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She looked at me, the frown faded, her eyes sad. “Tell me something.”
“What’s that, dearfriend?”
“Did you have anything to do with my mom going missing?”
She’d resisted my slickest attempt at charm, instead showing care only for her mother. This girl wasincrediblyspecial. Her question came out of left field though. “Your mom?”
Jaxon grunted, posturing for a fresh confrontation. “Answer her. I’ll know if you’re lying.”
“Yes, you have a talent for that, don’t you.” I smoothed out my ruffled collar, pulling my shirt back down. “No, I didn’t. I don’t kidnap innocents. Am I lying?”
It gave me pleasure to see the pup grudgingly agree. “Fine. Now fuck—”
“But I do have access to a vast network of eyes and ears. Unrivalled within the city, actually, my coven happens to be. I could”—I tugged at a tiny flap of the hallway’s peeling wallpaper lazily—“set them the task of finding someone. Uh, for a friend, of course…”
“You’d do that?” she asked, not masking the eagerness in her voice.
“I swear on my coven. I’ll do everything within my power to return your mom to you, safe and sound.”
She stepped forward and her eyes traced my face, as if checking it for my sincerity, but as her gaze lingered, I could sense she was also making sure I was okay after Jaxon’s blows. And her care made me crave her even more.
As for Jaxon, the poor pup, his eyes told me how badly he yearned for her too. I didn’t hate him for that. I gauged he was as helpless as me. How incredible this human girl was. A bear, a wolf, a Fae prince and now a coven leader, all drawn to her aura, like lovelorn little boys. Exactly what it was within her we all craved, I wasn’t clear on yet, but I’d delve deeper.
If only this Beta boy would get off his high horse and stop despising me for being what I was, for my way with the ladies, for my need of blood. The funny thing though, he wasn’t even that much of an asshole, compared to many paranormals I’d tangled with. And I had a feeling that finding Cecilia’s mom would go at least some way to smoothing things with both her and him, her wolf admirer.
I took some details from Cecilia, left the apartment building, opened my phone, and went straight to work. If that woman, Kathy, was to be found, I would be the one to do it.
And then I would reap the gratitude from her enchanting daughter.
Cecilia
The dining hall offerings were especially unappetizing this morning. On a depressing Monday, to boot. I scooped another spoonful of cereal, the weary flakes drooping over the spoon’s side, crying tears of skimmed milk back into the bowl, their sporadic splashes dotting the tabletop.
I clinked the spoon down and sipped from a Styrofoam cup of dishwater tea. I was done with the cornflakes. Picking up a piece of toast, I crunched an unenthusiastic bite.
Putting the slice down on the plate, I sighed. It wouldn’t have mattered how good the food was, I had little appetite. At least Vesta would be here soon. Yesterday, I’d told her about my mom disappearing, and she’d helped me and Jax search. She’d even insisted on meeting up again this morning before classes. Her fiery—no pun intended—determination to make sure I got through all this was so encouraging, a beacon in this dark time.
Just like the new guys in my life.
Jax and I had combed the campus for sightings of my mom and his gruff, hulking wolf pack asked around every business within his dad’s vast network. Aaron had left the conference early yesterday—after he could tell something was wrong in my texts—and once he got back, and I trembled in his arms and told him what happened, he sent out email after email, making inquiries among the hundreds of staff and thousands of students. He’d also enlisted his best friend, who I’d yet to meet, who was apparently a super sleuth with status and magic most could only dream of.
Then there was Xander.
Having warily agreed to give him my number, he’d shared every single text and email update from his coven, forwarding them all to me on an hourly basis. He’d been so respectful and considerate of my feelings, though he did keep calling me his little orchid.
I didn’t mind what he called me.
What he was doing was amazing.
And to be honest, I kind of liked his confident manner and unique, unwavering affection, now that I was mostly sure he didn’t want to drain all the blood from my body.
His coven had been turning the city upside down, trying to find my mom. I didn’t even know how she would have felt about that, a legion of vampires acting like private detectives for the sake of her safety. But at this point, I didn’t care. All that mattered was her being back with me, safe and sound.
I sipped at the tea again. It didn’t taste of much, but the warmth comforted my aching stomach.
Now, around half an hour before class, people were starting to spill into the dining hall. This was the peak time for students from wealthy paranormal families to be here. They didn’t eat meals—grabbing a packaged bar or can of iced latte seemed the norm—but they used the tables and booths to sit in their little breed groups and chat and goof around before class.
Looking down at my janitor uniform and its bland, thick navy cotton, my name crudely sewn in white on my chest pocket, I felt a bit out of place among the designer clothes and shoes that were clogging the hall, declaring in brash brands their price tags. Why did people place so much importance on—
