Chapter 121 121
“Don’t tell me I’ve accidentally walked into some kind of movie,” she muttered under her breath, shock numbing her senses.
Her eyes scanned the enormous warehouse carefully. Every shadow felt alive. Every echo made her heart skip. Keeping low, she tiptoed through the darkness, weaving between massive wooden crates until she reached Damien.
No one else was in sight.
“What?” Damien growled suddenly.
His head snapped up, eyes locking directly onto her hiding spot. They pierced through the darkness like blades.
How the hell could he see her? She was concealed behind huge boxes, swallowed by shadows.
“What the fk are you doing here?” he hissed, attempting to struggle against the chains only to grit his teeth as pain shot through him. The metal seemed to sear his skin, a faint hiss escaping him as if it burned on contact.
Jacqueline’s nose wrinkled at his tone.
Stepping out of the shadows, she marched straight toward him, planted her hands on her hips, and glared down at him.
“You are such an ignorant, rude asshle,” she shot back. “I came all the way here to save your ass.”
Damien froze.
For a split second, his eyes widened just slightly as though her words had genuinely stunned him.
“I know I’m pretty and all, and you can take a mental picture to stare at later,” she continued impatiently, “but right now, tell me how to get you out of these creepy chains that are literally burning your skin.”
She poked at one cautiously to test it.
It didn’t burn her.
Lucky.
“Get out of here,” he muttered darkly, his gaze sweeping the warehouse as if searching for someone unseen.
“I came here to save you and you’re telling me to leave?” she snapped. “Either you’re coming with me, or we both sit here and wait for that Noël guy to show up.”
With stubborn defiance, she plopped down on the dusty floor and crossed her arms, huffing.
Damien stared at her as if she had lost her mind.
His jaw clenched. His gaze dropped to the ground.
This woman is not right in the head, he thought grimly.
Fine.
If reason didn’t work, maybe fear would.
“Noël is a vampire,” Damien said calmly.
Jacqueline sprang to her feet so fast it startled him. Instead of screaming, she grabbed the back of the chair on either side of his head and leaned in close, her eyes glittering.
“Damn! That’s so cool,” she breathed, excitement sparkling across her face.
Damien blinked.
“What?”
“And you’re his enemy because you know what he really is,” she rushed on, imagination running wild. “So he kidnapped you because he wants to kill you. Oh my God does he drink your blood first? I actually want to see him. Can sunlight kill him? Oh! That’s why he took you at night. I wonder how old he is. Hundreds of years? Is he as handsome as you? Oh wait”
She froze.
“You just told me he’s a vampire. Would he kill me too? Sht. You traitor. I came here to save you and now my life is in danger”
“SHUT THE FK UP!” Damien roared.
The viciousness in his voice sliced through the air, sending a chill straight into her bones. She stumbled back, fear flashing across her face.
“S… sorry,” she whispered automatically, the first word that came to mind.
Moving behind him, she examined the chains binding his torso and arms. She tried to loosen them, but the metal refused to budge. Every attempt only made the sizzling worse against his skin.
“It’s burning you,” she murmured, guilt creeping in.
Not knowing what else to do, she quickly shrugged out of her button-up shirt and carefully wrapped it around his arms, creating a barrier between his skin and the chains.
It worked.
The burning lessened.
Thin tendrils of smoke still rose faintly from where the metal had scorched him, but he didn’t even flinch.
How high was his pain tolerance?
She stepped back around to face him. Beneath her open shirt, she wore a fitted black roll-neck top.
“The chains won’t open,” she said quietly.
Damien exhaled slowly and shut his eyes.
What was wrong with this woman?
First, she never stopped talking.
Second, she never listened.
Third, she delighted in pushing him to his limits, pressing every last button just to see his reaction.
And fourth she irritated him beyond comprehension.
Not to mention her ridiculous habit of sprinting down the university corridors like a rabbit fleeing a predator. Or her constant attempts to set him up with her friend Thérèse. At first, he had assumed she was playing unpaid matchmaker.
Later, he realized she might actually have a few loose screws.
He remembered the day she had tampered with his uniform. The moment he put it on, he had caught her scent all over it. He knew instantly she had messed with it and changed before anyone noticed.
She was insane.
Then there was the time he passed her classroom and caught her scent mixed with three unfamiliar male ones. Something had compelled him to look inside.
What he saw had ignited something dark in him.
Some idiot had her pinned against the wall.
She had looked terrified.
And as if fate enjoyed tormenting him, the professor had paired her with him out of the entire class.
Of course.
All he had ever wanted was to be left alone.
But she had made it her mission to test his patience daily.
“Leave while you still can,” he warned coldly, opening his eyes.
She frowned at him.
“A ‘thank you’ would’ve been nice,” she muttered. “The spell Noël put on these chains? The one burning your skin? I kind of outsmarted it. You’re welcome for saving you from turning into a roasted chicken.”
He had noticed what she did.
And the fact that she reacted to Noël being a vampire with excitement instead of terror completely scrambled his brain.
She hadn’t panicked.
If she ever found out what he was…
He doubted she’d react normally to that either.
And then there was the perfume.
She smelled like him.
She had used his fragrance.
What went on inside her head?
“Well, well, well,” a deep, chilling voice echoed through the warehouse, reverberating off the empty walls. “What a pleasant surprise… human.”