John Wick

Morraine's POV

"Damn, Couz. Right in front of me?" Kai said, turning to look at Brittany with an amused glint in his eyes.

Wait... cousins? My brain was still trying to process that fact.

Right now, the three of us, plus my menace of a stepsister were standing right inside our dorm room. The Parker guy had dismissed the entire hallway of staring girls with just one lazy sentence.

The way he carried himself, hands shoved casually into his pockets, made it painfully clear he came from serious power on this campus.

"I'm sorry once again," Cassy purred, taking a delicate step closer to him, her eyes shining with fake tears. "She... she just..."

"Why did she hit you?" he cut in, completely unbothered by her sweet act.

Cassy glanced back at me, her mouth twisting into a helpless frown. "She has episodes."

"Dude, if you say that one more time, I will beat the sanity right out of you!" Brittany barked, stepping up.

A low laugh escaped Parker guy. For a second, he looked genuinely entertained. He glanced down at Cassy, his lips curling into a smirk. "She's not bluffing, I swear. Brittany will beat your ass, and I will stand right here and let her."

Turning away from Cassy, his eyes landed on me.

"Now, just between us girls," he pointed lazily between himself, Brittany, and me, "let's not let these little squirrel fights get outside this building. Because if it does, your no-name ass is going to be in serious trouble."

He was right. A scholarship student causing a scene this early was practically begging to get expelled.

But how was I supposed to stay calm? My mum had barely been gone three weeks, and Cassy had shown up with a bloody cake to celebrate her death. The worst part? She'd even lied about the date. It hadn't even been a month yet.

"Wait... what if the other girls report us?" I asked, panic creeping into my voice.

"Well, you probably should have thought about that while you were going full John Wick on her," he teased softly.

"Don't worry, Morraine. I'll defend you," Brittany cut in, throwing a sharp glare at Cassy. "I really despise your step sister. She looks all soft and innocent like she didn't just pull a sick stunt. How can you mock her mother's death like that?"

Cassy didn't answer, she just kept quiet... keeping her gaze entirely locked on me the whole time.

"Wait... Morraine? That's your name?" Kai cut in, his golden eyes locking onto mine as his smirk widened.

He glanced sideways at my roommate. "Brittany, isn't that the name of one of my exes?"

"Yeah, of course it is," Brittany snapped back, rolling her eyes. "The one you dumped in a cell."

He threw his head back and laughed. "Anyway, I am Kai Parker." He extended a long, tattooed arm toward me for a handshake.

"If I were you, I wouldn't," Brittany purred warningly from behind him. "That's how ruining your life begins."

I hesitated for a split second, but there was a warm, comforting charm in the smile he was giving me. I reached out and took his hand anyway.

Our fingers lingered together a second too long, sending a strange spark up my arm, until the soft click of the dorm door broke the spell. We all turned just in time to see Cassy slipping quietly out into the hallway.

A few hours later, the drama had finally died down. I was sitting at my desk, shoving books into my bag.

My first agenda for the day was tracking down Evelyn to demand answers about yesterday. As for Cassy's sick joke about my dead mother and the texting too? I would deal with her fucked up behavior later. Right now, I needed to take Kai's advice and keep my head down.

I headed out of the dorm, ignoring the lingering, piercing stares from strangers in the hallway. Minutes later, I arrived at my lecture hall, and the first person my eyes caught was Evelyn.

The moment she saw me, a bright smile crossed her face. I practically ran over and threw myself into the empty chair next to her.

"Evelyn, what happened yesterday?" I blurted out before she could even open her mouth to greet me.

"Yesterday?" She blinked, looking confused. "I don't understand."

"Did you send someone to come call me to the restroom?" I demanded.

She paused for a second, her brows furrowing, then shook her head. "No, I didn't."

"Oh my God." I threw my hands up in the air, my heart sinking into my stomach.

"Morraine, what happened?" Evelyn asked, tugging nervously on my sleeve.

I looked her dead in the eye. "Yesterday, a girl came up to me and said you were calling me to the restroom. I went there, and the last thing I remember was taking a hit to the head. Next thing I know, I woke up in my bed this morning."

Evelyn stared at me, her expression instantly darkening. She slowly shifted her gaze toward the back row of the lecture hall, and I followed her eyes.

"Daimon isn't here," she whispered, turning back to me with a serious look. "So... you don't remember anything?"

"No, I don't!"

"Do you have any wounds on your body? Marks? Anything?"

"No, nothing. I remember bleeding in my head in the restroom but.... it's all gone. No wound."

She went quiet, scanning my face. Before she could say another word, heavy footsteps echoed down the aisle. A guy was walking toward us, clearly trying to get to a seat in the back row.

"Hey," Evelyn called out sharply.

He stopped right in front of our desk. I recognized him instantly, he was definitely one of Daimon’s loyal inner circle.

"Did you fools do anything to Morraine yesterday?" Evelyn asked, her tone laced with absolute ice.

The guy frowned, glancing at me with a mix of annoyance and confusion. "No."

A cold, humorless laugh escaped Evelyn's lips as she stood up. She stepped directly into his space, their faces only inches apart. Even though he was easily a foot taller and built like a wall, she looked down on him with pure authority.

"I will ask you again," Evelyn said, her voice carrying a terrifying, commanding ring that made the air in the room feel heavy. "Did you do anything to Morraine yesterday?"

The boy’s eyes widened, and I watched his throat bob as he swallowed hard. "No! I swear we didn't!" he stammered, lowering his head in total submission.

I sat there, genuinely bewildered. How important was Evelyn in this school for a guy that big to cower in front of her?

"Are they going to start a fight here, among humans?" a faint whisper drifted from two rows back.

I glanced around the room. The usual bustling classroom had gone dead quiet. Almost everyone was staring at us in tense silence, while a few students in the back were leaning into each other, frantically whispering behind their hands.

Among humans? What does that even mean?

I shook my head, rubbing my temple to clear the strange, buzzing pressure building behind my eyes, and fixed my gaze back on Evelyn and the boy.

Oh no... am I going to get punished in the coven?

A panicked, frantic voice boomed inside my mind, so loud and clear it felt like someone was screaming directly into my eardrum.

My heart stuttered. I instinctively blinked and looked around the room, expecting someone nearby to be on the phone or shouting across the seats. But no one was speaking. The entire classroom was frozen in dead silence, every pair of eyes locked on Evelyn.

Oh God, I have to tell Cedric...

The voice rang out again, sending a violent, sickening chill straight down my spine.

Slowly, my eyes snapped back to the massive guy cowering right in front of our desk. I stared at him in utter horror. His chest was heaving, his eyes were wide with panic, but his mouth was closed tight. His lips weren't moving at all.

That was his voice.

The realization crashed over me like a bucket of ice water. He hadn't opened his mouth to speak. So how was I hearing him?

Before my brain could even begin to process the sheer impossibility of it, a sharp, blinding pain slammed into the back of my skull.

"Ahhh!"