My lower lip pushed out, and my gaze dropped. “I can’t help it. We made her mad.” I grabbed at my braids, tugging on them asI thought about her reaction. “And… there was panic in her eyes. Didn’t you see it?”
Kyren tipped my chin up. “There’s nothing we can do if she doesn’t confide in us.”
“That’s such bullshit.” I let out a low growl, shoving away from Kyren to wrap my arms around my knees. “Who said you had to wait for them to tell you they wanted help? Jackneedsour help. She needsus. I don’t want to wait until she shares. I want to help her now.”
Kyren rubbed a hand up and down my back. “I know,mi lobo. I know.”
She didn’t come back right away. I tried to distract myself with homework, scrolling on my phone, but not even our favorite show kept me from thinking about Jack and where she was. It wasn’t until the sun had fully risen that I jerked out of bed only half dozing, my nose twitching.
“Wake up.” I smacked Kyren.
Kyren grumbled and sat up, rubbing his eyes.
“Do you smell that?”
Before he could answer, I was already out of bed and yanking on my sweatpants, not bothering with my shoes before I headed for the door.
“Is that what I think it is?” I asked, waiting for him to catch up, bouncing on my heels while he had to get completely dressed.
Kyren’s gaze hardened. “Jack’s blood.”
We stalked out of the bedroom and raced through the hallway. With how early it was for most students, the hallways were deserted, and no one lingered in the common room as we followed the scent of Jack’s blood all the way to the bathroom.
There was no sign of anyone in the bathroom, the darkness illuminated by the automatic lights after we stepped in. The scent of blood was stronger here, but there was no sign of her.
A single shower stall was on, the sound of water hitting tile echoing off the walls.
“Jack?” I asked, stepping toward the stall. “Princess, is that you?”
A single sucked-in breath and sniffle was the only answer I received.
Glancing at Kyren, we stepped toward the stall. A part of me wanted to rush in and scoop her up into my arms, demand she tell me why she was bleeding, and what all that was earlier. While another part was scared to know what was behind that curtain, a fear that I hadn’t had since I was merely a werewolf and not so hard to kill.
I pulled the curtain back to show Jack’s helmet and a bag I’d never seen before. The stall wasn’t large enough for both of us to fit, so only one of us could fit inside to open the next curtain. A black blob mixed with skin and blood curled up in the corner of the stall.
Kyren’s growl hit my back, and I agreed with his sentiment. Whoever did this to our girl was dead. Dead in a slowly painful manner that lasted for days before buried, so dead even dogs couldn’t find their bodies.
“Princess,” I murmured, reaching out to brush her hair away from her face. “Are you hurt?”
There was so much blood on her, and yet only some of it smelled like her. The rest was someone else’s. A part of me was relieved at that fact, yet it didn’t dim the terror at seeing her like this.
“No,” she said, her words so small.
Kyren pushed past me, squeezing into the small shower stall fully dress. “Who did this to you?”
Jack shook her head, not answering.
Even with our bond only going one way, I could feel Kyren’s rage and protectiveness. They wafted off of him in waves. Inudged him out of the way, resulting in a glare, while I tried to get Jack to respond to us.
The blood we’d smelled earlier must have come from the few bites and cuts that were along her arms and face. Most of them had started to close up already, healing much faster than a normal human servant. Maybe she’d drank some vampire blood to heal faster.
Regardless, it settled a small part of me to know she wasn’t seriously hurt. Whose blood she was covered in was another story.
“Jack.” I lifted her chin. “Who hurt you?”
Her shoulders shook, her eyes hollow, as if she couldn’t really see us.
I reached over, turned the shower off, and grabbed a towel. I wrapped it around her, dragging her partly across the wet tiled floor. She was dead weight in my arms and let me do whatever it was I wanted to her.
