“Feel free to hang in the courtyard,” River said as we entered the building. “I’ve got to tell my tech nerds what we need. I’ll be out in a few.” He stepped away, only to pause. “Veronica, why don’t you come with me?”

“I’d love to,” she said, smiling as she bounded to his side.

“I’m going with them.” Cole brushed his fingertips over my cheek and took off.

“But—”

He was gone.

Goodbye to you, too.

“No courtyard for us. We want a room,” a very tense Frosty said, his arm slung around Kat’s shoulders.

She blew me a kiss. I winked at her.

“Toni,” Camilla shouted, and a young girl rushed over. “Show those two to a room.”

“A good room,” Kat corrected. “The best.”

The threesome headed upstairs.

Camilla glanced at me, sighed and led us to the courtyard, where another death match was taking place on one side and a party with dancing on the other. There were around fifty other slayers present, and all were in their late teens or early twenties.

For a single girl, this had to be a slice of heaven.

My friends might not understand the cheers and boos surrounding the zombie pit, but they gravitated to the action.

“Introduce me.” A boy stepped in front of us, stopping us, and nodded to Mackenzie. He was my height and on the lean side, Asian, with hair colored green. He had three teardrops tattooed underneath his right eye.

“Hiroaki, these are Cole and Ali’s friends.” Camilla rattled off their names. The boys nodded stiffly. The girls smiled in welcome.

Hiroaki kept his attention on Mackenzie. “Nice to meet you.”

“You, too,” she replied formally.

I waited for her to curtsy.

Two other boys approached and flanked Hiroaki. One of them was Knuckle Scars, and he, too, focused intently on Mackenzie, as if he’d just spotted his next—and last—meal.

“Who do we have here?” the other one asked. He was black and rugged, pure sex appeal. But he couldn’t have cared less about the girls. He peered at Gavin with come-hither intent. “I could just eat you up one tasty bite at a time.”

Gavin puffed up like a peacock. I think he totally expected everyone to be sexually attracted to him, no matter their gender, so, to him, this was just confirmation that he was right.

“I seriously hate to break it to you,” he said, “but I’m the buffet of choice for girls, and they don’t like to share me with the other team.”

“Figures.” The boy shrugged, an I-had-to-try gesture. “I’m Joshua. Josh to my friends, but you can call me anytime,” he added with a wink.

“I’m Chance,” Knuckle Scars said, and, oh, wow, his voice! He probably made angels weep.

He took Mackenzie’s hand, while she stood frozen. “We’ve met,” she said.

“I know.”

As Chance turned his attention to Jaclyn, Gavin moved behind her and crossed his arms, staring at Chance with more menace than I’d ever seen from him. It was almost comical.

The muscular Chance wasn’t intimidated and dared to take Jaclyn’s hand.

She blushed, the added color only making her prettier.

A low growl broke from Gavin’s throat. Gasping, Jaclyn spun. When she saw how close he was, and exactly how aggressive his stance, she backed away from him.

“Was that necessary?” Mackenzie asked Chance.

“No. Fun? Yes.”

“Our definition of fun differs.”

His smile was brief, but no less spectacular. “I’ve shown you mine. Why don’t you show me yours?”

“Seriously?” she said. “You don’t speak to me the first two times we see each other, and this is how you lead?”

He shrugged, unabashed.

“Why don’t you two fight in the pit?” Camilla suggested to Gavin and Chance. “The rest of us can place bets.”

“Pit?” Gavin asked, clearly intrigued.

“This way.” She marched forward, my group blindly, happily, shadowing her.

They watched the current fight for several minutes.

“Twenty dollars on the girl in the jogging pants,” Gavin called, and Josh patted him on the back, as if he’d just said the most brilliant thing ever.

Jaclyn clutched her middle and backed away.

Chance noticed and sidled up to her. “Come on. I’ll take you somewhere quiet.”

She nodded, and the two soon disappeared inside. Gavin watched their departure through narrowed eyes. “She’s supposed to be with me,” Gavin spat.

Wow. He really did like her. “Are you sure? The visions don’t always mean what we think they mean. You and I saw ourselves kissing, but that wasn’t what happened at all.”

“I still got a little action, didn’t I?”

I rolled my eyes. “You should be nicer to Jaclyn.”

“Girls don’t want nice,” he grumbled.

“Who told you that?”

“No one. But I pay attention. I know girls want what they can’t have, and they want to be the special exception responsible for taming the boy no one else can, even though they probably won’t be.”

He was...kind of right. “Jaclyn isn’t like other girls. She’s fragile and—”

He gave a short, sharp laugh. “She isn’t fragile, Ali-cat. She’s tough as nails.”