Blood to a vampire was always a battle of wills. The older you were, the easier it was to fight against the need to feed the moment blood appears.
But period blood? It was the sweetest kind there was. Heroine to a crack addict.
Normally, the humans stayed close to their vampire partners during that time of the month. Same with the female werewolves, who hid in their rooms or, if they were really daring, flaunted it to their male counterparts. The witches used charms to hide their scent, making it impossible to know when they were menstruating or not.
The last time Jack had her period, we weren’t together. Tate had just started dating her, and I’d still been watching her from a distance. There were several days where her bleeding was particularly heavy that I’d had to leave campus all together so I wouldn’t pin her down and bury my face between her thighs.
This time...
I shuddered. If we were still together, I could have partaken in Tate’s and Jack’s encounter. Spent the week camped between her legs, eased her cramps, and made her come with my tongue and cock inside of her.
For Tate to come here, flaunting her state in front of me like this, was cruel. Torturous.
“Do you hate me so much?” I murmured at the fireplace.
“No, Kyren. Of course not.” Tate’s form appeared behind me, arms wrapping around my shoulders. “But I think you’re hating yourself enough right now, and I just wanted to remind you of what you’re missing. What you could be having right now if you’d just let go of this grudge.”
Anger welled in my chest, which was better than the desperation and hunger I felt.
“A grudge?” I scoffed a laugh. “You think this is just some grudge?” I shoved out of his arms and spun on him. “They killed my sire.”
“Who did?” Tate countered, his face calm not reacting to my outburst.
“The Durands. You know that.”
“Which Durands? Specifically.”
“Piper,” I growled, glaring at him.
“So... not Jack,” Tate pushed.
The muscles in my jaw tightened as I bit out, “No.”
“So... you’re torturing yourself and her because of something both your parents did?” Tate cocked his head to the side. “Sounds kind of medieval to me.”
“I’m not going to argue the semantics of vengeance with you.”
“Alright, don’t. Let this get between you and Jack. Let it eat you alive until all you have is your hate for her family.” He took a step back as if to leave and then paused. “Oh, yeah. Something else important. That professor, the hunter?”
I didn’t say anything waiting for him to finish.
“Yeah, him.” He locked eyes with me, a kind of glint to his gaze. “They used to date and have been awfully cozy as of late. Just thought you should know.”
His words hit me square in the chest. The hunter. I knew it. I fucking knew it. He looked at her too much. Even in class, he spent more time with his eyes on her than everyone else combined, and Jack’s explanation that they had a history never felt completely true.
Knowing that itchy feeling I had toward him wasn’t unwarranted made me want to smash something. It made me wish I’d spent longer on those two last night. Really wrung out every bit of pain I could get from them, because right now, I wanted to rip someone’s throat out. That throat being the professor’s.
“Fuck you, Tate.” I pressed my lips hard against his. “I love you but... fuck you.”
Then I let the shadows engulf me, taking me from my apartment and across town until I landed outside the school gates.
I stalked through the hallways, ignoring the looks and greetings directed at me. I had only one person in mind right now and that was the professor.
Even if I couldn’t have Jack. I sure as hell wasn’t lettinghimhave her. I’d see him bleeding out on the stones before I let that happen.
My fist banged on the door of his office, my foot tapping impatiently for him to answer. When there wasn’t one, I glanced down each stretch of hallway before using my shadows to portal inside, ending up on the backside of his desk.
Empty.
