I WAITED A RESPECTABLE DISTANCE until Ryan had finished his conversation with his next potential victim. “Hey, Blake,” he greeted me. “Did you find the professor?”
I nodded, following Ryan’s gaze to land firmly on the blonde girl’s ass. “Oh, really? I was only gone five minutes!”
Ryan smiled. “I’m that good.” I felt him glance sidelong at me, while I was still checking Clair out. An image of us entwined on the kitchen table flashed through the bond and I whipped my head around to glare at him.
“Don’t,” I said through gritted teeth. He must’ve known I was serious, because he looked at the ground and didn’t say—or think—anything more about it. Which was very unusual for him. He normally loved to torment and tease me.
“What’s up with all the bruises?” I said, gesturing to Clair as she walked away from us. Her otherwise attractive legs were littered with dark purple and blue circles. It looked like someone had taken a tire iron to her shins.
“I don’t know,” Ryan said slowly. “Looks like she’s had a run in with someone… or something.”
“Let’s go,” I said, suddenly exhausted. I was still feeling the remnants of that bottle of wine and my head felt heavy and vague.
“Already?” Ryan asked. “Don’t you want me to give you the grand tour? We’ve barely scratched the surface.”
A thread of anxiety entered my thoughts. “And why would you be giving the grand tour? I don’t see ‘Vampire Academy’ written on any of the signs.”
He shrugged. “I may have attended this university a few times over the years. I’ve got degrees in Law, computer science, architecture.”
I shook my head. “So that’s why you chose UCLA as my day pass from prison.”
Ryan turned serious. “No,” he said, clearly annoyed. “I chose this school because you got a full scholarship. Your little trust fund isn’t going to last forever, my dear. You, on the other hand, will be around forever, if you play your cards right.”
If you play your cards right. Somehow I thought that sleeping with my vampire maker wasn’t the right play. I blinked, trying to forget the night before, when I saw Ryan’s gaze cloud over as he daydreamed with a frown. Somehow, I knew he was thinking about the very thing I was trying to forget. I glared at him pointedly. He finally noticed and smirked.
That will never happen again, I said sharply through the bond.
Ryan stiffened. “Don’t throw anything at my face, please.”
I shook my head and attempted to change the subject. “Well, did you get her number?”
“Why? You jealous?” That smirk again, as he unlocked the car.
I started to laugh. I laughed so hard that tears ran down my cheeks. “Yes,” I gasped, holding my stomach. “You got me, lover. I’m jea–lous.”
Ryan opened his door and slid into the driver’s seat, ignoring my sarcasm. “I’m taking her to dinner tonight. I’ll probably have to kill her.”
I stopped laughing. I quietly opened the passenger door and sat in the car. “Why?!”
As soon as I shut my door, Ryan threw the car into reverse. “I think she’s working for Caleb.”
Fear shot through my entire body. I started to panic as my lungs malfunctioned. “What do you mean?” I asked thickly. “Is he here? Is he coming for us?”
Ryan grabbed my hand and placed it on the gear stick, with his hand over mine. I started to feel that familiar falling sensation, and looked at him incredulously.
You’re going to show me something while you drive?
He just smiled wickedly as we drove faster, through suburban streets until we reached the coast. Ryan exited onto a narrow mountainside road that hugged the ocean below. Soon we were going so fast I felt sick. It didn’t matter, though. Images and sounds started tumbling through the bond like a motion picture until I could barely see the road past the scenes Ryan was showing me.
The pretty blonde thing at the assembly was on Ryan’s mind. He could have sworn he knew her from somewhere, or had at least crossed paths with her before. She smelled familiar to him, not like he had drank her blood or anything, but almost like he had met someone very close to her.
She sat in the bleachers, fussing with her handbag. On closer inspection, Ryan could see her fishing a pen and notebook out.
He walked straight up to her and did his thing. “Do I know you?”
She smiled. “Wow. I haven’t heard that one before.”
Ryan smiled. “No, seriously. Have we met before?” He put compulsion behind his words this time, always fearful that Caleb could be closing in. Or other people. Ryan Sinclair had made a lot of enemies in seven hundred years.
“No, I don’t think so,” she replied.
“What’s your name?” Ryan compelled, on high alert. This girl could be a distraction, and Mia could be in danger right now. But all he sensed from her through the bond right now was confusion as she tried to find Sam’s office.
“Yours first,” she smiled, resisting his compulsion with such ease it made him nervous. Then he noticed the small green and white flower tucked into her hair, a flower that stopped vampires like him from compelling humans.
He smiled broadly and stuck out his right hand. “I’m Ryan. And you look awfully familiar.”
The pretty blonde girl with dark blue eyes the color of a stormy ocean smiled back at him, taking his hand and shaking it. “I’m Clair,” she replied. “And I’ve never seen anyone like you before.”
They chatted some more. Clair revealed she was on the track team on a full scholarship, just like Mia. Ryan felt himself relax marginally as the two chatted about UCLA, running, the weather, and finally, about dinner.
“A poor college student like you must need a good meal,” Ryan said cheekily. “Let me buy you dinner on Thursday.”
She laughed. “I’m hardly a poor college student. But I do enjoy a good steak.”
“It’s a date,” Ryan said, for the second time that morning. “I’ll pick you up at, say, eight?”
“Perfect,” Clair said. She wrote her address on a slip of paper and pressed it into his palm.
“Hey, I like that flower,” Ryan said, pointing at the asphodel flower in her hair. “Where’d you get it?”
Clair smiled, touching her hair. “My dad loves growing all these weird plants I’ve never heard of. Did you know California is one of the only places in the world these flowers will grow?”
Ryan smiled to hide his worry. “I didn’t, no.”
“Well, you learn something every day. I’ll see you on Thursday, Ryan Sinclair.”
Ryan smiled broadly, ignoring the danger flag at the mention of his last name. He didn’t think he had told her his last name, only his first. He thought it was a shame that he’d probably have to kill her.
I wrenched my hand away, dizzy from the vision I’d just seen through our bond. He might have wanted to show me more, but I’d had enough. The car was going a respectable sixty miles an hour now, through suburban streets that were familiar to me now. We were almost home.
I stared straight ahead and didn’t say anything else. When Ryan glanced down to change gears as we pulled into the driveway, I tried to hide my shaking hands as I tore little strips of paper off my UCLA class schedule and shredded them with my fingers.
“You’re getting my car dirty,” Ryan said, but there was no force behind his words. He looked at me, and I was practically drowning in the worried vibes he was giving off.
“Sorry,” I said, and folded my arms, staring out of the window.
As I got out of the car, I realized why the car ride had been so abnormally quiet. I had held my terrified breath the whole way home.