Perfect Pet

Ch. 12: Crimson Tides

Malik's P.O.V

Hearing her get partnered with Sterling set my teeth on edge. Especially when he had pulled her out of my sight and into the crowd where he could have done or said God only knows what. I'd wanted to go after them, tell the bastard to stay far away from her, but my partner had done her best to get in my way and irritate the living hell out of me in the process. What had her name been? Ava... Abigail... Anna? Those weren't right but it didn't matter. I wasn't interested despite her best attempts to convince me otherwise.

No, my head, and body for that matter, were caught on a petite, kittenish female that had me ready to rip my hair out just as much as I wanted to bath in the velvety scent of her skin and leave my mark where everyone would know who she belonged to.

I'd managed to fight the urge to be around her as much as it pissed my demon off. He'd made up his mind and wanted me to jump on board too. He had zero interest in anyone else, Eli an exception. Though that could be chalked up to our years of friendship and my demon having a strong bond with him as well. It was the least of my concerns. I felt him clawing at his chains more often than usual, lurking closer to the surface than I felt comfortable with. Something about Eden may have appealed to him on a primal, instinctual level but that didn't mean I trusted him to be around her. If anything, it only made me warier due to the unpredictability of his nature. Especially after what he did that night.

When we had walked past her after class, he'd almost snapped at the fact that she'd been covered in another male's scent. And not just any males but our rivals. It didn't matter that a claim hadn't been made yet, that the only contact between them had been dancing. No, to my demon someone had touched what was his and that was unacceptable. A stand against his dominance. It had taken everything in me to act like I didn't see her, every step like walking on broken glass as my fangs ached and my demon demanded I make it clear she was off-limits. Keeping a grip on the annoying female beside me had proven a true challenge and even now I felt the urge to scrub away her phantom touch with soap and boiling water.

Such a strong attachment so quickly was abnormal and could end with me under closer observation if I wasn't careful. There was always the risk that vampires could lose their humanity to darker instincts, plenty of evidence pointing out how bad it could end and how fast it was. I was already closely monitored thanks to my strength and gifts. If anyone caught on to just how strong my demon's presence was then I would be labeled a high-level danger and either locked away for the rest of my long life or put down like some kind of rabid animal.

There were some things you couldn't risk.

No, for right now it was safer for us to stay separated. It felt like I was playing a game of Russian roulette, praying with each decision I made that there wasn't a bullet in the chamber. That I would live to see another day. That Eden would not get swept up in the games vampires loved to play. Stay away, don't get too attached, do not attract unneeded attention. Easy to think, harder to do. With every choice, my luck got closer to running out and the need to form a game plan weighed heavily on my shoulders.

I growled in frustration, the low sound catching Eli's attention from where he was sitting next to me. "Do I want to know what that's about?" It was asked with too much amusement for my taste.

"Anything. Everything."

"How about we start with the most obvious first then?" He quirked an eyebrow, green eyes shining in stark contrast to my sober face. "Say, a certain somebody that has a name starting with S?"

I scowled at his light-hearted antics, not in the mood. "You're not being cute so stop it." Taking a moment to look to where Sterling sat with his group of friends, I tacked on, "And yes, he's part of it." Kinda, in a way.