Page 196
“What do you mean?” Blaire looked up at him. “Who are they?”
“Rogues.”
“How do you know?”
Riley crossed her arms. “Who else would approach us in the middle of the night after their room got trashed?”
“I don’t know. Students?” Blaire’s voice faltered. It sounded like she didn’t trust her own judgement.
A woman near the end laughed, drawing Charlotte’s attention. It was the deputy from the police station when she reported her stalker—Madeline, if she remembered right. She knew something seemed weird about the officer. “Oh you delusional little human. I wouldn’t be caught dead attending one of the clan’s institutions.”
Movement on the other side of Madeline caught her attention. It was the intimidating officer built like a mountain she met the day of the break-in. Brooks. She sure remembered his name. His catlike eyes now glowed an eerie shade of chartreuse and lingered on her.
These people weren’t students. Not at all.
“What do you want?” Seth said, stepping in front of Riley to join Lukas and Aiden, who already stood blocking Blaire and Charlotte from the rogues in front of them.
The man with the ponytail pulled a handgun from the back of his jeans and pointed it at them. Aiden let out a strangled noise. “The blonde and the redhead. Give ‘em to us and we’ll leave nice and peaceful-like.” A couple of men behind him laughed.
“Seth, go get the security guys at the gates,” Lukas said.
The man with the ponytail threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, now that won’t do. I doubt they’d be much help. Not with being dead and all.” This time, all the others laughed.
Charlotte looked around the empty courtyard. No one was around to help them. Her gaze darted to the dorms behind them. If they tried to call for help, would the guy shoot them? Did the others have guns? She didn’t want to put other students in danger. Still, they needed help.
Following her gaze, the man with the ponytail waved his gun at her when she opened her mouth. “Don’t get any ideas, Little Red. You’ll be dead on the ground before anyone hears you.”
Madeline smirked. “Silly girl thinks someone can help them.”
Charlotte’s eyes moved to Aiden as fear that wasn’t her own paralyzed her, distracting her from the taunts of the rogues. His hands shook at his side, his gaze focused on the gun in the man’s hand.
She moved behind him, resting her hands against his back where the rogues couldn’t see her. She didn’t want to point out his fear for the rogues to see, but it felt like she was drowning in it. How he stood under the weight of that terror was beyond her.
“Why don’t you go away!” Riley yelled from behind Seth, and he groaned.
A woman wearing army fatigue pants and a white tank top rolled her eyes and popped a gum bubble, swinging a baseball bat loosely at her side. She scratched her buzzed hair and mocked Riley’s voice with a laugh, glancing at Madeline and Brooks to her left.
“While this is fun and all,” the bearded man on her other side said. “Let’s get this show on the road. I got cold beer waiting for me at home.”
The man with the ponytail that Charlotte deduced was their leader hooked his thumb in their direction, and the others sprang into action, running toward the students.
Brooks went straight for Blaire, and Lukas intercepted him. They crashed to the ground in a tangle of limbs and grunts.
Seth slammed his fist into the face of the man with the beard. He dropped like a sack of bricks to the ground, surprising Charlotte with how weak he was. He hadn’t looked very muscular, but she expected more of a non-human. The rogue lay on the ground clutching his face, groaning, and blubbering as blood poured through his fingers from what she suspected was a broken nose.
Lukas struggled against Brooks, trying to free himself from beneath the mountain of a man. He narrowly avoided having his hands and neck shredded by the sharp fangs gnashing in his face when Seth rushed over, using the momentum of his sprint to knock Brooks off Lukas, giving them the opportunity to tag team the man.
Riley grabbed Blaire’s arm, pulling her away from everyone. The man with the ponytail focused his attention on them. He chased them toward the tree grove when they broke into a sprint across the front of the courtyard.
The mouthy Korrena pair and the woman with the buzzed hair corralled Aiden and Charlotte toward the side of the main building. Madeline joined them while Seth and Lukas fought behind them.
The male half of the Korrena mates didn’t hesitate to go for Aiden, throwing a fist into his jaw, followed by a sucker punch to his gut. He grunted and doubled over before righting himself, a bruise blooming on his jawline. He snarled and lunged at the man when the woman with buzzed hair took advantage of Charlotte’s distraction over Aiden’s fight and sprang at her.
She screamed, turning and running in the only direction where rogues weren’t in her path—the forest. She couldn’t fight at all, but she was fast. Blaire used to force Charlotte to go running with her all the time. It nearly killed her, and she hated running, but she was faster than Blaire.
Madeline’s voice called out, “Run away, Little Red! The big bad wolves are coming for you!” A chorus of howls and whooping laughter followed her declaration.
She wasn’t used to the forest at night. She’d come out here several times since joining Blackthorn Academy when she thought her stalker was dead, but she avoided entering the forest at night. Bobcats, coyotes, rattlesnakes, and copperheads were some of the predators she had to worry about in the forest.
