“Alright, asshole, I’m just asking. No need to get your cock in a knot over it.”
Kyan snorted a laugh at the joke, I did not.
“Are we locking Tatum in the bathroom while we’re gone or bringing her?” Kyan asked, scrubbing a hand over his face in an attempt to wake himself up more thoroughly.
I hadn’t given much thought to the situation yet, but I guessed it made sense to bring her. “Get her up, tell her she’s coming with us but not why, we’ll need the extra man power and I don’t wanna outsource this. Let her piss herself thinking we’re taking her out to kill her until we get to the kitchens. But do it quickly – we leave in three minutes.”
“Done,” Kyan turned and stalked back to his room and I met Blake’s gaze as he lingered.
“Your dad thinks the Hades Virus is gonna make it all the way out here?” he asked.
“My dad thinks it’s practical to prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised if it doesn’t come to pass, rather than hope for the best and be left standing with your jaw wide if everything does go to shit. Now hurry up, we’re down to one minute.”
He turned and walked away from me and I hurried back upstairs to pull on sweatpants and a black hoody. I never dressed this casually unless I was working out, but I didn’t have the time to worry about that now. I didn’t even do my fucking hair. The world really must have been coming to an end.
When I made it back downstairs, I found them all waiting for me. Kyan had given Tatum one of his hoodies to wear. It fell down to her mid thigh over her leggings and had the words Paradise waits for no man scrawled across the black fabric in pink lettering. There was some move being made there. He hadn’t given that to her out of the kindness of his heart. He didn’t even have a heart. Whatever the fuck he was playing at could wait though. I didn’t have time for it right now.
I moved to the side of the room and lifted one of the flagstones to reveal the safe hidden beneath it, quickly entering the code and opening it before pulling out the set of master keys for the entire campus. This had been a prize that took some getting, but through a series of blackmail letters and a few nice, honest bribes, I’d managed to get members of the cleaning staff to duplicate every single key on campus. Just in case.
I threw the keys in my pocket and locked the safe again before hiding it once more.
“C’mon.” I led the Night Keepers out into the dark where a crisp frost coated everything and we started jogging for the Redwood Dining Hall.
The only sound in the still grounds was that of our pounding feet and heated breaths which sent little clouds of vapour billowing around us.
The others kept up with me and I changed our pace to a run, glancing up at the starlit sky as the moon shone down on us.
We made it to the dining hall and I led everyone around back to the kitchens and store rooms. There were two thousand kids attending Everlake Prep, not to mention the staff. So they kept a hell of a lot of supplies onsite to feed us. Though that number had dropped significantly now that a lot of the students had taken their chance to run home to Mommy and Daddy. At last count, we were down to about a thousand - half the usual amount of students.
I quickly unlocked the doors and led the way into the darkened space.
The huge kitchens sat before us but I ignored them, turning left towards the store room and hesitating by a rack of keys which hung on the wall.
“You two go and pull a few carts around to load up,” I commanded, pointing at the keys. The staff here used golf carts with trailers to transport stuff from the delivery point at the main gate and take it around campus so we could use them too. “Barbie, you’re with me.”
If Tatum Rivers was afraid of being left alone with me in the dark, she didn’t mention it and she dutifully followed me further into the building as Kyan and Blake left to get the carts.
I opened the double doors at the end of the short corridor and flicked on a light to illuminate the huge room. There were stacks and stacks of all kinds of tins and containers everywhere, labelled to show what kind of food they held and I hesitated as I looked at it all, realising one small issue with my grand plan. I had no fucking idea how any of this shit was put together to create something edible.
“What are we doing here?” Tatum breathed, giving in to her need to ask at last.
I smirked as I realised I had her to myself for the first time, but I didn’t have time to indulge in any of the dark and sinful things I wanted to do to her.
“Gathering supplies,” I growled. “I’ve been advised to prepare for a period of complete lockdown and luckily for you, you’ll be in the house with all the food.”
“You think we’ll have to lock ourselves in The Temple? The four of us?” she asked and I didn’t miss the horror in her tone at the thought of that. And who could blame her really, I wouldn’t want to be locked up with three bored demons for days on end if I was her. Who knew what cruel and terrible things we might do to her?
“Tell me, Tatum,” I said, turning to pin her in my gaze and ignoring her question as I asked one of my own. “Are you one of those society brats who never has a clue how your food makes it onto your plate or did your daddy want to instil a sense of independence in you by encouraging you to cook for yourself?”
She frowned for a moment before it all clicked together for her.
“I’m guessing you’re the brat who just let it appear in front of you?” she challenged.
“Too fucking right I am. And I intend to remain that way. So?” I closed in on her until she was boxed in against a wall of toilet paper and her sweet breath fluttered over my lips. But mixed with the usual scent of vanilla and honey blossom which clung to her, was the scent of cheap whiskey and leather which Kyan always reeked of. I growled beneath my breath as I realised the point of the hoody and Tatum’s breath caught at the sound.
“I can cook,” she answered my question and I wondered if she thought that would make me leave her alone. But I was hooked on her now, this girl had caught my attention and I didn’t see it wavering any time soon. So any hope she had of that was built on a foundation of sand which I would send crashing down at every opportunity I could.
“Good,” I replied. “Then it looks like we’ll have an in-house chef for the foreseeable future. Though I warn you, I can get quite unpleasant if my food isn’t up to scratch.” I reached out and caught a lock of her blonde hair, twisting it around my finger as she looked up at me.
“You can get quite unpleasant over a lot of things,” she murmured.
“Mmm.” I didn’t disagree with her. I was a venomous creature at the best of times and vicious at the worst.
I shifted closer to her again until her back was pressed to the mountain of toilet paper, still twisting that lock of hair around my finger.
“I’ve been wondering something about you, Tatum Rivers,” I said in a dark tone which commanded all of her attention.
“What’s that?” she asked, seeming equal parts intrigued and repelled as she looked right into my eyes.
There weren’t a lot of people who could hold my eye like that and I smiled at her. It wasn’t friendly. There was more poison in my smile than in a Black Widow spider, but I gave it to her all the same.
“I want to know if you taste as sweet as you look…”