Chapter 15
Chapter fifteen
Jack
When I stepped into Supernatural Law and Enforcement on Friday, my eyes locked onto a familiar face sitting next to my usual seat in the back.
“Kyren?” I slid into my seat, setting my bag down next to my seat. “I didn’t know you took this class.”
His dark eyes lingered one, his lips twitching. “Curiosity.”
I hummed, not quite believing him.
That heavy feeling of someone watching me prickled along my skin. Except, this time, the one watching me wasn’t Kyren.
Julian’s eyes bore into me from the front of the classroom where he stood by his desk. Some female student lingered near him, twisting her hair around her finger and giggling. Her hand touched his arm and stroked it much longer than was socially acceptable.
Yet he didn’t stop her, his eyes watching me even as he answered her question with a terse response.
“You seem to know the professor well.”
My head jerked back to Kyren, and I went from one intense stare to the other. Uneasy underneath his full attention, I tapped my pencil on my desk. “An unfortunate acquaintance.”
Throughout the entire class, I felt Kyren’s gaze on me, watching, analyzing, and for a brief moment, I thought I caught a hint of lust in his eyes. Since I was sort of dating his human servant, I felt kind of on the spot.
Why was he here? Was he worried about Tate? Or maybe he was curious about me? I might have been interested in knowing the person taking all my companion’s time if I was him.
Julian’s voice droned on about the hunter’s guild. Their history. Their rules. All things I’d learned about as a child. Passing tests wasn’t going to be a problem for me. Even if Julian decided to give me something harder because of who I was, I was confident I could handle anything he threw at me.
Still, I took notes. Only because if I didn’t focus on something, I was going to overanalyze why Kyren was here or look at Julian. Neither choice was one I wanted to entertain.
“Most hunters work in teams,” Julian explained as he flicked through a few hierarchy charts. “Sometimes, they work in pairs for special missions. One goes undercover while the other works as their handler.”
My eyes shot to Julian, eyes narrowing.
What was he playing at? It was like he was blatantly telling everyone what we were doing here and our plan of action.
“In some instances, the hunter has to integrate themselves with the supernaturals to weed out ones breaking rules.” His gaze slid over the crowd of students, as if daring one of them to speak out of turn or claim they were the ones we were looking for.
Obviously, it wouldn’t be that simple. Sometimes I thought Julian just liked to make people stew for the sake of it.
The smell of sweat and anxiety burned my nose. I rubbed at it, jerking my eyes away from him only to have them land on Kyren.
The vampire wasn’t even pretending to take notes. In fact, there wasn’t a single book or computer on his desk. He simply sat there in his cream-colored sweater, dark slacks, and loafers like a king overseeing his court.
“What?” I whispered, flicking my eyes back to my paper, where I’d given up taking notes and was just doodling.
Kyren’s hand reached over and shifted my notebook toward him. “That’s an amazing likeness.”
I peered down at the crow on my paper, surrounded by a circle. To most, it would have looked like I was just drawing the academy’s sigil. In fact, I’d been looking at the crow most of my life. It was all over my house and even tattooed on my dads’ chests.
I spent most of my childhood staring at these crows, trying to recreate them. I could draw it by memory now.
Of course, I didn’t tell Kyren that.
“Thanks, I have a knack for birds.” I tapped my pencil on the desk.
“Something you want to share with the class, Miss Billings?”
My eyes ripped back to Julian’s accusatory gaze. “No, Professor Fawley. Was just answering a question Kyren had.”
Julian’s eyes shot to Kyren. “Save your questions for after class.”
I rolled my eyes.
“See me after class, Miss Billings,” Julian snapped. How’d he even see me roll my eyes?
My teeth ground together. “Fine.”
The class ended without interruption after that. I didn’t bother rushing to gather my things. I knew I wasn’t getting out of it this time. Julian would get his meeting with me, one way or another. Better to just get it over with.
“Want me to stay with you?”
My eyes lifted to Kyren waiting by my desk. I smiled and shook my head with a laugh. “No, it’s alright. Wouldn’t want to keep you.”
“I don’t trust him.” His gaze shifted to Julian, his jaw tightening.
Standing, I patted Kyren on the chest. His eyes darted down to where I touched him, and I pulled my hand back quickly. “It’s okay. Really. He probably just wants to gripe about me talking during class again.”
Kyren didn’t say anything more as he followed me down the stairs. When we landed at the base, Julian waited for me, his sleeve rolled up and a hand in his pocket. The tension in his shoulders told me exactly how he was feeling right then.
“Leave,” Julian instructed Kyren with a tone he’d used on many a hunter under his command.
Kyren bared his fangs at Julian. “You don’t command me, hunter.”
I lifted my hand to touch Kyren’s arm, then dropped it knowing how he reacted before. “Kyren, I’ve got this. I promise. Go ahead.”
Kyren and Julian stared each other down for a moment longer before Kyren broke it, stalking out of the classroom with a lingering growl.
My luck finally ran out. I’d ignored every call and text from Julian since that first day, making sure to dart out of the class with the horde of students before he could catch me.
Sure, it was petty and unprofessional, but Julian was a pain in the ass when he was trying to control me. Something he really should have given up on by now.
“We need to talk.”
Turning my head from the closed door, I pursed my lips. “Unless you have any new information about the mission, we don’t have anything to talk about.” I moved for the door and turned the handle. It barely cracked open before his hand slammed down on it above my head, shutting it closed.
His body pressed up against the back of mine. His mouth next to my ear. “Dur — Jack. We need to talk.”
“I know. You just don’t have to be,” My shoulder sagged, “such an asshole about it.”
Julian chuckled, the sound vibrating through my back and lingering in my core. Fuck him. Fuck him sideways. The bastard knew exactly what he did to me.
“And you don’t have to be such a brat, and yet here we are.” His words brushed against my neck, sending a shiver down my spine. “Just work with me, Jack. We can’t let our personal feelings get in the way of the mission.”
I swallowed and turned, putting our faces inches from each other, his eyes boring into mine. “I can be professional, but you can’t.”
“I’ve been nothing but professional.” Julian’s eyes narrowed.
I let out a hard laugh. “Right, ‘cause you ride the ass of all your hunters. You let all of them throw themselves into danger, yet you hold me back. You’ve always held me back.”
He blew out a long breath and pushed away from the wall, dragging a hand down his face. “This isn’t the time or place to be discussing this.”
“If not now, when?” I followed after him, watching him pace back and forth. “You were my mentor. You helped train me to be what I am today. Then you were my comrade. We fought side by side against whatever came after us. Then... that night…”
“Jack.” Julian stopped pacing. “Don’t.”
“I very well fucking will,” I growled as I grabbed his arm. “You can’t pretend like it didn’t happen.”
Julian looked down at my hand and then back to me. “We can’t do this. I’m your commanding officer now. What happened before… it can’t happen again.”
My jaw tightened, and my heart cracked a bit more at his words. “So you say… but that doesn’t mean that you can keep holding me back. Either you care about me and want to be with me, or you treat me like everyone else.”
His eyes burned across my face, flickering over my features as if he were memorizing them.
“You can’t have it both ways, Julian,” I murmured, dropping my hand and stepping back from him.
After a moment, he dropped his gaze. “You’re right. We have a mission, and I’m holding you back from it.” Julian stepped over to his desk and picked through the papers on the surface. “I found a lead.”
“So did I.”
He lifted his head at my words. “You did?”
“Don’t look so surprised,” I snorted, walking over to him. “Tate and Xinyi were telling me about the council and how it all works.”
“If you don’t know how it works by now—”
I cut him off with a flat look. “They were also saying how there were some vampires and others who didn’t like the way the council was running things.”
“Did you get names?” Julian looked excited for a moment, and it killed me to disappoint him.
“No, not yet.”
Julian sighed.
“I’ll find out. I didn’t want to push for too much too soon, especially since they were giving me information so freely.” I leaned on the edge of his desk, trying to peek at what he was looking at.
“Of course you will,” Julian snipped, as if I hadn’t just given our mission a direction to poke in. “Here.” He shoved a paper at me. “There’s a bar in town. Supernaturals like to hang out there.”
“Why don’t you just go then?” I glanced down at the paper. “Hair of the Dog? Sounds like a werewolf hang-out.”
“It’s not. Vamps and witches go too.” Julian scribbled something on a piece of paper, not looking at me.
“And I would, if it wasn’t where the students liked to hang out.
Might look out of place. Besides,” his eyes flicked up to me, “I’m a known hunter.
Do you think they’d look kindly on me hanging around their bar? ”
“Right,” I drew out, standing to tuck the paper in my pocket. “Alright, I’ll take Tate and check it out.”
“No.”
I stiffened. “What? You don’t want me to check it out?”
Julian straightened. “You shouldn’t take the wolf with you.”
I arched a brow, then crossed my arms over my chest. “Why not?”
“Jack.” Removing his glasses, Julian sighed. “I don’t have to tell you how important this mission is to us and your family. There can’t be any distraction.”
“And Tate?” I asked, even though I had a feeling I knew exactly where this was going.
“He’s a distraction.” Julian leveled a look at me. “Can you tell me with certainty that you could go to the bar and search for clues without getting distracted by your little boyfriend?”
I rolled my tongue around my mouth and clicked my tongue. “I see how it is.” I huffed a laugh as I stalked across the classroom until I reached the door again.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
At Julian’s voice, I stopped and turned my hand on the doorknob. “It’s just… you sound jealous.”
Julian arched a brow. “Jealous?”
“Yes, you. Jealous.”
He crossed the room until he hovered over me, his eyes darkening. He crowded around me, one arm above my head, his body brushing against mine until every breath tasted like him.
“Why would I be jealous of him? Any of them?”
I opened my mouth to retort. His finger pressed to my lips.
“I could never be jealous of them. Remember, I know what you sound like, Jack.” His words were a low rumble that tightened things low inside of me, then his thigh pressed between my legs, raising that ache to a throb.
“I’ve tasted every inch of you. Every sweet bit.” His eyes dipped down my body, leaving me no chance to misunderstand. “I even know how you like to beg. Oh, you beg so nicely for me. Squeezing me so tight as you came apart.” He thumbed down my bottom lip.
Swallowing thickly, I licked my lips, jerking in surprise when I caught a taste of him. “That… doesn’t mean anything.”
Julian smirked. “Doesn’t it though?”
As quickly as he backed me into a corner, he released me, walking back to his desk like nothing had happened. He slipped his glasses back on his face while I panted by the door.
“No boyfriends on missions.”
I barely registered that I’d nodded before I grabbed the door handle and ran out into the hall.
My heart pounded in my chest as my feet moved across the campus. Julian had well and truly riled me up. Every piece of me was alive and begging to be touched and tasted.
Since Julian clearly wasn’t going to take care of my problem, I was going to the only other person who would.
I threw my bedroom door open, my eyes searching for Tate’s form. When he wasn’t there, I cursed and stalked back into the hall. Where else would he go?
Kyren.
I wouldn’t put it past Kyren to tell Tate about the interaction I had with Julian, which meant that Tate was likely still there.
Down the stairs to the vampires’ dorm, I realized quickly that I didn’t know which room was Kyren’s.
I closed my eyes and breathed in, searching through the scents to find the ones that I’d grown to know as well as my own.
Then my feet were moving on their own until I was standing before a dark wooden door reading two hundred.
Not bothering to knock, I opened the door.
My eyes found Tate, and the only thought that came to my mind was I should have knocked.