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The blood was affecting them already. And who knew what other rituals or . . . foodstuffs these boys included in their routine? Shudder.
But of course, I thought. Of course the blood was changing them. I’d felt its effects myself. Did I seem this different already? I made a mental note to study myself in the mirror the next time Lilac left me alone in the room.
I stopped to watch their game, cursing that I couldn’t spring onto the grass with them. Not that I’d ever willingly exercise unless a gym class grade depended on it. But the snow had melted, and it would’ve been nice to feel the soft give of turf under my feet. I never thought I’d miss the hot Florida sun and the smell of freshly mown grass.
Scanning the group, I looked for Yasuo and found him, goofing around with a few of the other Trainees on his team. A shot of warmth reassured me at the sight, making it feel as though the sun had come out.
I sighed. Warmth, yes. But a far cry from the occasional shots of heat I knew at the sight of Ronan.
If only. How easy it’d be if I could feel attracted to my friend instead. Though, considering it, Yasuo would probably never see me like that. If the way I’d caught him eyeing the heart-faced girl was any indication, he seemed to have a thing for redheads.
Scuffling and loud grunts caught my attention. “Holy crap,” I blurted, hopping back just as a knot of bodies flew toward me.
Guys rolled and cursed at my feet, scrapping and punching. For a moment, I thought it was a real fight, but then they sprang up, cuffed one another on the shoulders, and jogged back to the center of the quad.
I glanced back to Yasuo. He’d spotted me and gave me a wave when he caught my eye. He peeled away from the group to walk toward me.
But then my belly gave a little churn. Because one of his Trainee buds was coming with him. And his eyes were two laser beams, focused right on me.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The guys were making a beeline straight for me. My chest got tight. I wanted to see Yas, but I definitely wasn’t up to making small talk with one of the meatheads.
And Yas’s new buddy sure struck me as having definite meathead potential. Like the other Trainees, this guy was a World Cup–caliber hottie. Unlike many of the others, though, his filled-out body told me he was probably old enough to vote.
And then there was his hair. I didn’t generally notice blond guys—being blond myself, it wasn’t a condition that’d ever struck me as particularly noteworthy—but his was the color of sand, and he wore it long and scruffy, like he’d just gotten back from championship surfing along some dangerous Australian reef. It made me nervous.
My gaze drifted to his, but he caught me looking and gave me such a jarringly laid-back smile, my eyes had to jump back to safe territory. I wanted to turn and flee to my dorm, but there was no backing away now.
“Yo, Blondie!” Yasuo loped the last few strides to me, giving me a brotherly clap on the arm. “You spying on us?”
“Oh, please. ” I rolled my eyes. “I have better things to do. ”
Yas nodded to his buddy. “You met Josh?”
“Josh the Vampire?” The absurdity of it struck me, and I had to stifle a laugh.
But then Josh the Soon-to-Be Vampire chuckled right along with me, and the easiness of it unsettled me. Because I was never easy. My life? Not easy. The scant people whose acquaintance I was beginning to value—Yasuo, Ronan? Not one of them was easy.
But this guy was easy, every muscle in his body relaxed, like he’d just had a massage. “Not Josh the Vampire yet,” he said, and damned if the accent weren’t actually Australian. “Josh the Trainee. ”
Once more I met his gaze, and this time managed to hold it. He had dirty-blond good looks to match a dirty-good smile. Yes, dirty. There was just enough twinkle in his smiling brown eyes to suggest there might be all manner of naughty-guy impulses rattling around that cute body of his.
I felt a little flush inflame my cheeks. “Where’d they find you? The outback?” I’d blurted out my thoughts before I could filter them.
But he only laughed it off—easily, of course. “Harvard premed. ” His voice gave a little upward lilt at the end, sounding something like Hahhvid premid.
Great. Another adorable accent. And this one had a pedigree. “What’d you do to end up here?”
Yas laughed. “What’d any of us do?”
But Josh only shook his head, answering coyly, “I’d need to know you better to say. ”
“Mm-hm. ” I chewed on that, my mind whirring with possibilities. Did he mean he was planning on getting to know me better? Or that he’d done something so horrific, he dared not confess to anyone?
“You hear that, Drew? Harvard. ” Yasuo shouldered Josh, as if I might have forgotten who we were talking about. These guys . . . they were overly physical, like a pack of gangly wolf pups. “I told him about you, and he wanted to meet the other smarty-pants on the island. Now you’ve got to stop saying how all us guys are meatheads. ”
Realization dawned. He’d probably just wanted to meet me because I was the weird smart girl. I’d never get away from it.
