Cassie took a breath, absorbing the news. Not drugs, then. Not poison. Maybe something that could help her …
‘So I can do this instead? Inject that stuff instead of feeding from other people?’ Her eyes lit as relief swept through her.
‘No,’ Sir Alric said abruptly. ‘This is a one-off. What you saw in the case is all that exists. There is no question of you having it all. You will learn to feed. Like the rest of us.’
The despair returned in double measure, her brief new hopes crushed.
Taking advantage of her stunned silence, Sir Alric stood up. ‘You cannot starve the spirit that is inside you, Cassandra. Without the Tears, you would soon have reached a crisis point. When the desire to feed finally got too much, you would have lost control and attacked someone. That person could have been hurt, or even killed. And it could have been anyone.’ He paused for chilling effect. ‘Including Isabella and Jake.’
‘I didn’t know,’ she gasped. ‘I didn’t realise.’
‘Of course not,’ replied Sir Alric, his voice softening slightly. ‘That is what the Academy is for, Cassandra. It is my duty to teach each new member of the Few how to feed safely, so they are no danger to themselves or those around them. When the time comes, I will do the same with you. But for now, the injection has given you some breathing space. I think you needed that. So I’ll ask again: how do you feel?’
‘Better,’ Cassie admitted. ‘Much better. Can I go now?’
‘Of course. Your friends will be worried about you.’
‘They’re just outside. They said they’d wait.’
Sir Alric smiled wryly. ‘I’m afraid you’ve been asleep for most of the morning, Cassandra. Your friends left more than two hours ago. I explained to them that you needed to rest, although Mr Johnson took quite some persuading. They’ll be down in their rooms now, I imagine. You have a great deal to discuss with them.’ He paused. ‘Especially Miss Caruso.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Cassie, her voice tightening.
‘Cassandra, your stamina astonishes me. You fought the hunger for far longer than I could have expected. But now your luxury of choice is at an end. Except, perhaps, in one respect.’
‘Oh?’ Cassie raised her head.
‘To learn how to feed safely, you will need a partner – a life-source, if you will. That is why all students who are members of the Few are assigned a roommate who is is not. So you have a decision to make, Cassandra. You may move in with a new roommate, one to whom you have less … emotional attachment.’ Sir Alric lifted his hands in an elegant shrug. ‘Or—’
‘Don’t say it,’ she blurted.
‘I must, Cassandra, I’m sorry. You must learn to feed on Isabella.’
CHAPTER THREE
The atrium was spectacular. It couldn’t be more different from the Academy in Paris, but this Upper East Side building had its own breathtaking architectural beauty, all sleek glass and marble. The building’s height was dizzying, seeming to turn and sway as Cassie stared up to the glass roof high above her. The sky beyond was still such a gleaming blue it made her feel faintly giddy. The clean, modern lines of the walls were softened only by the pool and foliage in the centre of the atrium.
Cassie grinned, pausing to dip her fingers into the cool water and stare up at the figure in the middle of the fountain. ‘Hello, old girl,’ she whispered to the bronze sculpture. ‘Haven’t got rid of that bloody swan yet, have we?’
Leda, of course, didn’t react, still reaching dreamily for the savage god-swan above her. At her bronze feet, water trickled out of the stone. Ferns and trailing plants grew in a wild profusion, twining round rocks and spilling on to the polished marble. And among them, of course, were the orchids. Cassie touched one black petal with a fingertip. Sir Alric’s little pets, Ranjit had called them. That figured. Sir Alric liked the beautiful, the rare, the dark …
Cassie was surprised how pleased she was to see all the other familiar statues. In the winter light that flooded in from Fifth Avenue, they gleamed alabaster white from their places around the edge of the vast central hall: Achilles and Hector; Narcissus; Diana and Actaeon. And the one that always chilled her spine: Cassandra and Clytaemnestra. Cassandra, the girl who nobody believed. Cassandra, who entered a house that smelled of blood …
With a shudder, Cassie remembered huddling beneath that statue, waiting to feel the bite of Keiko’s knife. Yet here she was now: in many ways the same as the homicidal girl who had helped Katerina murder Jake’s sister. Now she too was a freak – maybe even a monster, like Keiko. She wasn’t feeble Cassandra any more, the helpless little victim. She was closer to the bloodthirsty Clytaemnestra. One of the Few.
And what did that mean, to be one of the Few? Cassie gazed at her reflection in the water. Back at the airport, Isabella had suggested that she had grown more beautiful. Cassie hadn’t noticed any change, but now she looked closely, perhaps her cheekbones were slightly more defined, her yellow-green eyes more striking.
But she knew that there was more to the Few than just pretty faces. She had seen their superhuman strength and fighting skills at first hand. And now that the constant hunger to feed wasn’t drowning out all other sensations, she could feel some of that strength in her own muscles, making her feel relaxed and confident in a way she hadn’t before.
Beauty, strength and confidence – a heady combination. But all dependent on the feeding. Draining the life-force from some innocent person.