~x~ Chapter 47 ~x~

I watched as realisation and understanding became horror and disgust and then to concern for me. "No wonder you make him sound like a monster. He is being a monster."

"Precisely." I whispered.

"You're scared."

"Why shouldn't I be? I'd never had to fend off a vampire I couldn't stake before. The very idea of it terrifies me, Christian. It's so primal and not in a good way. It's almost like he wants to tie me to him."

"A vampire's bite can do that. That's why Moroi usually change their humans after a while and they almost never take from the same human on two consecutive days. They'd always alternate so that the bond would never become strong enough for the human to become attached and vice versa. Of course, there are some humans who are more vulnerable than that but it's rare."

"That must be one heck of a difficult system to try and manage. I'd hate to be in the department that administrates all that."

"It must be so boring as well and if something goes wrong, you'd end up in serious trouble and possibly out of the job instantly."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. The Royal Court takes that department very strictly. It's sort of the riskiest job because they have the most contact with the humans."

"That sucks."

"So does your predicament."

"How has this turned into a predicament?"

"You can't get out of it easily, can you?"

"I thought we already established that." I grumbled.

"Then just pick someone."

"I can't do that!" I squealed. "How much of a bitch would I be if I used someone just to get out of something?"

"I'd say it's justifiable in your situation."

"I can't do something like that."

"Kylie, I'm sure that there are plenty of people in this school who would genuinely help you out of this."

"I highly doubt that I'd have the guts to explain the situation to anyone else just yet."

"But you have to end it soon, Kylie, before too much time passes and he begins to think that he has some hold on you." Christian told me sternly.

"I know… I'll do something about it as soon as I figure out a plan. I haven't really thought that deeply into this until now to be honest."

"It's better to be late than never, even if late does happen to be only a day and a bit."

"Thanks, Christian. How on earth did a training session to help you improve your fighting end up to be such a serious conversation?"

"Don't ask me. I was just going with the flow." Christian shrugged nonchalantly. "Thank you for confiding in me."

"You just have that air about you. I can see why O'Connor is so honest with you. You make it hard for people to lie."

"I'd consider that to be a good thing. I hate it when people lie, especially when it's to your face."

"I think most people hate that." I laughed and stood up. I gave him a hand up as well before dusting myself off. "We should probably get ready for breakfast. People will be getting up and walking around soon."

"Thanks again, Kylie, for agreeing to help with my training."

"Don't worry about it. Just don't let O'Connor see that you have my number. I don't want him getting his hands on it."

"Don't worry. I won't pass your number around."

"This isn't going to put you in an awkward position, is it? I mean, we don't exactly get along and now you're caught in the middle…"

"I'll be fine, Kylie."

"That's good. I'd hate for him to think that I was trying to steal you away or anything."

"Nick might have acted out of place on Monday, but he isn't actually possessive of his friends. Not his real ones anyway." Christian shrugged. "He'd understand even if he pretends not to."

"You sure do read him well."

"I've been his best friend for two years, I should hope so after all those long nights of listening to him pour his heart out."

"At least there is someone he can feel comfortable enough around to do that with." I smiled. "I'll see you at breakfast."

"See you later, Kylie," he agreed and grabbed his stuff so he could head off.

I headed to the side to grab my stuff when I saw that I had three missed calls from my manager and a text message that demanded I call her as soon as I could. I looked around, even went as far as peering out into the corridor to make sure no one was loitering around before calling her back. I moved to sit a neatly stacked pile of mats and hit the call button. She picked on the third ring.

"Kai!"

"Yo, Ms. Manager. What can I do for you?"

"I need your schedule. When you would be free and whatnot."

"What else? That's not urgent enough to give me a call."

"It's urgent because I need to work up a schedule for the boys and get you back here for a run through of Louise's new song. We need to know what to change and what to keep and how it's going to go. We need you back for that."

"Okay, I'll talk it over with my headmaster and work up a schedule for you ASAP."

"Today would be great, Kai."

"There's something else, I presume?"

"There's almost always something else."

"So spill."

"Kai, I know you usually say no, but do you still object to photoshoots?"

"It depends on why you ask." I told her plainly. There was a pause and I shifted my sitting position to get more comfortably. "It's for a friend, isn't it? You have a friend who would like me to model their clothing line, right?"

"How did you know?" she murmured.

"Well, for one thing, it's not the first time. You sure do know a lot of people, Ms. Manager. Then again, it's thanks to your lovely work ethic and connections that we got so well publicised right from the start."

"Your success isn't just thanks to my friends, though I admit in your line of work it does help a lot. Will you consider it?"

"Will I get free clothes? You know I hate shopping."

"No, you don't," she scoffed. "You just don't like clothes shopping. And yes you will. Some of those outfits are right up your street. The main reason why she asked for you in particular is because not as many models can pull off a girl and boy style in one shoot as well as you can."

"And me being one of the only established artists out there with dual styles makes it all the easier because your friend already knows that I'll make the outfits work and make them wanted."

"Precisely."

"And how do you plan on sweetening the request, Ms. Manager?" I drawled with a playful tone.

"I'll work my ass off to make your recording schedule workable despite your timetable?"

"As much as I love you, Ms. Manager, that's your job so I wouldn't call that sweetening the deal."

"When she comes over from England for the shoot once we've worked out a good date, I'll get her to bring over some infamous Fortnum and Mason's biscuits and hazelnut syrup that you love to put in your coffee so much."

"I want two bottles, Ms. Manager. Thank you in advance and tell your friend I look forward to working with her."

"You drive a hard bargain, Kai."

I laughed and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "I love you too, Ms. Manager. By the way, do you know what the recording schedule might look like at all?"

"If it's possible, you're in for a hard next few months, Kai. We have Louise's songs to record, a few covers that your fans have been requesting for a whole year to work on. It's going to fill a whole album."

"A full album? You're kidding! The last I checked, Louise had only written one song."

"Correction, she'd only told you about one song. She had six more in that purple book of hers."

"Six… wow she has been busy. Where the hell did she get all that inspiration from?"

"You ask her when you get the chance, Kai. Not to mention, there'll be three cover songs and then three acoustic recordings of songs in this album."

"That's a lot of songs…"

"Your fault for being in high demand. And there are two more songs I want you to listen to. They were sent to me by other song writers who want you to sing it."

"Seriously, how many songs are you planning on cramming into this album?"

"As many as I can."

"You know that I can only do so many gigs now that I'm in a different State."

"You hardly ever did gigs anyway, Kai," she grumbled.

"Well, there is that." I agreed with a grin. "I'll find out my schedule and negotiate with my headmaster about when I can leave school and all that jazz. Just to let you know in advance, when I do come out of school, there's always going to be someone with me. Will that be alright?"

"Anything to get you out to the studios for recording, Kai."

"Wicked. Well then, I need to go but it's been nice talking to you, Ms. Manager. Have a great day."

"And the same to you, Kai. Thank you on behalf of my friend for taking on the modelling job."

"Don't worry about it. I get food out of it so it's all cool. Do you think she'll already have a make-up artist lined up?"

"If not, I'll give Ana a ring and see if she'll be up for it."

"She will be. She'll always be up for a job. She has a college fund to save up for after all."

"I'll get back to you soon. Just focus on getting me that schedule first and then we'll talk more about work."

"Alright, will do. Talk to you soon, Ms. Manager."

"Goodbye, Kai."

I tapped the end call button and fell back onto the mats to stare at the ceiling for a second or two to just let my brain relax. It was the most intense morning I'd had for a while with the training with Christian followed by our strangely deep chat. I wasn't used to having such an intense start to the day and it took a moment for my brain to catch up properly. I mentally pencilled in that I'd have to do a fashion shoot at some point in the relative future for Ms. Manager's friend in my mental to-do list.

Hastily, I grabbed my bag, headed into the changing rooms and quickly got changed. I threw on a vest top, short sleeved hoodie, three quarter length capris and trainers before shoving my training kit into my bag and slung it onto my shoulder. I checked the time on my phone and saw that I had plenty of time to have a decent breakfast and made my way there.

For the first time over the past week or so, I felt my contacts begin to irritate my eyes and cursed. I remembered that I was supposed to change them soon and made another mental note to call the coloured-contacts company as soon as I was on my own again.

"Kai!" Ingrid beamed and waved when she saw me. Just like that first morning I met her, she was bubbling with energy and stood to wave enthusiastically at me.

"Hey, Ingrid." I laughed. "Seriously, how on earth do you manage to have so much energy first thing in the day?"

"I was blessed to wake up well," she declared proudly.

"Lucky." I complained, dropping my bag onto the empty seat beside Jacks. "What's for breakfast this morning?"

"Nothing sweet except for cereal and fruit." Dan told me just as I left the table to head to the counter.

I got as much as I could stuff onto a small plate and grabbed an apple before heading back to the table. "So, no injuries today, huh?" I teased the guys.

"Thankfully, no." Quinn chuckled. "We don't usually get attacked two mornings consecutively."

"If we did, we'd never opt to wake him up." Dan scoffed. "We might have joined combat class, but no one wants to be attacked just because we were trying to wake him up."

"You know, Dan, I might just attack you for the fun of it tomorrow morning because you said that." Drew drawled playfully, throwing a grape at him. "You look like you've been up for a while."

"I got a call which got me up early so I decided to take a run since I was already up." I shrugged.

"Who would call so early?" Roxy commented, pursing her lips together in confusion.

"Well, it's technically late in the human world." I reminded her. "It was for work."

"Oh! So something new?"

"Yes, and no I'm not sharing the news." I told them flatly before they could even ask. They'd probed enough last night and that was all I was going to tell them.

"Kai!" the three girls groaned in perfect synch and I smirked at them.

"No means no. It would spoil the surprise after all."

"You're mean." Els complained, smacking me in the arm.

The rest of the morning flew by without much happening besides lessons as normal. Every now and then, Nick would shoot a glare in my direction and I'd just resist the urge to stick my tongue out immaturely at him. Christian would give me a small smile here and there when he thought no one was looking.

Worst had to be Drew though. He would give me a curiously stare here and there, a teasing smirk in between and suspicious glances when he thought I wasn't paying attention. The way he was setting me on edge like that somewhat irritated me but there was nothing I could do about it. His suspicion wasn't going to fade unless he found out the truth, and I was going to do my best to make sure he didn't learn of it any time soon.

Strangely enough, I didn't see Eric at all over lunch break. A part of me was glad for it, another part was surprised by it. Either way, I didn't bother seeking him out. Delaying the confrontation with him for a little while longer wouldn't hurt and I had a chat with a certain guardian to look forward to.

Noticing that I still had some time before I was due to start my extra training session with Joe and Crispin, I decided to head to Martin's office so that I could get that schedule sorted. Knowing me, if I didn't get it sorted as soon as possible, I'd forget about it. I knocked on his door three times and waited for his reply before walking in, making sure to shut the door properly behind me.

"Hey, Martin."

"Good afternoon, Kai. Is everything alright?" he asked, a slight hint of fatherly concern in his tones as he eyed me while I took a seat.

"Oh, don't worry, Martin, everything's totally fine. I just have a few things to ask you, that's all." I reassured him, pulling out a note book from my rucksack. "I need as detailed of a schedule as you could produce between now until the end of the academic year. It's so that Ms. Manager can form an accurate work schedule for me."

"Oh yes, she'd mentioned she might need something like that when we'd spoken on the phone. I'd already written up a timetable for you. I can print it out for you now if you want."

"That might not be a good idea. I might lose the paper. It'd probably be easier if you just emailed it to me. Why don't you open your account and I'll type in my email address?" I suggested, dumping the notebook on the sofa seat and headed over towards his desk.

I waited patiently, leaning against the mahogany office desk as he signed in. He slid the keyboard towards me and I entered my details, saving the address under the name 'Little Sky'. He smiled at that and promptly sent me the email.

"I'll forward that to her and then we can negotiate timings. Do you have a limit on how many times I'm allowed out?"

"Just don't overwork yourself, Kai. Unless it's necessary, I don't want your work cutting into school hours, either."

"I'll let her know that." I reassured him with a nod.

"You have tomorrow afternoon's extra lesson off. Rosette and Maria are taking you shopping."

"You're kidding." I stared at him in shock, mouth slightly agape.

"It would be nice for you if I was, wouldn't it?" Martin glanced at me in amusement.

"You're not?"

"No."

"But why? We've got ages until the dinner!"

"Wouldn't you rather get it over and done with? Think of it this way, if you go tomorrow, you won't have to spend the whole day shopping during the weekend."

I blanched and pulled a face as I pictured having to spend the entire day shopping with fashion enthusiasts who had absolutely no qualms about spending money whether they had enough of it or not. I remember back then that Mum, Rosette and Maria were the worst shopping trio in the world. They just loved to buy things and it didn't matter that our house no longer had the space, Mum always somehow managed to cram everything into our house. I gave a small smile when I remembered that Dad would occasionally donate some of the things that weren't being used anymore to the academy. Mum would always sulk afterwards but then he'd always cheer her up without fail.

"They're going to be rather terrifying, aren't they?" I groaned. "They're going to think of it as six years overdue shopping and go absolutely crazy…"

"Well, you certainly don't seem to have the same outlook towards shopping as Amelie had. Perhaps you can help curb their shopping tendencies."

"Perhaps." I grumbled, unconvinced. "But somehow, I don't think anyone could curb their shopping tendencies."

"I would help, Kai, but men usually know to stay away when a woman gets enthusiastic about shopping."

"That's alright, I'll just flatly refuse if it comes down to it." I scoffed. "Besides, I need to stock up on some things anyways now that I know what work I have."

"Work?"

"My manager just called me to let me know what to expect. That's why she really needs the schedule."

"And what can your fans expect?"

I gave him a cheeky grin and shook my head. "You might not be fan but I can't say. Confidentiality reasons. That and the fact that I don't know completely either."

"Well, now that we know you are the lead singer, we're all fans." Martin told me simply. "I hear that you've helped patch up the Dragomir brothers' relationship."

I shot him a startled look and blinked. "Seriously, you guys communicate way too fast behind my back. I mean, really? It happened just yesterday for crying out loud."

"Alistair likes to look out for his students, especially Trace."

"I can see that." I smiled, thinking about the way Ali behaved around the kids.

"How did you manage it? Most of us thought that it would take the two princes a lot longer to wise up about how foolish they were being."

"I didn't really do anything. I just bluntly told them to stop being stupid and that Trace doesn't actually hate them. They just thought he did and vice versa. Anyway, I dragged them along to my detention so that they could ask Trace to come along to the dinner with us and then things just went from there. Funny thing was, the twins didn't actually get round to asking Trace if he wanted to come to the dinner or not."

"They were probably too enthralled with the fact that Trace wasn't running away from them all the time anymore."

"That's totally understandable. What older sibling wants their baby sibling to be terrified of them?" I glanced at the large clock Martin had in his office and saw that I needed to head off if I wanted to be at training on time. "I should go. I've got an important chat to be had with Crispin."

Martin shot me a surprised glance. "You two are on first name basis?"

I grinned and gave a shrug. "Apparently so. I look forward to finding out just how and why Crispin has adapted to the situation so damn well."

"You have your father's talent of drawing people close to you. Those you allow into your life will be there forever because you inherited that subconscious sense of decision from Raymond."

I stared at him with arched brows, surprised by his analysis. "You know this from within a week?"

"As the headmaster, I hear a lot of things."

"I've noticed. What made you think that I inherited that trait from Dad?"

"The people you are now close with. It's only been a week, and yet it's undeniable that you've formed a tight bond with your friends here. Raymond was the same. He would often instinctively know who will be there to stick around and who won't."

"That could be partially thanks to his Spirit, you know? He did see auras after all."

"That may be." Martin agreed. "You should go before we get into a long conversation. You should talk to Jensen. He is a good guy."

"I know. If he's close with Joey, he's bound to be." I smiled sweetly. "See you later."

"Try to stay out of trouble, Kai."

"Hey, I've been good since I got back." I protested. "Well, apart from what happened with O'Connor anyways."

"I'm just saying." Martin held his hands up defensively. "Considering the stunts you've pulled, as a headmaster I have to say it."

"Point taken." I sighed in defeat. I grabbed my bag, hefted it onto my shoulder and as I left his office I gave him a small wave.

When I got to the training hall, I was surprised to see just Crispin lying on his back on a pile of mats with his hands clasped casually behind his head. "Yo, where's Joey?" I greeted as I approached him.

He sat up, gave me a confused stare before realisation dawned. "Ah, you mean Maxwell?"

"Yeah. You're going to have some fun getting used to the names."

"I have no doubt," he chuckled. "I spoke to Maxwell earlier and we decided that it would be less time consuming if we had the talk during the training. As far as you're concerned, missing a couple of hours of training a week isn't really going to do you any harm."

"Are you sure you two aren't just trying to save your butts from aching?" I teased as I got comfortable on another pile of mats placed near him.

"That may have been pointed out during our discussion." Crispin said vaguely. "To think that guardian instructors would get beaten so thoroughly by a novice…"

"It's a bizarre concept, isn't it?"

"Just a little. But I reckon I've gotten pretty used to it."

"In just a little over a week? I'm impressed."

"Considering how well you fight, I might as well get used to it as soon as possible. So I hear that you are attending the dinner with the royals."

"How come you know about that?" I blinked in surprise.

"Guardian Hunt asked if I would be available to act as a guard to escort you shopping tomorrow."

"Oh… well that makes sense. Are you joining us on the shopping trip of doom?"

"Shopping trip of doom? That sounds rather… exaggerated."

"Believe me, with those two, it won't be." I scoffed. "They're worse than Els, Roxy and Ingrid. Maria and Rosette will throw things at you to try on, then they'd insist to pretty much buy out the shops because they need everything when they really don't. It's a terrifying experience."

"I guess it's just my luck that I won't be going." Crispin laughed at my response. "A senior asked if I could help him with extra training tomorrow and I'd already agreed."

"So there are some dhampirs who would actually request for extra training to get better?" I whistled. "I'm impressed."

"Most dhampirs, especially when they get to senior year, do put in a lot more effort, Val."

The short name took me by surprise, but then I remembered that he'd decided on that name last night. I just grinned at him. "That name is quickly growing on me."

"It's not a bad name. Out of interest, why did you choose the name that you have?"