It would get him staked one of these days.
Sighing, I pushed the button to lower the window. The parking lot lights lit up behind him, giving him a more menacing presence. Though anyone who was scared of this scrawny pointed nosependejodeserved to be eaten.
“Yes?” I kept my tone bland. I didn’t want to encourage him to stay longer than necessary.
“Hey, Kyren.” Gavin leaned forward, placing his hands on the edge of my window. “Glad to see you haven’t fled campus. We had bets on if you’d come back.” He chuckled and puffed his chest out. “I bet you’d come back. No way, Kyren runs from a human bitch. But I mean you can get pussy anywhere, but that Durand pussy must be prim—”
Before I knew what was happening, my shadows shot out, grabbing Gavin by the throat, yanking him half into the car. My eyes burned into his as I snarled in his face. “Donottalk about her that way.”
Gavin’s eyes bulged from his head, the need for air not a problem so much as the threat of my shadows ripping his headoff. He braced himself on the door, trying not push away, his voice strained.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
With a growl, I threw him back, glaring at the vampire on the pavement.
“I have other business to attend to—” I revved my engine about to peel out of the parking lot when Gavin quickly threw himself back onto my car door.
“I’m sorry, really. I just thought that you hate the Durands... and their bit—” A low growl of warning from me made him adjust. “Their daughter is here. I figured you’d want to get some revenge, and I know the people who can help you.”
I stared at him for a long moment. I knew there were whispers of vampires and other supernaturals alike who thought as I did and didn’t like the way the new council was going, putting all these restrictions on us as if we were some privative beings who could be policed. Until now, no one had approached me on the subject.
I’d always been in the mindset that we could police ourselves and didn’t need any human hybrids telling us what we could and couldn’t do. It was beneficial to all our kinds to stay under the radar. This desire to acclimate with the humans didn’t make sense to me. We weren’t human, so why pretend to be one?
Still, I wasn’t sure this group of radicals were the ones I wanted to be associated with in my quest to bring us back on track. Though the rest of the supernatural world wasn’t my problem. I had only one goal in mind, and that was to bring pain and misery onto the Durands.
Or at least, it had been.
Gavin took my silence for an invitation to keep talking. “We have a meeting on Thursday. Third floor chemistry 305. If you’re interested—”
“I’m not.”
Without any further explanation, I rolled up my window and pressed on the gas. Gavin jumped back as I zipped by, pulling out of the academy parking lot and onto the open road.
I hadn’t realized that my open disdain for the Durands and Jack’s reveal would bring me so much attention. Even if I were interested in helping take down the current council, I wouldn’t associate with anyone who let Gavin into their faction. We had more than enough of a bad reputation without adding blowhards to it.
While I drove away from school, my mind and heart were still there, wondering what Jack was doing. If she was being hounded by the students. If anyone had made threats.
The very thought of someone getting to her and me not being there. The image of her bleeding and broken, staring at the shower stall wall, came to mind. My foot pressed harder on the accelerator.
No. If anyone was going to cause Jack harm, it would be me. Her pain and suffering were mine and mine alone, and I wouldn’t let anyone else take it away from me.
Chapter 8
Julian
Ever since class with Jack and that... wolf, I’d been in a bad mood. Everything pissed me off. The students talked too much; I snapped at them. They didn’t participate enough; they were lazy and wasting my time. The cafeteria didn’t have any more of the coffee I liked; I almost pulled a knife on the cafeteria worker.
The end of the day couldn’t come any faster. I had office hours after dinner and needed to decompress before I had to take on the idiotic questions I’d no doubt be subjected to for the next two hours.
How any of these creatures had lived this long was a miracle. Either our hunters weren’t as skilled as I thought, or the masses were better at hiding their crimes from under our noses. I knew at least half a dozen names I would be passing on to President Fleming to investigate, and that was from this semester alone. I couldn’t help but wonder how many more would end up tasting the hunter’s blade before the school year ended.
As I walked up to my apartment, my tension didn’t lesson.
Would Jack be in there again?
I couldn’t figure out if I wanted her there or was dreading her appearance. Just being near her was pure torture, having her in my space — alone — was even worse.
At least when we were on the same hunting team, we didn’t have time to get caught up in feelings. We were too busy tracking down our prey. Then, after missions, we could ignore each other. Each of us pretended the other didn’t exist outside of missions and debriefings.
