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They reached her class far faster than she would have liked Hesitating in the hall, she turned to hio "I’ll see you soon," he said softly, his eyes rapidly scanning her face, see to reme herself to speak She half felt like crying, which was coain She hoped His hand tightened around hers, his skin burned into hers He took a step closer, and for ato kiss her She held her breath in anticipation, her entire body claainst hers

Instead, he squeezed her hand briefly and released it quickly Cassie felt the loss of his touch as acutely as a knife to her heart Her entire being ached for it again She couldn’tcrowd

CHAPTER 9

Devon folded his arainst the wall as he waited ih the whole study hall thing, but he didn’t understand what he was supposed to be doing, or why he even had the class But then again, he didn’t understand any of this high school stuff They were like rats in aday after day

He supposed education was a good thing; he simply had no use for it Maybe if he was a hue he may have needed it, but he wasn’t When he had been hu because he had been a member of the aristocracy, and it had been expected of him But even before he’d died, he’d seen no reason to continue with his education Even as a huard for whom he hurt in the process And when he’d died he’d become even worse, far far worse It was not a fact he was proud of, it was just a fact that he had to live with, and try to atone for, every day of his lonely existence

An existence that so at the e His, had been a long existence He’d thought that he had done everything there was to do; apparently he had forgotten one thing He just wasn’t so sure that he wanted the experience, it was tiring He did want her though He wanted to see her and touch her, and he wanted to be near her, and she spent a good chunk of her ti compared to the reality of her, but he had known that they wouldn’t be Her skin was even softer, warht to hi he had never expected to experience in his life, but now that he had it, he was not going to let it go Ever

Though he knehere his fierce possessiveness of herto explore that possibility, or reality, yet There was still a chance that he could walk away from her even if he didn’t want to Her safety was number one as far as he was concerned, and she could never be truly safe with him in her life He needed to be able to walk away, but if what he suspected was true, there was a good possibility that he may not be able to

He had meant what he’d said to her earlier, he was not lost when she was near He hole in a way that he had never been whole before, not even when he had been alive When she was near, he did not feel adrift in a world where he was not welco humans, or va, and cruel If staying here, torturing hih school was the only way to be close to her then he was going to suffer through the classes like everyone else

He shifted slightly, the disco by the second He should have fed before he came here today, but he hadn’t realized how hard it would be to keep control around her She was a temptation that he couldn’t resist, not anymore; especially now that he had touched her And now that he had felt her, he kneould never stop touching her

The only proble in his veins had kicked into hyper drive the ainst hers The sweet scent of her blood had sla his er that engulfed him It had taken every bit of self restraint he had not to rip her against hi the delicious blood that flowed through her veins

He had not touched a drop of human blood in a hundred and thirty seven years, and until that moment he had never felt the desire so fiercely, or so acutely He had never had his control nearly shattered, never nearly snapped and drained a person si them But as much as she unsettled him, and rattled his fire way His baser instincts were held at bay as her delicate fingers curled around his Touching her had locked the dee to drain the blood from her even more than it had enticed it Whatever spell she had cast over hi at the clock on the wall, he shifted slightly, growing ih school life Over seven hundred years old and he was lurking in the hallways of adolescent teenagers, and all because of a girl Granted, she was an exceptional girl, and he was captivated by her, but never had he gone to such lengths for a woht that he would either And he was fairly certain that this was only the beginning of what he would do for her

The annoying bell rang suddenly, its sound was exceptionally sharp in his sensitive ears, but it was a welco away froerly waited for her to e open around hied He was barely aware of the humans as they filtered around hiap then they would with anyone else The girls drifted closer, "accidentally" bu flirtatiously as they openly adnored the out of Cassie’s class He could smell her; feel the beat of her tiny, delicate heart She appeared in the doorway, her ht of hi to her broke off abruptly, her brown eyes widened in surprise

He did not think about it as he instinctively reached his hand out to Cassie, relief filled hiht The beast inside of hi in his veins lessened as her presence soothed the edgy rawness in hiain If he did, he would not h the rest of this day

Her sht of her beautiful face cal him even further "Ulanced at the redhead, giving her a brief nod before turning her full attention back to hiaze away from her "I don’t really see the point of study hall"

She laughed softly, the sound beautiful and sweet, like the gentle ring of wind chi him to the marrow of his bones At thatin his power to h as often as possible Her eyes twinkled hter broke off, but she continued to smile radiantly up at him

"Most people look forward to study hall; it’s their favorite time of day, other than lunch of course"

"I don’t see why, there’s nothing to do"