Page 123 of Spark of Sorcery

“Feed on the weak?” I cry. He can’t mean …

“What do you think I was doing out in the forest last night, Miss Storm? Searching for my next feed.” He must register the horror on my face and the way I shrink from him. “Not humans,” he spits, “I’m not a monster.”

“Then what?” I ask.

“Deer mostly,” he says with disgust. “Rabbits and squirrels if I’m desperate.”

I let out the breath I was holding.

If he wants my sympathy, I’m finding it hard to give it to him. Then again, I know what it’s like to have no options, for others to dictate your decision.

“The vampire who forced you to–”

“Didn’t force,” he says firmly. “Fool that I am, I chose this existence, Briony.”

Chapter Forty-Six

Dray

“That’s it!” I say, slamming back the door. The lights are out and I click my fingers. They flick back on and the little kitten and the professor jolt in surprise. He’s lurking by the bed, but scurries away back into the shadows, hissing as he does. “I don’t know what freaky made-up shit, he’s told you. But he is not your fated mate and there is no way in his twisted version of hell he’s sinking his fangs into you.”

“What?!” she says in alarm. Like the little thing hadn’t considered that.

Isn’t that every freaking girl’s fantasy? To be pinned down and sucked off by a vampire? That or pinned down and taken by a fucking great wolf.

The professor slinks further into the shadows, shame sagging his shoulders, and if I was a properly functioning human being, I’d feel sorry for him.

But I’m not, she’s ours.

“I need to think about this – all of it,” she says next, rubbing at her forehead.

“There’s nothing to think about,” I snarl.

“I’m too tired to argue right now,” she says, with a sigh of exasperation.

“You need to rest,” Beaufort and the professor say at the same time, before glowering at one another.

This situation is fucked up.

“I agree,” she says, and Beaufort looks shocked out of his skin. That must be the first time ever that she has. “So can you all just leave me in peace.”

“We need to stay here and protect–” Beaufort starts, but that momentary snap of time where she was agreeing with him has ended.

“No, I need you all to leave me alone so I can think about all of this.”

“We’re not leaving the clinic,” Beaufort says.

“Me neither,” the professor says.

“Don’t you have class to teach?” I say.

“Don’t you have class to attend?”

“Fine, stay in the clinic if you want, just get out of this room,” the little kitten snaps, her claws now out.

“Come on,” Thorne tells us all, moving towards the door.

“I need to talk to you first,” she says. I grin at the professor. His jaw tightens. “Just Thorne,” she clarifies and now the professor is smirking right back at me.