Page 4 of Let Us Prey

But she has togethere before I can enact my master plan. I’ve been waiting all morning in the clock tower, my eyes trained on the road leading up to Apex like I expect her to appear simply by sheer force of will. Renard bitched I was disrupting his broody perch time, but I don’t care. We let him stew out here like an emo singer all the time and no one bothers him. I need this vantage point today and if he isn’t vibing with my energy, he can fly off to wherever the hell he and the lizard boy go to eat.

Everything’s a state secret with those two—where they eat, what they eat, where they sleep.

You’d think they were drinking Elvis’ blood to stay fucking immortal or some shit. Whenever I try to get it out of the dragon, he grunts and belches fire. Our sentient pigeon roost is no more helpful—he lectures me about ‘boundaries’ and ‘privacy’ as if I give a furry mutt’s ass. We’re a group of misfits who banded together in the home of misfits; if we don’t look out for one another, no one will. And secrets fuckeverythingup without a doubt.

“Fitz, are you still drooling off the balcony? Come over here and look at the email I finally received from the Department of Health and Shifter Services. They got that idiot you tracked down to give a statement, as well as the other morons who spiked the punch. It was fucking peppermint schnapps, of all things, and no one has aclue why it kept the poison from killing everyone who drank it.” The dragon scratches his chin, picking up an old dusty book as thick as my forearm to flip through it.

My idea of hell, but whatever gets his flag waving, I suppose.

“We assume it was poison, but couldn’t it just as easily have been venom, man? I’ve known some shifter chicks in my time who threatened to take fangs to my cock and their juice would have done serious damage.” I shudder, then hold up a finger. “Pro tip: Never piss off a pit of gorgons by sleeping with their sisters.”

Aubrey turns his head so slowly you’d think he was Linda Blair and his expression is horrified. “You betrayed fucking gorgons? Multiple? And lived?”

I shrug, winking at him. “I convinced them another round of my disco stick was worth forgoing their vengeance. The longest week of my life, man. Those chicks havestamina.”

He puts his hands over his face, drawing in a deep breath and blowing it out as if I’m the most trying thing this side of a hangnail. The dragon opens his mouth like he’s going to speak, then shakes his head and goes back to the tome in his lap.

I don’t see why my explanation was so irksome—it was one hundred percent true.

“Crazy snake haired women aside, man, I wish you’d come out to see Baby Girl this summer. All of you douches, even Chessie, refused to join me and when she shows up today, you’re going to regret being so damn stubborn.” I sigh, imagining her sleeping in that ridiculously pink princess room her mother probably decorated. It looked like someone spilled Pepto all over it, but she ignored the assault on good taste with aplomb.

Aubrey looks up at me with a reproachful glare. “None of us felt it was appropriate to borderlinestalkan incomingstudent, Fitz.”

“Definitely not borderline. I’m owning that shit and I’ll even tell her. I’m positive my baby girl will understand.” Whistling undermy breath, I walk back to the railing of the gargoyle’s perch, itching to see her arrive.

Suddenly, I hear the roar of her slick as fuck old school Mustang coming to the gates. I’d watched as one of her pseudo-friends helped her soup the engine up one afternoon and I’d know that purr anywhere. I had to find a better spot to ogle her from because seeing her bent over the hood in those tiny shorts made it impossible not to stroke my crankshaft, if you know what I mean. As she gets closer, I hear the sounds of 80s rock blasting from the open windows like a siren’s song.

Delores Drew is so fucking perfect it hurts my goddamned soul.

By the timeI speed race down eight flights of shitty old stairs in the Tower and across the green to Admin, she’s disappeared. I should have shifted, but the dragon told me it was too much.Bullshit, because I’mmuchfaster in tiger form. Now I have to track her down so I can lay eyes on her soft smile and kind eyes that feel like they hit me in the gut. Growling to myself, I pace the lot for a moment before I pull my phone out and text Chess.

TigerWoody: Where the fuck is her dorm?

CSpot: She’s in Gazelle. That’s where freshmen always are, Fitz.

TigerWoody: Don’t be so sour, baby. We’ve been waiting for this day.

CSpot: I’m not sour about her. We’ve been here a fucking decade and you still don’t know where anything is. It’s embarrassing, Fitz.

TigerWoody: When love blinds me, you’re my seeing eye cat, Chessie. See you at home.

CSpot: *grumble*

Tucking my phone away, I grin as I head to Gazelle. Lucky for me, it’s right next to the Leonidas gym where Felix’s office is located. That means I can peep out his window anytime I want to glimpse my baby girl walking through the common rooms and maybe even in her room! With that thought in mind, I pick up my pace as I pass the clock tower again, then veer left towards the dorm block.

Sneering at a few of the newbs as they enter, I chuckle when they give me a wide berth. I enjoy putting the fresh meat on edge and even though I’ll filet anyone who comes near baby girl, it’s in my nature to enforce the Darwinistic atmosphere here. The smaller preds have to learn to make their way in a world that is very much like the one at Apex or they won’t survive past graduation—if they make it that far.

“Out of the way,” I snarl at the mass of students gathered in front of the elevator like a herd of cattle. They stare at me like they’re stuck on stupid until I bare my fangs, then wisely clear a path just as the doors open with a ding. This shit is exactly what I mean—stronger shifters are using the stairs or, if they’re rich enough, their staff are. These kids are clumped like they’re holding still for a massacre and it’s going to get their asses beaten.

With a jaunty wave, I push the button to close the doors before anyone joins me. My phone buzzes right as I realize I don’t know what goddamn floor Delores is on and I smile when I see Chess has texted me her room info. I couldn’t love that cheetah more if I tried—he knows me almost as well as my twin. I hit six, pondering both the advantages and disadvantages of my girl being on the top floor.

It makes it easy to fortify, but hard to get out. Good thing we have a dragon.

I wrinkle my nose at that thought. That cranky fucker doesn’t let anyone ride him, but if Delores is in danger and he refuses, I’ll stab him right in his fiery ballsack. I don’t give a single fuck if he roasts my fur afterward—there are some things you have to take a stand on.

When I exit, I can feel the blood thrumming in my veins and my tiger pacing in anticipation of seeing her. That night at the club, she ruffled his fur, and he’s been a royal asshole about staying close to her ever since. If I hadn’t agreed, the summer would have been a shitshow of epic proportions because his insistence is part of why I left so many offerings at her window.

I wonder if she knows the fingers were from her ex-fuck boy?

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