“No problem. I’ll see you in class?”
Tate nodded, and the little witch skipped away.
“Well?” I glanced at the paper over his shoulder. “We got what we came for. Should we check it out? The next full moon is only a week away.”
Tate mused over my question hesitating a moment before saying, “I think we should tell Julian about it first. We did promise to do this together.”
“Fine.” I scowled. “We can include the hunter, but you must promise to keep your emotions in check. We don’t need you shifting in the middle of the market.”
Tate nodded. “It does pose a problem. But hey, at least we know there won’t be any other werewolves there.”
“Right.”
Tate thought his ability to suppress his werewolf side came strictly from his bond with me. I tried to explain to him once that he would have to already have been a strong alpha with control over his wolf for that to be the case.
Pulling out his phone, Tate typed a message. “I asked Julian to meet us after class. He should have lunch after this. Also, have you heard from Jack? I’ve sent her several texts but haven’t heard back from her. Do you think she’s mad at me for something?”
I patted Tate on the arm in reassurance. “No, she’s not mad at you. She lost her phone last night back at the club.”
“Maybe we should go back and get it for her?” Tate mused and then shook his head. “Anyway, I’m going to go to class for once since we have time to kill. Are you going to be okay?”
I arched a brow, making him laugh.
“Okay, okay. Fine. Just don’t spill any blood on campus. We have enough to worry about without adding clean-up to our list of things to do.”
While Tate went to class, I pondered over what he’d said. If I wanted to get back in Jack’s good graces, I had to start somewhere. Perhaps getting her clutch back would be a step toward that. Though I highly doubted that it was back at the club. If anything, Iris or Xinyi had grabbed it when they took off.
Last night came to mind again, the whole scenario was highly suspicious. Why would they leave without Jack?
Determined to find Jack’s bag and get some answers, I wandered through the halls until I reached the cafeteria. If my memory served, Iris and Xinyi didn’t have class now. I’d seen them hanging in the cafeteria during this time before, so hopefully, they would be there again.
Stepping into the cafeteria, I ignored the onslaught of smells and noise, my eyes scanning the crowd for the telltale sign of the two women. I found Iris talking to another vampire and Xinyi with her face down on the table, an untouched plate of food before her.
When I approached Iris, she turned her attention from the vampire, who took one look at me and abruptly stood and left. I supposed I did have a prickly reputation.
“We need to talk.”
At the sound of my voice, Xinyi lifted her head. Her eyes widened on me. “Kyren, you’re back! You are back, right?”
I looked the human over, taking in the bags under her eyes and the smeared makeup. “No, not really. Just for today.”
“Oh.” Xinyi slumped in her chair. “Jack’s not here, if that’s who you’re looking for.”
“I know,” I clipped, letting the annoyance fill my voice. “I’m the one who took her home last night.”
Iris stared at me, not answering my unasked question, while Xinyi blew out a breath.
“Oh, thank god. We couldn’t find her after she went to the bathroom last night and thought maybe she took off, but then she had left her purse with her phone and stuff in it, and we didn’t know what to do.”
I arched a brow. “Why didn’t you call someone?”
Xinyi shrank in her chair under the heaviness of my gaze.
Her mistress answered this time. “Jack is an adult. She can take care of herself. Also, we did not think she would want her parents to know what happened.”
“Yeah, exactly,” Xinyi pointed out. “We figured we’d check on her today and then, if she wasn’t home, report it.”
I wasn’t sure how much I believed their story, but I didn’t know either of them enough to press the issue. “Do you have her purse? I’ll take it to her.”
