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.”
Good one! Caleb said excitedly.
Tucker sucked in a breath. “You’re going to die for that.”
“Ohh. How clever,” he said and clapped. “A death threat. You know what’s funny? That’s not even my first of the day.”
For a long while, Tucker just glared at him. Then the glare became a frown of confusion, and the frown of confusion a scowl of irritation. Finally, he pivoted on his heel and stomped into the school.
Okay. What had just happened? Why had Tucker walked away without Aden having to throw a single punch?
The kids surrounding Aden moaned in disappointment but followed Tucker’s lead.
“Very strange,” Riley said. “I could see spiders springing from the blackness of his aura. It was almost as if he was projecting them at you, as if he expected you to see and feel them all over your body.”
“What are you talking about?” Inside that glass foyer, Aden watched as Tucker’s attention swung to the boy beside him. A second later, that boy screamed so loudly it shook the glass, patting at his body, ripping at his clothes.
“Yeah, what are you talking about?” Mary Ann asked. “What do you mean, projecting spiders?”
“Demon,” Victoria said grimly.
Riley nodded. “You’re right. Of course. I should have guessed. Clearly Tucker is part demon. A very small part, but it grants him the power of illusion.”
“What?” Aden and Mary Ann exclaimed simultaneously.
“And did you say demon?” Mary Ann added, mouth floundering open and closed. “That can’t be right. He was my boyfriend. We dated for months. I might’ve been distracted for much of that time, but c’mon. I would have known if he wasn’t human. Right? I mean, I’m studying to be a shrink. A trained observer. And okay, yeah. Yesterday I wondered if demons could maybe walk among us and that’s who Aden had trapped in his head, but I didn’t really believe it.”
Aden didn’t want to believe it, either. “A demon, like, possesses him?”
Riley shrugged. “Either that, or there’s a demon in his family tree.”
“Penny’s baby,” Mary Ann gasped out. “Will it be a demon?”
Again, Riley shrugged, though his expression was sympathetic. And relieved, if Aden wasn’t mistaken. “Only time will tell.”
“Shane Weston knows about Tucker, I think, and doesn’t seem to care. I wonder if that makes him one, too.” She massaged the back of her neck. “Very soon you’re going to have to tell me how this kind of thing is possible. I mean, I still don’t want to believe you about this demon thing, but I guess it explains Tucker’s cruel streak, the way he once produced a snake out of thin air and why he was so adamant about dating me and later, when we broke up, about remaining friends.”
“He wanted to stay with you because you are beautiful,” Riley said.