Bleed, Little Prey, page 4
“You’re dismissed.” He pointed at the door. “Wait in the lobby until Kade comes to fetch you.”
I stood, but before I could make it to the door, his voice stopped me.
“Geulia.”
I turned back, my heart thudding against my ribs.
He held something in his hand, something I didn’t recognize at first.
My phone.
Or what was left of it.
The case was missing, and it looked mangled, the shattered screen a mosaic of cracks and jagged edges.
“This was turned into lost and found,” he said, his tone carefully neutral. “It’s completely destroyed, unfortunately.”
Completely destroyed.
My texts from Mom destroyed.
My voicemails from her destroyed.
My pictures of her destroyed.
Everything I had left of her…just as gone as she was.
My eyes burned, but I forced back my tears. Even though it was utterly useless, I took my phone from him and turned it over in my hands.
“Was it like this when it was turned into you?” I croaked out.
His bright-blue eyes narrowed. “What exactly are you asking?”
I’m asking if you’re the one who smashed it.
I shook my head, unable to trust myself to speak, because of the other thought in my head, the unbidden warning that if I wasn’t careful, I would be destroyed as thoroughly as my phone.
Chapter Five
I didn’t wait for Kade. I wouldn’t wait for Kade—ever.
I ran back to the apartment, clutching what was left of my phone, sucking in shaky breaths and trying to swallow the lump in my throat, but it stuck there, sharp and jagged like the shards of plastic pressed against the skin of my palm.
It was too much.
As soon as I entered my room, I sank to the floor, knees hitting the cold hardwood, and let the tears come. Ugly, heaving sobs that clawed their way out of my chest, tearing at my already raw throat.
“Fuck,” I choked out finally, my voice breaking multiple times over the single syllable. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
I was alone. So fucking alone. And I didn’t know why my entire being, body and soul, acted like this was a fucking newsflash. Maybe I’d reached a new stage of grief. Maybe I’d been trapped in denial, and this was what it felt like to move out of it.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
The image of my mother’s face floated behind my eyelids—her warm brown eyes that always held a spark of mischief, her wide smile that lit up every room she entered. I would never see her again.
I tried to remember the details of one of my favorite photos, wishing I’d thoroughly committed it to memory while I could still look at it every day. Her, sober and clean, at my high school graduation. She'd worn that ridiculous vintage floral dress, the one she insisted was "feminine and flirty" but actually made her look like a walking bridal bouquet. But I didn’t care because she’d been there. For me.
My mom had flaws, many flaws, but she’d always been there for me.
“Hey, baby girl,” she used to say when she called me.
I tried to cling to the sound of her voice, but it was slipping away, like trying to hold water in my hands.
And her laugh. God, that laugh. How many voicemails had I saved “for blackmail” I’d told her jokingly—long before I’d ever even considered blackmail actually being a part of my future—because she sounded like a damned hyena when she found something hysterically funny.
My chest tightened. I would never make her laugh again. I would never hear her laugh again. She would never laugh again.
I felt him before I saw him—felt the sudden shift in the air.
“What the fuck?” I demanded, jerking my head up as Malcolm strode into the room like he owned it, shirtless as always and wearing some black athletic pants. “Do you mind?”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t even pause. His pale-gray eyes locked on me, sharp and furious.
“What were you doing in the dean’s office?” His words were clipped, his broad shoulders tense.
I swiped at my face, trying to pull myself together before he saw too much. “None of your business, Dracula.”
“It is when it’s about me,” he snapped, taking a step closer. His fists clenched at his sides, the veins in his neck taut. “Did you tell him about what happened last night?”
“What happened last night?” I asked sweetly, feigning innocence. “Oh, you mean about how you and Kade ménaged the trois out of me?” I wrinkled my nose. “Nah, the dean and I aren’t on that level of TMI.”
His jaw tightened, and he flashed some fang as he bared his teeth. “This isn’t funny. Did. You. Tell. Him.”
“Did I tell Dean Bennett that one of his students is a vampire?” I furrowed my brow, like I was trying to remember. “No. Do you think he’d find that interesting, though? Should I tell him?”
Malcolm rolled his eyes. “That isn’t what I’m worried about you blabbing about.”
Huh.
Malcolm just admitted he was worried.
But not about being outed as a vamp. What could possibly be a bigger secret than that?
I laughed. “Oh, you mean you don’t want me blabbing about the part where you couldn’t drain me like a juice box? Don’t worry. Your impotent little secret’s safe with me. I’m sure it happens to all vamps.”
Malcolm’s face darkened, his hands twitching at his sides like he was seconds away from losing control. In two long strides, he towered over me, grabbing my wrist and yanking me to my feet.
“You think this is a game?” he growled, his voice low and dangerous.
His grip was tight, not painful—yet—but there was something in his eyes that made my stomach flip. For a split second, I flinched, thinking he was going to hit me.
“Let go of me,” I said, keeping my voice steady.
He did—shoving me back against the bed. My breath hitched as I stumbled, catching myself before I fell.
He began pacing, dragging his hand over his buzzed dark hair while my pulse thrummed in my ears.
“You don’t get it, do you?” he demanded, and no, I really didn’t. “You ungrateful whore. I could’ve given you everything. I could’ve made you immortal.”
“So the two of us could live unhappily ever after for eternity together?” I said. “Why, yes, I should show my undying—oops, is that word insensitive?—appreciation because that sounds awesome!”
His head snapped toward me, his gray eyes almost silver, glinting like knives. “You should be groveling at my feet for what I offered you, bitch.”
“Well, I was on the floor, on my knees, in the perfect position to grovel at your feet, and you yanked me up. God, the mixed signals, Malcolm! What do you—”
“You have no idea what I’m capable of,” he said, his voice quieter now but no less menacing. “Don’t push me, Tuesday.”
“Go fuck yourself, Malcolm,” I retorted.
A slow grin took over his face. “Now why would I do that when you’ll be fucking me any time I want for the next week? I’ll need someone to fill in for Kade, after all. Tag, you’re it.”
He stared at me for a long moment, his chest rising and falling with barely restrained rage.
There was something in his eyes—something dark and unhinged—that made my skin crawl.
But there was something else, too. Something that made my body ache, my pulse quicken. I wanted him. God help me, I wanted him. Even now, even with the cold shiver running up my back and every rational part of my brain screaming at me to get as far away from him as possible, I wanted him.
I sank back onto the floor, my legs trembling, overwhelmed with too many emotions. Fear. Anger. Desire. Helplessness. Guilt.
And, of course, so very, very horny.
The weight of it all pressed down on me, heavy and suffocating. Tears threatened again, but I swallowed them down. Crying wouldn’t bring my mom back. It wouldn’t fix my phone or make Malcolm less…Malcolmy. It wouldn’t change the fact that my body was going to be guarded by Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee Security for the foreseeable future.
Tears were useless.
But I wasn’t.
Out of nowhere, a surge of power rushed through me. A realization. I was more dangerous than Malcolm, Kade, Connor, and Xander put together. I was a woman with not a damned thing left to lose.
I absolutely would fuck him any time he beckoned, this week or the next or the next, because he had both of the things I needed: a cock and answers.
Hell, I might even give in to his offer for the all-inclusive immortality because I was going to find out everything about the Lifewell, no matter what it took, even if it took a goddamned eternity.
It’s what you wanted, Mom. I don’t know why, but I’ll do anything to make what I did up to you.
Chapter Six
I made it halfway across campus before I heard the footsteps.
Heavy. Measured. Tracking me. Closing in.
Then a heavy arm, slung casually over my shoulders, like we were a happy couple bumping into each other on the way to class. The warm scent of cider wrapped around me.
“Hello, lover,” Kade said.
I shook him off.
“We are not lovers, so keep your goddamn hands off me,” I spat and kept power walking.
His long strides kept him by my side, matching my every three steps with one of his own.
“Oh, but sweetheart,” he said. “We are, aren’t we? And I have to say…you’re better with your cunt than you are with your hands.”
My heart stuttered, but I kept moving.
Had he just admitted to being the one who assaulted me in the library?
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him curl his fingers into a loose fist and pump his hand once, twice—obscene, mocking. I swore the whole goddamn mask smirked, along with his visible lips, as he jerked off the fucking air.
Guess I wasn’t the only one who decided they had nothing left to lose.
Swallowing hard, I forced myself to look over at him. The hollow, soulless eyes of that damn Ghostface mask bore into mine.
He titled his head.
“Eat my entire ass, Kade.”
“Huh. Should I do that in your first class or your second… Let’s see…” He pulled a piece of paper out of his back pocket and unfolded it. “Yeah, let’s save the ass-eating for Econ. Don’t want to spoil my lunch.”
“Is that my fucking schedule?”
“It is, because I’m under strict orders to be your fucking shadow today.”
Well. I guess the good thing about Kade escorting me to all my classes was he couldn’t sneak up on me when I least expected it and pin me against another wall.
When we got to the lecture hall, he followed me inside.
“I think I can make it to my seat without an escort,” I told him with a pointed look.
“Maybe, but I’m not supposed to leave your side if you’re outside the apartment unless…”
I whirled around to face him. Enough was enough. No way could I learn anything with him breathing down my neck.
“Oh,” he said. “Never mind. Bennett’s here. You can be his problem now.”
Dean Bennett was here? Had he changed his mind and decided to be my personal bodyguard, after all? Not likely, but…
I glanced over my shoulder, and a cursory scan of the faces told me Kade was full of shit. What the hell kind of game was he playing?
“What the…” I began.
No, I didn’t see Xander, but I did see another familiar face framed by red ringlets.
Lena.
She sat a few rows back and was looking around, too, as if she were searching for…
Her wide blue eyes lit up when they landed on me, and she grinned and waved.
Almost as if she’d been expecting me…?
I turned back to Kade, but he was gone.
Or was he?
It wasn’t like I was expecting a hug goodbye, but bro might as well have just vanished into thin air.
He must’ve just hightailed it, trying to be on time for his own class, but I roamed my gaze over my other classmates, stalling on all the guys wearing black hoodies and jeans, like Kade had been.
There was something seriously unnerving and nauseating about the realization that if he ditched the mask, he could hide in plain sight. I had no idea what his actual face looked like. He could be anywhere at any time.
He could sit beside me in a lab. Walk past me on the way to the cafeteria. I could brush shoulders with him in the hallway and never fucking know.
He could still be in here right now.
As surreptitiously and quickly as possible and keeping my expression neutral—I didn’t want him to know how freaked out I was if he were still here, watching—I took another glance around at everyone I could from the neck down, checking for any guys built like Kade.
“Tuesday!” Lena called.
She gestured—quite enthusiastically—for me to come over.
It was good to see her again. I honestly wasn’t sure if I ever would. But Mom’s words—trust no one—were like a tattoo on the back of my eyelids.
I shrugged and pointed across the room to where I usually sat. Because this professor treated us like high school students and had assigned seating. Which Lena would know if she’d been in this class before…but she hadn’t been.
So why was she here now?
Certainly, it was too late in the semester to be adding and dropping classes.
Professor Ellis strolled in and had already launched into her lecture before she closed the door behind her. I’d never had trouble understanding her before, but today I gave up taking notes after the first couple of minutes because I couldn’t make sense of anything she said. I couldn’t focus on anything other than the heebie-jeebie skin-crawly sensation of being watched.
I snuck a peek at Lena, but she had her head down, furiously scribbling in her own notebook.
But I could feel someone’s eyes on me, as weighty as a touch. Chill bumps rose up and down my arms.
Was Kade still in here?
I was used to feeling watched. I’d felt that since my first day on campus. But this was different…stronger, like a weight pressing between my shoulder blades, like an actual touch, and not a gentle one.
I shifted in my chair, twisted around as inconspicuously as I could, and let out a little gasp as my gaze met…Connor’s.
His brown eyes widened. He fumbled the pen he’d been tapping against his bottom lip, dropping it to the floor.
Yes, I, too, was often startled when the person I was staring at busted me.
Though he’d been paying zero attention to Professor Ellis, he leaned forward, giving her all his attention.
What the fuck? Had he been there all along?
The lecture ended in a blur of words I barely absorbed, unable to shake the sensation of being fucking observed. Professor Ellis dismissed us with a casual reminder about some upcoming assignment I had no memory of her giving, and the sound of chairs scraping back filled the air.
I remained seated, watching each student as they filed out. Kade wasn’t amongst them, unless he could shapeshift. We sure as fuck weren’t lovers, but I knew his body, mask or no mask. He might have been able to slip past me before, unnoticed, without the mask on, when it hadn’t occurred to me it was a possibility, but I’d be far more careful now.
Lena had stayed back, too, as had Connor.
She approached me, her red curls bouncing, while he chose to go with a broody, bad-boy lean against the doorjamb in his all-black ensemble.
A long, drawn-out exhale that might or might not have been a sigh of longing slipped from my lips. For all his faults—and there were many—the dude did know how to lean.
I wondered how he would look horizontal, though…
Oh my God! What was wrong with me?
“Girrrrrrrrrl,” Lena greeted me. Her blue eyes flicked to Connor, causing both of their brows to crease, then settled on me. “Professor Ellis is…unusual, right?”
I snorted. Ellis lectured as if she was talking to herself, pacing from one side of the room to another, never actually looking at or addressing anyone in the class. Nonetheless, occasionally she’d declare, “Yes, yes, excellent!” as if she were responding to someone else’s statement. And the wardrobe? Yeah, that was unusual. But Ellis herself? Around here, not so much.
“Well,” I replied to Lena. “If she were completely normal, she probably wouldn’t be teaching this class. So, what brings you to MED 210: Theories in Alternative Resuscitation?”
“I’m going to be pre-med, so it’s a necessary evil for me, I’m afraid,” she said with a slight lift of one shoulder. “Though honestly, after the first class, I considered completely changing majors. Who gives that much homework on day one?”
I studied her.
What?
I’d transferred into Whispering Ivy a week into the semester, so I couldn’t know for sure that she hadn’t been here for the first class. But if she had, she hadn’t been back since.
I was sure of that.
“You okay?” she prompted.
I nodded.
Lowering her voice, she asked, “So are you an undercover movie star doing research for a film or something?”
Before I could respond, she lifted her chin in Connor’s direction.
“Most undergrads don’t have their own security,” she said.
Oh, if you think this is odd, just wait until you meet my second bodyguard and his creepy-ass Scream mask.
I glanced at the doorway. Was Kade lurking in the hallway? And did he really wear that thing all the time without rando final girl-esque screams ringing out all the time?
“Connor is not…” I began, then sighed. “It’s complicated.”
Lena chuckled, the sound light and carefree. “Wanna explain it over coffee?”
Trust no one. Trust no one. Trust no one.
“Explain? No. Coffee? Absolutely—”
“Can’t,” Connor called. “Tuesday’s got somewhere else to be.”
“Excuse the fuck out of me?” I arched an eyebrow that I hoped told him to back all the way off.
