Page 97 of Alluring Darkness
Someone gasps. A few others snicker. I don’t need to turn around to know that most of the people in the massive room are watching us now.
Anger flashes in Shelley’s eyes like lightning strikes. Drawing herself up to her full height, she takes a threatening step towards me. “You’re going to apologize for that.”
“For what? Stating facts?”
“If you think that I’m someone who lets people get away with insulting me, you’re sorely mistaken.
I nod towards the empty seat two tables away that she presumably came from. “Can I suggest fucking off before things escalate?”
Another round of snickering ripples through the crowd. Kaden is one of them. That seems to be the thing that finally shatters her restraint.
Lurching forward, she grabs me by the shoulder while drawing her other hand back for a strike to my face. But before she can start swinging, she’s wrenched off me and thrown several steps back.
I blink to find Mr. Hansen, our sparring instructor, standing between us. His massive frame physically blocks Shelley’s path to me, but I’m pretty sure that it’s his hard stare that freezes her in place once she has straightened again.
“Knock it off!” Mr. Hansen roars.
Several people around us flinch. Shelley does too.
“The one time I decided to eat in this student-infested cafeteria, there has to be two fucking children squabbling over… Over what?” Hansen snaps. “If you want to fight, you do it in the sparring ring.”
“Oh, please,” Shelley scoffs mockingly, apparently now having recovered from her stunned surprise. A smirk lifts her lips as she gives me a nonchalant once-over. “I would knock your pretty little teeth down your throat in the first ten seconds if I ever faced you in the sparring ring.”
“You—” I begin.
“I said, enough!” Mr. Hansen stabs a hand towards the half full plate still waiting for Shelley at her table. “Sit back down and finish eating your damn lunch.” His hard eyes lock on me. “And you, get something to eat. You’re going to need the energy for the brutal training I’m going to put both of you through this week.”
Shelley stares daggers at me from the other side of his muscular body, but Mr. Hansen doesn’t move.
So in the end, she lets out a soft snarl and starts back to her seat.
“Watch your back, Raina,” she tosses over her shoulder at me. “Because I’ll be coming for it. So you’d better sleep with one eye open from now on.”
Mr. Hansen keeps his eyes on me, as if to make sure that I won’t try to follow her.
When I only slide my hand into my pocket and stand there as she walks away, he at last moves.
“Fucking children,” he growls as he strides towards the doors.
I remain where I am for another ten seconds.
Shelley has already reached her table and is once more sitting there, eating using only her fork. She flashes me a threatening smile as she picks up her knife as well and twirls it in her hand.
Then she flicks a glance towards where Mr. Hansen is disappearing out the door.
Once she’s certain that his back is turned, she locks eyes with me again and makes a show of drawing her knife across her throat.
A lowooohsweeps across the thoroughly enthralled crowd, and a few people chuckle in amusement.
I just stare back at her.
38
ELI
Raina just stands there, watching Shelley as she slowly lowers the knife after drawing it across her throat in a threatening gesture. I’m just about to shoot out of my seat and stalk over there to show Shelley exactly what I do to people who threaten my girl. But before I can, Raina starts towards her table instead. I turn in my seat so that I can see them.
The crowd around us, who had finally gone back to eating, quiets again. Everyone seems to be holding their breaths as Raina walks across the floor and then comes to a halt opposite Shelley. A grin pulsing with challenge spreads across Shelley’s mouth.