Zodiac Academy: The Awakening(6)

Flashy-shirt stepped out of the bar just as the engine roared to life beneath us, his dark gaze set on me. He looked more than a little pissed as he took a step towards us, calling something I couldn’t hear over the growl of the engine.

Take a hint, dude.

I tightened my grip on my companion and a smile pulled at my lips as we shot away.

The wind braided my hair with icy fingers as we left the bar behind at a fast pace. Babyface knew what he was doing with the bike, easing past the speed limit and weaving the traffic in a way that set my heart racing with joy and my skin tingling with exhilaration.

In no time at all, we arrived at the outskirts of my less than great neighbourhood and he pulled over to let me off. I was still four blocks from home but there was no need to show the nice stranger where I lived.

“Thanks for the ride,” I said with a grin as I started to back away.

“You gonna give me your number this time, Tory?” he asked and I tilted my head, surprised that he knew my name. He seemed to realise it too and gave me more of an explanation. “I gave you a ride a few months ago and you said you’d give me your number next time.”

I couldn’t remember that. I eyed the bike. Nope, I’d definitely never ridden it before, though my memory of faces wasn’t so good.

“I used to have a Triumph,” he said, noticing my confusion.

“Oh, you’ve upgraded,” I said as the memory clicked together.

“I have. So what do you say? Will you let me buy you dinner some time?”

Hard to say no to free dinner. And he did know his way around a bike. And he was fairly easy on the eye.

“Can’t say no to that, can I?” I asked, reaching for his cellphone so that I could key in my number. “I didn’t catch your name.”

“Matt,” he supplied with a smile.

He hit dial as I handed his cellphone back and I smirked as I lifted the vibrating device from my pocket to show him that his call had come through. “Don’t you trust me?”

“Just checking,” he replied, giving me an appreciative glance. “I’ll call you.”

I watched as he rode away down the street with a faint smile pulling at my lips before I turned and started heading for home. I picked up a fast pace; the evenings were getting cooler now that we’d hit September and I was beginning to wish I’d brought a jacket out with me.

I jogged the last block, heading into our apartment with a sigh of relief as I pulled open the door at the foot of the stairwell.

“We didn’t finish our chat,” a deep voice came from behind me and I flinched in surprise as I turned back to the street. There, standing beneath the flickering streetlight was none other than Mr Expensive himself.

Terror coursed down my spine and sent my heart into overdrive.

I didn’t waste time on chit-chat with the stalker as I turned and bolted for the stairs, my heart thundering in my chest.

I could hear his footsteps behind me and my mind filled with images of my broken body abandoned in a dumpster, food for the rats and a one-liner in the newspaper tomorrow.

Holy fucking shit on a cornflake.

“Stop!” He called and for some unknown, utterly terrifying reason, I did.

My lips parted in fear as he gained on me and I managed to shake off the desire to stay still as I bolted again. I made it to the fourth floor, sprinting towards our door at the end of the corridor with the upside down seven hanging from it.

I heard him cursing a moment before his solid weight collided with me. I was fast and had a good headstart, so how the hell had he caught up to me? He shoved me back against the door to our apartment and released a huff of irritation.

I opened my mouth to scream and his hand slapped down over my mouth.

The corridor was abandoned, even nosey Mrs Ergu from next door hadn’t stuck her beak out to moan about noise or cooking smells or goddamn trash collections and for the first time ever I wished to see her narrow-eyed glare.

“I’m Professor Orion. I’m not going to hurt you and you’re not going to scream. You want to let me in.” He released his grip on me and stepped back as I stared up at him, fear still strangling me but the desire to scream for help gone.

I opened my mouth to tell him I absolutely didn’t want to let a random stranger into our apartment at midnight on a Sunday but my hands seemed to have other ideas. I shoved my key in the lock and turned it before I could stop myself.

“Come in,” I said sweetly. What the hell? I wasn’t sweet, especially with strangers. Especially, especially with stalker strangers.

Fancy-shirt stepped right into my personal space, offering me a flat smile as he followed me inside and pushed the door closed behind him. My heart was pounding, my palms slick and I was filled with the feeling that I’d just let a fox into my chicken coop.





I WAS SNUGGLED up on the couch in my favourite pyjamas when the front door opened. I turned away from the episode of Breaking Bad where I'd maybe (not maybe) been taking mental notes on ways to solve our current predicament. Hope bloomed inside me as Tory walked in, but my smile fell away as I spotted two disturbing things: her bitter scowl, and a complete stranger marching into our apartment behind her.

I clung to the edge of the couch as the man side-stepped Tory, taking in our small apartment with a single, sweeping look. Heat invaded every cell in my body as his eyes fell on me, coal-like and dark as sin. He looked like a quarterback squeezed into a nice shirt and grey pants. His sleeves were rolled up to reveal muscular forearms and that trend continued from his biceps to his battering-ram shoulders.