Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I do not own the Night World series. All credit belongs to LJSmith. I also make no money from this.
Note: anything that is bold is taken directly from the book to keep the plot consistent
Note 2: I changed some of the magic stuff so that it's more consistent with stuff you can find in any internet book of shadows. The one I'm using for this is mostly from "the Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook" by Denise Alvarado which I found as an online pdf.
Expelled.
Again?
Ah well, same old, same old
Blaise tried to suppress a yawn as her grandmother's car approached the school building.
"This," Grandma Harman said from the front passenger seat, "is your last chance. You do realize that, don't you?"
Is it? Really? Well we'll see about that.
Blaise idly ran her fingers through her long, silky hair as she watched the hazy clouds of the Nevada sky drift along.
Her grandmother continued talking.
She idly wondered what sorts of students attended this school and what they might be like. Not normal ones. Night world people. Thanks to the atmosphere, this area of Las Vegas had a tendency of attracting many magically affiliated individuals to this area. She figured she was much more likely to run into her own 'kind' here. Thank Isis. People much more worthy of her attention than those pesky humans.
"…And you don't want that, now, do you?"
Out of the comer of her eye, she saw her cousin Thea shake her head. She quickly shook her head too.
A second glance at Thea made her temporarily pause in her thoughts. Through the halo-like golden-blonde hair that fell loosely over her shoulders, Thea's gentle face had a caught-in-headlights panic in her usually soft brown doe-like eyes. She wondered what Thea was worried about, although she knew better than to interrupt the full-blown lecture that her grandmother was happily in the middle of.
Then she shrugged to herself. Most likely it was something to do with school and keeping your nose clean. Unlike herself, Thea was just so good. It was something she both admired and found mind-numbingly irritating. Rules were more like guidelines. You didn't have to follow them all the time. Although she did occasionally feel slight twinges of discomfort whenever Thea had that striken look on her face every time they were called into the principal's office with the same-old expression that said they were about to be expelled-again.
Despite Thea's naive goody-two-shoes attitude, Blaise couldn't help loving her. After all, they'd been raised as sisters. And the sister bond was the strongest bond there was ... to a witch. There was nothing that she wouldn't do for Thea, just as she knew that there was nothing Thea wouldn't do for her. They'd stood by each other through everything.
The most recent interesting incident was back at their old high school in New Hampshire. Images flashed through her mind. The smoke rising from the charred remains of the music wing. The flashing lights of the police car. And Randy Marik, her most recent boyfriend (toy) crying like a baby as the police dragged him away.
Human boys are so easy to manipulate. Such high opinions of themselves. Such fragile egos. So easy to break.
It was the same in every school.
Blaise hated how boy-crazy all the girls in high school were. Desperate for attention from them. As if it meant that the more attention you have from boys, the more value you have as a person. She loved proving just how easy it was to destroy a boy. Why is it that humans always think their value is determined by how much they are admired by others who are just as weak and pathetic as themselves?
Sure, she herself was adored by the human boys at every school they went to. But that's how things are meant to be. After all, it's only natural to worship things that are superior to yourself.
"That's all," Gran said abruptly, finishing with her instructions. "Keep your noses clean until the end of October or you'll be sorry. Now, get out." She whacked the headrest of the driver's seat with her stick.
"Home,Tobias."
The driver, a college-age boy with curly hair who had the dazed and beaten expression all Grandma's apprentices got after a few days, muttered, "Yes, High Lady," and reached for the gearshift. Thea grabbed for the door handle and slid out of the car fast. Blaise was right behind her.
The ancient Lincoln Continental sped off. Blaise and Thea was left standing under the warm Nevada sun, in front of the two-story adobe building complex. Lake Mead High School .
Thea suddenly decided to speak. "Tell me," she said grimly, "that you're not going to do the same thing here."
No. That would just be boring. Blaise laughed. "I never do the same thing twice."
"You know what I mean."
Oh? Is it really so bad to have a little fun? Especially, when it's to humans? Blaise pursed her lips and reached down to adjust the top of her boot. "I think Gran overdid it a little with the lecture, don't you? I think there's something she's not telling us about. I mean, what was that bit about the end of the month?" She straightened, tossed back her mane of dark hair and smiled sweetly. "And shouldn't we be going to the office to get our schedules?"
"Are you going to answer my question?"
"Did you ask a question?"
Thea shut her eyes and rubbed the middle of her forehead. "Blaise, we are running out of relatives. If it happens again-well, do you want to go to the Convent?"
Aunt Ursula's house was nicknamed the Convent, a gray fortress on a deserted mountaintop. Stone walls everywhere, an atmosphere of gloom-and Aunt Ursula watching every move with thin lips. Less a place of religious penance. A living jail, more like.
Blaise's mentally pictured living there and suppressed a shudder. Then she shrugged. No point worrying about something that isn't happening yet. Also nowhere is truly inescapable. And Aunt Ursula wasn't that bad so long as you knew how to handle her. "Better hurry. We don't want to be tardy."
"You go ahead," Thea sounded tired.
Blaise turned on her heel and walked slowly towards the school. Placing one foot in front of the other. A way of walking that both helped her keep her balance in her heels and made her hips sway from side to side, drawing attention to her perfect hourglass figure.
She knew Thea was watching her, but pushed it to the back of her mind. Part of her wondered if Thea was secretly jealous of the effect she always had on boys. Which was stupid, of course. Thea was just as beautiful as herself. Blaise knew she looked beautiful and deadly, which she did nothing to hide. She always looked that way; it was part of having smoldering gray eyes and hair like stopped smoke. She was as different from Thea's soft blondness as night from day. Thea just never seemed to care about looking good.
As Blaise stalked towards the administration office, she looked disdainfully at the buildings with their arched doorways and pink plaster walls. She knew the drill. Another year of living with them, of walking quietly through halls knowing that she was different from everybody around her, even while she was carefully, expertly pretending to be the same.
It wasn't hard. Humans weren't very smart. But it took a certain amount of concentration.
Not that she would ever be exactly the same as everyone around her. That included Night World people. She and Thea were the last of the Harman line. Princesses, basically. And she saw no reason why she shouldn't receive the royal treatment wherever she went.
Shrugging to herself, sending liquid ripples down her loose ruby-colored shirt, Blaise paused to glance at a notice board to check out all the upcoming social events – also giving the students thronging the halls a chance to see how well the shiny redness of the fabric set off the smoky colour of her hair, contrasting with the golden tinge of her skin.
One of the benefits of being 'the new girl' is that for a short period of time, everyone's interest would be focused on her, and Blaise, as always, fully intended to make the most of it.