Chapter 343: Reunion
What followed was the most fun I'd ever had in a class. Ever. Maryanne was nothing if not blunt, to the point and full of snarky sarcastic goodness, a fact which colored her teaching to the extent she had the entire student body in the palm of her well-manicured hands.
I was still giggling as I gathered my things to leave when the door swung open, not really wanting to go. For the first time all day I was one of the other students, with no one staring or whispering or treating me like I was different. Maryanne actually waved at me on the way out, but not to single me out. Just to say goodbye.
Awesome.
The only tarnish to the moment was the matching grins from the Dumont brothers as they brushed their way past me, but it was easy enough to forget about them after the great class I'd just sat through.
Not so much for Charlotte, though. She snarled in her Eastern-European language at them, body tense and anger radiating. I found myself grinning and poking her in the side to which she stared at me like I'd done something she'd never for a moment thought anyone would do.
"Helps to think about how they'd look naked," I grinned. Blushed. "Not like that," I corrected. "But, you know. In class. Humiliated." Okay, this was going downhill in a hurry as Charlotte glared at me. "How about dead? Does imagining them dead work for you?"
Now she was smiling, an evil expression. Okay then. Good to know what turned her crank.
I was rather enjoying my new "don't give a flying crap" attitude when someone slid up beside me. My grin was still in place when I turned my head and met Mia's ice blue ones. It took a lot to resist hugging her, I was in that good of a mood.
She smiled back, slow and hesitant, before taking my hand and squeezing it gently. "Hi, Syd."
I squeezed back, but let her go when she pulled away. "Hey, Mia."
Black eyeliner crumpled around the edges of her brilliant eyes as her smile widened. "I've missed you," she whispered before laughing a little. But there was a brittle undercurrent to her amusement reminding me of Alison when my former bestie tried to cover up when something was wrong.
"I missed you too." I really did. She was one of the only friends I'd ever had and somehow being enemies, or at least our covens not really getting along if you could call generations of animosity that, felt like all kinds of wrong. Especially after I'd reconnected with Rupe and Simon just an hour or so ago. "Love you're back to the Goth."
She flushed slightly under her pale makeup, touching her long, black hair. "I feel most comfortable in it," she said. "The most like me. Does that make sense?"
I didn't bother answering, because it kind of did, but not in a good way. I always thought she was hiding the real her behind all that makeup and stainless steel.
"How are things?" I didn't want to prod, but she was just standing there, looking at me as if she expected me to keep the conversation going and it was the only thing I could think of to ask that hopefully wouldn't set her off. Or me. Or make her cry.
Jeeze, talk about complicated.
She shrugged a little, looking away. "Wonderful," she said, that edge still in her voice. "The coven is really coming together under my leadership. I've never been so happy, surrounded by my family."
Um. Okay. Sounded like something she'd come up with to tell the press, not a casual answer to an equally casual question.
"Good to hear," I said, not wanting to dig any deeper. It really wasn't my business. In fact, anything I said outside of the usual could be seen as interfering with another coven.
I was really starting to hate politics.
"Yes," she said too brightly as she turned to meet my eyes again, a wall of falseness between us, "I'm thrilled."
She was totally full of it and I know she knew I saw right through her. But neither of us was in a place to talk about it further and I was pretty sure from the hint of pleading in her expression she wanted me to just nod and smile.
So I did. And her soft sigh of relief told me I'd read her correctly. Whatever was really happening with the Dumont clan, Mia had to handle it. I didn't have the jurisdiction to interfere. Meaning, no matter how much I cared about Mia, I had to let it go.
I needed to change the subject. The slowly growing discomfort of our silence stretched out so thin I was going to run away if I didn't come up with something to say. When I finally latched onto a bit of news to tell her, I was so relieved I practically pounced on her.
"Blood's here!" My words squealed out of me, far more excited than I intended. But Mia took the offering and gushed as much as I did.
"He is?" She giggled behind her hands, blue eyes sparkling. "You saw him?"
I nodded quickly. "He doesn't look anything like himself," I said. "Buzz cut, no makeup. But he's the same old Blood." I found myself really laughing. She was the first person who knew him like I did who I could talk to about it, and that fact cut the last of the tension. "Did you know his real name is Rupert?"
Mia giggled again. "I know," she rolled her eyes, black lipsticked lips peeling back from her very white teeth as she smiled. "Silly, right? But he was Blood when I met him."
Mia had this thing, adapting herself like a chameleon to the people she cared about. I wondered why she was Goth again, considering the rest of her family favored the overdone model look and, for the first time, considered maybe I was wrong about her and it wasn't a way for her to hide after all. If she had enough of a backbone to revert to who she really thought she was, maybe there was hope for her as leader yet.
"I should go to class." She paused, hands clutched together, pressed to her chest. "I just wanted to say hello. And offer a warning."
My entire body tensed. "Warning?" Was she threatening me?
"Stay away from Jean Marc and Kristophe," she said.
Charlotte snarled beside me. I'd forgotten she was there, but, as my own anger surged, I felt hers push against me.
"Thanks for that," I said, feeling the iciness of my words strike Mia like blows. "You can be certain I will-if they offer the same courtesy."
Mia's eyes flew wide, one hand covering her mouth as her body shuddered. "No, Syd," she whispered. "I'm sorry. That came out all wrong." Her hand dropped, shoulders drooping and guilt replaced my flash of rage. "I just meant... they are holding a grudge against you." Her eyes rimmed with moisture, lips quivering as she fought emotions. "I've ordered them to stay away from you, but I don't trust them to obey."
So that's what being a heel felt like. I reached out to touch her, to apologize, but Mia was already pulling away. "Please be careful," she said. "I can't control them."
I stood there and watched her go, regret at war with frustration. I wished I could fix things between our families, but at the same time I struggled with the fact my friend really wasn't strong enough to lead her coven.
And knew it.
I turned to Charlotte with a frown. "Keep an eye on them," I said, both of us knowing who "they" were. "But stay clear. Okay?"
Her teeth ground together with a squeaking sound. "As you wish. But."
I nodded. "But. If they try anything, we don't hesitate to kill them both."
Charlotte's answering smile could have lit up a room.
***
