After failing as a vampire hunter, 17-year-old Cleo is sent to an academy full of vampires as a false peace treaty. Her true objective is supposed to be finding the hidden heir to the dark world while befriending the current one, but the current hei...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I didn't see Claude for the rest of the weekend. While I didn't tell Evander of Claude's condition, I did tell Kaz. Kaz spent his time half with me and half with Claude, acting as our own personal nurse. He wouldn't tell me what was wrong with Claude though. I bit back my nosiness and left it alone. Only part if it came from concern. I didn't really have any right to know about Claude's situation.
Adora walked on eggshells around me. I wanted to assure her and tell her nothing changed between us, but I still felt a residual sting when I faced her, no matter how many times I told myself I had nothing to be embarrassed about. I didn't feel like I could explain myself to her, though. It wasn't that I didn't see where she was coming from, but her normal was simply different from mine. I didn't know how Adora grew up. From the sounds of it, she didn't grow up knowing enemies would target her for whole life just because of her family name. I didn't have that luxury.
Sighing, I pulled Kaz's arms harder than I meant to, making him squawk in pain. I let him go and his eyes screwed together and he groaned. "I can't bend that far."
I wiggled my feet against his. "Come on. This is a basic stretch."
"I don't remember the last time I stretched. I don't remember the last time I exercised."
I eyed his arms. "I can tell."
He made a face and gripped my wrists, pulling my torso forward. I stretched out with ease, my head lowering almost all the way against the floor. My muscles burned in a good way. It was nice to get rid of the tension. I barely registered the pain from any of the injuries from the other night anymore, aside from the one on my neck. It ached from time to time, and Kaz and I had been keeping an eye on it to make sure an infection wasn't creeping in.
"You're deceptively strong," Kaz said.
"Exactly, so please relax a little bit. You don't need to worry so much about me."
"I do need to worry if you plan on not fighting back when you're attacked."
"I did it for the peace treaty, you know that. I thought we agreed to stop talking about that?" We switched positions. I leaned back again, keeping our feet pressed together, pulling him with me.
His teeth clenched together as he extended. "You and Claude are both so stubborn."
"I'm one hundred percent sure I'm not as stubborn as him."
"You two are more alike than you'd think."
Releasing his hands again, I gestured for him to lay on his back. "Lay back and lift your legs up."
The color drained from his face. "Why...?"
I didn't answer him, grabbing his ankles and pushing his legs up and back. I inched my feet closer to his butt, kneeling to press my knees into his hamstrings. He looked at me from between his legs with wild eyes and I grinned. "Double leg hamstring stretch," I told him.
