“How did you get in here?” She took a tight grip on my hand. I squeezed as we exchanged a panicked look.
“Answer mine and I’ll answer yours.” Dennis smiled, never taking his eyes off me. His fingers ran along the knife’s smoothblade.
“I have bipolar disorder, asshole. Sometimes I see and hear things that aren’t there.” My fear was fading and slowly being replaced by anger.
“Oh.” His smile dropped.
“Don’t act like I’m dying. I can deal with it fine.” I was going through options in my head, trying to think of other weapons I could get to. He had my spider killing knife. My aunt had confiscated every other dangerous thing I owned before I moved. There were no other weapons in the room.
“We need to get him out,” Ari whispered, backing away and towing me with her.
“I can hear you.” Dennis dropped the knife and stood.“And I don’t think you should be taking what’s mine.”
“What are you talking about?” I tried to step toward him but Ari wrenched me back.
“Our deal.” He chuckled at my confusion.“We made a deal, remember? And you gave me your blood. We’re blood bound now and there’s nothing you can do about it. Unless I say otherwise, but I’m not planning to anytime soon.”
“What’s blood bound?” Ari asked.
“No,” I cut in before he could respond,“first I wanna know why you’ve been stalking me all day.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Why have you been stalking me all day?” I spoke loudly and deliberately.
“I heard you,” he took a step closer,“I just don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really?” I stood my ground as he approached despite Ari’s attempts to get me away. My eyes flickered to the fangs that were still there.
“Really.” He placed a hand on the wall beside my head.“It’s not like I saw you messing with those earlier,” his eyes dropped to my chest before raising back to mine,“or shopping for lingerie. Or how would I know…” his cold hand slid down my side and brushed my hip, “that you have a lipstick print,” it trailed along the hemline of my jeans, “right there?” He stopped at the covered tattoo.“Why would you think I was stalking you?”
I ducked beneath his arm, yanking Ari along in a mad dash for the door. He was there before we could reach it, casually leaning against the frame.
“What the fuck do you want?” I nearly screamed.
“Why are you so hostile?” He placed a hand over his heart in mock hurt.“I just wanna get to know you guys. You, especially.”
“I’m gonna call the police if you don’t get out of our house,” Ari said.
“With what phone? You left yours downstairs.”
“I’ll scream for my uncle if you don’t leave,” I said.
“Youruncle is gone.”
“He’s gone?” I echoed, glancing at Ari in a daze. Uncle Tom had been here barely five minutes ago.
“He went to a bar with friends,” she murmured.
“Right.” Dennis took a step forward while Ari and I took several back.“So seeing as you both are pretty entertaining, I’m gonna let you guess what’s going on.” He grabbed a nearby chair and spun it in one swift motion. The chain on his pants rattled as he took a backward seat, placing both arms atop the back.“Please, sit down.” He swept an arm out for us to take a seat on mybed.“Take a load off. Don’t look so tense. Relax, lay back and—”
“Okay,” I snapped, dropping on the bed.“You don’t have to be so sarcastic.”
“I’m waiting.” He looked at Ari as she sat beside me.
“For…?” she asked.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
