Bedded by the Headmaster

Ch27: Drinking Partner

Arken could see why the other patrons had been so eager to leave. Nathaniel was fuming, the air crackling around him like ice ready to break.

"Productive evening?" Nathaniel hissed.

Arken didn't pay him any mind as he swiped the spilt ale droplets off his lap. "Firstly—welcome back. Secondly, I'm reallllly not in the mood," he slurred, finally glancing up. Arken immediately sobered when he caught sight of Nathaniel's hard-set face. His skin was white as a sheet, his normally neat hair falling across his forehead in oily strands. A shadow of bristles added a severity to his jaw, and he smelled faintly of forest and sweat. His dark clothes were dusty and scuffed as if he'd been exercising or in a fight. "Whatever happened to you?"

Nathaniel only glared at him coolly.

"Did it not go well with Kira?" Arken ventured. He hadn't seen Nathaniel since Monday morning. Several days had passed, but he'd assumed his friend would have arrived with Kira, an eighteen-year-old wolf shifter.

"She's gone," Nathaniel answered stiffly.

"Gone?"

"I arrived at the cottage, and she simply wasn't there."

"Ah. Well, I'm sure there's a good reason for it."

"There is," Nathaniel said, causing a chair to scrape as he half flung it aside to make room for himself to lean against the countertop. "She fled."

They paused their conversation as Ernie approached. He gave Nathaniel a respectful nod of acknowledgement as he removed the overturned flagon and wiped the spilt ale. Ernie knew better than to offer Nathaniel a drink—the prince rarely drank, and never around Arken. Something about setting a good example. It made him a good friend, but a terrible drinking partner.

Ernie moved away again.

"Did you find Kira?" Arken asked.

"Yes."

"And?"

Nathaniel's lip jutted out unhappily. "She's with her foster parents in a hunting cabin on the far side of the mountains. They appear to have travelled quite rapidly in wolf form."

"But you caught up to them?"

"Yes. They had me traipsing across the countryside after them. Once I reached the lodge, I was careful to remain undetected. Which required considerable discomfort on my part."

"Slumming it in the woods?"

Nathaniel's glacial eyes narrowed at him. "You're too old to use that sort of slang."

Arken ignored the jab. "You should have worn better shoes."

Nathaniel's left eye twitched, his lips pressing into a thin line that made him resemble his father. "It is true that I am accustomed to better conditions than the forest floor. And the trees did not prove much better."

"I would pay good money to see you perched in a tree."

Nataniel's eye spasmed again. "It would be the last thing you see."

He really was quite cranky. Poor sleep could do that to a vampire.

Especially when that vampire was also an aristocrat.

Nathaniel continued. "There are signs that they mean to stay there for a short while. They seem to be gathering supplies but are making no move to settle. They have left the windows boarded, for instance. I'm under the impression that they left in quite a hurry."

"At least Kira spurning you was a spur-of-the-moment decision." Arken thought of Susie, who had considered his offer carefully before rejecting him anyway. "I'm surprised you did not bring the girl back once you found her."