Page 124

“So,” Dani says, looping my arm, “do you want to keep walking, or are you going to stand there and pine over him all day?”

I frown as we continue walking, and I tie my scarf up, trying to get away from this chilly wind.

“I’m still dying to know what went on in that basement with him,” she says. “You haven’t told me much.”

I shrug. “We talked mainly about my father and the work he did for him before he died. It was nice hearing stories about him. Lincoln connected with him in ways I never could.”

She eyes me wearily. “You just talked…right. You never came out of that basement once; I looked for you everywhere.”

I flash her a deviant smile. “We were too busy drinking each other’s blood.”

She gasps, then narrows her eyes as I squeak out a laugh.

“Okay. You’re joking.”

I’m now not only protecting Lincoln, but Dani, too. I don’t want to give Dani any additional information to continue her witch hunt. I need her to think he’s a normal guy.

We continue walking, and I pointedly walk right past Lincoln. My hairs stand on end as I brush by him.

The girl he’s been talking to for the past ten minutes has blonde hair flowing from a stylish hat. She turns, smiles, and waves at us, and I realize it’s Misty. Suddenly, my veins throb as if about to burst, and an intense urge to tear out her eyes overwhelms me.

I can only interpret the look she gives me as a threat, considering she knows about my crush on him.

Lincoln’s eyes meet mine, and he lingers for a moment, watching me. Misty’s oblivious to the surge of emotion coursing through him as Mikael momentarily fronts at the sight of me. Even from a few feet away, I can see the whirlwind in his eyes.

The process of a psychopath trying to break through.

Dani watches the entire thing but obviously doesn’t register the intense psychological battle warring in his head. Once we are a few feet away, she grabs my arm and pulls me away from him.

“Okay. You have it bad.”

I scoff and pull my arm away. “I don’t have it bad, but why is Misty talking to him?” I watch as the two of them walk together toward the psychology building.

She folds her arms and peers down at me. “You are such a liar. You’re so smitten with him, it’s not even funny. And I’d like to remind you that he’s her TA. If you’re trying to keep this a secret, then you’re not doing a very good job.”

He gets swept away by the crowd, and thankfully Misty heads in the other direction.

Dani taps her toe, staring at me. “Summer. Should I be worried?”

I shake my head and keep my voice low. “Please, keep your mouth shut about it. You can’t say anything to Misty or to anyone. If Dr. Garcia finds out he’s sleeping with me, he could lose his job and I could get kicked out of class for misconduct. And it would be me getting kicked out, Dani; his brain is too valuable to the university. He’s going to be faculty in a matter of months. I’ll never be able to get into another school with that on my record.”

Her jaw drops. “Summer…you’ve never admitted that you had sex with him. I thought it was just a crush, and you just talked all night.”

I grab her hand before she can say anything more. “I love him, Dani. I’m in love with him. And I’m trying to figure out what that means.”

Silence falls between us, a heaviness in the air.

“Summer…” Dani says, squinting her eyes past me. “Someone’s watching us.”

My stomach twists and I turn my head to look. “Who?”

“Xander,” she says icily, but her face has gone white.

I catch Xander standing under a large oak on the edge of campus. His face is shadowed, a hood is up over his face, and his arms are folded. For once, I don’t see a collared Bianca with him or all his tattoos. He looks like he doesn’t want to be seen.

And he is staring at us—blatantly, if I might add—wearing fucking Prada sunglasses, as if needing to flaunt how rich his family is.

The Vital family. Of course he’d be connected to that empire.