A Demon's Gifts: Vice College For Young Demons: Year Two Read online

  Our surroundings faded to grey, then to the familiar vague shapes of my bedroom.

  “A kiss for my good behaviour?” Enzo asked, keeping us in the shadow realm a moment longer.

  I surprised myself when I genuinely considered it. “Not till I have your word never to hurt them,” I whispered. “I close my eyes and I see the way you held them against their will.”

  Enzo just smiled an ambiguous smile. “I suppose we’ll just have to wait for next weekend, to discuss the matter over tea like civilised people.” He reached over to stroke a finger against my cheek. “Au revoir, Pretty Darling.”

  I felt the chill of the shadow realm fade away and the warmth of my bedroom hit me like a slap to the face.

  Lulu screeched.

  Chapter 4

  “Lilith! Oh-my-shitting-god we thought you were dead!” she cried, clinging onto me as Aeron and Nelly both charged into the room.

  Nelly ran straight to me, flinging her arms around me and sobbing whilst my mate’s eyes scanned the room like he was searching for a target, his bow in one hand already nocked with the first arrow. Intent on searching out Enzo, he only gave me a quick once over to check I was uninjured before he went back to squinting at the shadows.

  “He’s not here,” I said to Aeron, bitterness heavy in my voice. “You’re wasting your time.”

  Aeron’s eyes gave me another, more thorough, once over, and I saw the way they lingered on my clothes, my jewellery and my bags. “You went shopping,” he said.

  “Yes,” I admitted, cautiously. “Enzo took me.”

  “We thought you were dead.”

  I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but he did leave a note.” I cringed at how weak that excuse sounded.

  He shook off my apology. “I’ll tell the others you’re back.” Aeron stormed out of the room, stringing the bow over his back as he went.

  Nelly pulled back, looking at me with wise eyes. “They’ve been out of their minds… but you look completely fine… better than fine, actually.”

  “He’s not the monster everyone thinks he is,” I whispered. “Or maybe he is, but I’m too disinclined to think otherwise.”

  Nelly’s eyes narrowed slightly. “And you had fun? He didn’t take advantage?”

  I let out a deep breath. “I felt… normal, for the first time in months. I had my own room, with a lock – not that that would keep him out if he wanted in, but...”

  “Then don’t let them bully you out of whatever you want,” Nelly advised. “But be ready for a lot of hurt men to charge through that door in the next ten minutes.

  It only took them three.

  Jin was the first to arrive, midway through my unpacking my bags. The moment he saw me he flashed across the room and grabbed hold of me, lifting and twirling me.

  “Where have you been?” He stopped spinning, his brown eyes frantic as they stared at my face. “I almost went crazy, I haven’t even slept.”

  “It’s a long story,” I replied, kissing his cheek gently. “But I have a feeling a lot of people are going to get very angry, so I may as well tell you all at once and get it over and done with.” I smiled as Doughnut poked his head over the top of his pocket. “I missed you,” I admitted to my Sloth mate as I stroked the tiny rat’s head.

  “I missed you too, Pet. Don’t you dare disappear on us like that again.”

  He’d just put me down when Kain got to me and picked me up all over again.

  “I just got put down!” I complained.

  “Sunshine, are you hurt?” He ignored my protests, spinning me around in his arms as if checking for injuries.

  “I’m fine.” I smiled.

  “Are you sure?” he demanded, lifting my limbs one at a time and kissing my fingertips.

  “Cut it out!” I laughed. “That tickles!”

  Someone knocked, and I looked pointedly at the other two. “See, that is how a gentleman asks to enter a lady’s room.” I knew exactly which mate it was. “Come in, Daron.”

  He peered into the room, his eyes immediately jumping to my face. He stopped, adjusted his glasses as though he couldn’t believe I wasn’t some illusion, and then crossed the room in two great bounds. Ignoring the fact that I was in Kain’s arms, he kissed me so possessively that my brain short-circuited. His palm gently held the back of my head as his mouth claimed mine, whilst his other arm wound around my waist, pulling me out of Kain’s arms and against his tall frame.

  Kain wolf-whistled as Daron stepped back, and both of us blushed.

  “You look… well.” He did the same once over that I’d gotten from all my mates so far, taking in everything including the bags around the room. “If the assassin felt like shopping, could he not simply have announced his intention like a normal person?” Daron didn’t sound angry, merely exasperated.

  “He didn’t hurt me,” I promised. “But I don’t think there’s anything about Enzo that qualifies the use of the word ‘normal.’”

  Of course, the three I dreaded arrived as a pack, with Blaze at the head. Like Aeron, he scanned the room before he let himself look at me.

  “It’s not what you think,” I whispered, seeing him take in the clothes, the jewels and the bags and watching the fire in those green eyes burn a little brighter. “Blaze, he vowed to the Strange God not to hurt me.”

  “Have you any idea what the last two days have been like for us?” he demanded, tone deadly quiet. “I almost alerted the damned school in the hopes they might find you. If you’d left it another hour, maybe I would have. As it is, every Knight in Britain is searching for you right now.”

  “I didn’t mean to cause so much trouble.” I shook my head earnestly.

  “Lilith, you’re the Strange God’s chosen, his fucking representative on Earth!” Blaze roared, and I shrank back. “You disappear and of course there’s going to be fucking trouble. Every single one of us would have set the world on fire if we thought it would help us find you! Not to mention how terrified you made all of us feel! The last thirty-six hours have been the worst of my fucking life.”

  “Well I’m sorry!” I retorted, angrily. “But he’s my seventh, Blaze! I had to try.”

  “He’s a psychopath and a murderer,” Aeron intervened. “You were in danger from the second he came into your life and now you’re defending him.”

  “Yes,” I whispered. “Because he’s all those things, but he’s my mate. I can feel him right here,” I thumped my chest with my fist. “Just as I can feel all of you.” I glanced at Bane but didn’t add that he was the exception, because voicing the lack of his bond was somehow worse than living with it. “And for the first time in months I felt normal, because I wasn’t thinking about being the girl charged with saving our kind from a threat I don’t even understand!” I took a deep breath. “We’re too angry to be having this discussion,” I admitted. “Maybe… maybe we ought to just take a night to breathe.”

  “I want to know what happened to you,” Blaze argued. “I’ve been going crazy imagining everything, only the mating bond kept any of us sane. And now you’re back singing his praises, when only yesterday you claimed that you were so afraid of him that you couldn’t sleep alone.”

  “He took me away when we were fighting,” I explained. “I made him vow to the Strange God that he wouldn’t harm me or any of you if I went with him. He agreed and took me to his place where I had my own room, with a lock. He let me sleep, then we spent the day touring Paris together and he returned me like he promised he would.”

  “And that was it?” Aeron asked, scepticism colouring his words. “You’re telling me that after two months of him entering your room every night he didn’t even kiss you?”

  My eyebrows rose, and my eyes widened in incredulity. “What are you saying?” I demanded. “If you think I would so callously throw myself into bed with someone after they threatened the lives of the men I adore, then you obviously don’t know me at all.” I stared at him, shaking my head. “I think you need to leave, Aeron. We’ve hurt each other enough, please, just go.”

  Aeron turned on his heel and strode out, looking back at me over his shoulder with an expression that was somewhere between despondency and ire. Bane stayed in place, his eyes boring into me, piercing in their intensity. It was the first time he’d looked at me, truly looked at me, in weeks. Since the ball something changed between us, and our camaraderie, once free and easy, sometimes had this strained feeling to it I can’t really decipher.

  “I chose not to put you in danger by not mating with you. I get that I lost certain rights when I decided that,” Bane finally said. “But, as your friend, I can’t deal with not knowing that you’re safe. Aeron’s communicating badly – as usual – but did you ever think about what would happen if he decided to rape you? Physically, you’re weaker than him by a significant margin, and your powers wouldn’t have worked against someone they saw as your mate.” He looked so grim, standing rigidly away from me. “Be careful, Lilith. Please.” He turned to follow his brother.

  “Bane,” I called after him, and he stopped, turning back to me. “He knew everything about you,” I told him. “He had everything in a file, all the evidence that they would need to have you killed… Just, please be careful.”

  His face didn’t change, but he nodded, turning away and leaving me with Blaze, whose mood had become unreadable once again.

  “You told me that all of you were chosen for a reason,” I insisted. “You told me that I should get to know my mates more.”

  “Did he say if he was coming back?” Blaze asked, still poker-faced.

  “He wants weekends with me,” I admitted. “He said that was how he’d share me with you all.”

  “That will have to be discussed,” Blaze grunted. “Come here, Sweetness.”

  I approach
ed him cautiously. Even though logically, I knew he’d never hurt me, he still cut an intimidating figure standing there in his black uniform. When Blaze grabbed me around the waist and lifted me, pressing his face into my hair and sniffing deeply, our mating bond sighed in contentment.

  “I missed you,” I whispered into his neck, pressing a kiss to the skin there.

  “We will have to talk about this,” Blaze admitted, quietly. “I could never trust him, but I missed you in my arms, Sweetness.” He was quiet for so long I almost spoke just to break the silence. “I promised myself I would never make my mate scared to approach me… I’ve broken that promise and I apologise.” He looked behind him at the door that Aeron had left through. “So, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Every time you argue, Aeron starts pacing in that space behind the tower and tries to figure out what to say to you to make it better. Maybe, instead of beating himself up, what he needs is to hear that you missed him.”

  “He’s going to kill you for telling her that,” Daron informed Blaze, staring down his glasses at the pair of us as we disentangled. He approached me and stared deep into my eyes for a long moment. “I’ll see you in class.”

  I reached up onto my toes and kissed him. “I missed you too,” I told him. “Goodnight, Daron.”

  He smiled and kissed my forehead before leaving the tower, glancing back over his shoulder at me before he disappeared from view.

  Kain followed him out, pressing a sweet kiss on my lips as he went. “I know you missed me,” he said, grinning. “Anyone would.”

  “I did,” I promised, turning to kiss Jin as he followed his friend out.

  “That worked out better than expected,” Nelly said, resuming her rummaging through my new clothes. “Are you really going to go and tame the bear?”

  I smiled at the analogy. “Of course.”

  “Good luck.” Lulu smiled, skipping out of my room, dragging her sister with her before Nelly could commandeer any more of my new wardrobe. “I do love happy endings.”

  “I’ll walk you down,” Blaze told me, taking my hand delicately in his. “Do you trust this assassin, Lilith?” He asked when we were midway down the stairs.

  I shook my head. “He knows too much and says too little,” I admitted. “I trust him not to hurt me… Or at least… not intentionally.”

  Blaze nodded and kissed me as he left, looking thoughtful.

  I edged around the tower, keeping my footsteps light as I heard voices.

  “…she’s in danger,” Aeron was saying, his words so close that I stopped where I was. “I can’t… I just can’t function. I need her more than my next breath but she’s always being shot by crazy classmates, or courted by assassins, or attacked by the Tester. It never seems to end!”

  From my position, I could see his shadow pacing up and down, pulling at his hair and rubbing at his face. Bane shifted slightly, coming straight into my field of vision as he replied.

  “How do you think I feel?” Bane demanded. “You’re not the only one who feels that way, you’re just the lucky bastard who gets to act upon it.”

  “You really think you’d bring more danger into her life than a bloody assassin?” Aeron grumbled. “And I don’t feel lucky right now. I feel like slime. I always seem to make things worse.”

  “She’s been through a lot,” Bane said, rolling his eyes and catching sight of me in the process. His whole face lit up with a wicked grin as he continued talking to his brother. “But it doesn’t help when you blurt out some half-mangled thought and she takes it the way any ordinary person would. You’re lucky you have me to tell you when you’re being a thick-headed idiot with his foot in his mouth. Like now. Perhaps, instead of pacing, you could go upstairs and apologise.”

  “But she might not accept it,” Aeron complained, as Bane grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him. I could see Aeron pacing away from us, arms reaching into the air as if he could draw some answer to his problem from the stars. “I have to get it right, but it’s so hard because I love her, and every time I try to find the words to tell her, she gets herself into one of these situations and I feel myself die a little inside. I just can’t bear the thought of existing if she stopped breathing and that fucking terrifies me.” He turned on his heel and looked straight at me.

  “You love me?” I whispered, staring at him in shock.

  He just stared at me, and I felt Bane give me a little push forward.

  “Go easy on him, Lilith. He’s a dunderhead, but he’s got a delicate heart,” Bane whispered, before I heard his boots moving away.

  Aeron looked at his brother’s retreating back and then back to me, before giving the tiniest nod.

  I flung myself at him, catching him off guard and sending us both tumbling backwards into the dirt.

  “I love you too, idiot.”

  “I’m sorry,” Aeron whispered, brushing back the fall of my hair that had cascaded into his face, so he could look me in the eye. “I never mean what it sounds like I mean.”

  “I know. You’re just lucky you have Bane to help me decipher you.”

  Aeron’s piercing yellow eyes looked straight into my soul. “He would be a better mate for you than me. He should be your mate instead, well – he is – but if he wasn’t being so stubborn…”

  I pressed my finger against his lips. “Aeron, sometimes I think we do our best communicating when we’re not talking,” I announced, laying my head against his heart.

  He let out a huge breath. “You’re right, as usual.” He snuggled me closer. “I’m so out of my depth with you, Baby Girl.”

  “Do you regret mating with me?”

  He shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t change you for the world.” He paused. “Do you regret mating with me?”

  “Never,” I promised. “You may be a growly, arrogant ass, but you’re mine.”

  Chapter 5

  “Gather ‘round, Second-Years!” Maddox called as we walked into his classroom on Monday. The Professor was standing behind his desk, a huge, rattling, empty cage in front of him. “Put your bags down and then get over here! We’ve got a full lesson today and Professor Saxon has kindly gone out of her way to source us this amazing specimen for our demonstration!”

  Daron, Bane, Rina and I dumped our bags on four desks next to one another and made our way with the rest of the class to the cage, which was rattling so violently that it almost tipped itself over.

  “What is that, Professor?” Rina asked, eyeing the cage warily and keeping well back.

  “That, Miss Inferna, is an imp!” Maddox exclaimed, excitedly waving the last stragglers towards the desk. “As you will all recall from the modules I read out on Saturday, we are studying shadow realm creatures.” He began to speak, but my attention was fixed on the cage.

  The more I stared at the cage, the more I started to see the things in there, and there was definitely more than one. I moved closer trying to make them out, but they were a blur of light and dark.