At any rate, Vaughn is here, not for his friends, since he wasn’t with Jeremy and Killian on Nikolai’s side, but for me.
And I’ll be damned if I let him go this time.
So I hop on my new bike, nameless because I refuse to cheat on Zver, and indulge in my new favorite hobby.
Chase.
17
VAUGHN
Once again, I find myself in the one place I shouldn’t have gone to.
It started with a simple text exchange with Jeremy earlier today.
He mentioned that Niko is stoked for a fight with the Serpents’ leader. Jeremy wasn’t thrilled, but he said it’s better to have Niko occupied with fighting someone on his level than running around wreaking havoc.
The next thing I knew, I was on the plane—after informing my parents so they wouldn’t worry like the last time.
While I soothed my conscious on that front, my brain needed a reason to justify this pressuring madness that keeps mounting and invading my life like a parasitic entity.
I came up with one.
The reason for this trip—one of many I’ve taken recently—is to make sure Yulian doesn’t mess with Niko. I don’t mean from a fighting perspective, since both of them are obviously into that business, but from the other perspective. The one where Yulian threatened to seduce Niko.
I wanted to protect my friend.
That’sall.
But I also didn’t want to alert the others to my presence, mostly because it’s completely out of character for me to be here for something other than initiations. The last thing I need is someone calling me out on the unusual behavior. I can barely explain it to myself, let alone to others.
For the whole fight, I stood motionless in the middle of the chanting chaos and the noisy crowd. I remained still even as some students bumped into me in their excited cheering.
With every punch and jab and easy laugh leaving Yulian’s lips, I was growing uncomfortable, feeling suffocated.
Nauseated.
A cursed emotion gripped my chest when he was coughing up blood, and it didn’t disappear even when he grinned and jumped back into the fight.
I’ve often wondered why he has so little respect for his life after what happened four years ago when he was fine with taking a bullet and possibly dying. It feels as if he has absolutely no regard for his life, and that irks me.
Even now, fleeing the crime scene, the irritated sensation clings to me—a brutal squeeze in my chest, so harsh and sickening, it steals my breath.
And yes, I had tofleebecause Yulian looked at me.
It was a fraction of a second, and I was so sure the cap would give me anonymity, but like always with Yulian, he looked at me as if he could see through my outer layers—whether they’re clothes or masks or anything in between.
The last thing I want is for him to find out I’m here. He’ll think it’s for him—not that that’s wrong—and I truly can’t give him any more ideas. He’s already too audacious for his own good as it is.
So I drive away from the underground ring’s arena in the rented sports car. I should leave and, preferably, never come back. It’s clear that Niko isn’t sexually or romantically interested in Yulian and probably never will be.
But other peopleareinterested in Yulian. Such as the fair-skinned blond who left his changing room in the arena before Cyrus went in. I was able to sneak close, blending in with the arena’s staff, and could see the guy walking out, licking his lips.
My grip tightens on the steering wheel until my knuckles turn white.
I couldn’t care less who that degenerate Yulian fucks as long as it’s not Niko.
And yet…I can’t get the image of that guy out of my head.
