Blood Oath (A Gabby Girls Adventure Novel, Book Two) (2 page)

Zora looked up from reading, her lightly tanned face pinched with tiredness as she snatched off her black wire-rimmed glasses. "You all may not want to study, but I do. There is no way that I’m going over there unprepared. If you just focus on the fact that the other
Neophyte Circles
probably have already mastered what we needed to learn, like, months ago, then you would just settle down and study."

Rosalinda smiled smugly. "Not only
girls
."

I looked over at her suspiciously. "What are you yapping about now, Princess Rosalinda?"

Rosalinda slammed her antique silver brush onto the dresser. "You know how I hate it when you call me that. Drop the ‘Princess,’ or I’ll keep what I know to myself."

Jessica shot me a "you better apologize because I want to know, like, real bad" look.

I rolled off the window seat and walked over to Jessica quickly. "Okay, relax, will you? Now spill the info," I responded grudgingly.

In typical fashion, Rosalinda got up, giving them her best runway walk over to her ton of brown-and-gold monogrammed designer luggage stacked in the middle of the room like a pyramid. She looked at her well-manicured nails importantly. "Well…" She looked up at us with a twinkle in her light green eyes. "I kind of overheard that Transcendence Hall has both girls and boys," she squealed excitedly.

My hand shot out, preventing Jessica from toppling off her bed in a heap. "Boys?" Jessica’s voice squeaked. "I mean, are you sure?"

Rosalinda bounced up and down excitedly like she had won some sort of beauty contest. "Yes, I’m sure,
chicos
—boys! Aren’t you so excited?"

Jessica’s pale face flushed as she looked at her like she was crazy. "Duh, do I look excited, Rosalinda?" She tugged at her duck-printed pajama top and bottom self-consciously.

We all knew how self-conscious she was about being a little chubby, a problem only heightened by her stepmonster’s constant guilt trip about dropping weight via nasty weekly text messages. Jessica didn’t need this added pressure of being around hormonal guys looking for stick-thin
Neophyte Circle
perfection.

I gave her a playful push. "Jess, there’s nothing wrong with you. Curvy is way in," I replied playfully.

She looked at me incredulously. "Are you serious? Look at you!"

My eyes widened as I dug into my treasure trove of candy and popped a piece in my mouth. "What are you talking about?"

"You are ‘perfect’"—she did air quotes—"according to society; you’re ridiculously fit, you’re the perfect height, you’re gorgeous, and you’ve got rocking curly brown hair."

I choked on my candy. I didn’t view myself like that. In fact, I always thought of myself as average and a little tomboyish. Tall, not so much, I was shorter than everyone in the room. Slim, yes, but that’s because I was a classically trained dancer. Rocking curly brown hair, uh, my unruly shoulder-length hair was the bane of my existence. That’s why I always wore it in two dog-eared ponytails. Out of curiosity, I walked over to the mirror and actually stuck out my tongue at my reflection as I examined my face. Almond-shaped hazel eyes, check. Pouty heart-shaped lips, check. A light sprinkling of freckles over my nose, yuck, but check, and tonight I actually didn’t see any dreaded pimples on my cappuccino-colored skin, double check.

I looked back at her quirkily as I chomped on another piece of candy. "Uh, I’m average, my friend."

Rosalinda chortled, "As much as I would love to agree with you, average you are not."

Zora looked up from reading. "And you have a crazy fast metabolism. I’ve never seen anyone eat as much candy as you do and not gain a pound. It’s borderline freaky."

"Exactly, plus"—Jessica’s bright blue eyes were bright with unshed tears—"I don’t know how many times I’ve told you that I’m not curvy, I’m chubby. There’s a difference. Curvy is hot, and chubby is not, but thanks for trying to make me feel better about the whole situation." She smiled at me wobbly. "It’s just that I’m not prepared for all the drama of being around
Neophyte Ares
. Besides, we’re going to training to be kick-butt Warriors, not be distracted by the stupid pressure of who’s the cutest
Neophyte Circle
around," Jessica added stubbornly.

Rosalinda flicked her black hair over her shoulders. "Which I’m sure that I will be…the hottest
Neophyte Circle
ever." I shot her a dirty look. "Really? You’re not helping here."

Trying to break the tension in the air, I snickered. "Um, now you’re acting crazy, Jess. I mean, where else are they going to train hot
Neophyte Ares
Warriors? Besides, there’s nothing wrong with a little teen
Ares
eye candy." I wagged my eyebrows playfully.

Jessica shot me a very dirty look. "As always, I can count on you for adding crazy to an already crazy situation," she responded sarcastically.

I held up my hands. "Hey, I’m just stating the facts. So, don’t hate the messenger."

Zora sat up quickly, her glasses slipping to the tip of her nose. "Teen
Ares
Warriors? Now that could get very interesting."

Even geeky Zora was interested in the whole teen
Ares
Warriors scene, which made Jessica grumble louder. Zora smirked and buried her head back in the binder and continued reading.

I gave Rosalinda a distrustful stare. "Hey, hold on a minute. Why should we even believe you? They’re keeping almost everything about the academy so secret squirrel."

Rosalinda spun around dreamily with her nightshirt twirling like a ball gown. "You don’t have to believe me, but it’s the truth, and I’m so glad that I packed all my pretty clothes."

Zora snorted loudly as she closed her binder with a loud snap before snuggling down in her bed. "Did you forget that we are going to the academy to learn how to use our gifts?"

"And to protect ourselves from getting killed by evil Hannah," Jessica snapped quickly.

I snorted loudly. "Which is, like, the most important thing, since we practically have a bull’s-eye on our backs screaming,
‘Shoot here!’
"

Rosalinda pouted. "You’re all way too serious. Just take it for what it is, the possibility of hot boys making an otherwise lame experience fun. Case closed."

All of their mouths dropped open in shock because she totally didn’t get the seriousness of it all.

There was a soft knock on the door before it swung open and Thallo quickly stepped in, closing the door behind her with a soft click. She looked majorly distracted and a tad bit worried, but as usual, not one strand of her shoulder-length shiny auburn hair was out of place. It still amazed me how young she was, only eighteen and already an up-and-coming member of the
Circles
. That’s why the
Eternals
had given her lead on protecting us and getting us safely to Transcendence Hall, her biggest assignment to date.

She smiled, quickly taking in the huge mound of luggage stacked in the middle of the room. "Great, I came to check on how you all were doing with the packing, but I can see that it’s done."

Zora looked worriedly at Oscar, who was crawling all over his glass tank like he had no worries in the world. "I left Oscar in his glass tank. Do you think that he’ll be okay? I mean, sometimes he can get a little agitated while traveling."

Thallo smiled. "No worries, Zora. I think that we can handle the safe transport of your pet tarantula with no problem." Her eyes gleamed with excitement. "So, are you all excited to be finally leaving for training?"

"Is it true?" Jessica rushed to say in one breath.

Thallo looked at her curiously. "Is what true, Jessica?"

She twisted her blonde hair anxiously. "Is it true that there will be boys at the academy?"

Thallo sighed loudly. "Okay, where in the world did you hear that? I was saving that info for the flight over."

Jessica’s eyes darted guiltily at Rosalinda.

Thallo stormed over to the middle of the room and angrily jammed her hands on her narrow hips as she glared at Rosalinda. "Rosalinda, exactly where did you hear that?"

Rosalinda’s eyes darted around the room nervously, stopping at me.

I snorted, giving her a disgusted stare. "Don’t even look at me. You told us, so don’t even try to act crazy now."

Rosalinda cleared her throat nervously. "Well, I kind of overheard the
Circles
talking this morning."

Thallo’s eyes flashed heatedly. "Really? Are you really going to give me that lame-butt excuse?"

Rosalinda sputtered angrily, looking at her tensely as she flipped her long black hair over her shoulder. Even I flinched because I’d never seen Thallo as angry as she was right now. She was fighting mad, and I couldn’t figure out why.

She smiled icily. "Rosalinda, do you know what I think happened? You lifted the
Circles’
thoughts and got that information."

Rosalinda looked around the room nervously as everyone looked back at her accusingly.

Thallo pointed angrily at her. "We never, and I mean never, use our gifts against another
Circle
. Is that understood?"

Rosalinda looked at her contritely. "
Sí
, yes, understood."

"Good, so let that be rule number one." She looked at them pointedly before taking a calming breath. "Now, I advise all of you to get some sleep because I don’t want to hear any whining in the morning. We have a very tight schedule, and I’m not going to let any of you put the success of this mission in jeopardy." She quickly spun on her heels, opened the door, and stormed out with a loud bang.

"Well, that was interesting…Thallo just had a mental meltdown of major proportions," I joked as I quickly walked over to my bed and pulled off my comfy dark chocolate sheepskin-lined suede boots, plopping down with a sigh. "But I still think it was way not cool to mind lift, Princess Rosalinda. Stealing thoughts, I mean really, that’s like shoplifting. Jeez!"

Jessica looked at Rosalinda uneasily. "You do realize that you just got us in trouble, right? I mean, Thallo looked like she was going to rip out your heart and eat it for breakfast."

Rosalinda looked at us angrily before storming over to her bed and jumping in. "Look, I said that I was sorry. What else do you want me to say? Besides, I didn’t even know that I was doing anything wrong." She fluffed her hair, then snatched her blanket. "Two
Circles
were just standing around talking about something to do with Ms. Vineswell, and I just picked up a bit of their rambling thoughts. I didn’t do it intentionally. Jeez, I’m learning how to use my gifts, just as you are, and I don’t know how to control it yet. I mean, isn’t that why we are going to Transcendence Hall, to learn how to use our gifts?"

Jessica smiled at Rosalinda reassuringly. "Okay, Gabby Girls, let’s cut her some slack. She’s right about us still learning how to use our gifts, so there are bound to be some mistakes along the way."

Zora took off her glasses. "That’s all good, but don’t make that mistake again, okay?"

"Whatever, I won’t do it again, so can we drop the topic already?" Rosalinda pulled her blanket over her head with a snap of finality.

Her rudeness was so unbelievable. I looked over the top of my blanket at Jessica and Zora with a look of utter disbelief. "I’m not even going to say anything."

Jessica hopped into her bed and snuggled down. "Good, then don’t," she responded sweetly.

I tucked my comforter around me. "But that girl is just plain rude."

They groaned painfully.

"You just had to add, didn’t you?" Zora responded as she reached over and turned off the lights.

Jessica giggled, "It just wouldn’t be Gabi if she didn’t."

"Whatever," I responded dryly as I looked around the dark room with finality. This was finally it; we were off to a new life at Transcendence Hall, leaving Vineswell behind for good. Well, that was if all went well. But what if it didn’t, or worse, what if I was the only one who flunked out of Transcendence Hall? I snuggled down in my comforter as the question nagged me until I drifted off to a restless sleep.

chapter

TWO

Death lingered greedily
, slithering around me. The stinging dark energy flowed through me, shocking me over and over, the pain brutal, all culminated by the bloodcurdling screams, my bloodcurdling screams.

Searing pain pierced through my slumbering body with pulsating razor-sharp jabs followed by feelings of desperation then hopelessness. It was smothering like a pillow as I peered unwillingly through wide-open eyes, paralyzed by fear as his perfect face glowed with youth and vengeance. His golden eyes, flecked with a bit of sky blue, narrowed coldly as he kneeled menacingly over me. His pristine white T-shirt was shredded as if he had just been mauled by a wild animal. His shoulder-length golden blond hair blew roughly in the wind as violent flames engulfed his body, but did not burn his flesh.