Chapter Text
October weather in Elmville is a temperamental beast. Some days, it’s perfectly pleasant: warm temperatures with only an occasional cool breeze as a reminder of the fall season. Others, the wind snarls into something with far more bite to it. And in the early morning hours before the sun has risen to heat it, that air turns downright frigid.
Adaine shivers as another gust tears through her, rubbing her arms vigorously, trying to ignite even the smallest spark of heat through friction. It’s a fruitless effort. Every flurry cuts through her meager layers with the precision of a freshly sharpened knife. Gritting her teeth, she hurries ahead toward the stairs leading up to the school’s front entrance. The length of the building is long enough that it should block the worst of it. If she’s lucky, maybe that will be enough to help her.
She’s not, and it isn’t.
She is still absolutely freezing.
Riz is already sitting by the front door as she approaches. He’s bundled up in an old, ratty looking trenchcoat and clutching a silver cylinder up against his chest. Curled up so tight the way he is, he looks the perfect embodiment of that ridiculous nickname forced onto him that Fabian refuses to let go of. He also looks somehow even smaller, easy to overlook; the only reason she spotted him at all is because of the light pouring out of one of the windows hanging above him.
She wonders if that was done on purpose.
One of his ears twitches at the sound of her footsteps. “Hey.”
“Hello.” She moves to settle against one of the support columns just across from him. “You’re here early,” she says, as if it’s anywhere close to a normal hour for either of them to be here. For any student to be here.
Riz shrugs. “I kinda thought you probably would be given uh….” His sentence trails off, the last word being swallowed by a nervous cough as he glances off to the side at nothing. He clears his throat. “And I mean… there’s girls going missing, and we still don’t know who’s being targeted for that so… Buddy system. Just in case.”
“Oh…” She’s torn between feeling touched at his concern for her, or being annoyed at his lack of faith in her ability to handle herself. She’s not sure which feeling is stronger. It’s hard to gauge.
Although…
Her fingers drift toward her neck. Maybe he has good reason to doubt her.
Another gust of chilled wind blasts through. Her muscles tense, as if tension alone will somehow repel the cold from sinking into her bones. It, of course, doesn’t work. She hunches forward, shivering fiercely, and resumes her furious pace from before as she starts rubbing at her arms again. It doesn’t do anything to help this time either, but at least it’s something else to focus on.
When the wind dies down Riz unfurls himself the slightest bit and uncaps the lid on what she now recognizes is a tall, scratched up, slightly dented thermos. His gleaming yellow eyes trace over her shuddering form and, before he takes a sip of it himself, he extends it out to her. “Coffee?” he offers.
Her nose scrunches at the bitter aroma wafting toward her. “N-no thanks,” she gets out through her chattering teeth. She’s never enjoyed the smell of coffee before, but now it smells outright foul to her. “I don’t know if I could anyway.” Another rush of air. Another shiver. “Even if I wanted to.”
“Ah… Right.” Riz stays like that for a moment, fingers tapping restlessly along the metal surface, like he doesn’t know what else to do with them, until he finally pulls back. Steam billows up into his face as he stares down into the void of his thermos, brow furrowed, as if he's searching for something inside of it. “How uh… how are you holding up with everything?”
Her nails dig so hard into her sleeve she feels them poking against her skin. Deep breath. Inhale. Exhale. “I’m fine.”
It doesn’t even sound convincing to her own ears.
Riz grimaces at her answer. “Did I make this awkward? This feels really awkward. I’m definitely doing this wrong.” He groans, sliding a hand across his face. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how to ask about these kinds of things. Not without it coming out really weird.”
She wants to be mad at him—and maybe part of her is. At him and all the others. With everything that happened two nights ago…
The way she was left stranded in the middle of the club as it thumped with too-loud, terrible music. How she was forced to stare down the angry maw of frothing, feral werewolf completely on her own. The relief she felt when she managed to dodge the snapping teeth and avoid contracting lycanthropy, only for it to be drained right out of her when she stumbled into the waiting fangs of a vampire hidden nearby instead.
When she thinks about all of that…
How is she supposed to be holding up?
She sucks in a sharp breath past her even sharper teeth. “Can we just… not right now? Please? I don’t really want to talk about it.” If she talks about it, she’s going to start feeling things about it; if she starts feeling things about it, she’s going to get angry. Or start panicking.
Or both.
And she’d really prefer to not do either before the school day even starts.
She’s expecting more push back, but to her surprise, Riz acquiesces easily. “Yeah,” he nods slowly. “Okay, yeah, that’s fair. It’s… a lot.”
She lets out a sound somewhere between a huff and a laugh. ‘A lot’.
Understatement of the fucking millennia.
It’s quiet again, save for the whistling of the wind around them as Riz takes another sip of his coffee. He tilts his head back and forth, as if weighing the words in his mind before he finally says, “So uh… I was thinking about doing some research in the library today.”
The awkward tone he’s using is not a great sign. “Something about the missing girls?” she guesses.
He winces. “About uh… vampires.”
Her breath briefly catches in her throat. She tries not to let it show. “Okay…” It’s not about her specifically; she’ll allow it.
“Yeah. I tried to look some stuff up online when I got home last night but… that was pretty unhelpful. Mostly just learned that there’s a bunch of people that are really horny for them. In so many weird ways.” He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. “Pretty sure I’m gonna need whatever the crystal equivalent of bleach is to clean my search history after that.”
She snorts, nearly a laugh. “Gross.”
“Right?” Briefly, Riz grins at her. It’s almost a nice moment. “But uh… yeah. I was hoping the library would be a little more helpful. Maybe… maybe there’s some way to reverse it. Like a cure that Kristen could cast or something.”
Her mouth feels dry. “Yeah, maybe,” she agrees numbly, ignoring the pit in the bottom of her stomach that tells her no, there isn’t going to be a cure for this. Not without something short of a miracle anyway.
She swallows hard and says nothing.
More angry wind buffets against them both. Riz scowls as he shivers. “Okay, it’s too cold for this.” He caps his thermos and motions for her to follow as he stands up. “Come on, we can start our research early. If we’re lucky, we’ll find something before the others get here.”
Luck hasn’t been her strong suit lately, but she won’t protest getting out of this weather.
The doors are probably supposed to be locked at this hour, but she’s not at all surprised when he swings it open without an issue. It’s Riz. When would something like that stop him?
The air rushing out from the building is significantly warmer. She can hear the dull roar of the school’s heating system humming through the vents as they head inside. It should be a pleasant feeling, but it does absolutely nothing to help warm her up.
Adaine still feels freezing cold.