Awakening (Covenant College #1) (19 page)

“What else?”

“What do you mean? There was nothing else.”

“There was something.”

I thought some more.  “One of my classmates died in a hunting accident,” I finally said.
“Conner Dalton.
He was out hunting with a bunch of friends and he got accidentally shot.”

Professor Blake nodded slowly.

“That’s what you were talking about?”

“Yes.”

“Are you saying Conner wasn’t killed in a hunting accident?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“So what killed him?”

“A werewolf.”

I was silent for a moment. My heart was racing, though. “How do you know that?”

“The signs were unmistakable. He was mauled by an animal -- a big animal. You don’t’ have bears. So what else could it have been?”

“Why were you there?”

“To handle the situation.”

“Meaning?”

“I had to make sure that Conner stayed dead.”

“What do you mean?” I felt like I was swimming in quicksand sometimes when I was talking to Professor Blake.”

“A human can get turned into a werewolf from an attack.”

“And, was Conner?”

“No. The attack was too bad. Conner was dead.”

“So you were just there for a day and left?”

“No. I was there for three days.”

“Why three days?”

Professor Blake sighed. “This is the type of thing you would learn in class. But I’m going to answer it for you. Essentially, werewolves are active for three days a month. Not one.”

“What three days?”

“The day before the full moon, the day of the full moon and the day after the full moon.”

“See! That is just like Buffy,” I exclaimed.

“You need to stop doing that,” Blake admonished.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “So why were you there three days?”

“I was hunting.” Blake’s response was simple.

“You were hunting the werewolf?”

“Yes.”

“Did you find it?”

“No.”

“Would you have killed it if you found it?”

“Yes.”

“Even though a werewolf is still human?”

“It’s still a monster that kills.”

“Do all of them kill?”

“What do you mean?” Professor Blake looked confused.

“Nothing,” I said a little too hastily.

Professor Blake didn’t look like he believed me, but he let it go. “I think it’s important for you to at least give us a chance,” he finally said.

I sighed resolutely. I knew I wouldn’t get the answers I was looking for unless I at least pretended to be a part of Blake’s cause.

“I’ll go to a class,” I sighed.
“Just one to start.”

Professor Blake smiled at my acquiescence. “Good.”

I got to my feet.
“Just one class for now.
I can’t promise anything.”

“It’s a start.”

“The start of what?”

“Your future.”

I couldn’t help but think that Professor Blake’s vision of my future was vastly different from my own.

Twenty-Two

When I left Professor Blake’s office I made my way over to the UC to meet Paris for coffee. I looked around the cafeteria, but didn’t see her. I got my café mocha and sat down at an empty table to think. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the alone time I so desperately needed.

“Did you stay after class to talk to Professor Blake?”

I looked up to see Matilda sliding into the chair across from me. She had her own coffee.
Great.

“Yeah.
I just wanted to ask him about the assignment,” I mumbled.

“He is so cute.”

“Hmm.”
Why wouldn’t she just go away? Instead, she kept chatting aimlessly. I watched her tuck her curly brown hair behind her ear as she flirted with a group of guys at a table across the aisle. At least she could multi-task – irritate me, entice them.
Two birds, one stone.

“You don’t think he’s cute?”

“He’s a professor. He’s not my type.”

“He’s everybody’s type.”

“Not mine.”

“You have a boyfriend, right?”

I wasn’t so sure I did anymore, but I didn’t want to start sharing with Matilda. I had a feeling if I started she would spread my personal business all over the dorms before the night was out. “Yes.”

“He’s in Alpha Chi, right?”

“Yeah.”

“All those guys are so cute and so . . . just yummy.”

“I haven’t really noticed,” I admitted.

“How could you not?”

“I guess I’m just more into my boyfriend than the others.” A brief flash of
Aric
pushed into my mind. I pushed it right back out.

“That makes sense,” Matilda didn’t seem to notice my lack of interest in the conversation. “Is he hot?”

“I wouldn’t be sleeping with him if I didn’t think he was hot.” That was the truth.

Matilda giggled. “I bet he’s hot.”

I chatted with Matilda for another 20 minutes before excusing myself. “I have to run to the book store.” I had given up waiting for Paris, and I desperately needed to get away from Matilda before I started screaming at her to shut up.

“I’ll go with you.”

Great.
I got up from the table, tossed my empty coffee cup into the garbage and walked down the hallway to the bookstore. Matilda was babbling about something, but I was tuning her out. I could care less what Rick No. 1 smelled like.

When we got to the bookstore, I separated quickly from Matilda. She was distracted by a group of guys by the magazine rack anyway. I could only hope I’d be able to get my supplies and exit without her rediscovering me.

I wandered up and down the aisles for a few minutes until I found a stack of blue books. I needed them for my English classes. I was deciding how many to purchase when I felt a presence behind me. For a second, I thought that Matilda had found me again. The presence behind me was decidedly male, though. I swung around to smack into
Aric’s
broad chest. This was getting to be an everyday occurrence – not that I minded.

“We need to stop running into each other like this,” I muttered.

Aric
chuckled throatily, almost like a growl. “I don’t mind.”

“I bet.”

Aric
ran his hand through his dark black hair to push his bangs out of his face. He looked down at me appraisingly. “Buying blue books?”

“Nothing gets past you.”

“Are you always this  . . . verbally aggressive?”

“I’m aggressive physically, too.” Whoops. That came out wrong.

Aric’s
already dark eyes went even darker as he regarded me. “I’ll have to take your word for that.
For now.”

I didn’t know how to take the statement so I decided to ignore it. “What are you here for?”

“Just to browse.”

My eyes narrowed dangerously. “Are you following me?”

“Why would I be following you?”

There was no answer to the statement that wouldn’t make me
seem
full of myself, I realized. I might as well let him think I was full of myself, I figured. “Maybe you think I’m hot.”

“Maybe,”
Aric
agreed.

“I keep running into you.”

“Just lucky I guess.”

I decided to change my approach. “You’re fraternity brothers with my boyfriend.”

“Is that a question?”

“Just an observation.”

“Yes. I know Will.” I could see the hint of distaste that flashed over
Aric’s
face. It was gone as quickly as it was there, though.

“You don’t like him?”

“I don’t spend a lot of time with him.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I don’t spend a lot of time with any of them.”

“But you live at the frat house.”

“No I don’t.”

That took me by surprise. “I saw you there.”

“I said I didn’t live there. I didn’t say I never went there.”

“You were there in the morning.”

“Keeping tabs on me?”
Aric
couldn’t hide his smile – or his dimples. What is it with weird guys and to die for dimples anyway?

“If you don’t live there, why were you there so early in the morning?”

“I had to pick up a book I left there the night before.”
Aric
didn’t stumble across the answer, but I still knew it was a lie.

“You should be more organized.”

Aric
smirked. “Are you organized?”

“We weren’t talking about me.”

“What were we talking about?” I felt my skin sort of hum as
Aric
leaned in slightly. “Let’s talk some more about you?”

“Let’s talk about you,” I tried to shift so I wasn’t so close to
Aric
. He wasn’t exactly making that possible.

“What do you want to talk about me for? I’m boring.”

No one that looked like him could be boring, I thought. As if he was reading my mind,
Aric
smiled warmly.

“Why don’t you like Will?” I was trying to catch
Aric
off guard.

“I just don’t have a lot in common with him.”

“You’re fraternity brothers with him,” I pointed out.

“That doesn’t really mean anything. Do you have things in common with your roommates?”

“Yes.” Well, Paris at least.

“Even that uptight little blonde one?”

He had me there. “No, but I didn’t choose to live with her. I just got placed with her.”

“Well, I didn’t choose Will either.”

“What did he do to you?”

“What makes you think he did anything to me?”

“You have to dislike him for a reason.”

“He’s cocky.”

“And you’re not?”

Aric
smiled again.
“Maybe.
I can back it up, though.”

I definitely didn’t want to go there. “You dislike him because he’s cocky?”

Aric
ignored the question. “How long have you been with him?”

“On and off for four years.”

Aric
looked surprised. “You were with him last year?”

I knew what
Aric
was thinking – and I was irritated. “We weren’t exclusive. When he went away to school we figured it would be easier to have an open relationship.” I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to defend Will to him.

“You don’t strike me as an open relationship type of girl.”

“You don’t know anything about me.”

“I know more than you think.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Aric
shrugged and finally backed up to let me get some air. I felt relief -- and a weird sense of loss at the same time. What the hell is wrong with me?

“I don’t know you very well, you’re right,”
Aric
said. “I do know one thing, though.”

“And what’s that?”

“You need to be careful.”

“What do you mean? You’re the third person to tell me that in the past two days and I’m a little sick of hearing it.”

Aric
looked surprised. “Who else told you that? Will?”

I hadn’t talked to Will in days, but I didn’t want to give
Aric
any information he could use over me.
“No, not Will.”

“Who then?”

“No one.”

Aric
grimaced when he realized I wasn’t going to tell him what he wanted to know. “Just be careful.”

Aric
then turned his back with what looked like a clear purpose. I didn’t know what that purpose was, but all the men in my life – whether I wanted
them to be in my life or not – were acting extremely weird lately -- and I was sick of it.

Twenty-Three

After leaving the UC, I headed back towards the dorms. I was a little irritated that Paris had stood me up – but I figured she had a good reason. It wasn’t like her to just forget me or maybe that was my ego talking.

When I got to the room, Paris was sitting on the couch watching ‘General Hospital.’

“Where were you?”

Paris looked confused.