Chapter 18 #2
My nape prickled, some quiet, inner voice warning me to be careful. But careful about what? Asking questions? Ulfrik had turned me into a werewolf. He’d created me. Wasn’t it normal to want to know more?
Plastic crinkled, and I looked down to discover I’d squeezed the brownie into a lumpy cylinder. I leaned forward and set it on the coffee table.
“You said your gift is teaching,” I told Jesse, “but you shut Dean Welch’s door without touching it. Isn’t that telekinesis?”
He stood and faced me. He ran a hand through his dark hair, which was wavier than usual after our shower. “It’s not really a gift. Sometimes, we gain extra abilities as we age.”
Oh. “You didn’t tell me that before.”
“I’m sorry. I should have.”
But he didn’t sound sorry. He sounded…irritated.
Why was he irritated?
I couldn’t sit anymore. Standing, I shoved my hands in my pockets. “So I’ll get telekinesis like Ulfrik?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Gifts can take time to manifest.”
“Like how long?”
Jesse’s jaw tightened. “A while, Caleb. I don’t know.” He slashed a hand through the air. “These things don’t run on a timer.”
I snapped my mouth shut. We stared at each other, the odd, brittle tension pulling tighter.
Wait, were we fighting? We’d gone through all sorts of emotions together. He’d paddled my ass. Had sucked me and fucked me. Had edged me until I was a babbling, incoherent mess. Hell, he’d been furious with me when I left the car while he fought Ulfrik. That anger had been real.
But this anger was different. Jesse’s fury on the patio had felt like a river flowing between us, his emotion sliding all around me because he’d been so damn worried I might get hurt.
This was like a door closing.
The silence stretched. The brownie sat in my stomach like a rock.
Jesse looked down at the wrapped portion I’d left on the coffee table. He gestured to it and cleared his throat. “That’s the last of those. I need to do a grocery run. And I should stop by the college. I’ll find out as much as I can about Dean Welch’s status.”
Reality crashed back.
It was Sunday.
I had classes tomorrow.
“I have to figure out school,” I said. “I can’t blow this semester.” My words tumbled faster, urgency making me want to race out the door and sprint to campus. “I’m supposed to do an internship. I’ve already skipped a bunch of lectures. If I fuck this up, I won’t graduate.”
Jesse frowned. “We’ll figure out your options—”
“I don’t have any,” I said. “I can’t keep missing class.” A new fear crash-landed in my head, its edges hard and spiky. What if Jesse said I couldn’t go back? What if he claimed I was too dangerous to be around regular people? He could unravel all my plans. Stop me from graduating.
I pulled my hands from my pockets, blood rushing in my ears. “I’m getting my degree.”
He dropped his stare to my hands, which I’d curled into fists. When he looked up, his eyes were a shade lighter.
A light band of pressure wrapped around my chest.
I jerked my head to the side before he could force me to lower my gaze. Frustration and panic rose, climbing into my throat, which burned like I’d just knocked out a couple laps on the jogging trail. Then the burning was in my eyes.
I squeezed them shut because I was not going to fucking cry like a pathetic little bitch.
All at once, the tension disappeared. Just poof, gone.
“Hey,” Jesse said, and he was suddenly at my side, his warm hand on my bare shoulder. “Hey, hey, hey. Come here.” He pulled me into his arms.
And I let him. I went, blinking rapidly before my stupid tears could fall.
He wrapped both arms around me and spoke in my ear. “You’re going to finish your degree, okay? I promise. No one is taking that from you. No one. I swear it, Caleb.”
Relief swept me. It might have swept my feet from under me if I hadn’t been leaning on Jesse. I rubbed my nose against his shirt, inhaling laundry detergent, hints of his body wash, and the spicy, foresty scent that always clung to him.
He pulled back and studied me with chocolate-brown eyes. “I’m not a former college professor for nothing, and you’re not the first student to need special accommodations.” He squeezed my shoulders. “We’ll figure this out. I’m going to help you. All right?”
I exhaled, and some of the hot, tangled agitation in my chest loosened. Not all of it. A weird, persistent unease clung to my ribs. But I nodded.
“Yeah,” I said. “Okay.”
He didn’t look entirely convinced, but he released me. “I’ll speak to the people in the registrar’s office after I figure out what’s going on with Welch. I’ll ask about online classes and independent study. We’ll make this work.”
The unease settled more deeply in my bones.
“How long will you be gone?” I asked.
“An hour, tops,” he said. “Just the grocery store and campus.”
I gave another nod. But the unease didn’t go anywhere. It sat between my ribs, dense and immovable. And I couldn’t even point to a source. Jesse was fine. Ulfrik was dead. My parents hadn’t reported me missing. By any reasonable metric, things were okay.
So why did I feel like I was missing something?
“You all right?” Jesse asked.
“Yeah.” I stuffed my hands back in my pockets. “Just tired.”
For a second, I wasn’t sure he’d accept it. Then he moved in and gave me a light kiss. “Take a nap,” he said against my lips. “You won’t even know I’m gone.” He was smiling as he pulled back. “You can dream about me.”
I huffed. “You wish.”
A nap did sound nice, though. Maybe I really was just tired. I’d sleep off whatever weird shit was making me so jumpy. And hopefully, Jesse would return with good news about me finishing my degree.
Everything would work out.
“Be careful,” I told him.
Tenderness moved through his eyes. “Of course.” He turned me toward the stairs and slapped my ass. “Get some sleep, baby. I’ll be back before you know it.”
I went, my ass tingling as I climbed the stairs and flopped in the center of his bed. The sound of the door shutting and the garage door opening drifted through the house. I turned my head into Jesse’s pillow and willed myself to fall asleep.
And I tried to ignore the knot of unease that throbbed in the center of my chest.