Chapter 24
Chapter twenty-four
Kyren
The taste of Jack lingered on my tongue. I’d made a calculated risk kissing her just now. Not too high, though.
When she initiated contact while complaining about my nightly action, that was my chance to finally get a taste of her. It had been a pleasant surprise that she didn’t shove me off right away. Her scent shifted to interest within moments.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t linger on my progress with my mysterious obsession.
My steps were light, barely audible on the hallway stone floor, each step purposeful in my intended destination.
I hadn’t meant to spy on Jack earlier. Tate had asked me to meet him for breakfast, but I had caught her scent on the way and, like a hound pursuing his prey, I followed.
Until I found her standing before that damn professor’s office again.
Why? If he was an ex, why would she keep coming back to see him?
From the very beginning, in typical hunter fashion, he looked down on the students, seeing all us supernaturals as less than. It was clear he wasn’t happy with being assigned to teach the class on hunters, and yet here he was.
Then there was his blatant bias. Of course, he tried to hide it, but it was clear he hated supernaturals, hated us.
But she kept going back to him? Something sharp twisted in my chest.
When she had stepped into his office, I couldn’t rely on my own sight to see what was going on. I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes, pulling on the bits of shadows that I’d hidden in Jack’s shadow.
They clearly knew each other well based on their interaction.
She certainly didn’t treat him with the respect a student would their professor.
I almost burst into the room when he put his hands on her, touching her so familiarly in such a suggestive way.
The urge to rip his head off his body just from touching her sent my blood racing.
It hadn’t been a coincidence when she came stalking out of his office and rounded the corner. My placement was purposeful, in the hopes of spending some time with her and perhaps find out more about her relationship with the professor.
Her reaction to finding out I’d been sleeping in her bed, ending in our first kiss, was just a bonus.
I paused outside the professor’s office, my finger stroking over my lips. The taste of her lips and mouth was almost better than the taste of her blood. I could only imagine one place tasting even better, a taste I was eager to discover for myself.
Watching Tate freely touch and kiss her had been a battle of patience and restraint. Something that I soon hoped wouldn’t be a problem anymore. Jack’s reaction to my kiss made me feel optimistic.
I knocked on the door, the tension in my arm the only evidence of my retraining rage.
“Come in,” a firm voice commanded. That was a tone that was used to giving orders and having them obeyed. Certainly a hunter of a higher rank than the lowly grunts I’d come up against before.
Turning the knob, I stepped into office.
My gaze landed on the blonde head of the hunter.
Glasses perched on his nose, he peered down at some papers, making a red mark here or there.
A strong muscular form was barely hidden beneath his professor’s mask.
Professor Fawley would have looked more at home in the middle of a training ground than behind a desk at a school.
“Can I help you?” Bright blue eyes locked on me, a hard edge to them.
I had a feeling, even if I wasn’t a vampire, this man wouldn’t have liked me.
Closing the door behind me, I stepped forward a hand in my pocket, more to resist the urge to wrap my shadows around his smug face.
“I want you to leave Jack alone.”
Professor Fawley arched a brow, his lips twitching as he removed his glasses from his face and leaned back in his chair. “There is a lot of assumption in that request. And who are you to make demands of me or on behalf of Miss Billings?”
His words only pushed at the hold I had on my restraint.
“I’m someone who cares about her. And you upset her.”
The hunter crossed his foot over his knee, his hands lacing before him in an arch, as he surveyed me with calculating eyes. “You’re assuming I don’t care about her as well.”
I bared my fangs at him. “You have a curious way of showing it.”
He shrugged. “Miss Billings…” He paused and then smiled, “Jack is one of my students. I have to treat her the same as I would anyone else.”
“Then perhaps you should stick to that treatment and not play with her emotions.”
Fawley leaned his face on one hand, amusement glittering in his eyes as if he considered me nothing more than a nuisance. “I’ve seen you in class. You don’t particularly seem like you care about hunters or their history. Tell me, are you only in my class to stalk Jack?”
My fingers curled into a fist.
“And if I recall…” The professor pursed his lips as if remembering something unpleasant. “Isn’t your human servant dating Jack? Why isn’t he here, warning me away from her instead of you?”
“That’s none of your business,” I bit out.
“You vampires…” He sighed and shook his head. “You can never take no for an answer. You always want what you can’t have.”
“You’re one to talk.” My shadows rolled around at my feet. The limit of my self-restraint was coming to its end.
The professor smirked. “I’m far closer to having her than you are. Unlike you, I’ve already been on her side of affection. It wouldn’t take more than a quirk of my finger to have her beneath me again. Oh, you’d love to know the way she be—”
My shadow whipped out and wrapped around his throat. His eyes widened, hands scratching at the shadows, all for naught. A gurgling sound came from him and then his eyes hardened.
His hand pulled out a dagger and threw it. I barely stepped out of the way before it could hit its mark in my face.
Something dripped down my cheek. My fingers touched the side of my cheek, coming away with blood.
That’d been enough distraction for my control of the shadows to break. Now free, he threw three other daggers in quick succession. I dodged by throwing myself to the side, picking up a chair with my shadows to fling at the professor.
He dropped behind the desk as he panted, his hand rubbing his throat. “I could have you executed for attacking me.”
“And what would you tell them was the reason?” I gave him a vicious grin. “Jealousy?”
Fawley scoffed, adjusting his glasses on his face. “I had no reason to be jealous of a bloodsucker like you. Any time she spends with you is just a flight of fancy. She will be where she rightly belongs soon enough and then you’ll see.”
He pulled his chair back out and sat down. “Now, if that’s all, I have work to do.”
He dismissed me as if I were nothing more than a gnat buzzing around his head. Yet I couldn’t deny that he had me.
I’d been rash. Reckless. I’d let his words get to me, and I’d lashed out. I should have left it alone and let Jack handle it. Except here I was, acting as the protector when I didn’t even know if she wanted me to.
If he hadn’t been a hunter prepared to fight me off, then I could have killed him, a professor, right here on the college grounds. If that didn’t get me executed, it would get me expelled at the very least.
Then the professor said something so quiet that I almost missed it. “I’m trying to protect her like you.”
Shoving out of the office, I stalked away, my shadows pouring out onto the ground like ink with each step to echo this dark feeling inside of me.
What was this woman doing to me?