Page 64 of Shadow Caster
I pushed off him, and my thigh grazed something hard and long. And … Oh, man … was that ….
“Shit.” He slid out from under me so fast I fell face first onto his bed.
I sat up to find him standing, hands on hips, with his back to me. The scars that crisscrossed his back stood out starkly in the lamplight.
“Fucking hell, Justice, what the hell are you doing here?”
My mouth refused to work for a moment, too dry. I licked my lips and took a much needed breath. “I went to see my friend in the Nightwatch dorms and got caught outside of curfew, and I … I did that thing again. I shadow phased.”
His shoulders rose and fell, and then he walked over to his dresser, grabbed a white tee, and pulled it on.
“And it brought you here? To my room?” He turned to face me, his expression pissed. “Do you know what will happen to me if anyone catches you in my room?”
Nothing good, that was for sure. “I’m sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose. I wanted to get away from the gargoyle, and I just leapt into a patch of shadow.”
“That doesn’t explain why it brought you here.” He crossed his arms. “Were you …” He cleared his throat and looked at the floor. “Were you thinking about me?”
Had I been? Oh, God. “Yes! Just before it happened, I was thinking how you might be right about me being rash, and then I was here.”
“I see. So, you can control it. You just need to focus.” He sucked his bottom lip into his mouth. “Try it now. Go from that patch of shadow to the one across the room.”
I’d expected him to kick me out, but it looked like he wanted to train me. “Um. Okay.” I focused on the shadows—on the patch I was about to leap into—and visualized the other side of the room.
I ran forward, into the tingle that took over my body. The darkness enveloped me, and then the room materialized, but I was seeing it from a different angle as I stepped out from the other side of the room.
“Intent helps,” he said. “But I’m guessing you have to be focusing on a person or a place for it to be accurate or you could end up anywhere.”
He walked toward me and placed his hands on my shoulders. That close, he was a head and a half taller than me, and my eyes were level with his pecs. I looked up into his beautifully scarred face. This close I could smell him, that fucking citrus aroma that made me want to lick him.
“Now,” he said, his voice low and intimate. “Do you think you can shadow phase yourself to your own room?”
* * *
Sleep refused to come.I’d shadow phased into Hyde’s room and felt him up. I’d given him a boner. Unless … Wait, had that already been there?
Urgh.
I needed to shut off my brain and sleep.
Long minutes ticked by.
Not happening.
Sod this. I threw back the covers, shoved on my slippers, and headed out of my room to the lounge.
It was dark and empty, but the dark didn’t bother me. My night vision was excellent. Maybe a bag of warm blood would help. They kept A positive in the fridge, and there was a microwave here too. Whoop de do.
I prepared my drink and curled up on the sofa with it.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention.
“Can’t sleep or won’t sleep?” Larkin asked. He materialized slowly like a polaroid picture, perched on the sofa opposite me. “Oh, look, you didn’t even jump. The guys yelp.” He grinned. “Every time.”
Even though the hour was late, he was still immaculately dressed in a silver waistcoat and navy-blue trousers. His hair was brushed forward over the stripes on his forehead, and his eyes glowed in the dark like tiny slanted lamps.
I finished off the blood and licked my lips. “I’m not a yelper.”
“No? But you’re a visit-her-tutor-in-his-room-in-the-middle-of-the-night kind of woman, aren’t you?”
