I stared at him. I heard all the words he said, so why didn’t they make a lick of sense? “I beg your pardon?”
He stared right back—the cold disinterest on his face rivaling my new vampire professor. “Get up.”
My brows shot up my forehead. “What do you mean get up? I was sitting here first and there are literally a dozen free seats in this row. Sit somewhere else.”
Everything stopped.
Half the class couldn’t give a fig about Tristan beating Kazuya to death, but now they were all still, they were all gaping, and they were staring. Even the professor stopped messing with the papers on his desk to raise a delicate eyebrow at me.
I turned away. “Look, I get that you’re a big shot around here, but I’m doing my own thing and trying to mind my business. Why don’t you do the same?”
“What are you doing?!” Sabrina hissed. “Did you come all this way to have the ceiling painted with your blood? Do not upset him!”
A shadow fell over me. I didn’t have a chance to think before his fist slammed down on my notebook, jerking me back to feel his other hand grab the back of my seat and yanked me around. My eyes narrowed as his handsome, shadowed face closed on me and... he laughed.
A low, humming chuckle rippled from his lips, dragging my eyes up even higher. “Big shot? Mind my own business? That’s funny,” he said, smirking away. “Well done. I like funny servants.”
I blinked. “Servant?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“You.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
My brain went offline. “What... are you saying? I’m not your servant.”
“Of course you are.” He snapped his fingers and an invisible force yanked me up by the pants and deposited me yelping onto the seat to my left. Ronin plopped down in mine, reclining back with his arm slung over the chest in a move so effortless and cool, he must’ve practiced it. “I was assured that if I agreed tocome to this dump, servants would be provided for me. You were the one who had my badge—”
“My badge!”
“—you were in my room—”
“My room!”
“—and you were waiting to greet me in the mess hall this morning.”
“I was being murdered in the mess hall this morning,” I shrieked, straight goggling at this nutcase. “None of that had anything to do with you. I don’t even know— Ugh!”
“Will you shut up, human!” Sabrina flipped out, constricting tightly around my rib cage and choking the air out of my lungs. “Of course you know him, everyone knows him! If he says you’re his servant, you’re his servant,now, be quiet!”
I heard the fear in Sabrina’s words and hisses loud and clear, but I heard the smirk on his rotten face even louder. Ihatedguys like this. The ones who believed that just because life blessed them with good looks, they didn’t need to bother with a good personality.
Taking a deep breath, I swept the room and all the people of all species goggling at me like I had the biggest flipping death wish of anyone they’d ever seen. It was true, I had Lucifer contracted to protect me, but Ronin killed a guy with a simple snap of the fingers. Would Lucifer be quick enough to stop him before his middle finger hit his palm? I didn’t come all this way to give this Ronin guy another shot at killing me. I needed to focus on finding Dora, which was why—
“I can’t be your servant,” I told him in a measured tone. “I came here for a reason, and I can’t let anything distract me—especially not... the d-dubious honor of... being your.... p-p-pillow,” I gasped out, wheezing as Sabrina squeezed tighter and tighter. She really wanted me to shut up. “I hope you can... accept my... decision.”
Ronin’s brow rose higher and higher as every strangled word popped out of my bug-eyed, purpling head. He hummed. “Well, I’ve heard your reasoning, and it makes a lot of sense.”
My hope soared. Inside my shirt, Sabrina eased up.
“Great,” I huffed. “So you understand? We’re all good?”
“I do understand,” he sang, beaming away. “But may I make a counteroffer?”
