Chapter 86 Putting on An Act

Chapter 86 Putting on An Act
Elroth
Michael was right—the girl was here.
I strolled over to Skylar. She was clutching her wrist, her breathing turning heavy and ragged. The Katarina sigil on her hand was reacting violently to Katya’s magic.
"Haven't even started yet and you already look proper state, Little Wolf," I murmured softly.
Before Michael could step in to support her, I beat him to it, brushing my fingers against hers.
Ignoring the Alpha’s lethal glare, I channeled a touch of my Incubus magic. A soothing warmth radiated from my palm into her skin, slowly taking the edge off the sigil's throbbing so she’d stop hurting.
She really is a cute girl. I didn't mind her getting annoyed and calling me careless, to be honest—she’s even more attractive when she’s throwing a fit.
"Feeling a bit better?" I asked.
"Thanks, Elroth. That's much better."
"Told you I'm your antidote, love," I said, giving her a quick wink to lighten the mood.
Behind my cheeky grin, though, my mind flashed back to that faded parchment I’d swiped from my father’s study.
I needed to double-check my own recklessness, so I’d gone back to Father to confirm what was on those notes.
It earned me a proper whipping from him, but it wasn't for nothing.
The records definitely mentioned the exact same Katya.
The first document I pinched noted that Katya was living a peaceful life in a Greek coastal village as a regular human. The very same Katya who’d died two years ago, whose corpse mysteriously vanished from her coffin in the dead of night.
It turned out to be a laughably stupid clerical error by the Underworld clerks. They’d completely failed to update her death records and soul transfer when everything went down two years back.
I’d spent an entire day racking my brains and sweet-talking my dad, Azazel, just to get my hands on the absolute latest file regarding the missing Katya.
I even had to lie straight to the Demon King's face, pretending I only wanted her file out of sheer boredom.
I swore to my dad that I just wanted to track down the girl to plant my Incubus seed in her for a bit of fun. A total cliché excuse, but it worked—he threw the forbidden file right at my head.
The reality, as it turns out, was far darker than any human fairy tale. Katya, who ought to be 17 by now if she were still breathing as a normal human, had actually been turned into a vampire—her body and age frozen forever at 15.
That was the real reason I’d bothered tagging along with Skylar and Michael for their late-night detention with Mr. Barnaby. I needed to see for myself if the creature roaming these corridors was indeed the same Katya.
When I’d dug through Katya's registration files in Headmaster Fischer's office last night, there wasn't a single red flag.
She’d been adopted by a high-society vampire family and had no issues with them whatsoever. Which, naturally, made me bloody suspicious about her actual motives for going through all the trouble of attending Equilibrium Academy.
I purposely kept this to myself and didn't tell Skylar. Little Wolf is way too reactive. I wanted to see just how far Katya—the girl Skylar assumed was always watching out for her—would go tonight.
"She’s coming. Stay close to me, Juliette," Michael whispered, his voice dropping low, laced with the rumble of his wolf.
Halted, dragging footsteps echoed from the darkness down the corridor. A sharp stench of fresh blood mixed with burnt ash hit my nose immediately.
What I was smelling wasn't mortal blood—it was distinctly the blood of a vampire.
A figure emerged from behind the shadows of the crumbled stone walls. Katya.
The vampire girl limped forward. The shoulder of her school gown was ripped to shreds, exposing a deep, nasty claw mark. Her dead-pale face looked even more eerie under the lantern light.
Before Katya could collapse onto the cold stone floor, Mr. Barnaby moved fast. The Hunter lunged forward, catching the girl's slight frame and holding her up before she hit the ground.
"Argh... hhh..." Katya groaned in pain, her high-pitched cry shattering the quiet of the Underground Rubik corridor.
From beneath the wound on her shoulder, a thin layer of thick black smoke started curling into the air. Katya let out a long moan as Mr. Barnaby inspected the damage.
"What happened? How did you get hurt?" Skylar immediately panicked at the sight of her.
Typical girls. Always quick to bleed sympathy the second one of their own is hurting. What’s even madder is that just a few minutes ago, Skylar was terrified of the very girl she was trying to help.
"Probably just faking it..." I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest. "We’ve been down here for an hour and that wound looks fresh off the press."
"I swear. I was bitten by a bat. Then I heard voices. Thank God you lot turned up."
"That dead bat over there bit you?" I bent down, picked up the dead bat, and wiggled it about. "'Hello Ms. Witch, I'm biting you, rawr'... D'you reckon we’re thick?"
"Enough. Regardless of who got hurt by this venom, it’s still my responsibility," Barnaby snapped, snatching the dead bat right out of my hand.
Mr. Barnaby examined the wound for a second, his sharp eyes narrowing. He knew full well this was no longer a simple matter of breaking school rules or serving a basic detention.
"Detention is over," Mr. Barnaby said firmly. Without wasting another second, he hauled Katya up to support her weight. "You three, back to the dorms this instant. I’m taking this vampire student to the infirmary to be treated by Madam Duncan."
I watched Barnaby’s back vanish round the bend of the corridor with Katya. If I hadn't remembered that Skylar was the one doing detention tonight, I’d have dragged her straight down to the Underworld myself.
That girl is a proper actress. I caught the little smirk on the corner of her lips when she turned around while Barnaby was helping her along.
"How on earth did she get bitten by a bat?" Skylar whispered near Michael.
The moody Alpha wolf just shrugged. Honestly, watching these two dim wolves fail to tell a staged act apart from the real thing was giving me a headache.
"No wonder you two are constantly landed in detention. Your brains are proper cobwebbed."
I flicked my fingers, summoning a paint brush out of thin air and charming it to buzz around their heads.
Skylar promptly turned the brush into a clump of cotton wool, while Michael just snapped the handle clean in two.
"Is everything just a joke to you, Elroth?" Skylar scoffed, setting off down the hall.
"Just think about what I said, alright? You don't need to be a genius to see the girl was putting on an act," I argued back.
"The thing is, you’re the only one here who thinks that. It’s bleeding obvious she’s got the exact same injury as that dead bat."
Skylar grunted, properly annoyed now. Michael joined in on chewing me out, too.
"Suit yourselves. I'm just telling you, the records I showed you about Katya are legit."
Skylar stopped dead in her tracks. She turned back, raising an eyebrow at me.
"What do you mean, Elroth?"