As she wound through a stand of stalagmites, she heard Jules"s voice coming from up ahead. Rounding a cone-shaped rock, she spotted him standing next to one of the great columns that supported the roof of the grotto, looking up toward the ceiling.
"Praise the Founders I found you," she said as she hurried toward him.
"Hi there, Lili," he said, turning to greet her. "I was just talking to my cousin," he explained, pointing upward.
Lilith raised her eyes and found herself staring up at Xander Orlock. Jules"s cousin was clinging to the side of the column like a lizard on a garden wall.
"Uh, yeah. Hi, Exo," Lilith said, .ghting back a grimace as she looked into his face.
Unlike the majority of students who attended Ruthven"s and Bathory, Xander did not use any kind of arti.cial tanning agent on his skin. His complexion was so pale it was actually translucent, giving him a slightly bluish cast. With his large, protruding eyes, unnaturally long .ngers, and pointed ear tips, Lilith found it dif.cult to believe that Xander was in any way related to Jules.
"h.e.l.lo, Lilith," Xander said with just the faintest lisp. Due to inbreeding on his father"s side of the family, he had a hard time fully retracting his fangs, which sometimes affected his speech.
"Remember that newbie b.i.t.c.h that nearly got us killed the other night?" Lilith asked Jules.
"The one from the park?" Jules frowned. "What about her?"
"She"s here in the grotto!"
"There"s a newbie at Bathory?" Xander asked. "How is that even possible?"
"I don"t know," Lilith growled in disgust. "Maybe she"s not a New Blood after all. Either that or Nerezza"s hard up for tuition fees."
"Are you sure it"s her?" Jules asked.
"Yes, I"m sure! I"ll never forget her face for as long as I live!" Lilith snapped. "She was sitting right next to me during a.s.sembly. I would have killed her right then if the headmistress wasn"t there!"
"Look, Lilith, there"s no point doing something rash," Jules said. "You know that schools are vendetta-free zones. If you try and do anything within a mile of here, you won"t just be expelled, they"ll haul you before the Synod and try you as a criminal."
"I"ve never seen an actual New Blood before." Xander grinned. "Maybe I"ll hang around and check her out!"
"Shut up, Exo!" Lilith snapped, no longer able to hide her irritation with his presence. "No one"s talking to you!"
"Okay. I know when I"m not wanted." Xander sighed. He quickly reversed his grip on the column"s surface and scurried back into the shadows.
"Ugh! I don"t know why you let that spod hang around you," Lilith said with a shudder.
"I admit, he"s kinda spoddy, but he"s an okay guy, and it"s not like he gets much of a chance to meet hot chicks on his own." Jules laughed. "Exo"s been hanging around me since we were little. You didn"t have to yell at him."
"I could care less about Exo getting a date," Lilith said peevishly. "I want to know what that newbie b.i.t.c.h is trying to pull. First she shows up at the park just before the Van Helsings attack, and now she"s here! I don"t like her, Jules. There"s something not right about her. I sensed it the moment I laid eyes on her. What if she"s a stalking horse in cahoots with the Van Helsings?"
"Lilith, the Van Helsings were trying to kill her too." Jules sighed. "I was there, remember? In fact, if she hadn"t taken out that Van Helsing, you"d probably be as dead as Tanith right now."
"Why are you sticking up for her?" Lilith snapped, her eyes .ashing blue .re. "Are you saying you wish I was dead?"
"That"s biting below the belt, Lilith," Jules replied, stung by her response. "I"m just saying that maybe you should take it easy. I don"t want to see you get hurt. . . ."
"Oh, now you think I"m no match for her, is that it?" Lilith said tartly.
"All right, you two lovebirds, break it up," Coach Knorrig said as she walked up to them. "Todd, hit the locker room and get dressed for shapeshifting. And I want you, Mr. Heartthrob"-she pointed a . nger at Jules-"to get your a.s.s back to Ruthven"s. p.r.o.nto."
"Yes, coach," Jules said, secretly relieved to escape.
As he jogged off in the direction of the tunnel that connected the grotto with Ruthven"s School for Boys, Jules tried not to think about the weird look in Lilith"s eyes as she talked about the New Blood. He knew how obsessive Lilith could be. He hoped she would get over whatever was eating her and start acting like she used to. That"s all any of them wanted, really: for things to go back to how they were before the park. Certainly that wasn"t too much to ask?
Cally stood in a large clearing in the center of the grotto, staring up at the towering columns of living rock that supported the cathedral-like roof. "I never knew there were caves like this under Manhattan," she whispered in amazement.
"There aren"t."
She turned around to .nd the girl she"d seen earlier, the one with the braided pigtails, standing behind her-except now there were two of her, one wearing red ribbons in her hair, the other wearing blue. Cally blinked to make sure her eyes weren"t playing tricks on her, but the duplicate didn"t disappear.
"They mean none of this is real," a girl with turquoise beads in her hair said, "at least not the way you think it is. This isn"t a natural cave-it was carved out of the rock by hand. Everything you see here was arti. cially created during the mid-nineteenth century."
"People actually built this?" Cally said in disbelief. She looked around again, and this time she noticed there was indeed a pattern to the stalagmites and stalact.i.tes in their sizes, shapes, and positions. The same was true of the huge columns, which she could now see were exactly equidistant from one another.
"Sort of. They used undead labor. It took over thirty years for them to dig this place out, working twenty-four/seven. It was designed so we could learn to . y down here."
"Pretty d.a.m.n impressive for a gym," Cally said with a chuckle. "Thanks for the info. My name"s Cally Monture, by the way."
"I"m Melinda Mauvais. And the tag team over there"s Bella and Bette Maledetto."
"I"m Bella," said the twin with the blue ribbons.
"Bette," said the twin with the red ribbons.
"Nice to meet you all."
"I like your bangles," Melinda said. "Where"d you get them?"
"These?" Cally held up her left arm and rattled the bangles on her wrist. "My grandmother gave them to me before she, uh, before she left for Europe."
"Have we met before somewhere?" Melinda asked, c.o.c.king her head to one side as she eyed the new girl"s haircut. "Do you hang out at the Belfry?"
"Afraid not," Cally replied with a shake of her head. "Is that some kind of club?"
"Over on West Twentieth."
"Oh," Cally said, "I normally do my clubbing far-ther downtown-you know, SoHo, Tribeca. . . ."
"Maybe that"s where I"ve seen you," Melinda decided. "I"m down around SoHo and Tribeca quite a bit."
"Melly!"
Melinda turned to see Lilith bearing down on her.
Before she could respond, Lilith grabbed her by the upper arm and steered her away from Cally.
"What do you think you"re doing?" Lilith hissed at her friend.
"Just talking to the new girl, that"s all," Melinda replied, bewildered by Lilith"s anger. "What"s up with you?"
"Don"t you know who that is?"
"She said her name was Cally something. . . ."
"She"s the New Blood from the park and she"s the reason Tanith"s dead!" Lilith snapped.
Melinda frowned. "I thought she looked familiar! But what"s a New Blood doing here?"
"I don"t know. But what I do know is I don"t want you talking to her. You know, Melly," Lilith growled, "I"ve overlooked the fact that you"re friendly with those half-blood Maledettos, even though you know their father is my father"s sworn enemy. But being friendly with a New Blood-especially this one-is another thing altogether! I would hate to have something like this get in the way of our friendship. Understood?"
"Perfectly." Melinda winced as Lilith"s grip tightened on her arm.
"Who"s the nutcase?" Cally asked, pointing to the girl with the long hair who had just dragged Melinda away.
"That"s Lilith Todd," Bella responded.
"Todd? As in Victor Todd?" Cally gasped, her eyes widening in surprise.
"He"s her father," Bette said.
"Okay, ladies! Enough chitchat!" Knorrig shouted, clapping her hands together. "I want those of you who are supposed to be down here in that locker room and dressed for cla.s.s in .ve minutes! That means you, Mauvais! And you too, Maledetto! No, not you, the other Maledetto! Don"t make me tell you a third time, Todd! I mean it! The rest of you, get back to whatever cla.s.s you"re supposed to be in! Just because we had an a.s.sembly this evening doesn"t mean you"re free to blow off . rst period!"
"Excuse me," Cally said, looking down at her cla.s.s schedule, then back up at the woman dressed in gray sweats and a pair of black Chuck Taylors, a whistle dangling around her neck and a Yankees cap pulled down low on her head. "Are you Coach, uh, Knorrig?"
"I"m not your fairy G.o.dmother, that"s for G.o.dd.a.m.n sure. Yeah, I"m Knorrig. You must be the new girl."
"Yes, ma"am. I"m Cally Monture."
"Come with me, Monture," Knorrig said, leading her out of the cavern and back down the tunnel to her of.ce. "I"ve got some shifting wear for you."
"Shifting wear?" Cally"s belly . uttered like a curtain in a strong breeze. "Is this a shapeshifting cla.s.s?"
"Of course," Coach Knorrig replied, shooting the new student a curious look as she opened a cabinet and pulled out a short-sleeved red terry-cloth one-piece with a zip-up front. "What the h.e.l.l else do you think we"d be teaching down here? Square dancing? Yoga? Here you go, Monture. Wear it in good health."
"Are you serious?" Cally gasped, holding the garment up by its sleeves.
"I"ll admit it"s not the s.e.xiest thing on the face of the earth, but it has been charmed to change along with you so you"re not running around naked out there. And that"s what matters, as far as I"m concerned. Now go get changed. Oh-and make sure you take those things off your wrist," Coach Knorrig said, nodding at the bangles Cally was wearing. "You don"t want them getting broken when you change."
As Cally left Coach Knorrig"s of.ce, the door to the locker room across the hall opened and a group of students emerged, Lilith Todd at their head. As they pa.s.sed each other in the hallway, Lilith stared at Cally, her eyes shining like gun barrels, then she jostled the new girl hard enough to make her drop the gym suit. When Cally stooped to pick up her shifting wear, the redhead who had challenged her earlier stepped on her hand, pinching her . ngers.
"Owww!" Cally yelped, yanking her hand out from under the other girl"s foot. "Watch it!"
"Oopsie!" the redhead said, .ashing Cally a snide smile. "I"m sooo sorry! I didn"t see you there, what with you being beneath me."
The other girls burst into derisive laughter. As the group made their way down the corridor, Lilith glanced back over her shoulder with a look as black and cold as ice on a highway.
Changing into the gym suit, Cally shook her head in mock dismay: barely an hour into her .rst day at school and she was already on the s.h.i.t list of the daugh-ter of one of the most well-known Old Bloods in the world.
As she hurried from the locker room to join the rest of the cla.s.s, she told herself that focusing on the negative wasn"t going to get her anywhere she wanted to be. Sure, Lilith was down on her. Cally couldn"t really blame her, after what happened at the park. But that didn"t mean things had to stay ugly between them.
The way she saw it, she had two choices: either she could put up with their b.i.t.c.hiness and bullying like a dog taking a beating, or she could take the initia-tive and try to work things out between her and Lilith. Still, it was dif.cult to feel poised and self-con. dent while her gym suit was working its way up her b.u.t.t crack.
"Gather round, girls," Coach Knorrig said, motion-ing with her clipboard. "Tonight we"re going for speed." She held up a stopwatch. "Being able to shapeshift quickly while you"re on the move is a must. If you"re being chased by Van Helsings, for example, you can"t waste valuable time going from one form to another. Your transformation should be as easy as tossing on a coat. Having to come to a dead stop in order to shape-shift will leave you exactly that-dead. Who wants to go . rst?"
The students glanced around uneasily. No one raised a hand.
"Okay, if that"s how it"s going to be, then I guess you"re it, Mauvais. The rest of you, give her some room."
Melinda stepped forward, frowning as she . ngered the beads woven through her hair. "Do I have to, Coach?"
"Did I not tell you not to wear your hair braided like that when we have shifting? It"s not my fault you don"t pay attention, Mauvais."
Melinda sighed in resignation while the other girls in the cla.s.s formed a semicircle around her.
"You ready?" Coach Knorrig asked, her thumb on the stopwatch"s timer b.u.t.ton. Melinda nodded. "Go!"
Melinda"s eyes rolled back in her head, revealing their whites, as her body began to spasm like a landed .sh. There was a wet popping sound as the bones in her body dislocated themselves and began to slide about underneath her skin. The palms of her hands darkened and swelled into pads, and retractable claws sprang from her nail beds. As Melinda threw her head back and opened her mouth as far as it could go, huge yellow fangs slid from her gums. Her ears grew longer and pointier as they migrated to the top of her head, and the roar of a big cat sprang from her throat.
There was a sound like someone hitting a bag of half-rotten oranges with a baseball bat and her nose and brow ridge abruptly bowed outward, as if something was trying to punch its way out from inside her skull. She pulled her lips back in a snarl as the bridge of her nose elongated and widened itself. Whiskers shot out from her muzzle. At the same time the hair atop her head writhed with a life of its own, sending the beadwork shooting out in every direction. Her hair spread down her spine and across her shoulders like a fast-growing vine until it covered her entire body. Finally, no longer able to stand upright, she dropped onto all fours, a deep, guttural sound halfway between a purr and a growl rumbling in her transformed chest.
"And-time!" Coach Knorrig called as she hit the stop b.u.t.ton. "Twenty-eight point . ve-seven seconds." She pulled a ballpoint pen out from behind her ear and jotted down something on the clipboard.
What crouched in the center of the semicircle was not exactly a panther but more of an approximation of such a beast. At .rst glance it looked like a jungle cat, but as Cally looked closer, she could see that the snarling animal not only lacked a tail, it also had thumbs in place of dewclaws.
"Was my time good?" Melinda asked hopefully when she"d morphed back into her humanoid form.
"Not bad, but you need to do better," Coach Knorrig replied. "Now pick up the beads."
"It"s going to take me forever to get these things woven back in!" Melinda moaned as she knelt to pick up the scattered pieces of turquoise.
"Cry me a river, Mauvais," Coach Knorrig growled. "Maybe next time you"ll listen to me when I tell you not to do something. Okay, Monture: you"re next."
"Huh? Who? Me?" Cally gazed around, a confused look on her face.
"Yes, you. Go take your place."
"I-I don"t know if I can do this, Coach-"
"Of course you can!" The coach scowled. "It"s just a matter of wanting it."
"No, that"s not what I meant," Cally replied, her cheeks turning red. "It"s just that at my old school, shifting was a fourth-year subject."
"Really? That late?" Coach Knorrig frowned. "Where did you go to school?" she asked, .ipping through the papers on her clipboard. "Academie Cauchemar in Paris? The Glamis School in Scotland?"
"Varney Hall."
"What!" Coach Knorrig nearly dropped her clip-board. "The headmistress didn"t say you were a New Blood." She motioned to Cally, who took a cautious step forward. "Look, kid, this is an intermediary cla.s.s. All the other girls pa.s.sed introductory shapeshifting last year. Until I talk with the headmistress and . nd out what is going on here, I don"t want you working out with the rest of the cla.s.s. The last thing you need is to end up crippled for life because you can"t turn your shank back into a shin or retract your . nger bones properly-a.s.suming you"re capable of shapeshifting in the . rst place."