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Where the hell are you, Mav?
I pull out my phone as I walk and send my stupid text to Celeste.
Not a minute later, my phone rings. I stare dully at the screen for a while, trying to work up the courage to just pick it up.
“Hey.” Her voice is velvety even through the shitty phone speaker.
I clear my throat. “Hi.”
“How are you, kitten? I meant to text but I’ve been dealing with the fallout of our little arson attack.”
I dodge a puddle that may or may not have a dead rat lying in it. “Good. Great, really. Just… the usual.”Why, Deni? Why are you the most awkward person alive?
Celeste sighs. “I really thought fucking you would make you less nervous around me.”
I bite my lip. At least she can’t see me blush. What a stupid assumption to make. And anyway, what am I supposed to say to that?
“Actually, there’s something else I wanted to talk about. I think I’m a little closer to finding out who’s behind all of this.”
Oh, that’s why she called.“Really? How?”
There’s a moment of silence on the other side. “Let me catch you up later tonight. Can you still eat? Food, I mean.”
“Uh… Yeah, I can eat.”
“Let’s get dinner then. I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
“What–”
The line goes dead.Ugh.Why does my stomach feel all tingly? That was rude. She didn’t even ask me, she just decided! Despite myself, I make a stupid little squealing noise and hold my phone to my chest, immediately followed by cursing myself out for being such a damn sucker.
***
I’m on my way to the place I’ve been pretending to live, still too proud to tell Celeste my actual address, when I notice a shadow trailing mine in the light of the streetlights. The road I’m on is quiet but leads up to the train station, where it’s bustling with people even this time of the night. From there, it’s only a couple of blocks to where she’ll pick me up.
I throw a glance over my shoulder and startle to a stop. With an uneasy nausea in my stomach, I turn. “Alastor?”
He reveals his fangs as he smiles. “What a coincidence!”
He stops too close to me, forcing me to take a step back. “What are you doing here?”
“Funny,” he says, his smile wolfish. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
I crease my brow in fake confusion, my stomach sinking slowly. “I’m on my way to the train.”
He grabs my arm. “Let’s have a word before that, shall we?”
He knows. He knows, of course he knows. She said nobody would have the gall to touch me,I reassure myself.Trying to free myself from his grip, I say, “I’m actually in a bit of a rush.”
His fingers are painfully tight around my arm and won’t give no matter how deeply I lean into my vampire reserves.Useless human blood,I think spitefully.
“Don’t make a fuss, Deni!” His voice is threateningly low. “I just want to talk about your little spy mission.”
Fuck.I kick his shin as hard as I can and try to run. He wraps his arm around me, picking me up, and claps the other over my mouth. I scream into his palm but he only yanks me to the side. Again and again I get transported back to that night at the Myrrh & Adder, every time something like this happens. Why can’t I just forget already? Struggling, I try to kick at his shins but it doesn’t seem to bother him at all. He carries me toward one of the buildings as easily as if I were a doll. His arm around me is so tight it nearly crushes me. Of course, he’s had witch blood.
With a frustrated grunt he kicks down the doors of an abandoned shopfront to our right. The windows are covered with newspaper, the door now hanging crooked off its hinges. He throws me onto the floor – now I scream.
He rolls his eyes. Rather than hold his hand over my mouth again, he kicks me, the heel of his boot landing right in my face. “Shut up!”
