with him, blocking his path. “Maybe you don’t have to answer to her, but you still have to answer to me,” he said firmly. He knew he had earned the death glare Ronnie was giving him, especially after the night before, but his safety took precedence over his feelings. Colt was still the Alpha, and if he had to pull that card to make sure Ronnie stayed in line, he would.
Ronnie raised an eyebrow, mirroring his mother’s expression closely. It was never good when either of them got that look in their eyes. “I do?”
His tone was so cold that for a second, Colt found himself wondering if he really did. “Yes,” he answered, knowing from experience that showing any weakness was a mistake. “Where were you?”
For a moment, he was sure Ronnie was going to refuse to answer him, too. The younger ghoul shifted his backpack onto his other shoulder and looked Colt straight in the eye. “I was on campus.”
Colt frowned. “You don’t have any classes today.”
“Not URI. Brown. I just got accepted, and I had to go down to the Campus Housing Authority to sign some papers. Is that allowed, or should I have gotten a special pass to leave for the morning?”
Colt couldn’t even respond to the biting sarcasm of his words. His thoughts were still churning, and he was convinced it was exhaustion making it seem like Ronnie was saying he was moving out. There was no way he’d heard that right. “Wait, what? Since when?”
“You didn’t tell me you were planning to transfer,” Susan cried. “You didn’t even tell me you’d applied.” She seemed like she didn’t know whether to be proud or angry, and Colt could relate.
“This is the first I’m hearing of it, too,” Colt said, folding his arms.
“Why would I tell you?” Ronnie shot back.
Colt wasn’t sure why those words hit as hard as they did. He had been lost in his own world and problems when Ronnie needed him the most. He’d already failed him in so many ways, and he couldn’t even be there for emotional support. Fuck.
He was too stunned to respond, not that he really had the words to do so effectively. Susan seemed to be having the same problem.
At least he knew he wasn’t the only one who’d been completely blindsided.
Chapter 30
Ronnie
Ronnie was well into his first semester at Brown, but Ronnie felt like he’d left his old life behind a long time before that. And maybe he had. He knew he had checked out somewhere between killing the Plague Doctor and deciding to leave home. When he’d first applied for the transfer, it had been more to see what would happen than anything. When he’d learned he was accepted, he’d put the letter away and told himself he didn’t have time. Then, he’d needed an escape.
He was still having nightmares. In fact, they seemed to get more realistic with every night that passed, but at least he could deal with them. Sure, he had to drink to do it, but it let him fall asleep without waking up and freaking his roommate out because he was screaming.
He was surprised he still had a roommate after those first couple of weeks, but now he finally felt like he had a handle on things. Not so much that things were better, just that he could deal with them.
At least the dreams had added some variation. Ronnie wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but he felt like he would go crazy if he relived that day in the abandoned house one more time. Instead, his mind treated him to a bevy of different murders. He knew for a fact he had never met any of those people, let alone killed them, but it felt so real. Like they were his memories.
But they couldn’t be. Especially since he was pretty sure the petrified woman he found himself standing over in the woods every night was Colt’s mother.
There was no doubt in his mind that it was related to Vaughn. Ronnie was positive he couldn’t have inherited the Plague Doctor’s curse, but maybe somehow he had inherited some of his telepathic abilities. Who knew how they really worked?
Sometimes he was tempted to go back to talk to Colt, the only person who would even come close to understanding, but after the way he had left…
He didn’t regret leaving, though. It was better for his own sanity, even if the isolation took its toll. He