Chapter 5: A Grand Inquisition

I leaned against the wall, arms crossed, sunglasses covering my eyes. Not that I needed them in the hallway, but I would as soon as I stepped outside.

Chloe barreled out of the room, then came to a sudden, abrupt stop when she noticed me.

Her heart fluttered, and everything about her screamed frazzled. I bit back a smile at the effect I had on her. If she only knew what she did to me every time I saw her. “Chloe.”

“What’re you doing standing there?”

And here I thought she was happy to see me. Had I misjudged her reaction? I listened intently for a beat—her heart was still fluttering, and her breathing had become slightly more labored. No, she wasn’t upset I was waiting for her. She was caught off guard.

“I thought I saw Abby leave. Do you have a ride home?” I asked.

“No. I’m walking.” She adjusted the strap of her backpack, hitching it higher on her shoulder.

While no other vampires were currently calling Keene Valley home, that didn’t mean there weren’t others nearby, and after what had happened to her earlier in the hallway, no way was I going to let her walk home. Any number of atrocious things could happen to her.

“I’ll drive you,” I said.

“Won’t your brother be upset?”

I flinched. Why was she asking about my brother? “Why would Jax care if I drive you home?”

“Because he doesn’t like me.”

So she’d noticed that. Of course she had. Jax wasn’t exactly subtle with his emotions, especially when it came to his dislike for someone or something.

I pushed off the locker. “Jax doesn’t like anyone. Besides, he left already. So, can I drive you home?” I’d never been happier that my brother was a proponent of truancy.

Chloe took several deep breaths. I waited, content to stand here and listen to her still racing heart. That was a sound I was quickly coming to love, second only to the sound of her voice.

“That’s really not necessary, but thanks.” She headed for the side door and pushed her way outside. A gust of wind blew her hair around her face, carrying her scent directly to me.

Inhaling deeply, I followed her outside. “It’s the least I can do. Consider it repayment for what you did today.” I grinned.

She continued to walk, and I tamped down the urge to growl with frustration. I wouldn’t force her to let me drive her home, but I wouldn’t let her walk alone, either. If need be, I’d follow without her knowledge, just to ensure she made it home safely, because no way could I live with myself if something happened to her—something I might be able to prevent.

She stopped and said, “I took the fall with Mr. Patterson because it was the right thing to do, not because I was hoping to get something from you. So, no, I don’t need you to give me a ride home as some sort of repayment. You don’t owe me anything, okay? We’re even.” She took a deep breath. “Besides, you showed up for detention anyway, so I really didn’t do anything.”

I hesitated for a moment. She had a point there—I did suffer through detention, too. Although, I wouldn’t exactly call spending an hour in her presence suffering.

“Okay. What if I want to drive you home?”

“You want to drive me home?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

I laughed. I wasn’t sure if her stubbornness and distrust were annoying or endearing. Definitely endearing. She was making me work for every moment of time with her. Not many humans had that level of restraint when it came to vampires. That only made me want to get to know her even more.

“Look, we have a history project to do. We can talk about it on the way home,” I said, shoving my hands into my pockets. Even though homework was the very last thing I wanted to do, I was desperate, and if this what I needed to do to get even a few more moments with her, then so be it. “It’s just a ride, Chloe.”

“Okay.”

I nearly cried out with relief and victory, but I managed to control myself. Barely. We walked in silence toward my truck. When we got there, I opened the door for her. She climbed in and buckled her seat belt as I went around and slid in behind the steering wheel. My face heated painfully, but I held back a wince and focused on not doing anything to bring attention to myself. The sun, despite the cloud cover, was brutal today, and now I was paying the price for standing outside too long.

“Besides, Adirondack Street isn’t out of my way,” I said as I started the engine and pulled out of the student parking lot.

“You know where I live?”

Shit. When was I going to learn to think before I spoke? Especially around her. She rarely missed anything. I nodded. Though I knew that answer wouldn’t be enough for her.

“How do you know?” she asked.

“I overheard Abby talking in the hallway earlier. She mentioned it.” The lie fell easily from my lips. But would Chloe buy it?

She narrowed her eyes and shifted so she was facing me.

Tossing my sunglasses on the dashboard, I stared out the windshield and pretended not to notice how intently she was staring at me. But I did notice—every flicker of her gaze over me, every tiny movement that had her scent filling the cab of the truck, every steady breath she inhaled.

And then she leaned closer to get a better look, and everything inside of me seized with need, with raw, unhindered urges. The tips of my fangs protruded, and I locked my jaw. My muscles tensed, and I held my breath so I wouldn’t be assaulted any harder by her scent. But nothing would help me now. She was already so permanently ingrained in every part of me.

After a long moment, she leaned back in the seat and crossed her arms, almost as if she were angry with me. What had I done?

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

I looked over at her, and her breath caught. I loved knowing I was the reason she had that reaction.

She blinked repeatedly, but her gaze didn’t waver.

What was she thinking right now? I’d give anything to know what was on her mind. “Why do you keep staring at me like that?” I asked.

“Uh, I don’t…” She shook her head. “Sorry.”

Then it hit me. She’d been staring at my eyes. They often shifted shades of blue depending on my emotions. Most of the time, I didn’t even realize it was happening. One more thing I was going to have to be conscious of while I was around her. At least until I told her the truth anyway.

“Okay then.” I put my sunglasses back on and refocused my attention on driving.

“Why do you always wear those?”

“My eyes are sensitive to sunlight.” Not a lie.

“Oh.” She paused. “Then, why were you wearing them in Mr. Patterson’s class today?”

I wanted to laugh with manic hysteria. Even when I gave her a truthful answer, she still wouldn’t accept it without needing to know more. Not that I was upset she wanted to know about me—that had to mean she was interested, right?—but the things she chose to focus on were things I wasn’t quite ready to divulge just yet.

“I like to wear them, okay? They make me look cool.”

“Then why didn’t you just say that in the first place?”

I sighed. “What’s your obsession with my sunglasses?”

She took a deep breath and was silent for several moments. Was she finally going to let this go? I hoped so because I wasn’t sure how many more lies I could come up with about such a mundane and ridiculous topic.

“Why don’t you have any friends?” she asked.

I laughed. Yeah, she was definitely going to keep me on my toes, and that excited the hell out of me. “What makes you think I don’t have any friends?”

“I never see you with anyone but your brother.”

“You’ve been here two days, Chloe. That doesn’t make you an expert on my social life.” Not that I had a bustling social life, but I wasn’t some friendless loser, either. My friends just happened to be scattered across the globe instead of trudging through the hells of high school.

“No, I guess it doesn’t.”

“Besides, I’m new around here, too, remember? I simply haven’t had time to make any friends.” I sliced a look in her direction. Time to figure out where I stood with her so I could decide my next steps. “Except for you. You’re my friend, aren’t you?”

“Am I?”

Well, that wasn’t the rousing “yes” I’d hoped for. Did she truly believe we weren’t friends? If what was going on between us wasn’t a budding friendship, then what was it? Maybe deep down she didn’t want anything to do with me but was too polite to say so. Jax had warned me, more than once, that Chloe’s aura was pure white, so assuming she’d be nice to me simply because she didn’t want to be mean and hurt my feelings wasn’t too farfetched. Was that what was going on here?

Maybe I needed to back off a little. See what she said or did and allow her to be the one to decide what, if anything, would transpire between us. Granted, anything that might happen would ultimately be her choice, but I had been rather… pushy in trying to find ways to spend time with her.

“I’m sorry,” I said after several moments of tense silence.

“For what?” she asked.

But that was just one of many questions I couldn’t answer. Not yet. The faint scent of blood, smoke, and burnt rubber wafted toward me. I honed in my hearing. There was a car accident with severe injuries. And sure enough, a second later, I had to slow to a stop for traffic that was backed up. The smell of the blood was a lot stronger, and I couldn’t stop the low, throaty growl that rumbled from within. I was going to need to feed again tonight.

I made a U-turn and headed back the way we’d just come. “We’ll have to go the long way.” Before Chloe could question me about anything else, I turned the inquisition around on her. “Who was Abby with?”

“What?”

“Last night when I found you on the side of the road. You said Abby was meeting some boy. Who was she with?”

“Why do you care who Abby was with?”

She really couldn’t answer a question directly, could she? Not that I had any room to talk. I was constantly answering her questions with one of my own, too. Though me doing that was sheer self-preservation. What were her reasons for deflecting?

“Marc Johnson,” she said.

“Hmm.”

“Why do you care?” she asked again.

“I was just curious.”

I knew the Zoya often used aliases, but was Johnson one of them? I was going to have to ask Sean when I got home. Because if the Zoya were back in Keene Valley, too… I didn’t want to think about what would happen or who might be caught in the crossfire.

“Why?” she pressed.

“Does it matter?” I asked.

She took a deep breath, her teeth clenched so hard I could hear the faint grinding of bone on bone. I needed to do something quick to salvage this conversation.

“I’ll tell you what…” I pulled into her driveway. “You answer one of my questions honestly, and I’ll do the same. Deal?”

I killed the engine and rested my arms on the steering wheel. But I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t, or else I might end up blurting out my secret. Or dragging her into my arms and kissing her. I prayed whatever question she chose to ask me wouldn’t be too difficult to answer honestly.

“Deal. Why did you show up at detention today?”

That was her question? I was getting off easily. Not that I was going to complain. “Because it was the right thing to do.” Not a lie. Though the real reason I went was so I could be closer to her.

She was silent, and so was I. I fully expected her to ask another question, but she didn’t. Guess that meant it was my turn.

“What happened in the hallway today, Chloe? You were shaking when I found you.” I finally turned to look at her, and my lips were set in a firm line. Concern pulled at my brows.

I needed to know what was up with this Marc Johnson character and why he was messing with Chloe. Because my instincts were telling me he was at the center of whatever had happened to her today.

“I’m not sure I can explain it.” Her voice trembled slightly.

“Try. Please.”

“I got lost.” She bit on her bottom lip and averted her gaze. “There was fog in the hall. It was thick and smelled really bad.”

There hadn’t been any fog in the hallway. Nor had there been any bad smells. She’d been hallucinating. Or someone had made her see those things. That was a nasty little trick the Zoya liked to use to play with and torment their victims.

“Is that all?” I asked slowly, almost cautiously. I didn’t want to upset her with my question, especially when she was already so upset and scared.

She shrugged. “Right before that, I passed Marc in the hallway. He mumbled something that sounded like ‘get lost,’ but I’m not sure. It was just a weird coincidence.”

“A coincidence.” My disbelief was evident in my tone.

“It’s probably stress and lack of sleep,” she said and fidgeted with the zipper on her backpack.

Based on the way she was fidgeting and avoiding looking at me, telling me all of that hadn’t been easy for her. I wished I could tell her she wasn’t wrong or crazy or suffering consequences from a lack of sleep, but doing so would require a much longer explanation. I wasn’t ready for that conversation, and she wasn’t, either.

“Thank you,” I said.

She jerked her head up. “Thank you? That’s all you have to say?”

Okay, apparently that had been the wrong answer. What else was I supposed to say, though? “You should probably stay away from Marc,” I said after a moment.

If only I the tiniest bit of faith that she’d heed my warning. I removed my sunglasses and tossed them onto the dashboard.

“Yeah, I’ll work on that.” Sarcasm dripped from her tone.

She got out of my truck and slammed the door harder than necessary. I cringed. A quick glance around to make sure no one was watching, and I was out of the truck in a flash.

I met her around on the passenger’s side. “Hey, I didn’t mean to upset you.” I shoved my hands into my pockets.

“You didn’t.”

She turned to leave but was violently and involuntarily jerked backward, causing her to lose her balance. The strap of her bag was caught in the door.

Once again, I was quick to wrap my arms around her waist and pull her toward me. Our faces were inches apart, just like in the hallway earlier. She stared up into my eyes, her heart thundering. Heat whipped through me, flaring to life an unquenchable need that only she would ever be able to satisfy. Now more than ever I wanted to come clean about everything, to lay my soul bare at her feet, to beg her to love me despite what I was.

“Easy there.” I tucked some stray strands of hair behind her ear and then lightly dragged my fingers along her jaw and across her chin.

I had absolutely no right to touch her like this, but she wasn’t stopping me, so I took full advantage of the permission she gave and allowed myself to memorize the feel of her, of the angle of her jaw. The curve of her lips. Her skin was incredible soft and warm. And then her eyes fluttered closed in anticipation of a kiss that I wanted more than she’d ever know. Too bad I wasn’t strong enough to kiss her, to have the control I’d need to be able to stop and walk away.

With one hand, I reached behind her and opened the door, freeing the strap. Then, as fast as I’d caught her, I released her. If I didn’t, I’d cross a line I’d forever regret.

She cleared her throat. “Thanks.”

I took a step back. “Sure.”

“Um, would you like to come inside?”

I tilted my head. She was inviting me inside? I’d never wanted to say yes more in my life, but I was barely hanging on to my emotions as it was. Another moment alone with her and I’d lose what little control I had left.

“For what?” I asked.

“A drink? Or we could work on our history paper.”

“You want to work on our history paper?” When I’d suggested that same reasoning, she’d been a little offended. Funny how she was now grasping at the same flimsy excuses I had been.

She threw her hands in the air in exasperation. “Do you always have to respond with a question of your own? You do know that’s rude, don’t you? Or didn’t anyone ever bother to teach you any manners?”

Oh, damn! Apparently I’d pushed her a little too far. I wanted to be upset about that, but she was incredibly sexy when she was angry. Though, she had to realize the irony of her questions, right? I faked a cough and averted my gaze.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“Nothing, it’s just… You ask so many questions.”

She scoffed. “Goodbye, Trent. Thanks for the ride home.” She turned and stormed toward the house.

The sight of her walking away from me was like a hot poker to the heart. I couldn’t let her leave without knowing for certain I’d see her again. On my terms. “Chloe?”

She stopped and turned back toward me. “Trent?”

“Would it be all right if I drove you to school Monday morning?”

“You want to drive me to school?”

“Is that a problem?” I asked.

She closed her eyes and sighed. “No, it’s not a problem.” She shifted on her feet. “But what’re you hoping to get out of giving me another ride?”

My mouth twitched and then curled into a smile. She’d said yes. “More questions.” Then I got back into my truck and drove off.