A University of Betrayal (The Blairville Legacies #2)

Chapter 27

Quentin

Fire n My Head

Two Feet

I downed the smoky whiskey in one gulp and let the burn rush down my throat, hoping it would numb me inside, at least temporarily. Then I put the glass back before propping both elbows on the Midnight’s bar counter and cracking my knuckles.

The dimmed light from the vintage lamps, the quiet conversations around me and Two Feet playing on the jukebox gave me the deceptive feeling that I wasn’t quite so lonely.

But nothing could replace what J had given me whenever we had texted. No one had her intelligent humor, her thoughtful nature, her smart thoughts, and damn, sex with her had been a whole other level, yet I hadn’t done nearly everything I planned to do with her.

I would be lying if I said that I had only had friendship on my mind until our first meeting. I knew from the first rush of messages that she was special and that I never wanted to let her go again because she gave me something I never had dared to dream of finding in this destructive world.

Inner peace.

I should text her, not let her go, but I didn’t want to push her.

And so, I lost myself in my work as a professor, in my private research project on Umbra, in the genetics experiment at the DLSC, and in the secret project that was actually the main goal my boss was pursuing.

I had had to sign a contract with Agent DeLoughrey to keep my identity under wraps. He had nothing to do with my boss and the project, but because his department was monitoring the supernatural experiments at DLSC, I had been forced to reveal my identity to him. He was the only one, besides my boss, who knew what I was, and if he didn’t stick to the contract, I would have to turn to the magic that had already gotten me far in life.

My thoughts started to revolve around all the projects I was a part of.

It was interesting that this genetics experiment had started twenty years ago. Diana Adams, my research partner, had been trying to understand the inheritance rules of supernatural genetics, together with a goddamn member of the Westcode family. I was aware that she was an Air Quatura and part of the Circle, but my boss meant that we could trust her, even if she was only unknowingly part of a larger plan.

Why she was researching the species in the first place – against the rules of the treaty that governed Blairville – was unclear to me. She had come to Blairville two months ago and had started working with me, without asking any questions. She hadn’t even approached me about the fact that I was working on this project as a human.

Anyway, that was what I pretended to be; what I made them all think. Otherwise, I wouldn’t stand a chance in this Quatura-infested town. Besides, that way, it was easier to do research unnoticed.

I was missing important samples that I could only get as a Vanderwood professor. And that’s where David and Kelly became important.

“Aren’t you the prof from the football team?”

I turned my head to the side, trying to hide my surprise.

One of the DeLoughreys took a seat on the bar stool next to me and gestured to the bartender, pointing to the bourbon bottle in front of me.

I eyed him suspiciously. He was wearing a man bun with undercut and a black coat that reached down to his knees.

“And coincidentally, you can keep up with the Copeland guys,” he laughed.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I replied, looking back down at the glass in front of me.

I decided that I wasn’t going to let him make me leave, even if I didn’t particularly like the idea that he might have chosen me as a snack. To him, I was an unsuspecting human, a sitting duck...

“Me neither,” he laughed with a grin and nodded, accepting the drink from the bartender while the music in the bar changed to another song from Two Feet. “Never, actually.”

Darling, I’m on Your Side

Two Feet

Now I turned my head toward him.

“What does someone like you want from me?”

He smirked, as if he found this situation amusing.

“You seem to be the only reasonable guy here.” He turned the glass in his hand and the orange liquid sloshed back and forth. “The others are either running after me because they want to get into my bed, or they’re throwing apples at my car.”

It sounded like he was making fun of being hated by the Senseque. I could well imagine that he was one of the more provocative Ruisangors.

“I wonder why that is,” I sighed and took another sip.

“It’s probably my charisma.” He raised his glass too. “What attracts the girls puts the men off.”

The guy raised his glass and because I didn’t want to be a spoilsport, I raised mine too.

“Miles,” he said, the right corner of his mouth barely noticeably raised.

“Quentin,” I introduced myself as well.

That name was the only real thing I possessed, along with the photo of my family and my father’s ring.

“Are you married?”

I followed Miles’ gaze to the other, plainer ring.

“Let me put it this way,” I sighed and took a sip. “I’d like to be.”

I don’t know if I had inherited it from my mother or my father, or if it was simply J that had turned me into a helpless romantic. It was a weakness that got human beings somewhere, but not people like me.

“To keep all those women off your back who’ve been staring in your direction the whole time?”

Miles, who had obviously misunderstood me, pointed his gaze across the bar, where I spotted a bunch of girls staring at us. As I looked at them, some of their cheeks reddened, some giggled and others quickly looked away.

I suppressed an exhausted sigh and wished, not for the first time, that I looked like a homeless grandpa.

Just earlier, Amber Smith had crossed my path to hand in some extra work for her internship application. She had already sent me two of them, and I was starting to feel harassed.

What did this girl want from me? Meaningless forbidden sex? Couldn’t she find someone for that who didn’t want to kill her?

“Be glad you met me here,” Miles continued. “I know how to deal with problems like that.” He grinned mischievously. “Unless you don’t want to leave this bar alone tonight...”

I laughed, but when nothing changed in his expression, my amused expression turned to one of disbelief.

“You want me to hook up with a woman?”

He looked around as if he was already looking for a suitable match. But as long as it wasn’t J that he presented to me out of nowhere, I wasn’t going to let a Ruisangor set me up with one of those horny girls. No, thanks, he could find another victim for that.

What did he want? Maybe a threesome before he sucked us dry? That thought wasn’t so far-fetched. Ruisangors lived long lives, they got bored quickly, and these rich immortals had the strangest kinks anyway.

“Someone like you should enjoy the benefits of being good-looking,” Miles continued, but then looked at me with narrowed eyes. “Or is there someone?” He stared at me, but I avoided his brash gaze. And unfortunately, I made the mistake of pressing my lips together. “Uh-huh,” Miles said. “Gotcha!” I looked at him with a tense jaw, and his annoying grin widened. “Which, considering the fact, makes this ring even more mysterious.”

He pointed at the ring on my finger.

It was as if he had hit some sore spot inside me. And he had no fucking right to.

“I have to go,” I grumbled and got up to leave the bar as quickly as possible.

But, of course, he got up too and followed me out of the door.

Night Walk

DOLKINS

I was sure he wanted my blood. But did he have to poke through my privacy for that?

“Are you two friends?” he asked after he had caught up. “Then I’ll buy you a drink.” He strolled alongside me and just kept talking. “Because the friend zone is not a nice zone to survive in, believe me.”

J had returned my kiss and fucked me. If there was one thing we’d gotten over, it was the friendship phase.

“I am fine,” I sighed, frustrated that I was so easy for this stranger to read.

“I see. That’s why the ring there is screaming loudly: Quentin, get the girl,” he said in a playfully fake voice, and my inner tension grew.

“She’s out of reach,” I confessed, looking at the dark path in front of me. It was already evening and the cold fall wind was blowing through my clothes, creeping under my vest and into my shirt. I should have brought my coat.

“Is she a student at Vanderwood?” Miles asked, reminding me of the Vanderwood law that forbade professors from having intimate relationships with the students they taught.

“No,” I sighed.

“Promised to someone else?”

“No…”

“Your niece?”

“No!” I gasped, disturbed.

Where were his thoughts? Did Ruisangors practice incest? After all, the women there were unable to get pregnant. A very disturbing thought...

“Well, then you’re a fool for still waiting.”

I snorted, my focused gaze wandering around the area, looking for people, because I didn’t want to become his evening snack. Sticking to passers-by was a good way to get around something like this, but there was no one here.

And suddenly, an idea came to me.

“I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with a stranger right now,” I said to buy myself some time.

What if I got what I needed from David from Miles instead? What if his blood could help me prepare the experiment on David to avoid unnecessary mistakes afterward?

My hand slipped into my back pocket and I thanked myself for taking the concentrated Salma extract I’d matched to Ruisangor’s and Senseque’s DNA, just in case of defense. It would work differently than on Quatura and humans, was modified with a numbing concentrate for which I had developed an elaborate formula three months ago.

It was prepared in a small vial with a tiny needle tip.

“You’ve got frustration trapped inside you,” Miles continued. “It’s something one notices in...”

Before he could finish his sentence, I pulled out the needle and stuck it into Miles’ neck.

He stared at me, staggered back and collapsed on the grass.

“I’m sorry, buddy,” I said quickly, looking around and kneeling down before pulling out a small box from my vest where I kept small syringes, just in case.

He was not the first student I had taken blood samples from in this way, but he was the first Ruisangor.

I took three samples from the Legacy, and it felt like I was stealing gold from him, because in the DLSC the Legacies didn’t give us their samples to protect themselves from possible bioweapons.

I pulled the Ruisangor to the nearest bench, hoping for him that no Senseque would find him, and returned to the bar.

Call Me, I Still Love You

Two Feet

“Another drink please,” I said to the bartender and looked around, hoping no one had noticed, that no one had followed us.

The bartender handed me another whiskey, but I tried to control myself and not reach for it straight away.

My eyes fell on the ring on my finger. I automatically reached for it, took it off, and immediately missed the feeling it gave me when I wore it.

I turned the ring, which shimmered in the warm light, in my hands and inspected the inside. And I couldn’t help but smile sadly when I discovered the engraved J.