Bloodlines

I was about to join them when I heard loud voices beside me.

"I'm getting it tonight. The guy I talked to swears it's gonna be badass." It was Slade, the guy who'd sparred with Trey earlier. I hadn't realized it out in the sun in the middle of the game, but he was the player Micah had swapped places with. "It better be," continued Slade, "for how much he's charging me."

Two of Slade's friends joined him as they began heading toward the locker room. "When are tryouts, Slade?" one of his friends asked. In chemistry, I'd learned Slade's first name was Greg, but everyone seemed to refer to him by his last name, even teachers.

"Friday," Slade said. "I'm going to kill. Like totally destroy them. I'm gonna rip Juarez's spine out and make him eat it."

Charming, I thought, watching them go. My initial assessment of Slade had been correct. I turned toward Jill and Micah and saw that he'd gotten ahold of a water bottle for her. They seemed okay for the moment, so I caught Miss Carson's attention as she walked by.

"My sister gets sick in the sun," I said. "This is really hard on her."

"Lots of kids have trouble in the heat at first," said Miss Carson knowingly. "They just need to toughen up. You handled yourself okay."

"Yeah, well, she and I are pretty different," I said dryly. If only she knew. "I don't think she's going to 'toughen up.'"

"Nothing I can do," said Miss Carson. "If I let her sit out, do you have any idea how many other kids would suddenly 'feel tired in the sun'? Unless she's got a doctor's note, she's got to stick it out."

I thanked her and went to join Jill and Micah. As I approached, I heard Micah saying, "Get cleaned up, and I'll walk you to your next class. We can't have you fainting in the halls." He paused and considered. "Of course, I'm totally happy to catch you if you do faint."

Jill was understandably dazed but was with it enough to thank him. She told him she'd meet him soon and walked to the girls' locker room with me. I eyed the grin on Micah's face, and a troubling thought occurred to me. Jill seemed stressed enough so I decided not to say anything, but my concern grew when we left for last period. Micah walked with Jill, as promised, and told her that later, when evening came, he'd tutor her in volleyball if she wanted. As we stood outside the classroom, a girl with long red hair and a haughty attitude walked by, trailed by an entourage of other girls. She paused when she saw Micah and tossed her hair over one shoulder, flashing him a big smile. "Hey, Micah."

Micah was engrossed with Jill and barely glanced in the other girl's direction. "Oh, hey, Laurel." He walked away, and Laurel watched him go, her expression turning dark. She shot a dangerous look at Jill, whipped her long hair over her shoulder, and stormed off.

Uh-oh, I thought as I watched her stalk down the hall. Is that going to come back and haunt us? It was one of those moments when I could have used a lesson in social cues.

I went to Ms. Terwilliger's classroom afterward and spent most of that initial meeting setting up the semester's goals and outlining what I'd be doing for her. I was in store for a lot of reading and translation, which suited me just fine. It also appeared as though half of my job would be keeping her organized  - something else I excelled at. The time flew by, and as soon as I was free, I hurried off to find Eddie. He was waiting with a group of other boys at the shuttle stop to go back to their dorm.

When he saw me, his response was the usual: "Is Jill okay?"

"Fine... well, kind of. Can we talk somewhere?"

Eddie's face darkened, no doubt thinking there was a legion of Strigoi on their way to hunt Jill. We stepped back inside one of the academic buildings, finding chairs in a private corner that enjoyed the full force of air conditioning. I gave him a quick update on Jill and her sunny PE misadventures. "I didn't think it would be this bad," said Eddie grimly, echoing my thoughts. "Thank God Micah was there. Is there anything you can do?"

"Yeah, we should be able to get something from our 'parents' or a doctor." As much as I hated to, I added, "Keith might be able to expedite it."

"Good," said Eddie fiercely. "We can't have her getting beat up out there. I'll go talk to that teacher myself, if that's what it takes."

I hid a smile. "Well, hopefully it won't come to that. But there is something else... nothing dangerous," I amended quickly, seeing that warrior look cross his face again. "Just something..." I tried not to say the words that were popping into my mind. Horrifying. Wrong. "Concerning. I think... I think Micah likes Jill."

Eddie's face went very still. "Of course he likes her. She's nice. He's nice. He likes everyone."

"That's not what I mean, and you know it. He likes her. In the more-than-friends way. What are we going to do about that?"

Eddie stared off across the hall for a few moments before turning back to me. "Why do we have to do anything?"

"How can you ask that?" I exclaimed, shocked by the response. "You know why. Humans and vampires can't be together! It's disgusting and wrong." The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them. "Even a dhampir like you should know that."

He smiled ruefully. '"Even a dhampir like me?'"

I supposed I'd been a little insulting, but it couldn't be helped. Alchemists - myself included - never believed dhampirs and Moroi worried enough about the same problems we did. They might acknowledge a taboo like this, but years of training said that only we humans really took it seriously. That was why the Alchemist job was so important. If we didn't look after these matters, who would?

"I mean it," I told him. "This is something all of us agree on."

His smile faded. "Yeah, it is."

Even Rose and Dimitri, who had a high tolerance for craziness, had been shocked at meeting the Keepers, rogue Moroi who intermingled freely with dhampirs and humans. It was a taboo the three of us shared, and we'd worked hard to tolerate the custom while with the Keepers. They lived hidden in the Appalachian Mountains and had provided excellent refuge when Rose was on the run. Ignoring their savage ways had been an acceptable price for the security they'd offered us.

"Can you talk to him?" I asked. "I don't think Jill has any strong feelings. She's got too many other things going on. She probably knows better anyway... but it'd still be best if you could discourage him. We can stop this before she gets involved."

"What do you expect me to say?" Eddie asked. He sounded at a loss, which struck me as funny, considering he'd been ready to go make all sorts of demands to Miss Carson on Jill's behalf.