Chapter 65: Vampire's Whore

POV: Carly

Tommy was not done.

She had known he was not done the moment he stepped away from the table and the specific quality of his silence told her he was not walking away, he was recalibrating.

She had been right.

He came back through the cafeteria doors with his pack filing in behind him and the amber already bleeding into his eyes and the controlled low voice that was somehow more frightening than yelling.

"Fuckin' Niko Monroeson." He said. Looking at her. Just at her. "Really."

She stood up. "Tommy."

"I gave you the chance to come clean today." He said. "I asked you directly and you wouldn't give me a name."

"I told you everything that mattered."

"You didn't tell me this." He said. The word this aimed at Niko like a blade.

The cafeteria had gone quiet again. The second silence of the day, different from the first. This one had teeth.

She kept her voice even. "I know you're angry. You have every right to be angry. What I did was wrong and I own that. But we need to do this somewhere else."

He laughed. "You didn't seem worried about somewhere else when you walked in here and made your announcement."

She pressed her lips together.

He was not wrong.

"I hurt you." She said. "I know that. I'm sorry for how this happened. Genuinely."

"Don't." He said. "Don't give me the apology right now because right now I don't want it."

He looked at Niko.

Niko looked back. Completely still. Completely present.

"You must be very proud of yourself." Tommy said to him.

"Not particularly." Niko said.

"She was never like this before you." Tommy said. "Never skipping class. Never sneaking off campus. Never lying to people who actually cared about her."

"Tommy." Carly said.

"I'm talking to him." He said.

"Well I'm asking you not to." She said.

He looked at her and something in his face cracked open briefly before the anger covered it back up.

"You want to know what I think." He said quietly. "I think you're smarter than this. I think you know exactly what he is and what he's capable of and you're choosing to ignore it because he makes you feel like something special. And one day when he's done playing boyfriend you'll figure out you were never special to him at all. You were just something he couldn't have."

The cafeteria was completely silent.

She felt the words land and felt Niko go very still beside her and felt every pair of eyes in the room fixed on the three of them.

She opened her mouth.

Tommy stepped closer. "You're a vampire's whore Carly. That's what they'll all say. And maybe I would've said otherwise once but right now standing here looking at you I can't find a reason not to agree."

The air went out of the room.

She heard it. Felt it. The collective intake of breath from every table.

She stood completely still with her face burning and her eyes stinging and her hands clenched at her sides.

Then Niko was standing in front of her.

Not touching her. Just there. Between her and Tommy's words like a wall that had appeared quietly and permanently.

"I think." He said. His voice was completely level. "That you should walk away right now."

Tommy looked at him. "Or what."

"Or I'm going to stop being reasonable about this." Niko said. Still level. Still controlled. "And I've been very reasonable so far."

Tommy stepped forward. "You don't scare me Monroeson. Never did."

"Then you're not paying attention." Niko said.

"She picked you." Tommy said. "She picked a cold blooded killer over someone who actually loved her. You think that says something good about either of you?"

"Walk away." Niko said again.

"Not before I say this." Tommy's eyes went back to Carly around Niko's shoulder. "He's using you. You know that right. He always gets what he wants and then he moves on and you'll be left with nothing. No boyfriend. No best friend. No coven. Nothing. Just him. And when he's done you won't even have that."

"You know what mate." Niko said pleasantly.

Then his fist connected with Tommy's jaw.

The impact was clean and fast and Tommy went back hard into the table behind him and the tray on it went with him and the room erupted.

POV: Tommy

He hit the table and felt the blood immediately.

His hand went to his mouth and came away red and he sat there on the floor for exactly two seconds processing what had just happened.

Then he was on his feet.

And then everything was chaos.

His pack was already moving. The vampires were already on their feet. Someone threw something from the witch table and then it did not matter who started it because everyone was in it and the cafeteria had become something unrecognizable in about thirty seconds.

He found Niko in the middle of it.

They went at each other properly this time. No posturing. No speeches. Just the specific violence of two people who had been circling each other for months finally arriving at the center.

He got a punch in. Felt the satisfaction of it land.

Niko ducked the next one.

They kept going.

Somewhere in the back of his mind underneath all of it Tommy was aware that this was not going to end well for either of them. That Niko Monroeson could kill him with very little effort if he decided to and was currently choosing not to for reasons that Tommy was not going to examine right now.

He threw another punch.

He was angry.

He had earned the right to be angry.

He thought about Carly's face when Niko had stepped in front of her. The way she had looked at the back of his head. The way her hand had found his arm to pull him back.

He threw another punch.

He needed to be angry for a little while longer.

Then something happened.

A sound.

Or not exactly a sound. More like the absence of one and the presence of something else entirely. Something that bypassed his ears and went directly into his skull and made every muscle in his body seize at once.

He hit the floor.

He lay there with his hands over his ears that were not actually helping and his eyes pressed shut and thought that whatever Carly McPherson had just done he was genuinely impressed despite everything.

Then he thought nothing for a few seconds because thinking was not possible.

Author's Note:

He stepped in front of her without hesitating and then threw the first punch and I understand both impulses completely. And Tommy on the floor thinking he was genuinely impressed despite everything is the most honest thing he has said in this entire story. Drop a like and tell me in the comments, was the punch justified or did Niko make it worse?