He doesn’t stop walking, but everything about him kind of stills when I confront him with what Jaxon told me—which tells me all I need to know.
And still, he tries to play it off. “What do you mean? Of course I’m worried about you.”
“Give me a break, Flint. I know what you’ve been up to.”
For the first time in our entire “friendship,” anger flashes in his eyes. “Don’t you mean you know what that tick told you I was up to?” he sneers.
Mekhi’s face goes livid at the insult to Jaxon, and suddenly he’s right there between the two of us again. “Back the fuck off, Dragon Boy.”
Flint ignores him and continues talking to me. “You don’t know what’s really going on, Grace. You can’t trust Jaxon—”
“Why? Because you say so? Aren’t you the one who’s been trying to kill me since I got here?”
“It’s not for the reasons you think.” He shoots me a pleading look. “If you would just trust me—”
“Not for the reasons I think?” I repeat. “So you actually think there are good reasons for trying to kill me? And you still want me to trust you?” I wave an arm his way in a step right up kind of gesture. “Fine. Then tell me the truth about what happened during the snowball fight. Did you jump out of that tree to catch me, or did Jaxon knock you out of it?”
“I… It wasn’t like… Jaxon overreacted. I was—”
I let him stutter all over himself for a few seconds, then cut him off. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Stay away from me, Flint. I don’t want to have anything to do with you from now on.”
“Well that’s too bad, because I’m not going away.”
“You know, there’s a name for a guy who continues to hound a girl after she tells him to leave her alone,” Mekhi tells Flint after we make the turn into the hallway that leads to the tunnels.
Flint ignores him. “Grace, please.” He reaches out and grabs hold of my arm. Before I can tell him not to touch me, Mekhi is right there, fangs bared and warning growl pouring out of his throat.
“Get your filthy dragon hands off her,” he hisses.
“I’m not going to hurt her!”
“Damn right you’re not. Step back, Montgomery.”
Flint makes a frustrated sound deep in his throat, but in the end, he does what Mekhi asks. Mostly, I think, because there was going to be a fight right here in the hallway if he didn’t. One where Mekhi tries to tear him to pieces.
“Come on, Grace,” he implores. “It’s important. Just listen for one minute.”
I stop because it’s fairly obvious at this point that he isn’t planning on going away. “Fine. You want to talk, talk. What’s so important?” I cross my arms over my chest and wait to see what he has to say.
“You want me to say it now? In front of everyone?” he snarls, looking at Mekhi.
“Well, I’m sure as hell not going to go somewhere alone with you at this point. I may be ignorant about your world, but I’m not downright foolish.”
“I can’t do this. I—” He breaks off, runs a frustrated hand through his hair. “I can’t talk to you in front of a vampire. It needs to be alone.”
“Then you’re not talking to her at all,” Mekhi says, once again getting between us. “Let’s go, Grace.”
I allow Mekhi to guide me away from an increasingly angry Flint. Which is kind of obnoxious when you think about it. He’s the one who tried to kill me with a chandelier, and now he’s the one who gets to be angry? Where’s the logic in that?
“Damn it, Mekhi, at least do me a favor and don’t leave her alone, okay?” Flint calls after us. “I’m serious, Grace. You shouldn’t go anywhere alone. It’s not safe.”
52
If You Can’t
Live Without Me,
Why Aren’t You
Dead Yet?
The irony of that statement isn’t lost on me. Nor is it lost on Mekhi, if the way he snarls at Flint is any indication. “No shit, Sherlock. What do you think is happening here?”
Flint doesn’t answer, and I don’t bother to look back as Mekhi and I head into the tunnels. He doesn’t say anything about Flint or anything else as we make our way through the first door. But the silence only makes me feel worse about what just happened. And about trusting Flint from the beginning, especially when Jaxon warned me not to.
I just wish I knew what he got out of hurting me when I’ve never done anything to him. Not to mention playing at being my friend at the same time he was plotting to kill me.