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A vampire wouldn’t be my first kiss. Yet.
I’d won the battle. But I still worried how I might fare in the war.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Finally. ” A cramp seized me, and I shook out my calf as I hobbled to keep up with Emma. My bruises were almost healed, but I still stiffened up at odd moments. One more drink of the blood should get me back to full strength.
“Finally what?” Emma stopped and, noticing my limp, let me catch up.
“Finally we get a moment together. You and Yas have been attached at the hip. ” I rubbed my lower back as we walked.
“Are you okay?”
“My ass hurts,” I grumbled. “Tracer Otto kicked it for me. ”
She held the dorm door open and slowed her pace for me. She studied me as we made our way up the stairs to our rooms on the second floor. Pulling the hair from my face, she said, “That’s some bruise. ”
I flinched away. “Unfortunately, you’re not the first to notice. ”
She shot me a questioning look as she came to a stop in front of her bedroom door, rifling in her bag for her key.
I leaned against the wall with a sigh. “Alcántara. Apparently all that blood under the skin is tantalizing. ”
“Ugh. ” She grimaced. “Did not. Need. To know. ” She pushed open her door, assuming I’d follow.
I didn’t. The Initiates hadn’t yet targeted her for a special hazing treat, and it’d been on my mind since my whole Saran Wrap ordeal.
“Get in here,” she said, her get sounding more like git, “before anyone sees us. ”
“Actually”—I snagged her arm, pulling her back out and down the hallway—“come on. Let’s hang in the common area instead. ”
She hesitated. “But…”
“But the Guidons? We can’t hide, Em. You can’t hide. Your turn is coming. This situation is going to come to a head, and the sooner we face it, the better. ” I plopped onto one of the couches, a cozy beast of a thing upholstered in dark red wide-wale corduroy. “We need to show them we’re not afraid. ”
“We?” She gave me a tremulous smile.
“Naturally, we. ” I chose to ignore my instincts and all Alcántara had warned about friends—these tentative relationships had come to mean too much. “We’re in it together, right?”
“Right,” she agreed, and I had to give her credit, because, though her expression was uncertain, her voice was her usual solid, calm, farm girl self. She settled next to me on the couch. “So…Alcántara?”
“Yeah. He’s got a thing for bruises. ”
Even though we were alone, she looked around. Seeing the coast was clear, she hissed, “That’s disgusting. ”
“Tell me about it. ” I leaned in. “It gets weirder. ”
She gave me a flat look. “Of course it does. ” After a pause, she prompted, “Well?”
I hedged, uncomfortable with how I’d handled it. “I was scared he was going to be angry about Josh and the hazing thing. So I tried to change the subject. In a dramatic way. ”
Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “Dramatic, how?”
“Okay, okay. I panicked,” I said, on the defensive already. “Dramatic, as in I—I think I was flirting with him. ”
“You think?”
I flopped back, idly picking at the plush corduroy. Her stoic farm girl expressions really could feel accusatory sometimes. “Well, I don’t exactly have loads of practice. ”
