richellemead-vampireacademy01-vampireacademy-110824015328-phpapp02

Eight
BURNING WITH ANGER, I FOUGHT harder and better that day than I ever had in any of my
classes with the novices. So much so that I finally won my first hand-to-hand pairing,
annihilating Shane Reyes. We'd always gotten along, and he took it good-naturedly, applauding
my performance, as did a few others.
"The comeback's starting," observed Mason after class.
"So it would seem.”
He gently touched my arm. "How's Lissa?”
It didn't surprise me that he knew. Gossip spread so fast around here sometimes, it felt like
everyone had a psychic bond.
"Okay. Coping." I didn't elaborate on how I knew that. Our bond was a secret from the student
body. "Mase, you claim to know about Mia. You think she might have done that?”
"Whoa, hey, I'm not an expert on her or anything. But honestly? No. Mia won't even do
dissections in biology. I can't picture her actually catching a fox, let alone, um, killing it.”
"Any friends who might do it for her?”
He shook his head. "Not really. They're not really the types to get their hands dirty either. But
who knows?”
Lissa was still shaken when I met her for lunch later, her mood made worse when Natalie and
her crew wouldn't shut up about the fox. Apparently Natalie had overcome her disgust enough
to enjoy the attention the spectacle had brought her. Maybe she wasn't as content with her
fringe status as I'd always believed.