Shadow Lake Vampire Society - Wendi Wilson Page 0,47
shades, but somehow, I knew he was watching us. Or watching over us. He nodded in our direction as we shuffled up the steps and into the bathroom.
I locked myself in a stall and sat on the toilet, then froze. Swallowing hard, I hissed at True, who was in the stall right next to mine.
“What?” she whispered back.
“Do you think Levi can hear us peeing from out there?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, “but I’m pretty sure he can hear you asking about it.”
Her toilet flushed, and she left the stall. I finished up my business and met her by the sinks, my face hot with embarrassment. True shot me a look in the mirror and shook her head.
“You’re ridiculous, you know that?” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the sound of running water. “With everything you learned, that’s what you’re worried about?”
“I know,” I said, blushing.
When we left the building, Levi was in the same spot, a small smile playing on his lips. Heat rose to my face again as I walked toward him, but I ignored it. Badass Piper didn’t cower in the face of a little embarrassment.
“Hey,” I said when we reached him, the word sounding lame to my own ears.
“Hey,” he replied. “Ready to go to breakfast?”
My first instinct was to ask him if he meant in the mess hall or the barn, but I bit my tongue and simply nodded. The wound I saw on the cow’s neck that day made total sense, now.
And I hated that it made sense.
The entire world had been turned on its head, and I had no choice but to accept my new reality. A reality where vampires were real, and I was walking to breakfast with one on a regular Tuesday morning.
“Did you sleep well?” Levi asked as he fell into step beside me.
I barked out a laugh, then slapped a hand across my mouth. This whole situation was surreal, the conversation, absurd. I found out monsters were real, and one of them killed my dad. I stopped two others from feeding on a child, and now they probably wanted me dead.
Oh, and the hot guy I’ve been crushing on could crush me with one hand tied behind his back and drain every ounce of blood from my dying body.
Did I sleep well? Funny.
“Yep,” I said, giving him a fake grin. I brushed a hand over the lump on the back of my head, adding, “Like a baby with a concussion.”
I knew this ridiculous conversation was for the benefit of anyone who might be spying on us, trying to figure out how much I saw and what I knew, so I tried to play along. Levi’s expression told me I wasn’t fooling anyone.
“Hey, True,” he said, craning his neck to see around me, “do you mind covering for Piper for a little while? I want to show her something.”
“Does that ‘something’ require you to get naked? Because if so, I’m coming,” she said, waggling her eyebrows.
“Oh my God, True,” I groaned.
Levi laughed, and the sound sent a shiver racing up my spine. His laugh was deep and husky, tinted with real humor—the first I’d heard from the serious boy who just so happened to be a creature of the night. Why the sudden change in his normal, brooding behavior?
Plus, how was he out in the daytime? Shouldn’t he be a pile of ash blowing in the wind the second a single ray of sun touched his body? I’d seen all of the counselors in the sunshine at one time or another, pale skin glowing under the bright rays, and none of them exploded or burst into flames.
Also, why was he now being so nice to me?
True shot me a questioning look as if to ask, Are you sure you want to go with him? I nodded to reassure her, and she took a deep breath before returning the gesture.
“I got you covered,” she said. “You guys can go suck face somewhere private.”
She spun and darted down the path toward the mess hall, her laughter trailing behind her. She thought she was so hilarious. And I was going to murder her next time we were alone.
“Let’s go,” Levi said, folding his hand around mine.
What the what?
My heart stopped as a flash of electricity zipped through me. I sucked in a broken breath, and my poor heart pounded back to life as it worked triple-time to keep my body moving. I was sure I’d been struck by lightning, though there wasn’t