Whatever. We’d be ready.
I continued the training Ez started with Eryn, having no problem admitting it was a good idea. One or both of us were near her at all times, and I made sure she’d fed last night, replenishing her magick. Come summertime, we could retreat to the family compound to regroup, and be better prepared to return for the fall semester. Until she was ready to bond, this would be our life, but I’d protect her right to choose with everything I had in me.
“Take a deep breath, princess, before you hyperventilate,” I teased, trying to keep her calm.
When she only huffed at me in annoyance, I leaned forward and kissed her. Slowly. Lazily. I lightly dragged my tongue across the seam of her mouth, begging for entrance. She clutched at my shirt, halfheartedly pressing her mouth back against mine like she wasn’t really present in the moment. That wouldn’t do.
Capturing her bottom lip between my teeth, I bit down until she gasped, and then took advantage of her full attention. Myhand caressed up her back and sank into her soft curls as I cradled her head, opening her to the right angle for the slow strokes of my tongue, deep and dominant, just the way she liked it. Arousal vibrated the bond in my chest, and the little whimpers leaving her between gasps for air told me my distraction was working.
“Go have fun with your friend and stop worrying,” I whispered against her lips. “That’s my job.”
One more lingering kiss, and I pulled away. Her eyes were half-lidded, and the emerald behind her thick lashes gleamed with hunger. My answering grin was pure masculine pride as I left her in the capable hands of her approaching friend.
“I need her brain to work tonight, Kai!” Rani called. “You couldn’t have turned it to mushaftershe explained the interaction of morphological and biochemical properties of terrestrial plants?”
My grin didn’t fade as I shrugged and struck a path out of the courtyard. I planned to circle around and watch them as they ate in the Commons, then discreetly follow as they went back to the dorms. Eryn was right, Rani was getting too suspicious, so subtlety was needed while guarding them tonight.
A half-hour later, Ezra met me outside. Hidden in the shadows of the building across the way, I had a perfect view of the girls as they ate and would clearly see when they left. Until they were safe behind the wards on the dorm, I wouldn't let them out of my sight.
“Sit down, Ez,” I growled and pulled my cousin back against the brick. “We don’t want her to see you.”
“I can’t help it, something about her makes me want to stand under the streetlight and peer through the window, you know?”
I gave him a strong side-eye, although I knew he was joking. Ez was as much of a stalker as I was, but even I had to admit, the redhead had him tied up in knots. I’d never seen him like this.Maybe it was the chase. Or maybe, my cousin had finally met his match. Changing the subject before he created bad poetry about the complexion of her skin—I didn’t want to sit throughthatagain—I asked for his report.
“Nothing, cuz.” He fidgeted and took another quick glance at the girls. I shared his apprehension. “It just doesn't make any sense. Why back off now? Lay low to make sure they weren’t caught after releasing their demon dogs, sure. But the tribunal’s been silent, so why not press their advantage?”
My thoughts exactly. The loss of their hounds was a hard blow, but not one they couldn’t recover from. And if I knew anything about Kol, it was that he had a single-minded determination—to the point of self-destruction—and nothing would stop him as long as Eryn wasn’t safely bonded to me. Maybe not even then.
“We stay vigilant,” I told him. “There’s not much else we can do. An outright move against Kol will be seen as breaking the accords, and I can’t risk that.”
“The fucker,” Ez growled. “He gets to almost kill you, and that’s not seen as breaking the accords?”
No one knew about the attacks against me and my bond, outside of my mother and those she most trusted. We had no proof that they weren’t the actions of rebelling hunters still after the old bounty. Kol was good at moving under the radar. I wasn’t even sure his father knew what he was up to.
I grimaced because we really were between a rock and a hard place. “We win by staying within the rules. I can’t afford for my bond with Eryn to be brought into question. There’s generations of mistrust of her kind we already have to overcome.”
The girls were leaving the Commons, and I stood to follow them, Ez close on my heels. Evening had fallen, leaving the sun to disappear behind the treetops. Campus grew dark way quicker because of the surrounding forest, and the streetlightsflickered to life, creating pockets of light along the path. Eryn and Rani laughed about something, their squeals rebounding off the old buildings, and I smiled.
This was all I wanted for her—happiness. The feeling of contentment in my chest. She warily watched the shadows as they crossed from a heavily lit area to the overgrown path leading up to the dorms, and the fact that she had to look over her shoulder like that made me want to break something. One day, she’d know true peace. I swore it.
Movement in the dark put me on alert, and Ezra stiffened beside me as he noticed it too. Eryn froze. Maybe it was her net of magick or some innate sense of self-preservation, either way, she gripped Rani’s arm and moved them at a swifter pace to the back door of the dorm.
My feet ate up the distance between us, but I’d allowed them to get too far ahead. I couldn’t get there in time before the man stepped in their path, halting their escape. Words were exchanged, too low for me to hear, but I was running now. I recognized the vampire, had counted him as an ally. Denial surged as I pushed myself harder. Almost there. Ezra cursed, and I knew he figured it out as quickly as I had. How far did Kol’s reach go?
“We don’t have any money, jackass!” Rani’s sass was usually a good deterrent, but this was no ordinary foe she faced.
Dalton wasn’t just a vampire, he was the heir, the second strongest of their kind. What the fuck was he doing here? His amber gaze met mine over Eryn’s shoulder, and regret shined back at me a second before he lashed out to grab her arm. Fuck! Eryn fought his hold, but supernatural strength wasn’t a gift a nightmare possessed.
“Let me go,” she demanded, her tone eerily calm.
The scent of lavender saturated the air as Dalton froze, caught under her spell. Good girl. We reached them just in timeto catch Eryn ordering Rani to run. One hand held to the vampire’s cheek, Eryn couldn’t look away or she risked breaking her hold on him.
“Are you out of your damn mind?” Rani shouted. “Why the hell would you ask me to leave you with the guy who tried to mug us?” Her enraged frown whipped to us as we barreled down on them. “And where did you guys come from?”
“Not now, babe.” Ez wrapped an arm around Rani’s waist and dragged her a safe distance away.
I carefully approached Eryn. Her arm shook. The strength it took to hold that connection with an heir trained to resist her was astounding. She was incredible. I leaned into our faint bond, pushing what energy I could toward her. There wasn’t much else I could do until she let go. Her eyes were wide in a faraway expression, vacant.
