Vampire's Kiss by Verónica Wolff Read Free Book Online

plop, and orange liquid splattered the edges of the white bowl. “I’m all right.”
     
    I reminded myself that
never
had I
ever
suspected there was or could ever be anything between me and any Tracer on this island. Especially not Ronan, especially with that whole I-could-hypnotize-you thing he had going on.
     
    In fact, I doubted there could ever be anything between me and
anybody
on this island. I was destined to die a virgin.
     
    Check that. I was destined to die an as-yet-unkissed virgin. How lame was that? With my wide eyes, I’d always feared I resembled a frog, and now it seemed I’d never get a chance to see if a first kiss could turn me into a princess.
     
    As if.
     
    My mood took a nosedive. It didn’t help that a handful of Initiates and their more advanced Guidon counterparts hovered near the table, all leggy, catsuited menace.
     
    I cut my eyes to Emma. To the naked eye, she appeared clueless, sitting there chomping on her shepherd’s pie. But I knew my friend well. Her face was drawn, her mouth tight. Like me, she feared these girls.
     
    And with good reason. Emma was my peer, and thereforemy competitor, but so far we’d managed to avoid conflict. And it was all because she’d pulled out of the Directorate Challenge when she saw her name pitted against mine on last semester’s fight bracket.
     
    The vampires had been so
kind
about it all, assuring us the challenge was voluntary, and so when the girls realized each fight was to the death, several had bowed out. But vampires were never kind, not truly, and I’d known in my heart that it’d been a test. Making the challenge optional was a way to cull the most cutthroat of us from our less savage—our
weaker
—peers.
     
    When Emma bowed out of the competition, she’d called attention to herself.
     
    In some ways, it was the Initiates who were the most pissed. They believed
every
girl needed to pay her dues. Those who hadn’t were already beginning to disappear.
     
    And these girls, hovering near us, were angry. I could feel their wrath, and I could see by the way my friend sat rigidly in her chair, she could, too. Emma wasn’t exactly in trouble. But she was under scrutiny.
     
    “Acari Drew,” Ronan demanded, and the sound of my official name on his tongue startled me back into the present. I realized he and Amanda had been trying to get my attention.
     
    “Yeah…I mean,
yes
,” I corrected. If we were under scrutiny, it was best to remain formal at all times. It wouldn’t do anyone any good if people thought I had allies on this island. “Yes, Tracer Ronan?”
     
    “Now that I’ve returned, I expect we will resume our regular lessons?”
     
    Swim.
My face fell. I hated swimming. Granted, it felt goodthat I’d conquered my fears and learned and yadda yadda yadda, but that was good enough for me. I might not sink like a rock anymore, but I still didn’t
enjoy
swimming, like, as a pastime or anything. I’d been hoping I could move on. “But isn’t it time to expand my horizons? I know how to swim now.”
     
    “Not well enough. Not yet.”
     
    What did
that
mean, and why had it sounded as if he was implying something else? When
would
I be done?
     
    But before I could ask, Ronan stood and nodded an abrupt good-bye to the table. And then he simply turned and left.
     
    I said, “Well that’s that, then.” If the Initiates hadn’t been nearby, I’d have stuck my tongue out at his back.
     
    “He’s right.” Amanda plucked her messenger bag from the floor and slung it over her shoulder. “You can swim, and bully for you. But it’s not good enough to keep you alive, and you know it. You have to go the farthest. Hold your breath the longest. Be the strongest and the most fearless.” She scooted her chair back and stood. “Now you have other pressing matters.” She gave Emma a weighty look, apparently as aware as we were of the vultures hovering behind us, and I thought I saw sympathy flicker in her eyes. “Later