“Hey, Mary Ann.” Brittany Buchanan walked briskly down the hall, grinning, a paper outstretched in her hand. Her chin-length red hair was the envy of every girl at school. Well, not her twin sister. Brianna’s hair was the exact same color, only longer. “Glad I ran into you. Riley asked me to take notes for you in Chem.”
“Riley’s here?” she asked, claiming the paper.
“Yeah.” The redhead sighed dreamily. “I almost passed out when he spoke to me. That boy’s voice is deep.”
Thank God he was here. If he was here, he was okay. “Where is he?” And why hadn’t he delivered the notes? Why hadn’t he picked her up this morning?
“Don’t know. But, uh, are you two, like, dating, because…” Brittany bit her bottom lip. “Yeah.” Hands off! “We’re dating.” She hoped. After last night, though, he could have changed his mind. She’d been so sure of herself, so stupid. She may have ruined everything. Now witches were even visiting the school. “Thank you for the notes. I owe you. Big time.”
“No problem. And as for payback, if Riley has a brother, you could, I don’t know, introduce me.” Brittany started biting her lip again.
“He has two.” And both were dealing with curses of their own, she recalled. Anyone they were attracted to would think they were ugly. Anyone they weren’t attracted to would think they were gorgeous. “I’ll see if they’re free.”
“Thanks!” A grinning Brittany flounced off.
Mary Ann rushed to her locker, threw her bag inside and grabbed her book and binder. The halls were now almost empty, the bell due to ring in less than a minute. Too much time gabbing, she thought, and she had to haul butt into the three hundred building.
As she barreled around a corner, a door in front of her opened unexpectedly. She stumbled as she darted around it—or tried to. An arm reached out, hard fingers banding around her wrist and jerking her into a darkened room. The moment she was inside, the door closed, locking her in with her assailant.
Her textbook thumped to the ground. Crap! She could have used it as a weapon. Do something. Quick! Fighting panic, trembling, Mary Ann struck, slamming the heel of her hand into the guy’s nose, just like Aden had taught her.
He howled.
She stilled, recognizing that howl. Her heart slammed against her ribs. “Riley?”
“I think you broke my nose,” he said, but he sounded amused. That amusement didn’t last long, however. He flipped on the light, chasing the shadows away, and she saw that his expression was etched in violence. His eyes were narrowed, lips pulled back, teeth bared. Didn’t help that blood poured from his nose.
“I’m sorry. You just, you scared me!”
The tardy bell rang, and she wanted to curse.
“Don’t be sorry,” he growled. “Be proud. And I’m sorry I scared you.”
He didn’t sound apologetic. He sounded just as violent as he looked. She glanced away, needing a moment to calm, and saw that they were in a supply closet. The scent of disinfectant saturated the air. Cleaning supplies lined the shelves.
Deep breath in, out. Finally, her trembling eased and her heartbeat slowed. “Why are you so upset?” she asked, keeping her eyes away from him.
“I’m not.”
She ran her tongue over her teeth. Someone needed a truth spell, and it wasn’t her. “So where were you this morning? I waited.” And waited. Oh, God. Did he hear the whine in her voice?
“After the vampire gig, I had to escort Aden home. As there was a wee bit of opposition from his new subjects, I was afraid someone would follow him and try to take him out, so I ended up camping outside his window all night and all morning.”
Her hand whipped up to her throat as her gaze once again clashed with his. “Did they? Try to take him out, I mean?”
“No.”
“So he’s well?”
“Well, but tired. He still sees the fairy ghost, and that ghost prevented him from sleeping.”
Tired and ghost-whispering were far better than mortally wounded. “Where is he now?”
“Here.”
“With Victoria,” she said with a nod. A statement of fact, not a question. Those two were always together.
“No. Victoria didn’t attend today.”
“Why? Was she hurt?” And why wasn’t Riley with her? Usually Riley glued himself to the vampire’s side, protecting her his first priority.
Tendrils of jealousy worked through Mary Ann, followed by tendrils of guilt. Their relationship shouldn’t bother her. They were princess and bodyguard. If Victoria were injured, Riley would be punished. Perhaps killed.
Or maybe things were different now, under Aden’s rule.
“Physically, she’s fine,” Riley said. “Our councilmen want her to stay away from Aden so that he can date other people.”
What? “And she’s okay with that?”
Riley’s lips twitched. “You’ll have to ask her.”
“If Aden’s king, how can the councilmen tell her what to do? He wouldn’t allow it.” Would he?
“Aden doesn’t live in our home. He’s new and no one knows what to make of him. Everyone is looking to the councilmen for answers, and right now, they support him. We don’t want that to change, so we’re catering to their desires. Besides, to deny them would cause unrest among the people. That unrest would be dangerous for Aden.”
Still. Having to watch your boyfriend date other girls? Absolute torture! The thought of Riley with someone else…her hands curled, her nails cutting past skin. “Well, you could have called me. Let me know you weren’t coming for me.”
He tangled a hand through his dark hair, all hint of amusement fading. The fury returned, darkening his expression. “No, I couldn’t have. I would have yelled.”
“You’re yelling now!” And for no good reason, that she could tell.
“Yeah,” he said, still with that fury, but now, it was tinged with something else. Something low and raspy. His eyelids dipped to half-mast as he traced a fingertip along the slope of her nose. “But now we get to kiss and make up.” Even his voice had dipped.
Yes, please. “First, why would you have yelled?” Clearly someone had told him what she’d done, but she wanted to hear him admit it before she spilled her guts. “Second, we can’t kiss.” She backed away from him, not stopping until she hit the door. The closer they were, the headier his wild scent became. The closer they were, the better she could feel the heat radiating off him. The closer they were, the closer she wanted to be. “I need to get to class.”
“Actually, you’ll have to miss it. We’re talking right now.”
Uh-oh. The words echoed around her, a threat. “I can’t keep putting off my studies, Riley. Yeah, I’m fine with missing Geometry right now, but anything after that? No. As you know, Spanish is my worse subject, and I need all the help I can get.”
“I’ll tutor you later. Si?”
Yeah, right. Like they’d really pay attention to their books if they were alone in her room. “No.” The only other Spanish she could recall at the moment was: No hay tenedor limpio, tenemos que lavar la. There is no clean fork. We have to wash some.
That wasn’t really applicable here.
“Well, you’re not going to class until we discuss a few things. Namely, you went into town last night,” he said, jaw clenched.
And there it was. The admission. She gulped. “Yes.”
“Alone.”
“Yes. How did you find out?”
“My brothers. They followed you.”
The two wolves who tailed Penny’s car. Of course. She should have guessed.
“They said you encountered a witch. Tell me, Mary Ann. Why would you endanger yourself like that?”