Chapter 4
Yumi stretched lazily in bed, oblivious to the panel of light shifting menacingly across the floor. She really was not a morning person…even when she went to bed at the "right time" for a human. In fact, given a choice, she'd sleep by day – but there wasn't a night school anywhere close enough to even fly to.
That would be the one potential good thing about moving again, Yumi thought drowsily. I might get to go to a night school, and get a proper day's sleep…
Her arm fell off the bed, hand dropping right into the square of sunlight. With a shriek of pain that no human could ever hope to make, Yumi sprang out of bed and collided with the ceiling. Her "Ouch!" upon hitting the floor again was more human.
She sat up and studied her scorched hand ruefully. It was healing itself, but not quite at its usual speed: getting dressed would be something of a painful ordeal.
There was a knock at the door. "Yumi? Are you all right?"
"Yes," Yumi called back to her mom, "I just fell into the sun."
"All right." Her mom's footsteps receded.
"If only injuries by sunlight healed as fast as cuts and bruises," Yumi sighed.
"What's wrong with your hand?"
Yumi nodded a greeting to Odd and answered his question. "Sunburn."
"What? No, seriously…"
"Seriously. I'm a vampire, remember?"
Odd grinned at her. "Don't vampires sparkle?"
Yumi snorted in total disgust. "What have you been reading? In the real world, vampires burn in the sun if they don't use protections."
"Oh." Odd made a face. "So…how'd I manage to duck getting barbequed when I got stuck in your body?"
"The luck of fools and madmen," Yumi teased. "You put those protections on without even knowing it." When he opened his mouth to ask the logical next question she added, "Do not ask."
"But what if I'm stuck in your body again?"
"With any luck, that'll never happen again. If it does, I'll tell you what form those protections have." Yumi shot Odd a fierce look. "And you won't act like an idiot in my body again…right?"
Odd grinned sheepishly. "Right." He started for the cafeteria.
Yumi followed him. "So where is everybody?"
"P.E. class; they're rope climbing. I got excused on account of my hand."
"Hm." Yumi stared thoughtfully in the general direction of the dorms.
"What'cha thinking?"
"I'm a little worried about Jeremy. He hasn't – quite – been himself lately."
Odd's eyebrows lifted. "He hasn't? I hadn't noticed anything…"
Yumi smirked slightly. "No, you probably wouldn't: it's a vampire thing."
"Do you think he was turned? Into anything?"
"I…" Yumi paused. "I don't want to say yes to that. He doesn't smell of blood at any point – that's a giveaway for any newly-turned paranormal – and you're acting wolfier than he is. It's just…"
Odd was silent for a long moment. "XANA Mandy."
"Her echoes are still clinging to him," Yumi admitted. "Maybe it was too much to hope for that any problems with that attack would manifest immediately."
"If it's that bad…" Odd stopped walking and turned around.
Yumi stopped, too, and waited patiently.
"Can we still trust him? I mean, he's still on our side, I'll grant that he won't want to kill us or anything like that, but – what if…what if…"
Yumi's brows lowered. "You're worried that Jeremy might go insane."
"Well, uh…yeah."
"I don't have an answer for you," Yumi sighed. "Aelita's needed on Lyoko too often to switch to monitoring the screens, and the rest of us aren't any good with the supercomputer. We need Jeremy. Besides which, he's our friend. I don't want to see him go into a decline or something, but there's nothing I can do about it. I don't understand Elder Mandy's magic…"
"And you don't much want to," Odd added, perceptive for once.
"And I'm not strong enough to reverse whatever she did to him. Only another Elder could do that…"
A sudden pressure on Yumi's shoulder blades made her tense. The last time she'd felt a similar pressure, Elder Mandy was looking at her; the time before that was her Roseblood Ritual.
"Yumi?" Odd had noticed her reaction. Or maybe he'd noticed the pressure itself, although Yumi doubted that for several reasons.
"Odd," she said as matter-of-factly as she could, "Look past me: is someone looking at me?"
Odd cocked his head and looked around her. "Yeah."
"Adult or student?"
"Adult."
"Man or woman?"
Odd was silent for a few seconds. "Man."
"Is there something unusual about him?"
"He's…creepy. He looks like a really strung-out hippie."
Yumi scowled. That didn't match anyone she knew of on the Council of Thirteen.
"Is he one of your vampire Elders?"
Slowly, Yumi shifted her feet. Then she spun around to face the man who was staring at her.
The strung-out hippie was an illusion, or glamour; she could see right through it. The man who was really standing there was wearing a perfectly business-appropriate black suit and polished shoes. And his head looked like the skull of a mountain goat, complete with the curled horns and with the addition of razor-sharp fangs.
Yumi's eyes widened as she recognized Akem Manah. "Yes, Odd: that's an Elder. He doesn't really look like that, he's using an illusion."
"Oh…so why's he here – and why's he staring at you?"
That would be the question. Yumi closed half the distance between Odd and Akem Manah and gave him a perfect bow. Then she waited for him to speak.
