“Vampire and I was giving her my blood to heal her. We didn’t do this. She was running away from her team and found us. Lola shouldn’t have to drop out of the trials because her team got violent.”
“Do you want his blood, little one?” Mazen asked.
“It hurts a lot, and the wolves said it would heal me,” she whimpered. “They said the only side effect is that I might get a little crush on Lucian until it fades.”
“You could come with us so the distance helps. We’ll protect you. I’m Radames.”
Their team was pretty small. It was Mazen, Radames, and a girl who didn’t look Egyptian, but looked like she might want to be between two of them. She was glaring at Lola like it was her fault she got assaulted and the only way she could complete the trials was to temporarily catch feelings to Lucian.
She already said Lucian wasn’t her type and Lucian seemed to find the idea of a fake blood crush repulsive, so the distance was an excellent suggestion. Everyone seemed into the idea, even the wolves.
The only person who was wholly against it was Khalid and he had been the most level-headed of us so far. And I had a feeling this wasmuchdeeper than just some tattoos he probably knew about because his dad was a cop.
“Who are you?” Khalid demanded. “You would have gotten a vision and a hint. If you know your history, you can probably guess.”
“You think the people who lived in the slums with ration cards had time to read about the old gods? I wasn’t even praying to the new ones because I could only ever count on myself,” Mazen sneered.
“What did you see?”
“We don’t know you,” Radames said. “Those seem like personal questions and another reason for you to judge Mazen when he did nothing to you. Please give Lola your blood and if she wants to, she can come with us so she’s not your blood slave.”
“That’s not really a thing,” Rona said.
“She’s going to think she’s in love with him because of his blood. It’s mind rape,” Mazen snapped.
“Excuse me, but I don’t wantanyoneto have feelings for me for any reason other thanme.I’m only even offering my blood because if I don’t, she’s going to have to drop out of the trials and she’ll be in danger if she doesn’t get her magic unlocked. So, knock off the ‘blood slave’ and ‘mind rape’ shit. I didn’t fucking ask for my blood to do any of that.”
“It’s fine,” Lola said. “It’ll help me and the distance will make it better.”
“As long asyousay it’s fine. I usually kill rapists,” Mazen said.
Liam was grinning like a psycho.
“Khalid, you might not like this one and our originals probably never met, but I’d like to think one of ourlater reincarnations met and went on holidays together just murdering rapists all over the world.”
Khalid just grunted and stalked off towards where the crystal was hidden. I guess he decided to figure out the booby traps while we did this because he didn’t want to be around these men anymore.
I didn’t know what was up with Khalid, but I couldn’t figure out what was going on withme,either. I couldsenseKhalid and these men had been connected in a bad way in their first life and it could quite possibly go to shit in this one.
And I was pretty sure Khalid started it off on the wrong foot.
Icould feel myself being a completely irrational asshole and couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t be okay with Liam being a vigilante and judge Mazen for it. It wasn’t logical. There was just something about Mazen that set me off.
Radames, too, in a sense. He was calm, collected, and I couldn’t see a single tattoo on him that was associated with criminals. He was well dressed, groomed, and polite. Ishouldhave gotten along with him, and I wasn’t usually a judgmental person.
This was magic. I was feeling something I didn’t understand. I wanted to, but I didn’t have the time. Ishouldhave been making a stink about letting Lola go with them because I didn’ttrust them. Lola was a victim, but there was just something about her, too.
I knew more about my jackal senses than I did anything else. Everyone here had a scent. The wolves smelled similar, but they were all distinct. It was like that with the vampires and fairies I’d met.
I was fairly certain I was scenting magic. I couldn’t compare because I hadn’t been around anyone without it since I got snatched. They checked my neck for the birthmark, but they even knew Sage’s parents had hers removed when she was a baby. They were pretty thorough about who was supposed to be here.
Lola hadn’t set off any red flags so far. She wouldn’t. She was the victim here. I was raging at whoever did that to her and I might have a little Liam in me. I realized Sage had come to join me while I was figuring out why a tiny girl who had the shit beat out of her was bothering me.
“I’m not sure who those guys were in their original life and Headmaster Mykene keeps say the past is the past, but I canfeelthey are connected to you in the present. Connected to all of us, really. But I don’t really know if that means friend or foe yet. It might be fluid right now.”
“What about Lola?” I asked.
Because I really wanted to avenge Lola, but I couldn’t figure her outat all.
