Page 80 of Mortal Shift
“Seems like saving her life is all it takes to upset her.”
Thaden canted his head and I caught a gleam of amusement in his eyes.
“Fascinating. I’ll bear that in mind next time she’s in mortal danger. Speaking of which…” He switched his gaze to me. “We’ve got somewhere to be, sweetness.”
I shuddered, and then lifted my head, pausing to send a dark look over my shoulder at Cole. “Sure. Beats standing out here with a deluded puppy.”
I caught the pure fury rush through Cole’s eyes in the split second before I turned away, but it didn’t give me the satisfaction I’d imagined. Stupid mate bond, probably.
I walked side by side with Thaden back into the looming stone building, and I didn’t hear Cole’s footsteps behind us. Not that I’d been listening. Why would I care if he was following? I didn’twanthim to follow me. I wanted him to d—
I flinched away from the anguish the half-formed thought caused, and cussed the mate bond again. If Thaden noticed, he didn’t comment on it. Or maybe he just didn’t care. There was a lot of that going around.
We walked the hallways in silence, which just made it all the easier for me to hear the sadistic and excited whispers that followed. Apparently my impending humiliation was all set to be the evening’s highlight. I needed to talk to Astor because these people were clearly starved for entertainment if that was the talk of the academy.
Stupid supernaturals.
I’d thought at least the wolves would be angry on my behalf, but I should have known better. Kallan’s gloating face locked onto me the moment we moved through the large doors into the main hall, and he elbowed one of his packmates gleefully.
Whatever. Best to just get it over with. Half the students seemed too busy touching every exposed inch of each other’s skin to notice Thaden escorting me through the room. Maybe this wouldn’t be quite so bad as I’d imagined. It was still gonna suck—pun intended—but maybe not as much as I’d thought.
“Hey, kill the music,” Kallan shouted. “Entertainment’s here.”
Or, on the other hand, maybe it was going to suck to the max. I glared at the shifter and he just smirked at me in return as the music died, and the entire room turned to stare.
“Give me some space,” I murmured to Thaden from the corner of my mouth. “Let me do this on my own. Please.”
I don’t know why it mattered to me that I didn’t look like I was being forced to do this—especially since I was—but it did. Thaden seemed to understand and strode off ahead, swiftly climbing onto the stage with an elegance that I’d never achieve even if I lived to be a hundred. Which wasn’t looking particularly likely.
“Hope you’re all ready to see justice served,” he said, and half a dozen clusters of laughter sounded around the room. And, blissfully, half the gathered people turned his way.
The rest, however, didn’t.
I notched my chin and marched through the party crowd, not letting a single ounce of my trepidation make it to my face. If I’d learned one thing over the last couple of months, it was that these people were predators, and you didn’t show weakness to a predator.
Show only strength, my voice seemed to echo through my mind, straightening my spine and locking my eyes straight ahead. I could do this. A vampire feeding on me? Just another Saturday. And so what that people were going to watch? They already despised me for being different.
I climbed the stairs onto the stage—because if I tried to jump up like Thaden had, I was going to land flat on my face, which didn’t really fit with my showing no weakness plan.
Thaden turned and flashed his teeth at me in a predatory smile, and I forced myself to ignore them.
“Callista Ellis must make reparation for her trespass in a sacred vampire feeding den,” Thaden said. “I will accept her repentance on behalf of Azriel, who has better things to do with his time than waste it on a lowly human.”
He sneered at me, and I met his gaze calmly, keeping my face serene. I saw something in his eyes that belied the menace and callous amusement he was projecting to the rest of the room. Encouragement.
“You may take my blood,” I told him, and lifted one shoulder in an understated half-shrug. “I’ll make plenty more, and you can’t help needing. My mother raised me to be charitable to the needy.”
One of the gathered students snickered, but I didn’t look outward to see who. Instead, my eyes were locked on Thaden’s face, which was how I saw his lips twitch in a split-second battle to keep his amusement at my quip from showing.
I gathered my hair and swept it forward over one shoulder, exposing one side of my neck to him. He moved behind me and I tilted my head a little, allowing him more access to my throat.
“If you wish to be charitable,” he purred in my ear, though his voice carried clearly to the room thanks to the stage’s acoustics, “perhaps you’ll indulge yourself by sharing your blood in our feeding den every week.”
His remark earned him a few sniggers and I felt the first traces of blood blooming in my cheeks.
“Or perhaps,” he said, dropping his voice so it was for my ears only, “you prefer to indulge only in me.”
“If you’re that desperate that you have to ask a lowly human to donate blood to all your kind,” I said coolly, “I’m sure I could help. I saw some deer in the woods—ask the pack nicely and perhaps we’ll round some up for you.”
