The woman, Vicki, snickered, and Alister snarled in her direction.
“If you need anything, get in contact with me,” Alister said, and I nodded, throwing a wave over my shoulder and speeding out of his classroom.
I made it a few steps from the threshold before Damien appeared in front of me with a handsome smile on his lips. “Word of advice, little bird?”
“What’s that?” I stepped around him and started walking toward the lobby and he fell into step with me.
“The vampire? Vespertine? He’s kind of a dick.”
“A dick?” I repeated. “How so?”
“I’ve attained little information on him. Dad was a vampire, worked as an archeologist, got killed by humans that ambushed his dig site in human territory. Mom was a witch. Status unknown. Dude has a collection of bloodstones from the humans and supernaturals he kills. Bloodstones are rare because you use the last drop of their blood that their life force is still alive for,” he stated as if he were reading a file on Alister.
“And you know all that?”
“I know a lot of things about a lot of people,” he gloated, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
“Do you know anything about me?”
“I know what I know,” he said before reaching out and grabbing my arm. We slowed to a stop. “Listen, if you need me to maim anyone, I’d be happy to. And just so you know, if anyone so much as breathes in your direction without your permission, I’ll torture and kill them. My parents are vengeance demons, so I know all sorts of creative ways to make someone hurt.”
A giggle escaped my lips as a feeling swept through me. Nobody had ever cared enough to hurt or kill for me before. “Thanks, Damien. I appreciate that.”
Blinking, a slow smile made its way onto his face, and he leaned in and kissed my cheek. His form faded into the shadows in the next moment.
SEVEN
Alister
“She’ssotiny.”Vickiwrinkled her nose as she stared at the door Wren had just walked out of. “The girl will never satisfy your blood lust.”
“Who said that’s why I’m interested?” I muttered, turning and walking back around my desk to grab my tablet and open up next week's lesson plans. “What lessons do you need me to collaborate with?”
She giggled, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear. “Oh, I don’t need collaboration. Just needed an excuse to get you alone.”
“Fucking emerald birthstones, always green with jealousy.”
“Jealousy?” She scoffed, narrowing her eyes at me and cocking her hip to the side. “What do I have to be jealous of? Have you seen me?”
“Yes, I have.” I crossed my arms. “You’re beautiful at surface level, but your personality is shit. Which makes you nothing to me.”
“Is that fox tempting you? I can tell her to leave you alone if that’s the problem.” She batted her eyelashes at me, still pushing her luck.
“You even speak to that girl, and the only thing left of you will be a bloodstone,” I growled.
“Care to tell me what girl you’re talking about?” Rowan walked into the room with his brows arched in amusement.
“Nobody,” Vicki lied, pulling her shirt down a little more.
“Wren Clearwater. She’s a sweetheart. First year. Twenty-two. Her birthstone is a ruby,” I explained to the man who had found me at my lowest and offered me a job.
Rowan Barrington’s a firedrake and a fucking legend. He’d been through a lot of shit, half of it I didn’t know, but he was the headmaster for a reason. The man looked thirty, but he was actually one-hundred-twenty years old.
Dragons weren’t immortal, but they might as well have been.
“Wren?” His brow arched up in surprise. “The last arctic fox shifter?”
My chest ached, but I nodded. I couldn’t imagine how lonely being the last of your kind would feel.
