Page 14 of Entangled (Guardian Academy 2)

“You are a brooding, cocky asshole,” I retort. “And that was mild in comparison to you threatening to kill me.”

He steps toward me. “Well, you would’ve gotten yourself killed if I hadn’t.”

“I was never going to try and kill that vampire.” I inch forward until the tips of my clunky boots clip his. “I’d already bailed out on my plan before you came along.”

He laughs, shaking his head. “Bullshit. You were still thinking about it.”

“Maybe,” I say truthfully. “But I didn’t. You did.”

His tone drops, his low tone containing a warning. “I already told you it wasn’t me.”

“I know you did,” I say, blowing out a sigh. “Why are we even talking about this? It’s not even important right now.”

“I think he might just like to get you all worked up,” Oliver states, watching us with amusement. “In fact, I think he enjoys it a lot.”

Jax’s gaze darts to Oliver, his silver eyes shooting daggers.

Oliver simply laughs and sticks out a hand toward me. “I’m Oliver, by the way. Or Ollie, anyway. No one calls me Oliver except my parents.”

I take his hand and shake it. “It’s nice to meet you in person. When Jax said he had a friend, I honestly didn’t believe him at first. But here you are, living proof that Jax can actually make friends.”

“Alana,” Jax starts at the same time Ollie lets out a snort.

“I like her,” he declares to Jax, releasing my hand.

“I figured you would,” Jax mumbles then sighs heavily. “Look, I’d love to say I came here to hang out, but there’s some really important stuff I need to talk to you about.”

“I kind of figured that,” Ollie replies, his humor fading.

Jax’s brows draw together. “And why’s that?”

Ollie sweeps the flowery field and leafy trees enclosing his cottage with his gaze then steps aside and motions us to come in. “Come on in. We shouldn’t talk out here. Who knows who could be listening.”

Jax steps over the threshold without hesitating, and I do the same. Jax was right about holding off judgment of Ollie until I met him. I’m not getting a creepy, I’m-going-to-turn-you-into-my-puppet vibe from him. In fact, he seems like a really nice guy, and the inside of his house is wicked cool.

Not only does the living room have a mural of The Forest of Shadows and Bones, a ghostly forest located in Scotland, painted on the wall, but weapons are everywhere.

“Oh, my God, you have a Vanishing Blade,” I say excitedly as I spot a glinting silver sword mounted on his living room wall, along with a ton of other knives, daggers, and swords. “That’s so awesome.”

“It’s pretty cool.” He closes the front door and steps up beside me. “It’d be cooler if I actually could use them, but I’ve never been that great at using weapons. I’m more of a magic, spell, enchantment kind of guy.”

“Maybe I could teach you,” I offer. “I’m not fantastic or anything, but I’m not bad, either. And I had great teachers.”

Ollie offers me a strange look, and Jax intervenes.

“Alana’s parents are Keepers.” He moves to the other side of me, standing so close our arms brush.

“Really?” Ollie examines me with fascination. “You know, I’ve never met a Keeper before.”

I try not to frown at the reminder that I’m not a Keeper. The disappointment isn’t nearly as bad as when I first found out, though.

“Well, I’m not really a Keeper. I’ve just been trained by them and not fully trained, either.”

“It’s still pretty cool.” A thoughtful look crosses his face. “Maybe I’ll take you up on your offer to teach me.”

When I feel Jax stiffen beside me, I toss a glance over my shoulder.

“What’s the matter with you?” I mouth. He’s the one who told me I could trust Ollie.

The irritation in his eyes dwindles and is masked by coolness as he shrugs.

I shake my head. What a weirdo.

I return my attention to Ollie. “You know what, I’d love to teach you sometime.”

He smiles at that before his gaze travels to Jax. Then Ollie smashes his lips together.

“Okay, then,” Ollie says to no one in particular.

“Should we sit down and talk about some stuff?” Jax asks, sounding a bit peeved.

“Sure.” Ollie’s smile returns, bright and shiny like a glittery rainbow. “You guys sit down. I’m going to grab a couple of things.” He strides across the living room toward an arched doorway.

“Your house is still under the praesidium spell, right?” Jax shouts out after him.

Ollie pauses in the doorway and glances at Jax with uneasiness. “Yeah, and there’s praesidium all around the house, too, so you’re good to say whatever you need to.” His uneasiness vanishes. “Does anyone want a soda or something?”

“I’ll have a glass of water,” Jax says, plopping down onto a leather sofa.

“A soda sounds good to me,” I tell him with a gracious smile.

He smiles back at me before ducking through the doorway and stepping into the kitchen.

I join Jax on the sofa, keeping a marginal distance. “So, what’s up with you not wanting me to teach Ollie?”

He picks at a crack in the cushion. “I never said that.”

“You didn’t have to,” I tell him, resting my arm on the armrest. “Your brooding silence said it for you.”

He shifts his silvery eyes to me. “I just think that you two spending time together like that isn’t a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Because I said so.”

“That’s not a very good reason,” I tell him. “In fact, it might be the worst reason ever.”

“Nah, I’ve heard worse.” He relaxes back and stretches his arm across the back of the sofa. “So, are you going to tell me what you saw?”

“You mean in the fey woman’s memories?” I ask, getting whiplash from the subject change.

He nods, his fingers brushing strands of my hair. “I want you to tell me as much as you can. Don’t push yourself or anything, though. I know it was hard on you when it happened.”

“But what did happen?” I ask aloud while internally wondering why the heck he’s touching my hair. “You said Ollie might be able to help us figure that out, but how?”

“I’ll explain when he gets back here.” Another comb of his fingers through my hair. What the bejesus is he doing? “But let’s start at the beginning when you first started seeing the fey’s memories. Or did it start before that?”

“It might have been before that.” I take a deep breath and prepare myself to relive the horror that happened on the field.

Chapter 12

I begin with the strange feeling I experienced in front of the school and keep going all the way until the part where the vampire was about to attack Adaliya. After that, I struggle, on the verge of tears as the fear and horror she felt when she died rise up inside me.

Jax remains quiet the entire time, and a tiny part of me worries he might think I’m insane.

“So, what do you think?” I ask after I’ve finished explaining everything.

“You want to know what I think?” Jax asks, but it’s more of a rhetorical question. He slants forward on the sofa and rests his head in his hands, massaging his scalp, making his light blond hair go all bedhead crazy. “I think we have a huge problem on our hands.”

“Because there’s about to be a huge battle between the fey and the vampires?”

“No … Well, that’s part of it. But I’m honestly not too concerned about that.”

“How can you not be concerned about that?” I ask with a dumbfounded shake of my head. “A battle is about to break out between two very powerful groups, and they could end up destroying the entire world.”

He raises his head and looks at me. “The battle’s not going to break out, because we’re going to do our job and make the proper arrests. The territory clan will be tried for th

eir crimes, and then the fey will no longer have a reason to start the battle.”

“You plan on tracking down and arresting an entire clan of vampires? A clan of vampires who came from experimental facilities?” I shake my head. “Jax, Jax, Jax, how have you survived for the last nineteen years?”

“I think you’re forgetting one important thing about me.” His eyes illuminate, glowing silver. “I’m not just a Guardian, Alana.” The glow in his eyes fades. “And vampires fear wolves.”

Okay, he has me there.

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