Chapter 35
Chapter thirty-five
Kyren
Monday came around far too slowly and still no word from Jack. I’d been on edge ever since the run-in with the professor and, with Tate’s emotions all over the place, it wasn’t making it any easier for me to be patient and wait.
Everything in me screamed to find her. To send my shadows out into the world until they could tell me where she was. Except I knew the limits of my own abilities, and I’d likely end up hurting myself before I ever found her.
“There’s an assembly today,” Tate commented from his side of the bed, where we’d practically camped out all weekend. “I didn’t think they had those in college. What do you think it’s about?”
“What time?” I sighed, not wanting to leave the room for anything other than to see Jack’s face. Then I’d then put her over my lap and spank her ass red for making me worry the way she did.
“Uh… nine o’clock. We’ll miss our second class of the day. Apparently, all the professors will be there, too, so we don’t have to worry about losing points.” Tate grunted and rolled out of bed. “Want to go to the cafeteria first before we head to class?”
“Sure.”
I went through the motions of getting dressed. Tate walked me to the cafeteria where my eyes scanned the room, searching for the familiar dark curly head of hair. She wasn’t here.
We found Xinyi and Iris at our usual table. “She’s not here yet,” Xinyi said before we even sat down.
Tate frowned. “Have you heard from her?”
Xinyi exchanged a look with Iris. “She texted me. She’s coming back today but… she seemed off.”
A growing dread grew at Xinyi’s words. That dread only grew as I moved from the cafeteria to the classroom, not quite aware of how I’d even gotten there. I certainly didn’t remember anything the professor said nor did I care.
This terrible sensation continued as I crowded into the halls, where students moved like herds of cattle headed for slaughter.
I’d never been in the auditorium. Never had a reason to. This time, I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be to watch some silly little musical put on my fellow poorly taught students.
The room was dim. The stairs moved in a downward motion leading up to the stage rows and rows of chair spread out through the room.
Halfway down the steps, my gaze slid up to the stage where a podium stood and several familiar faces congregated. It was as if they had stepped out of one of my nightmares, ready to chop my head off for offending their delicate sense.
The Durands.
Tate caught up to me. “Hey, what are you…?” His gaze followed mine to the stage, his brow furrowing. “Wait, I know them… I saw them—”
“They’re the Durands,” I snipped, stepping into a nearby row as a silver-haired vampire moved in front of the podium.
Muffled whispered spread through the room until they went silent at the daunting presence of the head of the Durand household.
“Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules,” Antoine Durand began, his voice so arrogant that it took everything in me not to throw myself onto the stage and attack him right then and there.
“Your education here is of the utmost importance to us, and we want to make sure we are continuing to promote supernatural unity amongst the species.”
My jaw tightened, and my fingers curled into fists on the arms of my chair.
“Kyren,” Tate murmured, placing a hand on my knee. “Breathe.”
I couldn’t hear him over the thudding of my heart in my ears. Everything just raged and screamed that they killed Kleon.
“There will be several changes in the coming months,” Antoine continued, his gaze sweeping out across the crowd, “and I hope you will all help us to welcome the hunters to our cause, as some of their junior members join our student body.”
There was an uproar from the crowd, unsurprising with his announcement. No one wanted to study alongside those who might one day be their judge, jury, and executioner.
When Antoine couldn’t get the crowd to quieten on his own, his powers pushed out over us. “Silence.”
My throat closed up, any attempt to make a sound completely rendered useless. Tate grabbed at his neck, a panicked expression on his face. That’s right, he’d never been at the receiving end of such power.
Pushing my anger down, I laced my fingers with his, giving him a reassuring look before turning my attention back to the stage.
“I know this must be a shock to many of you, and I understand your apprehension, but if we wish the hunters to know us and understand us, what better way than to have them live and study alongside you?”
No one said anything, still choking on his command. A power like that could control nations. It could create and end worlds. And yet, he used it to fuck with the supernatural populace here.
One could be grateful for tiny miracles.
Antoine sucked in a breath and glanced over at the blonde female on stage with him, who gave him a subtle nod and smile.
“Along with the hunters, you will have a very special guest, someone who I and my family cherish more than anything else in this world. She has already been living amongst you seeing how the school works, but she — we — have decided now is an appropriate time to drop all the pretenses.”
A sinking feeling grew in my chest. Tate’s hand smacked mine repeatedly, trying to say something but unable to.
“I would like you all to welcome our daughter, Jaquelynn Durand.”
The doors to the auditorium slammed open and, almost in slow motion, I turned in my seat, my eyes moving to the head of the stairs. A thick emotion in my throat made it difficult to swallow as my eyes landed on the very woman I had been trying to find all weekend.
Jack walked down the stairs one at a time, her eyes sliding over the room until they settled on Tate and me. For a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of regret, then those gorgeous eyes I’d spent so many hours gazing into grew cold.
I jerked to my feet. Desperate to get to her, to shake her, to demand her to tell me it wasn’t true. I couldn’t be. This was a trick. A lie. Something they cooked up to fuck with me.
Then she walked onto the stage and embraced Antoine.
“You may now return to your classes,” Antoine announced.
The room sagged in relief, his hold over our voices receding. The students filtered out of the room, but I couldn’t move. My feet were stuck to the floor as I watched the woman I loved touching and hugging my mortal enemies. Then she was walking toward me, and I was once again entranced by her.
The bounce of her curls. The gentle sway of her hips. The confidence in which she held herself. Every piece of her that made me fall in love with her was on display as she stopped before me.
“You’re a Durand?” The words came out slowly as if I couldn’t quite believe them even as I said them. My shadows swirled around my feet, my mind unable to connect the woman I’d quickly become obsessed with and the one who was the cause of my sire’s death.
Jack lifted her chin, staring her nose down at me. “I am.”
Tate’s emotions poured into me, relief at her appearance, confusion about the news, all mixed with concern for me. I understood how he was feeling because it was the same way I was feeling now, except mine was coated with betrayal and a swelling rage.
My eyes darted up to where the rest of the Durands loitered on the stage, unable to keep from lording over the other supernaturals. Occasionally, their attention would turn to where Jack stood before quickly looking away.
Letting my gaze linger on the female on stage and then back to Jack, I traced the curves of her face, the same face that I had obsessed over not even a few hours before. I realized how stupid I’d been.
Jack was the spitting image of her mother. A face I’d seen only a handful of times, but had been burned into my memory. How could I have never seen it? It was right in front of my face.
Jack’s hesitancy to spend time with us. The random times she would disappear. Every time I’d see her arguing with that hunter professor. That brief moment during the werewolf attack that I thought I’d heard them call her Durand, but had brushed it off as my hearing things.
Then, finally, that night we found her bloodied in the bathroom shower.
Had she been hunting vampires? She was a Durand. That’s what they did.
“Kyren,” Tate murmured, reaching for me. I jerked away from him and then regretted it, feeling the hurt that shot down the bond.
“It’s okay, Tate.” Jack shifted her weight, her eyes dipping down. “He hates Durands. Right?”
Tate made a sound that was almost a whimper, his eyes darting between Jack and me. I didn’t know how to make Tate feel better when I couldn’t even get a grasp on my own emotions right now. Over a hundred years, and I could still get my heart broken.
Because that’s what this was… I knew it was… it was my heart shattering into a million pieces, replacing it with something hard and cold, something that didn’t see the face of my lover but that of the enemy.
My enemy. A Durand.
“Was this all a game to you?” I growled, baring my fangs at her. “You killed my sire and now you want to take me out too?”
Jack’s brows rose, her lips pinching together. “I could say the same thing to you. Your sire traumatized me as a little kid, were you going for the gold? Fuck me, then make me fall for you, all to twist it around so it would really hurt when you finally stuck it to the Durands?”
I took a single step forward, and suddenly Professor Fawley, the hunter, was there by her side. He placed a protective, almost possessive hand on her shoulder, and his eyes bored into me like he was two seconds away from plunging a stake through my heart.
“Are you alright, Jack?” His fingers rubbed back and forth over the side of her neck, peering down at her like he had every right to be touching her.
“Yeah, Julian.” Her gaze didn’t move from me, but I saw the way she leaned into his touch, as if he would protect her from me. “Kyren was just telling me how much he hated me.”
My eyes narrowed. “You don’t know me.”
“Apparently not,” she shot back, arms crossed over her chest. “Or I’d have known how much you hated my family.”
Her eyes lifted, finding her family on the stage before coming back to me.
For a millisecond, I saw the pain in her eyes, that she was feeling the same thing I was right now.
I was torn between my love for her and the hatred I had for her family, and she was torn between her love for me and her protectiveness for her family.
Then a wall came up over her face, and I remembered exactly why I couldn’t be with her. I wasn’t looking at the woman I loved anymore. I was looking at the hunter, the enemy, the Durand.
The shadows I’d thought I had control over spilled over my arms. “Get away from me.”
“Not a problem.” Jack bobbed her head, her eyes briefly pausing on Tate before she turned to the professor. “Come on, Julian. My dad wanted to talk to you before he left.”
The possessiveness I felt upon seeing the smug look of victory on the professor’s face as he led her away almost overshadowed the boiling betrayal and need for vengeance. None of which was soothed by the roaring calm Tate shoved my way.
“Stop it,” I snarled at him, stalking away, not caring if he was following me. In fact, I hoped he wasn’t. This building pressure in my chest was suffocating, and I didn’t know what would happen when it finally exploded.
With one final step out of the auditorium, I turned back to the room, my eyes immediately finding Jack, smiling and laughing with the people who had executed my sire. The edges of my heart fractured just a little bit more.
It was real. It wasn’t a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. The woman I loved was my enemy.
And, with that truth burning into me, I let myself fade into the shadows.