The Hidden (The Hidden Trilogy) (3 page)

“
Shit
. Em, hurry up, we needed to leave five minutes ago!”

I hopped down from the counter, pausing to check Beth’s work in the mirror. My once unruly frizz had turned into defined waves. It actually looked pretty good.

Beth stuck her head inside the bathroom. “Move it, sweet cheeks, we gotta haul ass.”

The lecture hall’s door swung open as two pairs of feet padded in and halted. Hushed voices argued back and forth.

“Go on,” a girl said.

“What? Why me?
You
go,” a second girl retorted.

The corner of my mouth lifted as I tapped my pen on my desk. The girls were five minutes late for our sociology class, and as I stared down at the sea of descending students, I saw their dilemma. There were only two open seats. One was in the front row, right in front of Professor Rosso. The other seat was next to me–the end seat in the very last row of the gargantuan lecture hall.

I craned my neck to look past the doorframe on my left, seeing the backs of the girls. One was pixie-like in stature, with short brown hair and tan skin. From behind, she kinda looked like a twelve-year-old boy in drag. The other girl…well, damn. Atop a pair of toned milky white legs, she had an ass you bounce a quarter on, and long shiny hair that reached the middle of her back in dark waves.

Oh man, I bet it was soft. I bet it smelled good, too. All girls had this uncanny ability to smell just…
awesome.
Like sugar and spice and everything nice, only less lame.

My eyes slid closed as I inhaled, drawing in deep pulls of air. I imagined burying my face in her hair as I took her from behind, her exquisite ass meeting me thrust for thrust–

“Dude. The
fuck
are you doing?”

Brian’s voice broke through my daydream and I turned to look at him, clearing my throat. “What?”

He was a friend, I guess…or at least as close to a friend as humans and I could get. They were so temporary and fleeting that I didn’t see the point in getting too attached. But part of blending in with humans was having “friends,” so I did the best I could. And right now, my friend was looking at me like I’d up and sprouted a nipple on my face. 

“Don’t ‘what’ me,” he said. “You were just about to get it on with your desk.”

I shifted in my seat, pulling on my shorts under the desk to give my straining erection more room. “Was not,” I mumbled.

Man, I needed to get
laid
. It’d been so long it wasn’t even funny. And even though I tried my best not to do humans like that–since it went against the whole “don’t get emotionally invested” rule–this girl was looking more and more like a very viable option.

Brian peered around me and slowly grinned. “Gotcha,” he said to me, conspiratorially winking.

My cheeks burned, but I played it off and rolled my eyes, sinking into my seat when one of the girls sat next to me. Her movement stirred the air, sending her scent right into my face. I stilled.

She was a Healer. Just like me.

I sank into the empty seat by the door, keeping my eyes on the professor as he wrote on the board. A sweet smell filled my nose as soon as I sat down. It smelled like cake, or frosting–sweet, sugary, and delicious.

Damn it, if I had known we were allowed to eat in here I would have grabbed something before we left our dorm.

I pulled up my desktop from in-between the seats. It squeaked loud and slow, like nails on a chalkboard. My face flamed as several eyes landed on me, and I ducked my head as I unloaded my bag. I heard my pen–which I’d set atop my desk–start rolling, and it landed on the floor with a little clink. I automatically turned and reached down, but found myself eye-level with a masculine hand, holding out my pen. Even his forearms were muscular. The guy looked like he could have been carved from stone.

“You dropped this,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Oh.” I sat up and reached out, but stopped halfway as my eyes flicked up, meeting pale blue irises surrounded by a thin black ring. The whites of his eyes were unblemished. They were really…
white
. It was startling how airbrushed they looked.

For a second his eyes seemed familiar, and a sense of déjà vu hit me hard. As I tried to place them, a faint thought tickled the edge of my mind, only to disappear before I could fully grasp it.

This was ridiculous. If I
had
seen those eyes before, I would definitely remember. I wouldn’t have a vague recollection–not with eyes that looked
airbrushed
, for crying out loud.

Actually...everything about him looked airbrushed, I noticed, from his too-beautiful eyes to his flawless skin. A light sprinkling of stubble covered his jawline and his dark blond, shaggy hair looked amazing in an “I roll out of bed looking this good” kind of way. And his lips… Oh God, his lips. I could write an epic poem about those lips. They had the barest hint of pink, and they looked soft.

I wonder what they taste like…

My teeth bit down on my lip. God, he was gorgeous. I wanted to run my fingers along his jaw, over his stubble. Hell, I wanted to
lick
his stubble.

I knew I was staring, but I couldn’t help it. And he didn’t seem to have a problem staring back...until my brain had a momentary lapse into the present and I registered the look on his face.

His expression was incredulous.

What was she doing here? Living off the grid–separate from the “proper” civilization of our own kind–was not unheard of, but it
was
rare. So rare, that in the nearly forty years I’d been doing it, I’d
never
run into another.

She blinked at the pen in my hand before her hazel eyes met mine. They widened as her full lips parted almost imperceptibly.

She knew. She knew what I was.

And goddamn, she was gorgeous. Just perfect. Her beauty had an innocence I found refreshing. There were no globs of makeup covering her beautiful face, no perfectly styled hair. She seemed real, and pure. 

It made me feel like a dirty bastard for picturing myself balls deep in her.

Her scent permeated the air. She smelled…heavenly. Floral, sweet, and
female
. It’d been so long since I’d been around a female of my kind. I inhaled, letting it swim around my head and marinate on the tip of my tongue. There was a strange undertone to her scent that–while lovely–wasn’t quite right.

Tiny red veins lined the whites of her eyes, and I inhaled again, analyzing her scent.

She hadn’t matured into her immortality yet.

Shit. He was only staring at me because
I
was staring at
him
. Oh, God…

I think I’m having a stroke.

I dropped my eyes and tried to breathe. My face felt like it was on fire and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

My fingers brushed his as I took my pen. His skin was impossibly warm, like he had a high fever. “Thanks,” I mumbled.

Flipping to a clean page in my notebook, I started copying notes. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him lean in as he quietly cleared his throat. I had absolutely no idea what to do, so naturally, I pretended not to hear him.

“Why are you here?” he whispered.

My head whipped back. “Huh?” That was
not
what I expected. I expected something more along the lines of “What the hell is your problem?” or “Take a picture. It’ll last longer.”

“
Why–are–you–here?
” he whispered again, taking the time to slowly mouth each word.

He thought I was fucking retarded. Awesome.

Oh my god, can this get any worse?

My face was probably a lovely shade of beet red as I looked around the room, perplexed. Why
wouldn’t
I be here? “There’s no place else to sit,” I said.

The corners of his lips turned up, into an almost-smile. “No, I mean why are you at PRU at all?”

I let out a quiet laugh. “Uh, to get a college education?”

I frowned when he just stared at me.

“I don’t really know what you mean,” I finally said.

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, you do.”

My brows furrowed even more. “I really don’t… Why are
you
here?” Maybe his answer would clue me in to what the hell he was talking about.

He shrugged and faced the front of the classroom. “What else am I going to do with all my time?” He sounded bored. “I’m just surprised someone like you is here.”

Someone like me?

Frowning again, I fiddled with my pen, doodling little swirls on my clean sheet of notebook paper. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked in a small voice.

“It’s nothing. Just forget about it.”

My jaw clenched, and I struggled to keep my voice calm. “It was definitely
something
… Tell me. Please.”

“It’s not important.”

I exhaled a sharp breath. “You can’t say something like that and then just leave it. Tell me what you meant.”

The people in front of us tilted their heads, trying to look at us surreptitiously. They’d clearly overheard us.

He gave them a tight smile, muttering under his breath, “You’re quite tenacious, aren’t you?” as he glanced at me.

I followed his lead, smiling politely until they turned back around. Once we no longer had an audience, I turned to him, keeping the sugary sweet smile on my face. “You have no idea.”

He sighed. “I really didn’t mean anything by it, okay? Just let it go.”

“No,” I scoffed.

He scowled. “Why are you being so difficult?”

I gaped at him. “
I’m
being difficult?”

“Yes, you are. It’s very annoying.”

“You– I–” I was so pissed, I couldn’t even form coherent sentences. “I can’t
believe
– Whatever.
I’m
not being annoying,
you
are.” Yes, it was mildly childish, but it was all I had at the moment.

His face softened. “Look, I just meant that you don’t have to pretend with me. It’s not like they’re listening.”

The
hell
was he talking about? “
Who’s
not listening?” My voice came out a few octaves too high–once again getting the attention of the guy and girl sitting in front of us–and I quickly lowered it. “What are you talking about?”