Page 35 of Ava: Part Three

The door swung open, and the guards didn’t move. But Ava’s scent hit him in the face as if what had been blocking her was broken. Their bond was fully restored; he could sense that she was okay. He walked in, focusing on the guards until he’d walked through. And then, when he finally paid attention to the room, he saw his mate with her head on uncuffed arms on the table in the middle of the room, fast asleep.

“Ava?”

She lifted her head and looked at him with tired eyes.

“Are we free to go?” she asked.

“What did they do to you?”

“They uncuffed me and told me to wait here for you,” Ava answered. “They said the dean can’t deal with me now because it’s a weekend.”

A mind game. This was just a mind fuck. The Council wanted to mess with his mind until they made their move.

“Can we go? I’m so hungry and tired.”

If it was the weekend, she’d been getting railed for days. That was an insanely long time to make love. He would feed her and make sure she slept before the Council came for them, hopefully after the weekend.

But what the hell did they want? To make them soldiers or to destroy them?

He hadn’t sensed much from the Council members and their leader before their guards led them into one of the residential houses near the one he and Ava had ‘desecrated’. But he had sensed anticipation. A lot of it. Iulia and Andrei had been like children waiting to unwrap their Christmas presents, their eagerness so evident in their eyes as they looked at Ava up and down.

And that meant he and Ava were screwed.

“Yes. Let’s get out of here.”

Chapter 20

WhenshefollowedZekeout of the administration block, there was a chill in the air. Her head was a little fuzzy, but the frigid air outside cleared it.

She stopped next to Zeke and looked where the restricted area was. Where the evil was. The cold darkness had settled there and was prickling at her skin. It felt like the evil in the forest was now over the academy like a wet blanket. She didn’t need anyone to tell her who was responsible for the purple-eyed creatures in the forest; she had looked the root of that evil in the eyes.

“You’re coming with me,” Zeke said, breaking into her thoughts. “We need to stick together.”

She looked back at the guards standing beside the doors. Just because the dean hadn’t punished them yet didn’t mean they were off the hook. That man had fantasies about the number of ways he could punish her, and he had already warned her about contact with Zeke. What she had done with Zeke was more than just touching him or holding his hand.

However, despite the sudden clarity the moment she came outside, she was bone tired, and her whole body hurt. She would never get any rest if she was alone in her dorm room. It had been hard enough to close her eyes since Claire had arrived.

“Okay.”

Thinking of Claire brought only mild annoyance now, but she was sure it was because she couldn’t muster the strength to feel anything stronger.

Like right now, with the Council on campus, she should have been shitting herself, but all she wanted to do was eat and sleep. Besides, they had already lost. Even if they fought, the odds of them coming out of this alive were very low.

Zeke started walking down the front steps just as one of his cars came down the road and stopped in front of the fountain. Derek stepped out of the driver's side and opened both the passenger and back seat doors.

She paused before entering the car and saw how intently the guards were watching her. She half expected them to appear beside her and pull her away, but they didn’t.

The drive to Zeke’s house was silent, and her eyes were shutting before they were even halfway there. But a question was going round and round in her head since Zeke told her they would have to fight. What would happen to her family if she didn’t do what the Council asked? Mr Patrick told her she had no choice but to fight, or she would hurt more people. But she knew what she would choose if it came to a choice between strangers and her family. Her family would always be first.

But at least her father was home now; he would protect her brothers if anything happened to her.

When Zeke opened the back door, she opened her eyes, dragged her sore body out of the car, and looked down the driveway to the road. There were guards stationed right in front of the driveway, not even bothering to hide that they were watching the house. There were four of them, and they stood still like statues. They didn’t even look like they were blinking. Was that what she would turn into? Would she kill on command like they were trained to do?

“Come,” Zeke said.

She pulled her gaze away and walked towards the house. As she approached, she imagined she smelled her father’s earthy scent mixed with his usual leather. She had probably just imagined that because she had been thinking about her family, but it comforted her as it usually did as she walked into the house.

Instead of going up the stairs, Derek went to open the door under the basement. He probably wanted Zeke to explain what had happened. Since they didn’t need her for that, she stopped at the foot of the stairs.

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