“Tomorrow night, you, me, and fish boy.” He winked. Kai blushed bright lilac but didn’t say no, which I took as a positive sign.
“Mea amica, you look beautiful,” my vampire growled as he swept me away from Zane and Kai. I drooled over his dashing suit and crispwhite shirt. Holy moly, my vampy was hot. Like, so hot I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go anywhere.
“Can we stay in?” I fluttered my eyelashes as his fangs grazed over my neck, scratching a little. He’d tapped my vein last night, and let’s just say I could barely walk this morning.
“If you truly want to, my queen.” Common sense soon prevailed. Goddess, I was selfish. My poor vampy was practically dorm-bound until I left Starfall. While he’d been using a glamor to disguise his appearance, it was too risky to go out unless it was dark or an emergency.
Of course he wanted a night off from this madness. Who could blame him?
“No, I’m excited about a night out,” I lied. The last night out we’d enjoyed had ended with me unconscious and in agony. And we all knew how the solstice ball ended…
The thought of going through all that again didn’t fill me with joy, but maybe dancing and a few drinks would be fun?
“Nothing will happen to you, little mate,” Maverick assured me. He wore a crisp blue shirt and black jeans with a pair of shiny leather boots. Hot damn, my bear was killing it tonight. Shifter bitches everywhere would drool at the sight of him.
Rasmus released me with great reluctance. I crawled into my bear’s arms, huffing up his woodsy scent like a shameless addict while he squeezed me tight enough to make me squeak.
“You are beautiful, but if anyone looks at you for more than a second, I’ll pluck their eyes out.”
“And I’ll use those eyeballs to fashion a cute little necklace, pet,” Zane added with a gleeful grin before cocking his head to one side.
“Ooh, we have two more guests.”
Someone hammered on the entrance door before I heard a female voice cursing up a storm.
“Glynda?” Oh my stars, I was a horrible friend. I hadn’t invited her to come on our night out!
Farris shot up from his chair and zipped to the door before any of us moved. I heard him talking to Glynda, and then the pair of them walked in, followed by Alaric. The storm mage cast an awkward glance in my direction before rubbing his chest like it pained him to even think about me.
I was so distracted by Alaric it took me a minute to realize Glynda wore a slinky pink dress and had dyed her hair a gorgeous shade of purple.
My jaw dropped in shock. “Wow…you look stunning!”
Glynda flushed tomato red and giggled nervously. “Um, I have a date.”
“A date? Who with?” Her eyes slid over to Farris before she forced a smile. “Dating app date. Some mage I matched. It’s probably a waste of my time.” She shrugged.
“How come you’re allowed off campus? I thought we were all in lockdown?”
“My date’s parents are on the Supernatural Council, so he got me a pass. Anyway, I figured if you wanted, you could double-date with me? But it looks like you already have plans…”
I tried hard to look excited about the idea of Glynda dating a mage, likely one of Alaric’s buddies, but failed. Glynda was way too sweet to be dating mage supremacists. Sure, not all the mage families linked to Tiberius were assholes, but I had yet to hear of any that were decent.
“Sorry, it’s a last-minute trip. Zane just sprung it on me.” I tried not to look as guilty as I felt about failing to invite my best friend.
“Which mage?” Alaric asked Glynda with a frown. He still refused to look at me, which told me all I needed to know: he’d decided our hookup in the library had been a horrible mistake on his part.
“Leo Mizen.” Alaric sighed and gave Glynda a pitying look.
“Look, Glynda, it’s none of my business, but Leo has a bad rep for dropping paralysis tabs in girls’ drinks, so you should probably reconsider this date.”
“He does what now?” Farris’s fury took me and everyone else by surprise. The fae seemed to care little for anyone other than himself, so him giving a fuck about a rapist mage came as a shock.
Alaric ground his teeth before continuing, “He always gets away with it because the victims refuse to press charges.”
My mates all exchanged looks that suggested they planned to deal with this Leo later. And if they didn’t, I would. I’d hunt that rapey asshole down and turn him into a husk. He could join the sea witch in the place beyond the veil where evil souls went. Some creative torturing for all eternity would be a good life lesson.
“Glynda, you are not meeting this mage,” Farris snapped.
