And he’s talking about Kane. How does one begin to explain Kane to another person?
Me
That’s because I don’t know. No one knows.
He interviewed each of my friends that day under the guise of doing hockey player safety audits, but all he did was ask them about me.
I did not swoon.
Okay, maybe I did a bit.
Rhys kicks me under the table, the universal alert forthere’s an officer approaching. I shove my phone in my pocket and then proceed to stuff my gob. Practice was killer, and we’re all more haggard than usual.
Griff’s at a table with some of the other plebes in his year. At least there’s no fucking Rowan in sight. He hasn’t been at practice or games either. I hope that means he was transferred or decided to move to the jungle. Griff’s got his head down, forcing food into his mouth. I crane my head, probably not too inconspicuous, but I need to see if … yeah, it’s there. The mask. It’s next to his tray for when he’s done eating.
My heart does a fucking somersault dive into a vat of ice. I’d march straight over there if I didn’t think it would make things worse for him.
I should look away, but I can’t, hoping he can feel how much I love him from all the way over here. And I take a mental picture of his joyless face. When things get hard for me, I’m going to remember that face. This is why I’m doing everything I’m doing.
Two guys approach his table fresh from the food line-up—Wren and Scout. They’re … are they wearing masks over their mouths? They are. Like the kind doctors wear, but a black cloth version. One of them sits beside Griff, the other across from him.
Solidarity.
Griff smiles.
My forever-coiled muscles relax just a little bit.
These motherfuckers.
My skates glide through the splotches of blood on the ice as I race with the puck, adrenaline sizzling through my veins. These guys are big, as big as we are, and I can’t help feeling like we’ve played them before. But like us, they’re masked, identities hidden.
Wham!
I’m slammed into the boards with the force of a battering ram. The puck’s knocked loose, and just because he can, buddy throws an uppercut that connects with the underside of my jaw. I shove, knocking him off his skates, sending him flying into a blood-filled pit, otherwise known as the ice.
Skating into the defensive zone, I fight to recover the puck with a nice heavy check into the boards. The puck slips from his stick, but I get mine on it, sending it behind me, straight to Gideon’s blade. He passes up to Kane, who skates around their defense like they’re nothing but pylons on drill day.
King shoots … he scores!
We skate through the battlefield, celebrating the goal with a group smash hug as half the crowd cheers with us and the other boos us from the depths of their soul. My eyes travel over our group—jerseys torn, red smeared, but buoyant in a way I haven’t seen us in a long time. We needed this. North Point sucks the joy out of hockey to the point that murder hockey is more fun.
Dia-fucking-bolical.
“Where is he?” Ethan shouts, charging into the dressing room during the second period intermission.
Shit.
I’m allowed into the brewery and even the dressing room to help coach the team. Hell, I’m even permitted on the bench, just not allowed on the ice. But it’s chaos down here, we’re masked, and well, to some degree, trust played a factor. Ethan was the only one I was worried about, and unless he was keeping a close eye, which he wasn’t, it was pretty easy to get out there. I should have gotten away with it for the entire game. Ethan down here can only mean one thing—Tate’s here. I shiver.
“Where’s who?” Becks tries, removing his mask, stepping between Ethan and me, and flashing his dark eyes at him. That usually works on everyone. It does shit all right now.
“Step aside,” he says with enough bite that he might have Becks believing he’s actually a supernatural creature.
I remove my mask. “It’s okay, guys. I’ll go with him.”
Kane shrugs, patting me on the shoulder. “Was nice knowing you, Cap. We’re not in any trouble, though, are we, Mr. Vampire? I didn’t know it was him either.”
Ethan ignores him. “Come with me.”
