contain, and I didn’t like to test its boundaries.
“You heard what happened the last time, right? I stripped a shifter of his feral wolf and nearly killed him. What you’re asking could potentially kill her too.”
“I don’t like it any more than you do. I don’t want to let you anywhere near my people, but she’s important to the council, and they don’t want to put her down.”
I rolled my eyes. “Important to the council” probably meant she was fucking someone important.
“And what if I refuse?” I asked before crossing my arms over my chest.
Render surged forward with his super-speed and wrapped his hands around my neck, shoving me against the wall. My eyes widened in surprise at the contact, my head smarting where I’d hit. His muscular body pressed against mine, and I shivered as his hot air feathered down my neck. Being told I was the most powerful supernatural in existence didn’t eradicate my fears. Unless I ripped off my necklace and drained him dry—which I did not want to do—I was helpless against him.
“You don’t get to refuse. You’ll help me, or it’ll be you in supernatural prison.”
My eyes widened as his whispered words sunk deep into my bones. His threat wasn’t something to take lightly. Supernatural prison was worse than death. Once you went there, you usually didn’t come back out. And if he really was a paragon, then he had the power to send me there.
I turned my head to face him, straining against his grip. My lips accidentally brushed his jaw when I moved, and I felt him stiffen against me. Loosening his tight hold, he allowed me to speak while still holding me in place.
“Fine,” I hissed. “Now get off of me.”
He held me for a moment longer, pushing his knee against my thigh and positioning his forearm between my breasts, the tension of the threat settled between us, hatred zinging back and forth between us. This close, I couldn’t help but notice how ridiculously good looking he was. There was nothing worse than having to be stuck in the proximity of an attractive supernatural who hated my guts.
“We leave in an hour. Get changed and go pack,” he said in a raspy voice before pulling away, releasing his hold on me.
I sunk back against the wall, trying to catch my breath. “Why do we have to leave so soon?”
“Why is your mouth moving when it’s your feet that should be doing the job?” he shot back.
“You’re a real asshole, you know that?”
He blinked at me, visibly taken aback. I guess most people didn’t call mister hotshot vampire on his shitty attitude. I smirked, counting his silence as a win, and turned the handle to the door, letting myself out. Mistress Cock was nowhere to be seen in the hallway, so at least I didn’t have to deal with a lecture from her tonight. I turned and headed toward the dorms, my feet carrying me down the long, dim corridors. The bottom half of the walls were wooden paneling and above that was blue and gold wallpaper that reeked of pretentiousness. I made my way up the stairs, taking my sweet ass time as I went. I might have no say about my summoning, but I could make the asshole wait.
At the top of the stairs, I veered off to the right and passed the first few doors. I opened it, the darkness in the room matching my insides. I looked over at the perfectly clean desk to my right and then to the messy one on my left.
One of the things this school boasted was that the “troubled” girls who attended would be taught to socialize as proper ladies—i.e., we were forced to share a room. My roommate was a London socialite who was sent here after her father remarried and her evil stepmother shipped her off. She was an anal perfectionist and had no time for me. She was working hard to win back daddy’s love. I usually made her eye twitch every time I left clothes on the floor or toothpaste on our shared sink. Her bedroom door was closed tight for the night as usual. She followed the lights-out rule to the minute. She and Poppy were best friends.
I walked into my bedroom, flipped on the light, and nearly screamed at the shadow sprawled out over my bed.
“What the fuck?”
I had one hand over my heart and the other reaching out like I’d been planning on grabbing the lacrosse