Page 3 of Wings and Shadowthief

His mother, the High Guard of their entire order, was monitoring the situation closely. He knew she wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet between his eyes if he crossed a line. Family or not, they were huntsmen first, and their job was to protect the weak against rogue paranormal creatures.

Against what he might become.

"Yo, Cheetah. No witchy sidekick?" He tried to sound casual, but he could feel his entire body tense.

What the hell had happened with Gwen? Jack doubted he’d actually harmed her. He couldn't imagine himself laying a hand on her. Besides, she would have kicked his ass. Then cursed it for good measure. But had he said something? Made unwanted advances? That, he could conceive. Pursuing women who weren’t into him wasn’t his style, but well, Gwen was a knockout. So beautiful he had a hard time looking away. Who knew what the darker part of him was capable of?

He needed to talk to her. And he might have already, if she weren't so obviously—and successfully—avoiding him.

“Which witch?” Chloe asked.

On the surface, it seemed like an innocuous question; she certainly had a number of witch friends. In actual fact, only one of them was crazy enough to run with the huntsmen, so Chloe was pushing him. Perhaps even punishing him. He suspected the vampire saw far more than she was letting on. She knew he was on Gwen’s shit list, and she wasn’t making things easy for him.

Jack refused to let her see how frustrated he was with the situation. He simply shot her his best smirk. “The pretty one.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. All her friends were hot in their own ways. In fact, most sups were likely to be more attractive than regular humans—witches especially. If a witch was born with a crooked nose, there were a dozen spells to fix it.

The vamp decided to take pity on him. “Gwen didn't want to come. I think she was tired. She was yawning in AIS."

Jack's eyes widened. "And she's stillbreathing?"

He could imagine Fin Varra's reaction to a student daring to yawn during one of his classes. It wasn’t pretty.

Chloe chuckled. "Oh, yeah. Varra made sure she was listening to him. She was, of course. Gwen's geekier than I am. He asked a question, she gave him a great answer and got rewarded by a sexy, throaty ‘good girl.’ You should have seen her swoon."

Jack forced a laugh, although it sounded fake as fuck to his ears. Laughingwasthe appropriate reaction. Chloe was joking. Right? Then why did he want to pay Varra a visit and have achatwith the ancient immortal?

He knew why. The fae had a history of fucking the students he fancied—male, female, or anything in between—and the gods knew Gwen was sheer temptation wrapped in a brown package. Long limbs, muscular legs, an ass that should be worshipped day and night. Then, there were those eyes. The ones Jack had lost himself in more times than he cared to remember. They were usually a deep ink black, with long, curved lashes, but when she called to her magic, they shone like an entire galaxy filled with stars.

Not only was she hot, she also was unattainable. She held herself like a queen, head high, barely looking at the common mortals—or immortals. Still, some guys had dared ask her out in the last year. She'd shot them down so fast their heads must still be spinning.

He’d heard Gwen profess she wanted to focus on her studies, and Jack got it. Hell, he also preferred not to date—or fuck—in Oldcrest. They lived here; adding romantic relationships to the mix wasn't smart. Jack wouldn't mess with any girl here.

Unless he was certain he wanted to keep her. And Jack wasn’t in any state to think about pursing something serious. How could he, when his mind didn’t even belong to him?

“Fair enough.” He opted to move on. Chatting about Gwen wasn’t going to improve his mood. “All right, the guys have been running for about twenty minutes.” Certain that Gwen wasn’t going to turn up, he’d let them start before Chloe got here. Some of them had classes after lunch. “Their path goes through the lake, then the valley between Night Hill and Cosnoc. They're supposed to circle the school and come back to meet me here at the entrance. That's a half marathon.” Jack opened a bag of chalk he'd ground to powder, holding it up to her. “I think they should be at the base of Cosnoc by now. I'd like you to ambush the first in line. Don't take it easy on them.”

Chloe dabbed her hands in the powder, nodding. “Got it.”

Then she was on her way, running fast as wind.

He'd offered five hundred bucks to whomever finished the race first, but a thousand if they could get to him without chalk marks. That type of training was the closest thing the huntsmen could get to real-life experience within these walls. Typically, his cousin Tris offered to play the part of the hunter, but she was visiting their family back in New York City at the moment.

His phone buzzed against his chest from in his gun holster.

Thinking of the devil…

“Cousin.”

“I’m going to need you to hide a body.”

Jack chuckled, knowing for a fact that Tris could damn well hide a body on her own if the occasion called for it. “You can’t kill her. She’s your sister.”

Pamelia and Patricia had always had a tense relationship. There only were two years separating them, and they were both competitive, so they could get on each other’s nerves. It didn’t help that Pam was a girly-girl and could manipulate their parents with her pouts and fake tears. Tris was too straightforward for that bullshit.

The Drakes were celebrating the wedding anniversary of the heads of the family, Michael and Cece, which meant that the entire clan was gathered in the city. Tris had called almost every day. It didn’t take a genius to guess that her stress level was sky high. There was a reason his cousin had decided to follow him to London. The pressure of being a member of the Drakes, the royal family who ruled over all vampires in America, could get to her. Being a Drake came with expectations. Being a Drake and a huntsman? He couldn’t even begin to imagine.

Actually, he might not have to. As the High Guard’s son, he knew what kind of pressure the huntsmen could put you under. At least the other half of his family didn’t give a shit about what he did.

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