Kates sighed, annoyed. “Come on, Davy. This is some serious stuff here.”
Oh, believe me. I knew the gravity of my situation. “I wouldn’t want anyone to end up in a coma. Yeah, I get how serious this is.”
“I know that you’re upset about what happened with Blue, but… things just happened. I didn’t mean for that to happen, but it did and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure your friends are okay.”
Oh gee, thanks for the consideration. “You’re right. I am more than upset about what you did to Blue. You didn’t mean for it to happen? What’d you mean for, Kates? You have a temper. You don’t think I know that? I should probably be grateful that you didn’t just kill Blue. That would’ve solved your problem, right? She peaked inside you and saw the real you, so you kill her.”
“Shut up!” Kates snarled. “Just… shut up. You don’t know—” ‘Lucan knows. He knows me. He told me to kill Blue and I couldn’t, but it’s okay. It worked out. He said that no one could make the connection, not until after… he said everything would be alright. I have to trust him. I love him.’
I watched as Kates calmed herself down. Lies. “Wow, Kates. You take the cake. Is this about you loving this guy or is this about you not being alone?”
She’d been the one to introduce Craig and me. She’d told me to set Craig on fire. She’d been the one who told me that fire wouldn’t kill him, but it’d hurt him. I had wanted to hurt him. I wanted to hurt him still. A stab of nausea surged through me. All my regrets, shadows, the darkest time in my life—and Kates had been right beside me the entire time. She’d been the one to encourage me, but now that I thought about it, she might not have encouraged me in the right way.
I expected blistering rage from Kates. I got patience instead and I blinked, startled, as she relayed almost warmly, “I love him. He’s… he’s going to change things, make things how they’re supposed to be. I know you can’t understand because you don’t know anything about this world and you shouldn’t. It’s a dark world, but Lucan’s going to change things, make things right.”
“So that you can kill vampires again?” I scoffed at the idea. The decree was finalized and it swept over the entire vampire nation. There was no reversing that baby.
“Maybe.”
I saw her belief and couldn’t believe it. She thought that, she really thought that. I didn’t know some stuff about the vampire world, but I knew enough to know that the decree was set in stone. There’d be a few world wars within the vampire community before that decree was overthrown… unless….
‘It just means that vampire has too much power. No creature should have that power.’
I sucked in a choking breath. I suddenly, very suddenly, needed to get to Roane. This was the ‘world at stake’ feeling that I felt the night on the roof with Talia. Something had happened, something very, very wrong had happened and I felt it. I had ignored it. Now things might’ve gone too far to stop it.
“I have to go,” I rushed out and darted to the van. The door was open so I hopped inside and slammed it behind me. I never stopped to look at who drove me. I just needed to get to Roane, but I’d need to go to the dorm first.
Once I hurled myself through the lobby, up the stairs, and down the hall, I burst through the door. I was grateful that I’d been the last out the door and not Emily because I never locked the door. Emily had been too frazzled by her date, she’d forgotten her purse—that meant her phone.
I scrolled through until I found Roane’s number. It took a few rings, but he answered, “Is this Emily?”
“No, it’s me. I lost my phone, but that’s not why I’m calling. I have to see you, now!” Please, please don’t ask for any explanation. I didn’t have time.
Roane hesitated a second and then asked, “Where are you?”
“My dorm room.”
“I’ll send Gregory.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” I needed to calm down, but I was bursting at the seams. As I waited, I couldn’t sit still. I paced. I jogged in place. I did jumping jacks. I even rearranged the furniture. Afterwards, I cringed. Emily wouldn’t want the couch by the window.
“Davy? It’s Gregory. Lucas said to knock on your door…”
“Coming!”
Gregory greeted me with a polite nod and I tried to ignore the attention this very large Viking vampire was attracting. His voice could’ve rumbled through the entire building. Heads popped out from nearly every door, but while some squeaked in fear, a lot squeaked from excitement—the sexual kind.
Vampire. Horny freshman girls. What else needed to be said?
Gregory swept around me in the lobby and held each of the doors open until we got to the car. It was the same black SUV that he’d driven before. “Can’t you drive a car with some color? Why does it always have to be black?”
“Davy?”
“Nothing. Nevermind.” I shrugged it off and slipped inside. From there, it was all foot tapping, knuckle breaking, and counting my breaths again.
I felt like I needed to burst, like something inside of me finally knew something—or felt something was going to happen. I was going to burst from the inside out. I just knew it. Then Gregory pulled the car over and I burst out of the car to sprint inside. I swept past Wren and a whole host of other vampires.
They were all arriving for the war.