ChapterNineteen
SUNDAY
“Stupid asshole vampire and your stupid perfect face,” I grumbled to myself as I stormed my way around the deserted campus.
It was the middle of the night. The light of the moon bathed everything in a pale glow, buildings casting shadows across the grounds. Noah Blackthorne might’ve vanished without a trace three days ago when he ran from my room like a bat out of hell, but he still did dirty things to me in my dreams. Night after night, I woke with the memory of his lips on me, leaving me swollen, aching, desperate, and with no choice but to take matters into my own hands.
Thankfully, these Noah fever dreams happenedaftermy initial nightly rendezvous with my mother, who told me everything and nothing all over again. I was keyed up. Wound tight. Ready to snap. If I kept going like this, I’d die of exhaustion and dehydration before I ever had a chance to live.
“Something troubling you, Miss Fallon?”
Caleb’s—no,Father Gallagher’svoice curled around me from somewhere to my left. “Skulking in the shadows? How fitting for a vampire.”
“I’m not skulking. I’m patrolling. And you’re supposed to be in bed, Miss Fallon, so what’s your excuse?” He stepped from the trees and halfway into a shaft of moonlight.
His face, even partially obscured, was ruggedly handsome. I imagined he would’ve been the object of desire of anyone he wanted if he hadn’t devoted himself to God.
“I didn’t realize the school needed someone to patrol. Aren’t there protective wards set all around the grounds?”
His lips twitched in the barest hint of a smile. “Who do you think set them off?” Then his smile faded. “Although, with the recent hunter attack on one of our students, I admit I’ve been cautious. Never hurts to be careful.”
My side gave a dull throb, a reminder of the very attack he mentioned. The one he’d saved me from. A spark of fear ignited in my chest. “I can’t sleep. That’s all. I needed to blow off some steam and get my thoughts under control.”
His gaze sharpened, and a flicker of something... concern, perhaps, flashed in his eyes. “Have you been practicing what I taught you?”
“Yes, I get down on my knees every night,Father.” I couldn’t help but poke at him a little. I loved watching the set of his jaw change at my insolence. So sue me, I had daddy issues.
“Apparently not correctly if you’re forced to resort to nightly wandering and putting yourself at risk. I’d feel much better if you allowed me to join you.”
I had to fight the urge to tease him again with another dig about me being on my knees. Instead, I sighed and nodded. “If you want.”
He didn’t say a word, simply fell into step beside me, his warm earthy scent of incense and spice filling my senses.
We walked together in silence, around the well-kept path through the wooded area on the property, then stopped at a clearing that overlooked a small lake. The moon glowed across the water, a sky of twinkling stars our canopy, the air thick with the aroma of night-blooming jasmine and a symphony of crickets chirping our soundtrack. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this setting was almost romantic, and this little midnight stroll of ours was a perfect first date.
But I did.
The awkward silence between us was the most telling thing of all. Finally, when I couldn’t take it anymore, I asked, “So were you hired to be the resident lurker, or do you actuallydosomething here? Besides tormenting me?”
“Contrary to what you might believe, my world doesn’t revolve around you, Miss Fallon. I teach theology and an upper-level rituals and relics class, neither of which you’re ready to attend.”
“Relics. How fitting.”
He glared at me. So I decided to keep on going with my gentle ribbing.
“Speaking of relics, how does a vampire become a priest?”
“He doesn’t. A priest being turned into a vampire, however, is a different story.”
So, he was a made vampire, not born like Noah. “I’m all ears. It sounds like a story worth telling.”
He gave me a look tinged with exasperation, one I was intimately familiar with after all our sessions. “Oh, I’m sure it does. Religion. Politics. A man of God being denied the life he swore himself to? It practically writes itself, doesn’t it?” He gave a dramatic shudder, making me laugh. Who knew the priest had a sense of humor? Self-deprecating though it was. “There’s not much to tell. A vampire wanted me. I declined. She didn’t like that very much. Thought she could sway me once I was turned. She couldn’t. The end.”
“She sounds like a real bitch. Consent is way sexier than coercion.”
“She is.”
Something twisted inside me. She was still alive. That meant one day, Caleb could get his vengeance, because from the haunted look in his eyes, I knew there was more to that story than he was sharing.