AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She turns on me, fire in her eyes.
“Nothing,” I say. “Just that we’re supposed to look married. On our honeymoon. All that. What’s he gonna say if he catches you carrying on in your professor’s office?”
“We’re not—” She cuts herself off when her voice hits another octave. “Carrying on. Jesus, why do you have to make it sound so sordid? He’s just my advisor and a man I respect.”
I scoff. Respect.
“You know what?” She spins on me. “Fuck you.”
“Me? What did I do?”
She glares at me like she wants to murder me. “You came back. I was perfectly happy here. I had a life.” She gestures so hard at the university behind her that it looks like she all but dislocates her shoulder socket. “I have friends.”
At my stare, she stomps her foot. “I have Sabra anyway. And I have a future. One that doesn’t involve blood and my grandfather determining my every move. I’m doing what I want to do.”
“Looks like it still involves blood to me.”
She gets right up in my face. “Studying it, not spilling it. Or having it spilled on my behalf. Or putting compulsions on people so they lose their fucking minds in order to please me. I was doing just fine until you called and dragged me back into all this shit.”
The pain of regret pierces, but she’s got me too frustrated to make sense of it, and all I can do is get back in her face. “Well, you started it. Maybe you should have left me alone that day in the woods. But you didn’t, did you? And actions have consequences.”
“Oh, I get that, buddy,” she says low, shoving me in the chest so I move out of her way. “You’re a fucking idiot if you don’t think I get that by now.” She stomps all the way back to the car.
I want to keep arguing with her. So I do. Because I hate the despair in her voice.
“Where are you going now?”
She only spins back to me once she’s at her car, and I’m happy that at least the fire is still there in her eyes. “Where do you think? I’m going to find this man-eater. Ammit.”
“How the hell are you going to do that? Are we going to a library?”
She glares at me like she doesn’t actually want to say but then finally huffs out a breath. “Fine. I’ll tell you. But only because you’re useful as bait.”
That surprises a laugh out of me. “Bait?”
“It’s Friday night, and there’s one place most of the college kids here hit up on a Friday night. It’d be an excellent hunting ground for Ammit.” Then she smirks at me. “You’ll feel right at home.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s called the Fallen Angels Club.”
Chapter Ten
PHEONIX
10 Years Ago
Layden helps me arrange the meat on the smoker like I did yesterday, and we take turns priming the pump while the other washes off. I try—and fail—not to sneak peeks at Layden as he tugs his shirt off over his head. It’s a good thing the farmer happened to be large-shouldered because Layden’s arms seem to all but split the seams with his muscles.
How has he gained so much mass back in a single day? It’s as if this is his true form, and he simply needed to absorb enough calories to return to it.
“I’m hungry,” he says as he finishes buttoning another straining shirt. “Is there anything else to eat while we wait for the meat to finish cooking?”
I nod. “I checked this morning, and there’s some eggs from the chickens. And some unmarked cans in the cupboard we can try opening.”
“I’ll try the cans. You eat the eggs.”
“There’s four eggs,” I say. “We can split them.”
