After Hours (VAMPIRES PART 1)

Chapter 28

LISA

Falling for her? She's insane. Of course I'm not falling for her. She turned my sister, who nearly killed me because of her. Besides, it would be suicide in the Hunter Academy to fall for a vamp, look at how Joan was excommunicated.

No. She's being ridiculous.

We make our way back through the rabbit warren of corridors until we find ourselves in an alcove of the main library room.

Taehyung and Mingyu are stood at the head of a table. Taehyung's long, slender fingers are pressed against the leather of a tome. Around the table, each of the teams is clasping a book.

Jungkook, I note, has his arm around Triss, who doesn't seem to mind one bit. So much for being excommunicated for your vampire associations. Triss's taking a bit of a risk being so open about it.

Mingyu's tattooed fingers drum against the table. "It appears that we're at a stalemate. Each of us is holding a whispering book, and it's our belief that together, the whispers will give us a location for the amulet," Mingyu says.

Triss places hers and Jungkook's book on the table, her fingers holding it down. Protective, possessive.

She clears her throat. "A truce then, we share our books' whispers and then it's up to us to figure out where the location is."

Ten goes to put his book on the table, but Irene places her hand over his and he returns the book to his chest. "What's the guarantee you won't try and take our books?"

"Sister, please," Taehyung rolls his eyes. "There are five teams, five books. There's no way one team of two can take on four other teams. Four to one are not great odds."

"Then what do you propose? Because I'm already weary of this game," Irene says, eyeing each of our books in turn.

Taehyung scratches his jaw and then pulls a pocket watch out of his top jacket pocket.

"Everyone will place their books on the table. I will set a timer and we get twenty seconds to listen to each book's whisper. Then we move one place around and repeat. Everyone understand?" he says, setting the pocket watch.

Seulgi signs at Jenevelle to find a pen. She scurries off and when she returns, she's holding a handful and Seulgi has sourced several scraps of parchment off the tables.

Roseanne leans into me. "You listen and whisper to me, I'll scribe, I can write faster," she says.

There's some jostling as we find paper and get into position. "Right, given that we'll be keeping our original books, everyone step to the right in three... two... one..." Taehyung says.

We do, though there's a beat of pause before we all move in unison. I don't have to be a vampire to know that everyone's heart rates are elevated. It's the skittish eyes darting between each other that give it away.

"Quite the game of trust," I say. And an odd one, given I'm now questioning my fellow hunters over my vampire teammate.

I note the tension in each hunter's body. The way they're ready to pull out weapons and stake anyone who moves wrong.

Taehyung displays the pocket watch. "Open books in three... two... one..."

In unison, we open the books. There's that familiar scratching of paper and rustling of parchment scraps. I lean close to the book and whisper the words I make out to Roseanne. She scribbles them down fast, glancing at Taehyung's pocket watch the entire time.

I close the book just as the time ticks down.

"Move in three, two, one," Taehyung says.

We step to the next book and the cycle repeats until we're back to our original book.