Page 75 of Sweethearts and Savages
Until Enit, I’d been one of them.
“Yes.”
“How could you think I wanted her dead?”
Now it was my turn to be mad. “How would I know what you wanted, asshole? I thoughtyouwere dead. Fuck, you may as well have been. I was left here paying for your mistakes. A captive in a pretty cage. So go fuck yourself, Kell Arborson.”
“He doesn’t need to. He’s already fucked me,” a soft voice said from the other side of the bars, and we both whipped our gazes toward her.
Enit.
Why would they let her come here? With her was Bohdie, but no Doc.
“Stacey?” I asked softly, hoping she was okay.
Enit gave me a scathing look. “Do you even care? You could have killed her, or any number of other people. You blew up a school. A school filled withchildren.Are you such monsters that you didn’t care that they were children?” She moved her eyes to Kell. “Or are we all so dehumanized to you that even a dead child is just one less monster in the world?”
Kell stood, moving quickly to the bars. “You know that’s not true. I would have killed you that first day if it was true.” Then he paused. “You’re better.”
Bohdie growled, and I could see the gold flashing in his eyes. I’d been around shifters enough for the last few months to know that this was about to end in claws and teeth. “No thanks to you, asshole,” the lion Alpha growled.
Enit put a soft hand on Bohdie’s bicep, and his trembling rage dimmed a little. Such a handy trick. “It wasn’t entirely his fault, Bohdie. He doesn’t understand. The mistake was mine.” She looked Kell in the eye, and I felt his whole body go on high alert. “When we, uh, had sex, I accidentally mated you. I apologize. As a human, it shouldn’t affect you at all, other than a small scar.”
Kell’s brows knitted as he stared at her. He pulled down the collar of his shirt and there it was, the small round mark that denoted him as her mate. I was kind of jealous. She gulped as her eyes burned into that mark. I couldn’t drag my eyes away from it either, the jealousy nearly overwhelming. The only thing I couldn’t decide was who I was jealous of. I was so fucked.
Kell grabbed the bars, and I could see Bohdie struggling with himself not to grab his arm and wrench it off. “I promise you, Enit, that I had nothing to do with yesterday’s explosion. I was here to warn you.”
Another snort, this time from a big vampire. “Convenient.”
Kell looked between us all, then he told his story. Right from the moment that two ancient vampires told him never to show his face again, to the moment when The Hounds told him they had a mole in Eden Academy. He hesitated about how he made it from Mexico to Canada, but he was fervent.
I held up my hands. “I swear to god, I’m not a mole for The Hounds.” That was at least the truth.
Bohdie cut me a look, and it was equal parts murderous and betrayed, and it was like a knife through the heart.
He twined his fingers in Enit’s. “We can’t believe anything you say. You played us for months. You’re a liar.”
It hurt, but I deserved it. “You’re right. I lied. But I have nothing to gain from lying about this. The only connection I had with The Hounds was him.” I tilted my head and Kell scowled at me. I was messed up. Even when he was glaring daggers at me, I wanted him to fuck me like he hated me.
Enit raised an eyebrow. “So you blew up my girlfriend,your friend,for what? Fun?”
I took a shuddering breath, slumping back on the bench seat. “No. The only reason I was even at Eden was because you guys dragged me from my apartment and brought me out here, so let’s not pretend it was a premeditated thing. But my family has always been a part of an extreme right wing group called Human Purity. They believe that humans are God’s chosen children and the rest of you are abominations to be eradicated as quickly as possible.” They taught that to you at a young age, usually at the end of a leather belt, and if you stepped out of line, there were more… torturous punishments.
My brain skittered away from those thoughts. Things that happened in the past needed to stay there. “They thought I’d been killed, but when I checked in, they realized I wasn’t dead. They… threatened people I care about, telling me that if I didn’t do something, then they’d come marching into Eden with AKs themselves. They wanted me to mirror Eden’s servers, probably so they could send info about the students to The Hounds, if what you say about them is true. Eden is like a supermarket for supernatural stock.”
Kell was watching me now, like he was looking at a stranger. Which I guess he was, but Kell had saved me, he just didn’t know it. Lost in the darkness of my past, Kell and his vendetta had been the only thing keeping me alive.
He stepped toward me. “So instead you blew the servers and all that information up?” I nodded, watching his frown as he moved toward me like I was prey. I looked around him at Enit. “Doc wasn’t meant to be hurt. She was meant to be at lunch with you guys. You go at the same time every day. In three months, you’ve become more like family than anyone else in my life. I’d been so fucking alone. I wouldn’t hurt Stacey intentionally.”
The whole room was silent, and then Enit turned on her heel and left. The rest of the group went with her and my whole body sagged. Kell sunk onto the bench beside me, his shoulder brushing mine.
He looked at me from the side of his eye. “I didn’t know all that. I just thought you were a nerd with a gift for research.” I snorted. Well, that wasn’t wrong either. “You’re my best friend, Frost. You’re not alone. Even if we die, we’ll die together, yeah?”
I nodded, letting myself slump back against the cold concrete wall. Hopefully they were right about reincarnation, because I’d fucked it all up this time around, but maybe next time I’d be happy. “I loved you, you know. Not as a friend, maybe as a savior—fuck, I don’t know. I was doomed to feel this.” I rubbed the pain in my chest.
Kell nodded. “Yeah, I know.” He twined his fingers in mine, but that was it. We were both silent as we awaited our fate.
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