the last time I saw him. He’s gained weight and lost the gaunt appearance. Looking at him closely, his Nightingale roots are impossible to miss. It’s not the longish, light blond hair or his wiry and tall stature. It’s his face. The male is too perfect to be confused for a mere human. He’d probably make loads of money in the fashion industry. Too bad he lost his mind and probably never had the idea.
“Hey. Welcome to Bloodstone Institute.” I open my arms in a grand gesture.
He only has one duffle bag with him, and it looks kind of empty.
“Thanks.” He sets the bag down and looks around. “This is pretty nice. I confess, I was expecting a darker vibe.”
“Well, the gothic and scary exterior is only for show, you know, to keep the good old folks of Salem terrified of us.”
“It’s definitely an improvement over my lodgings at Ember Emporium.”
“Dude, you have to tell me what that was like.”
He raises an eyebrow. “You want to know what my prison cell was like?”
“Err…” I rub the back of my neck.
“Ignore Saxon. He can be an idiot sometimes.” Ronan approaches, apparently to save Rikkon from me. “Is that all your stuff?” He eyeballs the bag.
Rikkon glances at it and then shrugs. “Yeah. I don’t need much. To be honest, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing here.”
“You’re pretending to be a vampire, so just try to relax and follow the flow. There’s really not much to it.”
“I don’t quite get it. Why do you have to attend school? Aren’t you, like, hundreds of years old?”
“You do know that we have to hibernate from time to time, right? Thanks to your elders leaving us here to hang dry.” I give him a meaningful stare.
“Yeah, Vivi explained that to me. I still can’t believe what she told me or that I was stupid enough to procure a memory spell.”
His reply gives me pause. Whoever sold him the spell must have been someone powerful enough to be able to come up with it. Maybe they know a way to break a mating bond too.
“Where did you get it?” I ask.
Rikkon stares at me as if I’m stupid. “I don’t know. The spell erased all my memories, remember?”
“Oh, right.”
I should be disappointed, but deep down I’m not invested in breaking the bond. What if Aurora and I are meant to be together and we’re going to unleash a much bigger problem if we succeed in our plan? But the damn pain, though. Fuck, I could do without that.
“How did you get here?” Ronan asks Rikkon.
“Cheryl dropped me off.”
There’s a visible tension around the corners of Ronan’s mouth now, which is no surprise with the way he’s clenching his jaw. Ronan and his females. For a brooding vampire, he sure knows how to pick them. The quiet ones are always the worst.
“Did she just leave you to fend for yourself?” I ask. “The females in admin can be quite dreadful.”
“Oh, I didn’t register yet. Vivi said she’ll take me. And Cheryl went to visit Karl.” Rikkon runs a hand through his hair. “I still can’t believe Karl and Cheryl are wolf shifters.”
“There are two rooms left,” Ronan interrupts. “Pick one and get ready to hit the gym.”
“Shit. I haven’t worked out in ages.”
“Noticeable,” I say. “Don’t worry, Ronan will whip you into shape in no time.”
Rikkon twists his face into a grimace. I wonder if he ever received combat training when he lived in the Nightingale realm. It doesn’t matter now. Ronan will make sure he can kick some ass when the time comes.
“Knock, knock. Is this where the cool kids hang out?” Vaughn, the newly turned vampire, says from the door, sporting a stupid-ass grin on his face.
“Hey, Vaughn. Are you staying here too?” Rikkon asks.
“It looks like it.” He walks in, staring at everything with his mouth hanging open. “This is neat.”
“You seem to be handling your new existence well,” Rikkon adds.
“Dude, it’s amazing. The stuff that I can do now. Mind-blowing.” He tilts his head to the side, squinting. “You feel different. What happened to you?”
“He’s pretending to be one of us. I went over this with you already,” Ronan grumbles. “Enough with the chitchat. Let’s get going. King Raphael tasked me to get you in shape within an impossibly short time and I don’t plan on disappointing him.”
“I’m in shape.” Vaughn flexes his arms, showing off nothing.
“What am I supposed to be looking at? Hold up, let me get a