Blood Relatives

41. Rudi's Update

As soon as the bell rang, Carmine was up out of her seat, heading for the door. She didn't even bother to wait for Conner – she just needed to get out of that room and as far away from Adam as she could.

She hurried down the hall and straight into art. She slid into her seat, painting in front of her. Maybe this was just the thing to help her relax. She knew she was going to need to calm down if she wanted to think of a way to get rid of Adam.

"You sure took off in a hurry today." Conner said, sitting down.

"Yeah. I wanted to get out of that room as soon as possible."

"I don't blame you."

"I just can't believe the things he said." Carmine told him. How could Adam have told on her like that? Wasn't there some supernatural code or something?

"He called us human." Conner said, eyes wide.

"I'm sorry – what?" Carmine blinked. That was what he was so concerned about?

"I've never been called that before." Conner told her. "At least, not by someone who wasn't. And not like that."

"Welcome to the club." Carmine mumbled under her breath. She decided not to point out that he'd also been called a free meal; Carmine would have thought that'd be worse. A look of shock passed across Conner's face, and Carmine realized he must have heard what she'd said.

"I didn't mean it like that." he said, his face reddening. "I just meant that it's kind of weird, you know?"

"I know." Carmine said. A thought struck her. "Is that why you and Luke looked so shocked?"

"Well, kind of." Conner admitted, even though Carmine could tell he didn't want to. "I mean, it just seems kind of weird that he didn't know. He must have left before he had a chance to see you and Zev going at it...And what he said about you was pretty messed up too." he added. It seemed like an afterthought to Carmine.

"I'm just glad everyone already knew." Carmine could only imagine what would have happened if that had really been the point where her friends figured it out.

"How did he know, by the way?"

"What?" Carmine asked.

"How did he know about you? I mean, he obviously can't sense nonhumans or anything like that. So how did he know about you and not us?"

"Well, he's spent a lot more time stalking me." Carmine said, not wanting to admit it was mostly because she'd told him.

"True." Conner thought for a minute. "Do you think he thinks we're afraid of you now?"

"Maybe." Carmine almost laughed at the thought. "But that's probably a good thing – he won't suspect it when we try again."

"Just as long as we don't have a repeat of last night." Conner shuddered.

"What are you so worried about?" Carmine asked him. "You were asleep the whole time."

"I was not! Besides, I know what could've happened after I passed out."

"Yeah..." Carmine said vaguely. She tried not to think about that.

"So, speaking of last night, how'd your talk with Zev go?"

"Oh it was great." Carmine rolled her eyes. "It ended ok, but it was pretty bad at the beginning. How about you?"

"Fine."

"What'd you two talk about?"

"Oh, just how half our group went kinda crazy." Conner said casually.

"No murderous urges to deal with?" Carmine was a little surprised.