Big Bad Academy

“You’re a vampire,” I finally realize.

“Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!”

“You want shifter blood because you think it’ll make you stronger.”

It won’t.

It’s a rumor started long ago, probably by other vampires. Who knows? The rumor states that when a vampire drinks the blood of a shifter, they’ll become stronger, faster. Wilder.

None of it’s true.

People have tested this theory in safe and unsafe ways, but the truth is that while a shifter’s blood will feed a vampire, that’s all it will do.

It won’t safe them.

It won’t make them more immortal than they already are.

“Oh, you stupid wolf,” the man says. He takes a step forward and then another. He moves until he’s right out of my cage, and fuck, if this guy doesn’t completely just stink.

It’s been ages since I’ve smelled anything this bad. Hell, maybe I’ve never smelled anything this bad.

The vampire reeks though, and he walks around my cage, touching the top like it’s his.

This is why the wolves blew the horn of howling.

I heard it.

They know where we are, I realize, and they’re going to come for us.

All I have to do is keep this guy talking, keep him moving and distracted, and soon the other wolves will come. They’ll save us. I just know it. They have to, right? That’s what a pack does. The entire time he staring at me, though, I’m looking around and trying to find ways out of the tower.

There’s a trapdoor in the floor, which I assume leads to a ladder or a spiral staircase. There are windows lining the top of the tower, where we are, but the glass panes are broken out of most of the windows. How old is this tower? Why here?

“Clever wolf,” he mutters. “Don’t bother trying to escape.”

“Why’s that?”

“I’d hate to have to hurt you before your mate arrives.”

My blood runs cold and I look up at the vampire in shock. He knows it, too. I do a terrible job of hiding my surprise. The other wolves seemed just as shocked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie.

“Oh, I think you do,” he shakes his finger at me. “It took quite a bit of planning and research, you know, to bring this little plan together. She wasn’t an easy girl to find. She changed her name, actually, to keep me away.”

Heather.

This is the guy who was stalking Heather.

I wrack my brain, trying to come up with anything else she might have said that could give me a clue as to what kind of monster he is, but I come up empty. All I know is that this guy scared her and was stalking her. She was worried he’d come to the book signing, and that was one of the reasons she didn’t often – or ever – do events.

He scared her.

And now he’s trying to destroy the pack.

“Why are you doing this?” I ask.

“So many reasons.”