Rowan Monroe was becoming the bane of my existence. How had he even found me at Oubliette? I’d been careful, meticulously so, making sure no one from school knew where I was going. The timing was too precise to be a coincidence.Is he following me?The thought coiled in my stomach and—much to my dismay—I felt flattered.
Nope. No way. I am not into stalkers.
What was his game? Why did he care? I struggled to understand his sudden protectiveness. He’d never shown interest in my welfare before. We’d spent years circling each other with barbed words from a prickly distance.
And something about Oubliette had rattled him. Something he’d seen there. Perhaps he’d noticed evidence of what I’d always suspected—that Oubliette served as a hub of illegal activity. But if that were true, then why did all of the girls I’d met there seem so happy? Bri didn’t act like she was trapped. Jules was one of the most upbeat people I’d ever met. Is the illegal side of Oubliette confined to those lower floors I had never been taken to?
It doesn’t matter what Rowan thinks about me, Oubliette, or the clientele there.I just needed him gone before he destroyed my only opportunity for vengeance. Oubliette was my gateway. My path to Edward. My chance to find that monster.
And Rowan was going to ruin everything if he interfered.
“Violet,” Rowan called to me. “Stop. Just. . . stop for a moment.”
I didn’t stop. “Walk and talk, Rowan. I’m going to be at the showers in a second, so you should talk fast.”
He caught up to me, and lightly touched my elbow. “Violet,” he said, voice low, “you have no idea what you are walking into.”
His eyes flicked to my blistered feet, then back up to my face. For a heartbeat, his expression was soft, with something like worry swimming in the depths of his eyes. But then it was gone, replaced with the same stoicism he always wore.
“I know exactly what I’m walking into,” I said with a smirk as I pulled away from him. “I’m walking into the showers.”
I heard him groan from behind me.
I stifled a laugh at that, and left him standing there as I walked into the communal showers, giving him the finger without looking back at him.
Chapter 10
Rowan
“Ihate you,” Violet said to me.
Unkind. Untrue, but also unkind.
I leaned close to her and said, “So you’ve told me for years. Now, where is your shower?”
My words grated my own ears. I was exhausted, tapped out from the earlier encounter with that vampyre followed by the strain of searching for Violet with my heightened hearing all evening. Every laugh, every whisper, every heartbeat had crashed into my skull like a jack hammer until I had nearly lost my mind tracking her. Combined with my current hard-on that seemed to refuse to go down, I was surprised I hadn’t passed out.
I felt like a dirty grey rag, frayed and rung dry.
But exhaustion was not an excuse to be an asshole or a spoiled princess like the woman in front of me.
She turned and marched off. “Go. Away. You arenotfollowing me,” she said over her shoulder.
So, obviously, I followed her.
She stormed down the narrow hall as best as she could with painfully blistered feet. Each of her steps was deliberate and slow. The blisters bloomed red across her skin, and I saw the small streaks of crimson against her black cat sandals.
Blood. Fresh blood. She had no idea how thin that line was between daring and suicidal tonight. If she’d bled on that dance floor, not even I could’ve defended her from the speed of those monsters.
Part of me wanted to grab her, spin her around, and lecture until she let me handle this. The quieter, darker part knew she wouldn’t listen, leaving me torn between harsh punishment and abandonment. If she only knew how I teetered between humanity and self-preservation every goddamn second. How my old instincts whispered to take what I wanted, consequences be damned. Filled with nothing but her scent and heartbeat surrounding me as I filled her to the—
Fuck, I needed to leave.
I almost stalked the opposite direction as the hallway stretched too long, institutional lighting casting harsh shadows that made her look fragile despite her fury. I could see a crack in her icy demeanor and yet I couldn’t seem to get her to agree with anything I was saying. She was a goddamn enigma.
Running water hummed from the communal shower at the far end, reminding me how exposed she’d be. Not just physically. Every glance from the club’s shadows earlier had reminded me this world wasn’t safe. Vampyres tracking her pulse with their eyes. Werewolves noting her scent. Other supernaturals cataloging her as prey. Fuck, she wasn’t even safe around me right now.
I closed the distance and called out to her. “Violet. Stop. Just. . . stop for a moment.”
