Page 33 of Cloak of the Vampire
“You have skills a normal person shouldn’t have,” he murmured, eyes raking me up and down again. They were less cold than before, and they left an almost tangible warmth in their wake. “You fight like a martial arts expert. You erased your past thoroughly enough to raise some questions. You’re smarter than you let on. You keep your cards close, and you refuse to let anyone know what’s going on behind these pretty eyes of yours.” He was somehow mere inches away from me, making my breath get stuck in my throat. “You’re a ticking time bomb waiting to explode, and that, Henderson, is a security issue.”
I tensed. How did he know about my fighting skills? Did Logan tell him? Had he really said my eyes were pretty?
He must’ve sensed the question because his lips stretched into a humorless smile, and he said, “There isn’t anything that happens in my League that I don’t know about, and that includes you.”
Not just dangerous. Ragnor Rayne was calculating and observant, and nothing could pass by him. It meant one thing only: until I had a solid plan for getting even, I should stay as far away from him as vampirically possible.
And he was also right. Iwasa ticking time bomb. This was why, in the past three years, I’d made sure to live the most unassuming life possible. I’d made sure to fill most of my human needs without anycomplications, be it having a social life and a steady job or maintaining a mentally and physically healthy lifestyle.
Perhaps this was my problem. Perhaps these stupid, irrational tingles Ragnor incited in my lady bits were there because I’d been abstaining for such a long time—years, really. Not including my sparring session with Logan, Ragnor was the first man I’d been so close to in the last three years. It was no wonder I felt all kinds of things.
Things that could’ve been prevented if he’d chosen not to save me. Which made me circle back to the one question I couldn’t fathom the answer to for the life of me. “Why didn’t you kill me?”
He stared down at me, his lips thin, but did not give me an answer. Instead, he said, “Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re special. I don’t care about you. I care only about the danger you may pose to my League. I care that I couldn’t find a single thing about you or your past. Other than that, you are just another Common vampire, as disposable as the rest of your lot. I intend to keep close to the protocol for the next three months because we both signed an agreement.” His eyes flashed. “But once the Auction is here, you’ll go to the first bidder, no matter how cheap the offer.”
A tense silence passed between us as we glared at one another. But then his eyes flickered up, and he lifted his hand. I closed my eyes, but then I felt him tucking a rogue strand of hair behind my ear. He let his knuckles trail the side of my face, and I gasped, an involuntary shudder cascading down my spine. My skin grew warm in response to his touch, and my breaths turned shallow. My eyes fluttered open. I looked at him, a tad too dazed, heat pooling in the pit of my stomach.
He stared back, his eyes such a bright, unnatural neon blue that they illuminated the dimly lit office. My lips parted at the stunning sight, and his gaze dropped to my mouth, his fingers trailing closer to that spot. When he cupped my face and his thumb grazed my lower lip, I sucked in a breath, my body leaning forward almost against my will.
He let go of my face so abruptly that I fell back, leaning against the closed door.
He stepped back, expression unreadable, eyes no longer aglow, and with a voice calm and cool like nothing had just happened, he said, “Make problems for me before the Auction, and trust me, Henderson, Iwillkill you.”
The kitchen was in chaos, much like the last time when I arrived, and it was no less easy. Lon was screaming at everyone in the special way that only he could, his small eyes livid and burning a bright yellow. A few workers had to excuse themselves to go cry in the supply closet; he was so hard on them.
By the time night lunch approached, I was weary down to my bones. Some part of me wished Jada, the server from my first shift, were here—she was the only one in the League who’d been nice to me so far—but she was nowhere to be seen.
Again, I was picked by Lon to be a server, and again, I was given table fucking one. I was starting to think Lon gave me that table on purpose, that he was under instructions from Ragnor fucking Rayne to do so, but I didn’t say anything. It would be like admitting defeat, and I refused to show Ragnor any sort of weakness whatsoever.
This time, the cafeteria was packed when Ragnor and his gang entered. He was again with Margarita and Magnus, his Lieutenants, and Magnus was attached at the hip to a woman who stared at him as if he hung the moon. Logan and Abe were with them, and Cassidy too.
Ragnor’s presence overshadowed everyone else’s, though. Wearing jeans tucked into combat boots and a dark tee, he looked like he’d come right out of a fashion magazine. His sun-kissed skin was on display, taut over his bulging biceps, and even from where I was standing, I could see the veins corded in his arms, making my mouth water.
Get a grip, Aileen!
Shaking my head, I didn’t give myself time to think. Instead, I decided to pull my lips into a friendly smile and walked confidently toward the table.
Margarita saw me first and groaned. “Notheragain.”
Cassidy stared at me with a blank expression, as though our ugly fight had never happened. However, I noticed she followed my every move, as if waiting tensely for me to say something I shouldn’t. Meanwhile, Logan placed his order without sparing me even a glance. Magnus was too busy whispering to his new girlfriend, who was biting her lip with a flush on her cheeks, and Ragnor simply said, “Roast beef, medium rare.”
Neither Margarita nor Cassidy ordered anything. Cassidy didn’t seem to think of food as long as I was there, while Margarita was pouting petulantly, her arms folded and her nose turned up in the air.
I went to fetch the orders and, in a split-second decision, made a plate full of things I knew Cassidy liked, such as spaghetti with Bolognese and schnitzel. Some part of me rebelled against this, but a bigger part wanted to show her that I was less petty than she thought I was.
I also made sure to get Logan’s risotto and Ragnor’s roast beef right, even though I was tempted to serve the latter well done instead of medium rare. Then I started my way back to the table, feeling the stares on me coming from the direction of Zoey’s table.
My eyes were on the spaghetti and schnitzel plate. I wondered if Cassidy would appreciate the gesture. Probably not. Honestly, I didn’t know why I bothered. Cassidy never appreciated anything anyone did for her. She expected everyone to treat her special and make a fuss over her. Hell, even after our fight, she probably still believed I worshipped the ground she walked on.
My friendship with Cassidy had always been ... complicated, despite or maybe because of everything we’d been through together. And yet I wasn’t immune to seeing her troubled. Fight or no fight, theold habit to take care of her, to protect her from herself and others, was too strong to break.
I was nearly back to the table from hell when something crashed at the far end of the cafeteria, followed by a scream.
Before I could even turn around to look, a commotion erupted. Vampires ran from the source of the crash, their faces slack with shock and terror as they pushed tables out of their way, shattering half-eaten plates of food and glasses of blood onto the floor.
I was staring at the mayhem before me, stunned, rooted in place, until someone shoved into me on their way out, sending my tray full of table one’s orders crashing to the floor; then I finally discovered the source of chaos.
It was my classmate, Gus. At first glance, he seemed to be normal; his tall and lean figure was standing straight, with his pale skin gleaming under the cafeteria lights and his dirty-blond hair falling over his gray eyes.
