*****
“So I hear that there was much excitement in your class this morning.” Olivia Berry took her usual seat across from Larissa in the teacher’s lounge, leaning forward over the table as though she’d be able to get the full scoop faster that way.
“That’s one way to put it,” Larissa agreed, not looking up from the book she was reading. It was always nice when Olivia went crazy over good gossip, a situation not to be rushed.
Olivia didn’t even try at uninterested. “Tell me all or I’ll seduce one of your brothers and give you the play by play.”
The full body shudder overtook her before she could stop it. “Eww. Don’t even talk about that.”
“Michael is seriously hot…”
“Fine, I’ll talk! Just stay away from the male members of my family.”
Olivia settled down, smug radiating from every pore. “So who were your guests? I won’t even tell you the official version of the story, it’s too much BS to believe.”
“Why are you such a conspiracy theorist? Maybe the official story is the real story.” Olivia said nothing, just blinked once, twice, three times. Larissa sighed. “So here’s what happened. I was attacked over the weekend…”
Olivia’s face lost its maniacal interest, replaced by pure concern. She grabbed Larissa’s hand. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I am, I am,” Larissa reassured her, squeezing Olivia’s hand in hers. “I was attacked by zombies.”
“Zombies!” Olivia’s voice ricocheted in the empty room.
“Shh!” Larissa admonished, looking around to verify they were indeed alone. “I’d rather not everyone know, thank you.”
Olivia leaned closer, her voice lowering. “Are you kidding me, zombies?”
“Yeah, zombies. And those two who visited me wanted to know why.”
Olivia’s body shook as if in preparation for the answer. “And why were you?”
“I have no idea.”
Disbelief was as evident on Olivia’s face as it had been on both Terak’s and Fallon’s. “You have no idea?”
“None. I think it was an accident and they attacked the wrong woman, but everyone around me seems determined to believe I was attacked on purpose.”
Olivia pulled back then, angling away from Larissa, her hand smoothing her brown curls back. “It seems likely that attack was on purpose. Necromancers don’t make many mistakes.”
“And what would you know about necromancers?” This was new. Olivia had never expressed any personal knowledge of the other races before.
Olivia shrugged, the movement the height of nonchalance. “Only what everyone else knows. Mages that powerful probably don’t make mistakes.” Changing the subject, Olivia motioned to the book Larissa had open. “What’s that? Going to teach gargoyles?”
It was Larissa’s turn to shrug. This part she didn’t want to mention to Olivia. “After my attack, I thought it would be a good idea to be a little more concerned with the other races. They seemed interesting.”
Olivia studied the picture, tapping the drawn gargoyle with one long red nail. “I would have chosen another race to start with. Outside of necromancers, I can’t think of any creature I’d want to meet less.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because, if they had nothing to hide, they’d be part of the world amongst all the other creatures. Hell, you can even find necromancer clubs in certain areas.”
Which was disturbing, but considering how vampires had been romanticized and fetishized in the Human Realm before the collision, the fact those clubs existed wasn’t as shocking as it should have been. “Maybe they’re afraid. It can’t be easy to enter the world when you’ve always shunned it before.”
“Well, yeah, or maybe they are as evil as the necromancers but don’t have that dark, sexy-charm swagger to cover their deviousness.”
Deviousness. There was no word she could think of less right to describe Terak. No, he wasn’t telling her everything, but it seemed to come from a place of protection, not slyness.
Then again, she could be fooling herself.
“Olivia, have you ever left the city?”
“Why, are you thinking of taking a long weekend or something? Your dad would flip.”
“No, it’s just…” Larissa looked down at the picture again. “I’m starting to think about what I don’t know. It never occurred to me before, but the attack has me thinking on things.”
The bell rang, and Olivia stood. “I have class next period so I got to get going. If you need to talk, I’ll be free tonight.”