Chapter Seventeen
Leah made her way down the dark hall. Her heels echoed throughout the empty space as she hurried to see the headmaster. For once, she cursed the expansive campus and how far away the headmaster had placed himself from the party. Although given the choice, she likely would have done the same.
She wasn’t certain how much time had passed since Matt had last seen Nikon, but he couldn’t have gotten far. She hoped he was just outside talking to Cato. Her heart thundered in her chest at the thought of seeing all their friends again and starting a new life with the man she loved.
Her steps slowed slightly. She hadn’t dared even think the words, but now they seemed to be bursting out of her.
Leah loved him. She had always loved Nikon, and above all, she never wanted to be apart from him again.
A large smile slipped on her face. She couldn’t wait to tell him when she saw him.
Her pace picked back up again at the thought. Large double doors stood ahead near the only real light in the hall. Leah hurried to the front of the huge wooden doors marking the headmaster’s office.
She knocked, and the sound echoed around her.
“Yes?” the headmaster called from inside.
“It’s, um, Leah.”
There was a pause before he spoke again. “Please come in.”
Leah opened the doors. They were much heavier than she would have expected. She stepped inside.
The room was even more magnificent than the rest of the school. Unsurprising considering how the headmaster acted.
Hundreds of books lined the walls, all freshly dusted and looking just as new as they day they were bought. In one corner, a soft-looking leather couch sat, along with a reading chair the same color nearby.
The center of the room was dominated by a large desk with a chair both in front and behind it.
The headmaster motioned toward the chair in front. Leah took the seat.
Last time she’d been in the room, she had been so nervous that nothing had really stuck in her head. This time she didn’t want that to be the case.
“Miss Perkins,” he said slowly. “I see you’re hear without your beau.”
Leah cleared her throat and nodded, trying not to laugh at the very dated term.
“I believe he’s getting some fresh air.” She smiled.
The headmaster nodded and glanced through the window outside despite the fact that they were currently at the back of the school. “What can I do for you?”
Leah frowned. He’d asked her earlier to come by and let him know her answer. Now that she was ready, he didn’t seem to want to hear it.
“I’ve decided on the position,” she said. The headmaster nodded but didn’t seem to be paying much attention. “Thank you for the offer, but I’m afraid I just can’t accept.”
“So you can be with your hybrid?” a voice said from behind her.
Her mouth fell open as she turned and found Matt standing in the doorway. “I, my, what?”
The teacher chuckled as he stepped into the room, letting the doors close loudly behind him.
“Be careful,” the headmaster shouted. “That is mahogany!”
Matt glared at the headmaster. “Shut the fuck up already. Weeks of listening to your constant bitching. If I have to listen to anymore tonight, I might decide that witnesses are a problem.”
Leah glanced back over as the fat little man turned pale.
Matt narrowed his eyes on her. “So you’ll just run off with your little hybrid friend?”
Leah shook her head. None of this was making any sense.
“I don’t understand,” she said finally. “What are you talking about?”
A smirk filled Matt’s face. The face of the man she’d once considered handsome was now contorted to something horrible.
“We know about your hybrid friend,” he said. “At first the deal was just supposed to be the Vestal, but Hendrix figured that we might fetch a better price if we had a mated set. So I had to sit here, pretending to be a teacher.”
Leah stood, blinking. She shook as she did so, but she needed to find a way to get out of there. Whatever they had planned for her, it wasn’t good.
“Who’s Hendrix?” she asked. The more she could keep him talking, the better.
Matt took a step forward, and she backed up against the desk. The way he was looking at her made her feel a little sick, like she was some sort of injured animal.
“I work for a company called the Phoenix Corps,” he said. “Among other things, we procure people like yourself and your little boyfriend. Then we sell you all to the highest bidder. Currently certain parties in Russia are our best customers.”
“No,” Leah whispered. “How could you do this?”
Matt shrugged. “Got to make a living somehow. He laughed. “Teaching doesn’t really pay shit.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t have to be like this,” she said. “This isn’t you.”
Matt’s face contorted momentarily as he stared her down. “You don’t know a fucking thing about me,” he said. “All you know is the fake profile I’ve set up to draw you in. Sometimes you almost made it too easy. You let me control all the conversations, believed all my lies.”
Now she thought back to all their conversations, all the times she chatted with him. The things he said to her. Now that she thought about it, Matt made sure to always be around her when she was on break. Leah’s head spun.
Maybe if she’d asked around more, she would have realized she was being played. It didn’t matter. The trap had already been sprung.
Leah needed to make her escape now.
Matt nodded behind her.
Just as she turned, a sharp point sank into her arm, and she sighed as she slumped forward. The headmaster stepped away, a syringe in his hand.
Matt sprang forward and caught her in his arms. “Just a little something to help you sleep,” he said softly.
The world spun around her as he sat her back in the chair.
Leah lulled her head from side to side before shutting her eyes completely and falling unconscious.