Dead End: Midnight Hollow by Penn Cassidy (best e reader for epub txt) 📕

no longer stifling. Sometimes, Norman was a little scary. I wasn’t afraid he’d do something, like physically hurt me or anything, but there was just something about the darkness I knew lurked inside of him that put me on edge. And now, with his newfound…condition, he’d be more volatile than ever.

“October!” came a smooth, deep voice from across the yard. I whipped around and saw Calvin slowly jogging towards us with a handsome grin stretched across thick lips. “Hey, I was hoping to catch you before class.” He slowed to a stop in front of me, raking a hand through his midnight hair when it fell in his face.

Calvin looked good, I supposed. His eyes were ringed in that dark liner again, highlighting their amber glow, and his dark hair was parted to the side as it fell in loose waves to his shoulders. But he did nothing for me. He was hot as sin, yeah, but there were already four faces that overshadowed the one in front of me. But it didn’t mean I couldn't appreciate the view…or ignore the fact that he seemed to have some sort of keen interest in me particularly that made zero sense.

“Hey, Calvin,” I said with a smile. It was a genuine smile, surprisingly.

“Call me Cal. All the pretty girls do.” He winked, and his white teeth gleamed in the moonlight. Normally, I would have rolled my eyes, but the line was delivered with such suave perfection that I could only laugh.

There was a snort from over my shoulder, and I tensed. Jason didn't sound amused. It was sort of pathetic how I could tell it was Jason, even before he said, “Is this guy for real?” He looked at Freddy to back him up, but Freddy was staring at Cal with all the fires of Hell burning in his stare. I shivered at the stark violence I saw on his face.

Cal met Jason’s eyes over my head with a friendly smirk. He stuck his right, ring clad hand out for a shake. “Hey, man, we didn’t really get to meet yesterday. I’m Calvin.”

His hand hung there in the air, even past the point of being awkward, but he held his ground. I whirled, pinning Jason with a glare. “Stop being a dick. Remember what I said about getting eaten alive?” Jason wouldn’t look at me, keeping his gaze fixed on Cal.

I turned back around as Cal said to me, “How about I give you a tour?” He lowered his hand and stuck his elbow out, indicating that I should loop mine through.

I considered his offer a moment, weighing my options. I wanted to stick near the guys but they were being dicks, and it was only our first day here… I didn’t know how much more of their taunts and jabs I could take today. Maddie nudged me when I was taking too long to respond.

“That sounds great,” I said, looping my arm through his.

I felt Jessica crawl out from under my hair, and she made her way towards my ear, whispering, “Wolf boy looks like he’s about to lose his lunch.” There was a giggle in her voice, but it made me flit my eyes over at Freddy. Wolf boy?

“That’s not happening,” Freddy grumbled, stepping forward and squaring his shoulders.

“Excuse you?” I asked.

“You’re not going anywhere with this fucking creep,” he said without looking at me. What was it with these guys and talking to me as if I wasn’t even there, as if what I wanted didn’t even matter?

“What’s your problem, Freddy? I thought you’d jump at the chance to get rid of the freaky girl,” I said sarcastically.

Cal cleared his throat. “I believe the lady can make up her own mind, as I assume none of you have claimed her for yourself yet.”

Freddy looked ready to argue, but never got that far. I practically choked, but Maddie didn’t even try to hide her sudden cackle. I shot her a glare as she slapped a hand over her mouth.

“You guys are all on drugs if you think any of that shit makes sense. Nobody is claiming me.” I looked at Cal apologetically. “Ignore them. They actually hate me and love to torture me whenever they possibly can. I’d seriously love a tour.” I went to move forward, but a strong hand caught my upper arm.

“Over my dead body, I’ll eat…alive.” Norman’s tone was scary enough, but when his lips didn’t move, I realized he was definitely holding the real violence back. His mind was like a raging hellfire right now.

Why me? Why did this keep happening to me?

“Oh, boy, here we go…” Maddie mumbled, circling around to Cal’s other side. I saw her loop her arm through his and smile. I could tell she thought he was hot, and secretly, I hoped her charm would get him off my back. Four guys to worry about was more than enough.

I looked up into Norman’s darkening green eyes. His jaw was ticking, and the muscles in his forearms were straining. Something about him just looked…feral. “You’re not going off with him, October.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. He must be upset if he was using my actual name…but he was being ridiculous. “What’s wrong, vampy? Scared of being alone in the big bad castle?”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” he warned. “You don’t know him.”

“Exactly. Maybe I feel like fixing that.” I tried to tug myself away, but his fingers only tightened. “Let go, Norman. You have no right to tell me who I can hang out with. Apparently, this is all my fault, right? So why don’t you start acting like it.”

“I know what we said was…” He frowned, tripping over his words. “He’s dangerous,” is all he ended up getting out.

“And you’re not?” I raised a brow, eyes fixating on the little black veins that started to creep under the skin around his eyes. “Look at yourself, Norman. Look at Jason with his fucking tongue, and Michael with the