by Kasi Blake
#
Nick was late.
Bay-Lee sat at a round table in the corner of the library with three vacant chairs taunting her as she wondered for the millionth time if Nick was going to keep to his word and help her. Eight books covered the table’s red surface. They were all open to their first chapter, first page. Although she’d tried to make sense of the text on her own, she couldn’t figure it out. Nick needed to explain several things, if he ever bothered to show up. She glanced at the clock again. Her hands clenched into fists under the table. This could be his way of letting her know he wasn’t going to mentor her no matter what Van said.
She’d been the only person in the library for hours. Every once in a while a student entered or exited the elevator, but she was far enough away from it that they didn’t notice her. She kept busy with research. So far her findings amounted to nothing. There wasn’t anything about being killed on one’s birthday even though there were hundreds of urban legends to peruse. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find a connection to any monsters, real or imagined. If Tessa’s ghost was a death omen, there wasn’t anything substantial about them in the books she’d found. Maybe she would ask Nick about it—if she ever saw him again.
She leaned back in her chair with a frustrated sigh. If Nick wouldn’t listen to Van, there wasn’t anything she could do about it. She’d have to ask Keisha to step in for a while as her mentor. A flash of Tessa’s dead eyes stunned the breath from her body. Every time she succeeded in getting rid of the image, it returned with a vengeance. Once something was seen, it couldn’t be unseen.
Several minutes passed. Bay-Lee stood up and gathered her belongings. She was going to take the elevator up to Van’s office, tell him what an irresponsible jerk Nick had turned out to be, but she didn’t get far. As soon as she closed the third book, Nick breezed into the library.
Feeling mean, she asked, “Still living on rock star time, Tyler?”
He grimaced. “Not at all, Micki. I was tracking something.”
Her insides turned to ice, and her numb lips barely moved when she spoke. “Here? On school grounds?”
Nick dropped into the closest chair and grabbed the book nearest his hand. After flipping a few pages, he glanced up at her. “Are you going to join me? I don’t have all day.”
“What was it? What were you tracking?”
“I thought I saw a border monster lurking in the woods.”
“Do you think... could it have killed Tessa?”
Nick lifted his face. His gaze touched upon hers, and his expression softened. Letting go of the ‘all business’ demeanor, he took her dangling hand. “No monster could possibly get by security, a building full of hunters, and Van’s spells. Border monsters are huge, too big to fit inside your room. Besides, they don’t use daggers.”
“Then what?” Her lips refused to move easily over the words. “If it wasn’t something from the other side, it would have to be a hunter then. Right?”
She wanted Nick to look shocked by the idea of a hunter killing Tessa, but his expression didn’t change, meaning he’d already considered the possibility. She shuddered. The person responsible for Tessa’s death could be someone she knew, someone she saw every day. They could get in and out of her dorm room undetected. What if they came back for her?
In an obvious attempt to get her mind off her roommate’s death, Nick gestured to the array of books. “What are you having trouble with?”
She forced her mind to focus on school work. Her butt landed in the chair without an ounce of grace. There was so much she needed to know. She didn’t want to be at this school forever. She contemplated telling Nick about her end goal. He might be better able to help her then.
But she’d promised Van she wouldn’t say a word.
They worked for over an hour. He was a good teacher, spelling out things in such a way that she could grasp it without doing mental gymnastics, but inevitably her thoughts returned to Tessa. Nick was busy copying a list of weapons for her. She lifted her gaze from the page and watched him. Her mouth opened and closed a few times. An inner voice warned her not to say anything.
She couldn’t stop herself.
Bay-Lee slid her hand across the table until the tips of her fingers were touching his. He stiffened, still as a stature. She half-expected him to snatch his hand back as if he’d been burned, but he raised his head slowly instead. His eyes pierced through to her soul. She recognized the shadow of deceit lurking there. Nick Gallos had bigger secrets than being a hunter hiding behind a rock star persona.
Determined to learn the truth, she asked, “Why do you pretend not to like me?”
“Who says I’m pretending?”
“I can read you like the back of a cereal box. I know you feel drawn to me just like I feel drawn to you. I’ve seen you watching me when you think I’m not paying attention.”
His hand left the table and he sat back in his seat, sober expression. “If I stare at you once in a while it’s because I’m wondering what the big deal is. Why would anything from the other side care enough to try to kill you?”
He obviously wanted to make her mad, so she let the thinly veiled insult slide. “What you did last night, carrying me to the castle after I totally fell apart, it was sweet.”
“No.” His eyes narrowed on her face. “I am not sweet. I’m never sweet. I’m a complete and total jerk, and you need to remember that.” He slapped a hand on the table, startling her, and snapped, “Get the stars out of your eyes!”
“Why do you keep doing that?”
“Doing what?”
“You’re trying to make me hate you.”
His shoulders slumped as he leaned back in the chair. “You and me together would be a huge mistake. I’m talking major world destruction. It would be so much easier if you would just cooperate and hate me.”
“That’s a weird thing to say.” With a pencil balanced between two fingers, she tapped the table repeatedly in manic rhythm.
“Trust me.” He looked tired. “You stay in your corner, I’ll stay in mine, and the world will continue to turn.”
Keisha’s advice on getting Nick to like her circled her mind. Although she was certain she didn’t want a boyfriend at this stage of her training, she couldn’t help but think she and Nick would make the perfect team. They were a lot alike. She wanted to know his secrets, but another part of her just wanted to make him squirm.
Flirting, she asked, “What if I like your corner better?”
She abandoned her chair to straddle Nick’s lap. It was a toss up as to which of them was more stunned by her uninhibited behavior. This was a first for her. She wasn’t the type of girl to get pushy with a guy. Maybe the abrupt, insensitive way he treated her was fueling her desire to make him shake in his shoes. She told herself she wasn’t serious. This was just a game.
“W-what are you doing?” he asked. His arms dangled at his sides as if he didn’t trust himself enough to touch her for the length of time it would take to remove her from his lap. The look of pure terror on his face provoked her to continue.
She whispered, “Call it an experiment.”
“You need to stop.”
Her slim fingers slid beneath his hair to stroke the back of his neck. “I want to know what it feels like to kiss you.”
“No.” Even as he protested his gaze dropped to her mouth. A hollow breathiness entered his voice. “Bad idea.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Tell me you haven’t wondered what it would be like and I’ll leave you alone. If you can honestly say you aren’t curious, I’ll return to my seat and we can get back to work.”
He leaned forward a fraction, and his mouth hovered near hers. Teasing, he moved his mouth away when she leaned closer. She closed her eyes. He was going to kiss her. It was finally going to happen. She could feel it in her bones. Would it be a billion dollar Fourth of July fireworks display or the cheap siz
zle of a single sparkler? She couldn’t wait to find out.
“Bay-Lee!” a voice yelled at her. “What are you doing?”
Startled, she leaped to her feet and bumped into the table. A book slid off the edge. Embarrassed at being caught, she looked to the open doorway. The voice was familiar but out of place.
It was her former pretend-boyfriend.
Gavin stood there in a Captain Kirk tee shirt, the stunned look on his face mirroring her own.
Chair legs scraped the floor as Nick stood up behind her, so close that if she took half a step back she’d be pressed against his body. His strong hands landed on her shoulders. He nudged her forward and whispered in her ear at the same time. “Oh yeah. Forgot to mention your pretty boy ex is back at school.”
The information slowly infiltrated her brain.
Nick added, “Go to him. That’s who you belong with. Forget me. Ain’t gonna happen.”
Nick walked past Gavin on his way out without saying a word to him.
The dislike in Gavin’s eyes spoke volumes. “He’s still the same carefree, charming guy, I see.”
“You knew he was a hunter when I asked about him, and you told me he should have gotten the chair for what he did. You knew he’d killed vampires and not people.”
Gavin flushed with guilt. “Sorry about that. We’re under strict orders not to talk about each other when we’re out in the real world ‘cause we might blow someone’s cover.” He hesitated before asking, “Were the two of you about to hook up when I walked in?”
“No.” She smoothed her hair back, trying to fix it without a mirror. “I was just trying to... he just… I don’t know what I was doing.”
Gavin slowly unfolded his arms and opened them to her. An endearing smile took a few years off his already young face. “I have missed you like crazy, Bay. Come here and give me a hug.”
It would be good to have a friend at the school. Gavin was easy to talk to and he knew things about her, personal things. Mainly he knew what it was like for her to pretend to be someone else. She let him embrace her, and it wasn’t even half as awkward as she was afraid it might be. Her body relaxed against his. Then he asked, “So what were you doing with Nick Gallos when I walked in?”
Her eyes opened wide, and the tension returned to her shoulders. “He’s my mentor, and he was acting like a jerk so I was trying to freak him out. That’s all.”
Gavin seemed to accept her twist on the situation. “Good. For a minute I thought I was too late and the two of you were already involved. He’s used to girls falling at his feet, you know.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” They were under orders to keep it business. She wondered if Gavin knew why people wanted her to stay away from Nick. “How much do you know about him?”
“As much as anyone, I guess. He stays at the castle and keeps to himself when he’s not playing rock star.” A sliver of jealousy entered his voice like a pesky splinter beneath the skin. “I am so glad Van took his guitar away. Now he’ll have to be a mere mortal like the rest of us.” His hands smoothed down the length of her arms. “So how do you like the school? Is it everything you imagined it would be?”
Bay-Lee spent the next several minutes telling him about her roommate’s death. He put an arm around her shoulders in an effort to comfort her, but his touch didn’t affect her the same way that Nick’s touch did. She held the information close to her heart, treasuring it.
Once she finished filling Gavin in, he took one of her hands between his. Staring into her eyes, he announced, “I want to start over. I really like you, Bay, and I know we were just pretending before but... will you be my girlfriend in real life?”
The invitation to date him shocked her to the core. She’d had no idea Gavin liked her in that way. In truth, she always thought they were living in the ‘friend’ zone. Did she want to date him?
Her gaze momentarily swept the room to focus on the empty doorway. If she was totally honest, she’d admit she wanted Nick and had wanted him from the first moment she woke to find him in her bed. But they obviously weren’t going to be together. He didn’t want her. There was a secret keeping them apart, and no one wanted to tell her about it.
If she was officially with Gavin, it would keep Nick at a distance. Gavin would be a brick wall standing between a careless boy who could rip her to shreds and her vulnerable heart. She convinced herself it was a great idea. Gavin was a good guy, and he was cute. Spending time with him would be fun. Her heart was safe with him. She wasn’t going to fall in love with Gavin, so she’d be able to focus on her training. “I guess we can try it and see what happens.”
He lifted the heart locket off her blouse and examined it with curious eyes. “Pretty. I’ve never seen it before. Was it a gift?”
“It was my mother’s.” He released it and she added, “I never wore it before because I was always pretending to be someone else. It felt wrong to have it around my neck. Now I’m me and I can wear it every day. It makes me feel close to her.”
“I like it,” he said with a charming smile. “You are still the coolest girl I’ve ever met.”