Chapter 130: Delicious

Chapter 130: Chapter 130: Delicious

Chapter 130: Delicious

The line for senior advisory three’s blood draw gradually shortened.

Before long, only a few students remained ahead of Cyrus Calder.

Faye Larkin was next.

She had been keeping one hand behind her back while waiting. When the station opened, she stepped forward, adjusted the hem of her uniform skirt so it would not catch against the chair, and sat down.

Only then did Cyrus properly notice the person seated across from her.

Vera Sable.

The school nurse lifted her eyes at almost the same moment Cyrus recognized her. Her gaze brushed over him for less than a second before returning to Faye, as if the two of them had never spoken privately about medicine, memory loss, or anything else.

Cyrus stood quietly behind Faye.

He could hear Vera confirming the standard information in an easy professional voice.

"Full name?"

"Faye Larkin."

"Date of birth?"

Faye answered softly.

Vera checked the form, tied the tourniquet, cleaned the inside of Faye’s arm, and drew the blood with quick, practiced movements.

Cyrus felt no particular nervousness about his own turn.

Rare-bloods were hidden inside human society. If ordinary bloodwork could expose them immediately, rare-bloods would never be able to visit hospitals, fill prescriptions, or live among humans without being discovered.

That clearly was not how the world worked.

By the time Cyrus finished thinking through that point, Faye’s tubes had already been filled.

Vera removed the needle, pressed gauze against the puncture, and told her to keep pressure on it for a minute.

Faye stood and moved aside.

Cyrus took the empty chair.

He happened to see Vera labeling two blood tubes with Faye’s information before placing them into the collection tray.

Then he rolled up his sleeve, copying what everyone before him had done.

Vera looked at him.

"Hi. We meet again."

"Good afternoon, Ms. Sable."

Her mouth curved.

"What a boring reaction."

Her voice carried a trace of theatrical disappointment, but her hands never slowed.

Vera wrapped the tourniquet around his upper arm. Before reaching for the antiseptic wipe, her fingertips passed lightly over the pale skin near his inner arm.

The touch lasted only an instant.

"Your skin really is nice," she murmured.

The rest of the thought remained inside her head.

It would be even nicer if she could simply bite him once.

Cyrus ignored the comment completely.

He had already concluded that the school nurse was not entirely normal. Reacting to everything she said would only encourage her.

Vera cleaned the area and prepared the needle.

Cyrus watched without looking away as the point entered his skin.

There was only a brief sting.

Whatever else could be said about Vera, her medical skill was real. Her hand was steady enough that the discomfort disappeared almost immediately.

Blood began flowing into the first tube.

While holding everything in place, Vera asked casually, "Your file says you transferred here. Did you have a school physical last year?"

"No."

Vera nodded.

The first tube filled.

Then the second.

After sealing both, she placed them beside the others.

Cyrus expected her to remove the needle.

Instead, Vera calmly reached for a third tube.

He glanced at it.

The earlier students had only needed two.

A faint question crossed his mind, but he did not stop her. He had never gone through St. Alder’s physical process before, and medical procedures were not something he understood well enough to challenge over one extra vial.

Vera attached the third tube without explanation.

Her expression remained perfectly ordinary.

The schoolwide physical was nearly finished by the time the last students completed their bloodwork.

Since the entire morning schedule had been disrupted, Ms. Hart changed the final class before dismissal into a study period. There was little point forcing everyone through a normal lesson when half the student body had spent hours standing in lines.

Most of senior advisory three settled into their seats and waited for the day to end.

Some worked on homework.

Some whispered.

Others spent more time watching the classroom than their books.

The gossip surrounding Audra Sloane had only become richer over the past few days.

Even students outside their advisory had heard that the famously distant girl had been spending lunch with a quiet boy from her class. The fourth-floor classroom had become part of the rumor. Her sitting across from Cyrus during the physical had only given people more material.

A few students glanced toward Audra, who was reading with her usual composed expression.

Then their attention drifted toward Cyrus.

How had a gloomy, nearly invisible boy managed to become this familiar with her?

What method had he used?

The general conclusion, spoken only in whispers, was that he had ridiculous luck.

Cyrus ignored the looks.

He had already decided that when the time was right, he would give everyone a simple explanation. If people wanted a story, tutoring was safer than letting them invent one.

He was still thinking about how to handle the situation when Owen Keats leaned slightly toward him.

"Cyrus."

Cyrus looked over.

Owen lowered his voice.

"Did you actually do it?"

"Do what?"

"You know what I mean."

"Stop guessing. It is meaningless."

Cyrus sounded more tired than offended.

Owen grinned anyway.

While the two spoke, Cyrus’s gaze moved past him toward Iris Wexley.

As expected, Iris was watching Owen.

Not openly enough to invite comment, but consistently enough that Cyrus caught it without effort.

She really did pay attention to almost everything Owen did.

Cyrus returned his attention to the desk.

Owen, unaware of where Cyrus had looked, seemed to remember another topic.

"Hey, let me ask you something."

"What?"

"Do you think cannibals actually exist?"

"I do not know."

The answer came immediately.

Owen’s interest did not fade.

"I mean hypothetically. Just hypothetically."

Cyrus waited.

"If you were a cannibal, where would you go out to eat?"

The question was stupid enough that Cyrus paused.

Then he understood the structure of the joke.

"An amusement park."

Owen blinked.

"Why?"

"Because children under a certain height get in free."

A laugh escaped from the seat in front of them.

Faye had clearly been listening despite pretending otherwise.

Owen stared at Cyrus for a second, then laughed as well.

"I knew that one would not stump you."

The victory had not gone the way he expected, so he immediately searched for another chance.

"All right, then you probably know where cannibals hate going the most."

Cyrus thought for a few seconds.

Nothing useful came to mind.

He shook his head.

Owen looked pleased.

"The subway."

Cyrus raised his brows.

"Why the subway?"

"Because you are not allowed to eat on the train."

Cyrus went quiet.

He was not sure whether the joke deserved laughter.

Owen caught the expression on his face and lifted his eyebrows with obvious satisfaction.

At last, he had won one.

The brief distraction ended when the dismissal bell rang.

Elsewhere in St. Alder, the same bell echoed faintly through the nurse’s office.

Several girls who had been lingering there during the final study period finally stood.

"See you Monday, Ms. Sable."

"Have a good weekend."

Vera smiled and waved.

"You too. See you Monday."

The girls filed out, still talking among themselves as they headed toward the doors.

Once they were gone, the office became quiet.

Vera leaned back in her chair.

This was exactly why she liked working at a school.

Hospitals had endless charts, calls, departments, and people who arrived already frightened. Schools had minor injuries, gossip, awkward crushes, dramatic friendships, and students who treated every small event like the center of the world.

Spend enough time around that kind of youth and even she felt younger.

Not that she had ever stopped being beautiful.

The thought made Vera smile to herself.

Even with no one around to appreciate it, she lifted a hand and tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear.

Outside, the noise of dismissal drifted through the building.

Doors opened and closed. Students called to friends. The parking lot filled with engines and conversation.

Vera waited.

Then she reached inside her white coat.

A single blood tube came out.

There was no label on it.

She held it up to the light and gently moved it between her fingers.

Dark red liquid shifted inside.

Cyrus’s blood.

If those girls had not come to the nurse’s office after the physical to waste time and gossip, Vera might have already finished it.

She studied the amount.

"Is this a little too little?"

The complaint came out under her breath.

Still, it should be enough.

Vera stood and checked the room. Then, to make certain nobody would interrupt, she shut the office door and secured the windows.

Only after everything was closed did she return to the desk.

She removed the cap from the tube.

Before drinking anything, Vera brought it close and inhaled lightly.

The reaction was immediate.

The same attraction she had noticed from Cyrus’s paper cut returned far more clearly now. Without antiseptic, school air, and other scents covering it, the blood carried something that pulled at instincts she had spent years treating as an old family exaggeration.

Her expression changed.

So the attraction had not been imagined.

Vera lifted the tube.

Then she drank the blood.

The instant it touched her tongue, her body reacted before her thoughts caught up.

Her dark eyes flooded with gold.

The black strands of her hair faded rapidly toward an ash-gray white. Her features remained recognizably hers, but something old and inhuman surfaced beneath them. When her lips parted, her canine teeth had lengthened into delicate points.

Vera gripped the edge of the desk.

She had not expected that.

The taste was extraordinary.

Not merely pleasant, and not simply sweet or rich. It carried a quality that reached straight through the habits of her human life and struck something inherited, something much older.

She had tasted blood before.

Nothing had ever tasted like this.

The shock had been strong enough to drag her body back toward its natural rare-blood appearance without conscious permission.

"So there really can be blood this delicious."

Her voice sounded different in the dim nurse’s office, lower and less playful.

Then her eyes widened slightly.

She had nearly forgotten the reason she wanted the sample in the first place.

"No, wait. I almost forgot."

The taste had nearly pushed the practical part of her mind aside.

Vera steadied herself.

Then she used her ability.

The room remained quiet, but images began flashing through her mind.

Fragments attached to the blood.

Not a complete life. Not clean memories arranged in order. Impressions came instead, sharp scenes surfacing and disappearing too quickly to hold.

Cold.

Snow.

A body that was not human.

A younger shape.

A taller one.

White hair.

A rare-blood lineage Vera recognized from family records and old stories.

Her amusement vanished beneath sudden disbelief.

"A Frostborn?"

Another image surfaced.

The species matched.

"Frostborn!"

Then came another fragment.

Daphne Whitlock.

Vera’s golden eyes widened.

"Ms. Whitlock?"

The visions kept moving.

Rings.

More than one.

The plain ring Cyrus wore was only part of it. Another artifact appeared in the broken flow, and then hints of yet another connection she could not fully identify.

Vera leaned closer to the desk even though there was nothing physical in front of her to examine.

"There are other rings too?"

The questions came out one after another, no attempt made to hide her surprise.

Then the last image slipped away.

Silence returned to the room.

Vera remained still for a few seconds, golden eyes bright beneath her pale hair.

Slowly, the astonishment turned into delight.

A laugh escaped her.

Then another.

"So interesting."

Her smile widened.

"This is really interesting."