Page 2 of Justice

“I thought you needed a cool down.” He smirked as the water turned warm.

I did, but not this way. I rolled my eyes and turned, giving him my back and dismissing him. His hand found my ass, smacking it like I had done to him a minute earlier before the sound of his steps echoed off the tile. Right as he got to the door, he paused. “I’ll see you in the library in fifteen.”

“Forty,” I countered because he would not control me.

“Twenty.”

“Thirty-five.” That was my final offer.

“Twenty-five.” He tried.

HA. “Thirty.”

“Excellent. See you then.” He laughed as he disappeared, and I blinked. Had he just played me?

Thirty minutes later,I found them all in the library. Both Sterling and Ellis were freshly showered and looking delicious, while Oak’s face pinched as he examined a book, also looking delicious. When had a constant need for these boys appeared? It had to be the genetics, right? A few days ago, they were hot. Deliciously so, but I didn’t feel the need to strip them of every article of clothing then.

Maybe it was their blood. The rich, homely taste called to me in such a way that I was sure there was no place else I was meant to be. I’d changed. I could feel it, and I couldn’t help but wonder if, “Am I dead?”

All heads turned to me, but it was Ellis who answered, “What?”

“Like you three are dead. Right? I mean you’re alive, but your heart beats like twice a minute or some shit like that. Am I dead?”

Oak put down his book and cleared his throat. “You have a heartbeat.”

I sensed there was more to it. “But?”

“It’s slowed,” Sterling answered for him.

I felt panic claw at me. “Slowed?”

“Not to dead level.” Sterling held out a hand toward me, acting like he was going to calm a feral animal. “Just not as fast as it was when we first met you.”

I tried to reason with this. “To be fair, when you first met me, I was attacked by a bloodthirsty vampire who wanted to suck the life out of me while dry humping my body.”

This time it was Oak's turn to try to calm me. “We mean after that. Your heart rate used to range about eighty beats per minute while awake.”

“Now?”

There was a throat clearing. “Forty.”

I was sure my eyebrows shot straight to my hairline and disappeared. Forty! What if it continued to slow? What if at some point it just stopped altogether and I would be dead at the ripe age of twenty-three? I flopped onto the floor and threw myself back onto the rug, positioning myself to stare at the ornamented ceiling.

“It’s better than two beats a minute.” Sterling tried to console me. “Besides, it’s steady. It hasn’t dropped since.”

I flung my head to the side to look at him, determined to tell him just how little he was succeeding at comforting me, but instead, all I said was, “Hey, a book,” as I stared at a thick leather-bound book hidden under the couch.

Chapter 2

ELLIS

Liberty mentionedthe book so fucking casually, as if she hadn’t just uncovered the key to the information we had all spent days trying to discover. Beside me, I could have sworn I heard Oak mumble with a hint of annoyance,Hey, a book,before verbalizing his feelings, “Of course you would find a fucking book under the couch that we’ve sat on for days.”

She reached under the couch, not even bothering to be speedy about it as she lay on the floor in her pitiful state. When her arm pulled back, and the book came into view, I knew without question that when opened, that anciently bound book was about to rock our world. Whether it’d be in a good or bad way, that was yet to be determined.

She swung the book carelessly as she asked, “Anyone want to read this one?”

We all stumbled forward at once, every one of us recognizing the book’s importance. A book so aged that the paper was unevenly bound, and the cover was made from actual hide. Oak got it first, already having the pages opened before Liberty’s arm fell to her side.

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