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“I’ll try. We decided to get outside and explore a little, just to be out of the buildings. So we waited until it was quiet and everyone was in their rooms then we snuck outside.”
Every part of me wanted to tell her what a mistake that was, how much danger she and her friend put themselves in, how we’d never be able to live without her. But I contained myself and let her continue until she got all the way to the end. As she described their movements, chills ran up and down my spine.
“Don’t you know how dangerous it was to be out there like that? What did you hope to accomplish?” Blaze asked.
“I…we just wanted to get out of this place for a while and maybe even get a clue as to what was going on. But we also thought that it was all over, whatever it was.”
“It’s not. You saw the lights, and last time we saw them, someone died.” It was a bald statement, but Cas was right. “Do you know what would happen to us if we lost you?”
She shrugged. “No, not really, but nothing did. We made it back, and I promise I’ll be more careful in the future. What do you think it was that made those marks on the door?”
“Other than claws? And claws much bigger than on any wolf I’ve ever seen? Not a clue,” Blaze told her.
We talked on for a while, but I could see we were losing her. She didn’t eat any of her breakfast and soon said she had to get ready for class and left, taking her coffee with her.
I watched her exit the dining room. “We can’t leave them alone.”
“After what happened, you still think they will put themselves in danger? Those claws could have…I don’t want to think of it.” Cas was cutting up pancakes as if he hated them.
“We’re going to have to shadow them.” The moment Blaze finished, I was on my feet.
“Good idea. I’ll start now.” Halfway out the door, I heard Cas call, “And ask her out, while you’re at it.”
A group of girls had just come in and were headed toward me, but I cut around them and darted out into the hallway, looking left and right. Karelis was just disappearing into the distance, and I caught up to her outside a classroom door.
“Do you have a minute before you go in?” I took her arm and drew her away before she had a chance to reply. “I need to ask you something.”
“I already said I’d be careful. Now, I need to get into class. If this professor closes the door, nobody can go in and I’ll get an absence.”
“Would you like to go out sometime?” The words spilled out before I even planned them. She was going to think I was crazy.
“Go where? We can’t leave campus, and not even the buildings right now. As you all pointed out.”
“Just say yes, and it will work itself out.”
“I really have to go.” She tugged at her arm.
“Please?”
“Fine.” She pulled again, and I let her free. “But I have to go.” She made it in just before the door closed. But she said yes!
Chapter Eight
Karelis
I lurched forward in my seat, nearly face-planting into my soup. Someone had kicked me in the back. I stood and whirled around on the assailant, but there was a group of them—giggling. “Who was it?” I asked June without facing her. Somehow my best friend knew I was talking to her.
“I didn’t see which one did it. They are all fucking cowards.”
Growls and snarls resounded around the packed dining hall, and I looked for the three boys that haunted my fantasies, for a lifeline.
I never looked to anyone for help—ever.
A teacher I’d never seen before came through the doors and spoke as though this whole ordeal and maybe his life was one big annoyance. “Ladies, finish your meals and then return to studying. If you need something extra to do, I can assign more work.” He waved his hand between us. The other girls scattered, but this was nowhere near finished between us.
“You know why we’re getting picked on, right?” June said.
I had an inkling, but I didn’t dare speak the words. “Tell me what you think.”
