Humanity 01 - Child of The Dusk by Corrine Shroud Read Free Book Online Page B

It’ll only give them a reason to hate you.
If you need anything, you can come to me. I won’t treat you any
different than my human students.”
    Mirage nodded, smiling wanly. “Thank you,
Mr. Kinely. I really appreciate it.”
    “ You’re welcome,” he
returned, patting her shoulder. “I’d better get back to my class,
though. They’ve probably destroyed my room by now.”
    Mirage laughed as she watched him hurry
away. The teacher had made her feel better. Her nerves were no
longer a coiled mess that rested in the soles of her feet. More
like at her knees. Still, it was an improvement.
    She threw her hair back from her face,
settled her purple backpack firmly over her shoulder and entered a
large room that contained two long desks, where two women sat
opposite each other, typing on computers. She approached the one on
her left.
    “ Excuse me?’ she asked
politely. “I need to see the principal, please.”
    The woman paused and glanced over at her
before turning her attention back to the lighted computer screen.
“He’s been waiting for you,” she snapped. Her voice was clipped and
indifferent. She motioned backward over her shoulder to a door in
the corner of the room, beside a hallway that stemmed off it. “You
can leave your things here at the desk.”
    Mirage thanked her and set her stuff down,
shrugging her backpack onto the floor. She looped her small black
and purple purse over her arm and walked past the desks.
    She stepped into the principal’s office
cautiously.
    “ Are you finally here?”
barked the expansive man. Is everyone here
on steroids? Mirage thought vaguely. The
principal was an older, balding man with a clean shaven face. His
features were broad and slightly slack, reminding her of a hairless
ape.
    “ I’m sorry I’m late, sir,”
Mirage said, bowing her head and twisting her arm out in respect.
It was such a normal gesture for her that she thought nothing of
it, but when she straightened she caught the man looking at her
blankly. She sighed and continued, “My mom dropped me off today and
we sort of got lost in the city. It won’t happen again.”
    “ I wouldn’t suppose a
Dark…” he cleared his voice, grimacing. “I mean a Paramortal would know
her way around a city. Prob’ly too sophisticated.”
    Mirage bit her lip and didn’t reply.
    “ I don’t want problems,”
he continued as he took a sheet of paper from one of his drawers.
His voice drawled, like stones scraping slowly against each other.
“I run a tight school.”
    “ I won’t be,” Mirage
assured him, smiling as well as she could. “I’ve never caused any
problems for humans or for Children of the Dusk.”
    He drew his nose up,
another grimace contorting his ugly face. “Children of the Dusk,”
he muttered, half to himself. Mirage decided not to say anything
else as she reached for the schedule he extended to her. He gripped
her wrist tightly. “I mean it, Dark
Child ,” he said, his voice as tight as the
vice he had on her wrist. “I didn’t want you in my school; the
Altruistics stepped in. The first excuse I get to throw you out, I
will.”
    Mirage nodded, fighting to keep her face
impassive as he squeezed her wrist a final time and released her.
She turned around and left hurriedly.
    The contents of her backpack were scattered
across the table while a policeman filed through it.
    “ What are you doing with
my stuff?” she demanded.
    “ Searching your
belongings,” one of the secretaries said. Her notebooks and folders
were scattered pell-mell across one of the desk and a secretary was
thumbing through one of her journals.
    “ That is private,” Mirage
growled.
    “ We are required to search
for weapons,” the secretary replied, sounding clearly bored. A
smile lit her face as she read something written across the
page.
    “ No weapons can be hidden
between pages.” Mirage made her way to the desk and wrenched the
journal from the secretary. The look of outrage was almost comical
and