The Dark Elements

He glanced down the stairs, laughing.

I needed to shut up.

“Yeah, I’ve seen you run.” Gareth caught the door before it smacked into us, holding it open. “I’ve seen you walk, too.”

I couldn’t tell if he was teasing or flirting. Or if he just thought I was an idiot. Honestly, I didn’t care because all I could think of was Stacey suggesting I hook up with Gareth to start a war with Eva. Talk about awkward thoughts.

“So what are you doing after school?” he asked, falling into step beside me.

Tagging demons. “Um...I’ve got some errands I have to take care of.”

“Oh.” He tapped his notebook off his thigh. “I’ve got football practice after class. I’ve never seen you at any of the games.”

I looked at the empty trophy case by the double doors leading to the gym. “Football isn’t really my thing.”

“That’s a bust. I always throw a party at my parents’ house after the games. You’d know that if—”

Someone tall, wearing all black, materialized between us. “She’d know that if she cared, but I doubt she does.”

I stepped back quickly, startled by Roth’s sudden reappearance.

Gareth had the same response. He was a tall boy, big and brawny, but Roth exuded a kick-ass air. The human boy clamped his mouth shut. Without another word, he inched around us and hurried into the gym, the doors swinging shut behind him. I stood there, dumbfounded as the first warning bell rang. It sounded far away.

“Was it something I said?” Roth mused. “I was just pointing out the obvious.”

Slowly, I lifted my head and looked at him.

“What?” He grinned impishly. “Come on. You don’t look like the type of girl who watches football, hangs out with the cool crowd and ends up deflowered by the senior jock in the back of his daddy’s Beamer.”

“Deflowered?”

“Yeah, you know. Losing that pesky thing called virginity.”

Fire swept over my skin. I pivoted around, heading toward the gym doors. Wasn’t like I didn’t know what deflowered meant. I just couldn’t believe he’d actually used that word in the twenty-first century.

Or that I was even having a conversation about virginity with him.

Roth caught my arm. “Hey. That’s a compliment. Trust me. He’s on the fast track to Hell anyway. Just like his daddy.”

“Good to know,” I managed to respond coolly, “but would you please let go of my arm? I have to get to class.”

“I’ve got a better idea.” Roth leaned in. Dark locks of hair fell into those golden eyes. “You and I are going to have some fun.”

My teeth hurt from how hard I was grinding them. “Not in this lifetime, buddy.”

He looked offended. “What do you think I’m suggesting? I wasn’t planning on getting you drunk and having my way with you in the back of a Beamer like Gareth is. Then again, I guess it could be worse. He could be planning it in the back of a Kia.”

I blinked. “What?”

Roth shrugged, dropping my arm. “Some girl named Eva has him convinced that you put out after one beer.”

“What?” My voice was as shrill as the ringing tardy bell.

“I personally don’t believe it,” he went on blithely, “and I have a Porsche. Not as much leg room as a Beamer, but so much hotter, I’m told.”

Porsches were hot, but that wasn’t the point. “That bitch told him I put out after one beer?”

“Meow.” Roth clawed the air, which looked as ridiculous as it sounded. “Anyway, this is not the fun I had in mind.”

I was still stuck on the whole “putting out” thing. “She told another girl I was a freaking servant. I guess I’m a servant who puts out. Oh! And I guess I’m a lightweight, too. I’m gonna kill—”

Roth snapped his fingers in my face. “Focus. Forget about Eva and one-minute boy. We have something we need to do.”

“Don’t snap your fingers at me,” I snarled. “I’m not a dog.”

“No.” He smiled a little. “You’re a half demon who lives with a bunch of stone freaks that kill demons.”

“You’re the freak, and I’m late for class.” I started to turn from him, but remembered last night. “Oh. And keep your stupid snake on a leash.”

“Bambi comes and goes as she pleases. I can’t help it if she likes hanging out in your tree house.”

My hands curled into fists. “Don’t come near my house again. The Wardens will kill you.”

Roth tipped his head back, laughing deeply. It was a nice laugh, dark and throaty—which made it all the more infuriating. “Oh, there’d be killing, but I wouldn’t be the one doing the dying.”

I swallowed. “Are you threatening my family?”

“No.” He caught my hand this time, easing my fingers out of their fist and then twining them through his own. “Anyway, you can’t tell me you haven’t smelled the funk that is this high school right now.”

Clamping my mouth shut, I glared at him. “What? It’s just the sewer or...”

He looked at me like I was about three different kinds of stupid, and my initial suspicions concerning the smell resurfaced. “It can’t be...”

“Oh, it is. There’s a zombie in the school.” A brow arched. “Sounds like the start of a really bad horror movie.”

I ignored the last statement. “That can’t be it. How would one get in here without being seen?”

Roth shrugged. “Who knows? Anything is possible these days. My demon spidey senses are telling me it’s in one of the boiler rooms downstairs. And since your Warden friends are probably sleeping, I figured we’d check it out before it makes its way upstairs and starts eating students.”

I dug in my heels as he started forward. “I’m not checking anything out with you.”

“But there’s a zombie in the school,” he said slowly, “and it’s probably hungry.”

“And yeah, I know this, but you and I aren’t doing anything.”

His smile faded. “Aren’t you at all curious why a zombie would be in your school and what people are going to think when they see something straight from Night of the Living Dead?”

I met his stare. “It’s not my problem.”

“It’s not.” Roth tipped his head to the side, eyes narrowed. “But it will be the Warden leader’s problem when it stumbles upstairs and starts oozing bodily fluids all over everyone while it chomps on body parts. You know how those Alphas expect the Wardens to keep the whole demon thing out of the public eye.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but stopped. Dammit. He was right. If that thing made its way upstairs, Abbot would be in a world of trouble. Yet still I stalled. “How do I know you aren’t going to throw me at it?”

Roth arched a brow. “Hey, I didn’t abandon you to the Seeker, now did I?”

“That doesn’t reassure me.”

He rolled his eyes, sighing. “You’re just going to have to trust me.”

I laughed. His head snapped in my direction, eyes slightly wide. “Trust you? A demon? Are you on crack or something?”

His eyes glimmered with...what? Annoyance or amusement? “Crack is whack.”

I pressed my lips together tightly, stopping the smile before it could spread across my face and give him the wrong idea. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

He tipped his chin up. “It’s true. No drugs while on the job. Even Hell has its guidelines.”

“What is your job exactly?” I asked.

“To deflower you in the back of the most expensive car ever made.”

I tried to jerk my hand back, but he held on. “Let go.”

“Christ on a crutch.” He chuckled deeply. “I was just joking, you prude.”

Now I flushed again, because I did feel like a prude. A natural feeling when I’d never kissed a guy before. “Let go of my hand.”

Roth heaved a long sigh. “Look. I’m so—I’m sor...” He took a deep breath, trying again. “I’m sorr...”

I turned my head toward him, waiting. “You’re what? Sorry?”

He looked chagrined, lips pursed. “I’m...sorr-ree.”

“Oh, give me a break. You can’t say I’m sorry?”

“No.” He looked me straight on, serious. “It’s not in a demon’s vocab.”

“That’s rich.” I rolled my eyes. “Don’t even bother trying to say it if you don’t mean it.”

Roth appeared to consider that. “Deal.”

A door across from the gym opened. Assistant Principal McKenzie stepped into the hallway, his drab brown suit at least two sizes too small for his potbelly. He immediately frowned and gained two chins when he spotted us.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in gym, Ms. Shaw, and not in the hallway?” he said, loosening the stretched-out belt around his pants. “You may be mixed up with those things, but that doesn’t give you extra privileges.”

Mixed up with those things? They weren’t things. They were Wardens, and they kept ungrateful asses like McKenzie safe. My fingers reflexively squeezed Roth’s as anger and a little sadness flooded me.

These people had no clue.

Roth glanced at me, then at the assistant principal. He ducked his head, smiling demurely. Right then and there, I knew he was about to do something really bad.

Like demon-level bad.

And all I could do was brace for it.

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