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I approach another gravestone only to pause at the name engraved on it. Aurora. I swallow hard, eyes narrowing. I know for a fact that her body isn’t buried here.What the hell?Knowing that I won’t be disrespecting an empty grave, I use a cleaning rune to restore the headstone to its original form.
Aurora, missing and presumed dead.
No family or friends are listed as loved ones and no date. Only her name and those words. She really had no one. I swallow hard and feel the guys approach behind me.
“Are you alright?” Dylan asks, placing a hand on my shoulder.
I let out a breath. “I guess I assumed that they had to have never found her body with the glamoured area in the forest being untouched, but I still thought they’d do more for her than this.”
“If her killer really was the next headmaster then when he took over he could be responsible for this too. Perhaps the instigator for these deaths as well. We should split up in pairs and check the dates on the stones to see if they match up with the year he took over. I know Aurora isn’t marked, but hopefully the others are,” Corin says, face grim.
I take a moment to gather myself then nod. Grabbing ahold of Dylan’s hand, I lead him towards the back of the cemetery. It puts roughly twenty feet between us and the other guys so we have the illusion of privacy.
“So how are you really going with all of this?” he asks after a few minutes of checking graves. All of them, other than three students whose deaths were spread out over a decade, are dated to have happened in the years after Aurora’s murderer became headmaster. Goddess, that saysa lotabout the type of Headmaster Steven was.
“I’m alright.” My voice is steady. I’m in control of myself. It’s one thing all this chaos can’t steal from me.
“Really? Cause I don’t believe you,” Dylan says, voice low.
His casual certainty has my hackles rising and I turn to him with a scowl. “What the hell would make you think that? Do I look like I’m falling apart?” I say, putting up a sound barrier around us so I don’t have to worry about alerting Ethan to our presence if his hideout really is around here.
Dylan purses his lips then leans back against a tree, hands shoved in his pockets and ankles crossed. “On the outside? No. Do I think you’re struggling mentally and emotionally? Yes. And that is nothing to be ashamed of.” He shakes his head, not breaking eye contact with me. “You’re probably the strongest person I’ve ever met, and what I know of your past is probably a drop in a bucket to what you’ve actually been through and experienced. I can’t say that I can understand everything that’s driving you or how anxiety inducing it is, but I want you to talk to me about it. I can tell that unless someone pushes you, you’re going to keep bottling everything up until one day you explode. Then it will be too late, so Nessa, talk to me. Right here, right fucking now. I don’t know what’s happened in the last few days to have your scent radiating with such stress and worry, but you’re going to tell me and I’m going to help you untangle it.”
I stare at Dylan open mouthed.Holy shit. Him taking command is so fucking hot. I mumble as much and he quirks an eyebrow at me.
“You’re not going to distract me, Nessa. Talk, now.”
Those blue eyes burn into mine and I let out a shaky breath.Alright then, he wants me to do an emotional dump on him right now? Fine, we can fucking do that.
I blurt out everything; how stressed I am about Ethan stalking me, worried about Lexi’s mental health, about my classes, my new powers and my magic. Then we get to the new stresses. I tell him about sleeping with Corin then running away like a coward, as well as about discovering something new about Oscar—I don’t mention specifics, that’s his business—then I’m all fucking worried and emotioned-out. I can’t help that my thoughts drift to Foster as I blurt everything out, but I don’t mention that one. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. We had… fun together, lots of fun exploring Aurora’s hidden place in the forest and I’m not really sure what to do after the awkwardness of our last encounter. So for now I push it to the side to deal with at a later date.
Feeling drained, I stare at the ground as we stand in silence. I can’t help but wonder if I’ve finally scared him off? I grit my teeth and suck in a breath, ready to turn and walk away when he’s there. Dylan grips my chin and applies gentle pressure until I give in and tip my head back to meet his eyes. “Good job, love. Doesn’t that feel better? You shouldn’t be keeping all that trapped inside.”
My shoulders slump at the sincerity in his expression. “Yes, a little better,” I agree somewhat reluctantly.
He smiles and cocks his head. “So, Corin…?” he trails off and my cheeks burn. I’m so not used to this confident side of Dylan.
I groan, my eyes sliding away from Dylan’s.Corin. Yeah, what the hell to do about that. “I don’t know,” I admit, lost for words.
Dylan shrugs and quirks a brow at me. “You need to figure out what you want first. What you want with him… what you want withus.” My eyes jump to his and I blink repeatedly.
The smile playing on his lips grows as the seconds stretch and I only get more flustered. Then he does possibly the best thing he can to distract me. Leaning in, Dylan presses his lips to mine and I respond with enthusiasm, getting lost in the kiss. It has hunger stirring in my stomach, reminding me that I’ll need blood soon. I’ve been going to Corin when the urge gets unbearable, but it seems like I can usually go roughly two days before I get to that point.
As though he knows my line of thought, Dylan pulls back from me a little, and searches my expression. “Nessa, I want you to know that I’m always here if you want to talk about your new powers.”
He’s referring to my vampire ones, but I’m just not ready to talk about it yet so I open my mouth ready to stall, only for Oscar to unintentionally save me from having to. “Hey, um I think I found something,” he calls out from the other side of the graveyard and it has me taking a few steps back from Dylan. I give the vampire a wobbly grin before heading in the direction Oscar’s voice came from.
I’m stepping around a tree’s trunk when an arm loops around my waist from behind me, my back bumping into someone’s chest and stopping me in my tracks. I’m about to lash out with my magic when Dylan’s old book scent wraps around me and I huff out a breath. “Are you insane? I could’ve seriously hurt you!” I whisper yell, but he just laughs quietly.
“I trust you,” he says, lips hovering by my ear causing goosebumps to rise on my arms. “Just think about what I said, okay? I’m ready to talk about it whenever you are.” He nips the sensitive spot below my ear and I jump, pleasure zinging through me, then he lets me go, strolling off towards Oscar. I stay frozen in place feeling all sorts of things. It doesn’t help that when I refocus on my surroundings I find Corin grinning at me, eyes flitting between Dylan and I. It has my cheeks burning. Goddamn blushing. Up until I met these guys I never had an issue with it, but now I’m blushing every five seconds.Like what the actual hell?
I drop my head back and let out a groan, searching the sky like it holds all the answers. The glimmer of the warded barrier covering the school catches my attention and I pause, several things snapping into place in my mind all of the sudden.I wonder…
“You coming, Nessa?” Corin calls, and I straighten, eyes searching him out. While I was distracted he started moving towards Oscar. I shove my realisation to the side for now and walk over to Oscar.
Him and the others are standing around a lone headstone that’s a fair ways away from the others and crumbling with age. Other than it appearing to have aged more than the others there isn’t anything significant about it. My eyebrows furrow, eyes searching out Oscar’s questioningly.
“Corin, can you throw up a barrier around all of us please? A soundproof one that can’t be sensed by other supernatural’s?” Oscar mumbles. I tense imperceptibly, on high alert at his words but I’m careful not to make it obvious.
