Chapter 31

Bayla

The first thing I felt, even before I opened my eyes, was the sharp pain in my head. I blinked and immediately regretted it because the sunlight coming through the windows literally burned my eyes. Instantly, I curled up in the cozy blanket with a contorted face.

Why was I lying in bed at all? Didn't I actually have a lecture with Prof...?

I sat myself up and looked around for Larissa, but neither she nor any of the other girls were here.

Shit! Why hadn't she woken me up?

Blurry memories flashed through my mind.

Emely, the forest... Julian?

Confused, I shook my head, which I immediately regretted, because the pain became more intense. But I couldn't lie here any longer. I felt as if I had spent several days in bed. Besides, a literature lecture was waiting for me.

I quickly looked for my cell phone on my desk, but gasped at the sight of the mess spread out in front of me.

What the...how had all the herbs, pill boxes, and rocks gotten there?

I carefully reached for a small brown fabric bag, but immediately put it down because it smelled so badly of lavender that it made me nauseous.

Whose stuff was all this?

The chaos in my head got worse.

This lavender bag...my memories...what had the others done that night? What had I done?

Confused, I kept searching for my phone until I finally found it among more colorful crystals, but somehow my battery was dead. I always charged it overnight, but strangely I had forgotten this time.

So, I plugged my phone into the outlet and quickly jumped up to change my sleeping clothes, but arriving in front of the mirror, I paused.

I couldn't remember going to sleep in a hoodie and jeans yesterday. Suspiciously, I eyed the clothes first, then my face.

My eyes were dark underneath and my hair was a single knot.

Why couldn't I remember last night?

I felt like I'd been to one of those Larissa parties that I'd just avoided at some point because my friend had shown her worst side there and always dragged me into a pile of trouble.

I frantically brushed my hair and changed out of my smelly black hoodie into a dark green one with "Vanderwood University" written on it and the university's crest.

I had found that thing yesterday in the store here.

While I didn't want to make friends with Vanderwood, Mady and Larissa had insisted I get something.

I grabbed my phone off the table and headed to campus.

By now, I knew that the Copelands owned this place and were investing heavily in the restoration and these new accommodations to make even more money. This family had to be one of the richest here in British Columbia. And even though I didn't really want to believe this drug myth , one of the other Copeland mysteries, a certain distrust was gradually growing inside me. One did not come to this wealth just like that .

Suddenly, I felt dizzy and staggered as strange images of Emely came into my head again, sitting on the edge of my bed, staring at me with...yellow-glowing eyes?

What on earth had I taken yesterday to make me dream so wildly that night?

Still dazed, I regained consciousness and followed the path that brought me closer to campus. Actually, it should have, but somehow it didn't stop, and suddenly, I found myself somewhere behind the stone walls of the university.

I groaned.

Great job, Bayla . First oversleeping and now lost.

For a moment, I stopped and looked around. Through the canopy of deciduous trees, I could make out the dark towers of clouds that had been lingering over the city for days. Deep black ravens flew through the area loudly expressing themselves. Nothing new either... The Gothic stone walls stretched upwards beside me and the path seemed to lead along the university, perhaps even to a back entrance.

Actually, I had no time at all for such jokes, but I was already too late anyway. Besides, this path looked like a welcome distraction to me.

Determinedly, I started moving to follow the endless path along the wall. The air was pleasantly fresh and relaxed my lungs, which desperately needed some more air and exercise.

I felt the limpness overtake me, and only now did I notice that my hands were shaking.

I decided to focus on the forest path before I got lost again, but the further I wandered along the wall, the less hope I had. Add to that the memories of the Blairville Daily news about the jogger who had never reappeared.

I was about to let it go and turn back when I heard angry voices in the distance and finally spotted a man-sized arched entrance in the wall, partly overgrown with ivy and white lilies, partly collapsed.

"I know for sure it was you, you filthy mutt !"

Relief spread through me as I slowly turned through the opening and found myself in a sort of circular walkway massively overgrown with ivy. The walkway surrounded a courtyard with an active fountain, around which a few faces I knew had gathered.

I decided to wait behind the column, from where I could follow the action, because it seemed that Vivienna and Emely were already at each other's throats again, and I had enough of all the conflict.

"I don't know what your fucking problem is!" Emely snapped, upset.

I had the English seminar and then a lecture to attend, but that could wait, if the others had nothing better to do than to kick each other's asses again.

Cautiously, I peeked around the corner.

"You really think you can talk to us like that," Vivienna laughed angrily.

I spotted her friends behind her and next to Emely...Julian.

I hadn't quite figured out what they had to do with each other yet.

"Just shut your big mouth and take your breed of Satan back to your part of town! You don't belong here!" Emely hissed back.

"Did you hear that, guys?" Vivienna laughed with a condescending smile, and I would have liked to see Emely's face right now, but she turned her back to me so that she was now right across from the three girls.

"What are you doing, Vivienna?" Grace exclaimed, frantically entering the courtyard with Julie, coming to a stop behind Vivienna.

Apparently, more people were skipping their mandatory course.

"Your little friend thinks she can get away with everything!" Emely complained more angrily than ever.

"You disgusting dogs should stay away from us!" Vivienna barked back, much more serious than she had been a moment ago. She ignored Grace's question. And her ice-blue eyes lay hostile on Emely, almost filled with coldness. "Don't forget who is in control of whom here."

With these words, she was about to turn to leave when, to everyone's surprise, Emely grabbed her arm with such force that Vivienna was smashed against the nearby column and slid down it with a dull thud.

I pressed my hand in front of my mouth.

What the...

"Vi!" Amber shrieked, and the two girls rushed to help their friend, as did Julie, who crouched down on the floor next to her.

"Emely! Have you gone crazy?" Now Julian interfered, still glued to her side.

He pulled her back by the arm, and as she turned to him in anger, I could see her face for a fraction.

My breath caught as I saw her glowing yellow eyes . The same ones from my dream. Yellow, glowing, dangerous.

Was I still dreaming?

"Stay out of this, Julian!" Emely growled at him. "Or at least stand by your pack for once!"

Pack?

Julian looked at her as if he understood her strange words but said nothing more. There was contempt in his gaze.

"It's pathetic that you can't even keep your pack together, isn't it?" Vivienna had picked herself up again and was now walking very slowly toward Emely, as if she hadn't almost broken her neck just now. "There you go again, seeing how much your authority is good for." A mischievous grin spread across her face. " Nothing , Emely... Absolutely nothing ."

Unexpectedly quickly, she raised her hands. And then so much happened that my eyes could barely keep up. Julian was suddenly standing in front of Emely, and Grace dashed to Vivienna to yank her arm down. The other girls stayed in the background.

"What are you doing!!!" Vivienna hissed at Grace.

"Keeping you from making a very big mistake."

Grace gave her a haunting, warning look, and you could tell Vivienna was struggling.

On the other side were Julian and Emely, who were engaged in the exact same battle of stares.

Only, their yellow eyes held all of my attention .

"Get out of my way, Julian!"

This dream was definitely too much for my overloaded brain.

"You heard her, Bardot ! Get out of the way!"

Again, everyone except Emely turned to the source of the voice.

For a moment, I wondered if anyone was even sitting in Professor Copeland's course, because Emely's externally very attractive brother had entered the hallway with his guys, and now they were all joining Emely together in the courtyard.

"There seem to be some cocky herbal bitches here who don't know what happens to their kind when they step out of line." Nash looked at Vivienna and the other girls, then at Julian. "Get out of the way, I said!"

Julian narrowed his eyes, looked urgently at Emely one last time, then decided to get out of the Copelands' way.

"Do what you want, but don't drag me into your shit ever again," he snorted, visibly frustrated, and turned to leave.

But as if Emely had just been waiting for it, she not-so-gently pushed Grace aside and grabbed Vivienna by the collar.

What in the world?

She carried her with her sheer strength to one of the pillars, and one of the ravens that had been prancing around the courtyard shot up startled into the darkened sky full of massive clouds.

Vivienna's eyes were wide open, but of course , she didn't put up with it and moved her hand. Her eyes glowed grayish, almost white, and again I was startled.

Thereupon, Emely flew through the group of young men directly against the opposite column. Stones could be heard crumbling.

I pressed myself tighter against the column next to me because, slowly, fear mixed in with the confusion.

If this was a dream, why didn't I wake up? Why didn't it feel like a dream at all?

"Emely!" Julian shouted, running to her.

Nash didn't put up with the way my dream Vivienna was handling Emely and set to jump, but he too was whirled straight up into the air, spinning on his own axis two feet in the air.

I pinched my arm, not wanting to admit that I was actually feeling the pain. Goosebumps spread across my skin.

If I wasn't dreaming this whole thing...

"Such big mouths and yet so weak," Vivienna hissed and turned to leave again, but Nash was back on his feet faster than his sister.

Vivienna spun around in a flash, and Nash flew through the air again, straight at me. Before I could disappear from the column behind the adjacent small wall, it was too late.

Nash flew through the wall window and yanked me to the ground with him, where I landed softly on his heated body despite the force of the impact.

I swallowed as our eyes met, for just then that yellowish glow familiar from Emely extinguished from his eyes, and we stared at each other, motionless.

Nash, unlike his sister, had golden blond hair with a brownish base, which now fell into his sweaty forehead. This, in turn, accentuated his angular face immensely well. But it was the light blue eyes with the yellow sprinkles that looked so damn haunting in combination with the tanned skin.

My heart was beating way too wildly, which even my now completely fogged brain seemed to notice, because after all , I was currently lying in the middle of a supernatural conflict in a portico, to be more precise on top of t he most well-trained guy at the whole university , and had been staring at him for more than ten seconds now. He stared the same way until I finally gathered all my sanity and courage and jumped up. I reached out my hand to help him up and he even took it. The heat continued to rise in my face.

God , what was I even doing here?

It had gone quiet, so I looked around.

My heart finally stopped as I froze into a pillar of ice. I stared into the center of the courtyard and a heavy shiver ran down my spine that I wished for nothing more than to finally wake up.

"What in the world is going on here?!" a man's voice rang out.

Professor Copeland had now entered the courtyard as well.

He looked first at the girls, then at Nash's buddies, and then at the man-sized brown wolf in the middle of the courtyard, who bared his teeth greedily and turned with yellow-glowing eyes... toward me.