I decided an innocent girl would ask, "Is there something wrong?"

He made a throaty, considering sound-"Mmm"-then came to stand before me once more. He wore a peculiar expression. Carden had been very careful with me in the dungeons. If Alcntara thought he'd smell another vampire on me, he'd be mistaken.

And if I'd thought that meant I was in the clear, then I was mistaken.

Because that was when he touched me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.

In an instant, Alcntara was standing close, and he stepped closer still, tracing his hand along my neck, down my arm.

I repeated my question, my voice gone weak. "Is everything okay?"

"That is just it," he told me in a husky, intimate sort of voice. "I fear it is not all okay. And like a remiss guardian, I wonder where it is I've gone wrong."

He might not have smelled Carden on me, but I could tell he still suspected something-big-time. I thought fast. "On the contrary." I made myself give him a big, brave, beaming grin. "You're an excellent guardian. I've learned so much."

He barked out a laugh, and I had a moment of thinking I'd saved the day, until he said, "Perhaps I've trained you too well?" He pinched my chin between his fingertips, tilting my face up to his.

That smile stayed pasted on my face even as I felt the blood drain from my head. "What do you mean?"

He wasn't giving me an inch of space. "You have been busy, little Acarita. What is it you've learned?"

He was in my face, and I could barely think because of it. "I've learned lots of things on the island," I replied in a falsely bright, pretend-innocent tone.

"Don't play with me, girl." His coal black eyes were cold and sharp on me.

The air grew thin around me, and my head became hollow, like I needed oxygen.

Those eyes. He was pulling me in with those eyes. His hand went back to my arm, stroking down; then it swept to my waist. I swallowed hard. He'd touched me before, but never like this. His thumb moved in small circles along my stomach. I couldn't look away.

His voice went hard. "I asked, what do you know?"

Keep it together; keep it together, I chanted in my head, forcing myself not to fall into that gaze. And then another chant came to me, and it was what braced me.

I am roots in the earth. I am water that flows. I am grounded. I am Watcher.

I inhaled again, only this time it was long and slow. A deep breath that brushed the cobwebs from my mind.

"You evade the answer." He raised his other hand and pinched my ear hard between his fingertips.

I fought the urge to flinch away. "I-"

"Do not try me." His thumbnail slid down and sliced the tender flesh of my earlobe.

Pain as sharp and thin as a razor seared me, followed by the hot ooze of my own blood down my neck. I barely felt it, though. I'd had a revelation. I'd learned a thing or two on this island, and I could turn it against the vampire who'd brought me here. Oh, the irony.

I could fight his mind, which meant I could fight him.

Could I use these skills to help myself and the people I cared about? Could I use them for what was right instead of unquestioningly helping every vampire who came across my path?

Roots in the earth. Grounded. He wanted Carden dead. I was Carden's alibi, but I could never confess to it without getting us both killed. Because vampire or no, Carden and Alcntara clearly played on different teams.

"My apologies, Master Alcntara," I said in my sincerest tone. He stared at me a moment. I felt that cold hollowness pressing at my mind again, but this time I knew how to hold it at bay. I recalled my climb, focusing on the smallest part of it, a snapshot image of my hand in front of my face, gripping the rocks. "I've been out practicing my new climbing skills, and if I've learned anything, it's that I need to increase my arm strength."

Apparently, my answer had enough of a whiff of truth that he lowered his hand.

I peeked around him, desperate for him to step away and give me an inch of space. It all called for a topic change. I forced my voice to be cheery. "Hey, where's Mei?"

My feigned innocence seemed to mollify him. "The Guidons are keeping her occupied."

The words sent a shiver of foreboding up my spine. He'd wanted me to protect her, but now he'd sent her off with the older girls. Was he done with her?

I didn't want to think of the implications. I could protect her if the Directorate wanted her protected, but once they changed their minds? I couldn't watch her 24-7-I needed to sleep sometime-and I didn't think she had the chops to make it on her own, kooky flute skills or not. "I've been watching out for her, like you said."

I mentally assessed. Mei was so much younger than the Guidons. Some of them wouldn't be able to stop themselves. Amanda had warned me on my first day here-once these girls scented weakness, they became wolves.

"And how is Acari Mei-Ling?" His question might've been on topic, but his voice was distracted. He shifted his weight, stepping closer, brushing his thigh against mine.

I inhaled sharply and covered it up with a tiny cough. He'd flirted with me before, but never like this. I'd have taken slashing fingernails over his thigh any day.

"She's great." I tried to lean back, but the doorjamb was hard at my back. It was so weird to have this conversation as he was touching me in totally inappropriate ways. "I think if she can survive this first year, she'll be great." I was rambling, but anything to keep this exchange on the spectrum of normalcy.

"Have you heard her play?"

"I have. She seeeems"-the volume of my voice spiked as he leaned in to nuzzle my neck-"really talented. She said she can play a lot of instruments."

He pulled back. "So, you did not find anything extraordinary about her performance?"

How to answer? The urge to protect her overwhelmed me. Being Mei's guardian had gone from an assignment to something personal. I liked her and wanted her safe.

The vampires knew she had a gift, but did they understand just how hypnotic her playing was? If they were to experience the true potency of her power, she'd never be safe from them.

And then a selfish thought flashed into my head: Once the vampires realized what they had in Mei-Ling, she'd be under scrutiny forever-that meant, as her roommate and guardian, I'd be under even more scrutiny.

I decided to play it cool and downplay her talents. "Sure, yeah. Flute's not my thing, though."

Alcntara tilted his head, considering. "Not your...thing?"

I shrugged it off. "It's kind of shrill, you know?"

His gaze swept along my face, studying me. Finally, he said, "Perhaps she doesn't need your help after all."

Oh God. What had I done? Had I given the wrong answer? The only thing worse than vampires having too much of an interest in her would be them not caring whether she lived or died. "I could tell she was good," I added with quick enthusiasm.

My mind raced ahead. The moment Alcntara left me, I'd need to find her. If she was with a bunch of Guidons, she was probably being eaten alive as we spoke. I didn't know if Vampire/Watcher bonds were common, or how they even worked, but if Alcntara was somehow connected to someone like Masha and he gave the green light, Mei-Ling was toast.

"Let us forget her." His intensity flared, like fresh wood catching in a fire that'd waned. He stepped so close, I had to look up to meet his eyes. "Now it is just you." He brushed the hair from my brow. "And me."

I strained to listen, hoping I'd hear voices of other girls in the hallway. But it was silent. It didn't stop me from saying, "She could come back any minute."

He chuckled. "I've ensured we won't be interrupted. We have been interrupted too many times recently. Too often, another has come between us."

Heat flooded my face-I couldn't help it. He was talking about Carden. "What do you mean?"

"You know who I mean." He pressed the backs of his fingers to my cheek. "Such a pretty blush. It confirms the truth of my words."

I forced myself not to flinch. "I...I'm just hot, I think."

His lips peeled into a seductive smile. I saw the glimmer of his fangs and looked away. Looked down. Maybe he'd think I was just being demure.

But then I felt cool pressure under my chin. His fingertip, tilting my face up to his. "Hot indeed, querida." The naughty way he said it implied so much more than just my temperature.

These attentions, this intensity, it was like he'd suspected my interests lay elsewhere, and his response was to force the issue with these creepy lingering touches and suggestive words.

Alcntara had flirted with me before. I once thought he might kiss me, in the library, what felt like so long ago now. But his bizarre wooing was different now. There was something in his eyes that hadn't been there before our mission. Or rather, something was missing from the look he was giving me, like he was a snake viewing me through glassy, bottomless eyes. Teasing me. Trifling with me.

He cupped my cheek. His other hand remained gripped on my waist. The feel of his fingers curling into the soft flesh of my torso was the only thing reminding me to keep breathing. "There have been certain...elements thrown between us."

He began to lean down.

Oh God, oh God, oh God. The words keened in my brain. There was no calm mantra now. Oh God.

This was it. There was no escaping. I was pinned between the door and Alcntara's cold, hard body.

"I have met obstacles," he whispered, his mouth so close I felt his lips brush mine. "But no longer."

And then he kissed me, and it wasn't like kissing Carden, not at all.

Alcntara's kiss was studied, methodical. Conscientiously thorough. I waited to experience some emotion-desire, longing, any sort of tingling whatsoever-but I didn't feel a thing.

And it wasn't just because we weren't bonded. Alcntara's kiss was different from Carden's because Carden could kiss. He'd been my first, so I hadn't realized it before. But now, kissing Alcntara, I knew. Carden...just...wow.

But I knew better than to spurn the affections of a vampire, particularly one whose fangs were right there, and so tried to sense what Alcntara wanted me to do. Technically, his kiss was fine, but something about it was coldly precise. Passionless compared to Carden's all-consuming touch. His lips were cool, and as much as I tried to follow his lead, I felt how my movements were just as stiff and studied in return.

He pulled away. Compared to my kiss with Carden, the contact had been brief. With Carden, I'd fallen into the kiss, into him, from the instant my lips had touched his.

"I thank you for the small intimacy, mijita. It was most illuminating." Alcntara gave me a tiny half bow. "I will bid you good night," he said, his voice chilly and polite.

The keening in my mind hitched up a notch, but this time my panic was for an entirely different reason. Had I been too reluctant? Or worse, had he sensed Carden? Detected our bond?

I wouldn't know, because the Spanish vampire swept me aside and was out the door before I could shut my mouth.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.

Last night, I'd been lucky. Lucky the Guidons hadn't eaten Mei-Ling for a midnight snack. Lucky that Alcntara hadn't torn me limb from limb when he sensed whatever it was he'd sensed in my kiss.

He'd left, and Mei-Ling had been sitting on the floor outside the door, curled into herself.

"Mei." I was still shaky and weirded out from Alcntara's kiss, and it took me a moment to register that she was there and relatively unscathed.

She looked up at me. "Are you okay?"

"Me? How about you?" A welt was rising on her cheekbone, and it made my blood boil. I recognized Masha's whip in that mark. Anger focused me, wiping away the remnants of Alcntara's surreal and creepy touches. "What did they do to you?"

"It's no big deal." She stood and brushed herself off.

I could see that it was, in fact, a big deal. But I knew Mei, which meant I knew not to press the issue. Instead, I asked, "What are you doing out here?"

"They told me not to go in." She glanced at the door as though a dozen vampires might spring out. "You know, while he was in there with you."

I glanced down the hall, the lights dimmed for curfew. "You could at least have waited in the lounge."

She shrugged. "I wanted to be close...just in case."

"In case..." I'd thought I knew Mei-Ling, but apparently I still had much to learn. "In case I needed help?" My shoulders slumped, I was so completely touched by the sentiment. Though if Alcntara decided he wanted me dead, how anyone could help was beyond me.

"Yeah." She gave me a flicker of a smile.

I scanned her, standing there in her gray Acari uniform tunic and leggings. "Do you even have your flute?"

She shook her head.

I considered the situation. Mei-Ling had been kidnapped here against her will. I was bonded to a vampire who was going to be staked because another vampire decided he stood in the way of a goal. Oh, and apparently, I was the icing-on-the-cake part of that goal.

I was embroiled in a game that was far more complicated than the girl gladiator torture they'd subjected us to in the first semester.

I shooed her into our room, shutting the door behind us. There was work to do, and I didn't waste any time. "Okay, lesson one. Always have that flute. We'll make a special holster or something. You need a way to tuck it in your pants without anyone seeing. It won't break, will it?"

"No," she said, sitting on the edge of her bed, not taking her eyes from me. Her attention was avid, but not in a slavering, I'll-do-whatever-you-tell-me sort of way.

I appreciated the trust. It made me want to help her all the more. "That's good," I told her. "You'll have enough to occupy you with lesson two."