Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 1

20. Dangerous

DANGEROUS

R yder followed Grayson’s lithe form up the stairs to the young man’s rooms. He stalked after Grayson. His eyes focused on that firm ass and long legs. For a moment, he imagined those legs over his shoulders and his cock in Grayson’s tight back passage. Then he’d turn his head and kiss that sleek calf and let his fangs sink into the tender skin. His mouth flooded with saliva and his fangs ached.

What were they going to do in Grayson’s rooms?

What did he want to happen? The raw scent of arousal that arose from Grayson every time he came near told him that the young man found him attractive, if nothing else. Every Vampire had the ability to Seduce. It was like a low level Eyros power, but far more unconscious than that.

How many times had he seen a human’s eyes go glassy with desire and their body go slack with invitation? Offering every single part of themselves to him? To accomplish this was as easy as breathing for a Vampire. Balthazar had written--likely on page 103--of the manual that the Vampires were to keep that part of themselves in check with the students. At least for the first semester. But that, he knew, would likely just make the Vampires--and the humans--all the more keen for one another. It was likely going to backfire in Ryder’s opinion if Balthazar intended the students to think that Vampires were tame.

But Grayson was not a student.

He was only pretending to be one. And Ryder wasn’t interested in Courting. Wasn’t supposed to be. This would just be a passing fancy for both of them. If they did anything at all.

At that moment, Grayson unlocked the door to his rooms. He paused in the doorway before half turning around and leaning against the doorframe. Grayson’s long legs crossed at the ankles and a faint, almost challenging smile appeared on his lips. Ryder’s cock pulsed in his pants, which already felt way too tight.

If we do anything at all? Who am I kidding?

“I don’t know if it’s true, but Christian and Julian told me that all Vampires have to be invited inside our rooms. So… I’m inviting you, Ryder,” Grayson said, his cheeks pink, as he swept his hand towards the interior.

“I heard that, too. But I believe it’s just a myth. Something to make the students feel safer,” Ryder said.

“When they’re not really safe?” Grayson’s expression was neutral and Ryder wondered what he was thinking.

Ryder wanted to assure the young man that he was safe, at least. But that wasn’t true. Lawson had attacked him. Every Immortal in existence seemed to be paying Grayson too much attention. And Ryder was just dying to taste his blood and feel the hot tightness of Grayson’s body wrap around his cock. Grayson was not safe at all.

“They’re here to offer themselves to us,” Ryder finally answered. “They are not safe.”

Grayson nodded slowly after a time. “The parade showed me that. At first, the powers just seemed neat, but then it changed. You really got to feel how powerful you guys are.”

“We showed only a fraction of how powerful we can be.” Ryder grimaced. “We’re not tame, Grayson. We’re not pets. We’re not safe.”

Another nod and then Grayson said, “Luckily, I’m not either. Come on in.”

Grayson swept a hand inside and Ryder inclined his head before he stepped in. He was surprised when his skin tingled as he walked through the threshold. He rolled his shoulders back to try and shake off the sensation, but it lingered longer than he would have liked. Balthazar and Caemorn really had managed to do something here. That was one smart thing, one nod to the Vampire’s true nature in this fun house mirrors school.

“You okay?” Grayson asked as he shut the door behind them.

“There really was some kind of magic,” Ryder said. “See?”

He held up his arm and the hair was standing on end. Grayson ran his hand over the lifted hair. Ryder shivered, but for a different reason. Grayson didn’t seem to notice his hooded eyes though or the way his breath caught. He wasn’t smelling any arousal from the young man either. Had he completely misread Grayson’s attraction to him? Perhaps the arousal hadn’t been for him at all but one of the other Vampires.

Like Caemorn! No… no!

Ryder twisted his neck from one side to the other as his body tensed up like it did before he shifted and fought. But there was no enemy here. Not one he could fight. If Grayson was attracted to Caemorn then…

Is that the real reason he asked Grayson to the “interview” tomorrow?

“What do you like to drink?” Grayson asked as he slid behind a bar and into the kitchen. “I wouldn’t mind softening the landing some more with booze.”

“Is that pool table standard issue?” Ryder asked as his gaze swept over the common room.

It was a comfortable space with intimate corners for speaking sweet nothings in the cusp of human ears, of letting hands linger for longer than they should and roving where they shouldn’t, and for lying down together with the crackle and pop of the fire to accompany moans of desire. His cock hardened more. He swallowed and turned back to Grayson.

Of course this place is to encourage intimacy. Everything about this school is to lure us and the humans together.

Grayson pulled out a dusty bottle of red wine from a wine rack that ran for seven-feet underneath the counter. He blew off the dust and ran his fingers over the fine embossed label. He showed it to Ryder.

“I have no idea if it is any good,” Grayson said.

“Ghost Horse Vineyard Spectre Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008 vintage. It’s about $3500 a bottle,” Ryder answered. “The 2013 vintage is better, but this will do.”

He took the bottle from Grayson’s suddenly slightly trembling hand. “W-what? Three-thousand--”

“Five-hundred, yes. I’ve seen it go for more, but not much less.”

Ryder uncorked the bottle with the wine key that had been left on the counter. He gestured for Grayson to get two of the delicate Reidel crystal balloon glasses that were hanging from the ceiling rack to Grayson’s left.

“Uhm, should we be opening that? I mean is it for some special occasion? Or maybe it just accidentally got placed here.” Grayson’s expression was a little tight as he did get the two glasses.

A brief look at the other bottles already confirmed what Ryder knew. “All of these bottles are in this price range or more. I’m not surprised that Balthazar or Caemorn or both of them are wine snobs.”

Grayson set the glasses down on the bar and Ryder poured into each a generous serving of the dark red wine. The scent of it reminded him for a moment of the old taverns along London’s wharf. He’d long ago lost his accent and adopted that of his new country. But he remembered the scurry of rats and the flicker of candles and the reek of red wine. It startled him to recall it so vividly. This wine was so much finer than any of the thin, vinegary stuff they drank because the water was vile and dangerous.

“But the money…” Grayson said and shook his head, breaking Ryder out of the memory. “That would be my rent for five months, but it’s not here. It’s just one bottle of wine that’s for anytime drinking.”

“Money is not a problem for Vampires.” Ryder pursed his lips as raucous tavern laughter flitted through his mind. That and the gaunt faces of young men with huge eyes but not enough food in their bellies and only themselves to sell to get those a few pence, if that. He swallowed and shook that memory away too. Why was he thinking of this now ? “Even if you took away that we are immortal and have the time to earn money, an Eyros can read your mind and--”

“Know your pin number?” Grayson’s eyebrows rose and his lips twitched.

“Among other things.”

Ryder pushed the one glass of wine to Grayson while he swirled his own to let more air enter the liquid, allowing it to breathe. A wine like this should really be decanted after having sat upright for a few days, but a sniff of the rich aroma told him that it was wonderful just like it was. He took a sip and swished the wine in his mouth much like he had in the glass before swallowing. It tasted of the earth the vines were planted in and the sunshine that had caused the grapes to grow. The wine in the taverns had always tasted of mud and never the sun as if they had grown in shadow.

That is not now...

“And I’m betting if you’re a Mirryr then stealing someone’s identity really takes on a whole new meaning?” Grayson asked as he, too, sipped the wine. His eyes widened and he took a larger sip. “Okay, I thought the it-costs-more-so-it’s-better was bullshit, but this … God, this! ” He held up the wine and took another big sip.

“Only sometimes is that true. But not all of the time. Not this time,” Ryder told him.

He savored the wine and tried to wash away the faint acrid taste in his mouth from the memories. Grayson was not like those boys. He wiped the floor with Lawson. He had wounded eyes, but he was not a victim.

“The Helm could get into any museum or vault or private collection,” Grayson guessed as he listed off some of the Vampires’ abilities, but really they didn’t need to use them to get money.

Ryder chuckled softly. “Yes, exactly. But humans aren’t exactly… Well, they don’t resist us very hard. If we want something, a human will give it or we just take it.”

“Take what you want? Or we just give it to you, huh?” Grayson tapped the top of the glass against his chin.

“So money is no problem.” Ryder shrugged.

The Vampires would never be the boys with hungry eyes. Well, hunger would be there. But they’d only appear innocent and needy. Until they dragged the unwary into a dark alleyway and drained them dry.

“Or anything else you want?” Grayson lifted an eyebrow. There was faint color in his cheeks and the scent of arousal flooded the air.

Ryder put his glass down. “Yes, Grayson. We are what you think we are.”

“Predators.” A statement, not a question.

“Predators. You saw some of that tonight up close and personal.” Ryder pursed his lips and stared down at the wine with distaste.

What had he come up here for exactly? To keep Grayson safe? To simply be near him? To assure himself that Lawson couldn’t creep in here and hurt this young man who he couldn’t stop thinking about?

And why is Lawson interested in him at all? Because I am. That’s the only reason. By staying here aren’t I putting Grayson in greater danger?

He thought of the looks from the other Weryn. They were not blind nor deaf nor dumb. They had all recognized that he was drawn to Grayson. They didn’t know that Grayson wasn’t a student. If that even mattered. It had caused him to come to near blows with Lawson. Demos would explain to them… what? What could Demos say? That while they weren’t going to take fledglings from this class that he was going to lead one of the students on? Was that honorable? The Weryn had to walk a very narrow line where they respected King Daemon’s activities at the school, but refused to participate. But being here with Grayson was making that much more difficult.

Grayson regarded him out of those luminous eyes. “You’re not all like Lawson.”

Ryder grimaced and was the first to look away. “No. I want to say no. But more are like him than--”

“Like you or Demos?” Grayson finished for him. He shook himself and took another sip. “Just because you’re strong enough to do a thing doesn’t mean you will. I can’t believe I’m saying that.”

Grayson was now looking down into his wine and glaring at it as if the wine had said something it shouldn’t.

“You don’t believe that? Because it sounds like you do,” Ryder suggested.

“I don’t. I… I do. I don’t know!” Grayson shook his head. “I didn’t grow up on the streets. I was… I don’t want to say normal because normal doesn’t really exist. But I had a good life. I was really safe until my powers kicked in. Though maybe that’s not really true. I don’t know.”

“It’s all right not to know. New information can change one’s mind.”

“That’s just it! I was trusting and wanted to believe in people for a long time. But most people cannot be trusted.” Grayson bared his teeth for a second. “Sam tried to help, but he was drunk most of the time and that made him as much a potential victim as I was.”

“But you had your powers,” Ryder pointed out softly.

He poured more wine in their glasses. Grayson took an angry swallow, but his expression relaxed for a moment as the wine did taste remarkably good.

“I did, but, in the beginning, I couldn’t control them.” Grayson’s hand fisted around the delicate glass balloon. But he relaxed his grip before the glass shattered. “Bad things happened because of it.”

“I can imagine.”

And Ryder could. A telekinetic push could send a human flying into a wall, break their back, shatter their skulls, end their lives. And if Grayson’s powers were like any of theirs, when he was angry or upset or afraid the stronger the powers were, but the less in control they were.

“I actually believe that.” Grayson let out a breath.

“When we’re in our animal form, the urge to hunt--to hurt --that’s always there as a Vampire is so much more. We become more basic in our needs and our control,” Ryder explained.

“Yeah?” Grayson studied his face.

“I’ve hurt people, too. People I didn’t intend to,” Ryder said.

And then he remembered why the tavern came into his head. The boy he’d taken into the alleyway. It had been a pathetic trap by the boy’s pimp. Get him alone with his trousers down, rob him, and likely beat him to death. But he hadn’t been their prey. They had been his .

Killing them had not been necessary. A wiser course would have been to knock their heads together and take the pimp’s coin. Tell the boy to run and never come back. But Ryder had been new and eager and angry. So he’d shifted.

And he’d attacked.

He barely remembered that other than the screams and the hot taste of blood on his tongue. He remembered it because that was the last time he’d lost control. But with Grayson, he felt that hot, eager desire of the Vampire within. Not to hurt. Not that. Not exactly. But he couldn’t explain it.

Why am I here? To keep Grayson safe or simply near me?

“Yeah, I did that and hurt others I did intend to. But then I had to be careful that people didn’t see what I’d really done or understand it really,” Grayson explained. “I just wanted them to be, not afraid of me, but wary. I wanted everyone to stay away.”

“If someone imaginative had discovered your gift they would have wanted to use it for their own ends,” Ryder said more to himself than Grayson.

“There were a few times when someone nearly did. That’s why I got out. There was no future on the streets. I had to claw my way out.” Grayson’s hand curled tightly around the glass again. “I thought that my life was okay. Better than before anyways. But…”

“But?”

Grayson was quiet for long moments. “I’m jealous of what you have.”

“What?”

“You can use your powers and people clap.” Grayson gave him a rather tremulous smile. “Lawson is a pig.” Ryder grimaced at that. “But Demos is pretty damn cool. And though I know you don’t like them yet, I think Caemorn and Balthazar and Seeyr and all of them are interesting . I can’t feel like a freak with you guys really. I mean I’m the most normal of all of you.”

Ryder laughed. “Point taken! Yes, you fit in here very well.”

Grayson’s smile though was fragile. “Yeah, I haven’t felt that in a really long time. The last time I did was when I really didn’t know what it was like to be other .”

“You’re not other here,” Ryder said firmly.

“No, no, I’m not!” Grayson’s laughter was relieved and shocked sounding. “No, I’m totally not. And it’s amazing. But I don’t trust it. I’m terrified of this. Of this belonging, of this possibility of not living in fear all the time…”

Ryder saw Grayson’s shoulders lift and relax. Grayson had learned hard lessons from those on the street that were desperate or just cruel. He was seeing a way to let down his guard a little bit. To feel a part of something.

I shouldn’t have come up. I should have just walked him to the door.

Ryder glanced back up. Grayson was smiling faintly again. “I don’t intend to hurt you, Grayson.”

“But you might?” Grayson’s eyebrows lifted again.

“No. No, I won’t.” Ryder shook his head. He most definitely would not. He truly was here to keep Grayson safe. Yet he was also seeing that being alone with him, drinking wine, had nothing to do with that. “But I was not as clear with myself about my intentions for coming up here. Now that I do, in fact, know that the dorms are spelled against Vampires, the smart thing to do would be for me to return to the Weryn and ensure that Lawson leaves tomorrow.”

“Yeah, yeah, I could see that. That would be smart. And I should get some sleep because today--is it still today?--has been incredibly long,” Grayson agreed with him.

Ryder’s shoulders slumped. “Yes, that would be best.”

“Except that I didn’t ask you up here only to have you leave,” Grayson said. “And I’m really, really not ready to just let go of you.”

Ryder’s gaze swung up to Grayson’s beautiful face, confused. “What are you saying?”

“I asked you up here because I can’t stop imagining what it would be like to kiss you,” Grayson said and swallowed.

“Kiss me?” Ryder’s eyes hooded.

“Yeah, kiss you. And I can picture how it would be to have you curled around me when I sleep.” Grayson smiled.

Ryder could picture that, too. The warmth of Grayson’s naked body pressed against his own. The smell of his blood and cum and sweat and… Ryder’s cock ached as much as his fangs.

“I wonder what it would be like not to have to hold back with someone. So if you wake up and I’m floating… Well, no big deal, right?” Grayson said with a twist of a grin. “I sort of thought you wanted that too. Maybe not the floating part.”

Ryder blinked slowly. “So you brought me up here to--”

“Ravish you. Yep, that’s about it,” Grayson told him and took another swallow of wine. “Even though it’s a bad idea. Every instinct I have is telling me I should find an anonymous stranger to fuck and burn it out of my system--”

“Who?!” That came out almost like a snarl. Ryder had a feeling his eyes were glowing and his fangs were out. “Caemorn?!”

Grayson though did not look alarmed, but instead blinked. “Caemorn? Kaly? Uhm, he’s handsome, for sure.”

“You want him?” Ryder was suddenly pressed up against Grayson’s front as if to physically speak to him that he wanted no one else. Certainly not Kaly!

Grayson’s mouth quirked into a real smile. “No. He’s not my type. You’re my type. But I…”

“But what?” Ryder’s voice was softer now. There was not a threat from another.

“But I like you.”

It was Ryder’s turn to blink. “And this is a problem?”

“I don’t know. This place makes me want to take risks. Just let it all hang out and not care what the consequences are,” Grayson admitted. “I’ve never just let go. I’ve never wanted to.”

Ryder feathered one hand through Grayson’s hair. “If you wish me to go, all you need to do is say it. I will go.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” Grayson said as he reached up and curled an arm around Ryder. “I’m afraid of… well, it doesn’t matter, because I want this more. So much more.” But then Grayson finished his glass and grabbed the neck of the bottle. “But if you must go off and be all noble and deal with your Vampire politics, I understand. I will go finish this bottle of wine and jerk off in the--”

Grayson did not get to finish that sentence. Ryder had swooped in and covered that mouth with his own. The kiss was deep and wine-soaked. He chased the taste of the Spectre along Grayson’s palate. The wine had never tasted so good.

His fangs were fully out when he broke away. Grayson was breathing hard. The whoosh and shush of his blood and the hammering of his heart was in Ryder’s ears. He felt it thundering in his own chest. Echoing.

“It is actually very dangerous to sleep with a Vampire. We feed even when we’re unconscious if we have a partner nearby,” Ryder whispered, his forehead pressed against Grayson’s.

“Oh.”

Ryder grinned. “I’ll just have to stay awake.”

“Or you can sleep and feed from me. If you like.” Grayson returned that grin.

Ryder shivered. “Dangerous.”

“All of this is.”

He looped an arm around Grayson’s waist and the two of them headed towards Grayson’s bedroom.