Page 86 of Slayer

He stepped up and walked over to his girlfriend. She took his hand and twirled around him, laughing, but his body language was rigid.

Was I imagining it? Or was he…not that into her? Not in the way she was into him.

I recalled last week right before the vampires had shown up, he’d been trying to tell me something. Something about her mental health, and now my heart pinched, thinking that this version I saw of her might just be fleeting. Sometimes people were really good at wearing masks when they needed to. I knew that was true for myself.

I mean, who didn’t have mental health issues from time to time? I knew that I’d battled some dark days right after I’d found out all that weird stuff surrounding my birth story.

I watched as Daphne set up some horseshoe toss games and the way Asher looked at her. You could see the adoration in his gaze. She was kicking sand at him and trying to goad him into playing against her. Finally with a grin, he took the challenge. But they seemed more like best friends than lovers.

What did I know? I’d never had a serious boyfriend. I had dated a few guys in high school for a grand total of four weeks, and it fizzled out. Relationships were work, and I was too young to put all my time into a guy who barely noticed me while he played video games.

But I was older now, and I found myself wondering what a relationship at this age would be like. What going out on a date would be like and having someone to talk about classes with and…I dunno, feel adored by. The way that Daphne probably felt now as Asher threw a giant marshmallow at her head from behind. They laughed playfully, and my heart ached for that kind of love.

I was so entranced by my thoughts I barely noticed Jax sit next to me.

“Hola, chica.” He nodded to me.

“Hey.” I smiled.

He was tracing the hunter marks on his forearm with his finger.

“Do they hurt?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Sometimes they tingle though. Like they’re waking up.”

Creepy.

“What do they mean?”

“Strategy,” he said, pointing to one. “Intellect.” He pointed to another. “Strength and defense.” He finished pointing to all four.

I nodded. “Sounds badass.”

He shrugged. “I’m a sentinel. It’s okay. Not everyone can be a slayer or an arcanist.”

I grinned. “Everyone wants to be a slayer, huh?”

“Hell yeah. I want to be the one to kill those cabrones.”

I didn’t know what cabrones meant in Spanish, but I knew it wasn’t a good word.

I knew that Harper hadn’t exactly been thrilled with her hunter runes either. And Luna seemed excited but also in shock to be an arcanist.

“So how long have you known Asher?” I asked. I didn’t know much about Jax, just that he and Asher were best friends and usually together. He seemed sweet, always stopping to chat if he saw me in the halls and ask how I was settling in.

“Since kindergarten. I hated him because he stole my Lego bricks,” Jax said with a smile, and I grinned.

“Guess you got over that.”

“Eventually.” He chuckled, but then his face became serious. “We were all in the middle of vampire history class when news spread about the attack. One by one, they came to the classrooms to pull us out and tell us our parents were gone.”

Chills raced up my arms. His parents died in the same attack as Asher?

“I’m so sorry,” I told him.

He nodded. “Daphne freaked out when they told her. She just ran. She ran outside and into the woods like she just wanted to get away from it all.”

My heart fissured at his words. Poor thing.