My insides quivered at his question. "No!" I mean our making out and blood swapping could be considered a date, I guess."Are you embarrassed by me, Snowflake?" Chace asked. "Don't call me that," I growled, smacking him on the arm. Only Gabe was allowed to call me that. Besides, what did he think was going on? Were we an item?"Whatever you command, my queen," he inclined his head slightly.Self-conscious, I searched the room and caught hold of Cindy's perceptive glare. "What the hell?" she mouthed.I shrugged and turned back to Chace. His words, "my queen," made me think of another question. I, technically, wouldn't be his queen. My body would, but her spirit would be inside mine. Right? I filed the question in the thickening folder labeled Seriously Wacky Stuff. "You need to stop."Chace laughed. "Fine. I will. For now." Then he winked. "Can I call you Frosty?"I lifted my brow. "You can call me Frosty when Hell freezes over, m-kay?" I gave him a sinister look but laughed too.
"Oh, well, they shouldn't care." I signaled them to come over, casually tightening my scarf. They nodded. A thought struck me, and I started to panic. "They don't know who you are, do they?" I hissed, keeping my eyes glued on the guys' movements."No. At least I don't think so." He shrugged. "But then they are Adam Henry's sons, so anything's possible." I heard what sounded like a note of awe in his words and wondered why.The guys picked up their food and headed over. I searched their faces, trying to discern whether they knew. I didn't think so. If they had, they probably would've been a lot more hostile."Hi, guys," I said, feeling suddenly nervous. Thankfully we were still in the lunchroom at school. If the guys wanted to punch out Chace, at least they wouldn't do it here. "Hey, Snow," Salvatore said."Heyah," Sebastian added, taking a huge bite of pizza. "Aren't you going to eat?"I glanced at the unappetizing salad sitting in front of me. "Not hungry," I responded, keeping m
I watched my classmates exit the commons area, doing my best to be okay with mine and Chace's history. The hunter was new to me but I wasn't to him. Pops said hunters marked us when we were young. Since Christopher/Chace marked me, how long had he been around? Or had he just recently returned to bite me? So many questions. None of them could be answered right now.Should I consider him a stalker? Not that I could call the police. And Pops was aware of him. He'd told me to be careful.As I walked over to dump my tray, I decided I had no idea what I was getting myself into with him.***The final three classes of the day were torture. Not because I wanted to drink the blood of my fellow classmates. No. I was agitated and couldn't stop thinking about Cindy, about revenant training, and about Christopher coming over. My thoughts made it hard to focus on schoolwork. I had a feeling if Professor Pops knew what I'd been doing, he'd be upset, or at least concerned. But he'd fallen in lov
I yelped, covering my head with my hands as my shoulders rose to my ears. Water dripped from my bangs onto my nose and cheeks. The air smelled wet and of peppermint. An eerie gloom gathered around the field in the form of fog."Coach, are we going in?" someone shouted."Yeah, coach, we can't run in this.""Are you men and women, or mice?" Coach roared over the rain, tipping his burgundy cap lower on his head.There was collective grumbling as we all made our way to the track.Christopher touched my arm lightly. "Catch me if you can, Frosty." He grinned and took off.I watched him, his fluid body moving in perfect strides.As I watched Chace run, it was like his feet barely skimmed the ground. Wiping the hair off my face, I started to run.One foot in front of the other. I could do this. This time I knew it. I sensed the changes. When I'd run in the past, my body would tense, my knees would freeze, and, according to Cindy, it looked like I had a board shoved up my derriere. It felt
I didn't think so.After several moments I heard him suck in a breath."What? What's wrong?" I asked, trying to turn my head so that I could see him.One of his large hands appeared. Something was pinched between his thumb and first finger. I squinted, and suddenly my eyes adjusted like the lens on a microscope. A tiny arrow, no bigger than a sliver. "What. Is. That?""It's a pixie's arrow. The tip has been dipped in a toxin. I need to make a poultice to draw out the poison. The ingredients are nearby, but I'll be out of sight.""Don't go," I cried.He ran his hands through my wet hair. "You'll be safe here. Only a creature whose heart is pure can pass through the enchantments I've put around this place." He came near so that I could see him. "You'll be fine," he added."Where are we?" I asked, changing the subject, trying to keep him with me a little longer.Christopher's eyebrows furrowed in a way I was beginning to understand meant he was anxious."We are in Sharra, the realm of th
I bit my cheek. Christopher told me nothing could pass through the enchantments unless they had a pure heart. That meant these pixilettes wouldn't hurt me, didn't it?I nodded at Arianna and closed my eyes.For what seemed like hours, I couldn't feel anything, only heard the occasional tinkling, which I now knew was the pixilettes laughing. I also smelled oregano.They are seasoning you and intend to eat you for dinner, I thought sourly. The sensation started to come back into my legs. It felt like pins and needles were doing a tap dance on my thighs. I wanted to rub them or shake them to get rid of the pain, but Arianna told me to hold still. Gritting my teeth, I stayed steady, and my mind drifted until I was someplace else. ***"Christopher Charming, get in here!" The voice sounded muffled.I looked down at myself and saw I was transparent, like mist. Reaching out to touch my arm, my fingers went right through me. Gasping, I swung in a circle, trying to figure out where I'd
Suddenly the magazine flew out of his hand with a thwack, followed by the sounds of voracious laughter. Christopher's shoulders tensed, and he turned."What's the big idea?" he asked, and I perceived his barely contained rage.The large guy in the middle stepped forward, the others flanking him. There were five. Even in ghost form, my heart started pounding in my throat, making it difficult to understand what was said, but I gathered they wanted a fight. That didn't seem fair, five against one. The leader shoved Christopher, causing his shoulder to smack against the magazine rack. He righted himself and adjusted his shirt. The muscles in his shoulders relaxed, and he smirked. I knew that smirk."You'll pay for that," Christopher said quietly.The leader's mouth dropped. "I doubt it, dickhead.""How about we step outside and find out." Christopher's tone was smooth, in control. Did he understand what was happening? Did he want to fight them?Christopher looked seventeen or eighte
A confused look clouded Christopher's features, but he nodded, and they all vanished into the night.I expected to be pulled along after him, but that didn't happen. My ghostly body remained near the blood. The vampire queen, the other two women - probably worker vampires - left. And I remained. Alone.For some reason, kusala and akusala, those strange words Christopher spoke to me last night, came to mind. Had those boys been evil, and the vampire queen good? Did she really save him? Sure, he still walked and talked and breathed. But at what cost? Had he become an empty shell? A plaything for the queen?Is that what I would become. No! I was more than what my body would become. Christopher was too. He cared about me, didn't he? Frustrated, I crossed my arms, wondering why I was still there. I was about to take my misty carcass back to Christopher's house when I noticed something familiar in Christopher's blood.The wooden bear he'd carved.Hovering so that my nose almost