“Well…I got a couple of weird poems put in my bag. And today someone left me flowers too. I thought it was Pearl Devickers at first, but I don’t think it can be her.”
“You think you’ve got an admirer?” he asked, his hands clenching into fists whether he noticed it or not.
“No,” I whispered, a shiver running up my spine. “Someone wrote Night Whore on the restroom mirror the other day. And there was one time where I thought maybe…”
“What?” he pressed, his tone urgent.
“That someone was following me,” I breathed, fear stirring in my chest.
“Show me.” He held out his hand for the note and I moved over to him, dropping down at his side and passing it over.
His brows lowered as he read it and I studied his face from the side as his jaw tightened and a shadow entered his eyes that I’d never seen in him before, even at his most furious.
“Leave it with me,” he said dangerously. “Whoever it is just wrote their fate in blood.”
“You don’t need to protect me, Nash,” I said, glancing at him and his gaze locked with mine. There was a furious storm swirling in the depths of his eyes and I knew if he ever found who had left this poem, they would fall prey to the monster in him.
“You should go to bed,” he breathed and I tasted him on my lips.
I didn’t move. I couldn’t. I was locked in his eyes, a prisoner to him and the darkness rising to the surface of his skin.
“Go,” he snapped and I jumped in alarm, rising to my feet as I was released from the snare of his gaze.
I grabbed my bag and marched into his room, shoving the door closed and pressing my back to it. I shut my eyes as I fell to pieces internally, every broken shard aching for the man who’d sent me away. The one I could never have.
I ran down the path which circled the entire campus, looking at my watch to check I was still making good time and I upped my pace a little as I veered off of my usual route.
I’d already added in an extra loop to make up for the distance I’d miss without completing my normal circuit and as I turned off the main path and raced up to The Temple, I broke into a sprint.
An excited whoop came from the trees to the right of the path and I almost collided with Blake as he leapt at me.
A surprised laugh escaped me as I dodged him and ran on, leaving him behind as he righted himself, but as Kyan jumped out of the trees ahead of me, I couldn’t slow in time to avoid a collision.
His solid weight drove me into the wall of the church and I grunted in frustration as I tried to fight him off.
Blake leapt on both of us a moment later and I found myself in the middle of a scuffle as Kyan tried to get me in a headlock and Blake pulled a lipstick from his pocket.
I wrestled against them, throwing a few halfhearted punches before they managed to hold me still long enough to smear the lipstick over my mouth.
“Get off of me, you fuckwits,” I choked through a laugh and they let me shove them away while they roared with laughter.
I couldn’t help but laugh with them as we headed into The Temple where the low hum of classical music rang around the open space. In some ways, I didn’t hate being a Night Keeper. I liked being a part of a group and their jokes and games resonated with me in a way that I’d missed out on too much in my life.
Kyan wrapped an arm around my shoulders as we stepped inside and leaned close to my ear to speak in a low voice. “I dare you to give Saint a kiss and smear that pretty pink lipstick all over his face.”
“Seriously?”
“C’mon, man, fucking with Saint is like half of what makes being a Night Keeper fun. Don’t you wanna help me bait him?”
When he put it that way, I couldn’t really resist.
Saint was sitting in his wing backed chair by the roaring fire, reading a book and acting like he hadn’t noticed all of us arriving despite all the noise we were making.
I kicked my sneakers off and strode towards him quickly. Tatum perked up in her spot on the couch, looking at me with interest as I passed her by and headed straight for Saint.
He looked up as my shadow fell over him and I grinned widely as I looked into the dead eyes of the devil. “Hey, sweetheart,” I said. “Did you miss me?”
“What the fuck is on your-”
I swooped down and planted a kiss right on his mouth, smearing the lipstick over his face as much as I could before he shoved me off.
“Don’t tell me we’ve initiated another fucking Kyan,” he growled irritably as he swiped the lipstick off of his cheeks with the back of his hand and stood so suddenly that I found myself nose to nose with him.
The look of rage in his eyes brought another laugh to my lips and Kyan fell about himself laughing as Saint made a move to walk away.
“Wait,” Tatum said and I turned to look at her as she glanced between the two of us with mischief in her blue eyes. “Do that again. Sloooooowly. And let me record it.”
I scoffed at her dismissively but Saint actually paused.
“Did you
