Chapter 12
Emely
Wild Child
The Black Keys
When I found out who was running for student council alongside Vivienna Westcode, Grace Blair, and Jenny Bexley, I almost choked on my last-minute chicken sandwich.
Nash’s guys and I had just driven to campus in our Jeeps, and they had encouraged me to finally register before the lists closed in a week and the candidates with enough nominations were announced.
But I hadn’t expected this.
Paralyzed, I stared at the piece of paper on the pinboard in front of me.
I had lost my appetite.
“He can’t be serious…”
Whispering girls spotted me, hurriedly stepped back from the pinboard and scurried out of the office with flushed cheeks and phones drawn out. Only I remained standing like a stone pillar in front of the board with the thousand flyers and felt like I was in the wrong movie.
No matter how long I stared, his name above mine didn’t disappear.
Miles DeLoughrey.
“There must be a mistake here,” I began, shaking my head, finally managing to take my eyes off the sheet to look at the secretary in her forties, who had already risen to look at me from her counter. “This guy would never...”
“The charming young man with the black felt coat?” she interrupted me, her cheeks taking on the same color as the girls’. “He registered a few hours ago and already has eighty-five votes in the nomination.” My jaw dropped. “Do you know him personally?”
“God, no!” I gasped in horror and stared at the board in bewilderment.
The sandwich slipped out of my hands into the garbage can next to the pinboard and I had nothing left to hold on to in order not to freak out.
The first shock of the semester had been that the Ruisangors had shown up at Vanderwood uninvited; the second, that an unidentifiable body had been found in their overgrown woodland on our territory border; and – as if to top that – the third, that their clan had created a bloodbath in the witches’ territory, which had now become our problem as well.
The fact that I had spotted this DeLoughrey clown two weeks ago in the introductory lecture for law didn’t make it any better. I would have thought the menacing black-haired guy with the death stare was a law student, but according to Nash, the guy was majoring in economics and minoring in information systems. His platinum blond friend majored in molecular biology and economics and this arrogant specimen here... law and economics.
All three Ruisangors were a thorn in my side, a potential threat to the pack and the human inhabitants of this town, but this one reeked of trouble.
Miles DeLoughrey.
I struggled to decide if I should memorize his name so I wouldn’t forget who my enemy was on this campus, or if I should erase that name from my mind as quickly as possible before it got stuck there and disgusted me unnecessarily.
My pride won, and I stormed out of the secretary’s office, rushed down the filling corridor to one of the side exits and looked around the crowded campus.
I spotted Miles with two brunettes flirting with him. He was leaning casually against his matte gray Lamborghini. Black chino trousers, a black shirt that he had unbuttoned far too generously and a tailored felt coat. In addition, he had chin-length, dark brown hair, the brown eyes of a dangerous hunter, and a prominent jawline. His hands were shoved in his trouser pockets.
The guy who had wanted to fight with my brother and who – as I had heard from Nash – acted like he owned this place. Someone who obviously didn’t know his limits.
When I realized that he had parked his ridiculous sports car right next to my Jeep, anger welled up inside me.
How could he be so brazen? And anyway! How could this arrogant bloodsucker sign up for this election campaign!
As if he had read my loud thoughts of hatred, his head turned in my direction.
Something inside me faltered, and I froze into a pillar of salt when our eyes met.
Until now, I had avoided the gaze of our family enemies, leaving the power battles to Nash.
It made me all the more uncomfortable to feel this murderer’s gaze on me now because it wasn’t like when some guys stared at me and Nash felt the need to tell them to fuck off, no. This Ruisangor looked at me like we were on a battlefield, and he was sure he was going to win.
I wasn’t afraid of him, even if he was one of them. It was almost ridiculous that he thought he could compete against me. Here... in my family’s territory.
The right corner of the arrogant DeLoughrey guy’s mouth twitched upward. That was the moment I knew why he had put his name on the campaign list. He wanted to see us bleed.
I pressed my lips together.
He smirked. That ass really was smirking!
“Not with me,” I muttered, determined to let the rage in my chest run wild and show this bastard that things weren’t going his way at Vanderwood.
No Good
KALEO
I turned toward the largest oak tree on the expansive campus lawn and headed for the guys in the pack. Nash was nowhere to be seen, but the others were all there, and I wouldn’t keep quiet.
When I got to them, the first alarmed looks from Hunter and Cody were on me.
“Are you okay, Emely?” Cody asked, and now the others turned to us as well.
Noah laughed and pulled on his pine green t-shirt. He had just won arm wrestling against Harry. “She seems to have seen who her campaign opponents are.”
My eyes widened. “You knew?”
And it didn’t occur to you to warn me? I let him know through our Senseque connection.
“Just found out,” he said, raising his arms apologetically.
“Damn,” Cody said, stroking his dark brown hair as if he’d just heard that someone had died. And that was exactly what it felt like to think about that DeLoughrey prick wanting the position of student council president. That would be the downfall of this university.
“The witches really think they can take you on.” Noah continued to laugh, apparently not yet understanding the seriousness of the situation. It was usually Cody who joked about everything.
“The damn witches are the least of my problems,” I snorted.
Noah’s look became more serious.
“You sure you want to mess with a Ruisangor? They’re dangerous. Especially the Legacies,” Cody insisted.
I braced my hands at my sides, determined not to give in. I knew the stories about the Ruisangors, what they were, what they did and why they were the biggest threat to our kind.
“We are dangerous, Cody,” I clarified, trying to keep the Senseque in me under control. “I’ve set myself up to get this pesky problem off our university.” Without hesitation, I pointed my finger in the direction of the DeLoughrey rabble in the parking lot, but without even glancing at them. “And I’m not going to watch that idiot there win!”
“That’s our Emely,” Noah said proudly, patting me on the back. “Spank his ass.”
“Yeah, man!” Marten roared and pushed himself between Hunter and Cody.
Hunter mirrored Cody’s worried look and he stepped forward.
“You know, if you want, we can kick him out for you.”
“I can do it on my own,” I replied firmly.
It would be ridiculous if I let my brother’s guys do the dirty work. Besides, I was capable of winning against this Ruisangor.
“Emely,” Hunter tried again. “Sure, you want his attention?”
I raised both brows.
“Why does it sound like you’re not confident in my abilities?”
“He’s a Ruisangor.” His big brother, Harry, sighed, running his fingers through his short afro as if he was getting desperate. “We don’t know what his gift is.” He lowered his voice, as if they could hear us from a hundred meters away in this loud morning commotion. “And if you piss him off, who knows...”
“You’re talking to Emely, Harry,” Noah laughed, who would probably be waving the flag for me on this battlefield against our enemies. “She’s the one not to piss off.”
Marten and Cody nodded in agreement, probably remembering recent training sessions in the meadow behind our family estate, where I’d knocked them out more than once.
Marten was new to the pack, having just moved to Blairville this summer, and he was the tallest in the group. But he was weak and had only just made it into the Delta rank. I had secretly given him training – I had promised him that – and he had developed really well.
One might think I was arrogant or overconfident. But all I was was a female Senseque: naturally stronger than male Senseque, but at the same time quite alone, as female Senseque were hardly ever born.
Sometimes, I believed, if there were gods – like the witches or my mother’s tribe believed – that they had given us female Senseque all that strength so that we could fight alone when in need.
“What’s up, guys?” I looked up and met the gaze of my brother, who seemed to have just come from his morning running workout and placed his cell phone in his gym bag before stepping over to us, not without vigilantly looking around campus for any possible threats. “Emy?”
Undecided if my brother should know about my daring plan to defy a Legacy Ruisangor, I bit my lower lip.
“A DeLoughrey wants to compete against her,” Noah simply blurted out, and I watched Nash’s face fill with worry. “And she’s going to give him a good face-bashing.”
The worry was there, but it disappeared noticeably until Nash grinned proudly at me.
“Then I hope this Ruisangor realizes soon enough when it’s time to run away from my sister.”
I lay on one of the benches under the oak tree and gazed pensively at the gloomy, stormy sky while the guys around me studied or talked.
I loved watching the clouds, especially at this time of year when they would ball up and pile up until they hung dark blue or even purple over the town, the thunder sending a low hum through my sound-sensitive body.
We Senseque reacted differently to thunderstorms. It was as if it electrified us, energized us, even made some of us nervous, like Julian, for example.
I straightened up to look around for him, but he wasn’t on campus yet, and I didn’t see his rusty red jalopy in the parking lot. The mere thought of him bringing Bayla here stirred a strangely dull feeling in my chest, but I quickly pushed it aside.
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away, Noah,” Cody laughed, and I looked over at him, only to see him holding a piece of apple under Noah’s nose.
Noah hated fruit, so he stood up and snorted, knocking the piece of apple out of Cody’s hand.
“An apple a day keeps everything away if you throw it hard enough.”
Noah grabbed the whole apple on the log, and I was expecting him to smash it at Cody, but he turned and threw it... toward the parking lot.
Blood In The Cut
K.Flay
Startled, I jumped up.
“Noah,” I gasped.
Noah looked at me with a grin, then after the apple, which flew in a high arc across the meadows. And when I realized whose car the apple was heading for, I didn’t know whether to grin gleefully or drop my jaw in shock.
That apple was going to destroy Miles DeLoughrey’s car’s hood…
But before the apple could bounce, someone gracefully reached over the hood and… caught the apple in flight.
People in the parking lot began to murmur, and the catcher had attracted everyone’s attention.
I realized that Noah had thrown hard and that the thing would have crushed a mere mortal’s hand.
My glee finally disappeared when Miles started to turn the apple in his hand, threw it up once and then… bit into it.
Then he looked at us, or rather at Noah, and grinned with amusement. But there was something cold and devastating about it that sent goosebumps down my spine.
And then he started to move.
“Great, Noah,” Hunter murmured darkly. “Now he’s coming for us.”
Something inside me tensed. With every step the Ruisangor took toward us, a part of me wanted to run away, as if my body sensed the danger he radiated.
The entire campus seemed to sense the tension that was brewing over us like a storm cloud, as many students stopped and looked toward us, knowing what would happen if the DeLoughreys got too close.
The wind blew through Miles’ loose chin-length hair, blowing it across his face, and his brown eyes almost seemed to glint. Then there was the black coat, which was also moved by the wind as he walked toward us.
He stopped five meters in front of Noah, eyed the apple once more before looking at him and letting the right corner of his mouth move upward.
“I’d love to smack you, but that would be animal cruelty.”
I raised both eyebrows.
Of course, this snob thought his ancestry made him something special and that he could insult our kind.
In the background, I heard a few students on campus laughing, but I ignored it, because the mere presence of this guy made my insides rage.
He knew very well that he better kept his distance, because if he came across the wrong Senseque, things would escalate with serious consequences for the survival of both species.
Noah belonged to this kind of Senseque.
“Do you want revenge now? Go ahead, bloodsucker,” he challenged Miles and took a step toward him.
A queasy feeling mingled with my anger.
I couldn’t let this escalate.
Luckily, Nash had disappeared a few minutes ago.
“Revenge is beneath my dignity,” Miles said, looking down at the apple in his hands. “Accidents will happen, though.”
I saw the anger seem to take over Noah and darted forward, putting myself between the two of them as I felt Hunter and Cody step closer to Noah behind me, ready to pull him away if need be.
But now I was standing right in front of my election opponent, a Ruisangor...
And he grinned with amusement.
“Get out of here with your ridiculous threats, DeLoughrey!” I snapped at him and furrowed my brows. I would have liked to show him my Senseque eyes, but I couldn’t afford to do that in front of all these humans.
Miles began to scrutinize me without letting his arrogant grin disappear.
“Who do we have here...” he murmured. “The puppy sister.” His smirk turned into a grin. “How did you get out? Did someone leave your kennel open?”
If there was an aggression barometer, mine was about to explode.
“You fucking bastard!” Noah said from behind me, and he wanted to push me aside and attack Miles, but I pressed my hand against his chest.
“I can handle him,” I murmured darkly, my eyes still on Miles, who was now making eye contact with me.
“Oh, is that why you looked so happy when you saw my name on the list?” he laughed and threw the apple past me, which hit the hole in the trunk of the oak tree. “Above yours.”
I pressed my lips together, annoyed at his entire existence.
Just because he had more votes at the moment didn’t mean he was going to win the campaign. Pride, as we all knew, came before the downfall.
“What? Isn’t your big brother here to save you from this predicament?” He took a step toward me, both hands in the pockets of his tailored suit trousers. “Do I smell fear, Copeland?”
There were six feet between us. This was the closest I had ever been to a Ruisangor, and yet the last thing I felt was fear.
“You actually think you’re someone special...” I pressed out, continuing to hold his gaze. “But you’re not! And you don’t stand a chance against me in this election!”
I heard an “Ooouuu” move through the crowd around us, and only now I noticed that many students had gathered around us.
Miles laughed softly, looking down at the ground before looking me straight in the eye again and lowering his voice.
“I’d like to agree with you, but then we’d both be wrong.”
My hands clenched into fists.
“Miles!” someone shouted further away. One of the other Ruisangors. Adrian. And he didn’t sound pleased.
Miles sighed as if he was exhausted.
“My duties call. But I’m already looking forward to seeing you fail, Copeland.”
And with those words, he whirled around and – luckily for him - walked away from our pack.
“Asshole!” Noah shouted loudly, which I only thought quietly.
Miles stopped, and within a split second, he wheeled around and something sparkly shot through the air, passing just between me and Noah. There was a crack and as I wheeled around, startled, following the stares of the murmuring crowd, I spotted the metal knife, in the trunk of our oak tree.
I turned back to Miles, who shook his head with a smug grin, turned away for good and strutted back to the parking lot with both hands in his pockets.
“Damn,” Hunter growled behind us and Noah tried to rush forward, but I grabbed his arm.
“This is what he wants,” I said calmly, even though a volcano was boiling inside me right now, ready to erupt and reduce Miles’ kingdom of arrogance to ashes.
Who was this Ruisangor to think he could deal with us like this without consequences? It seemed to be time for him to wake up from his dreams and get to know the harsh reality. And my only chance of getting him back into the hole he crawled out of was when I won the election this winter.
Suits Theme
Christopher Tyng
“Where would we be without language?” Alarik looked around, waiting.
How could such a simple question put so many question marks on students’ faces? I didn’t know.
I would have liked to answer, but I was too distracted by Bayla Adams. She just sat there as if nothing had ever happened. She was sitting with the Quatura, as she had been before, but that didn’t answer the question of whether she was one of them or not.
I remembered all the crap that had happened before the weekend and wondered if I had dreamed it all.
I looked around at Julian, who was sitting in the back row on the side of the Quatura. He was playing with the same old blue pen he used to have in high school, looking thoughtfully and grimly out of the window. His hair was messy, and he looked like he hadn’t gotten enough sleep.
There were many reasons to worry about him, but he himself didn’t even know the worst of them. I had to find a way to talk to him, to persuade him to join the pack as soon as possible. Because otherwise he was at the mercy of the pack and I would have to watch powerlessly as he...
“We wouldn’t be able to communicate,” Vivienna replied, and just seeing this girl reminded me that she, too, would make this campaign an agonizing torture.
Constantly, I was trying to suppress the urge to rip her head off...
“Shouldn’t that be obvious?” she added snappishly, laughing to her girls, who nodded in agreement.
“God, help, what am I doing here?” Nash commented, sitting diagonally behind me.
I gave him a warning look, but he ignored me, as he always did when we were here, and inconspicuously pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.
At university – just like back in high school – Nash was a completely different person. Just yesterday we’d been out until late at night, and now he was acting like I was his annoying sister who he wanted nothing to do with.
“Maybe we should first define what counts as language,” Alarik said in response to Vivienna’s answer, skillfully ignoring her aloof manner and Nash’s comment.
“Julie?”
Julie looked up, startled. She seemed to have been absorbed in something that had nothing to do with the seminar, and now looked at Alarik, intimidated. This Quatura had never been self-confident.
Then Bayla spoke up and Alarik nodded.
“Language is a complex system. It is not limited to sounds and the spoken word, but also to written characters or body language, such as gestures and facial expressions. That’s why I would say that everything can be language.”
Alarik looked at her with obvious satisfaction. “What Bayla just mentioned addresses one of the fundamental questions of theoretical philosophy, but I don’t want to burden you with it in my English seminar.” He looked around. “Please open your books.”
There was a flipping and rustling sound, but I just stared at my uncle.
“Thank you, Bayla.”
Had he just winked at her? He often did that with me, but with Bayla? A goddamn Quatura?
I looked around to see if the guys had noticed, but the members of the pack present were busy with their own business.
I spotted Hunter, who looked up with a smile, which automatically made me smile back. I hadn’t gotten anything more out of him about the competitions so far, and would probably have to wait until we were alone again at some point.
“Humans cannot not communicate. I want you to write me an essay on Paul Watzlawick’s words.”
Nash and the boys groaned, and it was only when I turned to them that I realized the row behind them was empty. The Ruisangors weren’t there. Whatever that meant, it was for the best. One stress factor less. And I had little desire to be confronted by that bastard again after his actions earlier.
“A few words... You can manage that. You had to do that a lot in high school.”
“Do I look like I’m in high school?” Nash snorted scornfully.
Alarik gave him a serious look.
God, I would have kicked Nash out long ago if I were him.
Nash just snorted and turned to his notebook.
God, brother... don’t be such an idiot.
I was just about to start writing when my eyes caught Bayla Adams’. She looked at me thoughtfully, which unnecessarily reinforced my nervousness.
“Perhaps this time, you should pay more attention to the subject matter before you devote yourself to structure and order,” Alarik began.
Burn
FreshmanSound
Then the door flew open, and I spun my head around, expecting – as always – an unwanted DeLoughrey, but instead I spotted a red-haired woman with a topknot, amber-colored horn-rimmed glasses, a white blouse tucked into a leopard-print skirt and a clipboard she was holding.
She looked down at us until her eyes met Alarik’s.
Her scent revealed that she was one of them. A Quatura. On top of that, she didn’t look ugly, even if she reeked of the most disgusting granny perfume I’d ever smelled up to this point.
“Professor Copeland, am I right?” she asked dryly.
She took his perplexed nod as an invitation to enter the tiered seminar room in her bone-breaking shoes.
“And you are?” Alarik asked with raised eyebrows.
Apparently, he had never seen this woman before either, but she reeked of trouble.
“Professor Rebecca Harlow,” she said in a cold voice, stopping in front of my uncle. “And just to be clear.” She turned to us all and gave us a saccharine smile. One that looked more fake than Kelly Hepburn’s Barbie hair. “Order should be the highest principle. However, it seems that order, structure, and discipline lost their relevance at this university ten years ago.”
What on earth… Who was this woman, and what was she thinking by talking like that? Here, in front of the students and in front of the director of the university?
“And right now that’s becoming obvious,” she continued sternly, looking at Alarik, who looked confused.
I would have loved to put this woman in her place, but there were humans here and that was a line I would never cross.
It seemed as if this professor, wherever she came from, had carefully planned this visit.
“Fights, rivalries between student groups. And, apparently, it’s not going to stop anytime soon. Am I right, Professor Copeland?”
The irony bubbled out of her words and Alarik didn’t seem to like it at all, but he wasn’t able to respond.
“In case you’re wondering what exactly I am doing here?” A triumphant smile played around her lips, which she pursed briefly before continuing. “I was sent here by the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada to... well...” She looked at the chaotic pile of folders scattered on the table next to Alarik, with crumpled paper peeking out. “To bring order. You students have the right to know that the directorate now consists of two heads and that I am responsible for resolving student conflicts and maintaining order at this institution.” A whisper went around the room, but that didn’t bother the woman at all. “There will also be a return of old rules and an adaptation of new ones, including, for example, the wearing of a uniform that will distinguish you as students of this institution.”
“Over my dead body!” Nash said from behind me.
Noah stared at the woman as if she had just pronounced his death sentence.
“Don’t challenge me, Mr. Copeland,” the woman hissed, punishing my brother with a reproving look.
Nash looked speechless for the first time in a long time.
I also wondered how she knew his name. She was a Quatura. The combination of these two facts set alarm bells ringing in my head. If one thing was certain, it was that this woman had done her homework.
Alarik continued to stare at her blankly. I realized that a storm was raging inside him. It was only a matter of time before it burst out.
The woman smiled contentedly at the startled looks and probably at herself and said in conclusion, “The rules, which will – of course – appear in writing on your accommodations today and on the Vanderwood website, will apply from tomorrow. I urge you all to follow them to avoid possible disciplinary action.”
“Excuse me? What kind of disciplinary action?” I blurted out, and the woman paused in my line, eyeing me pointedly and smiling as if she’d just read that it was going to be nice weather for the next three weeks.
“Miss Copeland, believe me, you don’t want to find out.” She winked at me as if we were friends, which we most certainly were not, and continued up the steps. At the top, she stopped once more.
“If you have any further questions, please contact me. My office is where Mr. …I mean, Professor Copeland’s office was.”
Then she disappeared through the open double doors without closing them behind her. Her high heels made a menacing noise.
No one said anything for another ten seconds. And then, as if it were a matter of life and death, Alarik hurried up the stairs and left us all in the seminar room.
“It’s about time that someone tidies up this messed-up place,” Vivienna remarked arrogantly and stood up with a triumphant smile to leave the room with her two nasty friends.
The next thing that happened was chaos. A tumult broke out. Wild whispers turned into loud uproar.
I couldn’t sit here any longer. Damn it, I had to find out what this meant.
High Stakes
Christopher Tyng
I put my ear to the solid oak door, my skin grazing the cool metal of the snakes, causing me to suck in the air sharply.
“What are you thinking, just marching into my university and announcing such things before discussing them with me?”
Alarik sounded very angry. It was rare to hear him like this.
“That wasn’t necessary, Professor Copeland. After the recent incidents, the Councils were forced to intervene.”
Was she referring to the matter with Bayla? And what did the Councils have to do with us?
“You have no right to…”
“Professor Copeland. I have every right in the world to be here and do what has long been necessary. It sounds like you don’t know the treaty,” the woman rebuked indignantly, silencing Alarik.
The treaty. I would have loved to read it to find out what was really in the document and how exactly the parties were involved, but I wasn’t allowed to. Only the heads of the respective parties were allowed to take a look at it.
“Do you really think you’ll bring more order in here with a school uniform?” Alarik asked sarcastically. “This is a university, not a high school.”
“It worked back in our days.”
I heard Alarik laugh as if she had made a bad joke.
“How dare you question my decisions, Professor Copeland?”
His laughter must have infuriated her.
“Tststs, someone seems to be eavesdropping on the director. And then, of all people, such an exemplary student.”
I spun around, startled, and spotted the tall Ruisangor with the chin-length, brown hair. Miles. He was leaning casually against the wall wearing his black shirt and coat of the same color, his dark brown eyes scrutinizing me. Probably the same eyes of whatever he was bloodthirstily killing when he illegally entered our territory.
In his hands, he twirled a curved steel blade, reminding me far too late of who this guy was and that he was near me again.
A crooked grin spread across his face. Scorn reflected in it.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed angrily.
He should know that I wasn’t delighted to see him lurking around here. Who knew what he was up to. Had he come to get revenge for my threats earlier? Had I perhaps underestimated him?
“I could ask you the same thing, pup.”
What? What had he just called me?
“Who do you think you are?”
Demandingly, I stepped closer, only to get further away from the door. I wished I had a pane of bulletproof glass between me and him.
Miles put on a playfully innocent look.
“Aw, is the little puppy getting restless now? Or is she still restless because she’s now facing some serious competition in a campaign?”
In addition to the corners of his mouth, his brows were now moving upward.
“Why are you doing this? What’s in it for you?” I snapped at him, but tried to keep my rage under control, which in turn I used to cover up my nervousness.
I didn’t know what this man was capable of. Father had said that if we ever met a Ruisangor, we should watch every single move they made, because it could mean our death. But strangely enough, I felt no fear. I was well-trained, and there were rules here, even if I doubted that the guy in front of me was interested in them.
We both wanted to see the other one buried deep down at the cemetery of Blairville. I was sure of that.
“Actually, it was just a joke, but now that I see how much I can drive a paranoid Senseque crazy with it…”
His smirk was getting on my nerves. And now he was also making fun of me? He had picked the wrong person.
“Don’t you know who I am? Who my father is?” I tried to remind him that he shouldn’t even look at me, let alone talk to me, if he cared about his life.
“I know that perfectly well, and no…” He raised both brows. “I don’t give a shit.”
The cheeky grin that followed gave me the rest. Now I understood Nash. This Ruisangor seemed to be begging for a beating.
“One last time.” I pressed my lips together, clenching my hands into fists, trying to keep my voice low. “Why are you here?!”
The mere thought that he could have ambushed my uncle sparked new anxiety in my chest.
He eyed me with a grin. “I just wanted to take some papers to the director.”
“Of course,” I growled mistrustfully.
He pulled an envelope out of his shirt.
I pressed my lips together.
He couldn’t really have intended to deliver something to my uncle’s office, personally. Alarik would never have been allowed to speak to him at such close proximity. Even though I knew my reckless uncle would have done so anyway.
“And now, if you’ll excuse me. You’re in my way.”
Miles stepped toward me and wanted to put his hand on my shoulder.
I stared at him in disbelief.
He was actually going to push me aside. What did he think? That I would let him touch me like that without breaking his neck?
I wasn’t going to let him cross that line. Instead, I jerked his hand away with mine and reached for his breastbone. A few seconds later he crashed against the wall, his eyes surprised, mine full of anger.
“I’ve always wanted to see the eyes of a wolf up close. A living one, of course,” he said with a grin, looking me straight in the eye so that I could recognize the yellow reflection of mine in his mahogany brown ones.
Furious, I gave him a jerk and pressed him harder against the wall, causing him to let out a surprised gasp.
Enough of this little game.
“Touch me again, and you can say goodbye to your eyes!”
Miles laughed softly and looked between us at my hands before looking up again.
“Right now, it’s you touching me without me wanting it,” he murmured in a lowered, husky voice, looking at me challengingly.
Damn, the asshole was right, and it made me angry at myself, at my carelessness.
I backed away in shock, which earned me another grin, revealing his pointed canines, which gave me goosebumps.
How I would have loved to throw him through the open portico window next to me into one of the courtyards.
He stepped past me without a second thought as the door flew open and the red-haired Quatura caught sight of the Ruisangor.
Her eyes gleamed grayish for a second, and Miles immediately looked tense.
Why hadn’t he been afraid of me?
“I have something to hand in to the director,” he said businesslike, and held up the envelope.
The Quatura eyed him suspiciously, then looked at me as if I were an escaped zoo animal, before glaring back at Miles.
“Of course, Mr. DeLoughrey!” she growled angrily, probably at my uncle, slammed the door, grabbed the envelope, and stalked off with her fake smile and clipboard.
“She’s the new co-director?” Miles laughed, amused.
I was still looking at him, filled with anger.
“I hope she’s going to make sure you never set foot on these grounds again!” I pressed out, eyeing the Ruisangor, ready to dodge if he attacked me unexpectedly. My whole body was on alert and I knew what to do in an emergency, where to bite before his speed helped him break my neck.
I knew that the witches wanted to get rid of us first, but it wouldn’t come to that. This university was Alarik’s baby, and before someone took it from him, he would remember which family he belonged to and get that Quatura out of here as soon as possible.
Miles looked at me as if he wanted to say something else when his cell phone rang. He gave me one last arrogant grin and then shot through the corridor at a forbidden speed until I could no longer see him.
I looked around tensely, but there was no one else in the corridor who could have seen him or me. Thank God.