Page 52 of This Blood That Binds Us

“Ooo, I know! The formal! You’re coming to that, right, Kim? Aaron already asked you, I’m sure. It’s like three of the frats on campus coming together to throw a huge party at The Conservatory.”

Kimberly looked at me for direction, and I shrugged. I had completely forgotten about the formal in all the madness.

“Uh. Yes. I’m going. When is it again?”

“Saturday night! We’ll pick you up.” Luke smiled. “It will be fun!”

“So much fun,” Zach said flatly.

My brothers smiled.

“We’ll meet you guys there in a minute, okay?” I made eye contact with Luke and motioned toward the gym.

“All right, we’re going,” Luke said.

My other brothers, thankfully, followed suit without too much of a fuss.

I turned to Kimberly and slowly let out a breath. “I was going to ask you. I—”

“I just had a really bad idea.” Kimberly looked up at me with big, innocent eyes. “You’re not going to like it.”

“Uh oh.”

“What if...we got William to the formal somehow. It would be the safest place because we’d be close to your brothers if anything went wrong. We could get William to expose himself somehow and then . . . we’ll find out what he wants. Maybe I can...ask him to go with me?”

I grimaced. It was a great idea but way too risky. Kimberly was in enough danger as it was. “Oh, absolutely not.”

“How else do you expect us to get close to him? I can be his ‘date,’ and we’ll just see what he does. If he’s trying to get me alone, we’ll be in the one place it’s almost impossible to do so. I’ve been to The Conservatory before for a local concert. It’s not too big, and you could stay close by. We’ll be able to see if he tries to compel me, and maybe we’ll be able to catch him in the act. If our lone vampire theory is correct, we can get his motive and then turn him over to your brothers. He’ll be done and dusted and then we can finally be done with this.”

“Kim, that idea makes so much sense, but there is no way I can possibly agree to let you do that.”

My stomach turned.

“I know it’s risky, but this may be our only chance to do this. Especially if he doesn’t know that I’ve caught on yet. It will look like we’re directly playing into his hand.”

She was right. Of course she was. It was clear from the look in her eyes she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. But I didn’t have to like it.

I sighed. “Does this mean, we need to go crash swim boy’s practice so you can ask him to the formal?”

She nodded, and we walked toward the gym. Her breathing hitched in her chest when we reached the entrance. I left to walk out of sight, my heart beat matched hers. Erratic.

Once again, I found myself eavesdropping. I sat where Kimberly had been sitting on the mats and put in my head phones, with no sound. The gym was loud. On top of all the TVs and work out equipment, I had to tune out the sounds of the basketballs hitting the court in front of me. Thankfully, Presley wasn’t on the court. In the next room over was a spin class. And, once again, the horrible echo of the pool room. I listened for Kimberly’s heartbeat. I found it quickly. The night in the forest must have etched its unique rhythm into my brain. I would definitely not be telling her about that creepy, newfound information.

“Hello, Kimberly, are you okay?”

William’s voice made her heart kick like a horse, the faintest sound of water dripping almost masking his words.

“I’m okay. I just wanted to ask you something that couldn’t wait.” An edge tinged in her voice. “Would you want to go to the big fraternity formal on Saturday? Aaron said I could bring someone, and I thought of you first.”

“I have to say I’m surprised. I heard of the formal, but I thought for sure Aaron would ask you first.”

He was smirking. I could hear it in the way he said my name. Vampire or not, I did not like the guy.

“He did, but he’s just a friend,” she said in one breath.

I swallowed. A burning sensation filled my stomach. The edge in Kimberly’s voice remained, and I hoped William would pass it off as nervousness.

“And I’m?” William said, slowly.