Page 70 of Shadowface

She comes back a few minutes later and hands me a drink, then heads back outside for one of her many cigarette breaks.

“You’re talking to Summer Landry,” he says slowly, his face growing dark and serious.

I turn to look at him and quirk a brow. “She’s a student in my class, that’s all.”

He leans back, wrapping his hands around the back of his head. “You’ve always had a thing for her, but this is vicious, man, even for you. You gonna kill her?”

I take a sip of my drink, the cubes clinking against the glass. “I think it’s poetic justice, don’t you?”

The liquor burns my throat. The bitch gave me bourbon; I hate bourbon. I’m more of a whiskey guy, especially when my brain is consumed by death. That flicker bubbles up inside me.

Xander pauses and doesn’t say anything, but he keeps his gaze steady on mine. “Well, I think she’s hot, a lot sexier than she used to be.”

Mikael jerks from deep inside, and I have to push him down. Summer Landry isn’t just hot; she’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever laid eyes on. He just had eyes for someone else.

Xander runs his thumb over his mouth, his eyes gleaming. “I think her friend Dani is hotter. Do you think you can get the girls to the house for our party next Friday?”

We make eye contact, an unspoken pact for me never to interfere with his shit as long as he doesn’t interfere with mine. Xander technically still needs to choose a girl to become a full member, and he’s had eyes on Dani ever since his great-uncle put her father in prison.

Love is an integral and necessary ingredient as part of the sacrifice.

That’s the way.

By now, Bianca must be aware she will not be the only important girl in his life. I know Xander, and she’s not the one.

“I’ll think about it,” I tell him. But I won’t. I don’t want Summer anywhere near here. I want to keep her all to myself.

He takes a sip of his drink, and his eyes fall on Bianca, who saunters back in and talks to Wendy, keeping his voice low. “All that work with Summer and you’re just going to kill her? That doesn’t make sense.”

I shrug. “It’s not unusual for members to play with their marks before the ceremony.” It is, however, unusual to mark the daughter of a former member, considering it’s technically Summer’s birthright, not mine.

He tilts his head to the side, his darkness swirling in his eyes. “Is that what you’re planning on doing, Lincoln? Playing with her? Or is it someone else who wants to do that?”

I stare at him for a long, cold second. A second ticks by, then another, the tension palpable between us.

“Is he back, Lincoln?” His jaw tightens. “Don’t fucking lie to me.”

I keep my face tight and lie, “No, he’s not back. Why would you think that?” I still have time to control this; Xander doesn’t need to know Mikael has returned.

“Because you’re acting weird, and you and Summer have a shared history. I don’t believe for one second her being here hasn’t had an impact on you. Plus, you marked her, which should be impossible, since you don’t have a fucking heart. Does my grandmother know he’s back?”

I take another sip. “She doesn’t know because there is nothing for her to know.”

He reaches out and grabs my glasses off my face. I don’t bother stopping him. My vision blurs, and all I see are the outlines of his hands waving in front of my face before he leans in closer. “Mikael, are you in there, you crazy son of a bitch?”

Mikael’s usual tendrils crawl over my spine and, for a slight moment, his pain is my pain. His emotions fuse with mine.

“Tell him. I dare you. I think he misses me.”

Mikael and I separate once more as I work to dissolve those feelings with emotional acid. I hate that he can talk to me…at times, it feels like a possession.

I swipe my glasses back, ignoring the little devil on my shoulder. Xander’s grinning at me once I’m able to get them back on.

“Mikael’s dead,” I say in a calm and careful voice. “And if he were still here, Xander, do you really think he’d like you waving your hand in his face like that?” Xander was kidding, I think. But even his jokes skim too closely to the truth.

My gaze draws down to the scar on his hand. “Didn’t Mikael burn your hand once, for waving it in his face?”

Xander snaps his hand back faster than I can blink and grimaces at the clear memory. I remember it vividly. Mikael secretly entering his room, dipping his hand into a pot of scalding water while he was sleeping.