In the distance, I recognized three very familiar figures.

Immediately, I pulled out my camera, focused on my target, and pressed the shutter release.

“For fuck’s sake, Larissa! What are you doing?” Grace exclaimed hectic, and pushed my camera down.

“What?” I asked. “Don’t worry. They won’t notice, anyway.”

I put my camera back up and looked through the lens.

As if they had noticed me after all, all three men looked at me.

I felt a little uneasy, but I didn’t bother to press the shutter again. It was as if I was playing with fire.

“They’re heading toward us. Let’s get out of here,” Vivienna hissed, and all three girls immediately stood up.

Sure indeed, the DeLoughrey men came walking straight toward us, which worried me, but I wasn’t alone. This time Adrian couldn’t act out.

Our last encounter had been intense. Just thinking about it made my skin tingle warmly. At least until I remembered that he had simply thrown me out of the window at the end. That arrogant asshole.

“Well done, Larissa. Now you’ve lured them to us.”

The three men came to a halt in their fancy suits right in front of our table, and Miles gave Grace a challenging glare, which made her look at him all the more hostile. But he didn’t seem to care.

It was Adrian, however, who caught my attention completely.

“What do you want?” I asked in a firm voice, trying not to sound nervous.

“You like playing with fire? What?” he murmured in a low voice, looking down at me intently. His left collarbone seemed to stick out a little more than his right, his chin was freshly shaved, and his eyes sparkled in an unusually playful way.

His attractiveness made me block out all the unpleasant encounters.

“Delete the pictures,” he ordered coldly.

And he was an ass. Couldn’t he just enjoy being the center of attention like his brunette buddy?

“That’s not going to happen,” I said firmly.

No one would ever be able to forbid me to do what I loved. My camera, my rules.

“Larissa...” Grace grabbed my shoulder, her expression a little frightened. “Just do what he says.”

Why was she so scared of this guy? Just because he drove a fancy car and ran everywhere with his lapdogs like he owned everything, like he was some kind of God?

“You should listen to the Blairs. They have smart thoughts, for once,” he responded in a patronizing way to Grace’s words.

They seemed to know each other... But from where?

I looked at him challengingly.

“Or what?”

He didn’t seem to be used to people contradicting him, because for a moment he dropped out of his unapproachable façade and looked at me, slightly annoyed.

But it didn’t take long before he came closer, leaning with his hands on the table past Bay so that we were only half a meter apart.

His eyes were dark, like the night, black as wet wood so that they formed a strong contrast to his pale skin. Then there were the ravens circling in the sky behind him, like predators.

Adrian leaned forward a little more and my body tensed.

“You’ll regret talking to me like that.”

I sucked in the air lightly through my lips. His gaze seemed to linger on them for a moment.

If the others hadn’t been here now, I would be lying on this table with Adrian pressed against me, just like in the art room.

The thought turned me on. I didn’t know why, but it sent a pleasant shiver down my spine. He was frightening, and yet a part of me desired his dark nature.

Adrenaline spread through me. But that wasn’t a bad thing. On the contrary. He was right. I loved playing with fire. And I loved the danger even more.

“We have to get to the lecture, Adrian,” the blonde reminded him and Adrian pulled away from me.

He looked at me one last time, his eyes full of desire, as if he wanted to make my fantasy come true. As if that hadn’t been our last encounter.

A strong feeling, a longing, pure desire spread through me. And I knew that this wouldn’t be our last encounter.

Deep down, I wanted him to come and take me into his dark little world, kidnap me piece by piece.

I stared after him as he walked in the middle. And in that moment, I knew. He would come for me. Whether I wanted him to or not.

Chapter 47

Julie

“Hey, you, computer nerd...”

I looked up from my laptop in confusion at Grace, who was waving her car key in front of my face.

“What did you say?” I asked, because I’d been focused on the codes on the screen in front of me until now. I had tried again and again via the university’s database, but somehow the IT security team of Vanderwood University had managed to replace the old firewall with a better one. As a result, I only had limited access to the lecture overviews and none at all to the students’ files.

I had been too slow.

“I’m going to Moenia again. Amara said she needed me for a healing ritual, and I also need a few ingredients for the bracelets.”

If I hadn’t been Julie, I would have rolled my eyes right now. Grace was so scared of the Copelands and the DeLoughreys that she wanted to make silver bracelets with wolfsbane extract for both of us.

“I’ll be back in an hour.”

I looked at her, nodding, as she grabbed her black denim jacket and disappeared through the door of our large shared room.