Right then, though, I just felt drained, and I leaned against Jared. He had no heat to keep me warm, but I didn’t need heat. I just needed him. And answers.
As we all headed back inside, I turned briefly to look at the wreckage of my seventeenth birthday party—the smashed cake, the scattered presents, the splattered blood.
But we’d won.
Happy birthday to me.
13
ALLIE
“Movie after training?” Jared asked as we took the stairs from the second-floor balcony down to the school’s backyard and the huge cemetery it abuts. Ancient and spooky, which makes it a great training area with the kind of demony vibe that gets you in a kick-ass frame of mind.
At the moment, I hoped Jared’s mind was elsewhere.
“Movie?”
He shrugged. “I saw they added some new stuff to the streaming queue.”
“Depends on what you’re thinking.” I shot him a sideways look. “If you say horror, I’m vetoing.”
“Good,” he said, “because I’ve had enough demons and training and practice battles over the last few days.”
I was right there with him. The last five days after the demons attacked the party had been crazy, with Mom and Daddy and Marcus and Cutter going into major overdrive on training, and dragging me along with them to teach, demonstrate, spar, whatever.
And, yes, it made a difference—the newbies were doing great, and they all have a new level of confidence—but at this point, I was actually craving an assignment that required opening a musty old book and tracing a demon’s lineage.
“Not action or horror,” Jared assured me. “Honestly, I was thinking we could pick something with less plot and more...atmosphere.”
“Atmosphere,” I repeated as my cheeks warmed. “Is that what we’re calling it now?”
His grin was slow and deliberate. “I have no idea what you’re implying.”
“Uh-huh.”
He flashed me the sexy grin that always makes me melt, then held my hand as we paused on the stairs with the grounds spread out in front of us. The sloping lawn, the old stone path, and beyond that, the cemetery where my parents had found Antonio’s body at the start of the semester.
The side gate from my literal party crashers had been repaired, but I could still see the pile of lumber that Stuart and Ren had used to fix it.
The sun had set over an hour ago, and the moon was rising, painting everything in a silvery glow. For a moment, it almost looked peaceful. Like a normal school with normal students and normal problems.
We reached the bottom of the stairs and saw Eliza and Sophie waving from a few yards down the path.
“Hey,” Sophie said with her sweet smile that we’d only newly discovered. Over the last few days, she’d been coming out of her shell—and doing great in training. Part of that’s probably because of Eliza’s steady mentoring, but most is because she kicked ass on my birthday. And that kind of ass-kicking is a serious confidence builder.
Trust me. I know these things.
“Hey,” Eliza said. “Heading out?”
“Just a walk.” I gestured vaguely toward the cemetery. “Needed some air.”
“Watch where you wander,” Eliza said, her tone teasing. “Zane went down there a while ago. Said he wanted to clear his head. We wouldn’t want anyone to interrupt any...private moments.”
“Eliza!” Sophie practically squeaked the word, and I shot Eliza a scowl. She definitely wasn’t following the Approved Kate Connor Rules of Mentoring.
“We’ll be careful,” Jared said dryly. “Wouldn’t want to traumatize the new kid.”
“Too late,” Eliza said. “Pretty sure watching you two spar yesterday already did that.”
