“I like your dress.”

I felt a strange surge of pleasure. He watched as my lips curved into an involuntary smile. “You didn’t like the gold one?”

He brought his mouth down to my ear. “Oh, I liked the gold one, but red is my favorite color.”

A warm flush spread over my body and I was happy, but I could tell by the way Eli’s smile didn’t reach his eyes he was itching to get something off his chest. We danced in silence for a few more seconds before he sighed.

“You’re alive, so I assume Hunter and Lucian haven’t made an appearance?”

I paused, unsure of whether to tell him Hunter had found me. I’d kept things from Eli before, and it didn’t turn out too well. Honesty is the best policy, or so they say.

“They blew into town two nights ago. Hunter came to the bar I was working at. Lucian fell for my charm but Hunter knew it was me.”

“And he didn’t give you up to Lucian?”

“No, it seems he wants to make it as torturous for me as he can.” I rolled my eyes. “After that, he broke into my house.”

“Please tell me you killed him when you were alone, at least?” The harshness in his voice startled me and I didn’t dare look away from his eyes.

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

Under my hands, Eli’s muscles tensed and he gritted his teeth. “Then I will.”

I pulled him closer to me. “He saved your life,” I whispered hastily under my breath.

A dangerous glint lit up Eli’s eyes, making me regret my words the moment they fell from my lips. Eli leaned closer to my ear.

“The only reason I took his blood was because you begged me to. Had I known you were going to leave me, I would have chosen otherwise. Death would have been easier than what you put me through.” Ouch. I flinched. His words cut through me deeper than any knife could have.

He ran his hands through his hair and let out a breath. “This is ridiculous. I don’t play cat and mouse. You’ve made your choice and now I’m making mine.”

He let me go and stormed away, leaving me drowning in the swaying sea of colorful gowns. I stared after him for a moment. I wasn’t going to chase him, but my legs seemed to have a mind of their own. They were being controlled by my heart and so, I ran after him. It was up to me to make things right. All of his pain, his anger, and distrust existed because of me. A high-pitched tinging noise echoed throughout the hall, like someone was tapping on a wineglass. I ignored it.

“Could I have everyone’s attention for a moment, please?” Mr. Aleksandrov’s voice rang clearly, forcing me to stop. I watched as Eli disappeared out the door. Frustrated, I reluctantly brought my attention back to the front of the room. This will only take a moment. I hope.

“Firstly, I would like to thank you all for celebrating this big accomplishment with me. As your new higher power, I hope to interact with you all regularly, you’ll get no secrecy from me.” He paused and his eyes searched the crowd until they rested on my face. “My first act as the higher power is instating Ruby Moore as one of my head guardians.”

Loud chatter erupted throughout the room and it wasn’t until a hundred eyes settled on me that I realized he’d said my name. The air was sucked from my lungs. Breathe, I reminded myself. What am I supposed to do? I was unable to speak, totally stunned as his sentence bounced around the inside of my skull. There must be some mistake. Out of sheer panic, I sprinted from the hall.

SECURITY MEASURES

I swung my legs off the couch and took a moment to pull myself together. I pulled on a pair of loose sweats, a tank top, and tied my hair into a ponytail before slipping into my joggers. One of the guardians had mentioned a gym in the teachers’ area last night…that’s where I wanted to go. It had been awhile since I’d worked out and I figured it would help me get rid of some of the stress and anger that had built up. Last night was unexpected and I still wasn’t unsure how I felt about being put on the spot like that. Mr. Aleksandrov had no right announcing something so big without talking to me first. Was he even giving me a choice?

The cool morning breeze caressed my skin, causing goosebumps to erupt across its usually smooth surface. The sun was starting to peek over the horizon, casting subtle rays of light between the houses. My body recognized the sun, embracing it.

I wasn’t the only one up this early, last night’s guests were leaving and a few guardians jogged around the streets. As one particular jogger got closer, I realized it was Xavier.

“Out and about looking for trouble, are you?” he panted, coming to a stop in front of me.

A thin sheen of sweat glistened on his forehead and the fluffy hair he had yesterday was flat against his scalp.

“No, I’m going to the gym…Do you know where it is?”

“I’ll walk you.”

The gym was four streets down. It was a small building, but Xavier promised it housed state of the art equipment. Three guardians stood on the old wooden porch, casually chatting and laughing. I waved Xavier off and proceeded up the stairs, hoping the intimidating angels continued to ignore me.

“Ruby Moore?”

Crap. I turned to face the tall, dark-skinned guardian that spoke my name. He took a step toward me and my stomach knotted nervously. Had I done something wrong? He extended his hand to me. I glanced at it, unsure of what to do next. Slowly, I placed my hand in his.

“Welcome to the team,” he said, shaking my hand. “My name is Lyric.” He turned slightly and gestured to his friends. “That’s Paul and his twin brother, Markus.”

Paul and Markus were twins. Both of them were at least six foot four, they had the same chestnut brown hair with a light spattering of freckles across their cheeks. I tried not to stare, but I’d never seen twins in real life before.

“So, going from a student goddess to the higher power’s right hand man is a very big, honourable step,” Lyric added.

“It isn’t set in stone,” I grumbled.

“You’ll do all right,” Paul assured.

Markus added, “Yeah, they say you’ve killed more vampires than most guardian angels get to in a lifetime.”

I shrugged and glanced longingly toward the gym door. I didn’t know exactly how many vampires I’d killed, I hadn’t really thought about it, nor have I ever wanted to keep track. Why would I want to be reminded of the lives I’d taken? They may have technically been dead at the time I killed them, but they were all humans at one point.

“I’ve killed my fair share.”

“You’re being modest. That’s admirable.” Lyric’s voice was deep and smooth, like velvet. Nice to listen to, but extremely intimidating. “We gotta go now—sentry shifts and all. It was nice meeting you.”

I nodded in response and the guardians left the porch. I entered the gym. The air was thick with body heat. Immediately I was overwhelmed by the smell of sweat and blood. I ignored glances from a few guardians as I turned my nose up at a few odd socks and rags before climbing onto a treadmill. After five minutes of ruthless running, I turned it off. It hadn’t helped with my frustration and being congratulated by Lyric kind of made me angrier. I didn’t want to be a head guardian. I walked over to a rack that was bolted to the far wall, next to the boxing ring. It held several different sizes of boxing gloves—perhaps punching things would help me? I didn’t work out when I was living in Gerald. I had no motivation to, but I still remembered everything Eli had taught me. I punched the bag over and over, working on the various combinations I’d learned at Mount Kuuce. After several minutes, my arms burned and I cursed myself for not training while I was away.

“I was wondering if you still had good form.”

His voice seeped into my skin, affecting me from the inside out. Subtly, I took a deep breath and grasped the punching bag, stopping it from swaying and spinning. In light of what happened after Eli stormed out last night, I’d put the situation between us on the back burner. I had bigger things to worry about. I turned to face him. Of course he looked freaking amazing in his tight tank top and his sweat pants hung perfectly from his hips. Not to mention those eyes that smiled slightly at me. I caught my lip between my teeth and then let go of it with a burst of air from my cheeks.

“Me too, seeing as though I haven’t trained since Mount Kuuce.”

He raised an eyebrow and the corners of his mouth turned down in disapproval. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. I’m hearing your name a lot this morning. What did you do?”

I scoffed. Why do people always assume the worst? I turned back to my punching bag and threw a few more combinations. Eli walked around to the opposite side of the punching bag and took hold of it, preventing it from swinging around.

“I thought you were mad at me.”

“I am mad at you, but I’ve said all I wanted to say. Now that you know, we can continue on with our lives.”

I hit the bag harder and faster.

“So, what’s up?” he prompted.

“Why don’t you ask the almighty higher power?” I slowed down my punches and then stopped completely as Eli pressed his lips together, staring at me through confused, narrowed eyes.

“You don’t know?”

He let go of the punching bag and slung his gym towel over his shoulder. “Know what?”

“Mr. Aleksandrov wants me to be one of his head guardians and it appears I don’t have a choice in the matter.”

Eli crossed his arms disapprovingly. “Are you sure?”

“He called me out in front of everyone last night and Lyric welcomed me to the team this morning, so yes, I’m sure.”

He ran his hands through his messy hair. “I had no idea.”

“I don’t think anyone did.”

He walked away from me, heading toward the door. I pulled my gloves off and the air felt cold against my sweaty hands.

“Where are you going?” I called after him, rubbing my hands on my sweat pants.

“To see if I can change his mind.”

I dropped my gloves on the floor, making a mental note to come back and hang them up later. I jogged up behind him, catching up before he got to the door.

“I’ll come with you.” Eli glanced at me, his eyebrow cocked. He parted his lips, about to protest, but instead he agreed. Eli and I strolled from the gym, collecting glances as we walked. Some watched us admiringly, others were green with envy, and the rest were uncomfortable, as if we were breaking some kind of rule they wanted no part in.

“They know?” I wondered aloud.

“Hmm?”

“They know how we feel—felt about each other.”

“They think they know.” He smiled at me. “But they don’t know a damn thing.”

Before long, we were heading down the path we had walked when I first arrived here—the path shrouded by trees. I remembered how he grabbed me by the wrists and forced me to look at him. I remembered how passionate he was… I glanced sideways at him. If he was thinking the same thing I was, he sure wasn’t giving anything away.

“Stop!” a hidden voice shouted from nearby.

I froze dead on the path.

“What’s going on?” I whispered to Eli.

“Security measures.” Eli’s voice held a bored tone, like he had been through this a million times already.

Two men appeared from the bushes, pointing black machine guns at us. I felt the blood drain from my face. Sensing my discomfort, Eli took a slight step in front of me—protecting me from staring down the intimidating barrel. The men were camouflaged from head to toe in thick black and brown clothing. Even their face was covered by fabric and goggles.

“Mr De Luca, are you expected?” the man with the machine gun shouted, his voice muffled through the thin veil of mesh that covered his face.

“No.”

“Then turn around.”

Eli took a step toward them.

“What are you doing?” I whispered hastily, grabbing at his forearm.

“Tell Ivan that Ruby Moore and I would like to see him.”

He peered around Eli to get a better look at me. Being under his hidden gaze was nerve-racking. The masked man pulled a cell phone from one of his bazillion pockets and dialed a number. A few seconds later, he spoke.

“Ruby Moore and Eli De Luca are here to see you, sir.”

The loudspeaker was on and Mr. Aleksandrov’s voice played clearly. “Send them through.”

The gunmen stepped aside. In the trees, I spotted more people with guns, just waiting for an intruder...but what kind of intruder? Guns don’t kill vampires, unless it was a wooden bullet to the heart.

“What the hell was that?” I asked when we’d made it to the open field next to Mr. Aleksandrov’s house and my heart slowed down.

“The higher power’s new security team...”

“I thought Sage was safer than ever?” There was no point in a security team for Mr. Aleksandrov, he said himself the school was safer than ever.

“It is, but the council seems to think that nothing is concrete with magic.”

I frowned. They were willing to set up people with guns to protect a single grown man that already had god knows how many guardians at his disposal, but nothing to protect the students. That didn’t seem fair.

We approached the steps and I stared into one of the cameras, just waiting for the door to open. With an annoyingly loud buzz, it did. We were greeted by a young Indian woman, in her mid-twenties at most. Her hair was as dark as night and braided down the side of her head, stopping at her waist.

“Please come in. Mr. Aleksandrov is in the tea room.”