His navy blue eyes blinked at me, wet from tears he was too big to let fall—shame he hadn’t been that big when he’d resorted to tripping me—his cheeks burnished with red even as his skin grew pale from lack of oxygen.
All around me, people had gathered, and I knew one of the guys, or several, were about to get involved, were going to save the kid who’d just tried to humiliate me.
In my periphery, I saw the glass coffee table. It was low to the ground, a flat piece of glass suspended in a frame.
Putting pressure behind the move, I hovered him above it, and rammed him down into it so his feet slid around on the shattered glass. His cry of pain was music to the Hell Hound’s ears as his bare feet were torn on the shards as he danced and tried to maneuver off the glass.
“Do you understand me?” I rasped, my eyes on him, my focus branding him until he stopped squealing and his gaze was back on me.
“Y-Yes.”
My top lip curled. “Good.”
I didn’t care about the whispers that appeared as I headed out the door. Didn’t care about the shock I left in my wake. My Hell Hound was furious enough that I didn’t even care that I’d hurt the guy.
Me.
I’d hurt another person.
My brow puckered at the thought, and as reason began to return while my rage burned away, I staggered to a halt in the corridor.
Half turning, my intent to turn back, I saw a boy who’d been watching what went down in the common room, veer around me when he noticed I’d stopped.
He looked at me like I was a loose cannon, and after being ignored for two days, I couldn’t find it in myself to care.
They’d thought me weak, had believed they could pounce on me like I was vulnerable, and I’d just proven them wrong.
I released a breath, hating that it was shaky, but I used it to stir me into continuing on my journey. Why I’d picked a common room that was so far away, I didn’t know, but I had, and I regretted it now.
Especially after that incident.
When I made it outside, I saw that the plane was coming to a halt about fifty yards away from the secondary gate they used to access the plane.
That day they’d left, I’d wondered why they hadn’t just used the main gates, but it was closed. Locked. The huge padlock around its rails was a testament to the fact it was only opened on certain occasions. It all made sense now, of course.
If anything made sense here, that is.
I headed toward the other smaller gate and waited for the people on board to disembark.
The only ones that mattered to me were the ones I knew, the ones who’d made an attempt to be kind to me. That meant there were five on board whom I wanted to see, but there were dozens of people who’d gone with them to Nigeria.
I’d Googled Nigeria, and it didn’t exactly seem like a vacation hotspot. Not according to something called travel blogs, at any rate. I wasn’t sure why so many of them had gone there, but I was just relieved they were back, and I could be with people who’d accepted me.
When Nestor made it down the stairs with his arms hooked over Stefan and Eren’s necks, I gasped. The move was awkward on the narrow steps, but it was a testament to how weak Nestor was that they had to maneuver him that way.
As I stared at him, I saw there was someone waiting beside the stairs. I recognized the white uniform as someone who worked in the sick bay, and I assumed the chair with wheels was to help transport him.
I absorbed all that in a flash, and though it went unspoken that we weren’t supposed to leave the grounds, it didn’t stop me. I ran as fast as my chubby body would let me and didn’t stop until I was at the foot of the stairs, staring up at the three boys who’d made this place a home for me.
“What happened?” I cried.
They were surprised to see me, and Stefan even looked over at the gate as though imagining I was hollering at him from over there.
Scowling at him, I stacked my hands on my hips, ready to blast him for being slow to answer when Nestor whispered, “I’m okay.”
He didn’t look it. If anything, he looked the exact opposite of okay.
Now that I was closer, I could see that his throat was wrapped with thick bandages. Swathes and swathes of them, and even then, blood was spotting through.
Panic danced down my spine, and I had to contain myself as the nurse grabbed my arm and said, “Let me deal with this, Eve.”
I wasn’t sure how she knew my name, just did as bid and moved out of the way. When Nestor made it to the bottom of the staircase, she helped him onto the moving chair. I was at his side in a flash as the nurse began to push the chair over the grassy terrain.
I rushed with her, but I felt someone grab my arm, then I felt another someone grab the other.
Twisting around to glower at them, I demanded, “Let me go!”
Stefan’s mouth twisted. “No. You don’t want to be there when they check him over.”
My eyes burned with tears. “What happened to him?”
“He had an accident,” Eren told me, his voice calm. So calm that I wanted to slap him, but I didn’t because I saw pain in his eyes.
His throat… “Did he almost die?”
Eren nodded. “Yes. It was only because it was his Vampire’s day that he didn’t.”
I blinked, racing through the many texts I’d been reading on that species. “He healed?”
Eren nodded. “Just enough to not die.”
Of course. Nestor was certain he was going to be a Gargoyle when his dominant soul was called up. He wasn’t a Vampire, but each soul came with perks. The days with the Lorelei came with the manipulative voice, and as I’d just experienced myself, the Hell Hound days came with massive bursts of strength.
“My God, if it hadn’t been his Vampire…”
Stefan’s jaw turned white as he clenched it. “We’d have lost him.”
“What happened?” I demanded, my gaze caught by the next two guys to descend the stairs. When they saw me though, our eyes connecting for a handful of seconds, they each broke the union and dropped their attention to the ground.
When they shuffled past me like they didn’t know me, I wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or not.
Stefan and Eren wouldn’t like it if Frazer or Reed talked to me, but I’d have liked to check in with them. To ask if they were okay even though, visually, I could see that they were.
Determined to ask later when Nestor wasn’t a priority, I demanded again, “What. Happened?”
“At least you have some backbone.”
Dre’s sneering retort had me blinking in astonishment because I hadn’t even realized he was there. I scowled at him. “Shut. Up,” I ground out. “Do you always have to be such a… such a…”
“Jerk?” Eren prompted, ever helpful.
I glowered at him too. “No. Worse than that.”
“Bastard,” Stefan supplied, voice husky.
It wasn’t what I wanted to say, but I grabbed a hold of it with both hands. “Yes. Bastard.” The word felt powerful as it spilled from my lips. “You don’t like me, I get it. This isn’t about you. It’s about Nestor.” I looked at Eren again. “Please, tell me what happened. Was it…” I hesitated, “a Ghoul?”
Eren jerked back in surprise. “How do you know about those?”
“Damon decided I needed a lesson the day you left.” I swallowed, and the gesture felt unnatural with how dry my throat was. “Is that what happened to Nestor? A G-Ghoul got to him?”
Stefan winced. “Yeah. He knew what we were going to do, and must have wanted to warn you.”
Warn me?
When I thought about the sadness in Damon’s eyes, I realized I’d misinterpreted it. I’d imagined he was sad because he suspected I was a freak of nature, but instead, he’d known where the boys were going, what they were doing, and had anticipated their being hurt.
“Please,” I said on an exhalation. “Explain.”
Stefan grabbed my hand and, squeezing it, tugged me int
o his side. His arm came over my shoulder as he held me close, and we began to walk back toward the school.
“Did he tell you about nests?”
Sort of. I’d learned more in the time since though. Had devoured everything in the textbooks I’d requested from Damon.
It was irritating not attending regular classes because it meant I was always isolated, but the advantage was reading through the whole year’s syllabus in two days.
“Yes.”
“Did he tell you that they attack towns and cities? That sometimes, it’s more than just for food but for gain? Sometimes, hell, that it’s for both?”
I frowned at that. “No. I didn’t know that.” Apparently, there was more I needed to read. I imagined that to understand everything in this crazy world I’d tumbled into, I’d have a ‘to be read’ list taller than me.
Eren had rushed up to join us and was walking at our pace. I didn’t feel right until he grabbed my hand though, and as we bridged our fingers, he murmured, “The fights in the gym, it’s about more than just burning off some aggression. It’s about points. The four of us, Dre, Nestor, Stef, and I, we’re a unit. We won this semester’s competition and had the honor of heading the mission.” He pulled a face. “To a certain extent. We’re not alone. We have a lot of Enforcers with us. But we handle the recon and research, and we deal with informing the troops and telling them where to position themselves.”
“It’s a training exercise,” Stefan inserted. “But with a safety net.”
I processed that. “In preparation for when you do it on your own.”
“Yes.” He cut me a look. “We’re good, Eve.”
That had me scowling at him. “Obviously not that damn good if Nestor came back with half his throat missing. Did a Ghoul try to eat him or something?”
Eren’s dark complexion paled. “Yes.”
Sickness had me drawing to a halt. “No!” I cried. “No.”
“For fuck’s sake, he’s alive, isn’t he?” Dre growled, making me jump when I realized he’d been behind us all the time.
My eyes flared in irritation and the Hell Hound, still not buried deep after the situation in the common room, had me spinning out of Stefan’s hold, and untangling my fingers from Eren’s, so I could stare at Dre.
“What. Is. Your. Problem?”
Dre snarled, “You. You’re a pussy and that’s the last thing we fucking need slowing us down.”
Taken aback, I growled, “I’m not a cat!”
“For fuck’s sake,” Dre spat. “How the fuck can you even argue with her when she doesn’t understand what you’re talking about?” I wasn’t sure if he was railing at Stefan and Eren or the universe as a whole.
“I don’t understand why you thinking I’m a cat makes you think I can slow you down,” I retorted, and I couldn’t help it—my finger straightened and I dug it deep into his chest as I prodded him.
My Hell Hound packed a punch into the move so he staggered back a few feet, gaping at me in surprise as he straightened up.
When he moved toward me, Eren was there, sheltering me from Dre’s wrath. “Back off, Dre,” he warned, and I heard the growl of his own Hell Hound. Mine and his almost saluted one another as I pressed my hand to his sides, clinging to him in thanks for his trying to protect me.
A warmth blossomed in my chest as I pressed myself into him. Though he stiffened at my touch, he relaxed a second later.
“You know what? Fuck this. I’ll be at the party if any of you give a shit about where I am.”
Dre stalked off, but only when I looked over my shoulder and saw that he’d headed through the gate, did Eren and Stefan relax some.
“What party?” I asked.
Stefan shook his head at me. “Since when was your Hell Hound so strong?”
I shrugged.
He frowned. “Eve?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “The Were and the Hell Hound are different ever since I came here. I just used to be moody and feel like my skin was too tight for my body on those days. Now it’s different.”
“You’re allowing yourself to feel,” Eren stated softly. “It’s empowering the animals. They run on emotions even though their strength seems to be sourced elsewhere.”
Stefan nodded. “That could be it.” He grabbed my hand. “Still, don’t pick fights you can’t win, yeah?”
I decided it was best not to tell him about the dude back in the common room. Clearing my throat, I murmured, “Will Nestor be okay?”
He winced. “Yeah, but he’ll scar.”
“But he’ll be alive. He can’t deal with a scar if he’s dead.”
“That’s one way of looking at it,” Stef said drily. “But I meant… the scar might bother you.”
I frowned at him. “Why would it bother me?”
“It’s not going to be pretty,” Eren warned.
“So?” I huffed impatiently.
When I was on the receiving end of two sheepish smiles, I gave up. With another huff, I started toward the gate without them. They both grabbed each of my hands and tugged me to a halt.
“Where are you going?”
“The sick bay, Eren.” I wasn’t about to leave Nestor alone for anything.
“They’ll be working on him for a while,” Stef warned.
“Again, I ask, so?” I tugged at their hands. “Come on.”
I wouldn’t feel better until Nestor was directly in my line of sight, and even then, I had a feeling that still wouldn’t settle my nerves.
❖
Nestor
The slide of someone’s palm into mine stirred me from sleep, but the second I was awake, I felt the immediate discomfort in my body.
Well, I said body and meant the ‘head region.’
Sweet fuck, the pain was something that I’d never anticipated. Whoever it was that had bitten me had obviously had a Vampire’s fangs, because she hadn’t just gnawed on me but had torn out the flesh. I knew because the agony was there, a throbbing presence in my body.
“You said he was going to be okay.”
Eve.
Her voice was loaded with urgency and fear. I hadn’t imagined she’d be able to feel either for me, yet here she was, worrying about my condition.
She didn’t know it because she had no clue about her connection with Stefan, but she was Pack. Even though she disliked Dre as much as he seemed to hate her, if he’d been here in the sick bay, she’d have been just as upset to see him.
That was Pack.
It was how it worked.
Even when you had no idea what a Pack was outside of a nature documentary, and I’d made sure that she and David Attenborough were good friends.
Unlike my Pack brothers, there was only so much gore I could watch. From Dre’s horror movies, Stefan’s love of action, and Eren’s new fascination with Spartacus reruns, the only relief Eve and I had was in the documentaries I was intent on getting her hooked on.
“How did he survive?” she whispered, her hand red-hot on my arm where she’d laid her fingers the second she’d taken a seat.
“Frazer saw him. Gave him blood.” I heard the grim reluctance in Stefan’s voice as he made the admission.
She released a shocked gasp. “Frazer? I thought you guys didn’t get along.”
“We don’t,” Eren replied shortly. “But the Ghouls are our race’s enemy. That takes precedence over squabbles.”
“That was so kind of him. I must thank him. In fact, we all should.” Her fingers stroked my hand. “H-He looks so weak, guys. Are you sure he’s going to be okay?”
Because her concern touched me, I made a concerted effort to rasp, “I’ll be fine in a few days.”
She gasped. “You’re awake. Thank God.” Her hand grabbed mine tighter, and it was a testament to how shitty I was feeling that even that slight squeeze hurt.
“I’m on the mend,” was all I could say before the pain washed over me with the ceaselessness of the tide hitting the shoreline.
“He isn’t lyin
g,” Eren told her, his tone gentle. “It will take a little while for him to be back to normal, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“Of course it wasn’t,” she snapped. “Rome took centuries to form.”
He sighed. “It’s a saying, Eve.”
“Oh.”
If I could have smiled, I would have. She was so literal, and with zero cultural reference points, it was deliciously easy to confuse her. And I didn’t even feel guilty about that. Eve was smart. Ridiculously smart. I figured her knowing shit about the world was her leveler, and if she didn’t have that, then only God knew what she’d be like to live with.
As it was, she was humble and bumbling around trying to figure shit out. She fit into the world like a round peg in a square hole, but I could deal with that.
Mostly because I had a round peg I wanted to stick into her round hole.
Same as Eren and Stefan. Dre, too, if he’d pull his head out of his ass and see her for what she was—our glue.
Every Pack had one, and we’d found ours way ahead of schedule.
Of course, sex wasn’t the only reason I wanted Eve around. In a fight, she might not be able to kick ass, but that memory of hers was going to come in more than handy someday.
I felt some cold fabric being draped over my forehead, and although it felt like shit against my skin, the chill did add to my comfort. Enough for me to mutter, “Guys, you should get her into reading the N-Files.”
They fell silent at my words, at the mention of the registry Caelum had on every single Nest Leader in the world. I wasn’t sure whether they wanted to ignore me or just were bewildered by the suggestion.
Before I had to gather my energy to explain, Eve asked, “What are the N-Files?”
“You remember what we were talking about outside? The Nests?” She hummed her understanding, and Stefan continued, “Each Nest has a leader. We have files on that leader, as well as the Ghouls they consider their council.”
Eren clucked his tongue. “Council’s a strong word. It’s more like the people they trust not to stab them in the back.”
Seven Wishes: The Caelum Academy Trilogy: Part ONE Page 23