Page 52 of The Pretty Savage

And for one sick second I wished I would get the same goosebumps from his touch as I did from Adrian's, but nothing happened. No reaction, nothing at all, and the hatred I felt toward myself in that moment was higher than the hatred I felt toward Adrian.

"You're a smart cookie, bambina," he whispered, snickering. "Meet me after classes. We will discuss everything then. There's a cemetery on the other side of campus," he murmured. "We will wait for you there by Old Temple of Athena Don't be late."

Holy moly, this was actually working. It was happening.

Dante's hand tightened on the nape of my neck just before he released me, stepping away. My eyes latched on to the little smirk he had on his face, but it wasn't directed at me. Oh no, he was looking at someone behind me and as I turned around my blood turned into ice, freezing me to the spot.

Adrian marched toward us with a look on his face I had never seen before. At least not on him.

He was mean at best during our past conversations, but now he looked ready to kill someone, and his eyes weren't plastered to me—they were drilling into Dante who just kept standing behind me, snickering loudly now.

"Here comes the danger," Dante murmured, laughing louder and louder with each step Adrian took, completely ignoring the fact that danger was heading toward us. I had no idea what was happening right now or why Adrian looked like he was ready to kill someone, but I didn't want to be here when he finally reached us.

I had only ever seen an angry bull on TV, and Adrian looked as close to one as a human could ever be. His eyes were two dark pits of danger, filled with equally dark promises I didn't want to see fulfilled.

I stepped back, moving away from Dante, when his hand wrapped around my wrist, keeping me in place.

"Oh no, no, bambina," the maniac laughed. "You're gonna stay here. You don't want to miss the show."

"What show?" I gritted out, looking from him to Adrian who was getting closer and closer, while the students moved from his path, feeling the dark aura emanating from him. "I kinda really love my life, Dante," I whispered. "And I don't want to die today."

"Don't worry." He grinned. "You won't be dying. Me, on the other hand?—"

The hit came out of nowhere, though I had no idea why it surprised me as much as it did.

Dante's hand flew off of my arm as he stumbled backward, almost falling down the stairs behind us, but Adrian didn't stop. The next hit came seconds after the first one, pummeling into his friend like a man possessed, completely ignoring the crowd gathering around us.

"Stop it!" I yelled out, trying to do something, anything, while the rest of the people just stood around, shell-shocked at the sight in front of them. "Adrian!" But it was as if he couldn't hear me. He didn't care about the people around or the fact that he was hitting his friend for no reason.

His fists connected with Dante's face again, making his head fly to the side as a fresh burst of blood flew from Dante's mouth. And to make matters worse, Dante wasn't fighting back. He simply kept grinning and grunting with every hit Adrian landed, and I couldn't watch it anymore.

He was going to kill him if he continued like this, and I had to stop him.

I knew better than to stand between the two men that were fighting, and with my current injuries there was no way that if Adrian landed a punch on me I wouldn't end up in the infirmary, or worse—the cemetery. I wasn't strong enough to stop him from the rampage he was obviously on, so I did the next best thing.

I stepped behind him, unbuttoned my long coat, and jumped on his back, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.

"Stop it," I whispered in his ear, hoping the coherent part of his brain would register my words and stop this insanity. "Dante is your friend. Stop it, Adrian. Please."

He suddenly froze, his chest heaving with heavy breaths, but he stopped.

My thumb landed on the pulse point on his neck, murmuring soothing noises as I tightened my legs around his middle, closing my eyes when the murmuring of the people around us became louder, and the sound of my name from their mouths became more prominent.

"I don't know what got into you, but you gotta stop. Dante didn't do anything," I continued, but the moment Dante's name slipped through my lips, Adrian growled—full-on fucking growled like an animal—and instead of dropping me on the ground like I thought he would, his bloodied hand landed on my thigh, holding me closer to him.

I hated that I couldn't see his face, his eyes, but I could see Dante on the ground, breathing heavily with his left eye already swelling slowly from the brute force with which Adrian attacked him.

"I'm gonna go down now," I murmured, but the moment those words came out, his body tensed, and the hand that was softly holding my thigh tightened, most probably bruising me in the process. "Adrian?" I whispered, asking without words what was happening, but before he could say anything and before I could get down, we started moving.

Me hanging onto him like a koala and him holding my legs, moving us around the building toward the backside, overlooking the town underneath. The wind hit us harder here than it did at the front side of the building, but I didn't dare say another word as Adrian grunted while walking, moving us away from the crowd, from Dante, and most probably from safety for me.

I was a stupid, stupid girl, jumping on him like this. It was clear this was a man that wanted nothing more but to see me suffer. He proved it several times over the last three days, and like an idiot, I jumped on him, trying to stop him from killing his friend, because no matter what, I somehow knew he wouldn't be happy about hurting him.

I looked to our right, focusing on the fog that had enveloped the town, imagining I was anywhere else but here. Would I maybe want to live somewhere like that, where people minded their own business and went about their day without a care in the world? Most probably.

But just as the thought came through, making me smile at the sheer image of what my life could look like, it was snatched from my hands as Adrian dropped me down to the ground, and slammed me into the wall behind my back, holding his hand tightly wrapped around my throat, making it hard to breathe.

He was mad before, but it was nothing compared to the chilling terror that coursed through me at the sight of those dark eyes as he looked at me with so much disdain it made my knees weak. I shouldn't have intervened. I should've run away the moment he showed up, but I stayed, stupidly thinking I was doing something good.

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