by Tijan
He was being vague and I didn’t like that. My eyes sharpened. “Gregory said war. He wasn’t exaggerating.”
“He wasn’t.” Roane looked away and rubbed a tired hand over his jaw. My hand itched to cover his.
“I came here to be normal. I wanted to go to college because that’s the normal thing to do. Kates didn’t understand it, but she’s not like me. She likes being unique or abnormal. She doesn’t understand… I wish she did sometimes.” I looked up and held his gaze. It was alluring, seductive, but I saw the anger that was repressed. It simmered under the surface. “I have a date tonight. I should go on that date, huh?”
He clenched his jaw for the briefest of seconds. “It would be the ‘normal’ thing to do, yes.”
I wondered if it cost him to say that. It cost me to hear it. “Okay. I’ll… I’ll go on that date, then.”
Roane stayed where he was.
I couldn’t bring myself to walk out those doors. “I… I should go.”
He nodded again. “Gregory will be back with the girl shortly. Hopefully, after awhile, things will go back to normal. You should… stay away from Kates. Stay with your roommate, with that boy. Go to classes. Do your normal thing.”
I frowned as a thought came to me. “You said that you needed me to help Kates. Did you? Or was that whole thing just a lie because you thought I was the Immortal?”
‘Did he use my roommate?’
“I used them both, yes.” Roane read my mind again.
I thought my shields were up against him? “And my powers? What if…”
“Try not to get angry. Talia told me that she used to ‘pack it away’. She said some days she was human and the others, she was the Immortal. You could try that.”
“What about the other girl? What are you going to do with her?”
Roane answered swiftly and I caught a glimpse of the Hunter he was. I had felt how fierce he could be, how determined and devoted to his duty he was when I’d been inside of him. I had marveled at his motivation and I saw it again when he replied, “We’ll hide her. When they demand to know where she is, we’ll fight. We’ll win. And then she’ll be seen in another state, another city, and rumors will be told again. They’ll all go there.”
They’d leave Benshire and the real Immortal behind. It was brilliant, but something told me that was just Roane doing his job. It was another day in the office for him.
“This is what you do, isn’t it.” I glided across the room until I stood right before him, within touching distance.
Roane closed his eyes and struggled not to reach out. The same battle was within me… a part of me was starting not to care about the consequences. A part of me was starting to wonder what those consequences actually were. Were there consequences?
Roane caught my hand. I hadn’t been aware of lifting it, but he caught and held it immobile in the air. There it was—the connection between us, again. Both of us looked at our hands. His hand wrapped around my wrist. Slowly, hypnotically, I bent my fingers and caressed his finger, just slightly, but it was enough. Roane drew in a ragged breath. I held my own. Then he growled as he hauled me to his chest and lifted me in the air. I wrapped my legs around his waist and we fell on the bed. His weight pressed me down and I searched for his mouth, desperately.
He found it and claimed me.
Roane slid his hands down to my waist. I arched my back to press against him and wrapped my arms around his neck. It seemed like I couldn’t get any closer, but I needed to.
I couldn’t get enough of him.
And then a phone ring peeled through the air. I cursed under my breath as Roane ripped himself away from me. Instantly, I felt the cold blast against my body and I would’ve done anything to have him back. The phone rang again and Roane paused when he found it. A third time. “It’s… I can’t answer this.” Roane sounded like he had one last nerve of willpower and the phone was quickly eating it away.
I lifted my head and saw that he had my phone. I’d completely forgotten that I had a phone. It seemed like something from a different world, not a world where vampires and Immortals existed.
It rang a fourth time and I felt the impatience across the line. “It’s my roommate.” I held out a heavy hand and snapped it open. “What?”
“What? You just say it like that? What? Your boyfriend is here. He said something about a date. And you ditched out on the convention today. Thanks a lot. Mr. Moser trusted me and I was stupid enough to trust you.”
“Emily…”
“Get back here from wherever you are and deal with Adam. I don’t want him here.”
I sighed in surrender. “I’ll be right there.”
“Thank you. I’m going to make Adam wait in the lobby for you.”
Before I could reply, she’d already hung up.
Roane peered out the window and then looked back. “Gregory’s back. I’ll have him take you to your dorm.”
I wondered if my exhaustion was from the Immortal’s change in my body or knowing my life wouldn’t be the same again. A third option was the desire that literally throbbed inside of me. My guess—the Immortal had nothing on Roane. When I started towards the door, he stopped me. “Stay away from Wren. Make sure you’re never alone with her.”
“Why?”
“There are some things that you don’t know about her and she knows about you. Avoid her if you see her.”
I nodded and left with a heavy heart.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“We have seven different types of chairs in the room. Why do we have seven different chairs? It’s insane. It’s a complete lack of chair-efficiency. I can’t handle all these chairs.”
This is what greeted me as I stepped inside my dorm room.
Emily was frantic. She had placed every chair in a line, which wasn’t long because our dorm room wasn’t big. Now she paced with frantic hands in the air.
I frowned and shut the door. “What’s going on?”
“He called! Can you believe it? He called. He’s downstairs. Right now!”
“Who?”
“That guy from the bar. The one that…” It was endearing how my roommate hung her head and blushed. “…I made out with. I’ve never done that, Davy.” Her eyes were wide and horrified. “I can’t believe I did that and now he found me. He’s downstairs.”
I wasn’t sure what my role was here, but I improvised. “What does he want?”
“Dinner,” she blurted out.
Horrifying. A slow smile started to spread on my face. “Dinner?”
“Can you believe it? He wants to sit and eat and talk. I don’t know what to do.”
“Apparently you’re categorizing our chairs.” I frowned as I looked over the room. There was an inordinate amount of chairs. Both of us had desk chairs. There was a pink bean bag that sat beside an inflated purple bean bag. Not to mention the couch, plus another lawn chair—I wasn’t sure where that came from. Then there were our regular desk chairs that came with the dorm room. She was right. I counted seven.
“I still feel like crap. Why do I feel like this? I hate being sick. I have too much work to do.” Emily moaned and fell into one of the chairs.
A thought occurred to me. “You can come with me and Adam.”
Disgust first flashed over her features, but then a bright smile lit it up. “You’re right. It’s not awkward then. I won’t even have to talk. You like to talk. You and Adam can talk, but no mushy stuff. I don’t think I can stomach that tonight.” She pressed an open palm over her stomach and I feared she was going to actually throw up.
I remembered my night of vomiting and grimaced. My stupid body had been changing and I felt a tingle in my palm. My body was still changing.
When I turned towards the closet, I muttered to myself, “I don’t know if I could stomach it either.”
