Tainted Blood (34 page)

Oliver popped up then, hopping off of the desk, and to his feet. Amber rose gracefully and a little quicker than she probably should have.
I was
fairly
sure not many of the students knew that Professor Amber was a vampire
,
and I think she, and most likely Felix, wanted to keep it that way.

“Okay, let’s give a round of applause to our guests,” Amber suggested as she took a step between Felix and Morgan. I knew Carter and I were both wondering the same thing: “What just happened?”

I clapped along with the class. Carter and his injured arm sat this one out, but we exchanged another quick glance. That was the moment Oliver decided to notice I was in the room, and he took the look shared between Carter and me the wrong way. I saw it in his face and I was instantly exhausted by his accusations.

The class filed out of the room and Mr. Morgan was quick to follow. Carter and I lingered behind with Felix, Oliver, and Amber.

As I stood, Oliver came over to me, placing himself between Carter and me. I did my best not to roll my eyes and succeeded
. It was then that I noticed
Oliver had facial scruff
. Not a lot, but some and it was something I’d never seen on him before.

“Hey,” he said quietly, “I’ll meet you at the club. I’ve got something I need to do.” Then he left. He didn’t kiss me, not even on the forehead like he usually did. My heart sank. I feared I was losing him.

After Oliver left, Carter nudged me with his good arm and I turned my attention to Felix and Amber who were clearly having a heated discussion at the front of the room. She was so small compared to him, but with all of his girth, everyone was. Amber’s arms were crossed over her chest in a sure sign of irritation and Felix was doing most of the talking.

We hesitantly got closer and they stopped. “Everything okay?” I asked.

Amber dropped her arms to her sides. “Everything is fine, Delaney,” she responded, obviously still aggravated.

“No, everything is not fine,” Felix argued. Amber’s head snapped toward him and her strawberry-blonde hair swirled around her for a quick moment. She glared at him and she was slightly frightening as she did so. It didn’t seem to faze Felix and I imagined she’d been dirty-looking him for many years. “Ambrose,” he pleaded, “these two are family, you know this. We can trust them. It would be wise of us to do so.”

“What’s going on?” Carter asked. He took a step closer to me and I figured it was his way of being protective.

Felix sighed heavily and sat back against the desk. “We have reason to believe Morgan may be involved in whatever is going on around here.”

“You mean with Oliver?” I asked.

“It’s not just Oliver,” Amber interjected. “I have observed troubles with other mixed-bloods, as well as…” She glanced at Felix for reassurance and he nodded for her to continue. It amazed me that they were just…there. Together, with all of the history that they shared, plus the broken promise of marriage and they were just…there. Like they were friends and nothing more. It
really
made me want to know more about them.

Amber continued, “I have also noticed anomalies in several of the other species that reside within our town.” I felt Carter stiffen beside me and I was sure he felt me do the same.

“Other species?” Carter questioned quietly.

“Yes,” Amber continued, “our small town is home to a variety of the paranormal. There is an unknown draw here. Several members of the university staff are of the paranormal world. For instance, Professor Morgan is a demon-halfling.”

We said nothing. What the hell do you say when you find out demons exist and that your biology teacher is one of them, half or not? Yeah, there’s no response for that. Maybe, “holy shit,” but neither of us could seem to muster up even that.

We stayed silent and listened to Professor Amber, my vampire astronomy teacher, tell us that she had been noticing disturbances in the town. She told us more, but I just kept thinking that I wanted to learn everything I could about demons so that I could defend myself against one. I was pretty sure Professor Morgan was not one of my biggest fans.

As we walked out to the car, Carter said to me, “You ever feel like we fell out of our reality and into the
Twilight Zone
?”

I chuckled a little, “Just most of the time.”

Chapter
19 - A Terrible Knight

We hurried to the club to meet up with Kiera and Zoey. I parked around the back and asked Carter to hold onto my keys and told him I planned to wait out front for Oliver. Carter didn’t agree with this plan, but he paid at the door and rushed up the steps toward the pounding music anyways. Mostly because I told him I’d kick him if he didn’t just go. As medicated as he was, he probably wouldn’t feel it, but I didn’t think he wanted to risk any more injuries, either.

I perched myself on a concrete planter and waited, and waited, and waited some more… I checked my phone like a desperate girlfriend and I rubbed my arms to fight off the chill that was seeping into my bones.

While checking my phone for a response to my “Where are you?” I heard a familiar, “Hey, Laney.” I wasn’t surprised to see Ashton standing at the entrance to the bar but I was surprised that he was alone.

I gave him a quick, insincere smile and returned my attention to my phone. There I was again, waiting on Oliver, unable to reach him, and Ashton shows up. As he was handing his entrance fee to the guy manning the door I heard him tell the guy, “This is for when she’s ready to come in.”

Yep, he’d just swooped in and rescued me, again, because I’d pulled another idiot move and left my money in the car and my keys were in Carter’s pocket.

I waited a couple of minutes—until I couldn’t stand the cold anymore—then I headed up the steps to the club. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the pulsing, strobe lights but when they did I saw Ashton on a stool at the end of the bar and he was watching me as I stepped inside. I told him thanks as I hurried past him, and I could’ve sworn I heard him say, “Anytime.” I reminded myself he was evil and that he was only trying to make himself look good. And Oliver look bad.

I hurried to the table that my friends were sitting at and slid in beside Kiera. Carter had already downed a beer and I imagined that mixing alcohol with his painkillers would do a number on him. I was sure he’d be paying for it in the morning.

Zoey introduced me to her new man. The music was so loud I couldn’t quite hear what she said his name was, and it had slipped my mind at the moment. It sounded like she said Bear, but I was positive that wasn’t right. I wracked my brain trying to remember what she had told me his name was. When we’d last had lunch she’d said it like a hundred times, but when I feared I was carrying Carter’s illegitimate child everything she’d told me about the guy, including his name, flew right out of my head. I guess fearing that you’re knocked up by your best friend’s fiancé would do that to you.

I thought hard. Was it Derrick? Brad? No, I knew it started with
a
n R. Randall? Rufus? Rudy? Rudy! I was positive that was it! How the hell did I get Bear out of Rudy? I laughed to myself.

“Where’s Oliver?” Kiera asked, raising her voice to be heard. I shrugged and shook my head slightly in response. She gave me a pitying look and it kind of angered me. It made me wonder if Carter had told her anything. I glanced at him but he paid me no attention. He was busy talking to Rudy—attractive, dark skinned, Rudy—and downing another beer.

My friends moved out onto the dance floor, and after checking my phone for a reply and still not finding one, I joined them. The dance floor was packed with bodies moving to the pounding music. Carter was hilarious! His long, gawky frame tried, unsuccessfully, to move to the beat of some club remix. He made goofy faces and all kinds of moves that had my sides hurting from laughing so hard. All the while he kept his bandaged arm close to his body to keep it safe. He was wearing the sling as a necklace at that
moment
,
and it only enhanced how amusing he was being.
I was sure that the mixture of painkillers and beer was the cause, although he was naturally amusing. But this was too much! He also seemed to be feeling like quite the stud with all of us girls in his circle. With his good hand he twisted and spun each one of us. It felt good to have a fun time and laugh. I just wished Oliver had been there to be a part of my happiness.

Zoey and her date eventually focused on each other, while Carter continued to spin, twist and dance with Kiera and me, but it left me feeling like a third wheel, again.

As the dance floor grew more and more crowded, Carter gave us each one final spin, then as the music slowed, his arm looped around his soon-to-be-wife, I tried to make my way off of the dance floor and back to our table. As I squeezed through the mass of people, I bumped into a body that didn’t budge as I tried to pass by.

It turned out to be Ashton. “Oh!” I said in surprise then I pushed past him. He grabbed my hand and I looked down at his hand on mine and then up into his face. He was only inches away from me.

“Please, Laney,” he pleaded in a voice I was sure I’d never heard Ashton use before. It was almost…genuine. Almost. “Don’t be so quick to walk away,” he said stepping closer, and I didn’t move. “Dance with me, give me just this one moment to know what it’s like to be him, to have you as my own.”

I actually felt myself beginning to cave, even considered giving in to this monster that was standing before me, pleading with me to give him just one moment. Moments my own boyfriend had been taking for granted. Moments that nobody else seemed to want to share with me. I felt alone, neglected, rejected… I was lonely and my own heart betrayed me and let him gently pull me closer.

Ashton’s hands slipped around my waist and my brain tried to kick back into gear. “Ashton,” I began and he smiled at me just like he had back before our friendship had taken a rocky turn. You know, the night I kneed him in the boy-parts. “You need to stop this,” I told him.

“Stop what?” he asked with that smile still fixed in place. I realized we were swaying to the music and I stopped. I put my hands against his very muscular chest and pushed, well, tried to push him to a safe distance. He didn’t budge. “Do not do this again,” I told him and as I turned to walk away I saw Oliver standing in the doorway. He’d seen enough to get the wrong impression. Hell, the whole thing was wrong. Well, a
s Carter would say, who has two thumbs and is a raging idiot? Yep, this girl, right here!

Oliver had ahold of my wrist a moment later, and I heard a growl rumble up out of him. “Perhaps you wouldn’t mind keeping your hands off of my girlfriend!” he shouted in Ashton’s face. Ashton lifted his hands in surrender and Oliver jerked me away from the crowd. He pulled me through the bar and out a side door that I didn’t even know existed, down some rickety wooden steps that led to the side parking lot, and to his car that was parked only a few feet away from the bottom of the steps.

He released my arm as we reached the passenger side of the car, and my skin burned where he’d gripped it. Oliver’s face was dark and his brows were drawn together. The corners of his mouth turned down as I heard another rumble roll out of him.

“Get in!” he growled, tension and anger radiated from his body.

“It wasn’t what it looked like.” I tried to explain what had actually happened, not that I really knew, but he wouldn’t listen.

“I’m so mad at you, I can’t even look at you right now!” Raw pain flashed in his eyes as he glared down at me.

My temper flared at this point. “Stop treating me like a child!” I shrieked.

“Stop acting like one and I will!” he shouted back.

That pissed me off even more. I straightened my back and lifted my chin in defiance. “Who the hell do you think you are? Why do you think you can tell me what I can and can’t do?” It wasn't the best comeback; it didn’t even really make sense, but it’s what I had. He said nothing, probably because I’d confused him. “That’s what I thought,” I persisted as he continued to glare down at me. “You’ve got no response.” I was challenging him.

His eyes narrowed even more and he growled in response, “You’re mate.”

“No, you’re not!” I argued and added something like, “‘Cause you won’t man up and do it!” I was positive I’d gone too far but I couldn’t help myself.

I felt my breath rush out of me as he slammed me against the car, pressing his whole body against mine. He kissed me hard and in that moment, if it would have turned him back into my Oliver, I’d have lost my virginity to him right there in that dimly lit parking lot.

Our lips parted but our bodies didn’t. His hand was grasping the back of my hair and my fingers were wrapped in the back of his. Our eyes met and I could’ve sworn I saw my Oliver in there fighting to get out. His phone chimed with a text and suddenly ALL of his attention shifted to his phone as he pulled it from his pocket.

I lost my temper and slapped it out of his hands.

“What the hell, Laney?” he shouted, and I went for it. I dove for his phone on the ground, and surprisingly, I got to it first. A picture of Avery was displayed across his screen with a text message that read:
Waiting for you
.

I felt instantly sick. I mean
really
sick. “Would you like to explain this?” With tears in my eyes I shoved the phone in his face.