row of dark Jeeps near the campus path and knew immediately that they had to be the Copelands and their pack.
Of course , Nash and his guys got their private parking spaces.
Unfortunately, things like that didn't impress me at all. They should get their family bonus, though.
There were a lot of – sometimes overly hectic – students on the road, so I had to be careful not to run over anyone. Although I would have liked nothing better than to carefully nudge any pack members with my car.
I steered my pickup truck into a gap that two other drivers were fighting over. Both gawked at me in disbelief, but I skillfully ignored them.
These students here were all so ignorant when it came to parking. It had been like that back when I had been in high school with all of them.
But now I only knew some of the faces here.
Bay wanted to get out right away, but I stopped her when I remembered that I still had something of hers.
"Wait a minute..." was all I said, reaching into my back pocket. "I found this in front of your mum's car. Is it yours?"
Bayla, who had just tried to get out with her impenetrable mine, audibly gasped. Her horrified look spoke volumes.
Hastily, she reached for the pendant as if I had taken it from her and stared at the necklace for a moment before looking at me again.
"Thanks," she mumbled barely audible, and quickly got out of the car.
I did the same and opened one of the back doors to take out her suitcase this time, which would have otherwise fallen on her feet again. She just groaned in annoyance but, wisely, allowed herself to be helped.
"Do you want me to show you where your room is?", I asked and after a few seconds of thinking, I guess she saw that it was better that way.
"Whatever," she replied, scratching her wrist impatiently.
I shoved the suitcase at her before getting my travel bag out of the car. Unlike Bay, I hadn't packed like I was about to travel for three months. Maybe it was a girl thing to always have all kinds of stuff with you, but as I watched two giggling blondes strut past us with four large hard-shell suitcases, I knew that Bay's suitcase, in contrast, was a cinch.
Shaking my head, I closed the door, then followed Bay, who was already heading straight for the widest path to the main building. Her gaze was fixed on the towers of the largest university building.
"Is there anything here that attracts these animals?"
I followed her gaze. She could only mean the dozens of black birds that circled the towers and perched on the rooftops.
I remembered that just yesterday she had been hit by one of them.
There were plenty of ravens in Blairville, but I had never seen them attack people. Probably the poor fellow had simply gotten lost.
"Bardot, what a coincidence to see you here!" a bawling male voice rang out.
I looked up, but immediately regretted it.
Was it impossible to enjoy a day without these motherfuckers?
Nash and his guys, seven of them, were sitting under a large oak tree – the largest on this campus to be exact – on stone benches that formed a half circle similar to a rondel. As always, they had picked a spot where they could keep track of everything.
So…high school days haunted me after all.
"Nash!" a girl with dark brown, almost black hair in matte black jeans and a khaki T-shirt, hissed, and I knew immediately it was Emely. She boxed her older twin brother in the side, who seemed distracted by her for a second.
I used that second to mingle with Bayla and the other students walking by.
"Who are they?" Bayla asked suspiciously.
"Idiots," I snorted curtly, and we turned down a side path.
"Best stay away from them. Where they are, there's only trouble."
Bay didn't say anything else, however, I could sense questions burning on her tongue once again.
"Where exactly was your room again?", I asked, pulling Bayla into the shade of an oak tree, out of sight of Nash and the others.
"I don't know. It wasn't in the letter."
"It's always in the letter," I laughed incredulously.
A seven was written there on my letter. This room had to be somewhere in the attached apartment complex, because rooms one to twenty were King Rooms. Normally these rooms were reserved for master students with special achievements, and I had wondered how I could have ended up there. But then again, why not?
"But there was nothing written there, okay?" Bay said a little more impatiently, digging out a piece of paper and heaving it close to my nose, so closely I couldn't make anything out.
I took it from her hand and examined the lines.
Somewhere there had to be...
A literal shock ran through me when I got to the names of her roommates.
"There must be some mistake," I stammered, puzzled, looking again to make sure I hadn't misread.
But it was true.
"Oh really? I knew that before."
I stared at the note, shaking my head.
Something wasn't right here. Normally, Vanderwood didn't make mistakes, and certainly not mistakes like this one . But the letter before my eyes said otherwise:
Emely Copeland and Julie Blair were in the same room.