Black Blood: The Runaway Mate

Chapter Two

“Lewis!” Zed awkwardly chuckled, setting aside his fear as he tried to engage himself in a friendly conversation with Lewis. “We’re just teaching her a lesson. Nothing big here.”

Zed and his friends were looking so terrified. No doubt it was Lewis. If there’s someone more influential than Zed in our school, that would be him. He was quiet, but people were wary of him. They didn’t want to offend him in any way possible.

“Teaching her a lesson?” Lewis's voice was filled with sarcasm.

“Aziel!”

Courtney suddenly showed herself and stepped forward to approach Lewis. She addressed him using his first name, showing how she was ahead of all the girls crushing on him.

“Zed is just really teaching her a lesson,” Courtney defended her friends. “That girl is lying! She and her friend are trying to set up Vivian.”

Acting like a wounded cat, Vivian nodded her head with a dejected expression.

“She is not lying,” Lewis firmly stated.

My eyes widened, surprised that he defended me. I thought he would team up with them because of his infamous reputation. I tried to look at him again. His eyes were pitch black. He was definitely angry.

Courtney opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She struggled to find words and turned to her friends for help. Vivian looked away from her, trying to hide her face away from the crowd. If she could vanish into air, I was sure she’d do that in a heartbeat.

“I also saw what happened,” Lewis continued. “Vivian tripped her.”

Vivian’s eyes widened. She looked even more defensive. “I didn’t do it on purpose!” she still tried to save herself from getting blamed. “It’s not my fault!”

“That’s not true!” Those words slipped out of my lips unconsciously. “I saw it clearly!”

“Will you please shut up?!” Vivian screamed at the top of her lungs. She was very frustrated.

Zed held her arm to stop her from losing it all. It was obvious he didn’t want to offend Lewis more.

“You want her to shut up because she’s telling the truth, right?” Lewis calmly said. “When you saw that girl walking in your direction, I saw you smirk before you stretched out your legs and acted oblivious to your surroundings.”

No one dared to speak when the truth came from Lewis. But when I was the one speaking up, they wouldn’t even listen. They didn’t believe me.

Double standards suck so bad.

It was a bit frustrating because I felt like I was being mistreated. They were so unfair to my best friend and me. Nevertheless, I was still grateful to Lewis since he spoke on our behalf.

“Now, I want you to say sorry to Chandra and her friend.”

It was unexpected that he knew my name. I couldn’t school my expression and hide the look of disbelief on my face.

Who would’ve thought that he knew my name?

Vivian bit her lower lip hard. “Sorry,” she insincerely apologized like she was spitting out the word out of her mouth.

It was obvious she didn’t mean it. She didn’t want to apologize, but she also couldn’t be on the wrong side of Lewis. She’d rather swallow her pride. That was easier than dealing with him.

“And what about you, Zed?” Lewis shifted his attention to Zed. “What will you do?”

Zed licked his lower lip before he looked at me. “I’m sorry.”

“You think that’s enough?”

With his eyes wide open, Zed looked up at Lewis again.

The cold winter breeze caressed me again as Lewis left me to step forward. He stopped right in front of Zed and motioned someone to give him a drink.

The same guy, Jameson, handed another water bottle from his friends to Lewis. He was eager to satisfy Lewis. It was like he was willing to betray Zed just to be in an alliance with Lewis, who clearly had the upper hand.

“Here you go.” Lewis passed the water bottle to Zed. “I’m sure you should know by now that an apology is just not enough.”

When I realized what Lewis wanted Zed to do, my lips parted. He wanted him to pour the water on himself.

Zed’s Adam’s apple moved when he swallowed hard. Lewis crossed his arms while nonchalantly watching Zed, who was about to humiliate himself in front of his friends and his girlfriend.

Slowly, Zed lifted the bottle over his head after removing the cap. The water was almost nearing the opening as he tilted it.

Though I knew he did it to me, I never wanted that to happen. I opened my mouth to speak. I was about to step forward, but I was immediately blocked by Lewis. He held my forearm and, once again, I felt the same soothing heat that calmed my nerves down.

Because I was disarmed by Lewis’ warmth, I wasn’t able to stop Zed from wetting himself with the water. His eyes were closed tightly while the water slowly trickled down his face. I heard him hiss a bit as he felt the freezing sensation from the liquid. His lips quivered from the cold.

“It’s freezing, right?” Lewis asked a very obvious question, taunting Zed. “I wonder if you thought about that before you poured the water on Chandra earlier. But I guessed not because you looked so thrilled and happy.”

Zed kept his silence. He bit his lower lip hard, like he was trying to talk back against Lewis. He remained looking at the ground while droplets of water were still falling from his hair.

“I hope you won’t take it to heart, though.” Lewis chuckled and let go of my forearm for a fleeting moment to tap Zed’s shoulder. “I’m just teaching you a lesson. It’s for your own good.”

Once Lewis turned his back from Zed, he cut his chuckle short and put on a straight face. He casually grabbed my wrist and dragged me away from the scene. I looked back at Lindsay while he was taking me away. She was also caught off guard by all the unexpected happenings.

I looked at Lewis again when Lindsay disappeared from my sight as we turned to the corner, away from the field.

“Uhm, where are you taking me?” I asked Lewis, not knowing where he would take me. However, even though he didn’t answer, I willingly came along.

We went straight inside the school building and into the locker area. We stopped in front of a locker. Lewis opened his locker quickly, then pulled out a white towel. He carefully draped that over my head which covered my eyes, disallowing me to have a better view of his face.

Before I could even pull the towel out of my sight, I felt Lewis’ hand gently touch my head. He carefully ruffled the towel on my hair.

Time seemed to stop for a moment, and we were the only ones who could continue moving. My heart raced rapidly. I felt like all my blood was creeping up to my cheeks.

The towel covering my eyes moved a little due to his actions. I took a peek at his face using my right eye. He looked serious as he was trying to dry my hair. His brows were furrowed while his lips were tightly pressed into a thin line, like he wasn’t sure if he was doing it right.

I always saw him walking down the corridor, but I had never seen him that close before. We were only a few centimeters away from each other. I could feel his warm minty breath on my face.

He really feels so warm.

As soon as he saw me looking at him through the small opening, our eyes met and locked. His light turquoise eyes were mimicking the color of the ocean in a tropical paradise. I found myself drowning in them until he decided to look away and pull me out of the water.

I got out of the trance once he averted his gaze to close his locker. I bit my lower lip while pulling the towel away from my face. I also quickly combed my hair using my fingers and adjusted the position of my specs.

“Uhm, thank you, L-Lewis…” I stuttered, my voice quiet and breathy.

He blew out a deep breath then faced me. He wasn’t giving away any emotion, but his expression wasn’t as hard as he showed on the field. He looked surprisingly approachable, unlike the rumors surrounding his name.

From what I heard about him, he’s intimidating, rough, and all the bad things. But the man right in front of me was the opposite of what he was rumored to be. He was gentle, considerate, and caring. He almost seemed like a different person with only the same name.

But to be honest, I knew I wasn’t in the right position to dissect his character. I wasn’t familiar with him. Aside from what I picked up from other people, I knew nothing about him.

“You’re welcome,” he simply said. “And you can just call me Aziel.”