“Yeah, but you know what? I’ve got the one thing vampires are afraid of.Fire, jackass,” I growled. “And I will burn you into fucking oblivion if you touch Charlie again, do you understand?”
His gang members posed around him, ready to move on his say-so. Deuce’s eyes roamed the room and locked on my friends.
He didn’t want to take on all of us at once, so Deuce simply sneered, “Your boyfriend lost the fight. It’s just business. That’s all there is to it.”
“Ava, you’re drawing attention,” Marcus said nervously. “Let him go.”
Reality, and the risk I was taking, suddenly took over my rampaging emotions. I had the good sense to stop what I was doing, because I knew with the Warden watching, I couldn’t do anything reckless, or I’d put all of us in danger.
That was the only reason I didn’t kill this fucker.
I took my hands off his neck. “It better be.”
Deuce and his little vampire bitch gang ran away. I was still heaving for breath, while Oberi gave a harsh snort beside me.
Kallie grabbed my arm and shook it. “What were you thinking?” she hissed. “That was entirely reckless!”
“He hurt Charlie. Badly,” I spat back at her. “He’s in the infirmary right now because of him!”
“But that’s Charlie’s choice! Hewantedto be in the fight club!” Kallie argued.
“Big deal. Would you let someone get away with breaking Marcus’ skull open?” I blurted.
Kallie paled, but before she could say anything more, Marcus stepped in.
“Ava, you were really close to losing control, like I did,” Marcus said quietly. “What if you had? You would’ve killed everyone in this room.”
I felt guilty— but not enough to make me regret my decision. I crossed my arms and turned away from all of them. “I won’t do it again. He just had to know.”
Chancey shrugged. “It’ll be okay. They’ll give Charlie time to recover. The guards won’t make him fight for a long time—”
“He’s not fighting again!” I snapped. “He’s done!”
Chancey stared at me. “That’s not how the fight club works. You don’t decide when you get to quit. They do.”
I huffed, but Marcus said, “That isn’t important right now. What’s important is helping Charlie recover.”
“We should also avoid telling him about this littleincident,” Kallie added. “Because I think if he knew Ava threatened Deuce, he’d lose his shit.”
There was a mumble of agreement throughout the group. My friends dragged me down to the cafeteria and tried to force some food into me, but I didn’t eat it. I didn’t want to eat without Charlie. I was too pissed, anyway.
I went to class, because obviously I had no choice. I wanted to go to the infirmary and stay by Charlie’s side, but that wasn’t allowed. I was thinking that the guards would come by any minute, to drag me to the Warden for my punishment, but no one showed.
Deuce was a gang leader— he wouldn’t snitch. He’d get back at me another way, but I wasn’t afraid. I was waiting for an opportunity at this point to put him in his grave.
Thoughtless as that was. Charlie was right. Lying low wasn’t my strong suit. I didn’t think I’d be able to control myself long enough for my dad to gather enough evidence to get us out of here.
Maybe weshould’veagreed to break out. At least then, Charlie wouldn’t have gotten the shit kicked out of him.
Two days passed, and I didn’t hear a word from the infirmary about Charlie. My stomach was in knots the entire time, but when I reached out across our bond, he recoiled away from me instead of pressing in, purposefully creating distance, and it hurt.
He was definitely awake and fully conscious by now. He just didn’t want to contact me. Was he ashamed that he lost the fight? I didn’t care about that. I just wanted to make sure he was okay.
I walked to Elementai Magic alone with Oberi, feeling quite lonely. I kept my head down, but Oberi let out a whinny as we walked into the usual grassy area in the prison yard where the class was held. Her hooves pounded on the dirt, and my head lifted. Charlie stood with the rest of the class. His face was a little less swollen, and he was more recognizable, though both of his black eyes appeared to be healing slowly. Oberi rubbed her head against Charlie’s chest, and he stroked her shoulder tentatively.
“Hey,” I said quietly. My hand reached out to touch his arm, but Charlie flinched. I blinked away tears as I pulled back. “Are you okay?”
“I’m alive,” Charlie said bluntly. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
