Page 41 of Demon Sworn
Katrina
I can’t believethey’ve made me go to school again. Of all the useless, idiotic places in the world… I’m over school. While it used to be my escape from my home life, used to be a retreat where I could fill my head with facts and figures instead of memories of shouting, now it’s just a time suck. It’s a waste.
I totes am on board with the kids who ditch daily now.
But my guys are very insistent, and Van followed up his insistence with an orgasm this morning, using his fingers until I screamed, “Yes!” The bastard smugly warped my inability to control my own mouth into my acquiescence to spend another day here in scholastic jail while they pursue dangerous baddies.
I wish that Akor was my chaperone again today, so that I could ditch to my heart’s content, but he’s not. He and Raz have gone to follow this next lead, while Zolroth and Van are hanging out at home with Adam. I think the guys are not so subtly giving me the hint to talk out my feelings with Kastros. But I’m not ready, dammit! I’m not ready to stare up into his deep brown eyes and tell him that he’s forgiven for ripping my life to shreds. Maybe it’s because I’m still in tattered pieces and I haven’t sewn up the other holes in my heart yet. But I’m not frickin’ ready.
Besides not being ready, his stupid chaperone style is getting on my nerves! You know what he’s doing?
Not hiding it.
Kas has zero subtlety.
He walks with me from the limo—which got a ridiculous number of stares—all the way to my locker, ignoring me when I turn and say through clenched teeth, “I’ve got this.”
He just leans on the row of lockers next to mine in his button-up shirt and khaki pants—his “teacher” clothes—a scowl painted across his features as other students skirt around him.
Big stupid demon.
My ears burn as I gather up my books, and I can only imagine what everyone is saying right now. I take a deep breath to calm and reassure myself that he’ll be gone once the bell rings and I’m safely stuck in World History, pretending to listen to a lecture about the scores of people who died from the Black Plague.
I blow out a breath and am able to refrain from blowing my top when Kastros follows two feet behind me for the entire walk to class like a giant shadow come to life.
I give him a hesitant wave goodbye as I pull open the door to my classroom and scurry quickly to my seat.
But Kastros doesn’t leave. He yanks open the door and strides into the room, all cool confidence.
Mr. White looks up from the smartboard he’s been messing with, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “Kastros?” he asks, stepping forward.
Kas doesn’t respond, just marches towards me. He glares at the student who’s sitting in the desk behind mine until the dude awkwardly clears his throat, grabs his bag, and moves all the way to the front row.
The vengeance demon slides into the seat behind me. I turn to glare at him, but Mr. White strides over and I really don’t want him to know that I’m involved with a teacher.Teachers. So I swallow my fury down like I swallowed my mother’s burnt meatloaf, the one time she actually tried to make it, and it tastes just as horrible going down as anything my mother ever cooked.
“Is everything okay?” Mr. White asks tentatively, wringing his hands.
I glance out of the corner of my eye and watch Kastros simply stare back at the other man until Mr. White shuffles nervously on his feet. “Is…” Mr. White leans in. “Is this an evaluation?”
Kastros dips his head once, and Mr. White gapes, his mouth opening and closing several times in the kind of shock you normally only see on Saturday morning cartoons. “Well, that’s just… The principal didn’t say… I didn’t even get any notice.”
Kastros gives a casual not-my-problem shrug, and Mr. White gulps noticeably. I watch with interest as my AP teacher breaks out into a nervous sweat. “Well, I wasn’t going to do this today, but…” He strides to the front of the classroom with renewed purpose.
Other students fill in as Mr. White frantically takes down the projector and puts up my favorite activity—a Jeopardy board he uses in order to quiz us on history facts. I’ve always dominated this game because of decathlon, so a slow smile spreads across my face.
Maybe having Kas here isn’t so bad.
But then William strides into the room, doing his classic hair flip. His eyes land on me, and suddenly, it’s way too hot in here—and not the sexy kind of hot, but more of the uncomfortable, skin-burns-off type. Would it be bad if I raised my hand to go to the bathroom? Maybe scream to the world that I’m on my period? I did that once, you know. At a party in tenth grade after Stacy convinced me to drink alcohol for the first time. I’m feeling the antsy need to do so again. Because I can tell immediately by the smug glimmer that comes into William’s eyes that he’s headed my way.
I turn sideways in my seat and try to subtly slide my leg left and place my foot on top of Kas’s so that I can stomp on it if need be.
But Kas misinterprets the hint. His hand slides under the desk and lands on top of my knee, his thumb sliding my skirt up just enough so that he can trace a tiny circle on my skin. His expression grows soft, and I see his free hand come up, starting to form the sign for “I love you.”
“Hey, babe.” William tosses his bag down and sits in the seat next to me before sliding his desk closer. “Wanna be on my team today?
I glance back to see Kas’s eyes grow red, and I know he thinks our reconnection has been interrupted. Fuck.
I stare at William and tilt my head, sliding my eyes in Kastros’s direction in the universal “dude, there’s a teacher right there” signal.
