Anna jerks her head to the side. “Come on. I’ll show you the library. That’s where Cher and Taline landed if they weren’t in their bedroom or in class.”
My fingers brush over Cher’s name. When I find Taline’s scribble, I sweep my fingers across that, too. My promise is silent and small, but it is no less real.
I will find the vampires who took them and make the creatures pay.
17
ZAGIRI’S EXPERIMENT
The library should really be called a study. It has a leather sofa and a recliner in the corner with a tall, dusty bookshelf along the far wall. I half-expect an old man with a pipe to come in to greet us once Anna leads me into the space.
Anna gestures with her hands while she speaks. “Cher and Taline were lab partners, plus roommates, plus pre-med together in the same year with a lot of the same classes, so those two spent most of their time together. Never fought. Never bickered.” Anna shakes her head. “I still can’t believe they’ve been taken. This is supposed to be one of the best schools around. That something like that can happen here?” Anna chews on her pink painted fingernail.
I turn to Anna with a glimmer of compassion. I hate that being cautious in the traditional sense really doesn’t do much to help people escape a vampire if there is one nearby. If a vampire is hungry enough, they won’t even wait for cover; they’ll just attack and discard the body wherever.
I glance at the trappings of the study. There is a desk in the corner next to a tall bookshelf with the kinds of old books that usually only Cher read growing up. It was a bit of a shock to find a romance novel in her things.
I move over to the collection, sizing up the dust accumulating on the shelves. “These don’t look like they get a lot of mileage,” I comment, changing the subject.
Anna offers up a glib laugh. “No. Most of us use e-readers. And take a look at those titles. Not even the literature majors are being assigned those.”
I haven’t heard of most of these. There’s even a collection of encyclopedias, which I’m guessing reached obsoletion before most of these girls living here were born.
The only thing that snags my gaze is the interruption of the dust on the top shelf. Every other shelf has an even layer, but on the top, there is one book that has been moved and put back semi-recently, disturbing the dust in a neat line.
I reach for the book, but before I can touch it, the walls begin quaking.
Great.
The spell to conjure up any spirits lurking nearby has started. I should have taken Anna outside instead of poking around the house. I guess I am rusty.
Anna lets out a whimper and runs to the doorway, posting her body there in case the ceiling falls in on her head. Smart for earthquakes, not terribly helpful for a conjuring. She motions for me to join her.
“Go on outside,” I tell her. “I’ll get Avet and Sev-Dianna.”
Rusty, indeed. I can’t even remember Sevan’s fake name.
Anna bolts outside, and two other girls come out of the woodwork to race outdoors on her heels.
At least we have the house to ourselves now.
I make to run out of the study to help the others, but a cold prickling creeps down my spine.
That’s not supposed to happen down here. Avet and Sevan are conjuring the spirit of the dead sorority girl upstairs in Zagiri’s bedroom.
But when I turn around, I find the translucent form of a girl I have never met.
Dressed in baggy jeans and a tank top, the vision of the ghost girl is like a bad TV, her form skipping in and out of focus because of the static that comes from crossing whole planes of existence.
“Zagiri or Taline?” I ask, unsure which girl it is I am addressing. I grimace when I remember ghosts can’t talk. “Zagiri?” I guess, fighting with my fright. It’s been a solid three years since I have come face to face with a spirit caught between this life and the next.
The girl nods, pointing with purpose to the book I noticed on the shelf. It’s the only one that’s been used recently.
I reach for it, my hand shaking. “Is this yours?”
It’s important not to speak in the past, because the spirits who are stuck can get real surly real quick if you remind them that they are no more.
Zagiri nods, her finger still pointing to the book.