“He will not attack you here,” she said. “You have my word.”
A gust of wind swirled between them, lifting her hair and casting several locks in his direction. They danced across his cheek, tickling.
“Now. Let’s talk about something other than your intentions toward each other,” she suggested.
“I’m all for that,” Mary Ann said. Her anger appeared to have drained. “What are you guys doing here? Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy you’re here.” She flicked Riley a glance. “I just can’t figure out why you are.”
A tremor moved through Victoria and she dropped her arm, focus wavering between Aden’s face and his neck. “You know how I told you that my people sensed you?”
He nodded. Was she thinking of drinking from him?
“Well…we weren’t the only ones. Others have arrived.” Concern radiated from her as she leaned into him, careful not to make contact. “Goblins, fairies, witches,” she whispered. “They’re searching for the source of the lure.”
Dear God. More creatures? And they were searching for him? Aden shook his head, wishing the bombshell Victoria had just dropped could be dislodged and lost. Wishing he could forget the trouble that was sure to come. How much more could he take?
“We were raised among them and know how they operate,” she continued. “They’ll want to capture you. Study you.”
“That’s why we,” Riley said, butting in, “are here to protect the two of you from being taken or injured by these creatures.”
He laughed until he realized the werewolf was serious. “I can take care of myself.” He’d been doing it his entire life.
“Regardless.” Riley shrugged. “Orders are orders. Vlad doesn’t want you harmed before he’s had the chance to meet you.”
Aden tossed up his arms. “Why can’t he meet me now?”
Riley ignored him. “And you,” he said to Mary Ann, “are Aden’s closet friend, which means you could be used to get to him. Which is why you’ll be protected, too.”
She nodded and it looked like she was fighting a smile.
So did Riley. “The good news is, Victoria and I are now students here. You’ll be seeing a lot more of us.”
Victoria, with him all day? Okay. Maybe being hunted by goblins, fairies and witches wasn’t such a bad thing. Still…“I haven’t seen anyone suspicious.” Or different, for that matter. Wait. That wasn’t true. The old lady at the shopping center, the girl that first day here at the school and then the boy pretending to be John O’Conner. They glittered and pulsed with energy.
What if they were goblins, fairies or witches? But they hadn’t tried to hurt him or Mary Ann.
Again, Riley shrugged. “You might not have noticed them, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t seen you.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “What do those creatures want with me?”
“The same thing we did, I’m sure.” Victoria twirled her ponytail around her fingers. “To figure out how you blasted that energy, how you hurt them with it. And how you’re still humming with a strange sort of power. Except,” she added, tilting her head, “when you’re with Mary Ann. Only then does it stop. Well, except when Riley is with you. Why is that?”
“I don’t know.” But he wanted to figure it out. “What can you tell me about those I’m up against?”
“With witches, you must be careful.” Victoria clasped his hand briefly in warning. “They can smile while cursing you. Goblins enjoy eating human flesh. Unlike vampires, they do not take only a few pints of blood and walk away. They eat the entire body. Fairies are equally powerful, their beauty a mask for their treacherous hearts.” She had spat the word fairies.
“Don’t like fairies much, I take it?” Mary Ann said, brow arched.
Riley nodded. “They are our worst enemy.”
Even though Aden had dealt with weirdness his entire life, he realized anew that there was a whole world he knew nothing about. He might not want to learn it all, but he had to, every little detail.
“I spoke to my father yesterday,” Victoria began.
“Victoria,” Riley snapped.
“What? He needs to know.”
“You father will not like an outsider knowing of his frailty.”
“Aden won’t use the information against him.” Once again she reached out and squeezed Aden’s hand. “Anyway, during Samhain—Halloween, you humans call it—my father will officially rise. In honor of that, he is hosting a ball and it is there that he wishes to meet with you.”
There was a catch, he knew there was. There was too much guilt in her tone. Then her words sank in and he gaped at her. “You father, Vlad the Impaler, wants to meet with me on Halloween night? And what do you mean, he will officially rise? I thought he was alive and well.”
“Yes, he does want to meet you, and by rise I mean just that. For the past decade, he has been in hibernation to calm his mind, to prevent his too-long lifetime of memories from driving him insane. Your energy woke him early, though his body is—and will continue to be—weakened until the ceremony.”
Good lord. He’d woken a beast. Literally. No wonder Vlad had wanted to kill him at first.
“I’m asking you to please come,” Victoria said. “Do not try and thwart him. You will not like the consequences.”
Had she ever tried to thwart the man? he wondered as he peered into her now-haunted eyes. What had been done to her in punishment? Perhaps it was best that he didn’t know. If Vlad had hurt her, Aden would want to kill him. And if he tried to kill the king of the vampires, even in the man’s weakened condition, he’d most likely be chopped into little Aden bits and scattered throughout Crossroads.
Suck it up. Be a man, he told himself. He’d faced corpses before. Yeah, they’d bitten him and yeah, this one was possibly a thousand times more vicious, had sharper teeth, wasn’t really dead and still enjoyed the taste of blood, but he liked Victoria. For her, he would face anything. Anyone.
“Please,” she said, taking his silence as resistance.
“I’ll be there,” he said. He had a month to prepare, body and mind.
She grinned. “Thank you.”
Inside, a bell sounded, signaling they had five minutes to reach their first class. “You’re students, right?”
Victoria and Riley nodded in unison.
“Come on, then. We can’t be late.”
Reluctantly, the four of them headed toward the school. Their reprieve was over, and they wouldn’t get another one for a while yet.
“Do you guys have schedules and should we give you the tour?” Mary Ann asked, shyly glancing up at Riley.
“Yes and no,” the wolf shifter replied. “Yes, we have schedules and no, we don’t need a tour. We’ve already looked around.”
They had? “When?”
“Last night,” Victoria said with another grin. This one was sheepish.
God, he loved when she smiled like that.
His pulse must have spiked because her gaze fell to his neck; she licked her lips. Thinking of biting him?
That didn’t scare him anymore, he realized. Not even a little. Good thing, too. Soon, she would do it, unable to resist, just as Elijah had shown him. Finally Aden could lay two of her fears to rest: he would not be horrified by her actions and he would not become a blood-slave.
What if you do? whispered through his mind. He ignored the thought. Not like it would matter. He wasn’t going to be alive much longer, anyway.
“Did you see him?” a girl whispered to her friend as they walked past the tree and onto the pavement.
“Oh, yeah. Who is he?” another asked. “He’s hawt!”
“I know!”
Just as their voices trailed off, a group of boys passed. “Christmas must have come early. Have you ever seen a girl that fine?”
“Think the new kid’s already hit it?”
“Does it matter? There’s enough for everyone.”
They laughed, then the doors closed behind them, cutting off the rest of their comments.
Aden’s hands clenched at his sides.
“Humans,” Victoria said with a roll of her eyes.
“Shall I punish them for you?” Riley asked her.
That should be my job, he thought darkly.
She laughed, even as Mary Ann stiffened. “No. Thank you, though.”
Just before they reached the doors themselves, something slammed into Aden’s shoulder from behind, propelling him forward. Riley caught him with a hand on his chest and pushed him to a stand, keeping him from eating the entrance. He spun around, eyes narrowed—and came face-to-face with Tucker.
“You’re in my way,” the jock growled.
He raised his chin, the fury he’d felt a minute ago nothing compared to what he felt now. Since Mary Ann was no longer dating him, Aden didn’t have to play nice. “So go around me.”
You can’t fight him, Eve said, no longer content to remain quiet.
Yeah, but he can’t walk away, either, Caleb told her. He’ll look like a wuss.
And if he’s kicked out of school…Julian sighed.
Elijah remained strangely silent.
“Get. Out. Of. My. Way.” Tucker shoved him again.
The kids in the parking lot rushed forward, expecting a brawl. Wanting it, even. They began chanting, “Fight, fight, fight.”
“Tucker,” Mary Ann said, grabbing for his wrist. “Don’t do this.”
Riley grabbed her wrist before she could even touch the jock and shoved her behind him. “Oh, no you don’t.”
Victoria approached Aden’s side. When she opened her mouth to speak, he held up his hand to stop her. She could save him from this fight, yes, but Tucker would come back. Bullies always did—until someone gave them a reason not to, exactly as he’d done with Ozzie.
“If you don’t get out of my face, jock, I’m going to grind your teeth into the concrete and everyone here will know you aren’t the tough guy you pretend to be. That you’re just an overgrown baby who runs to his girlfriend’s best friend to cry.”
