Sweet Reckoning (The Sweet Trilogy #3)(43)

My heart thumped. “Yes, Duke Pharzuph.”

“And when you see that father of yours again, tell him hell’s looking for him.”

Keeping my eyes averted, I gave a tight nod. My throat was too dry to swallow. I was suddenly paranoid about how long he’d be here on campus and what he expected of me.

“Excuse me, Duke. . . .” I hated how weak my voice sounded, although it was best that he knew I feared him. “I was just wondering, do you need me to, um, work with you tonight or anything?”

He laughed. Loudly. A patronizing sound.

“No, I don’t need you to work with me. I don’t work with Neph.” He practically spat the words. “I’ll only be here one night and I want to enjoy it. Find your own bar and send the drunks my way.”

He laughed again, low and lewd.

I felt his stare roaming my body before he finally left, and I collapsed onto the bed, shaking.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

DARTS

It was a true testament to how strange my life had become that the best night of my life was followed by the most uncomfortable. Knowing that Kaidan’s father, a guy who was now the same freaking age as him, was leaving a trail of broken hearts all over my college campus made me ill. And not just broken hearts. That would be too tame for Pharzuph. He would push people to do things they weren’t ready for, and all the while he and the whisperers would mess with their minds—filling them with guilt and self-loathing that would plague them for years to come. He wasn’t just a campus player out for sex. He was an evil bastard out to hurt souls. A weapon in a very beautiful disguise.

All night as I sat at the bar, my knee bouncing a thousand miles per hour, I thought about what Kaidan and I had shared—how special and beautiful it had been. And then I thought of Pharzuph. My stomach turned.

Did Kaidan have any idea that Pharzuph had changed bodies? Had he received a call about his father, Richard Rowe, dropping dead at work in New York City or at his posh home in Atlanta? He knew Pharzuph planned to find me and give me the sniff test—trying to catch the scent of virginity. I wished I could call Kaidan and reassure him that it had happened and I was okay.

What a freaking mess.

But at least our plan had worked, and for that I allowed myself to smile into my beer glass. Kaidan and I were momentarily off the suspicion list. Unfortunately, my father was still on it. Big-time.

My smile disappeared.

“Hey, can I buy you another?”

I looked up at the cute boy who’d spoken. The bar I’d chosen had gotten crowded and loud, but it was mostly groups of friends, so nobody had talked to me yet. Pharzuph was probably too busy to keep an ear out on me, but I didn’t want to take any chances. Plus, there were at least six whisperers prowling through town tonight, so I had to work.

“How about this?” I asked the guy. “Let’s play darts, and the loser buys the next round.”

He sucked in air through his teeth. “I don’t know. I’d feel kinda bad making a pretty girl I just met buy my drink. . . .”

“Oho, so it’s like that, huh?” I hopped off the stool, surprised by my own ability to feel lighthearted at the moment, but sometimes boys needed to be taught lessons about underestimating girls.

And so the night passed with me kicking the butt of every guy in the bar. The girls, after realizing I wasn’t interested in their boyfriends, became my cheerleaders. Yeah, I got a few people drunk. Between the beers and shots, I pushed glasses of water their way all night, hoping to keep them hydrated.

I never forgot who I was, or the fact that I wasn’t one of them, but I still let myself enjoy their company and the feeling of being embraced by friendly strangers. We were having a great time until someone turned up the television for a breaking news story. A popular rapper had been shot after his show in D.C. while greeting fans. He had a colorful past, serving jail time, but had turned his life around and become an education advocate—an inspiring American success story. And now he was in a coma, probably going to die.

Everyone in the bar shook their heads, muttering, “What is wrong with this world?”

If they only knew.

The mood was somber after that.

At closing time I managed to evade the cute boy who’d been at my side all night. I slipped the bartender a note to call cabs for my drunken buddies, giving my credit card number as payment.

As I shuffled back to the dorm at two in the morning, a knife in my pocket and the Sword of Righteousness strapped to my ankle under my jeans, I imagined that Kaidan went to school there with me and we were a normal couple. Students. Sometimes it was fun to pretend, but I didn’t let myself long for impossible things, because there were Nephilim who would do anything to have the life I led.

Calling my life blessed was ironic, considering, but when it came down to it, I was loved, and that made life worth living. Just like my mother, Mariantha, said.

As I was having that lovely thought, my dorm in sight, a dark shadow flew into my path on the narrow sidewalk, causing a shriek to stick in my throat.

“Baby . . .”

I pressed a hand to my chest. “You scared me half to death, Dad!” My telepathic voice screamed at him, and I looked behind me, searching for signs of whisperers but finding none. “Pharzuph is here tonight with a ton of spirits!”

“I know. Hurry up and get to your room so we can talk in private.” He flew ahead of me, disappearing into the side wall of my dorm.