Kyan backed up with a throaty laugh and Bait sagged with relief as the knife moved away from his balls. But it was short lived as his gaze fell on me instead, the mask ready and waiting in my hand.
There was a bitter acceptance in his eyes as I pushed the mask onto his skin, concealing the top half of his face with the white material so that only his eyes showed through, tears brimming in them as I pushed down firmly to make sure it wouldn’t move.
There was something profoundly final about covering him like that. A blank manikin looking back at us now which meant he could have been anyone at all. Or no one.
Blake cut the recording and laughter tumbled from his lips, quickly echoed by the others.
Kyan wrapped an arm around my shoulders and we all turned and walked away together, leaving Bait tied to the flagpole, naked aside from that ice white mask.
“So how about it, brother?” Kyan growled in my ear as I was jostled between them, a dark smile on my face for doling out justice. “You can’t say that didn’t get your blood pumping. Don’t you want to join us so that you can do that again?”
I laughed him off without giving an answer and I could feel Saint watching me like he was waiting on it too.
I held my tongue as we walked further down the path, but I had to admit, becoming one of them might not have been quite as bad as I’d assumed.
***
I paced back and forth in the gym as I waited for Tatum to show up. It was five past seven and I was filled with restless energy. I’d barely spoken to her since the night of the break in and the few messages we’d exchanged had been brief and to the point. I wasn’t going to put it past Saint or the others to check her phone and I was still hoping they hadn’t picked up on just how close I’d been getting to the girl they thought was theirs.
But that hope was a fickle thing. They’d seen me the night she’d been attacked. I’d been desperately trying to get to her. I’d plunged that knife into that scumbag. There wasn’t much chance they’d missed the way I’d panicked at the thought of her being hurt. Saint had already tried to call me out on it.
I just had to hope they didn’t realise how much I’d started to care about her. Although, if they really were inviting me into their fold, then maybe it didn’t matter that much if they figured it out. I’d certainly seen just how much they cared about her. And if that wasn’t a mindfuck in itself then I didn’t know what was. I hadn’t believed the Night Keepers were capable of caring about anything aside from themselves. But Tatum Rivers was a force to be reckoned with.
The door finally opened as I quit my pacing and Tatum strode in. I spotted Blake walking away after dropping her off and bit my tongue until the door swung shut behind her. She was wearing a matching sports bra and leggings set in a deep navy colour which really brought out the blue in her eyes. My gaze raked over every inch of exposed skin and curve of her flesh before I could stop myself. I cursed the fact that she was my damn student before ripping my attention away from her again.
“How were classes today?” I asked as she crossed the room and pulled on her gloves to start our bout.
“I don’t want to talk about classes with you,” she muttered, her back to me as she gave her attention to the gloves.
“Did you have something else in mind?” I asked, moving towards the ring and lifting the rope for her so that she could climb in.
Tatum huffed out a breath and moved to stand before me, but she didn’t raise her fists, glaring down at her gloves before tearing them off again.
“Were you the kind of guy who got into a lot of fights at my age?” she asked, her lips curling into something that was dangerously close to a little rich girl pout.
“What makes you think that?” I asked, my defences rising at the slightest sign of the class divide. “Because I clearly have such low breeding?”
Her eyes snapped up to meet mine and a frown tugged at her brow. “No. Of course not. I’m not assuming you did, I’m asking if you did…just forget about it. I’m not really in the mood to spar today anyway.”
She made a move to walk away from me and I reached out to place an arm in front of her so that she couldn’t go. “Spit it out, princess, or I’m going to have to assume that you think I’m a common street rat.”
Her gaze flicked up to meet mine and the hint of a smile tugged at the corner of her lips before it died away again just as fast.
“I’m asking because…I want to practice brawling. I want to be ready the next time someone comes at me and I know I have to put them down if I want them to stop. I don’t ever want to hesitate to kill again. I ran from him when I should have stood and fought. Not wanting to stab that asshole almost cost me-”
“Okay,” I said, tossing my gloves aside too. “But don’t kick me in the balls, even if that is your most effective tactic.”
A snort of laughter escaped her and a dark smile tugged at my lips as I launched myself at her.
Tatum gasped in surprise a moment before I locked my arms around her and took her to the floor. We hit the mats hard and my grip was jarred loose, giving her the
