Page 4 of Semi-Fallen

So, Lane gave him her best dead-eyed stare, and simply made a shooing motion with her hand (go away, little boy) and visually dismissed him before tucking into her turkey, bacon, and lettuce sandwich. Yum.

She didn’t flinch when he angrily slapped a palm down on the table, shaking her tray and nearly toppling her can of Diet Coke. Instead, she lifted her gaze to his and raised a brow at him, trying her hardest not to smirk at his quickly reddening face.

Wolf boy doesn’t like being ignored and dismissed. Good for future reference.

He almost said something to her, but didn’t get a chance. Haven Hall, Lane’s best friend, walked up with her own lunch tray, and in a move so quick no one saw it coming, put her palm on the side of Abel’s head, shoved him onto the floor, then calmly stole his seat.

Lane had to bite down on her bottom lip until she tasted blood to keep from laughing as Haven tossed her nearly waist-length black curls over her shoulder and completely ignored Abel, who was now sprawled on the floor, glaring up at her.

Haven gave Lane her typical sunny smile. “Heard you kicked demon ass. Well done.” Then she hit her with a palm-stinging high five.

Abel must have snarked something at her, because Haven rolled her eyes and waved a dismissive hand in his direction before saying, “Piss off. Go hang out with the junior trainees where you belong.”

Junior trainees were the under ten set. Abel was a senior trainee, so Lane was sure Haven’s barb stuck the bastard right in the pride, as she’d clearly intended. She side-eyed him, because she didn’t think he was dumb enough to try anything physical with her or Haven, but if he lost control enough to shift, it could still be dangerous.

To his credit, though, Abel leapt to his feet with the grace of the predator he was, gave Haven the finger, and slunk off to lick his wounds.

Maybe he was smarter than Lane thought. There were very few people in all of Section 8 who could best Haven in a fight, and Abel wasn’t one of them. Starting shit with her would’ve ended with his balls in a jar—and not just because she was the daughter of the legendary Harper Hall and Noah Riddick.

“What did that asshole want?” Haven asked.

To mark his territory and prove how tough he was, she signed.

Haven wrinkled her nose. “I hate it when the puppies pee all over the place like that. I should’ve whacked his nose with a newspaper.”

Lane merely nodded, taking another bite of her sandwich. Haven took a sip of Red Bull (which she absolutely did not need, because no one had more energy than Haven).

“You’re smart to ignore him. He’ll eventually get bored and move on to trying to assert dominance over someone else,” Haven said.

Which was always what people who’d never been bullied or picked on thought. It wasn’t true. Lane knew that firsthand. Some bullies just tried harder when you ignored them.

But she wasn’t worried about Abel. Hell, she hadn’t really been worried for her own safety in years. Her training—and deadly powers—had given her a level of confidence few had.

Haven wouldn’t understand because no one had ever been dumb enough to bully her. Not here at Section 8 where her mother was in charge, her father was scary as fuck, and her aunt, Seven, trained hunters how to break bones and inflict misery for ten classes a day, every day.

Even though the adults at Section 8 had always been wonderful to her, the other kids sometimes weren’t. Lane knew bullies all too well. She was small, deaf, a minority, and an orphan who’d been taken in by vampires. All that was the equivalent of wearing a sign on her back that said, “Easy target!”

She’d always had to fight harder and be more strategic and intelligent than her classmates and enemies. The good news was that being underestimated because of her size, gender, and deafness always worked to her advantage. It had never taken any of her bullies long to realize she wasn’t a target at all.

She was a weapon.

But she’d never tell Haven all that. Lane loved how sunny and happy and upbeat her friend was. It would break Haven’s heart to realize Lane had always hidden the bullying from her. No one friended harder than Haven Hall, and Lane hadn’t wanted to put that burden, that darkness, on her.

It’s not a problem, she signed. Abel doesn’t bother me. What about you? How did your shift go?

Haven scowled. “I haven’t seen any action in months. I keep getting assigned stakeout duty and research.”

Stakeout duty and research were the bane of every hunter at Section 8. After all, what good was training when all you did was watch to see if suspected demons were doing anything wrong, or doing background checks on suspicious characters?

Not that it wasn’t important work. It was just that most senior-level hunters like Haven didn’t get assigned light duty. But in this case, Lane couldn’t really argue. She gave Haven a pointed look and signed, You almost died on duty three months ago. Can you really blame anyone for not rushing you back to the front lines?

Haven’s lower lip edged out in a pout that made her look much younger than her twenty-eight years. “I got hit while trying to collar a demon and had a little head injury. It happens.” She shrugged. “It could’ve happened to Gabriel, or Seven, or my dad, or you. So why am I the only one being punished with scut work?”

Lane could’ve reminded her that she’d been clinically dead for four minutes. The fact that her team leader was able to perform CPR and bring her back from the brink was a miracle. But she kept her mouth shut on that issue. She forced herself to soften her expression before asking, Have you seen him?

Haven snorted. “Have I seen Roan skulking in the shadows, watching me to make sure I’m not in any danger? Yes. Has he forcibly escorted me home when he thought I was in danger a few times? Also yes. Has he actually used his words and spoken to me like a grown up? No.”

Lane felt sorry for Roan. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to be a leader, in charge of every aspect of your team’s safety, and have something go horribly wrong, as it had the night Haven was hurt. It was probably much worse for Roan, who Lane suspected had been in love with Haven for years.

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