Chapter 23: Forged in Blood: Chapter 21

“You saw the way he looked at me, right? Like I’m a constant fucking disappointment to him?” Xavier grumbles.

I roll my eyes. Not this again. “It’s all in your fucking head, Xavier. He looks at us all exactly the same.”

We stop in the front yard of Onyx Dragon house. Ronan and his sidekick, Simeon, will be skulking around here somewhere, licking their wounds after we annihilated them in the fight. I have no idea how they seem surprised to lose to us every single year when it’s such a regular occurrence.

“You’re imagining it,” Malachi adds. “He was disappointed in all of us.”

“But I was the one who fucked up, as usual. I was the one who should have stopped Ophelia from going to look for fight night. I should’ve⁠—”

“Yeah, this time it was you, fuck-knuckle.” I punch him in the arm. “But you have such a fucking chip on your shoulder.”

He cracks his neck and grumbles something unintelligible. From the moment I met Xavier Adams on the streets of New York, I was fascinated by him. His blue eyes and sharp cheekbones—not to mention the dimples when he cracks a smile—are fucking mesmerizing. He has an easy confidence about him that draws people to him like a magnet. Yet inside, he harbors deep insecurities that color his every interaction with the world.

The moment I saw him, I knew I wanted him. What I didn’t realize was what a giant pain in my ass he’d become. It makes sense that never feeling good enough for his biological father, who threw him out of the house at eighteen and turned his back on him, left an indelible mark on his soul. But I wish to fuck he’d get over it.

“There they are,” Malachi tips his chin in the direction of the bushes planted along the side of the house. Sure enough, Ronan and his fellow commander, Simeon, stroll toward the front porch, the latter fishing a stray twig out of his long hair.

I flash Xavier and Malachi a grin. “Let’s go have a chat, shall we?”

We’re on them before they make it to the porch. I wrap a hand around Ronan’s throat, and Xavier takes Simeon in a headlock, twisting his arm behind his back. They both snarl, and Ronan tries to wrench from my grip, but I hold him fast. “What the fuck do you want with the pink-haired girl?”

He struggles, and I squeeze tighter, my clipped fingernails digging into his flesh. “I’d rather not rip out your throat, fuck-knuckle, but I will if you don’t answer me. And I will make it fucking hurt.”

Simeon grunts a loud protest beside me, and Xavier twists his arm higher, warning him to quit his whining.

Ronan’s lip curls and his body shakes with impotent rage. “She was alone. She smelled good, and I wanted to fucking taste her. Since when was that a crime?”

“Since she fucking belongs to us, you stupid fuck!” Malachi barks.

Ronan’s eyes narrow. “How the fuck was I supposed to know that? She doesn’t have your scent on her.”

We would love nothing more than to mark Ophelia Hart with our scent and warn her off any other vampire within a thousand-mile radius, but that isn’t an option. Ronan doesn’t need to know that though. “She might not have our scent. Yet. But make no mistake, she is ours. Sometimes we like to play with our food before we eat.” I lick my lips. “Makes them taste all the sweeter.”

Ronan scowls, and I’m not entirely sure he believes me, but he wouldn’t dare voice that aloud. We might hold the same rank, but that in no way makes us equal. I’m older, faster, stronger, and smarter. “Why are you all so interested in her anyway?” he asks instead.

“Because she smells like fucking cupcakes,” Xavier growls.

“And she’s different from the usual giggling idiots who throw themselves at us every single semester.” Not that Ronan would understand our dilemma. He was blessed with neither good looks nor charisma, and all he knows is the chase. “We like the chase. Don’t we, boys?”

Malachi and Xavier voice their agreement, but I keep my eyes fixed on Ronan. “So what were you doing with that new girl? Penelope?”

His frown deepens. “What?”

I shake him and bare my teeth. “You heard what I fucking said.”

He tries to shrug, but my grip on his neck makes him look like he’s having a muscle spasm. “She told me she hated the chick. Offered to suck my dick if I scared the shit out of her.”

I search his face for a hint that he’s lying. He’s not the smartest. However, like most vampires, he’s good at masking his feelings, and I have no desire to bite Ronan King and discover any of his secrets that way. “Just scare her? Or more?”

“I got the impression she would have been happy with more, but she didn’t explicitly say that.”

So Penelope wants the little pyro dead? But why? This has to be more than some petty high school bullying. The memory of the taste of her blood makes me gag, and I dip my head to mask my reaction from Ronan. Xavier was right, she did have a hint of troll about her, but she was fully human. Human and rotten to the core. There was something definitely not right. I clear my throat and focus my glare on Ronan once more. “Did she know what you were?”

“I dunno. She just said she’d heard I was the kind of guy who liked to fuck people up and said the chick with the pink hair would be sneaking around the woods during Fight Fest. That she’d be on her own and nobody would miss her if she didn’t make it back to her dorm after.”

I release my grip on his throat, having no reason to suspect he’s lying to me. “Did Penelope say why she wanted you to target that girl in particular?”

Ronan stretches his neck and rubs at the reddened skin on his throat. “Just said she was a freak and she hated her. I thought if I saw her and she was easy prey, then it wouldn’t be a big deal for me to bite her.” He shrugs. “Then when I found her, she smelled so fucking good …” His tongue darts out to the corner his top lip, but he snaps it back into his mouth at the furious sound that rumbles from my throat.

Yes, I know how she smells, you sack of shit. Even the memory of her scent has my mouth watering, chasing away the foulness of Penelope Nugent. Jealous rage snakes its way through my veins. “Yeah, well, I don’t care how fucking good she smells. You stay the fuck away from her from now on. Anyone goes anywhere near her and I’ll tear out their hearts and fucking eat them while they’re still beating. Do I make myself clear?”

He scowls but nods his agreement, and I turn my attention to Simeon, who’s still being restrained by Xavier. “And you?”

He glowers at me but seems to think better of arguing and mutters, “Crystal.”