Page 6 of The Vampire Oracle

“Of course, P. See you soon.”

I hung up, rolling my eyes. I moved back to Kier, who was watching me with fire in his eyes.

“Who was that?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Do you need to know?”

His hand grabbed my forearm before I could move away from him. He lowered his voice as he spoke roughly to me, “You already lied to us once, and you continue to hide stuff from us?”

“I don’t know you,” I snapped, pulling away.

He huffed, putting his hands on his hips. “But Abel and Beck? The men you fucked and let them wrap themselves around your finger?”

I stepped closer, lowering my voice. I felt my eyes darken as I stared at him. Before, I held back. I couldn’t show who I truly was. “Watch the tone. The Sal you knew isn’t the same as now. I am a completely different person than you think I am.”

“I can tell,” he said, leaning down. “We need to have a real chat soon.”

The tone changed, though he still looked mad. Something he was trying to play off like we were being watched. Of course, we were being watched. I was Spectre, and he was a Father. “Fine… I just have a few things to do and find a place to—”

“You’re staying with us in my house,” he declared, pushing the loose strands of his black hair back.

“Excuse me?”

“That’s final. You should get checked out before we go.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you or anyone else!”

Kier cocked a brow. “We will see about that, Psalm. You leave this campus without me, and I will see to it that you don’t come back.”

And I trusted his threat, but I hated being threatened. Why would he even want to talk to me after what I did? “I have a guest coming,” I muttered.

He nodded. “Then I can’t wait to meet them.”

I rolled my eyes, moving away from him. There was only so much I could take of him and his bossing around. But midway through the crowd, I spotted Abel and froze.

I watched him on the phone with someone. His hat was off, dreads hanging past his shoulder. He was in pj’s, obviously not prepared for this to happen this morning. Abel was tall and well-toned, though he was a rookie with me. Rings covered his fingers, the same ones that made me come into this very courtyard.

Abel sighed before hanging up his phone and following the burning gaze on him. Our eyes met, and I didn’t know what to do. My mission was to come here under the radar and get better at what I do. I never expected to like him so much. He grew on me, and I ached to kiss him right now. But I lied to him, and I doubted he wanted to see me right now.

I fixed my bag, willing myself to move.

But Abel moved to me, reaching out for something.

My brows pulled.

“Let me carry your bags, Sal,” he muttered.

I shook my head. “Independent one-handed woman.”

He didn’t laugh or joke with me, just stared. “You… lied to protect me, right? Or were you just being nice to me because of your goals and—”

“No. I did lie to protect you. Though at first, I was lying because I didn’t know you. I didn’t think that this,” I looked down, “would get this far, Abel. I didn’t want any of this to happen. That’s why I lied.”

Abel nodded, looking down. “It’s just hard to wrap my head around. Just let me carry your fucking bags.”

“Actually,” I started, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a few bills, “I need you to buy me a train ticket on your phone. Or… wait… They can track those things if you do them over phones… Fuck, I’ll need to go to the train station.”

“Are you leaving?” he asked, sounding hurt.

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