Chapter 11
Chapter eleven
Julian
Weaver had informed me that, based on the statistics and the cross-referenced database he’d created — or something of that nature — Gavin was most likely to be one of the supernaturals we’ve been looking for.
I didn’t really understand all of that technological mumbo jumbo, but it had given me the first lead to finding out who was part of the rebels and possibly the ones who had attacked Jack.
It was just my luck that I’d find the vampire I wanted to talk to with the vampire who had broken Jack’s heart and had been at the scene of the crime all in the same room.
Kyren snarled at me from across the room. Shadows filled the area and had Gavin pinned to the bed in what was far kinkier than anything I’d ever gotten into.
I arched a brow at the vamp, keeping my gun steady on him. “Does the mutt know you’re cheating on him?”
The dark-haired vampire’s mouth clipped close. He glanced back at Gavin and then back to me, his brows raising.
“Okay, maybe not, but you’re still breaking the code of ethics. Breaking into another student’s room. Stringing him up with… What the hell did you do to him?”
A muffled voice came from the bed. Kyren scowled, and suddenly those dark bindings tightened further, cutting off any further communication.
“I do not answer to you.”
My eyes narrowed. Such arrogance. The older the vampire the more they thought they owned the world. The rules didn’t apply to them.
“Then maybe we should let the headmaster take care of this? Or the council?” I cocked my head, pulling my phone from my pocket. “You could also tell the Hunter’s Guild what you were doing downtown the other night. Or was that not your scent I smelled?”
A growl poured from him, his fingers flexed at his side. The shadows surrounding the bed slowly made their way toward me.
“Ah, ah, ah.” I shook my head at him. “Attacking a teacher is a punishable offense. Attacking a hunter?” I clicked my tongue, cocking my head to the side.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have an order of execution for you, but I’m sure they’d let me off with a slap on the wrist if I said it was in self-defense. ”
The shadows stopped their trek toward me but did not dissipate. Those dark eyes glared at me as if he could rip my head from my body right then and there.
“Release him.” I gestured toward the bed.
Not even looking back at the other vampire, Kyren growled, “No.”
I huffed a breath.
I did not come here to kill either of them.
All I wanted to do was get eyes on the vampire Weaver had told me about and then submit the information to the hunter’s guild so that they could send it to the council.
My mission was unfortunately about data collection and not the kill.
Something that I now understood was hard for Jack to handle.
“Why not? Did he piss in your cup of blood tonight?” I watched the other vampire with eagle eyes, watching for any sign that he might snap and come at me. Hell, a part of me hoped he would. Then I had one less vampire to worry about sniffing around Jack.
Except there was a problem with that.
Tate.
If I killed Kyren, then Tate, as his human servant, would surely die. And I didn’t think Jack would ever forgive me for that.
Kyren slowly straightened, brushing off the sleeves of his long-sleeved shirt before tucking his hands into his pockets. “I believe we have gotten off on the wrong foot here.”
I said nothing.
“This vampire,” he lazily flicked his hand to the one on the bed, “is part of a group of fanatics who want to tear the council apart.”
Ah, so Weaver’s data was correct. At least, we knew he was good for something. “I had heard of such a group. What does that have to do with you?”
“Gavin approached me several weeks ago about joining his group, promising me vengeance for my sire’s death.”
My hand tightened on the gun. “Nothing you’re saying is making me want to let you let you leave this room alive.”
Kyren’s lips twitched, his gaze filled with mirth. “I may not like the council or the Durands, but I am not some baby vampling who would join a group of unorganized fanatics who crow their disproval to anyone who can hear.”
“Then why attack him now?” I jerked my head toward the vamp on the bed who watched on with wide eyes, his body taunt against his restraints. If he had been human, I’d have worried about his blood circulation being cut off for this long.
Alas there were benefits to being the undead. You could do almost anything to them and they’d heal from it, sans a handful of things. Fire, sunlight, cutting out the heart or off the head. So the vampire on the bed was just being a whiny baby.
Kyren turned to stare at Gavin. “I had hoped he’d lead me to the ones who had attacked Jack.”
“And you’re sure it wasn’t him?” An icy rage came over me as I thought about what had almost happened to Jack a few weeks ago. “If they’re anti-Durand, then it makes sense they’d be the ones who were responsible for the attack. If he didn’t take part in it himself.”
The more I spoke, the more I wanted to pull the trigger on the fucker laying in the bed, just for the satisfaction of seeing him bleed. However, Kyren’s next words stopped me.
“It would give me great pleasure to say that he was responsible. But it seems as if he is telling the truth.”
“That is unfortunate,” I drew out, forcing myself to lower the gun. “Then why haven’t you released him?”
“Because—”
“Oh, hey, woah!”
I spun around my gun pointed at Tate’s face.
“Don’t shoot.” He lifted his hands up, his eyes widened, taking in the scene. “So, uh, what’s going on here?”
Blowing out a breath, I lowered the gun. “Your boyfriend here was torturing another student. I’d came talk to Mr. Westing about something else when I found him.”
“You cannot lie to us.” Kyren snorted. “You are here for the same reason we are. For Jack.”
I gave him a flat look. “Fine. For Jack.”
“Oh, well,” Tate moved between us before taking up residence next to his boyfriend, “I couldn’t find Iris or Xinyi. They’re probably in class or went to town.”
Tate’s gaze slid over to the bed where Gavin had stopped struggling. If I didn’t know he was already the undead, I’d have thought he really was dead with how still he was laying.
“Babe,” Tate began in a soothing voice, “what’s up with the shadows?”
Kyren rolled his eyes, and suddenly, the room was brighter, and the shadows wrapped around the vampire on the bed released him. Gavin jerked up on the bed, his eyes wide and frantic.
“You are all fucking psychopaths,” he shouted, shoving on his pants as he ranted and cursed at us. “You can’t just come into someone’s room and start attacking them. There are rules. The council will be hearing about this.”
“The council you’re trying to destroy you mean?” Kyren arched his brow.
Gavin sputtered over his words, the finger he’d been pointing at us just hanging there. “There are still rules to be followed. You… you get out of my room before I report you all to the headmaster.”
“Can’t we just kill him?” Tate murmured to Kyren, his eyes darting to Gavin and back. “Even if he’s not one of the ones who attacked Jack. He’s a pain in the ass, and isn’t he the one your message was for?”
“No.” Kyren’s face shuttered. “Not just him.”
Message? What message? The only message I knew about was the one in the alley written in… blood.
Ahhh.
It was all beginning to make sense. I had my suspicions before but now they had confirmed it.
Why Jack and Tate had been there. Why Jack had given up so easily, when usually she would hound us until we let her in on the mission. And now I knew who the message on the wall was about. It was a warning for what I could only assume were Gavin and his associates to leave Jack alone.
Unfortunately, since Kyren had already found out that Gavin’s group was not the ones who had attacked Jack, I feared his message was for nothing. Though the vampire who died to make that message probably wouldn’t have been too happy about that.
“Come along.” I gestured for Tate and Kyren to follow me, then shot a look at Gavin. “Call maintenance to fix your door.”
Tate and Kyren trailed after me and into the hallway, and we waited until we were several doors away before speaking again.
“You’re just gonna let him go?” Tate asked, peering back over his shoulder at where we’d just come from. “Even though you know he’s anti-council? What if his group plants a bomb or something?”
I shook my head. “Sadly, he hasn’t done anything to warrant an arrest of any kind. And besides, my mission is a data collecting one, not a hunt. I will report him to the proper channels, and they’ll handle it from there.”
Kyren scoffed.
“What?” I stared at the vampire.
“Some hunter. Can’t even kill your prey without written permission from your daddy.”
Without knowing what I was doing until it was already done, I had Kyren pressed up against the wall, the gun pointed directly at his heart. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Shadows filled the hallway, dimming the light, and I knew I had seconds to pull the trigger before I was at his mercy.
“Hey, hey!” Tate stood next to where we glared at each other. “Kyren didn’t mean it, and you…” He placed a hand on Kyren’s arm. “Think about what Jack would say about this? She would be super upset if you hurt him.”
For a moment, Kyren and I stood there in a standoff, neither one of us wanting to acquiesce first. Then the shadows gathering in his eyes receded, and he nodded.
“Fine.” Kyren relaxed. “For Jack.”
I jerked my chin down, lowering my gun and stepping back from him. “For Jack.”
“Now, that we got that out of the way,” Tate breathed out. “Any clues on who might have attacked Jack? Obviously, it wasn’t Gavin and, if it was Marianne, she won’t be doing that again.” He huffed a laugh, pulling his lip ring between his teeth.
“Marianne?” I glanced between the two of them. “Who’s Marianne?”
Tate froze.
Kyren had no inclination. “I thought you hunters were all knowing, all powerful. You can’t tell me you haven’t identified the body yet?”
My fingers ached to pull the gun on Kyren again. The asshole just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. Tate’s boyfriend or not, he was pushing it.
“So you did kill her,” I stated, hands on my hips. “You realize that I should turn you in, right? Not only did you kill another vampire, but you exposed your powers to humans.”
“But you won’t.” Kyren’s lips did that twitching thing again. I didn’t think I’d ever seen the vampire ever fully smile before. It was more irritating than it should have been.
I ground my teeth, hating that he was right. “I should but I won’t. Not yet.” I thought back to the mess of meat that had been Marianne and shook my head. “I don’t know how you haven’t been caught yet. Psychopaths make cleaner kills than that mess you left.”
“She threatened Jack.”
“That doesn’t mean that you’re off the hook,” I huffed, rubbing a hand down my face. How did it come to this?
Kyren lifted his hands in mock defense. “Of course not, big scary hunter. I will reflect on the error of my ways.” He and Tate chuckled which only pissed me off more.
“You think you’re real funny, don’t you?” I snapped, pointing a finger at him. “Do you know how many people we had to hunt down and glamour to forget so we could clean up your little temper tantrum?”
Tate had the decency to look contrite, while Kyren simply shrugged.
“They are only humans. They will explain away what they saw or get locked up in one of their little facilities for the loco.” He spun a finger around near his head. “No one will believe what they saw.”
I sucked on my lower teeth and shook my head. “You really have no compassion for human life, do you? What does Jack see in you?”
“I can think of a few inches or two.” Kyren smirked.
Tate groaned.
Shaking my head once more, I stepped up to him until we were eye to eye. “Only a few inches, huh? I think out of the three of us, the only one giving Jack anything was me, last night when she was screaming my name. Not yours.”
Kyren snarled, baring his fangs at me. “You only slipped into her heart because I left an opening. Once I am back in her good graces, she will be ours again, and there will be no room for you.”
“You keep telling yourself that.” I laughed, backing up a step. “But I was there before you, and I’ll be there long after you. Tate?” I nodded to the werewolf. “Keep your boyfriend in line, or I’ll do it for you.”
Tate grimaced but didn’t argue the fact.
Shaking my head and laughing, I walked back to my office to report about what had happened with Gavin. I let myself bask in the fact that I had finally told that smug blood sucker off. He thought he could just do whatever he wanted and then come crawling back to Jack whenever he wanted to?
Hell, no. Not on my watch.
Besides, after what he did to Jack, there was no way she’d take him back. Right?