“I took care of it,” I say, not knowing what else to say.
Silence stretches between us for a minute, before Izzy stomps toward me.
Uh oh, I think I’m in trouble.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Izzy
“How can you be so stupid?” I demand. Van is tall and imposing, but I poke my finger into his broad chest anyway and he takes a step back, no matter how much he may tower over me. “Goddamn it, Van!”
His lips quirk. “You never swear, Iz. You feeling okay?”
“You make me swear,” I say, thrusting my fingers against his chest again. “Because you make me crazy. You can’t send the rest of us off like that. We need you, you arrogant ass--”
He cuts me off as he abruptly grabs my waist and yanks me toward him, covering my mouth with his. I push away, still furious, ready to keep scolding him.
But once I’ve shoved him away, my voice comes out in a whisper. “I was so scared. I need you, Van.”
The cocky expression on his face melts away, and he wraps me up in his arms. “I’m sorry, Iz.”
He sounds genuinely abashed, and this time I’m the one who kisses him. I bob up onto my tiptoes, wrapping my arms around his neck, and drag him down to kiss me.
Van acts as if he doesn’t need anyone, and yet when he kisses me, he holds me against his body so tightly that it takes my breath away. His lips are full of heat and need, his hand cupping the back of my head as if he can’t get enough of me.
And I kiss him back the same way. When Van sent us away in his car, I’d tumbled into the driver’s seat, trying frantically to get back to him. I yanked on an unyielding steering wheel and pumped on brakes that wouldn’t move. The car had driven down the road anyway, as unstoppable and unpredictable as Van was. But still, I’d known he was trying to keep me safe in the car, just like I was safe with him.
Wilder coughs dramatically in the distance. “Do you two think we could wait until we get back to campus before you tear each other’s clothes off and finish making up? Instead of doing it right here in the road surrounded by bodies?”
Van pulls away from me and rolls his eyes. “We are gods. We can do what we want.”
“It doesn’t make it less weird,” Wilder shoots back.
The five of us pile into the car once again.
After we reach the academy grounds, hide Van's vehicle once again, and cross the quiet quad to our house, I breathe a sigh of relief.
“Well, we made it home without anyone else trying to kill us,” I joke as we head toward the front door.
The door opens, and the godslayers pile out. Or at least four of the eight godslayers...Lucus, Trevor, Brian, and Josh.
“Maybe it was a little early for that kind of optimism?” Reid murmurs next to me.
“Hey,” I say, scanning for the face of the girl I’ve gotten to know. Some of these guys seemed very invested in killing us and getting back to their old lives, but I know Jessica is an ally--as long as she realizes we’re not evil. “Where’s Jessica and Tuck?”
“Where’s Finn and Clancy?” Van demands. He leans his elbow against my shoulder, looking cocky as hell, as usual, but I can feel tension singing through his body when he’s this close to me. Van expects a fight. “Because it looks like this is just the asshole patrol.”
“I told you Jessica and them are traitors,” Trevor mutters to Lucas, who stands there like their leader. “Listen to the gods looking for their friends.”
Because it’s such a terrible thing to get to know people instead of killing them.
“What did you do to them?” I demand, suddenly sure that there’s a reason Jessica and the others aren’t here.
“We didn’t do anything. They’re our friends.” Trevor frowns at us.
“Don’t worry about them,” Lucas warns. “Worry about us.”
“You destroyed half the school,” Trevor adds. “Then you ran away and started a war with the vampires.”
Technically, they aren’t wrong, but it isn’t as bad as it sounds. I’m not about to tell them that one of us was taken over by a god, though. It won’t matter to them that we dealt with it. We can’t trust them.
“Not the vampires,” Reid mutters. “They aren’t a monolith. With one set of vampires.”
“You bring nothing but blood and pain to the world.” Lucus steps down off the porch, his dark hair slicked back and a fresh cut on his cheek, and starts toward us. “Even the dean is beginning to see your true colors.”
Wilder steps forward to greet him, the two of them chest-to-chest, and more of them course off the porch, only to be greeted by my men, who close up like they’re ready for a fight.
Van’s sword ripples into existence over his shoulder and he grips the hilt, but doesn’t pull the sword out yet. Suddenly the godslayer that faces him down has a sword in his hand, too. Tension shimmers in the air. It’s all too easy to imagine how this is all going to play out today.
Whoever swings their blade first, we’re the ones who are being tested. We’re the ones who will be blamed--if not by the dean, then by the rest of the school.
I shove my way in between them, but I only have eyes for Van. I’m not scared of the guy with the blade at my back, even if I should be. I’m only scared for my friends.
“Van, please,” I say softly. “Walk away.”
Lucus sneers behind me. “Yeah, Van. Walk away.”
Van stares at him, his jaw tense, his eyes flaring with hatred. Van pretends he doesn’t care about much, but I know how much his pride matters to him.
Then he says, levelly, “Those vampires? That war? They went to my house and they killed everyone they found there. They were innocent humans; they didn’t even know monsters were real until the attack started.”
“Anyone who’s met you should know monsters are real,” Brian says, his voice soft and filled with hatred.
I try to hide my surprise that one of the silent twins had finally spoken. Part of me had hoped that their silence meant they were still deciding how they felt about us. I guess I was wrong.
Van’s jaw sets. “Check it out. You think you’re the good guys? Then if you are, at least this time around, you’d be on our side.”
Lucas sheaths his sword. “Sure, we’ll check out your story, asshole. Why not? Then when we find out you started the war, we’re coming back…and we’re asking Mr. Time for permission to write you off the face of the earth.”
Van’s lips press together tightly and I have no doubt he’s biting back a smartass remark, but he just nods. The guy slams into his shoulder as he walks past. The godslayers all pass between us, giving us dirty, intimidating looks.
Josh slams into Reid’s shoulder, too, and his body rocks back, but just slightly.
Reid rolls his eyes. “Apparently, magic doesn’t select godslayers for their maturity.”
Once they’ve gone, Aiden adds, “Or their IQ points.”
“Well, some of them seemed decent enough,” Wilder says. “Where the hell did they go?”
“I’m going to ask Beth,” I say. “I didn’t exactly exchange phone numbers with Jessica before she stormed off to get ‘answers’, but maybe Beth has it.”