Invaded (Alienated, #2)(38)

“Don’t you mean our race?” Cara asked sweetly. “You know, since your ancestors are from Earth.”

Dahla’s hands clenched, but Odom pulled her aside and communicated something in Silent Speech, probably a warning that the consequences of a fistfight weren’t worth it. The two gave her the L’eihr middle finger and stomped away.

When Cara had finished washing, she returned to her room, pleased to find Troy alone and fully clothed, lacing up his combat boots.

“I’m starved. You ready?” Troy patted his belly. “By the way, you missed a call from Mom. She said Tori’s going to sneak away tomorrow to talk to you.”

“Really?” Cara perked up as they made their way toward the cafeteria. It had been too long since she’d heard her best friend’s voice.

“Alex called, too,” Troy said with an eye roll. “I told him to get a life.”

“You’d better be joking.”

“Nope. When you didn’t answer your sphere, he tried mine.” Troy led the way inside the dining hall and grabbed a tray. “Total stalker.”

“You dillhole!” she hissed. “He’s worried about me because of what happened with the tablet.”

“Whatevs.” Troy dumped a ladleful of ground meat over his flatbread. “Just say the word and I’ll introduce you to a couple of my friends. They’re jackasses, but at least they’re not stalkers.”

Cara grabbed the ladle and positioned her plate near the steaming vat of meat. She hated t’ahinni, but her muscles would ache for protein once she joined Satan on the intermediate course in a few hours.

She’d just sat down opposite her brother when Dahla swooped in and lifted Cara’s plate from the table. “Thank you, sister,” she sneered, then took her ill-gotten breakfast to the table she shared with her friends.

“You gonna put up with that?” Troy asked.

Cara remembered all the times Aelyx had turned the other cheek during his portion of the exchange at Midtown High. She could be mature about this. “I like to think of it as being the bigger person.” But on her way to fetch another serving, she strode by Dahla’s table, licked her finger, and dipped it in the little thief’s t’ahinni.

Maturity was overrated.

After breakfast, she and Troy had just slid their plates into the sanitization chute when shouts drew their attention to the other side of the dining hall. Dahla had fallen to the floor in convulsions and lay on her side moaning in pain. She lurched, and the breakfast she’d stolen came back up.

Elle and her medic friends rushed to Dahla’s side and assessed her while someone called for help. Soon the kitchen supervisor came out to investigate, and Cara moved closer to see if the girl was okay. Dahla was a total jerk, but Cara hated to see anyone suffer.

After pricking Dahla’s finger with a handheld machine, Elle frowned at the screen. “She has poison in her blood, a neurotoxin from the h’urr blossom. She’ll be all right, but we’ll have to cleanse her system.”

Odom pointed at Cara and loudly announced, “The human put something in Dahla’s food. We all saw her.”

Cara froze.

Everyone at that table confirmed it, and without bothering to ask for Cara’s side of the story, the supervisor ordered her to report to the headmaster’s office. Her first instinct was to stay and defend herself, but Troy tugged her elbow.

“Come on,” he whispered. “You don’t want to be here if things go south.”

When Cara glanced around and noticed all the hostile glares, she understood. She was a scapegoat, and with emotions running high, it wouldn’t take much for her classmates to turn on her. Probably best to hang out with the headmaster and wait for tempers to cool.

They’d barely taken a dozen steps when Aisly intercepted them in the lobby.

“Where are you going?” Aisly asked, gesturing toward Cara’s room. “You’re supposed to report to your quarters so I can fetch you for our outing.”

“What outing?”

The girl grinned and leaned in as if sharing a secret. “Jaxen will be back momentarily with our shuttle. Then we have a surprise for you.” Her chrome eyes twinkled and she bounced on her toes, reminding Cara of a child eager to present a gift to her parents.

There was something odd about Aisly. On the outside, she resembled the other clones, maybe a few inches shorter than most of the girls. However, much like Jaxen, she seemed almost human, but with an icy edge that made her every bit L’eihr. Cara sensed another difference in the siblings, but the answer lingered just beyond her grasp, making her wonder for the hundredth time what gifts they possessed that had earned their positions in The Way.

“I can’t go. I’m in trouble,” Cara said. Or at least she thought she was. She kept forgetting that Jaxen and Aisly trumped the headmaster by about a thousand steps on the hierarchical ladder. “Maybe you can talk to the headmaster for me.”

“What did you do?” Aisly asked.

Cara explained everything, making sure to mention all the times Dahla had bullied her. “I didn’t put anything in her breakfast. As much as she hates me, I wouldn’t be surprised if she poisoned herself to make me look guilty. It’s easily cured, so she wasn’t risking anything.”

“I’d believe that,” Troy said.