by Lucinda Dark
“Oh my God.” A red flurry of hair slammed into my chest. I winced as Olivia’s nails dug into my arms, her eyes glued to the two guys beyond my shoulder. “Are Maverick McKnight and Torin Priest actually talking to each other again?”
“Olivia.” I removed her claws from my skin. “They’re just people.” Well, one of them was an odd half-vampire with a penchant for forgetting promises made by his other half, but still…
Olivia looked up at me as if she hadn’t realized she’d nearly bulldozed me in her shock. She narrowed her gaze on me. “You did this, didn’t you?”
I rolled my eyes and headed for the doors. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Bullshit,” she snapped, her nails latching onto my arm once again as we reached the main hall, drawing me to a halt. “You have something to do with those two, I just know it.”
“Do you really want to talk about Torin and Maverick, or do you want to tell me what the hell happened this weekend?” I asked, diverting her attention away from whatever connection I might have had with the rekindling of Maverick’s old friendship.
“You heard about Mack and Charlie, didn’t you?” she asked.
“It’s all over the papers,” I replied.
With a sigh, she hooked her arm in mine and led us down the hall towards her locker—her purse dangling between us, smacking my side every step of the way. “They went to a party on the outskirts of town. One of the guys from the wrestling team was throwing it. They got a little wild. Everyone was drinking and doing drugs, I heard.”
“You heard?” I asked. “You weren’t there?”
She winced and released my arm as we got to her locker. “Still grounded,” she grumbled, reaching up to put in her lock combination. “Though I never thought I’d be grateful to be grounded. Otherwise, I would’ve been there.”
I rested my spine against the cool metal of the lockers and frowned. “Who else was there?”
“Pretty much everyone,” she said. “From the football players and cheerleaders to the debate team. It was a huge party. Though I heard Maverick and Torin never showed.” She shot me a meaningful look as she retrieved her books and put her purse up. “Wonder where they could’ve been?”
I shrugged and looked away. “No clue,” I lied.
“Well, wherever they were, they must have been really tied up.” Olivia snapped her locker shut and turned to me. “Heard they didn’t answer anyone’s texts or calls. Rachel’s furious. Maverick’s been ignoring her lately.”
“Were they dating?” I asked. He had never mentioned the possibility, but I hadn’t missed the way Rachel had talked about him when she’d approached me before. The possessiveness in her tone was telling.
“Not for lack of her trying,” Olivia admitted. “She’s been pretty pissed about you showing up.”
“Me?” I yawned and pushed away from the lockers before we continued on down the hall towards our classes. “It’s been a few weeks, surely she’s gotten over it by now.”
“Ha, you don’t know anything about high school girls, do you?”
“I was homeschooled before this year,” I replied. “Didn’t really need to know anything about them.”
“Homecoming is coming up and she’s determined to get Maverick to take her,” Olivia confessed. “She’s terrified he’s going to ask you.”
“Terrified?” I let my doubt fill my tone. The only thing that seemed to scare that girl was being knocked down a peg or two, which was too bad because that was rather easy to do. At least, it was for me.
“It’s her senior year,” Olivia said. “She’s gunning for top spot. Homecoming Queen—the whole shebang.”
I hummed, the sound vibrating my throat. Homecoming. I’d only ever seen Homecoming in movies and on TV. I grimaced. I had a feeling that if things continued to escalate the way they were, Homecoming would be more like the movie Carrie than fluffy dresses and ribbons and tiaras.
“When is it?” I asked. Olivia stopped. It took me a few more steps to realize that I’d left her behind. I paused and glanced over my shoulder. She stared at me as if I’d grown a second head. “What?”
“Tell me you’re joking,” she commanded.
“Uhhh.” I floundered. “About what?”
She gestured to me. “Homecoming!”
“No?”
“Look around you,” she said. “The flyers and decorations have been up since you got here.”
I blinked and turned my attention to the rest of the hallway, my lips parting in surprise. She was right. Flyers were posted on the walls. Banners hanging from the ceilings, covered in dark navy blue glitter.
“It’s next week!” Olivia cried.
“Oh.” I grimaced.
“Oh? That’s all you have to say?” Olivia strode forward with purpose. She grabbed my arm and whirled me to face her fully. “You haven’t even gotten a dress, have you?”
“I wasn’t exactly planning on going…”
“Oh you’re going,” she said with a shake of her head. “If I have to drag you there myself, you’re going.”
“I don’t think—”
“I think that’s a great idea.” I stiffened as a thickly muscled arm settled over my shoulder. Sparks danced down my back. Olivia’s face reddened until she looked like an over-ripened tomato.
I closed my eyes, begging the universe for patience. “I don’t think I want to know your reasoning for that ludicrous idea,” I said, waiting a beat before I reopened my eyes.
Torin smiled, his teeth white and perfect. It made me want to punch him in the face. Again. Or kiss him. No, I definitely don’t want that, I thought, cursing myself when he tilted his head at me curiously. He’d obviously heard that last little tidbit.
“Because you’re going with me,” he said.
“Oh, look at that,” I said. “I was right. I really didn’t want to know.”
“Y-you’re going with Torin?” Olivia’s eyes were the widest they’d ever been as she looked between us.
“No.”
“Yes.”
I glared at him. “Torin,” I snapped. “I am not going to Homecoming with you.”
“I’ll … erm … let you two talk this out alone,” Olivia squeaked.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” I said, but she was already backing away, her books clutched to her chest.
“I’ll … ah … talk to you in class, Barbie.”
“Wait—” She turned away and practically sprinted down the hall, leaving me in the arms of the monster. I snarled and jerked out of his grasp, facing off with the handsome beast. “What the fuck was that?” I demanded.
“Homecoming, we’re going,” he said, his tone turning serious. I gaped at him. This had to be a fucking joke. Oh, please be a fucking joke. He shook his head. “No joke.”
I growled and snapped my hand out, grabbing him by the front of his shirt. “Stay. Out. Of. My. Fucking. Head.”
“Wear something sexy,” he replied, pulling my fingers from the fabric one by one. “Or else I might not put out.”
My hand itched to slap him, but by the time I decided it was a risk worth taking in the middle of the school’s hallway, he was gone. My anger raged.
Chapter 31
Barbie
I slid into the cafeteria seat next to Maverick and glared. “So, tell me why we’re going to Homecoming,” I ordered. Several eyebrows shot up around me.
Maverick sighed. “Torin told you,” he guessed.
“If by told, you mean, he said I’m going with him and then disappeared then yes, he ‘told me’ this morning,” I answered.
“You and Torin are talking again?” one of the guys sitting across the lunch table asked.
Maverick cracked his neck. “We worked things out,” he said, purposefully keeping his answer vague. He couldn’t exactly say that he had to come to grips with the fact that his ex-best friend was part vampire and he needed his help to save my life.
“Is he joining the football team again?” the same gu
y asked. He wasn’t the only one who seemed interested in the answer, I noticed as I looked around and saw that every single guy in the nearby seats were leaning towards the two of us, waiting on the edges of their seats for the answer.
Maverick scowled. “I don’t fucking know, man, why don’t you ask him?” He stood up from his seat and stomped away with a deep scowl.
“Sorry,” I said, glancing back to the guys. “He’s on his manstral cycle.”
“His what?” someone asked, confused.
“You know,” I hedged. “Guy PMS?” I shook my head when they still stared at me with unblinking eyes. The joke went right over them. “Never mind.” I popped out of the seat and headed after Maverick, finding him as he dumped his lunch into a trash can and cut across the cafeteria towards the courtyard.
“Mav—” I lifted my arm to call out but came to a careening halt as an apple went sailing past my head, smacking the wall and dropping to the ground. Slowly, as if my head were turning on a pike, I looked towards the direction it’d come from and saw none other than Rachel fucking Harris, official pain in my ass.
“Oh, sorry,” she said with a yawn as she brought up her nails and examined her cuticles while her friends—two bottle-blondes along either side of her—giggled. “My hand slipped.” I looked down at my feet as the apple rolled to a stop against my shoe. “Maybe you should eat that,” she said, her friends’ laughter getting louder in my head. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away and all that.”
I reached down and picked it up, clenching my fingers around the red skin of the fruit. “An apple a day can keep anyone away,” I said softly. “It all depends on how hard you throw it.” I let it loose, but instead of aiming for Rachel, I let it sail right past her, slamming into the girl on her left’s cheek. The apple bounced off her cheek and smacked the girl’s eye. That was going to leave a bruise. Rachel didn’t bat an eyelash, even as her friend cried out and hit the ground. My lips twisted.
“I’d be careful if I were you,” she said. Her eyes shone with some sort of strange light—as if the light pouring in from the windows was being reflected against a glassy surface.
“You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t take safety advice from a bitch with a death wish,” I snapped, turning away and heading out the door. The muscles of my back tightened with the weight of her gaze.
I waited for Maverick by his truck as usual, but at half an hour past the end of school, he still hadn’t shown up. I sighed and snatched my backpack up, swinging it over my shoulder as I started towards the football field. I had thought that with two more deaths, football practice would have been called off again. That obviously didn’t seem to be the case.
I hadn’t made it more than ten feet away from the truck when Torin’s figure emerged from the school building. I stopped in the middle of the parking lot as he lifted his head and met my gaze. I glared at him as he approached.
“Waiting for Mav?” he asked.
“I still haven’t forgiven you from this morning,” I snapped.
He looked towards the football field. “Come on, he’ll be a while yet. Let me take you home.”
“Not until you tell me what the fuck that Homecoming bullshit was about,” I ordered.
“I was never planning on keeping it a secret,” Torin said.
“Then why didn’t you tell me right off the bat?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
He smirked and I hated how much it made him look like Mav. Bright. Normal. Human. His smirk disappeared. “I am human, Barbie.”
My scowl deepened. “What have I told you about staying out of my head,” I snapped.
Torin spread his fingers wide. “I can’t fucking do anything if you’re practically yelling it at me.”
“You can tell me how to stop,” I shot back.
“What would be the point?” he asked. “It’ll go away in another day or two.”
I glared at him, crossing my arms over my chest defensively. “What do you want?”
“I want you to come with me,” he said. “To practice.”
“Practice?” I repeated.
“You got those swords I left you?”
I shifted on my feet. “Yeah. I got them.”
He fished into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. “We’re gonna go see if you can handle them.”
“They’re locked in Mav’s truck,” I pointed out as he circled the truck and headed for his motorcycle.
“I’ve got similar ones back at the guest house. I wanna see what you can do with those first.” He reached into his saddlebag and retrieved a helmet, tossing it to me. I caught it with two hands and then just held it as I watched him swing one thickly muscled thigh over the bike.
“I thought you didn’t approve,” I said. “I thought you weren’t going to help?” Did he remember?
He frowned as he looked over at me. “Remember what?”
I frowned but didn’t chastise him for listening to my thoughts this time. “When I was unconscious,” I started. “I had a dream.”
He looked at me over the handlebars of his motorcycle. “About what?” he asked.
“You,” I said. “Well, vampire you. And vampire you promised to help me, but then when I woke up you…” I trailed off, but I figured he could pick up the rest.
Silence filled the air for a beat. When he spoke, his voice was gruff. “Barbie.” He turned the engine over, the bike roaring to life. “Get on the bike,” he called.
I didn’t know how to take that, but instead of arguing for a change, I slipped the helmet on and buckled it before I made sure my backpack was on all the way and securely zipped shut before I approached. My hands found his shoulders, nails biting down into them as I swung my leg over the seat behind him. My feet left the ground and found the footholds. My front melded to his back, my breasts against his spine as the vehicle rumbled with a low hum beneath me. I inhaled sharply, my core tightening when he reached back and snagged my hand drawing me even closer until I was practically plastered against him. I didn’t know how we could get closer.
“Hold on,” he ordered just before he took off.
My hands tightened automatically, fisting into his shirt as he sped out of the parking lot. Minutes later, as we drove past the Priest estate, I leaned back and stared up at the closed curtains of the upstairs bedrooms and the very window I’d crashed out of in an attempt to get away from a furious vampire. A lot had changed since the night I’d snuck out of my parents’ house to go to a party. The supernatural reality of my life had finally come to light. Death. Moving. Sex. I had changed. I was no longer the naive girl who thought her parents were crazy and paranoid. I was a hunter, and I couldn’t forget what that meant.
My hands squeezed against Torin as we rounded the side of the driveway and headed down a long, dark, and narrow road. Every so often, a smaller driveway would appear on our right, but we didn’t stop until we came to the very last one. He pulled up to the front door and shut off the engine, and in the silence that followed, I realized just how hard my heart was beating.
Slipping off the back of the motorcycle, I stood to the side as he nudged the kickstand down with the toe of his boot and swung his leg over the seat. “Come on,” he said, “I’ll grab the gear.”
Torin had me drop my stuff off inside the door as he led me further inside, stopping to grab a long duffle bag out of a chest in the living room before we headed for the backyard. Unzipping the duffle on the porch, he withdrew a pair of swords similar to the ones I’d received.
“How well trained are you?” he asked, handing me one.
I took it and hefted it in my fist, twisting first one way and then another. “I can handle myself,” I hedged.
He looked at me and then took a stance. “If you can land a hit on me using the flat of your sword, I’ll promise to help you with your task.”
I stiffened, lowering the weapon in my grip. “You already promised to do that,” I reminded him.
He shook his head. “My vampire can’t make a
ny decisions like that without me,” he said.
“Oh?” I tilted my chin as I watched him. “Why don’t you remember the conversation we had?” I asked. “With your vampire, I mean.”
He swallowed, lowering his weapon as well. “I suppress my vampire, Barbie,” he answered solemnly.
“You don’t have complete control when you sleep, though,” I guessed.
He nodded. “I believe that you drinking my blood to heal opened a door for him to enter your dreams, for which, I am sorry.”
I shrugged. At least he didn’t know about the kiss. My eyes went to his lips and my face heated. I sucked in a breath. “Let’s do this,” I said, raising the sword again.
He lifted his sword as well. “One hit,” he reminded me. I struck.
Over an hour later, I was sweating and cursing as he managed to dodge another attack. I hit the ground, rolling and popping back up onto my feet as I circled him. My breath sawed in my chest as I flipped the sword to my left hand to give my right wrist a break. The weight grew heavier the longer I gripped the hilt.
“You sure you want my help?” he taunted.
I growled and surged forward. Swords clashed. Sparks flew down the metal as it shrieked along Torin’s blade. I cursed and ducked as they released and Torin spun. I barely managed to dive out of his reach before his sword sang by overhead.
“You’re focusing too hard on my sword,” he said. “Focus on my movements. Where my body goes.”
“I am!” I shouted. I wasn’t. It went against everything my dad had ever taught me, but every time I looked at his body I was reminded of vampire-Torin. How he’d surged around me, his hands gripping me, the pulse of his blood beneath his throat. My mouth watered. “Stop!” I screamed as he reached me, his blade flashing in the air. He froze and I went low, smacking the flat of my blade against his thigh as I slid beneath the reach of his arms and tumbled across the ground, panting and sweating. I stopped and looked back over my shoulder. “I win.”
