He shoved the schedule back in his pocket, his hand tightened around hers. “I’ve found you, how could I be lost?”
Cassie blinked in surprise, staring breathlessly up at him as her heart lurched with wonderful joy. It was the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to her, and though it sounded like a pickup line, his tone rang with sincerity and truth. If anyone else had said that to her, she probably would have laughed at them and blown them off as corny. But this was different. This was not corny, it seemed genuine. It felt right, and she realized that if she had been the one to say it to him, she would have meant it.
It would have been true.
Their hands fit perfectly together; his was stronger and larger as it wrapped gently around hers. His touch was everything she had dreamed it would be, and more. His presence alone had helped to fill the holes inside her, but his physical touch was like aloe on sunburn. His touch made it so she could move a little more freely, and breathe easier than she had in years.
She had never believed in love at first sight, never believed in soul mates. But maybe, somehow, her body and her spirit had known that he was out there, and it had been waiting and searching for him all along. And she had been completely miserable without him. But she didn’t feel misery now; she felt a joy so pure that she kept expecting to float off the ground with the lightheartedness consuming her.
He was staring down at her, his emerald eyes stormy and intense. He was waiting for her to say something, waiting for her reaction. Cassie could not find words; she could only manage a simple, reassuring smile.
The tension eased from him. His eyes crinkled with the bright smile that lit his wonderful face. Cassie couldn’t stop herself from grinning back at him. “I’ll be fine; the library was one of the first things Melissa showed me the other day.” He said easily, as if what he had just said to her had not left her as shaken as a baby’s rattle.
Swallowing heavily, Cassie tried to calm the turmoil racing through her. If it had been just a pick up line, she did not want him to know that he had just caught her hook, line, and sinker. “Of course it was.”
They reached her class far faster than she would have liked. Hesitating in the hall, she turned to him, reluctant to let go. “I’ll see you soon,” he said softly, his eyes rapidly scanning her face, seemingly trying to remember every detail of her.
Cassie nodded, not fully trusting herself to speak. She half felt like crying, which was completely crazy, it wouldn’t be that long before she saw him again. She hoped. His hand tightened around hers, his skin burned into hers. He took a step closer, and for a moment Cassie was certain that he was going to kiss her. She held her breath in anticipation, her entire body clamored for the feel of his lips against hers.
Instead, he squeezed her hand briefly and released it quickly. Cassie felt the loss of his touch as acutely as a knife to her heart. Her entire being ached for it again. She couldn’t move as he slipped away, disappearing into the remaining crowd.
CHAPTER 9
Devon folded his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall as he waited impatiently for the bell to ring. He had tried to sit through the whole study hall thing, but he didn’t understand what he was supposed to be doing, or why he even had the class. But then again, he didn’t understand any of this high school stuff. They were like rats in a maze, going through the same thing day after day.
He supposed education was a good thing; he simply had no use for it. Maybe if he was a human in this day and age he may have needed it, but he wasn’t. When he had been human, he’d had schooling because he had been a member of the aristocracy, and it had been expected of him. But even before he’d died, he’d seen no reason to continue with his education. Even as a human he had simply taken everything he wanted, with no regard for whom he hurt in the process. And when he’d died he’d become even worse, far far worse. It was not a fact he was proud of, it was just a fact that he had to live with, and try to atone for, every day of his lonely existence.
An existence that somehow wasn’t as lonely whenever she was near.
Now, staring at the empty hall, he wondered if he had missed out on something. His, had been a long existence. He’d thought that he had done everything there was to do; apparently he had forgotten one thing. He just wasn’t so sure that he wanted the experience, it was tiring. He did want her though. He wanted to see her and touch her, and he wanted to be near her, and she spent a good chunk of her time within this building.
His dreams had been nothing compared to the reality of her, but he had known that they wouldn’t be. Her skin was even softer, warmer, and gentler. The feeling of rightness she brought to him was amazing. It was something he had never expected to experience in his life, but now that he had it, he was not going to let it go. Ever.
Though he knew where his fierce possessiveness of her might be coming from, he was still unwilling to explore that possibility, or reality, yet. There was still a chance that he could walk away from her even if he didn’t want to. Her safety was number one as far as he was concerned, and she could never be truly safe with him in her life. He needed to be able to walk away, but if what he suspected was true, there was a good possibility that he may not be able to.
He had meant what he’d said to her earlier, he was not lost when she was near. He was whole in a way that he had never been whole before, not even when he had been alive. When she was near, he did not feel adrift in a world where he was not welcome among humans, or vampires. She was an anchor in a world that was cold, uncaring, and cruel. If staying here, torturing himself in high school was the only way to be close to her then he was going to suffer through the classes like everyone else.
He shifted slightly, the discomfort in his veins growing by the second. He should have fed before he came here today, but he hadn’t realized how hard it would be to keep control around her. She was a temptation that he couldn’t resist, not anymore; especially now that he had touched her. And now that he had felt her, he knew he would never stop touching her.
The only problem was that the burning in his veins had kicked into hyper drive the minute his skin had brushed against hers. The sweet scent of her blood had slammed into him, causing his mouth to water and his body to burn with the fierce hunger that engulfed him. It had taken every bit of self restraint he had not to rip her against him and sink his teeth into her delicate white throat, draining the delicious blood that flowed through her veins.
He had not touched a drop of human blood in a hundred and thirty seven years, and until that moment he had never felt the desire so fiercely, or so acutely. He had never had his control nearly shattered, never nearly snapped and drained a person simply from touching them. But as much as she unsettled him, and rattled his firm restraint, she had also calmed him in a strange way. His baser instincts were held at bay as her delicate fingers curled around his. Touching her had locked the demon inside him back in its cage; it had calmed his raging urge to drain the blood from her even more than it had enticed it. Whatever spell she had cast over him had him completely ensnared.