Chapter 23
Chapter twenty-three
Jack
I lingered around the library for another half hour or so, reading and answering my dads’ text messages.
Drake: Yo Jack o lantern! How's school?
Allister: did you get that history class you wanted?
Rayne: History? FML.
Rayne: Borrrring.
Rayne: What does she need that for?
Rayne: Have you been to any parties yet?
Antoine: Our daughter needs a well-rounded education. Jaquelynn is not there to party.
Drake: don't be such a soul sucker. She can party.
Marcus: No. Parties.
Darren: Let me know if you need any laundry done.
I sighed and rolled my eyes at their messages. It was like I was twelve years old again, right before I joined the training at the Hunter’s Guild. I texted them back, even though I knew it wasn’t going to stop the questions.
Me: Fine. Yes I did. No parties. And I'll let you know.
Rayne: come on, Jack. Give us more than that. Have you met anyone... interesting ??
Allister: interesting? How? You're not talking to boys are you?
Drake: WTH!! You better tell them supes to keep their grubby paws off our girl.
Antoine: May I remind you once again, you are there for an education. Not to fraternize.
Me: I’ve gotta go to class.
My phone buzzed several more times, but if I kept entertaining them with answers, they would never let me get back to work.
With Tate truly gone, it was easy for me to wave goodbye to Xinyi and Iris before leaving the library. If Tate showed up, I could always make an excuse like I was going to get a snack.
My feet hurried through the academy toward Julian’s office, the most likely place he would be at this time of day. It wasn’t until I got there that I realized he might have gone home for the day or somewhere else in the building. Maybe I should have texted him first?
A feminine giggle sounded from inside.
I froze my hand on the handle of the doorknob. Was there a woman in there? A student maybe?
My brows furrowed, irritation flaring in me. He’d given me crap about getting involved with Tate, and yet here he was, flirting with someone in his very office. Hypocrite.
I was about to throw the door open when the handle twisted. Jumping back, I released it, but my feet froze to the spot. I told myself it was because I had to report what I’d heard to Julian, while shoving down the part of me that wanted to see who would draw Julian’s attention.
A woman stepped out, auburn hair twisted up in an elegant updo and dressed in a fashionable dress that hugged her curves but was professional enough that she could get away with it at the school. Another professor? She surely didn’t look like a student.
Her eyes locked on me, making her pause in the doorway.
“Abigail,” Julian’s voice called out, and then he appeared at her side, a smile on his face that I thought only I had been privy to. His blonde hair looked tousled like someone had been running their fingers through it. “Oh, Miss Billings, did you need something?”
“I wanted to discuss that paper with you?” I jerked my bag up my shoulder a bit harder than necessary, hoping my words didn’t come out as terse as I felt them.
The professor inclined her head to Julian. “We can talk more later. At dinner?” She placed a hand on his chest, her eyelashes fluttering.
Completely unprofessional actions for a professor in front of a student.
Julian blinked down at her. “Yes, of course. Thank you, Professor Campbell.”
Professor Campbell shifted past me and into the hallway, glancing back at me briefly with a quizzical frown before sauntering away on her short heels.
“Miss Billings?”
I jerked my head back to Julian. With a huff, I pushed past him into the office and threw my bag down on the ground before taking his seat at his desk.
Julian closed the door behind him and sighed. “Get out of my seat, Billings.”
Swiveling from side to side in the seat, I laced my fingers over my stomach. “Actually, I think I like it here. Maybe I’ll be the one telling you what to do from now on, since you apparently can’t keep your focus on the mission.” I arched a brow at him, holding back the bite in my voice.
Julian sat on the edge of the desk near me. “You’re acting like a child. I have to interact with the other teachers, just like you have to with the students. Professor Campbell was simply educating me of the clubs she knew about around the academy.”
“Sure sounds like it,” I snorted. “And if only the rebels would be so brazen.”
“What are you doing here, Jack?” Julian drew his glasses off, cleaning them with a cloth from the pocket of his dress shirt. “Wasn’t it you who told me to only contact you when I had information to share?”
I stared up at him, wondering how we’d come to this point.
We used to be so close. Fighting back-to-back, only relying on each other as we fought against the supernaturals.
Now we could hardly stand to be in the same room as one another.
Somehow, one night of passion destroyed every bit of our previous friendship.
Why was I being punished for following my heart?
I shook the thought away. It didn’t matter now, in any case, I was with Tate now.
“I did say that.” I leaned back in the chair, moving his pens out of the neatly lined up pattern he’d organized them. “Which is why I’m here.”
“Would you stop that?” Julian’s hand slapped down on mine, not trapping it but effectively kept me from messing with his things. “What did you find out?”
I dragged my hand out from under his grasp, resisting the urge to wipe it on my pants to get the tingly feeling his touch always caused to go away. “I overheard some students talking about a meeting on Wednesday at four a.m. in the third-floor chemistry classroom.”
“So?” Julian arched a brow. “It could be a meeting about anything. You could be walking into an orgy the way these students are partying every other night of the week.”
My head ducked, cheeks heating at his words since just earlier this morning I had been one of those students getting felt up in the woods at a party.
“Billings?”
I whipped my gaze back up to him. “What?”
“What makes you think this could be the rebels?” His voice began to sound impatient, probably irritated at me for daydreaming.
“Obviously because I’m a mind reader.” When Julian didn’t laugh, I continued. “They said as much.” I changed my voice to try to mimic that of the one I heard. “Anyone against the council. So…” I gestured out as if to say duh.
Julian’s eyes narrowed into slits. “I could do without the attitude.”
“Oh, there are quite a few things you could do without,” I shot back with a sarcastic drawl. “I’d be happy to make you a list.”
“If the next word out of your mouth refers to a stick—”
I opened my mouth to say as much.
Julian’s hand clamped down over my mouth. “Not. Another. Word.”
I snapped my mouth shut and shrugged as I stood from his chair. “Anyway, I have to go read this boring ass Econ book that apparently will prepare me to handle my fortune in the future.”
“You shouldn’t take your studies so lightly.”
Call it immaturity or lingering jealousy over the professor earlier that forced my hand in what I did next.
Stopping in front of him, my fist shot out toward his gut. Surprisingly, this time Julian snatched my wrist, twisted it behind me back, and pushed me face down on the desk. I shoved against his hold, but his body pressed firmly against mine.
Under normal circumstances, I would be able to get out the hold, but the hard press of his hips against my ass made me freeze. The position was almost identical to one we’d been in a year ago for a completely different reason. The memory hit me so hard, I gasped.
His breath had been hot on my neck, matching his firm, strong strokes. The table had thudded against the wall of the abandoned warehouse. My restrained cries of pleasure, trying not to lead those we hunted to us.
Julian must have realized it too because he stiffened and then released me, stepping back several steps.
Heart thudding in my chest, I lifted myself off the desk, turning slowly until our eyes met. He might have caught himself, but he couldn’t hide the heat in his eyes. He still wanted me, even if it was just his body.
The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife. A sound outside the room broke it, and Julian was on the move.
“I’ve got work to do,” he commented before he dropped into the seat I vacated, reorganizing the pens I’d messed up.
Knowing I was dismissed, I grabbed my bag and stepped out of the door. My eyes lingered on his bent head for a moment before shutting the door behind me.
Determined to erase the interaction from my mind, I shifted my bag up further on my shoulder and headed toward the cafeteria. If Tate checked, I wouldn’t have to lie to him about getting a snack.
Stepping around a corner, I almost walked into Kyren standing there. “Oh, Kyren.” I cocked my head to the side, peering up slightly at him. “You should wear a bell or something. One of these days, I’m going to run right into you.”
“One could hope.”
I blinked up at Kyren, not sure if he was joking or not. “Well, I’m heading to get a snack.” I pointed past him and then started that way.
Kyren followed a few steps behind me.
“Are you going to the cafeteria too?” I asked, even though he had been going in the completely opposite direction a moment before.
“Yes.”
We walked a few steps in silence before Kyren grabbed the strap of my bag.
I stopped and frowned, glancing from the strap of the bag to Kyren.
He didn’t give me a chance to protest before he took my bag and looped it over his head.
My beat-up bag looked out of place against his fashionable clothing.
“Uh… thanks.”
Kyren inclined his head.
Then we were walking again. After a few minutes, Kyren spoke.
“That professor…” Kyren began, his eyes focused on me. “He’s more than acquaintance, isn’t he?”
I sighed, knowing this was going to come up again. “Yes. Don’t make a big deal of it, but we used to date. Before…” I waved a hand in the air. “All this.”
Kyren made a sound so fierce that my brows rose.
“If you’re jealous for Tate’s sake, you shouldn’t worry,” I tried to reassure him. “We haven’t been together in over a year, and he has made it clear that we aren’t anything.”
“But you do.”
I paused, stopping before the cafeteria door.
“Just because someone else says our feelings don’t matter doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Things with Jul — Professor Fawley are complicated.
But I can assure you, there’s nothing going on between us.
I’m with Tate.” I nodded my head toward him. “Just like you.”
Kyren didn’t say anything else. I went to open the cafeteria door, but he beat me too it, a whiff of clovers and smoke hitting my nose. Then I remembered. I grabbed his arm, jerking him away from the door before I poked him in the chest.
“Hey, why did you sneak into my bed?”
He let me back him up against a wall, his eyes dipping to my finger with a small smile. “You had nightmares.”
“So you think that since I let you bite me, it means you can just sneak into my bed like a creeper?” I tipped my head to the side, surveying his expression. “I’m not yours to prote—”
Our positions were suddenly reversed, and his mouth was pressed to mine, a hand on the back of my neck. My eyes wide, I lifted my hands to push him away. Kyren kissed like he was trying to suck my soul out of my mouth, leaving my knees weak and my hands clutching his shirt.
When he finally pulled back, I was breathless. Kyren brushed a curl away from my face.
“Not yet.”
He leaned forward again, and I tensed, except he didn’t kiss me again. Instead, his lips brushing my ears. “And the next time I taste your blood, I’ll be inside you.”
He said the words as if he were so certain and, for a moment, I almost believed him.
I swallowed and watched as he walked away, my heart racing at just his kiss and words. He spoke so few words to me, and yet, they made a bigger impact than all the words in the world.
I could see how Tate fell for the quiet and intense vampire. I certainly was having a hard time not falling myself.