Chapter 32 Jack
Chapter thirty-two
Jack
Since Tate and Kyren found me in the shower, they had become protective. Almost annoyingly so.
“Here let me.” Tate held the door open for me, glaring at a handful of vampires who were getting too close.
I still hadn’t told them everything that happened that night, and I probably never would.
How do you tell the guys you’re seeing that you went out to hunt some vampires and came across a nest?
Only to turn around and kill all of them because you were working through some emotions for your ex-situationship?
Yeah, I didn’t either.
I gave the vampires Tate glared at an apologetic look before dipping through the doorway.
While I didn’t mind spending so much time with Tate and Kyren, they were following me everywhere. Every class, they were there by the door waiting for me, ready to walk me to my next one, though I knew their classes weren’t anywhere near mine.
When not in class, they’d distract me with movie marathons and mini-dates in Kyren’s bedroom that left me unable to walk for hours.
Not that I was complaining, but I needed to hunt down Xinyi without them to ask about the discontented vampires.
I couldn’t very well do that with my boyfriends in tow.
I huffed a laugh.
Boyfriends.
If someone had told me a month ago that I’d have not one but two boyfriends and they’d be supernaturals, I’d have staked them right then and there.
“This is your last class of the day, right?” Tate asked, his hand low on my back. “I thought we could go into town and see a movie. I know we haven’t gotten out much our failed date.” He chuckled.
“I wouldn’t call it failed.” I shifted my books from one arm to the other as I looked at him. “It was… eventful. I certainly enjoyed the ending.” I smiled coyly at him, stepping closer.
Tate tipped my chin up. “Oh, did you now? And what part of it did you like best? The first bit,” he murmured suggestively, “or the last?”
I dragged my teeth over my lower lip. “Oh, I loved the whole length of it.”
Tate bent at the knee, groaning in the back of his throat. “Fuck, princess.” He pressed me against his front with the hand on my back, his nose brushing along my hair line. “Are you sure you don’t want to skip class and have a little lesson of our own?”
“No.” I snorted a laugh, shoving at his chest. “No. I have a test.”
“Alright, alright.” Tate laughed and released me, his hands up in defense. “I suppose I can wait. But then I get you all weekend and let me tell you… I have plans.”
I arched a brow. “Oh, do you? I hope these plans include clothing and food.”
“Ruin my fun.” Tate pouted.
We walked a bit more, hand-in-hand like a real couple, until we arrived at my class. Tate kissed me deeply enough to make my toes curl, to the point that Julian cleared his throat behind me. My face heated at being caught kissing my new boyfriend in front of my old one.
Tate only smirked at Julian and gave me another quick kiss. “See you after class.”
I shot a look at Julian to mind his own business before taking the stairs two at a time to my seat in the back. Kyren wasn’t in class today, hence why Tate walked me to my last one.
They didn’t tell me why he wouldn’t be here. Tate was rather mysterious about it. Something about preparing for later.
Maybe it was because I felt guilty about what happened the other day with the meeting or because I really hadn’t been paying attention to Julian’s class, but I took the most detailed notes I’d ever taken in my life that class.
When class ended, I didn’t rush out of the room. Instead, I lingered until the last student left. I knew Tate would be waiting for me outside the classroom, but I needed to talk to Julian. Clear the air. Make him realize that I was still doing my job. I hadn’t forgotten the mission.
Sure, I’d gotten a bit distracted, but I wouldn’t again. I wanted to prove that I was worthy and able to be here. That he could trust me… even if I wasn’t a hundred percent sure I could trust myself.
Stepping down to the ground level, I approached where Julian sat at his desk, scribbling on a piece of paper. His head lifted at my appearance, then dipped back down.
“Can I help you?”
I frowned at his stiff tone as if I were any other student. “I wanted to see if you’d heard anything else.” I placed my fingers on the edge of his desk.
“No, I haven’t.” Julian didn’t glance back up again, while I hovered nearby.
“Oh, well, I’m working on asking around, seeing if someone can point out to me the ones who complain the most about the council.” I waited anxiously for him to respond, to yell at me, to show me he even cared that I was still there.
“Right, good work.” Julian pushed back from his desk and gathered his computer bag, turning his back on me.
I swallowed thickly, my heart in my throat. “Right, okay. Bye.”
The classroom door opened, and Tate’s head poked in. “There you are. You ready?”
I glanced back at Julian, whose stiff back was the only sign he’d heard Tate. Forcing a smile on my face, I accepted his hand. “Yeah, I’m ready.”
A few hours later, I woke up suddenly, my bladder protesting.
Once evening fell, Tate and Kyren did their darndest to wine and dine me tonight and make me feel warm fuzzy feelings in all the appropriate places. Eventually, we fell asleep together but, a few hours later, I woke up suddenly, my bladder protesting.
Glancing over my shoulder at the two men, I almost didn’t want to leave, then my bladder reminded me it existed again.
Smiling softly at the sight, I slowly slipped out of the bed and found my clothes. Quietly as possible, I pulled them on, only bumping into something once, making Tate grunt in his sleep, but he drifted back off immediately.
I crept out of Kyren’s room and into the hallway.
One thing that I’d have to recommend to my dad, Antoine, was to add more bathrooms in the vampire dorm hall. Not that I ever expected to tell him why exactly I wanted such a thing, but having to walk all the way upstairs to the co-ed bathroom in the middle of the night was super inconvenient.
When I was done with my business and washing my hands, my phone dinged in the pocket of my jeans. Frowning, I pulled it out, forgetting I’d even left it in them with the haste in which I’d taken my clothes off earlier that night.
The thought of what Tate and Kyren had done to me after dinner made my face break into a large smile. My lower half still aching in a deliciously sinful way. My smile faltered as my eyes dropped to my phone.
Julian: We need to talk.
Well, that wasn’t ominous or anything.
My phone said it was just after ten a.m. Julian had texted me half an hour ago, meaning he was still awake. Shoving my phone into my pocket, I made my way to his office, the most likely place he would be waiting.
The hallway was quiet, with only a single golden light leaking from beneath his door.
Since it was so late, I didn’t bother knocking on the door.
Inside, Julian sat at his desk, a tumbler of oaky brown liquid on the desk in front of him. His hand lingered on the rim of it, his eyes staring at nothing.
“Julian?”
His gaze jerked toward me, his hand reaching for his glasses.
In my opinion, and I was sure all the other female hunters would agree, he should always wear glasses, even on assignment. Though it could cause more harm than good. As someone who was trying to avoid distraction, Julian in glasses was a major one.
“Jack, please. Have a seat.”
“Woah, my first name, glass of brandy, still up after dawn?” I slipped into a chair across from him. “Who died?” Then my eyes widened. “Please tell me Tristen’s not kicking me off the assignment.”
“No, I took care of it,” Julian stated, lifting his glass to his lips. After swallowing. He licked his lips and kept staring at the wall, almost as if he couldn’t look at me.
My brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
His eyes flicked over to me. “Meaning I took care of it, but anymore distractions and I won’t be able to cover for you.”
“Oh.” I paused, realizing what he’d just said. “You didn’t have to do that for me.”
“I know.” Julian sighed and then turned in his chair until he was completely facing me. “I asked you here because I think we need to have a serious discussion about your boyfriends.”
Irritation filled my chest. “Is that what this is about? You called me to your office in the middle of the night to talk about Tate and Kyren?”
Julian ignored my outburst, his voice calm, calmer than I felt. “Have you ever thought to stop and think for a moment? That perhaps they aren’t who you think they are?”
I shoved to my feet, the chair crashing to the ground.
“So what you think they’re part of the rebels?
That the reason I got distracted was because of their dastardly plan?
” I slammed my hands on his desk. “You’re ridiculous.
You can’t handle me being happy with someone else.
And now you’re trying to make them out to be the bad guys. ”
“I’ll admit, I was jealous.”
“Ha!” I threw my hands up and gestured at him. “There you go. Even you can’t be objective about this.”
Julian’s jaw tensed, his hand movements controlled. “It’s not like that, Jack.”
“Then what’s it like?” I growled, pacing in front of him. “Tell me. Tell me how the guys I’m falling for are the bad guys. No better yet, show me proof,” I shook my finger at him, “and not just your asinine jealousy.”
“Enough.” The hard tone of his voice told me he was on the edge.
But I wasn’t done yet. I’d had enough of his controlling hot and cold act. I finally had two men who wanted to give me everything, men who I cared for, and I wasn’t going to let him take them away from me.
“This is about your inability to let me be happy, isn’t it?” I let out a dark laugh. “If you can’t have me, then no one can. Is that it?”
Julian finally snapped, shoving his chair back as he smashed his glass against the wall behind me, making me flinch.
I breathed in heavily, watching him. Waiting for him to give me some kind of explanation for his outburst.
Julian took a deep breath, his hand on his hip as he dragged the other over his face. Then he leaned forward, his hands on the edge of his desk, his head dipping.
“Kleon made him,” he said quietly.
I blinked, then shook my head. Laughter spilled out of my lips. “I’m sorry, I think I hallucinated for a second. What did you say?”
Julian’s gaze settled on me, something akin to pity in his gaze, his voice low and unbreaking as he said three words that destroyed my world.
“Kleon made him.”
“I…” I stepped back, my hand reaching for the chair then remembered I’d knocked it over. Julian raced around his desk and righted it, pushing it under me. “I… uh… you mean Kyren, right?”
Julian knelt by my chair, not touching me, just watching my face. “Yes.”
“You’re wrong.” I let out a disbelieving laugh. “How do you even know?”
“President West — Tristen — I put in a background check on both of them, and Tristen told me. It was after you left before. Kleon is Kyren’s sire.”
“Don’t say his name.” I shook my head, my vision swimming.
“Jack…” He reached out and placed his hand on mine.
I jerked away from him. “Don’t touch me!”
Shoving to my feet, I grabbed my stomach, my mind whirling, a sick feeling pressing down on my chest, making it hard to breathe.
“This can’t be real. He’s lying.” I rubbed my forehead, moving back and forth in tight circles. “There’s no way that, in all the world, in all the schools, that… he… that I…”
My eyes lifted to Julian’s who watched me with increasing distress. My hand covered my mouth. “I let him touch me — kiss me — oh god, the things I let him do to me…”
I swallowed and lurched forward, grabbing the trash can by his desk, emptying my stomach contents into it.
A hand held my hair back, while the other smoothed up and down my back. Julian sat there while listening to me vomit until there was nothing left to come up.
The room tilted, and my skin felt clammy. My heart raced so hard that each beat stung in my chest. Who knew heartbreak was akin to the flu?
I breathed heavily, leaning against Julian. “I bet you’re happy about this.”
“Shhh.” Julian brushed my hair away from my forehead. “Nothing that causes you pain could ever make me happy.”
My eyes lifted to his face. “What am I going to do, Julian? How can I face them?”
“That’s up to you.” Julian pressed his chin on top of my head. “But whatever you choose, I’ll respect your decision.”
I laughed and then groaned. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
He chuckled in my ear and shifted, helping me stand to my feet. “Believe it or not, I only want to protect you, Jack.” Julian held me to him, letting me take a few breaths before coming back to reality, a reality that was crushing in on my chest with every second I drew breath.
“I need to…” I pulled back and backed toward the door, feeling the tears burning behind my ears as my voice started to crack. “Thank you, Julian, for telling me.”
“Of course.” Julian stepped toward me, hand out reached as if to stop me, then he dropped it, his expression pained. “And I’m here, if you need anything.”
I nodded quickly, swallowing down the lump in my throat until I was out of his office.
Then I let the tears slide down my face.
I moved quickly through the halls until I reached my bedroom.
I grabbed my helmet and keys, leaving everything else behind.
I jumped on my motorcycle and drove, shoving the tears that blurred my vision in the daylight back.
There was only one place a girl could go when she got heart-shattering news.
Home.