Page 187 of Caelum

The fire in his eyes belied his concern and told me he was on the same page as Reed, even if he wasn’t saying so. “She caught me in the jaw.”

“I can scent the blood,” Dre grated out as he stalked over to me. When he crouched down, his hand snapped out to grab my chin. He tilted my jaw this way and that, then shook his head. “That was stupid. Hot,” he added, “but stupid.”

“Well, I endeavor to behot,” I snarled, my blood racing at his criticism. “I’m sure you’d appreciate it if someone askedmeto dance?” The silence at my question told me exactly how it worked.

“Have a sip of water,” Dre growled instead, handing me the water I’d tossed aside when I’d headed into battle with a girl two years older than me. “Then spit.”

My nose wrinkled. “Spit where?”

He smirked. “The ocean? The sand? Anywhere you fucking want.”

“That’s gross.”

A snicker escaped him. “Maybe, but unless you feel like swallowing your own blood, I’d spit.”

I hated swallowing the stuff from a bag, didn’t want to swallow my own so, with a huff, I got to my feet and stalked toward the sea. Before Genny, Ihadn’t particularly wanted to move away from my Pack, but now? Confidence sang through my veins, deep as a siren’s call, like a Lorelei’s voice to the uninitiated.

Shyness be damned. Wariness, go to hell.

I could handle myself. Even if most people here thought I was some kind of freak.

“Wouldn’t put my feet in the water if I were you. Not tonight anyway.”

I blinked at Samuel’s voice. There was something about him that was faintly robotic. Odd description, I knew, but it was true nonetheless. The notion had been cemented when he’d reeled off a ton of figures relating to the probability of the New England Patriots winning the Super Bowl again, and it was there now when I heard the lack of inflection in his words.

“Why not?” I asked, frowning at him.

“No bathroom out here. Where do you think people are going?”

My nose crinkled. “Ew, that’s gross.” Grosser than spitting in the sand. Talk about relative.

He snorted. “Maybe. Not much alternative unless you piss in the sand and then that just stinks. Plus, the ocean is technically our dumping ground whether you like it or not. Do you know that over a hundred and fifty million metric tons of it is loaded down with plastic anyway?”

“Wow, you really know how to hit a conversational low early on,” I rasped and finally took a sip of water.

Dre was right—no way was I about to swallow.

Tucking my feet away from the shore, I leaned over so I could spit into the sea. Then I felt guilty for dirtying it up some more.

“Guess you never had to worry about your carbon footprint before. Don’t imagine in a cult you go through that much plastic.”

Surprised, I shook my head. “No. It’s a pretty organic way of living.”

“Probably why you lasted so long without going nuts,” Samuel mused, but his attention was out to the sea and not on me. Overhead, the moon gleamed like a beacon, lighting up some of his features and darkening areas that had been illuminated by the fire.

I wasn’t ill at ease in his presence, even though, until now, the only time we’d truly been alone was in the gym. Right when he’d slut-shamed me and then I’d attacked him, and then today, when we’d been fighting. We’d never been without a crowd nearby though. Now was no different.

“Why did you try to make me feel bad in the gym that day?” I asked and hated the wobble in my voice. Seriously, I could just knock out a girl who was bigger, stronger, and faster than me, but my voice shook now?

“Because Reed bore your mark. To protect you, to stop the faculty fromseparating you, I needed to put distance between you.” He shrugged. “It was a churlish way to go about it, but my options were limited so I went with something that I figured would work.”

The answer made a strange kind of sense, even if I didn’t particularly like it. “Do you think I’m a slut now?”

His scowl soothed something in me. “I didn’t think you were a slut then, Eve. We don’t work that way here, you know that.”

Swallowing, I nodded because I believed his acerbic tone then cut a look at the party, at the attendees who were shooting looks my Pack’s way. “Think any chance of anonymity has disappeared,” I told him.

“Would have happened soon. That Stefan and Frazer are sitting together without trying to tear out each other’s throats is a big enough deal as it is. That Reed is laughing with Dre? The world might as well be flat.” He chuckled at his own joke and my lips twitched. “Things were always going to stir up.”

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