The Vampire Prince graduates High School (Book 3)

Internship

As soon as I got home, my parents sat me down in the living room. I sat there for half an hour receiving an earful about my behavior. At the most, I would only visit Alexandre once a week and it would be on the weekend. One of my parents needed to go with me. Furthermore, Alexander could come over once a week at most and we had to be supervised. 

All I got from that was I couldn't be trusted. In their defense, they were right. I lied to them about dinner. Violet and King Lionel-gosh that Sounded weird-hadn't seemed to be disturbed by my presence but then again maybe they hid it well.

Grounded (but not exactly), I went up to my room after dinner. As soon as I sat on my bed, the exhaustion settled in. Felt like everything. had begun to spiral out of control. 

I knew Alexander was struggling and I had caught glimpses of it. I wanted to at least do something to make it less difficult on him. There wasn't much I could do about the bidding project-not until I officially started my internship. 

'One thing at a time,' I told myself. 

After relaxing in the shower, I finished up even more work before bed. I didn't remember when I fell asleep. 

Mom dropped me off bright and early the next morning at school. The building had just opened by the looks of it. Not many waited around.it was chilly this morning hence the long sleeve I wore and it was going to stay cool all week. The weather was acting up again.

I walked into the building and headed to one of the computer labs down­stairs. My internship started this afternoon and I wouldn't have time for much. For the 25 minutes until the bell, I began typing up some discussion board posts. 

Ten minutes had passed when I saw Carlos walk in. I guess he was taking school seriously now.

 I waved him over. I wanted to say I had no ulterior movies but I would be lying.

"Hey," he said. 

He sat next to me and logged into the computer. How was I to subtly ask him about his pro-human "friends"? 

I glanced around. The librarian was at her desk and no one else sat around us. 

"You said you to talk," I told him. "I'm all ears."

Carlos's hands froze over his keyboard. "Uh, yeah," he said. "I did want to talk to you."

"Now is a good time as any." I turned to my computer. If I didn't look at him. Maybe he would talk. 

"I . . . just -" he took a deep breath. "I'm sorry about everything. I never wanted to put you in danger or anyone else. Working with Pat was so obvious. I didn't feel powerless."

I understood the feeling but the Purists had threatened me. They had framed Alexand­er. Seems like I hadn't forgiven them yet but that didn't matter. 

"Parents had me go to counseling," he said. "Manda­tory of course, but still. I know you can't forgive me so easily but I'm going to try to make amends."

"Thanks," I said. "For apologizing. I know it was hard for you and your family."

I bit my lip. "I wanted to ask for a favor." 

He frowned. "Uh, yeah. If I can." 

I looked around. No one was around. 

"Have you talked to... anyone in your group lately?" 

Carlos leaped out of the chair. His face was red. I messed up.

"You-"

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," I said quickly. "I wanted to know whether they've heard about the group who shot Prince Rothchester. I want to find them."