The Return

to me. I couldn’t stop staring at the people at the other tables.

And they were staring at us.

Not for the same reason I was staring—my eyes were glued to them due to their crazy insanely good looks. Everyone looked like they had stepped off a film screen or runway. Almost everyone had startling eye colors—bright sky-blue, emerald-green, whiskey-brown, and even purple.

Who in the hell had amethyst-colored eyes?

Some of the students—I guessed they were students—weren’t paying attention to us. They were huddled in little groups at the tables, textbooks spread out between them. It was so painfully familiar that it forged a lump in my throat, but others were looking, and I couldn’t say their looks were all that friendly.

A nearby icy blonde with deep, forest-green eyes stared in our direction, her full lips pressed together. Beside her, a tall and lanky guy with reddish-brown hair had his baby-blue eyes narrowed in our direction. Maybe I was paranoid.

I twisted around and glanced over my shoulder in the other direction. A brunette with a perfect nose curled her lip up.

Okay. Not so paranoid.

Popping back around, I met Deacon’s gray gaze. “Is it just me or…?”

“Is everyone staring over here? Yep.” He leaned forward, holding another strip of crispy bacon. “Some of them are staring because they think you’re mortal and they don’t understand why you’re here.”

Sitting beside him, Luke nodded. “We’ve never really been close to mortals. Having to hide what we are makes any kind of relationship with them difficult, so seeing a mortal here is like spotting a unicorn or chimera.” I arched a brow.

“Plus…well, I’m a pure,” Deacon explained as he munched away.

“And I’m a half,” Luke explained. “They don’t give a crap about the fact we’re both guys and together, but a half and a pure? Gasp!” He widened his eyes as he dramatically clutched at his chest. “Oh, the horror.”

“Seth said something about that changing?” I pushed my bacon around on my plate, not really hungry when I could feel a hundred beautiful people staring at me. Everyone knowing about my family’s business reminded me of high school; the only difference was that everyone here was hot. “A Breed Order?”

“Yeah, the whole law saying we can’t be together has been abolished, but you can’t erase thousands of years of assholery in a year.” Luke shrugged a shoulder, but his jaw strained. “Some pures think we’re below them and have looked down on us since the dawn of man. It’s going to take a while for that to change.”

“That’s terrible,” I whispered, fiddling with my bottle.

“It was just this last year that I finally had some control over my life,” he said, brows knitting together. Deacon reached over, placing his hand atop Luke’s, and my chest got all gushy. “I was always going to be a Sentinel. Trained since I was eight for it, because I didn’t have a choice.”

“And now you do.” Curiosity got the best of me. “So what are you doing now?”

He glanced at Deacon and grinned as their gazes met. A moment passed, and it was like they forgot about me for a second. “I still train. It’s stupid not to, since there’s obviously a lot of crazy things going on, but…”

“But he’s not an active Sentinel.” Deacon leaned back, folding his long arms across his blue sweater. “He’s taking classes.”

Luke’s grin spread. “A lot of halfs are now doing that. Some decided to keep on the path they were on, but it’s good…it’s good to have options.”

I couldn’t even fathom a life without those options. Then again, it seemed like Luke and I had reversed roles. The moment I found out what I was, I’d been stripped of those choices. And that thought messed with my already fragile grasp on everything, so I swatted it away for the time being. “So what are you studying?”

“Horticulture,” he answered.

My brows shot up. Was so not expecting that.

Luke chuckled. “Sounded different and interesting, so why not? He’s studying—or pretending to study—ancient history.”

Deacon snorted. “What about you?”

That knot swelled. “Psychology, but I guess…that doesn’t matter now.”

“Why not?” Deacon frowned, which seemed like it might be a rare sight on his handsome face.

I raised my hands. “Well, with this. It’s not like they’re letting me enroll in college. I’m here to…to basically be hidden. Not to continue my education.”

Luke studied me closely for a moment. “I’m sure, if you wanted to, Marcus would let you.”

Maybe he would, but what was the point? If I survived this, could I go back to my old life and be a psychologist? Could I go back and be anything knowing what really existed out there? Hell, all of that was banking on the very unlikely if I survived.

“Anyway.” Deacon said as he snatched a strip of bacon off my plate. “So, you and Seth? Have you hooked up yet?”

I nearly choked on my OJ. “What?”

“Hooked up? You know, got naked and had wild, animalistic sex,” Deacon clarified like I had no knowledge of slang. “It has to be animalistic sex, because I can’t picture Seth doing anything gentle and soft, like holding hands and gazing into each others’ eyes kind of stuff.”

Oh. My. God.

Luke rolled his eyes.

Warmth poured into my face as both guys waited for an answer, but I was kind of picturing that rough and raw in the flesh. Feeling like I needed to fan myself, I squirmed. “We haven’t… um, we haven’t hooked up.”

Both of their mouths dropped open, and that made me wiggle under their scrutiny more. To hide my embarrassment, I shoved bacon into my mouth, and almost moaned.

Holy shit! My taste buds orgasmed all over my mouth. It was the best bacon I’d ever tasted—salty and yet sweet, like it had been battered in maple syrup. What had I been missing sitting here and not eating?

“Wait a second,” Luke said, leaning forward. Over his shoulder, three students walked by, whispering as they stared at us. Neither guy appeared to care. “He did sleep with you last night, right?”

I nodded.

“And you two didn’t have sex?”

Shaking my head, I smashed another piece of bacon in to my mouth. God, it was the best.

Deacon stared at me like I was a mythical creature. Wait—I kind of was. “You two haven’t had sex at all?”

And yet another piece of pig made its way into my mouth as I shook my head again.

“Holy shit.” Luke rocked back in his seat. “I think that is more shocking than you being, well, what you are.”

Sadly, there was no more bacon on the plate. “Why is that so shocking?”

Deacon cocked a brow. “Seth’s a bit of a…playa. I mean, he kind of is a man-whore.” He chuckled. “And I’d know what it takes to be a man-whore.”

“True,” quipped Luke. “Deacon’s what I’d like to call ‘equal opportunity’ when it comes to sex. Well, not since me. We’re monogamous, but before…?” He shook his head.

Um.

“When he first showed up at the Deity Island Covenant— that’s where we’re from, originally—he went through half the dorm in record time,” Deacon continued.

I slowly lowered the OJ to the table as I felt my stomach drop to my toes, and that was an uncomfortable feeling when it was full of bacon. Went through half of the dorm?

“And then when he was at the Catskills, he was hooking up with this one chick.” Luke looked at his boyfriend. “What was her name?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Alex always called her Boobs, but I think it was something like Thea or Tori. Something with a T. She’s around here somewhere. Can’t miss her.”

Sitting back, I forced my lungs to work slowly. “We haven’t had sex. I mean, we just met each other.”

Luke wrinkled his nose. “That doesn’t matter when it comes to Seth.”

“Wow,” Deacon murmured.

I bit down on my lip as I tried to sort out the awful twisting motion in my belly. I shouldn’t have cared that he’d had sex with an entire college worth of girls before we met, because that was dumb. I shouldn’t have cared, because we weren’t together.

The twisty motion increased.

But there was something there between us, wasn’t there? This morning…I had seen my feelings reflected in his gaze, hadn’t I? He’d looked at me like…like he’d wanted nothing more than to kiss me.

Yet just because he wanted to get in my pants didn’t mean there was something starting between us. But he did stay—he agreed to train me, and he didn’t have to, and that had to mean something.

“You know, I think this is a good thing,” Deacon announced, jerking my gaze to him. “The fact that he hasn’t hooked up with you has to mean that he’s into you.”

And just like that, because I was stupid, the twisty motion turned into this balloon thing that was full of hope and was lifting me up right out the chair, and God, that was probably a bad sign.

“And I think it would be really good for him, you know, to be into someone, because—”

“Why don’t we take you on a tour?” Luke cut in, and Deacon looked at him sharply. “You’ve got to see this place.”

And just like that, we were up and out of the cafeteria, the guys on either side of me, and there was no more talk about Seth hooking up with me or anyone else, and within minutes, I was distracted by everything going on around me.

The place…it was something entirely foreign to me. The academic buildings were huge and ridiculously clean. The courtyards were out of this world, filled with everything from garden-variety roses to tropical flowers that smelled sweet. Marble and sandstone statues of the Greek gods were everywhere, a constant reminder that this place, no matter how nice and spectacular it was, wasn’t entirely normal.

As we followed the walkway with the strange symbols on it, I started to feel edgy—like a rush of nervous energy. I asked what the symbols were. “They’re glyphs forming wards,” Deacon explained. “Basically, spells that keep things out we don’t want in here. Like Titans. It doesn’t always work. Daimons could still get in if they got past the guards, but that’s what they are. Seth even has them on his skin.”

I frowned. “What? I didn’t see any tattoos. And he walks around shirtless a lot. Are they on his ass or something?”

Luke chuckled. “That would be interesting, but the tats on his skin can only be seen by gods or another Apollyon. Maybe even you, once you become the special sauce.”

Special sauce? Interesting, I thought, as I turned my gaze back to the large building in front of us, another one that looked like it was straight out of ancient Greece. A wave of goosebumps broke out under my sweater.

“And this is the library,” Luke announced, gesturing at the building. “We don’t go in there.”

Folding my arms against the brisk chill, I squinted my eyes up at him. “You don’t?”

He shook his head. “Libraries always weird out halfs.”

I glanced at Deacon. Shrugging, he said, “I have no idea. A lot of halfs are like that. It’s weird. They can sense daimons when we can’t. Maybe they sense something under the library.”

Another shiver curled around my stomach, a weird yearning sensation. “Under?”

“Yeah, there are always catacombs under the libraries,” Luke explained. “I have no idea what’s kept in them. Don’t plan on finding out. Come on, there’s more to see.”

Then Deacon reached down and took my hand, causing me to trip. When I glanced up at him questioningly, he just winked and kept walking, swinging our arms between us like we were small children, and I couldn’t help but grin.

And I also couldn’t help but look over my shoulder as we passed the library, and I couldn’t help but to keep looking back, wanting to go in there. Yeah, that was weird. But I was living in weird now, rolling around in it.



Lunch came and went. So did dinner with the boys, who I was guessing had decided not to go to class that day. They spent the entire day escorting me around and putting so much food in my stomach I was sure they were going to have to roll me back to my room.

Although I had thought I’d start training today, and the raw loss of my family lingered on the fringes of my thoughts, I enjoyed hanging with them. They were funny and lively and just great. Even Luke, who hadn’t seemed too keen on me this morning, spent half of his time with his arm around Deacon’s and the other around mine.

The sun had started to go bye-bye when we made our way back to the dorm, and as we entered the lobby, I saw Seth immediately. It was like my eyes were drawn past all the pretty faces right to the ultimate pretty face.

Wearing a black thermal, like Luke, and faded jeans, he stood between two bright red couches, muscular arms folded over his chest, hair pulled back.

My belly did a little jig upon seeing him, and then dropped when I realized every butt in those seats was female, all stunningly perfect and in every flavor, it seemed.

Seth turned, his amber gaze flickering over to us. He said something to a brunette, who glanced over her shoulder, and then laughed. It wasn’t a mean laugh. More like a response to whatever he said, but I sort of wanted to stab something.

He walked over to us. “Have a moment?”

“I’ve had several moments all day?”

Seth arched a brow.

Deacon whistled under his breath.

I’d said that out loud.

Flushing, I looked away and found myself staring at the back of the brunette’s head. Great.

We walked over to an empty nook, and I got busy staring at my sneakers, feeling like an idiot. There was a slight touch on my arm, and I looked up at Seth.

“Sorry about today,” he said, dropping his hand. “I got tied up doing some things.”

Words like “okay” and “all right” rolled to the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t respond, because was it okay and all right? Was I just being a bitch?

He stared at me a moment, and then turned to Luke. “I was hoping you could help us with the training, if you got the time.”

Surprise filled his expression, but he quickly masked it. “Yeah. I can do it in the afternoon. Got classes in the morning.”

“Classes? What the hell are you studying?” he asked.

Deacon beamed. “Horticulture.”

Seth frowned, opened his mouth, and then snapped it shut. “Never mind.” Glancing back down at me, I felt my breath catch. “I’m going to get you some training clothes. Okay?”

I nodded.

And that was it. Seth was out the door before I knew it, and I was in my room alone for the first time since…holy hedgehogs, since this all began. What was today? I scrubbed my fingers across my face as I sat in the middle of the bed. Monday? Tuesday? Less than a week had passed since I’d met Seth.

Less than a week.

It felt like months.

Wow. I lowered my hands and stared down at them. Everything in the whole entire world had shifted in less than a week.

That screwed with my head in a way that made it hard to breathe evenly. My trembling fingers blurred. Twisting at the waist, I stretched and snatched the remote off the nightstand, flipping on the TV and settling on the first channel I saw, because I really wasn’t seeing anything.



An hour passed and there was a knock. My heart doubled its beat as I all but dive-bombed off the bed and ran to the door, throwing it open.

It was Luke. He smiled. “I brought you some workout clothes. Seth put the order in and guessed the size.”

Trying not to let any disappointment show, I took the clothes and saw that they really were my size. Um. Okay. I didn’t know if I should be awed by that or kind of wigged out that Seth was that good at guessing women’s sizes.

And that he knew my size.

Well, no point sucking in my belly around him now.

“Thanks,” I said, glancing up at him, and then over his shoulder to the closed door that belonged to the guy who should’ve brought the clothes to me.

“I gotta run.”