Julian laughed in my ear. “Remind me to work on your acting skills next time we train.”
I ignored him. Anything I said would give everything away.
We moved into the crowd of people until we were in front of a large, teepee shaped fire. The smoke smelled of burning incense and some kind of fruit, much more pleasant than most bonfires. For a witch party, I figured they’d play some kind of Celtic or nature pipe type of music, but the rock and roll pouring from the speakers set up were anything but.
“Let’s get a drink,” Xinyi told me, taking the lead as Iris and I followed behind her.
Almost everyone stopped to talk to her, a few of them even tried to talk to me, but I indicated I was following Xinyi and escaped.
I had worried about coming to the party based on the way the other students had reacted to my presence recently. The last thing I wanted was to be surrounded by sycophants or, even worse, some of my family’s haters. I knew if I was going to have to listen to a lot of praise for me and my family, I was definitely going to need a drink.
“Here.” Xinyi handed me a cup, and a spicy scent like cinnamon and cloves filled my nose. She gave Iris a different cup that had an x on it.
“What’s in that?” I couldn’t help but ask.
Iris peered down at the plastic red cup and frowned as if it personally offended her. “Usually, for the vampires, they have blood mixed with rum or wine. This seems to be a new kind of concoction. I can still smell the blood, but everything else... I’m not sure.”
I watched her lift the cup to her mouth. “Should you really be drinking that then?”
“Unless it cuts my head off or stakes me, I doubt it will do much harm.” She shrugged.
I hummed.
If I was a vampire, would I be as trusting of unknown substances? I wasn’t so sure. Maybe it took centuries to get over the feeling of being killable. I was more durable than an average human, but I still knew a shot to the heart, poison slipped into my cup, or even a well-placed cut to an artery would kill me just like any other human being.
“Durand, don’t get distracted,” Julian’s voice in my ear reminded.
I scowled, then realized he couldn’t see me to be properly scolded. I wasn’t sure I liked him in my ear during an undercover operation.
“Jack!” Xinyi grabbed my arm, pulling me toward an open area where others had started to dance. “Dance with me!”
I laughed and swayed from side to side, not wanting to spill my drink.
“I miss your laugh,” Julian murmured in my ear, far more intimate than if he’d been right next to me. “You never laugh around me anymore. Not like that.”
I swallowed a mouth full of the witch’s brew, not sure what to say or even how to say it with so much supernatural hearing around me. A hand squeezed around my heart, reminding me what we once had and what we were now were.
Colleagues. Acquaintances. Virtual strangers.
Strangers who had seen each other naked and knew what each other sounded like when we came, but still strangers all the same. Even before our one night together, we had been thick as thieves. Could finish each other’s sentences and everything.
I missed that. Missed him.
Sucking in a shaky breath, I mimed to Xinyi that I was going to get another drink. She grinned, nodding as she danced between two attractive males. I found Iris on the side of thedance floor watching, but she didn’t seem upset or jealous about Xinyi’s dance partners.
“How do you do that?” I asked, standing next to her.
Iris pulled her gaze away from me to arch a brow.
“Not get jealous.”
Her lips curled up into a gorgeous smile. “Because... I can feel what Xinyi feels in here.” She pressed her hand to my chest where my heartbeat. “The human-servant bond is a one-way emotional tether. A reminder that we are loved.” Her lips turned down slightly. “And also a warning system for when that love is being harmed. A good vampire, a good partner, knows when to trust that feeling and when to worry. The ones who do not never cared about their blood-bonded to begin with.”
Iris turned her attention back to Xinyi, smiling and laughing in the crowd of dancers. “Dancing makes her happy. I always want her to be happy.”
I envied Iris’ devotion to my friend. It made me wonder if I’d ever inspired such devotion in any of the guys I’d been with. Julian had been a friend that turned lover. Tate had barely been a roommate before, like a wave, he engulfed me with his love.
Then there was Kyren. His affection was... intense. Scary. World consuming. And also exciting. Out of the three of them, I knew he would do anything for me. Break all the rules. Or he would have. Now... I wasn’t so sure.
