I stopped to watch their game, cursing that I couldn’t spring onto the grass with them. Not that I’d ever willingly exercise unless a gym class grade depended on it. But the snow had melted, and it would’ve been nice to feel the soft give of turf under my feet. I never thought I’d miss the hot Florida sun and the smell of freshly mown grass.

Scanning the group, I looked for Yasuo and found him, goofing around with a few of the other Trainees on his team. A shot of warmth reassured me at the sight, making it feel as though the sun had come out.

I sighed. Warmth, yes. But a far cry from the occasional shots of heat I knew at the sight of Ronan.

If only. How easy it’d be if I could feel attracted to my friend instead. Though, considering it, Yasuo would probably never see me like that. If the way I’d caught him eyeing the heart-faced girl was any indication, he seemed to have a thing for redheads.

Scuffling and loud grunts caught my attention. “Holy crap,” I blurted, hopping back just as a knot of bodies flew toward me.

Guys rolled and cursed at my feet, scrapping and punching. For a moment, I thought it was a real fight, but then they sprang up, cuffed one another on the shoulders, and jogged back to the center of the quad.

I glanced back to Yasuo. He’d spotted me and gave me a wave when he caught my eye. He peeled away from the group to walk toward me.

But then my belly gave a little churn. Because one of his Trainee buds was coming with him. And his eyes were two laser beams, focused right on me.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The guys were making a beeline straight for me. My chest got tight. I wanted to see Yas, but I definitely wasn’t up to making small talk with one of the meatheads.

And Yas’s new buddy sure struck me as having definite meathead potential. Like the other Trainees, this guy was a World Cup–caliber hottie. Unlike many of the others, though, his filled-out body told me he was probably old enough to vote.

And then there was his hair. I didn’t generally notice blond guys—being blond myself, it wasn’t a condition that’d ever struck me as particularly noteworthy—but his was the color of sand, and he wore it long and scruffy, like he’d just gotten back from championship surfing along some dangerous Australian reef. It made me nervous.

My gaze drifted to his, but he caught me looking and gave me such a jarringly laid-back smile, my eyes had to jump back to safe territory. I wanted to turn and flee to my dorm, but there was no backing away now.

“Yo, Blondie!” Yasuo loped the last few strides to me, giving me a brotherly clap on the arm. “You spying on us?”

“Oh, please.” I rolled my eyes. “I have better things to do.”

Yas nodded to his buddy. “You met Josh?”

“Josh the Vampire?” The absurdity of it struck me, and I had to stifle a laugh.

But then Josh the Soon-to-Be Vampire chuckled right along with me, and the easiness of it unsettled me. Because I was never easy. My life? Not easy. The scant people whose acquaintance I was beginning to value—Yasuo, Ronan? Not one of them was easy.

But this guy was easy, every muscle in his body relaxed, like he’d just had a massage. “Not Josh the Vampire yet,” he said, and damned if the accent weren’t actually Australian. “Josh the Trainee.”

Once more I met his gaze, and this time managed to hold it. He had dirty-blond good looks to match a dirty-good smile. Yes, dirty. There was just enough twinkle in his smiling brown eyes to suggest there might be all manner of naughty-guy impulses rattling around that cute body of his.

I felt a little flush inflame my cheeks. “Where’d they find you? The outback?” I’d blurted out my thoughts before I could filter them.

But he only laughed it off—easily, of course. “Harvard premed.” His voice gave a little upward lilt at the end, sounding something like Hahhvid premid.

Great. Another adorable accent. And this one had a pedigree. “What’d you do to end up here?”

Yas laughed. “What’d any of us do?”

But Josh only shook his head, answering coyly, “I’d need to know you better to say.”

“Mm-hm.” I chewed on that, my mind whirring with possibilities. Did he mean he was planning on getting to know me better? Or that he’d done something so horrific, he dared not confess to anyone?

“You hear that, Drew? Harvard.” Yasuo shouldered Josh, as if I might have forgotten who we were talking about. These guys . . . they were overly physical, like a pack of gangly wolf pups. “I told him about you, and he wanted to meet the other smarty-pants on the island. Now you’ve got to stop saying how all us guys are meatheads.”

Realization dawned. He’d probably just wanted to meet me because I was the weird smart girl. I’d never get away from it.

“No, I guess—” A fresh round of grunting interrupted me. We stopped talking to watch a throng of guys tackle another throng of guys, followed by raucous cheers. The dog pile gradually broke up, and the Trainee who’d been pinned at the bottom of it emerged with a bloody nose and what looked like a dislocated pinkie.

I looked back to Yasuo, raising my brows. “I mean, yeah. Yeah, I do still think you’re a lot of meatheads.”

Josh startled me by laughing. Wasn’t he supposed to get pissy and walk away, grumbling about the freaky girl? The fact that he didn’t made me panic.

Yasuo never walked away on me, either, but that was different. And neither did Ronan, but he was a teacher and had to deal with me no matter what. But this Josh, he was one of my peers, and his affability threw me.

I glued my eyes to the roof of my dorm peeking over the buildings in the distance. “Look, I’ve gotta go.”

“We’ll walk with you,” Yas said.

“Yeah,” Josh added. “To protect you from the dangerous meatheads, eh?”

“That’s right.” Yasuo put his arm casually around my shoulders, whisking me along. “Otherwise another boy might try to talk to you.”

I elbowed him in the gut. “Shut up.”

He let go, getting in step with Josh, laughing it off the way guys do. And simple as that, I had two male companions.

At first I was unsettled, but they made idle chatter as we walked. I could tell Josh kept slowing his pace for me, but I still had to do a quick half skip every few steps to keep up with my long-legged escorts. The meaningless chatter flowed, though, and it actually began to feel nice.

Before I’d come to this island, things had never felt nice. It made me wonder if this whole messed-up scene might possibly be worth it someday. I thought of the Initiates escorting the survivor from the pool. Recalled Ronan whispering with his fellow Tracer. There were relationships to be had, trust that could grow.

Very few girls ascended to Watcher status, but I imagined the higher you went, the tighter you grew. And if you actually did make it all the way, it must become something like a family. I’d never had a family, not really. The whole process was sick, sure, but there was something in it that had me yearning, a little bit, to be a part of something bigger than myself. Part of a family.

I tuned in when I felt Josh’s eyes on me. “I told you, mate,” he was saying to Yasuo. “She’s not your typical sheila.” What did that mean? Had they been talking about me? “Sheila?” Yas screwed up his face. “Is that a girl?”

Josh nodded, but his eyes were still on me.

I squinted at him, suspicious. “Are you teasing me?”

His gaze finally broke from mine. “Yeah, a sheila’s a girl. Learn to speak English, mate.”

“That’s not English,” Yasuo said. “It’s Australian.”

“Wait,” I said. “Go back.” I was so not done with the whole not-your-typical-sheila thing. “What were you guys talking about?”

Yasuo heaved a sigh, like I was putting him out. “I told Josh you came by to spy on the guys. To see what we’re up to; satisfy your natural curiosity and all. But Josh guessed that wasn’t your thing.”

I put my hands on my hips, ready for battle. “How is spying a typical girl thing?”

“It’s a fact,” Josh said. “Ask any girl what superpower she wants and it’s invisibility. Girls want to eavesdrop and learn secrets.”

I glared at him, looking for the fault in such a random statement. Sentences that began with it’s a fact tended to put me on my guard. “And what do guys want?”

“Guys all wish they could fly, of course.” He gave me a mellow grin. “Really. There’ve been studies.”

Was that why a guy would want to become a vampire? For the power of it?

I realized I had to hand it to Josh. He was a pretty pleasant human being, and even this random topic hadn’t stopped the conversation from flowing. I shrugged, deciding to take the bait. “I get that girls like gossip. But me? No way. Who cares about secrets? I just want to pass my next fitness evaluation. So no, I’d definitely want to fly.”

“Who knows?” Yas said, tugging my braid. “Maybe flying would help with your pull-ups. I hear test time is coming up.”

My mood plummeted. “God knows I need all the help I can get.”

“You’re doing palms away, right?” Josh asked, instantly intent on giving me tips. “You should practice with negative pull-ups. Start with your chin over the bar, then get used to the feel of lowering yourself back down.”

Yas shook his head. “Like you’re such a pro. Dude, I could kick your ass any day of the week.”

“You bloody well can’t.” Josh flexed. “I’d love to see you give it a go.”

“Jeez. Boys will be boys, vampires or no.” I strode ahead, my dorm in sight, but both of them caught up to me effortlessly.

“And girls are more sensible?”

I looked at Josh to answer him, and caught his gaze sweeping up from where he’d been assessing my girl parts. Oh no, he didn’t. I scowled, but he only laughed, his eyes glittering.

“Hey,” Yasuo said, clueless to the minidrama going on beside him, “I still don’t totally get why we need girl protectors, anyway. If we’re going to be vampires and all.” He hissed, holding pretend claws up dramatically.