“Make fun of you?” He shook his head as though he didn’t know what I was talking about—which only made me angrier.
“Isn’t that how these things usually go?” I demanded. “You and all your friends want a laugh at my expense? ‘Oh, I got the poor little burned girl to think I actually liked her,’” I mimicked, my voice low and savage. “’Ha-ha—how hilarious that she would actually fall for that!’”
Again, I didn’t know where I got the courage to speak to him like that when I was normally so shy and quiet. But it felt like something inside me had broken and I was determined to stand up for myself—I wasn’t going to be the butt of anyone’s joke, damn it! Not anymore.
“What? No!” he exclaimed and for a moment, I thought he looked genuinely horrified at what I was suggesting. But I told myself not to be taken in by his act again.
“I know what you’re up to,” I told him. “Well, it’s not going to work. And you ought to be ashamed of yourself for even trying!”
“Trying what?” he demanded. “Kaitlyn, what I’m trying to do is warn you. I—”
“I think you had better go, now.” Griffin’s cool, dark voice was like chilly water running over rocks.
I looked up and saw the tall Nocturne standing behind me, a slight frown on his classically handsome features. He was so different from Ari—so cool and quiet while the Drake seemed to have a fiery vitality about him. It felt like there was too much of him somehow—like he was holding something inside that was too big to fit there—if that makes any sense.
“Look, Nocturne—” he began, his dark brows drawing low over his amber eyes.
“Please go now,” Griffin said, quietly but firmly. “I think it is clear that Kaitlyn doesn’t wish to speak to you and I consider her under my protection so I must ask you to leave.”
For a moment I seemed to see flames dancing in Ari’s eyes.
“You cannot control me,” he said and there seemed to be an echo in his voice, almost as though two people were speaking at the exact same time and saying the exact same words. “I heard what you threatened Sanchez with, you know—that you would make his Drake harm itself. I know your family has dominion over beasts but my wings fly higher than his. You cannot command me.”
“Maybe not,” Griffin said, giving him a level stare. “But you are not allowed to loose your beast here and I will certainly be happy to take you on in your present form.”
I bit my lip as they glared at each other, cool gray clashing with warm amber. I didn’t want anyone fighting for me. I wasn’t one of those girls who delighted in having boys brawl on my account. Why couldn’t Ari Reyes just leave me alone—leave all of us alone—and go away?
“Hey, what’s going on?” Megan hurried up, carrying a tray, to stand beside Griffin. Avery came next and then Emma, who looked uncertainly at the stand-off between the tall Nocturne and the muscular Drake.
“Kaitlyn, what’s going on?” she whispered as she sat down her tray and seated herself close beside me, one arm around my shoulders protectively.
Ari looked at all my Coven-mates arrayed against him, and a frustrated look came over his handsome face.
“Whatever you want, now really isn’t the time, Drake,” Avery told him, though I thought he sounded a bit regretful, as though he felt sorry for sending Ari away.
Ari raked a hand through his hair again.
“I’m not here to tease or make fun or hurt Kaitlyn in any way,” he said at last, frowning. “I am only here to warn you that Nancy Rattcliff is planning something—I don’t know what. I tried to warn her off but I don’t know if she will listen to me or even my Drake, who also warned her. That’s all.”
Then he turned on his heel and stalked away, his spine straight and the set of his broad shoulders stiff and angry.
18
Ari
My Drake roared angrily as I walked away, gnashing his razor-sharp teeth and spreading his wings within me, pushing the boundaries of the limits between my form and his.
He wanted to know why I hadn’t explained things better—why I hadn’t made Kaitlyn understand how we felt about her and claimed her then and there.
“It wasn’t the right time,” I told him savagely, as I stalked away from her table. “She has a wrong idea about us because of what she heard Nancy say.”
The Drake wanted to know why I didn’t go back and give her the right idea. Or, failing that, why he couldn’t just blast anyone who stood between us and Kaitlyn with his flame.
“You think that would make her more likely to want to be with us? If you burned all her friends to ashes?” I demanded irritably. As I said before—sometimes he’s got no common sense. “You can’t act like that,” I told him. “Besides, they were just defending her. She’s been through a lot.”