Chapter 8 Jack
Chapter eight
Jack
Someone up there hated me.
The moment my foot stepped into Supernatural Law and Enforcement, I knew I was fucked. Standing at the front of the class, looking way too sinful, was the bane of my existence.
Julian Fawley.
My team leader had ditched the hunter uniform and had donned the clothes of a sexy professor, with tan colored slacks, a white buttoned-up shirt and a midnight blue tie.
He’d taken his beachy blonde hair and pulled it up into a bun on top of his head, then paired it with simple black thin rimmed glasses.
The combination was lethal to anyone who saw him.
Before Julian could clock me, I hurried to the back of the large lecture hall, up the stairs until I found a seat in the far back corner. If I was lucky, he wouldn’t notice me. If not, then I’d pay for it after class.
The prospect would have made me press my thighs together in anticipation at one time. Now, though, it was just annoying.
There were far more students than I expected in a class about the Hunter’s Guild and how they policed the supernatural. There was even a mixture of species in the class, not just human servants.
As someone who had spent a lot of her time on the policing end of the Hunter’s Guild, I didn’t expect many supernaturals to care to know about how they worked. I figured they hated the guild the way some humans hated their police force — despising anyone in authority.
Julian thankfully was distracted by a few pretty females loitering around his desk, so if he noticed me, he didn’t show it. By the time he addressed the whole class, it was full, and I could sink down in my seat and hide.
Sitting on the edge of his desk, Julian’s gaze slid across the room, assessing, analyzing, searching. The only sign of how he had weighed the classroom was a slight dip of his lips. He stood straight, hands behind his back, and addressed the room.
“I’m Professor Fawley and, if you don’t know which class you are in, you shouldn’t be in here.”
He paused for a moment. It was quiet enough that I could hear the heart beats of those around me. The authority he commanded before the room kept everyone on the edge of their seats.
“Until recently, when I was asked to teach this class, I worked as a hunter. Hunters, as you are aware, are our world’s form of a police force. While they used to only focus on vampires a few decades ago, they have since expanded to all supernatural creatures.”
With only a moment’s pause, he continued. “This semester, we will cover the rise of hunters: their purpose, their methods, how to stay off their bad side, and the consequences both political and societal of having a separate force to police the supernatural world.”
Moving around the front of the room, he stopped before a chair where a male was slumped over his phone. “You. Why are hunters so proficient at their jobs?”
“Uh…” The guy looked up from his phone, shifting in his seat. “I mean… their sense of smell?”
“Right, a hunter’s strongest tool is their sense of smell.
” Julian continued stalking across the room until he’d crossed to one side of the room, near the door, and inhaled.
“Once they have your scent…” His eyes slowly moved up the stairs and locked onto me.
I inhaled sharply. “They can chase you to the ends of the earth.”
The threat in his voice made me shift in my seat. His gaze was heavy on me for a long moment before he broke away.
Julian continued his lecture, occasionally calling on students, though mostly just talking. When class ended, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to sneak out like I had into class.
So I didn’t even try. I sat in my seat, slowly putting my things away while I waited for the classroom to empty.
Once it was just him and me, I lifted my bag over my shoulder and inched my way down the stairs.
“Nice to see you were able to hide your general disdain of vampires from your lecture.” I stepped off the last step a bit harder than needed.
Julian pushed his glasses up his nose before leaning over his desk, flicking his mouse over the screen. “I’m a professional, Durand. I can—”
“Billings. Or Jack.”
His gaze lifted up to mine.
“You can’t call me that here.” I stopped in front of his desk, crossing my arms over my chest. “If people know I’m a Durand, no one will talk to me.”
“Very well.” Julian straightened, letting his gaze slide over me. “Billings it is.”
I snorted.
“Have something to say about that?”
“Just typical.” I shook my head and huffed a laugh. “Can’t call me by my first name unless you’re fucking me, huh?”
Julian stepped around the desk. A hand tucked in his pocket as his jaw tightened. “I’m still your commanding officer, Billings.” No doubt he purposely used my last name to keep the distance between us.
“Didn’t bother you when you had your dick inside me,” I snapped back, tired of this back and forth. Him pretending it didn’t happen, me trying to get him to take me seriously.
Ever since it happened, Julian had kept a distance between us and doubled down on treating me like I needed a handler instead of the capable hunter I was.
“And I told you that was a mistake.”
“Pfft, yeah, as you’ve reminded me constantly.” I stepped closer until I had to tip my head slightly to meet his gaze. “The fact of the matter is that it happened. We aren’t at the guild. You’re here as my partner, not my commanding officer. So there won’t be any of the usual bossing me around.”
His hot breath huffed over my face as the vein in his forehead throbbed. “Your parents and the presidents want to keep you safe. They have asked me before if I thought you were ready for a solo mission, and you know what I told them?”
“I have an inkling.”
“I told them you could be the best hunter out there if you didn’t have a connection to the Durands.”
My eyes narrowed. “I am a Durand.”
“Precisely. We need hunters, not little princesses pretending to play at one. You might have the highest kill count of our hunters, but you’re not one of us. No matter how much you try, you’ll never be one of us. You’ll always be…” He stepped back, gesturing at me. “Different.”
My pulse jumped in my throat. My fingers curled tight into fists, and rage and hurt filled my chest. “You’re such an asshole.
” Not waiting for him to berate me further, I swung around and stalked away.
“I don’t need a babysitter. You search your way, I’ll search mine.
I’ll let you know if I find anything out. ”
“Billings! Jack, you’re not dismissed.” His voice chased after me as I threw open the door.
A figure blocked my path, and I jerked to a stop, blinking up at Tate’s master. Shoving my bag up my shoulder again, I sucked in a breath. “What do you want?”
Those dark intense eyes watched me for a moment, taking in every detail of my face. “You’re upset.” I caught a slight accent in his low voice.
“No, shit.” I shoved a hand over my face, hoping to catch any angry tears that snuck their way out.
He glanced at the door behind me before locking back on my face. “Do you need assistance?”
I shot a look over my shoulder at the closed door and shook my head. “No, it’s fine. The new professor is just a dick.” I lifted my voice at the end, knowing Julian could hear me through the door. “You’re Tate’s master, right?”
Shifting to the side to allow me to pass, he nodded. “Kyren.” He rolled his r as he said his name.
My feet started down the hall, ready to be anywhere but near the biggest mistake of my life.
When I realized the vampire was following a few steps behind me, I figured it was probably a good idea to get to know my roommate’s master.
It certainly wasn’t because I was intrigued by those dark eyes that seemed to burn across my skin every time they looked in my direction.
“Oh, right. I’m Jack.” I paused and offered him my hand. “We’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other, considering I’m Tate’s roommate.”
Kyren stared at my hand for a moment before taking it with his own. The palm that cupped mine was rough, calloused, as if he spent all his days working them rather than lounging around like most vampires did. Instead of shaking my hand, Kyren lifted and turned it over.
I tensed, my other hand reaching for the small knife I had in my pocket.
When no fangs flashed, I loosened my hand on the knife. Kyren’s nose pressed to the pulse of my wrist and inhaled. A second later, something wet flicked over my skin, and I jerked my arm back, startled.
“Did you just… lick me?” I lifted my arm up, staring at it in confusion. There was a strange tingle where his tongue had touched.
Kyren licked his lips, the edges twitching.
Resisting the urge to wipe my hand on my jeans, I abruptly turned, so I wasn’t looking at his devastatingly handsome face.
Kyren and Tate were night and day. Where Tate was all sunshine and ready to talk my ear off, Kyren had this intense quiet vibe to him that made me half-afraid for his attention and half-begging for it. I currently couldn’t decide in which category I was right now.
“Are you going to the party tonight?” I threw over my shoulder. When he didn’t answer, I stopped and looked back.
He was gone. Only the faint scent of dark cloves was left behind.
“Son of a bitch,” I muttered, looking around for the vampire. Very few could sneak away from me like that without me noticing. That Kyren had just put me even further into the scared category. Okay, and I’d admit it also made him a bit hot.
Shaking off the tingly feeling that Kyren left behind, I made my way through the campus and back to my room. Tate hadn’t come back yet, so I tossed my bag down and headed back out the door. Xinyi asked me to meet her after class in her mistress’s room.
I hadn’t been to the vampire crypt just yet. I had to go through the common room to get to the vampires’ dorm rooms. It wasn’t sure if they decorated it in a gothic style to be ironic or because the vampires felt more comfortable with it.
Either way, I could do without the ornate European rugs and stiff-backed couches.
Unlike the human servants’ wing, the vampires’ dorms were through a door that led downstairs.
The set-up was much like my dads’, who kept a room in the basement for them to rest during the day, even though they each had their own bedroom in the upper part of the house.
I figured that’s mostly so they all had somewhere to — gag — have relations with my mom.
“Jack!” Xinyi saw me in the hallway and waved from an open bedroom door. “Over here.”
The faint scent of blood lingered in the air. A few vampires peered out of their open bedroom doors as I passed. I tried not to look, I really did, except these vampires didn’t seem to care much about privacy.
Some were blatantly feeding in their rooms, while others were fucking and feeding. The hunter in me wanted to pull each of them aside and interrogate them, make sure that whoever their meal was wanted to be there.
My new identity wouldn’t have cared, so I forced myself to keep walking.
Xinyi pulled me into the bedroom and closed the door behind us.
Inside. it looked like a hurricane had gone off.
Clothes were tossed about every which way, over tables and chairs, piled high up on the bed.
There had to be enough clothes there to make its own boutique and, in the middle of it all, was a tall Grecian goddess of a woman.
“Iris! This is Jack.” Xinyi brought me before the vampire.
Eyes almost a golden shade of brown took me in with a broad smile.
“Oh, my love. She is gorgeous. You didn’t tell me she was so beautiful.
” Iris circled me with an assessing gaze.
“Lovely figure, soft in all the right places, and this hair, oh, women have killed for beautiful natural curls like these.”
A weird feeling settled in my chest at her compliments. I wasn’t sure if she was being genuine or getting me ready for market.
“Uh… thank you?”
Iris paused and suddenly dragged Xinyi to her side, her mouth pressed to the smaller woman’s in a deep kiss before she pulled back and peered up at me.
This time, there was clear lust in her gaze.
“It is too bad you are spoken for, I would have loved to make you my companion. Xinyi does get lonely sometimes when I’m off on business. ” She stroked Xinyi’s face lovingly.
Xinyi rolled her eyes, crinkling her nose at me. Clearly she was used to her mistress’s antics.
“Iris, Jack needs clothes for the party tonight, not to get hit on.” She pushed her mistress away affectionately before clapping her hand as she turned to the room.
“Alright, let’s see. Like Iris said, you have a great figure and I bet your legs are amaaaazing.
We should definitely find you a dress or skirt to show them off. ”
“Uh… can’t I just wear this?” I gestured to the clothing I was wearing. “I mean it’s a college party, not some formal gathering, right?”
“Trust me.” Xinyi grabbed my hands and jerked me into the madness. “You’re going to want to look hot.”
I had a feeling before this night was over that I was going to regret this.