Page 9

chapter eight

Enzo

E ven though I told the vamp that they could come to the cafeteria again, it still took her two weeks to come back.

Thankfully, I had a heads up. Chayton told me that the vamp told Luna she would be here today. I was able to let the pack know and had the foresight to take Phaedra off serving duties. No matter what Chayton thought, it wasn’t right to make Phaedra serve the parasites.

I glance over to a fuming Phaedra. She, Zyion, and Torak are sitting together at a nearby table. She looks disgustedly at the vamps before turning away. Finally, she stands and storms out of the dining hall.

“Check on your mother,” I tell Torak through our pack link.

He stands, emptying both their trays and leaving as well.

I place my focus back on the leeches. The youngest is busily talking about the food. She always seems overly happy or oblivious to her surroundings. The oldest, however, keeps her focus on the room. She continues to scan the crowd as if she’s waiting for something to happen. If we wanted to kill her, there would be nothing she could do about it.

Her eyes land on me. Those full bow-shaped lips tilt downward in the most minimalist of frowns.

She hates me.

“Good,” my wolf growls.

“I can say one thing about that one,” Zyion says, stepping up beside me. He lifts his chin toward the oldest vamp. “She’s stunning.”

I turn my head to him. “She’s a fucking leech.”

“Yeah, but she’s a pretty one.”

Turning back to the vamp in question, I take in her features. Yeah, she has the clearest blemish free skin I’ve ever seen, but so what? And yeah, her almond complexion reminds me of coffee with cream, but I don’t drink coffee. She has a few curves, but not nearly as many as Nadia. And maybe her wild curls make her look like an ethereal creature, but she’s still nothing more than a bloodsucking tick.

“A pretty one,” my wolf adds.

“Not you too?”

“I don’t see it,” I finally say to Zyion.

Even though I say those words, my wolf does not agree. I imagine if he were here, his head would be tilted to the side and his ears would be up.

Zyion shakes his head. “If you say so.”

The vampire in question turns to her sister, seeming to relax a little.

“Keep your block up,” she whispers.

Even though she’s across the room from me, I can hear her clearly.

“Trust me, I have no plans of letting it down,” the youngest responds as she unwraps her meatball sub.

Strangely, the room grows silent. I glance around and it seems all eyes are on the pair. Looking over at the table where the food is served, Rue and a few others giggle as they watch the vampires.

I turn my attention back to the table when I hear a scream. The youngest of the vamps is shaking out her hands as she stares down at her plate. Lying between two slices of bread is a dead rat. The cafeteria fills with laughter. I can’t help it, even I laugh. It’s even more fun watching the youngest freak out.

The doors to the cafeteria open and Chayton walk in with our Luna. Immediately, the laughter dies.

“What’s going on?” Chayton asks. No one responds.

I swing my attention back to the vamps. The youngest is crying now. However, my attention is on the oldest. Her face gives nothing away, but a part of me knows she is angry. I don’t know how I know it, but it’s almost as if I can feel her fury.

“Marley, what’s wrong?” Luna asks as she catches sight of the teen.

We all wait on baited breaths. I imagine the vamp will gladly rat us all out over the joke.

“It’s nothing, Liz,” the oldest says, helping her sister stand. They abandon their food as they head toward the door.

“Why is Marley crying?” Luna presses.

“It’s nothing,” the oldest repeats as she ushers her sobbing sister further through the cafeteria. “We’re going to finish our dinner at home.”

Luna follows them to the door.

“Michaela,” she calls out.

The vamp turns to her quickly. “Let it go, Liz,” she whispers.

She then turns back to her sister and walks out of the room. Luna watches them leave before turning to their table and walking over. We all stare in silence as she lifts the top of the sandwich and spots the rat.

She turns to Chayton and tosses the bread down on the table before storming out after her friends.

Guilt hits me. Not for what was done to the bloodsuckers, but for the fact the actions hurt our Luna. I walk over to Chayton.

“Get this cleaned up,” he demands of the pack. His anger is so obvious it washes over the room like a wave.

The members quickly get into action to clean up the rat. Chayton storms out of the room. Without being told, I know he wants me to follow him.

As soon as I step out the door, he turns around to face me.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he shouts. “I asked you to deal with this and you let them pull this stunt?”

“I didn’t know about the rat. But it’s not that serious. They’re blowing it out of proportion because Luna walked in. It was just a prank.”

Chayton snarls at me. “That prank could have killed her sister.”

My thoughts freeze.

“What are you talking about?”

He runs a hand down his face. “I’ve been doing some research about vampires. Apparently, they can’t take blood from dead things. It makes them severely sick; some even die. That prank could have killed her.”

A knot forms in my belly and my chest tightens. I can only imagine how the oldest one would have felt if her sister died. She seems overly protective of the young leech. An image of how chipper the youngest one was right before she found the rat plays in my head.

I shake the image away.

“Don’t pretend like you would care if one of them died. They aren’t innocent.”

Chayton shakes his head. “What have they done to you? Not all vampires, but those two, particularly?”

I want to say exist, but I don’t think that would win me any points right now.

“We are trying to cope with this the best we can,” I grit out through clenched teeth.

He rocks back on his feet, tossing his hands in the air. “Yeah, well right now, you’ve just proven to my wife and your Luna that we are the monsters and not them.” He turns and storms off, leaving me alone.

My whole goal is to prove to Elizabeth that befriending a vampire is not a good thing. I guess today we fucked that up.

“Fuck,” I growl.

“How mad is he?” Zyion says, coming up behind me.

I turn to face him.

“Pissed,” I say to him. “Apparently, the dead rat could have killed the vamp.”

Zyion grimaces. “She took that better than I would’ve.”

I cock my head to the side, wondering what he means.

“Think about it. If a room full of vamps would’ve tried to kill my little brother, there’d be a lot of bloody corpses lying around.”

He had a point. The oldest leech was pissed. I could feel her anger radiating off her as if it was my own. Yet, she didn’t even try to fight. Hell, she didn’t even rat us out to Luna. There isn’t that much self-control in the world.

“She’s hiding something,” I say out loud as the thought comes.

Zyion’s brow dips. “Like what?”

“I don’t know. But she’s not telling us something. As bad as she hates us, she can’t leave. Something has her stuck here with us.”

“You’re not buying the whole forced marriage thing?”

I rub my chin. “I’m not sure. But I know I need to find out.”