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I flipped Josh off and gulped down the remainder of my water. I tossed the empty bottle to Derik and pushed myself to my feet, dagger dangling from my hand. I padded to where my sword and second dagger lay in the grass and picked them up. Humming filled my ears.
“You mustn’t simply toss me on the ground again. That was obscurely rude.”
“What?”
“Surely you must realize how rude it is to simply toss us to the ground, as if we are nothing more than trash. Honestly, given your heritage, one would think you would know better.”
“Heritage? What do you mean? My dad, from what I very recently learned, was an Angel. How was I supposed to know any of that?”I crossed my arms, glaring at my sword. It rang, a slight orange hue surrounded it.
“It is your responsibility to learn,”the orange hue flared.“Now, look alive and not as if you are speaking with your weapons. Sheath myself and hold on to my sisters tightly. Do not allow us to leave your sight. Do you understand?”
I held back my glare, as the sword had a point. I didn’t need Derik or Josh thinking I was a nutcase, or that the training and Nephilim shit was getting to me.“Understood.”
I held my weapons close, snapping my attention back to Josh and Derik, the two of them conversing. Josh seemingly busting my chops once again on my fighting techniques.
“Oh, up yours, Josh. I’m new to this whole fighting with a weapon thing. Cut me some slack.”
“Cutting youslackis what could get you and everyone else here killed. So, no. I will not be ‘cutting you slack,’ Miss Snow,” he looked at Derik. “I believe we shall need to continue this at minimum twice a day for the foreseeable future. Derik will reassess over the next couple of weeks. As will Mr. Draven as his schedule deems fit.”
“And what exactly do you mean by that? Mine and Seth’s schedules are damn near identical with the exception of my job at the library.” I narrowed my eyes on the two of them.
Derik ran his hand through his tousled hair. “Actually, Erin, he has a point. Seth needs to really focus on finding the humans with this whole ‘Key’ business. We were talking last night and he’s not going to be in classes for a while once they resume.”
“What!?” I gripped my daggers and sword closer to my chest and stomped around to the front of the house. I kicked open the door to see Seth and Libby sitting at the kitchen island, nonchalantly chatting over coffee, no doubt with actual sugar in it.
I stomped inside, practically growling. “Seth Draven. What the actualfuck?Why are Derik and Josh saying that you’re leaving me to suffer alone through classes while your ass is off hunting down this Demon and missing human bullshit?” I went to toss my sword and daggers on the couch when the humming and weird vision-slash-inner-monologue replayed. Instead, I carefully set them down on the couch, patting my sword for good measure. I stomped to where Seth and Libby sat, flames building in my stomach.
Seth shot his hands up in front of himself in defense. “Woah, woah, Rin. Easy there, girl.”
Fire erupted at my fingertips.
Nifty.
“You want to try that again, Seth? Do Ilooklike a damn horse to you?”
His eyes flicked down to my hands, flames still ignited. “No. Shit. I’m sorry, Rin, I didn’t mean it like that. I just…I’m taking off a bit to focus on getting this shit figured out so we can find those humans. Who the hell knows what they’re going through right now. And The Key…I want to find out more on that and I can’t do that wasting time at school,” he rushed. “Besides,they’re just repeater classes for me anyway.” He stopped. His eyes widened. “Shit. Erin I didn’t mean—”
“If they’re just ‘repeater classes’ thenwhy the fuckare you taking them? Are you wasting damn money on classes you don’t even need!?” I paused. A conversation from a few weeks ago popped into my head. “Oh, my actual fuck. Are you only taking those classes to keep a fucking eye on me? What the hell is wrong with you? Do you think I’m that incompetent?” Ice lined my voice. My chest vibrated, the hurt rampaged through me. I wanted to scream until my heart burst into the flames that filled me.
Stop keeping shit from me.
I can’t fucking take this anymore.
Seth stammered. Libby swooped in. “Erin. That’s not what Seth is saying, I know it’s hard to believe, but trust me on this. Please. There’s just a lot going on right now, as you know,” she shot me a pointed look. “And if you both miss class it might raise some suspicions if anyone looks too closely.”
“Lib, I get that. I really do. But who the hell would be suspicious of that?”
Sounds like an excuse to me.
I snipped, “If any humans were to get ‘suspicious’ of anything it would be along the lines of two individuals who’ve been absurdly close since practically birth, suddenly not showing up. I don’t know about you, but in my world that screams knocked up or giving up on their dreams. And considering Seth and I aren’t even on that first plane, I’m not about to have our professors think for a minute that he’s a drop out.” I sucked in a steadying breath.
“He’s a great student and highly intelligent. A huge pain in my ass but a great person with a future. Beyond just our jobs as Nephilim.” I panted, fire dwindling as I caught a glimpse of pain in Seth’s eyes.
I drew in a long breath before continuing. “If you’re going to take off and avoid actual in person class, can you at least, please, look through my notes and try to keep up? Go over the material with me. Check in with our pain-in-the-ass professor about switching to online self-guided courses. Something?” I pleaded.
An idea popped in my head. “If you promise me that you’ll do that, then I’ll promise to stay out of the way. I’ll stick to school books, work, and training. And away from the action. I’ll let you do all the protector-of-the-masses crap.”
I know it’s selfish. Just please say yes.
