Vincent cursed under his breath and tried not to think about it, again. It was another couple of days before he tried to call the number again. He should have been satisfied that she was long gone. That was the point, anyway. He wasn't there. When he didn't get an answer, Vincent decided to go by her house, just to see if she was okay. Something was telling him to go.
When he got to the door, he could sense that there were other shifters around, but only one in the house. Maybe two. Vincent could sense another, but their life force was weak, and he wasn't sure who it was. It certainly wasn't the man that he wanted to kill.
Mallory opened the door. She looked tired, disheveled. She looked like she didn't feel very well, and he immediately wished that he hadn't come. She was happy to see him, and the smile on her face made him frown immediately. It just made her more beautiful, along with the twinkle in her eye, and the fact that she was wearing no bra...
Vincent had to pull himself together. Ever since Mallory had started at the school, even knowing who she was, it had been impossible to keep his eyes off of her. Why did Balthazar get everything? He was the one that was kin to the man that ruined Vincent's life. How could they have ever been friends?
“Mallory, I have called several times. I wanted to find out why you haven't been coming to school.”
She told him that she had been sick and was trying to get better. He could tell that she was weak, and Vincent knew just from the look in her eyes and the feverish creep of red on her neck, what it was. It was something that their kind were susceptible to every change of seasons.
“Are you sure you don't have allergies?”
“Allergies? No, I don't have allergies.”
“You might. We are allergic to poplar flowers. They are blooming right now not too far from here.”
Even as she shook her head that it wasn’t possible, Vincent was pushing his way into her house, not listening to a word she said. He wasn't even sure who she lived with, didn't want to know pretty much any information about her, but he was thankful that there was no one around immediately. How bad would it have turned out if Balthazar had been there?
“Where is your kitchen?”
“My kitchen?”
“Yes, you need to put some yarrow root on your neck to stop the swelling, then we will make you a tonic. You will take it every night for the next week or two, until the blooms fade. I expect you not to miss another day of school.”
He walked where she sent him and quickly got her herbs and found what he was looking for. His mother had known the ways of the healing herbs and he’d picked up enough. Vincent didn’t think about where he was or who he was with at the moment. All he was thinking about was the task at hand. Later, he could ask himself why he was helping her to come to school more often, when he was supposedly trying to get rid of her.
Vincent was going to have to reevaluate the idea that he wanted her to leave. That didn’t seem to be the truth of it at all. If he didn’t want her to leave, though, what did he want?
Chapter 2
Mallory was nervous to have Vincent in her house. She lived with her grandmother, and she couldn’t believe that Vincent was there. He was richer than anyone else in London and ran the biggest and most exclusive Shifter Academy in the country. He was in her kitchen, making her something to put on her rash. It was too hard to actually believe that it was possible.
“You know, you don't have to do that. I can do it myself. I'll make sure that I'm in class on Monday.”
“Take your shirt off.”
Mallory had been so interested in what was going on that she hadn’t realized that he was apparently finished with whatever he was doing. He had been mashing up some herbs into a sticky paste and now he was standing there, looking at her and waiting.
“What?”
“Trust me, you don't want to get any of this stuff on your shirt. It'll never come off.”
Mallory hesitated, only because it was already strange being in the same room with him. She was well aware of the problems between Vincent and her promised mate. Balthazar had told her many times how his father had killed Vincent's family. They were actually even related, but there was no love lost between the two of them.
Finally, she started to unbutton the buttons on the front. Her hands were a little shaky, and she had to turn away a little bit because his intense glare affected her in more ways than one. Not only was Vincent extremely intimidating, but he was also sexy as hell. He was well over six-foot tall, broad shouldered, and his eyes were black. They were void of color and stared into her soul until she couldn't even think straight. If only Vincent didn't look at her with such distain every time he glanced her way, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad.
That was probably why Mallory didn't have a problem taking her shirt off. It had thrown her off for a moment, but she knew that Vincent wouldn't look at her that way. She was Balthazar's. That made her as bad as he was, and to Vincent, he would never see her in that way.
When she turned back around, she was covering her bra and trying to cover herself as much as possible. While she wasn’t worried about him being interested, that didn’t mean that Mallory was immune to how it all made her feel.
“You don't have to worry about covering yourself. I need to make sure that I get all of the rash. Once it's covered up, it'll be gone by morning, but you have to get all of it.”
Mallory agreed to do what he said and she put her hands to her sides. Her body trembled a little bit and she tried to keep it from him. Mallory didn't want him to know. He would most likely use it to his advantage, so she stood as evenly as she possibly could, not moving when he started to touch her with the gunk. How it had gotten hot, Mallory wasn't for sure.
She made a sighing sound and closed her eyes because it immediately started to feel better. Not only had she been feeling under the weather, but the rash had been intensely itchy. She tried many times to stop it herself, but still she found it impossible not to scratch. Now, though, none of that feeling was there and she was able to relax. Relief spread over her like wildfire and Mallory was grinning.
“That feels so good.”
