Bloodspell (The Cruentus Curse, #1)(46)

"Hey Tori," he said. "I'm really glad you came!"

"Me too," she agreed, happy to be out.

Gabriel's energy was infectious and Victoria soon relaxed. He introduced her to some of his friends, other seniors and juniors from the football team. Gabriel was their star quarterback and everyone had high hopes for the team for the divisional playoffs. Harland had already recruited him with a full ride for college.

Starting quarterback in the high-school social world made him an extremely desirable commodity, and Victoria couldn't believe how many people, especially girls, were standing around their table and hanging on Gabriel's every word. She tried to ignore the daggers that were being shot in her direction from some of the other girls desperate for him to notice them.

Out of the blue, she felt a light brush against her thoughts.

You look beautiful.

I didn't know you'd be here!

Program review ran late.

Where are you? she replied, trying not to react as Gabriel was in the middle of an animated byplay of his last game.

Come on Tori you know you could find me easily if you wanted to.

Victoria focused her energy, sifting through the throng of bodies gyrating to the music. There he was at a booth in the corner over by the front of the bar. She could see that he wasn't looking straight at her and was listening to what the professor he was with was saying, but she could feel him staring at her surreptitiously behind his lashes, the hint of a smile playing about his lips. His glance brushed across her temple, then her cheek, and then back and forth, back and forth across her lips. Her knees turned into jelly.

Stop it!

Why? He continued to mentally caress her lips, and Victoria felt as weak as if he were actually kissing her. It was harmless flirting but she could barely breathe.

I mean it, Christian.

You look even more beautiful when you are blushing.

Victoria nodded to what Gabriel was saying, and focused a sliver of her attention to the corner. Christian's eyebrows rose in challenge, egging her on. She opened her mind to him and vividly imagined kissing his lips. His eyes snapped to hers in immediate response.

She dropped butterfly kisses on his cheeks, down his jaw to his neck where she bit gently into the soft hollow where his neck met his collarbone. The thought was far more provocative than the act itself, and Christian almost half jumped out of his chair. She watched grinning as he explained himself to his companions. He met her eyes.

Touché.

As Gabriel introduced her to more of his friends, she felt Christian's gentle parting caress and soft whisper that he missed her and couldn't wait to see her. Victoria smiled to herself as she recalled the look of utter shock on his face when she had thought of biting his neck. He had definitely not been expecting that!

"Is that smile for me?" Gabriel said, tossing an arm over her shoulders. Victoria rolled her eyes and sneaked a glance at Charla hoping that she was distracted enough not to read anything into Gabriel's amorous attentions. He was laying it on pretty thick!

She chatted to two other seniors for a while, but soon after Victoria started to feel ill, the noise and heat of the bar making her suddenly dizzy. She sat for a minute but a stinging headache had come out of nowhere. She felt disoriented. Even her amulet seemed hot but Victoria wasn't sure if it was the necklace or her body that was burning up. She told Gabriel she needed to go home. After declining his offer of a ride, she insisted that she preferred to walk.

The minute she left the bar, Victoria felt better. The night air was cold but refreshing against her hot skin as she started the two-mile walk to her apartment. The wind sliced across her cheeks, and she pulled her coat tighter around her neck.

It felt good, the icy coldness helping to clear the cobwebs from her head. It was a dark night but she wasn't too worried; street lamps and homes lit most of the way, and there was only one small area that crossed the five-mile loop, which didn't have any lights. She walked briskly before the chill could seep through her coat and settle in her bones. She briefly considered teleporting, and then decided against it—too public, even if the area was deserted.

She pressed on. Halfway through it, she was just starting to regret her decision to take on the subzero temperatures and the wind chill, when out of the corner of her eye, Victoria thought she saw a quick movement, and a chill that had nothing to do with the weather ran up her spine.

She walked faster, wrapping her arms around her body, glancing behind her once or twice but seeing nothing out of the ordinary. The hairs on the nape of her neck were at stiff attention, and suddenly she regretted not taking Gabriel up on his offer of a ride. Movement to her left caught her eye again and she froze, her body tense with coiled fear.

It was a man, a short thin man.

A menacing snarl curled from his throat. Before she could think, he sprung toward her with lethal precision. Victoria felt the blood roaring in her ears and summoned her energy, sledge-hammering it toward the man's body. He flew back twenty feet and crashed into the base of a maple tree but was on his feet in seconds snarling hideously.

Victoria's focus sharpened and the blood rushed in her veins, giving her strength and clearing her brain of everything but self-preservation. The amulet at her breast pulsed hot as her blood pushed her fear into a dizzying frenzy. Another quick movement on her right made her spin around, and in the darkness she could make out another shape, a feminine shape. As her eyes adjusted, she saw a beautiful woman with long, white-blond hair.