Page 28 of Requiem

“You’re perfectly capable of hurting me. Blah, Blah, Blah. I know, I know.” He rolls his eyes. “I also know you’re not going to hurt me in your own fucking bedroom. That would look a little suspicious, wouldn’t it?”

He nestles back into my pillows, wriggling a little to make himself more comfortable.

“What. Do. You. Want?” It takes monumental effort to get the question out without screaming.

“I brought your shit up for you.” He points behind me, where my bag and my cell phone sit on top of my desk.

Ahh. Crap. In my haste to leave the auditorium, I forgot all about my bag and phone. I hadn’t even given it one thought…until now, obviously.

“You’re welcome,” Theo says.

“I’m notthankingyou. You brought me back my stuff. Now you can leave. How…” I stare at him incredulously. “How did you even getinhere?”

He looks back down at his hands. Distractedly, he picks at his thumb. “They don’t lock us in at night, Voss. I walked out of my room, came down the stairs…” He pouts, as if the rest is obvious.

“Great. Well…if you don’t mind, I need to get changed for bed. And no, before you even think about saying it, I will not get changed in front of you.”

His eyes seem to glow amber as they flick toward me. “And why would I want you to get changed in front of me?”

I have no words. I look around the room, trying to find something to throw at him, and I grab the first thing that looks like it will hurt—the snow globe Gaynor gave me to flesh out my backstory. Inside the weighty globe, the winter scene of New York City’s skyline is blotted out by tiny white flakes when I snatch it off the dresser and heft it over my head.

Theo’s eyes round out. “Man. You choose violence real quick, don’t you, Voss?”

I set my jaw. “You have no idea.”

“You’re gonna throw that thing at me, then?” He doesn’t move. Doesn’t flinch. If he had any sense, he’d be up on his feet and halfway out of the door by now.

“Yeah. I will. On the count of five.”

Rage dances up my spine when he looks back down at his thumbnail.

“One…”

“Get changed in your walk-in,” he commands.

“Why the hell would I get changed in the walk-in? I mean it, Theo.Two!”

The fucker smirks.

“Three!”

Nothing.

“Four! I swear to God, Theo. I’ll hurl this thing right at you, and I have excellent aim. Do you wanna earn yourself a fucking head injury?”

This seems to do the trick. Sighing wearily, his eyes meet mine again as he slowly shifts himself to the end of the bed. “I definitely don’t wantthat. Head injuries are the worst.”

I glower at him as he gets up and crosses the room. I must look ridiculous, clinging to my towel with one hand while holding the snow globe above my head in the other, ready to launch it. I don’t care if he laughs at me, though; I’ll be ready to hurt him if he so much as looks sideways at me.

Which he does.

Stopping, his body angled toward the door, head bowed, he glances at me out of the corner of his eye, and it feels like the goddamn world grinds to a halt. “Have you ever been to New York?” he asks, jerking his chin up at the snow globe.

“What?”

“It’s a simple question. Have you ever been to New York?”

“Why would I have a snow globe of New York if I hadn’t?” I snap.

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