Page 89 of Cruel Destinies

“Smart,” I agreed.

Before Arya, I probably would’ve made the same choice. But I didn’t exactly have that luxury with this imprint. And Arthur might takeheraway. Would she break up with me if that happened? I didn’t like where my thoughts led, and that scared the hell out of me.

“Anyway,” Niko continued with his eyes narrowed in irritation, “she asked out one of the weres today. Right in front of me.”

“Awere?”I was more shocked than appalled.

I didn’t know what girls—well, girls who weren’t weres themselves—saw in the weres. They were volatile and explosive. They started fights over green beans and music subscriptions. They were slaves to the moon, but more than anything else, they weren’tbornshifters. They were bitten. They weremade.

I realized this prejudice was probably Lord Dracul’s influence on his son, but despite my rationale that they were, in fact, shifters, I’d always seen them aslesser.I hated myself for it, but it was true. I held regular humans in a higher regard than the weres. Especially the hounds.

“Yeah. Jackson.” The way he said his name made it clear how disgusted he was by the situation, a social cue I didn’t miss.

“The...dog?” I scoffed.

Niko nodded.

“Do you think she’s moved on?”

He shot me a glare. “No! She’s obviously trying to get under my skin. You know, make me jealous?”

“Ah,” I said. But it was too late. I felt extra-blind to those emotional cues. First Arya, and now Niko.

“But thanks for the confidence, man,” he said in a sardonic tone.

“Sorry,” was all I could think to say.

He shrugged. “So what do you have in mind for Arya’s present?”

“There’s this store called Pandora, I think?” I said.

“The one with the jewelry? I think I’ve seen the commercials.”

“Yeah. I figure I can’t screw up too bad with jewelry.”

He leaned over the table. “If you really want my advice, don’t just get her something random. And definitely don’t get her something gaudy. Arya is a classy girl, and she’ll recognize a last-minute trinket right away. Whatever you get her, make sure you put some real thought into it. That’s what I would do if I hadn’t fucked up.”

He scowled down at the table for a moment, then pushed away from it. “I’d better get back before the general notices I’m gone.”

He was already waking away before I’d finished saying, “Okay.”

I slouched against the back of my chair and sighed. As it turned out, I didn’t need some curse to make people I caredabout hate me. I inherited that special skill from Arthur, too, apparently. And now I had the added pressure of not pissing Arya off with the wrong gift. Great.

Chapter 29

Julian

“Ten days,” Piper said through chattering teeth. She wore a hooded purple parka that made her look twice her size, and still the girl couldn’t keep warm. “It’s been ten days since Hadrian dumped me off here, and there hasn’t been any sign of Arya or her friends.”

I held back a smile. Piper, the overzealous Initiate—the one who got excited abouteverything—was miserable. What made matters even better was that she was miserable about a vampire task that had been assigned by the vampire leader himself.

“I’ve warned you,” I said with a shrug. “Being a vampire isn’t all it’s cut out to be.”

“I’d do just about anything to have you turn me right here and now,” she snapped. “At least then I’d stop freezing to death.”

The smile slipped away from my face like rubber on ice. “There are far worse things than feeling cold.”

She held up a gloved finger. “Not right now.” Puffs of breath steamed from her mouth. “I just don’t get it. It’s the Saturday before their Christmas Break, and none of Arya’s friends have come out. I mean, shouldn’t students be going home to be with their families? And that’s not even the craziest thing. None of them have come out since I’ve been here, and at least one of us has been here every day and night keeping a lookout.”

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