Page 194 of Fractured Fate
“It makes you irrational,” Seth added, scratching the back of his head.
Aiden was glad they had been through the bond’s trials already. He didn’t know what he would do if they hadn’t. In situations like this, he would be the one to point out that James was the likely culprit, but instead, his emotions were too volatile to allow him to focus and not think of Noah—the guy who showed interest in his Korrena—as the real threat.
He needed to get his head on straight.
Lukas ground his teeth together. “If the rogues are getting onto the campus and doing things like this without being noticed, Blaire is in danger, too.”
“Isn’t everyone?”
He looked at Riley.
Like Aiden, Lukas only thought of his Korrena when the situation became dire. No one could expect otherwise—young bond or not. The protective instincts around the Korrena bond ran deep.
The rogues didn’t care about Vasirian law. They would hurt any student who got in their way. They could easily slip in amongst the students and no one would blink. It was still summer break, so no one wore their uniforms. It made infiltration easier—especially if the rogues were young like Noah. Even then, with aging at a snail’s pace, older rogues would blend in just fine.
A hard knock sounded on the door. Charlotte pressed herself against Aiden, gripping the back of his shirt, and he tightened his hold to soothe her.
“It’s probably security,” Seth said. “I called them from the bathroom.”
Riley opened the door, and several members of Blackthorn Security stepped into the room, crowding the space. Their eyes scanned the room’s occupants.
“Who’s dorm is this?”
“Ours,” Aiden said.
“You and who? Her?” The man nodded at Charlotte.
“Yeah, my Korrena.”
The bearded man decked out in all black combat gear, complete with a tactical vest, grunted. “What’s going on?”
“Their bathroom is destroyed,” Lukas said. “Someone wrote on the wall with blood.”
“You sure it’s blood?” the man asked. “What’d they write?”
“‘You’re mine,’” Riley read aloud, frowning at Aiden, her gaze sliding down to Charlotte in his arms.
Whoever wrote the message was sorely mistaken if they thought Charlotte belonged to them. The porcelain-skinned goddess in his arms belonged only to him. Only he could worship at this altar. She was his, and he would die to protect her and ensure his place at her side.
“Not sure who or what it belongs to, but the smell is definitely blood,” Seth said, his nose wrinkling. “I don’t think it’s Vasirian blood. Maybe human.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I’m not good with human blood.”
The man nodded in understanding. Not everyone had an iron will. Those who didn’t avoided putting themselves in positions that made them susceptible to weakness.
Aiden looked at Seth. His eyes had a faint white glow at the edges of his silver irises. He remembered how hard he had it when Blaire bled on multiple occasions. He wouldn’t attack anyone, but he struggled around copious amounts of human blood.
A female security guard with brunette hair tied back in a low ponytail stepped forward. “The headmistress has debriefed us about the other human on campus and about her circumstances with the rogues. This related to that?”
He nodded.
“Alright,” another man wearing a black ballcap said, coming out of the bathroom, “I want y’all to go elsewhere for now while we secure the location and clean up the mess.”
The woman guard stepped to the side. “We’ll let the headmistress know of the situation and have her contact you all when we’re done gathering evidence and running a check on the blood on the wall to confirm if it is human DNA and if we can find a match in the local law enforcement’s database. In the meantime, avoid letting anyone know about this.”
“We don’t need a bunch of panicking kids running around,” the bearded security guard said. He didn’t look much older than Aiden, but that didn’t say much for his age.
