Chapter 9 Levi's POV

Saturday came and went without me making a decision.

I told myself I was thinking it through. But honestly I was just avoiding it.

I picked up extra hours at Cody's in the morning, did two delivery runs in the afternoon, and by the time I got home my feet hurt and my head was worse. Staying busy was easier than sitting still with a decision I didn't want to make.

Thank goodness Jamie didn't bring it up. He watched me though.

Sunday was quieter.

I sat at my desk with my laptop open and a half finished assignment on the screen. The paper from Lucifiel was still in my jacket pocket. I hadn't moved it. I don't know what made me reach for it.

I unfolded it and read through it again. The rules looked the same as they had on Friday. Something in me was hoping it might change on its own.

I put it back down and didn't touch it again and just went about my day.

By Monday morning I had made up my mind. I wasn't going to think about why. I was just going to go to his office and give him my answer.

Psychology was the last class of the morning.

I got there on time for once. I took a seat near the back and kept my head down. Lucifiel walked in exactly when the class was supposed to start, not a second early or late. He moved to the front without looking around and started talking.

I watched him from the back of the room. He was good at this. The professor thing. The way he held the room without trying. People paid attention to him without being told to. Even the ones who looked like they didn't care about the subject.

I focused on my notes and tried not to think about the paper in my pocket.

By the time class ended I had written down maybe three useful things.

I waited until most of the other students had filed out before I stood up. I took my time packing my bag. When I finally looked up, Lucifiel was at his desk, writing something. He didn't look at me.

"Office hours?" I asked.

"Third floor. Room 304," he said without looking up. "Give me ten minutes."

I left without responding.

Room 304 was at the end of a quieter hallway. The door was slightly open when I arrived. I knocked once anyway.

"Come in."

I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

The office was neat. Organized in a way that only a sociopath will. Books lined one wall from floor to ceiling. His desk sat near the window, and the light coming through it made the room feel less cold than I expected.

He was already there, seated behind the desk. His jacket was gone. Just a dark shirt, sleeves pushed up slightly.

I dropped into the chair across from him without being invited to.

"I've made a decision," I said.

He looked at me. "I know."

"You don't know what I'm going to say."

"Don't I?"

I ignored that. "I'll do it."

He didn't react the way I expected. No satisfaction, no smirk. He just nodded once, like this was the conclusion to a conversation he had already finished in his head.

I could almost imagine smashing his head against the window.

"I have conditions," I added.

"You can have two."

I stared at him. "You haven't even heard them yet."

"Only two," he repeated.

I let out a breath. "Fine. First — my schedule stays mine. Classes, shifts, everything. You work around it, not the other way around."

He considered that for exactly one second. "Acceptable."

"Second — I want to know what I'm walking into before each event. No surprises."

"We'll see about that."

"That's not a yes."

"It's the closest you'll get."

I held his gaze for a moment, then nodded. "When do we start?"

"This Friday."

"What's Friday?"

He reached into his desk drawer and slid a small card across to me. I picked it up. It had an address on it and a time. Nothing else.

"Dress appropriately," he said.

"You're going to have to be more specific than that."

He looked at me once, like he was taking inventory. "There will be a delivery at your apartment tomorrow evening. Don't argue about it."

I opened my mouth.

"Don't," he said.

I closed it again.

I looked down at the card, then back up at him. There was something I still wanted to ask. Something that had been sitting at the back of my head since Friday.

"You said you knew who I was before we met," I said. "How?"

He leaned back slightly. "That's not one of your two conditions."

"I'm not negotiating. I'm asking."

"Then I'm choosing not to answer right now."

I stood up and picked up my bag. "You make talking to you feel like talking to the wall."

" Glad you at least feel something"

I didn't have a response to that. So I left without another word.

I actually do hope whatever it was I was getting myself into doesn't end in a disaster. Because I had entered the office with the thought of saying no but ended up saying yes.

I took the stairs down two at a time and stepped out into the main hallway. Campus was busy at this hour, students moving in every direction, the usual noise filling the space.

I kept my head down and headed for the exit.

That weird feeling of someone following me came back.

I slowed without meaning to. It was not the same one from before. The feeling sat at the base of my neck and refused to leave.

Someone was definitely watching me.

I turned around slowly this time instead of brushing it off.

I've been doing that a lot lately. Turning back to see if someone was following me for real only to find nobody.

I turned back again at the far end of the hallway, just before the corner. At first I saw its eyes. It glowed, was it a dog or something...

I stood there looking at it and it didn't move either.