“You don’t know that.” His words are softly spoken, not a hint of anger or judgement in them. “Joaninha. You don’t know how this works. Sure, shifters don’t often make babies with non-shifters, but it has happened before. And they usually shift. He’s still a baby. His first shift could be tomorrow or it could be years from now or hell, he could be latent which would mean that kid needs a Pack even more. I can’t imagine being a single mom in high school is easy.”
I shake my head because no, it isn’t.
“You didn’t sign up for this either, but would you change it? Would you give him up?”
I vehemently shake my head. “Never. I love him. César is everything to me.”
Zheng nods as though he understands, but his next words stab into my chest like a knife. “Don’t you think Jordy deserves to love him too? We take care of our own, and that boy, he’s Pack whether you want to accept it or not.”
Tears prick the corners of my eyes and I hastily wipe them away. “I was going to tell him. I am going to tell him.” I suck in a breath. “There is just never a good time, and whenever I try and get him alone or have an actual conversation with him—”
“He defaults into putting the moves on you?” Zheng says with a sad smile. I don’t bother correcting him because no, Jordy isn’t interested in me anymore. It’s every other girl with a set of tits that he’s chasing after. “I can see how that might be a problem but…” he hesitates, then exhales a loud sigh, “you need to tell him. Soon. The longer you wait, the worse it’ll be. You’ve already waited a year and a half.”
Not on purpose. “I didn’t know who he was.” He must think I’m such a horrible person right now. “We didn’t exchange information. Not even names,” I rush to explain. I don’t want him thinking I kept Jordy from his son intentionally. That was never the objective here. “I just…I was scared.”
“But you knew the first day you came to Hellbound High?” he hedges.
I nod. “Yeah. I recognized him right away.”
He considers me, tapping his forefinger against his chin. “It’s been a week. I’ll give you one more to find a way to tell him. It would be better if it came from you. But if you can’t do it, I have to tell him. He deserves to know and Jo—” He pauses until I meet his gaze before looking away, unable to hold it for more than a second. “The Pack will intervene if you try and keep that boy from him.”
I swallow hard and open my mouth to ask for more time, but the front door opens and in walks Diego, pulling both of our attentions his way.
“Hey, Jo. Your mom upstairs?” Diego asks as soon as he sees me. Being a vampire means he can only travel at night so seeing him now isn’t unusual, but it still startles me for some reason. “Oh. I didn’t realize you had a friend here.” He scowls as he takes Zheng in, his eyes turning crimson as soon as he realizes what Zheng is. “Is Jae here too?” he adds, and there’s an edge in his voice. I stop myself from rolling my eyes, because of course he would see Zheng and assume he’s Jae’s competition. It doesn’t matter that I’ve told Jae and Diego, and my mom for that matter, that I am not interested in dating anyone.
I just want to focus on graduating. Is that too much to ask?
“Who’s Jae?” Zheng asks, taking Diego’s bait.Urgh.
“He’s Jo’s—”
“Friend.” I cut him off. “We’re friends and no, he’s not here. I haven’t seen him since this morning.” And only because he still insists on driving me to school every day. “And yes, Mom’s upstairs with César. She went to bed early. She looked beat.”
Diego nods and grabs a blood bag from the fridge. I cringe. “Yeah, she’s been helping me with some of the accounting at work,” he says as he tears open the bag, downing half its contents in one pull. Blood drips from the corner of his mouth, but he doesn’t bother wiping it away. It’s like he’s baiting Zheng into some type of response. I know vampires and shifters have their issues, but does he have to be so obvious?
Voices can be heard from the living room, and Diego cocks his head, pointing his bag toward the hallway. “Who else is here?”
“A few friends. We’re just hanging out. Watching movies.”
“Sleepover?” he asks, a glint in his eyes that puts me even more on edge. He better not have any plans to use my friends as unwilling donors. He can find his meals elsewhere.
He’s been weird lately. I mean, he’s always been a little weird—vampire and all, it sort of comes with the territory—but weirder than usual. Diego’s never been anything but nice to me. Sometimes overly nice and I usually just brush it aside. But right now, he has a distinct creeper factor that is making me uncomfortable.
Just then all three girls come into the room. “Hey, what’s taking so long?” KeAnna asks with a bounce to her step.
“Yeah, I was starting to wonder if you were making out with my brother,” Meiying jokes, flicking her gaze between us before settling on Diego. “But I can see that’s not the case. Did you make the popcorn?” Her voice is edged with concern. Shit, maybe having a bunch of shifters over when you live with a vampire was a bad idea.
“Here, let me help you out with that,” Diego says, taking the bag of popcorn from the counter and pouring it into a bowl. “What are you girls going to be up to tonight? Hopefully not getting into trouble.” He says it with a smirk and a flash of fang. Again the creep-o-meter jumps up.
No one answers him. KeAnna and Meiying are both giving him polite but wary smiles. Meanwhile, Isa’s gone pale as a ghost.
“Are you okay?” I ask her, but she doesn’t look at me. Her eyes are trained on Diego, twin orbs of molten metal, and her chest is rising and falling at a rapid clip.
He turns his attention to her and recognition sparks. “Well, fuck me.”
52
Jordy
