Vampire University (Book One in the Vampire University Series) (18 page)

"So, you just... wrote that all in your head just now?"

"What? Of course not," replied Hannah. "Glamours don't have to be that complicated. A person's mind is very good at making things up and filling in the blanks. I just have to suggest a fabulous A-worthy paper and the viewer of said paper does all the work. I'm sure the TA will be able to fill in the details just fine!"

"That seems... grossly unfair."

"Yeah, well, we're not going to make this a habit."

Taylor was too nervous about glamours to even think about using them herself at the moment, but she was glad that Hannah stepped in to take care of it for her in this case.

When they arrived at class, though, she began to feel a bit more nervous about the whole idea. Perhaps honesty was really the best policy? Perhaps the Dean would make an exception? She remembered his icy demeanor, however, and decided against it.

Her discomfort increased as she turned to see Eric and Joseph entering the class. She quickly turned back to face the front of the class, hoping that they would not come to sit up front with them. Thankfully, Joseph had the good sense to steer Eric away and they instead sat far to the back. For the moment Taylor was relieved, or at least until Professor Dean entered the room, with Alex following closely behind carrying what appeared to be the Professor's briefcase.

He came to the front of the class and grabbed the briefcase abruptly from Alex and slammed it onto the podium. Alex took a seat off to the corner.

The professor scanned the room silently for several minutes as Taylor slumped into her seat trying to look inconspicuous. She could feel the guilt of her cheating rushing to her face and she was quite sure she was beet red. She looked down so that he wouldn't notice.

He did not appear to be interested in her, however.

"Is Mr. Evans here?" he asked.

Joseph spoke up from the back of the classroom.

"Um, which one, sir?"

"I remember you from the first class, young man. My brain is not quite as addled by age as you seem to think. I can see that you're here. Where is your brother?" the dean asked, tapping his finger loudly on the podium as he spoke.

"Um, here, sir?" said Eric, standing slowly.

"Are you asking me if you're here? Because I can only speak to your physical presence if that is the case. Whether or not you are mentally present, I couldn't possibly say."

"I'm here, sir," said Eric, trying to sound more resolute.

"Thrilling," said the dean. "I trust your brother gave you the syllabus?"

"Um, yes, sir?" replied Eric.

"Do you phrase everything in the form of a question? How exhausting."

"I uh... that is..."

"That is quite enough, Mr. Evans. My question to you was as rhetorical as I'm sure your persistent questions are to me. Please have a seat."

Eric wasted no time in doing so.

"Now that we have that out of the way, Alex
ander
here will go around and collect your assignments."

The moment of truth, thought Taylor, though she tried not to worry so much about it as she pulled out her glamoured "assignment". No one had any reason to think it was anything but ordinary boring homework, she reassured herself as she handed it as nonchalantly as she could to Alex as he came by.

He glanced at it for a moment before moving on to collect Hannah's paper and didn't even look at Taylor, much to her relief. Still, she couldn't get over her feeling of nervousness as the dean went on with his lecture and she barely paid any attention to his droning on about the history of the college.

The lecture concluded quickly enough, however, as the dean seemed to have no interest in using the fully allotted time and did not bother to take any questions. Taylor was relieved to be packing up to get out of there when the dean stepped back up to the podium and spoke into the microphone.

"I need Taylor Bain and Eric Evans to stay after for a moment, please," he said.

Taylor froze and gave Hannah a questioning look.

"Don't worry," said Hannah. "I'm sure it's nothing. Maybe some, um... extra credit?"

Hannah looked worried, however, and this did nothing to calm Taylor down.

"Do you think he...?" Taylor began to ask.

"Of course not," said Hannah. "I'm sure it's nothing. Do you want me to stay with you?"

"No, I guess not. I'm sure it's nothing like you said and I'm a big girl. I can't have you always at my side."

"I don't mind, I assure you. But I'll save my overprotectiveness for real threats, not academic ones! How about I meet you at the food court across the street? We can grab some lunch. And that way I'll still be close by."

"Sure," said Taylor.

The class slowly filtered out and Alex followed behind. It was just Eric and Taylor remaining with Professor Dean, all still in their seats.

"Eric, wait there for a moment, please. Taylor, you first," said the dean.

Taylor approached him nervously.

"What is this?" he said in a low voice while showing Taylor's paper to her.

"That's my assignment, uh... sir."

"Cut the 'sir' crap. You and I both know this is just a blank sheet of paper. How did you learn how to do this?"

Taylor felt her stomach tense up and her face turn red.

"I, uh... don't know what you mean," she said.

"You're going to stop playing games with me right now. I don't have the patience for it. I can always tell someone's true nature, but you... I can't read you at all. Why is that? And don't pretend you don't know. You just turned in a glamour for your homework."

"I, uh... look, I didn't do it and that's the truth. I mean, I didn't do my homework, obviously, but I didn't do the glamour either."

"So you just happen to be friends with forsaken who do your dirty work for you?" he asked, regarding her suspiciously.

"For... saken? Look, I don't know what you're talking about and that's the truth."

The dean frowned, looking deep in thought.

"You know, I can always tell when someone is lying. I can always see the truth in everything. Except you. You're not human, are you?"

"What? Of course I am!"

"We'll see," he said and tore her paper in half. "You will turn in a real homework assignment on Friday. And I will keep my eyes on you."

"Uh, okay?"

"Don't lie to me, Taylor Bain. I may not be able to see through it the same way I can with others, but that doesn't mean I believe you."

"Uh... okay," was all she could think to say.

She now wished desperately that she had asked Hannah to stay.

"You can go," he said, waving her away with his hands.

"Eric," said the dean, talking again at a normal volume. "You're up."

Taylor wasted no time in exiting the room. She needed to find Hannah right away and so quickly made her way across the street.

She found Hannah sitting with Joseph and Tom at a booth in the corner of the food court. When Hannah saw Taylor, she gestured for her to come join. Taylor sat down next to Hannah and Tom. Tom gave her a cheery "Hello".

"Uh Hannah, I really need to talk to you. Privately, I think," said Taylor.

Hannah grew instantly serious and turned to Tom.

"Tom, do be a dear and talk with Joseph for a bit and don't listen to anything that Taylor and I have to say, won't you?"

Joseph raised his eyebrow curiously at Hannah, but played along.

"There you go," said Hannah. "He's not paying attention now. So what happened?"

"He knew about the glamour," said Taylor, slightly out of breath.

"What? How?"

"I don't know. He's not a vampire right?"

"No, definitely not. Did he say how he knew?"

"No, not really, but he kept saying something about reading me and my true nature or something. He thinks I'm not human, Hannah. Am I not human?"

"Of course you're human. What else did he say? This is important."

"Well he said something about forsaken. He thought I would know what that meant, but I really didn't."

"That's just another word for vampire, Taylor. Kind of old-fashioned, actually."

"And he said he could usually tell when people are lying, but not in my case."

Hannah's eyes got big and she stiffened up in her seat.

"Tell me exactly what he said, Taylor," Hannah insisted.

"He uh... I guess he said that he can always see the truth in everything."

Hannah stood up abruptly, knocking over Joseph's drink in the process. All three of them stared at her.

"Crap, Taylor. Crap crap crap. I mean, are you kidding me? Crap."

"What, Hannah? What is it?"

"Crap. It's crap, Taylor. We've got to go."

"Wait, go where?" asked Taylor. "What's wrong?"

"We have to go away."

"Like off campus?"

"Crap, Taylor. Yes, off campus. Off the island. Out of the state. Maybe off this continent. Crap, crap, crap. How on earth? Here of all places?"

"Slow down, Hannah. It can't be that bad, can it?"

"Oh, it can," said a voice from behind them.

All four of them froze. It was the dean.

"Please, have a seat, little angel," he said to Hannah, but she didn't budge.

"Or not," he continued. "I'm not really interested in you anyway. Interesting company you keep, Taylor Bain. You say you do not know about the forsaken, but the minute you leave me you come straight to them. Including the one who tried to pass off a glamoured 'doctor's note'. Interesting."

"I didn't know what you meant, honest," insisted Taylor. "Look, whatever you're thinking,  it's not the case. I just met these guys. I don't know anything."

"Really? You, a simple little human, come to college, meet two forsaken and... wait a second..." he paused, looking directly at Tom. "How very interesting indeed. There's quite a lot of impossible at this table for you to claim innocence, don't you think?"

"Look, I don't know what you're thinking, but..." Hannah began.

"Oh shut up, little angel," said the dean coldly. "I'm sure you're quite unused to being the least interesting thing in the room, but that's where you find yourself, now isn't it?"

"What are you...?" said Hannah.

"I said shut up," he interrupted. "You know what I'm talking about don't you, faeborn?"

Tom stood up at this comment and everyone looked at him.

"Tom...?" said Joseph.

"Oh don't even think about shifting or I'll drop the glamour that's keeping this conversation private and everyone will see. You're not the only non-humans in the room, of course. And I'm quite sure that druid over there would love to see you change, wouldn't she? I think that we can all agree that you don't want her to find you out, now do you?"

Tom reluctantly sank back into his seat, not saying a word.

"Hannah, what is going on? Druid? Faeborn? What is he talking about?" Taylor whispered.

"I cannot tell if you really are this stupid or if you're just a very good actress," said the dean. "It's annoying really. I've never been deceived before. Can't say I like it much. But for you to hang out with an elf and claim not to know their animosity towards druids really does stretch reason, now doesn't it? Now you, Taylor Bain, and the elf-boy are going to come with me."

"I'm not an elf," said Tom, clenching his fist.

"Oh of course, how offensive of me. Let me use the proper term. Leprechaun. Although I can't much see the point in formalities when you don't even technically exist."

"Oh you'll see how much I exist. I don't need to shift to take you down," Tom replied.

"Oh don't you? I think you underestimate me, elf-boy," said the dean while holding his right hand in front of his face.

Suddenly, the color of it darkened, from a pale skin-tone to a dark grey. The fingers elongated into pointed claws and they hardened into a crackled stone. His hand had transformed into a kind of enlarged stone fist.

"I knew it! Taylor, we've got to get out of here. He's not just any Alistair. He's THE Alistair!" screeched Hannah.

"What?" said Taylor. "I don't even know what that means."

"He's a gargoyle, Taylor!"

"Oh dear, now I'm the one to take offense. Gargoyle? How crude. Guardian is so very much more PC, don't you think? Oh and I doubt very much that you don't know what I'm talking about. Why else would you be blocking me?" said the dean.

"I... Please stop. I'm just a girl. I don't even know what you mean by blocking you," Taylor insisted.

"Oh we'll see about that, one way or another. Eric told me what you did to him. Quite impressive, I must say. I've never heard of a curse being cured before, but I sensed it the moment I saw him. That and your curious abilities to block my power make you quite an interesting find."

"What are you going to do?" asked Hannah.