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“Either way, they couldn’t sneak up on me if they tried. I’m too fast. ” He stood and pulled off his sweater. His T-shirt tugged up his back, giving me a glimpse of carved abs. It stopped all thought in my brain.
My eyes shot up, but he’d caught me checking him out.
He smiled, and my mortification warmed me right up. And then he obviously checked out my own state of undress. Oh God. My hands fumbled to cover myself.
He laughed and tossed me his sweater. “As much as I appreciate the view, you should put this on before you catch a chill. ”
“Th-that something you learned in med school?” I eagerly pulled on the sweater. It hung down to the middle of my thighs and was still warm from his body. I thought I just might be eternally grateful.
“No,” he replied. “That’s where I learned about shock. ”
I was shivering violently now, and he put his arm around me, chafing my arm. “You’re chattering because you’re shocky. You need a hot shower and strong coffee. Come on. I’ll walk you back. ”
He led me in the direction of the Acari dorm. Gradually, my shivering subsided from violent to merely intense.
“Why’d you help me?”
“Yas asked me to look out for you. ”
“Oh yeah. Of course. ” My spirits sank, just a little bit. Every girl wanted to think a guy would come to her rescue, you know, just because.
“You nutter. ” He chucked me on the chin. “I helped because I wanted to help. ”
I nodded shyly, not completely believing him, but liking the sentiment all the same. I risked a quick glance up at him.
He was watching me, smiling his crooked grin. “And you’re welcome. ”
I let myself smile back, slumping my shoulders dramatically. “Aw, hell. ”
He pushed away, looking genuinely distressed. “Why the hell?”
I gave him a playfully angry stare. “Because eternally indebted is a long time to be thankful to a vampire. ”
With a laugh, Josh gave me a quick half hug.
But the smile soon faded from my face, because there were only two ways to view what just happened. Either Yasuo was wrong and Trainees could stand up to Guidons, or, thanks to me, Josh was going to have some serious hell to pay.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
It was a gray, blustery Saturday morning, but I was achy, moody, and way behind on my reading, and somehow crappy weather felt like just the thing.
I hobbled across the quad as fast as I could with a sore hip, my butt still bruised from stupid Tracer Otto’s stupid stick-fighting lesson in gym class. Blinking against the mist, I pinned my hood over my head with one hand and used the other to hold my messenger bag at my side—anything to stop that damned German etiquette book from thumping against me.
My sole goal was the overstuffed armchair in front of the science library fireplace, and with a relieved sigh, I reached my destination, stretching my legs toward the hearth and digging out the onion bagel I’d snagged from the dining hall. Someone had already built a decent fire, and a good thing, too, since my leggings were soaked through.
This was my favorite reading spot on campus, even though Alcántara’s office was just upstairs and I was tempting fate by just being there. I felt a little dread at the prospect of running into him, but a part of me had come on purpose. Dance, German…This bizarre curriculum had a million questions rattling through my brain—questions I hoped I’d finally mustered the courage to ask.
I fished out Josh’s silly book. Etikette und Protokoll…Shudder. I’d never been tutored in my life, and it was a real ego buster. I was going to spend the day with it—I told myself it was so I could cram and be done with it, but honestly, I also kind of wanted to impress him, too. Josh and Alcántara.
The content was simple, though I had to admit there were some crazy details. Alcántara was right—I was fluent in modern and Old High German, and none of it would’ve helped me a bit with this stuff. I could do declensions in my sleep, but who knew German businessmen knocked on the table after a good meeting?
One thing was for sure: I had no clue why I needed to learn all this. Was our mission to take place somewhere in Germany? How far off-island were Alcántara and I headed?
Plus, he’d mentioned danger. Summer-term gym classes were running heavy on combat. Were those skills I’d need for the mission? Would I be forced to open up a can of whoop-ass in the middle of a formal business meeting?
The vampire with the answers appeared as though bidden. One minute Alcántara wasn’t there, and boom, the next he was, leaning against the back wall with his arms crossed over his chest while looking all blasé, as if he’d been kicking it there for the last half hour instead of materializing as though from thin air.
I knew a swell of satisfaction—he’d sensed me here, and he’d come. Then dread came, quick on its heels. It would be dangerous to forget just whom I was dealing with. Seeking out vampires was a dangerous game…a deadly one.
