Page 43 of Cruel Destinies

And even worse, if I confronted her about this, I’d only sound like a hypocrite, because we were both in league with the same vampire. Could my life get any more complicated?

Chapter 15

Shea

I bit my lip as I stared out the window of the train, the city rushing by in a blur. These trips were becoming pretty regular. Not that I minded. The big city called to me, reaching out with promises of life and activity like I’d never have in Shallow Grave. It didn’t hurt that my best friend went to school here. Of course, on this particular Saturday morning, that was only my alibi.

And well, I was going to be meeting up with Arya and Ashlyn—apparently Ashlyn got dumped and needed a day out—I was just making a little pit stop first.

I hugged my book bag tighter, glancing around at the other passengers. No one paid me any mind, which suited me just fine.

I pulled my hat off, the warmth of the car finally becoming too much for the layers I’d worn. Chicago in the winter was nothing to mess around with, and I had stopped just shy of a snowsuit when gearing up for this outing. Now, I was roasting.

I could feel my hair sticking up as the static electricity made stray strands weightless.Whatever.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket for what must have been the twentieth time and opened it to the text thread with Caesar. I wanted so badly to ask him about Julian, but I had no idea how to start that conversation.

How did they come to know each other? Were they, like, best buddies or something? Did they know they were both pseudo-messing around with me?

Omigod, what if this was some kind of game they played with each other? Was that why Julian had sought me out that night? Did they orchestrate this whole weird love triangle?

Holy crap, were they planning to turn this into a menageàtrois kinda thing?

A pang of lust slammed into my core. I mean, I could be down with that. It was better than messing around with each of them in secret and feeling as guilty as I did now.

I shook my head as reality cleared the ridiculousness of my hormonal insanity. No, that was silly. Julian had made it pretty clear that he didn’t actually want me like that. That our little coup d’etat the other night had been a mistake. Oh, the sting of rejection!

I stared at the messages on my phone.

Caesar hadn’t really reached out to me since our phone sex the other night. Maybe that was all I was to him. Just some fling to indulge in when he was bored. And it wasn’t like I actually expected him to declare his love for me or anything—that would be utterly absurd. I was fine just having fun with him, and damn, was the sex amazing!

So, I really had nothing to feel guilty about. Right?

Ugh, men suck.

After typing and deleting several messages over and over again, I finally settled on, “What are you up to?”

The train hissed to a stop at Conservatory and Central Park Drive, and I stood, hat and phone in hand. I hurried out with the crowd, taking one gulp of the cold air, and began fumbling with gloved hands to put the hat on without losing grip of the phone.

I quickly scurried across the crosswalk to the conservatory, where I was supposed to meet Julian.

The warmth of the conservatory wrapped around me like a blanket as I walked through the doors. The lobby was modest, and I found an out-of-the-way spot to get situated. I pulled off my winter gear and stuffed them into the book bag, which I wedged between my feet.

Then I remembered my hair. Sighing, I grabbed a hair tie from my bag—which I kept for just such an emergency—and pulled my unruly hair into a ponytail. When I finished, I pulled the bag back into my arms.

The greenery just past the doors looked lush and welcoming, and I briefly wondered if Julian had wandered in while he waited. Not that I wasthatlate. I held up my phone to check the time. Yep. Only a few minutes past two. Not enough to bore the vampire. Did eternal creatures get bored? He certainly didn’t have much by way of entertainment in his place, so I assumed the answer was no.

Although, with my ADHD brain, it didn’t take long for me to get bored. I opened my texts to see if I had somehow missed anything from Caesar.

Nothing.

I sighed and turned off my screen, but as soon as I lowered my phone to my lap, it vibrated in my hand. Not even a vampire could match the speed with which I snapped the device back in front of my face and opened the screen with a swipe of my finger.

“Very busy. And I have a lot to think about…”

I frowned. That was it? No flirtation or funny memes? Why was he being so vague all of a sudden?Gah, I hate men!

“What’s with the scowl?”

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