“If I make a slave of you then why isn’t there a drink in my hand yet?” I teased and his eyes glittered hungrily.
He tugged me along, the crowd parting once more to let us through as he guided me into the cabin. Heat swept over me as I took in the most extravagant common space I’d ever seen. Couches and armchairs filled the huge room and to the right of them was a long bar with free tea, coffee and freaking chilled cucumber water. Someone had placed a couple of kegs on it too plus rows upon rows of liquor and soda sat beside them. The thump of pop music filled the air, the lights low and the chairs pushed away from the centre of the room to create an already thriving dance floor.
Blake gestured to a freckly guy standing at the end of the bar with his hands behind his back and he came running over like there was a zombie trying to chomp on his ass.
“Take her coat,” Blake demanded and the boy rushed forward to pull it from my shoulders.
“Oh that’s not – well alright then.” I let him pull the leather jacket off then he scurried away to hang it on a hook by the door. “What’s with the gofer?” I taunted and Blake breathed a note of amusement.
“He’s one of the Unspeakables.” He slid an arm around my waist, tugging me against his hip as I frowned.
“You mean like in that legend everyone keeps going on about? Do you and your friends seriously call yourself the Night Watchers?” I snorted and his eyes darkened to pitch.
“Keepers,” he corrected, sharp enough to send a delicious shiver through my body. Oh I don’t mind that tone one bit, but it would sound even better in a bedroom. “And yeah, we have a whole flock of little sheep doing our bidding. But don’t worry sweetheart…they deserve it.”
I cocked a brow at him, lowering my voice. “What did that guy do then, put a pin in that big head of yours?” I teased and he smirked.
“He used a screwdriver actually. Frightful fucking mess,” he joked and I released a laugh, though I wasn’t entirely done being curious about his apparent servants.
He led me further into the party and my gaze caught on a tattoo which he had inked on the back of his neck as I followed him. It looked like an arrow soaring through the air towards some unknown target, a feather hanging from its shaft, caught in the wind caused by its flight. There was something captivatingly beautiful in its simplicity and I was struck with the urge to run my fingers over it.
“Nice tattoo,” I commented and Blake turned his green eyes on me with a smirk.
“It’s my Night Keeper mark,” he said with passion flaring in his gaze. “Saint and Kyan have them too. I don’t generally go in for tattoos but this is different. It’s important.”
I bit my lip as he turned away to lead me further into the party and my gaze trailed over the tattoo again. There was something about it that just begged my gaze to stay with it.
He led me up to the makeshift bar and leaned in close to my ear to speak over the music. “So, what’s your poison?”
I eyed the array of liquors on the bar as my neck tingled from the touch of his breath. Eyes were swinging our way from every angle and I realised spending time with any of the Night Keepers was bound to make you a topic of conversation around here. But I didn’t have anyone to impress, so I didn’t really care who was watching me. Even when a group of girls close by pointed and glared, jealousy written in the crinkles in their pretty faces, I just smiled politely and shrugged it off.
I pointed at the bottle of dark spiced rum then to a bottle of ginger beer further down the bar.
“Dark and Stormy?” Blake asked, picking up a lime and a knife and I nodded, watching as he filled a glass with ice and poured a generous measure of rum into it. He squeezed half the lime in too before rubbing it around the edge of the glass and adding the ginger beer.
He passed it to me before sucking the lime juice off of his fingers and I sucked on my lip, part of me wanting to make sure he hadn’t missed any.
“Thanks.” I grinned.
He grabbed another beer, twisting the cap off and tossing it in the trash. “Cheers.” He held the bottle out and I clinked my glass to it, my eyes remaining on his as I took a sip. The sharp and sweet mixture crackled over my tongue, leaving the lasting taste of ginger in my mouth.
“So the teachers just let us get away with this?” I asked him, looking to the line of alcohol again.
“Most of them are happy to turn a blind eye seeing as they don’t wanna piss us off.” It was obvious by us he meant him and the other Night Keepers. With Saint’s dad being the governor for the entire state, I wasn’t exactly surprised about that. But what about Blake and Kyan? What was their claim to this empire?
“So which one of your parents makes you a prince?” I asked and a faint frown lined his brow for a moment. He swigged his beer and it was gone a second later.
“My dad owns the Redwood Rattlesnakes.”
I stopped drinking, stopped fucking breathing. “You’re kidding?” The Rattlesnakes were the best. If you were from Sequoia State, you supported the Redwood Rattlesnakes no question about it.
“Nope, there’s a picture of me as a kid bouncing on the knee of Derrick Northfield after they won the Superbowl,” he said with a look that said this was completely normal to him. “Dad owns a bunch of stadiums too.” He shrugged and I shook my head at him.
“So I guess you’re the guy to come to if I want tickets?”
“You like football?” he asked, his eyes lighting up.
“I’ve watched every Rattlesnakes game with my Dad since I can remember. He’s got this beat up old cap he wears whenever we watch it.” I smiled at the memories and Blake grinned at me like he wanted to see inside my head.
“Hey asshole, is she initiating or what?” Kyan’s voice shattered my thoughts and we whipped around to where he was spread out in an armchair. Like, his body was literally taking up every inch of space. His legs were stretched wide, his arms draped over the back of it and a glass of whiskey hung in his fingers with a single ice cube floating around in it. The chair was probably having the time of its life.
“You are, aren’t you Tate?” Blake purred, sliding his arm around my waist and I didn’t mind that at all.
“I didn’t think it was an option,” I jibed, tossing back my drink for some Dutch courage. Blake smoothly took the glass out of my grip and shoved it into the hand of some unsuspecting guy. He looked pissed for half a second before he realised who’d passed it to him and he quickly bowed his head in deference.
Kyan pushed out of his chair, pointing to the door at the back of the cabin which led onto the balcony and Blake steered me after him outside. My gaze snagged on the tattoo on the back of Kyan’s neck as we followed him out. It was an arrow just like Blake’s though the head of his was a little sharper and the details on the feathers were different. But it was just as captivating, just as alluring and clearly designed to match. There should have been something silly about them having matching tattoos but there wasn’t – it was actually intimidating somehow. Like the three them were one and the same. Part of this exclusive little club that didn’t let anyone else in. But that wild part of me was aching for an invite all the same.
My heart drummed harder as the surrounding students moved after us, their excitement clear as the chatter in the room grew deafening.