Page 52 of Virgin Sacrifice

“I tripped.” I went with the easiest lie, the one grounded in the truth. “Tripped over my own two feet, scraped up my hands pretty badly too.”

“Oh no, what can I do?” she asked, and I heard her rummaging around, no doubt getting ready to march over here and take care of me like I had done for her.

“Honestly, I just want to rest,” I said, hoping I could convince her I just needed more time to sleep.

“Are you sure?” There was a hint of disbelief evident in her tone.

“Absolutely.” I only half exaggerated the yawn that popped out of my mouth next. It wasn’t entirely a lie. I felt like I had been through the wringer, and after I looked at my injuries and stuffed my face with whatever food I could get my hands on, I planned on going back to sleep. If I had truly been in danger last night, and the sheep weren’t some weird prank gone way too far, that fact wasn’t going to change in the next couple of hours.

“All right but, you will text me if you need anything?” She still sounded not quite pleased but didn’t push it any further. “I mean it, Luz. You took care of me last night, so if you need anything, like anything at all, you text me right away, understand?”

“One hundred percent loud and clear.” I giggled. She sounded better, and I could only hope that maybe her being quiet and out of sorts earlier in the week was just her being under the weather before really getting sick.

Or someone made sure she was sick last night.

It was an unnerving thought.

Shaking off my worries, I got off the phone with Autumn and hauled myself into the bathroom, biting back a cry every time I so much as grazed my foot along the floor. My ankle was a mess, and I would need to make an appointment at the university’s medical center for Monday morning, the soonest I could get one.

The cuts on my feet and hands turned out not to be nearly as bad as they had felt the night before, and I cleaned them up easily, although I would be wearing thick, cushy socks for the next couple of days.

Unfortunately, while the scratches on my face were superficial, they would be obvious to anyone who got close to me. Eventually, I would be able to cover them up with makeup, but until the skin had healed, I didn’t want to put anything other than ointment on them.

Finally, after taking a slow and awkward shower where I had to balance entirely on my right leg and nearly fell over several times, and digging deep into my snack stash, I curled back up into my bed and quickly fell back into a deep sleep.

It was only when I woke up that evening, groggy, disoriented, and starving again, that I remembered the weird text I had gotten from that unknown number.

Did you have a happy Halloween?

My stomach turned queasy. No, I most definitely did not have a “Happy Halloween” but who would be messaging me?

My first, horrifying thought was that it was the sheep, or even worse, whoever it was who had called them off last night.

Because that was what had happened, the more I thought about it.

My stomach turned. Who had enough influence and cruelty to pull off that kind of stunt?

The obvious answer was the Blackwells. Just because Alister claimed they weren’t behind the hearts didn’t mean he was being honest with me.

I was going to have to start getting some answers of my own.

Chapter twenty-four

Alister

Standing in front of Gabriel House, resting against a tree, I kept my eyes trained on Luz’s residence across the quad.

It was late Sunday afternoon. I hadn’t seen her all weekend, and I was starting to get irritated with her for hiding from Nixon and me. She never avoided us before, preferring rather to stare the two of us down with disapproval written across her face whenever she caught us watching her. That or ignoring us as though we were utterly inconsequential. It was part of her charm.

Today though, I had been waiting out here for a couple of hours, knowing that she usually went for one of her runs after sleeping in on the weekend, without so much as a glimpse of her. The minutes ticked by, and I was getting closer and closer to inviting myself into Jackson College House and tearing it apart until I found her.

Not to mention that she hadn’t responded yet to my text.

Did you have a happy Halloween?

Halloween was one of the biggest, most profitable nights of the year in terms of the drugs that ran through campus. Normally, I couldn’t have cared less. Blackwells were killers, not drug dealers. Still, we hadn’t made any progress figuring out who the fuck was stupid enough to try to peddle their crap under our noses. So, Nixon and I needed to be out with our loyal subjects, making sure that they were still just that—loyal.

Nixon had gone over early on Friday night to “pop in on our pet” before we went out for the night. When he returned, I was pleased to hear that she was planning to spend the night in. Too much weird shit had been happening at Hollow Oak lately, and Nix and I had enough on our plates Halloween night without the chaos that seemed to follow Luz everywhere she went.

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