A Human In Vampire Academy

Chapter 5

Ria's POV

I made it back to the dorm with my collar pulled high and my pulse still sitting wrong under the bite.

Maya looked up from her bed the second the door shut, eyes flicking straight to my neck like she already knew. I didn’t say anything and I didn't maintain eye contact.

I just dropped my bag and sat on the edge of my mattress, fingers pressed over the marks like that would make them stop throbbing.

“You were gone for a while,” she said.

The question was careful, and I couldn't say the wrong thing or risk getting caught.

“Got lost.” I said, clenching my fists tightly.

My skin still felt warm where his hand had been, and every time I shifted the collar brushed the punctures and the memory of his mouth came back with it.

Not just the pain, the other parts too.

The part that had gone soft and stupid right before I passed out. I hated that I could still feel it.

Maya didn’t push. She just watched me for a second longer than she needed to, then went back to whatever she was knitting like the conversation was finished. I was grateful. I didn’t have the energy or words for what had happened in that room, and I wasn’t sure I wanted them.

The next day I kept my head down. Blue uniform, bag tight against my side, eyes on the floor whenever the black-uniformed students passed.

It worked until lunch. I was halfway across the courtyard when Jolyne stepped out from between two pillars with her friends trailing behind her, and the look on her face said she’d been waiting.

“Rat,” she said, sweet. “Heard you had a little adventure yesterday. Principal’s office, then… somewhere else.” Her gaze dropped to my collar. “What'cha hiding?”

I kept walking. She moved with me, heels clicking, one hand shooting out to catch the strap of my bag and yank me sideways so hard I stumbled into the wall. Pain flared at the base of my neck and I heard someone laugh from behind her.

“You don’t get to ignore me,” Jolyne said, stepping in close and holding the strap of my uniform.

She was so close I could smell the perfume even more than I usually did.

“This is still my school. You—”

“Let go of her.”

The voice came from behind her.

The courtyard went quiet and all I thought I could hear was my own heartbeat.

Jolyne’s fingers loosened on my strap, but she didn’t turn around right away.

When she did, Marcus was standing a few feet back with his hands in his pockets, expression flat and his eyes emotionless.

He wasn’t looking at her, he was looking at me.

At the collar I’d pulled too high.

“I wasn’t doing anything,” Jolyne said. Her voice had lost the sweet edge.

“You were.” He took one step. Just one. The space between them closed and the air was tense. “f**k off.”

She stared at him for a long second, jaw tight, then shoved past me hard enough that my back hit the wall again.

Her friends that were looking from behind her followed. The sound of their footsteps faded, but the courtyard stayed silent.

People were watching, I could feel it.

Marcus didn’t move until the path was clear. Then he crossed the remaining distance and stopped close enough that I had to tilt my head to meet his eyes.

The grey of them was darker in the sunlight. He reached up, slow, and hooked one finger under the edge of my collar. He didn’t pull it down. He just held it there, the back of his knuckle resting against the skin above the bite.

“You alright?” he asked.

My breath caught.

‘The touch is nothing, the touch is nothing. I feel nothing.’

But the heat of his hand went through the fabric and settled low in my stomach, and I hated how fast my body noticed.

He didn’t drop his hand. His thumb shifted, brushing once along the line of my throat, right where my heartbeat was beating at an insane rate.

“You’re shaking.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not.” His voice stayed quiet, meant only for me. The courtyard noise felt far away.

I swallowed. His finger was still under my collar, warm against the place that already hurt.

Every time I breathed, the fabric moved and his knuckle dragged lightly over the skin. It shouldn’t have felt like anything. It did. My thighs pressed together without permission, and the second I noticed I wanted to step back, but the wall was already behind me.

“I told you I'm fine,” I said, my voice firmer now.

“I heard you.” He leaned in just enough that his next words landed against the shell of my ear. “Doesn’t mean I’m going to let them put their hands on you.”

The closeness made my head light. I could smell him again—and the memory of his room came back: his hand on the wall beside my head, his fingers on my throat, the way he’d said my name like it already belonged to him.

My body remembered all of it. My mind was still trying to catch up.

“Stop protecting me,” I whispered. “People are going to think—”

“Let them.” His mouth was still near my ear. I felt the words more than I heard them. “You think I care what they say?”

I turned my face and almost caught his jaw with my cheek. He didn’t pull away. For a second we stayed like that, his chest close enough that I could feel the steady rise of it against my shoulder, his finger still hooked in my collar like he was deciding whether to let go. The bite under his touch throbbed in time with my heartbeat. I wanted to tell him to move. I wanted to stay exactly where I was until the shaking stopped.

A voice called his name from across the courtyard. He exhaled once, slow, then stepped back. The loss of his hand felt colder than it should have. My collar fell back into place, but the skin underneath stayed warm.

“Tomorrow night,” he said.

And he wasn't exactly asking.

His eyes stayed on mine for one more beat, then he turned and walked toward whoever had called him, shoulders loose, like nothing had happened.

I stayed against the wall until my legs remembered how to work. My neck burned and my mouth was dry. And when I finally pushed off the stone and headed for the dorm, I could still feel the touch of his knuckle under my collar and the low, unwanted pull in my stomach that had started the second he touched me.

Maya was waiting by the door when I got back. She took one look at my face and didn’t ask. I was glad. I didn’t know how to explain that I’d told him no and my body was still answering yes.