pays more than your job at that school,” he said. “Much more. Quit the admin job and work for me. Devon and his men will keep you out of harm’s way”—Devon jolted, clearly hearing that news for the first time—“and I’ll make sure your balance of school and work is perfect. All you have to do is help extinguish a few vampires. Your life will only change for the better.”
He wanted to send her into battle against those nightmare creatures, and her life would change for the better? Was he joking?
She scrubbed her stupid palm against her leg, trying to quell that insufferable itching.
“Any day,” Devon grumbled under his breath.
Devon wanted her to say no. Desperately. She could see it in the tightness around his eyes, in his sagging lean against the elbow he’d planted on the chair arm, feel it in his magic beating on her, trying to subdue her. To put her in her place—beneath him.
She gritted her teeth and turned away, fighting that flame within her. This was crazy. All of it. She didn’t care about the pack social structure and where she fit within it. She didn’t care about pretty-boy jackasses with a dominance complex. And she certainly didn’t have a problem saying no when it went against everything she was working so hard for in her life.
So why couldn’t she get the words out? Why did she want to take the job just to shove it in Devon’s face?
“I want to go back to normal,” she told no one in particular. “I want to go back to when my life made sense.”
“You can get back there, you just have to accept a new normal,” Roger said. It wasn’t helpful. “Devon’s team has to work out the location of the new vampires, anyway. How about I give you a day to think about it?”
No.
It was there, right on the tip of her tongue. So easy to say, normally. Easy to say to anyone but the alpha staring at her, that was.
Then another thought occurred to her. “If all this really happened, then my roommate is a…” She couldn’t get the word out. Her voice rose in panic. “Where am I going to stay?”
“You’ll stay with Devon.”
“What?” the two cried at once.
“No,” she said, finding it easy to deny Roger this time. “No, that’ll never work. This kid has a temper problem that I don’t want any part of.”
“If you’d stop getting in my way and assaulting me with your magic, I’d—”
“I didn’t even know I had magic until today. I still don’t believe it. So clearly it is your—”
“Enough,” Roger said.
Charity’s mouth snapped shut, but not even the sudden chill freezing the air could disengage her glare from Devon. He stared back just as intently, the green and gold specks in his beautiful eyes dancing. Fire blazed between them, demanding action.
The silence lengthened.
“You have a lot of power locked up inside of you,” Roger said calmly. His eyes glinted with humor. “It lightly stings my skin when you let it out. It also calls to us—shifters, I mean. Our magic complements each other, yours and Devon’s and mine. Our style of fighting does, too. Or, at least, it once did.”
She pushed Roger’s words away. She’d had enough. “So…I have some studying to do…”
“I know this isn’t ideal for you,” Roger said, “but if your roommate has been turned, that house is no longer safe for you. Eventually she’ll return, if only because she’s hungry—”
“Hungry?” Charity squeaked.
“You’re human. You have blood. Hence, you are food,” Devon said.
“But I thought you said I was magical. Macy and Andy said— Oh my god, Andy! He’s in one of my classes. Jesus, I’m tired. I wonder why he didn’t say anything.”
“Stay on topic, please,” Devon muttered, his face pale.
“Vampires can feed off most anything,” Roger said, “but you are a human with magic. And let’s not forget that you were invited to that party. Or, at least, you were allowed to go. You could very well be in their sights. Even if Samantha doesn’t return, that doesn’t mean you’re out of danger.”
Charity’s heart sank. She’d known that, of course. They were interested in her, the vampires. That fear had been in the back of her mind the whole time; she just hadn’t wanted to bring it out and into the light.
She dropped her head into her hands, not sure where to go from here. “What kind of magic do I have? Andy and Macy seemed to think you’d know.”