Blood Hunt (Blue Blood Babies sequel!)

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

 

The first thing I did as I entered the canteen was to look around for Maggie. I couldn’t see any sign of her soft waves of dark hair, or the emerald green jumper she’d been wearing. 

“Reckon we grab some food, get a table and wait for her?” I asked Connor.  I really was too hungry to do it in any other order than that.

“Alright,” he said, but he looked reluctant.  As we moved over to where trays were stacked – just like the school dining hall, as Dr Reynolds had said – he swivelled his head around to check the door so many times, he looked like he had a twitch. 

There was a decent selection of food available.  The room was maybe half full, but the hundred or so teenagers who’d already eaten hadn’t decimated the choices too much.  I grabbed a spicy chicken baguette, a bottle of fruit juice and a packet of crisps; then quick marched over to the register.  As Ryan had warned us, there was an old lady sitting there with a small electronic device.  I saw the boy in front of me tap his fob lightly against the glass plate and it emitted a quiet beep. 

“New?” the woman asked me as I dumped my tray down in front of her.

I blinked, surprised.  How had she known that?  Then I realised I still had my name badge on. 

“Yeah,” I said.

“Got your fob?”

I held it up.

“Touch it against that, then.”

I did, and there was a quiet beep.  The woman ran her eyes across as small screen linked to the fob device by a thick grey wire.

“Alfred Mitchell?”

I repressed the annoyed growl that instinctively rose up my throat.

“Yes.”

She nodded, then indicated that I should move along.  I did, and I heard her have an almost identical conversation with Connor.

“Where do you want to sit?” I asked when he was through.

“Somewhere near the door,” he said, his eyes still on the entrance.

We sat down and I began tucking in.  Connor didn’t touch anything.  His fingers were drumming out a tattoo on the table top that might have been annoying if I wasn’t so hungry.  Suddenly he stood up.

“Maggie!”  His voice was thick with emotion, tight with relief.  Just about every head turned in our directions, their stares curious.  Connor seemed oblivious.  He only had eyes for his sister, who was walking with another girl, a blond girl.  She waved and smiled at us, then bent her head to say something to the blond.  Probably explaining who we were.  “They’re coming over,” Connor announced, sitting back down.  He reached for his food and stuffed half his sandwich in his mouth in one enormous bite.  “Starving,” he said defensively when I raised my eyebrows.

“You already got food?” Maggie asked, appearing over my shoulder.

I swivelled round to look at her.

“Sorry, I couldn’t wait,” I said.

“Don’t be silly,” she smiled at me.  Then she turned to the girl beside her.  “Melissa, this is my brother, Connor, and Alfie.  They’re the boys I was telling you about.”   She looked briefly back to us.  “Melissa and I are roommates.”

The girl called Melissa offered us a shy smile.  I found myself smiling back.  With her blond hair and watery blue eyes, she reminded me a lot of Anna.  That, and the light line of freckles marching across her nose.