Bloodspell (The Cruentus Curse, #1)(26)

"Why're you keeping tabs on him if you don't like him?" Charla exclaimed with a wink at Victoria.

"Not keeping tabs, and I don't like him. He's good at music, that's all," Angie said. "There's a reason for that but it's not like anyone cares," she muttered under her breath. Victoria frowned. That was the second time Angie had made a snide comment about Christian Devereux.

"What's that?" Victoria asked.

A glare from Angie. She answered Victoria's question with a question of her own. "Doesn't it strike you as weird that he so good at everything?"

"Gabe's like that too though," Victoria pointed out.

Charla smirked. "Two words. Silver spoon. He's like the British princes, doing the works—boarding school, etiquette classes, clarinets, and polo. I wonder what else he's good at." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Angie stared at her, a shocked giggle transforming her dour face. "Char, you did all those things at boarding school," Angie said, still smiling before her tone soured. "And Christian Devereux does not date girls at Windsor. Remember sophomore year?"

"Oh right," Charla said. She turned to Victoria. "I almost got expelled."

"Because of Christian?" Victoria said.

"He was a senior here. Some girl was flirting with Gabriel and Charla was all over Christian to make him jealous. But Christian made it clear that he wasn't interested so Charla knocked the girl's teeth out instead." Victoria gaped at Charla who wore an unperturbed expression.

"You punched someone?"

"She knocked her teeth out," Angie emphasized dryly. "Charla's a black belt."

Victoria stared at Charla's slight figure, skeptical. She looked like an anime doll with her red spirals and huge brown eyes. A black belt?

Charla shrugged. "I had a lot of aggression issues as a child," she said mildly, as if that explained it all. "Therapy and Taekwondo."

"Remind me never to mess with you," Victoria said, half-joking.

Charla turned toward her, her stare measured. "Just stay away from Gabriel, and you and I will be just peachy." Her tone was mild and she'd said it with a smile but Victoria couldn't help but sense the menace underscoring her words. An odd coldness settled across her shoulders.

"I would never—"

"I know."





TO KEEP HERSELF busy, Victoria went straight from classes to rehearsal to the Black Dog. Her days merged into a carbon copy of the day before; wash, rinse, and repeat. But she didn't mind the predictable monotony. It helped her to not think about anything other than what she was doing at the time—not her strange gifts, which she'd ignored since her discussion with Leto, and certainly not Christian Devereux.

She saw Gabriel once at a football game that Charla had dragged her to, and he had asked her to a party at his friend's house. Victoria had declined. Although she liked Gabriel, he was too fast for her and given Charla's obsessive-compulsive behavior where he was concerned, she didn't even want to be around him. Gabriel had seemed disappointed but hadn't pushed. After what had happened with Christian, Victoria wasn't sure that she wanted to get involved with anyone at all, not even someone who would help her to forget him.

She'd briefly wondered about what Angie had said about Christian not dating anyone at Windsor even when he'd gone there, and it didn't surprise her. He seemed far too self-assured to have a girlfriend, which made his bizarre reaction to her even more extraordinary. It overwhelmed Victoria to even try to understand him. He had a Jekyll and Hyde complex that was beyond her comprehension. So she'd decided to just pretend he didn't exist. And apparently, he'd decided to do the same. Despite her relief, her disappointment must have been transparent because Charla had caught on to it.

"What's with you lately?" she asked, when they were hanging out after class at Willard's. "You're all jumpy one minute and mopey the next. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were in love."

"What? No!"

"Okay, now that's definitely a sign. Jumpy, and mopey, and defensive." Charla leaned over the counter of the booth pushing her plate of blueberry pie to the side and patting her flat stomach. "Stuffed. So come on, spill it. Who is he?"

"It's no one. Really." Victoria flushed, shoveling a piece of pastry in her mouth to avoid talking.

"And the fourth sign is denial," Charla said dryly. "Trust me, I am an aficionado of boys and boy behavior. You, my dear, are in the first stages of boy fever."

"Don't be ridiculous," Victoria said, her mouth full with another bite. "Look there's Angie. Hey Angie, over here!" She waved to Angie, who shot her a mystified scowl but made her way over to their booth.

"Hey," she said warily, eyeing Victoria and sliding in next to Charla. "What's up?"

"Not much except that Tori has a crush on someone and is totally holding out on me," Charla said, scooting over. She turned back to Victoria. "Speaking of, didn't you have a date like three weeks ago?"

"I don't have a crush, and my date was with a boy named ... John."

"John?" Charla tapped the side of her head and then shook it decidedly. "I don't know any Johns."