He shrugged. “Not really. I think a lot of people would do what I wanted to do if they had the chance to.”
I didn’t want to burst his bubble, but I couldn’t have disagreed more. People in general were terrible and cold-hearted, at least in my experience.
“What did you want to do before all this happened?” he asked.
“I was going to school to be a social worker.”
“See?” His eyes lit up like I had just proved to him that Santa was real. “Everybody wants to save the world.”
I chuckled. “I don’t know about the world. All I wanted to do was make sure other kids like me didn’t have to go through what I went through. Guess I won’t have the chance to do that now.” I hadn’t realized before how much that thought distressed me.
“We all have our parts to play,” he said warmly. “I guess our parts have changed now, but isn’t this so much cooler?”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it. We were both struggling through all the hoops on the off chance that we would be able to do some good for somebody somewhere eventually. Now we have the chance to be honest-to-god super heroes. We’re already saving the world a little bit by being here, and once we’re trained, can you imagine how much good we’ll do?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it that way.” I narrowed my eyes at him, cocking my head. “You seem way too comfortable with all this. Don’t you miss your old life? Your parents and aspirations and all that?”
“Sure.” His beaming grin slipped for a second, and his sky-blue eyes clouded over. “I miss my mom every day. But it’s worth it, you know? At least, I hope it is. There are so many possibilities. The world I knew just cracked open and revealed that it was something else all along. I don’t know what all the possibilities are, but I’m excited to find out.”
He wasn’t lying; I was sure of that. But the excitement couldn’t quite wash the sadness out of his eyes. It tugged sharply at my heart, and I scowled in response.
“It doesn’t seem fair,” I murmured. “Everybody I know had more to lose than I did. When I was attacked, I had just finished beating the hell out of my cheating-ass boyfriend, and he was the only person I even remotely cared about.”
“Really? No friends?”
I shrugged. “Being a self-sufficient kid comes at a price. I never really learned how to make deep connections.”
“That’s strange. I figured you’d be great at it. I mean, that healer chick said you’d have to be pretty strong to bond with four guys at once. Plus, you got Hannah and that dopey guy following you around everywhere.”
I chuckled. “Owen. Yeah, this is all new for me. I’ve always been good at blending in and socializing on a surface level. I guess those skills hold more weight in a situation like this.” I didn’t particularly want to go down the list of my personal failings. I groped around for a new topic and landed on the worst possible one. “So, um… what attacked you? What’d you turn into?”
He grimaced. “Hellhound. Not my first choice, honestly.”
“Ouch. I bet. What would you have chosen?”
“A water demon, maybe,” he said dreamily. “Or something that flies. I used to surf every day back home. The perfect combination of two worlds, just flying over the waves. You ever surf?”
I shook my head. “Never. Always kind of wanted to learn, but something always came up.”
“If they ever let us out of this joint, I’ll teach you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yep.”
Something about that one word made a switch flip inside me. It was a little thing, but it was just the cherry on top of everything else. He was just so damn good. I couldn’t take it anymore. We walked past a little alcove in the hallway and I tugged him into it and pressed him against the wall.
“Woah!” He glanced down at me. “You good?”
“Kiss me.”
His eyebrows flew up, but the surprise on his face only lasted a second. Then he slid his tongue across his lower lip and grinned as his eyes darkened. He pulled me close, and I gasped as our bodies pressed together, then moaned as his mouth found mine. His kiss was hot and calming all at once, a sauna of pleasure around my consciousness. God, I wanted more.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing my suddenly heavy breasts against his hard chest, rising on my toes to grind my hips against his. He groaned and ran his hands over my body, kissing me wildly. Every inch of my skin ached to be closer to him.
I almost went for it. My brain was so hopped up on the feel of Jayce this close to me, of his lips devouring mine, that I almost lost all sense of where we were. I was a heartbeat away from tearing my clothes off and going at it right in a tiny alcove in the hallway. But class let out before I got that chance, and I forced myself to put a sliver of daylight between our bodies. I gazed breathlessly up at him. He grinned slowly, and the sight of it was like gasoline on the fire that already blazed steadily within me.