Lycan Blood (Alex Vane: Demon Stalker #1)

The Lion's Den

Twelve pairs of eyes stared up at me. The entire cheerleading squad, minus Gabby and Rachel of course. The angriest stare was from Anna. Everyone else ranged from merely surprised to suspicious and hostile.

“If you want to be a cheerleader, try-outs are next week.” A dark-haired girl called Claire informed me, in a tone which suggested she thought the very idea was ridiculous. I had to fight to keep from glaring back at her. We were not here to trade barbs with a bunch of cheerleaders, no matter how tempting the prospect might be.

“She’s not welcome.” The venom in Anna’s voice was unmistakable. Subconsciously my hand tightened into a fist.

“We’re not here for try-outs. Although, I would make a pretty good cheerleader.” Scott joked, and to my relief several of the girls actually laughed. My hand relaxed again. Anna’s face remained stony but it was okay. The tension had been killed.

“So what are you here for?” Sarah prompted, taking a seat on the edge of the couch. There was nowhere left for me and Scott to sit so we had to stay standing, everyone else sat waiting like they were expecting a show.

“Well, like I said we need to warn you about something. Someone.” Scott clarified, swallowing nervously. There was a baffled silence. I realised with a sigh that we probably sounded crazy to them. We had to remember that in their world it wasn’t normal to have something after you.

“What Scott is trying to say,” I began, stepping forward, “Is that we have reason to believe someone is spying on you.”

“Wait, what?” Anna stood up so that she was eye-to-eye with me, her hands on her hips, “Who?”

“We’ve noticed Adam hanging around the changing rooms and the gym a couple of times,” Scott continued carefully. He was a good three or four inches taller than Anna but he still seemed a little scared of her. I couldn’t blame him really, “We didn’t think anything of it until today.”

“What happened today?” Anna demanded, at the same time several of the girls erupted.

“Oh my god, that’s so creepy!”

“The little perv!”

“We can’t let him get away with it!”

It was a while before they quietened down enough to allow Scott to speak again.

“Today we went to the school office to look something up. Adam was there. He was…” he hesitated, “He was looking up your address Sarah.”

“What?” Sarah’s brown eyes widened, “No way! That’s so weird! Why would he do that?”

“Well, we don’t know exactly,” Scott admitted, “But it doesn’t look good. Anyway, we just figured you should keep an eye out.” While Scott was explaining, Anna had been worryingly silent. Now she spoke up, expression dangerously calm.

“’Keep an eye out’? We’ll do more than that. If some little creep has been spying on us then we need to teach him a lesson.” Uh oh. Scott and I exchanged looks. I knew what he was thinking. With Anna involved, this had the potential to get way out of hand. Perhaps we should have waited until we got Sarah on her own.

“Too right,” The girl to Anna’s right, Abigail, spoke up. She was nodding so vigorously it made her brown curls bounce, “We need revenge!”

“I always knew there was something weird about him,” Anna continued. Encouraged by her followers, she was now looking quite smug, “Luke never liked him and he’s a great judge of character. Well, most of the time he is.” The look she gave Scott was brief enough for it to potentially be innocent but not so brief that it was possible to miss it. Behind her, Sarah gasped lightly. The message was clear-Scott was not okay. And being with him was not okay either.