What is this world, where Carter is hugging me in public? Where we might be seen? And it’s not one of those awkward, back patting, no-lower-body-contact hugs that you see between colleagues or distant family members.
His arms are tight around me, his head bent over mine. I’m enveloped by him, wrapped in his clean laundry scent mixed with pine and citrus. My hands are clutching at the back of his shirt. This is all I’ve ever wanted.
But also, there is no mistaking this body language, should anyone be trying to read it. Short of making out on the quad, I can’t imagine a more scandalous scenario, one that Carter would have previously rejected, keeping a careful, polite distance.
His hand slides up my back and under my hair, his thumb resting under my jaw lightly. It sends a delighted shiver through me.
“All this crazy stuff is happening,” he murmurs against myhair. “And I had no idea where you were, or who—” he stops and straightens up abruptly, his attention caught by something behind me.
More likely someone.
Damnit.I squeeze my eyes shut for a second, then open them and step back, out of his embrace.
“Carter Lowden, this is Devon.” I turn to include Devon in my vague introductory hand gesture. It dawns on me then that I have absolutely no idea what Devon’s last name is, assuming he has one that isn’t like Child of Aphrodite or something else strange, assigned by the cult.
Carter’s eyes narrow, and he pulls me closer to his side protectively.
“It’s okay,” I say. “He had nothing to do with what happened to Lennie.”
“Yeah?” Carter asks, sounding less than convinced.
“And he’s, um, a friend.”
Devon glances from me to Carter and then back again, a slow smile spreading across his face.
“Agoodfriend,” Devon says, with an audacious wink at me, his flirty guy mask firmly back in place.
Well, fuck.My face goes hot. Of course Devon can pick up on the vibes between Carter and me, but it would be lovely if he could be a little less obvious about it. Or amused by it.
Devon holds out a hand for Carter to shake, which Carter does, reluctantly.
“Devon has been, uh, helping me,” I add brightly. God, why does everything I say sound like we’ve been holed up in a cheap motel doing drugs and unspeakable things to each other? Only the cheap motel part of that is true.
“Helping you with what?” Carter asks. His tone is light, but his brow is furrowed in a frown.
I’m making this worse by the second.
“Just comparing notes,” Devon answers without hesitation. “Seeing if we can piece together what happened on Friday night.” But the amusement has vanished from Devon’s expression. Instead, he’s got his head tipped to one side, eyeing Carter with a hardened edge of curiosity.
Carter is staring back at him with much the same expression.
I roll my eyes.Oh, come on. Are they really doing this now?
I clear my throat. “Carter, can you tell me what happened to Daan?” I ask, since Chessa hasn’t yet returned from the bathroom or wherever she went to get away from me.
Fresh hurt slices through me, like a forgotten paper cut in a bath of hand sanitizer. I need to fix things with her, but I’m not sure how, not without lying even more.
“I don’t know everything,” Carter says after a moment, relenting in his staring contest with Devon to turn his attention back to me. “I think the authorities are still investigating. But supposedly, a gas main exploded last night, tore up the street between the Foreign Language House and Greek Row. While the fire department was there checking things out, they found Daan and one of his residents outside on the ground. They’d collapsed.” He hesitated. “Everyone else inside was dead. They think that Daan and the other kid, Emile, I think, survived because they were still awake.”
“Carbon monoxide,” Devon says, not bothering to hide his skepticism.
Visibly irritated, Carter jerks his head in a nod. “That’s the theory, but as I said, they’re still investigating.”
I make a frustrated noise. None of this is right. I get the gasmain explosion and the carbon monoxide leak stories—they’re just stories. Humans trying to put the pieces together in a way that makes sense to them. They don’t have the full picture so they’re trying to work with what they’ve got. Just like they did when they made up tales about vampires seeking blood and gods who demanded a sacrifice.
All it tells me, though, is that it likely isn’t a War spawn or even Sanguine. No blood, no violence.
But what does that mean? Lennie’s death and the attack on Izzy at Delta Pi Gamma definitely included both of those elements. So does that mean more than one spawn is involved?
