Chapter 16
Sixteen
It has been almost two weeks since the last time I spoke to the bloodsucker. And in those two weeks she hasn’t looked at me once after the infirmary. I haven’t been much better, but she is purposefully keeping her attention away from me.
And right now all I want is for her attention to solely be on me.
An irrational thought. A remanent of the lust Castiel tries his best to hide from me for her.
But I made it worse when I told her to come.
Her scent was slightly sweeter when I had opened the door to what it normally is.
A scent I now know is because a devil had marked her when she was younger and his fangs were embedded with blue belladon.
It’s extraordinary how she’s semi-immune to it.
Thorne had also reiterated what Castiel had said about that night when she and him were cut with a blade embedded with the poison that kills all.
Castiel discreetly flaunted her bitemark on him all weekend.
He explained in full detail how her venom felt flowing through his blood.
Then his mood sobered after subbing for my class on Monday and Callahan had seemed more irritable than normal. Neither have told me what happened – if something did happen.
Thorne also let me know there’s a second bitemark near her collarbone. She didn’t say there was another last weekend to Thorne and Castiel, so it makes me wonder if there are more.
“It would just depend on the curse,” I continue. Trying my best to ignore her scent. “I would have to know what it is in order to know if I could counter it or not.”
Her scent changes. It dips more floral and I wonder if she knows most races can scent when someone is aroused.
It shouldn’t make me as prideful as it does because I shouldn’t be feeling anything towards her at all.
I believe I’ve kept my own scent hidden well enough.
I had to concentrate hard when I opened my door to sweet berry and florals.
Darian had already been halfway down the hall and I almost gave myself away when I looked at her.
I haven’t seen her in anything other than her uniform, and even that has made me take more cold showers than I have ever needed to before. But at least the blazer they all wear hides whatever shape she has. Right now in her fitted long sleeve and tight jeans I can see every curve.
But she shouldn’t scent me at all, so I wonder what made her jump back. And why is she asking about runic magic and curses. How does she even have any of this information?
“What curse are you trying to break?”
There’s no shift in her posture, expression, energy. It’s as if I simply asked what time it was instead of what is probably one of many secrets she’s keeping. From what I know she had been staying in a brothel in New York City of America with a bone witch of all races.
She shrugs a shoulder and still refuses to look at me.
“Mavyn.”
Her light pink eyes snap to me and her scent deepens like it did when I told her to come. I didn’t consciously intend for it to have a double meaning, but I’m also not entirely ashamed of it either.
I should be. And yet I can’t seem to care because her pupils expand and I can see her thighs clenching together.
Fuck I need to get my head on straight.
Expanding the shadows of my mind I find Castiel in his office next door.
Come here and make an excuse that you need me, I practically growl. Because her scent is consuming my office and my fangs are starting to ache wondering if she could taste as sweet as she smells and she looks –
Why, Castiel drawls with a deep chuckle in my mind, do you feel so sexually frustrated?
Now. Cas –
There’s a knock on the door that makes her jump. Breaking eye contact with me she turns towards the door and subconsciously takes another step towards it.
He chuckles again in my mind as I march over and nearly wretch the door off its hinges. With the full force of scenting her now though, his eyes widen a fraction and his pupils blow wide.
Oh.
“What can I help you with, Professor D’etre?” I ask cordially. My words completely at odds with my actions and my energy that’s about to spill over.
He glances behind me and clears his throat. Parting his mouth a crack, he switches to breathing through it instead of his nose. It doesn’t help much, but it’s better than nothing.
What the fuck were you doing? he says in my mind, his voice edging a bit darker than before, before saying calmly out loud, “I need some help finishing some paper work for the new trainees in our external controlling class. It needs to be finished by tonight. . . if you aren’t busy.”
“He’s not,” the bloodsucker announces. Her voice clipped and neutral. “My question was answered, I’ll be leaving now.”
I glance back at her and she looks as composed as she did when I opened my door. Her pupils no longer dilated, her body relaxed, her face expressionless. The only outlier is her scent which has somehow gotten even sweeter.
“I actually need to leave anyway, I have a paper I need to finish,” she adds. Taking a step towards the door and looking at me expectantly.
Why is her scent now stronger?
“You didn’t answer my question.”
Her jaw clenches and I can feel Castiel staring at me.
What question? he asks within my mind. I thought you wanted an excuse to leave.
“It was a hypothetical,” she answers dryly. “There are runes all over the school and I was curious. I know they’re powerful, and I thought maybe there was a way to reverse my curse.”
I can feel Castiel’s shock along with mine. She’s cursed?
She raises a brow. “You know. . . isn’t being turned into a vampire a curse?”
Oh.
Oh.
“I thought maybe there was a rune that could undo this. Maybe then the Mage Board would let me just leave since I’m not a vampire and would solve everyone’s problems.”
Castiel leans against the doorframe and crosses his arms. He’s more or less in the same outfit as me, though his skin is lined with his golden markings.
“Unfortunately, turning into a vampire isn’t a runic curse,” he adds.
To which she makes a face at him but doesn’t say anything.
She made the same face when her roommate said the first mentions of Syngenia was the first land of magic.
And again when I was teaching who had first created the university.
It’s her tell when she disagrees with you. And since she stated that Syngenia was first known as the name of the first blood witch, I’m going to assume she not only disagrees with you, but knows for a fact you’re wrong.
She shrugs and then shifts on her feet. “Well, either way I have my answer. I need to go now.”
She takes another step though neither myself nor Castiel move. Her light colored eyes flick between us and breathing through my mouth is no longer helping because I can almost taste that sweet berry and floral scent.
“Why do you smell so sweet, poison flower,” Castiel murmurs and her eyes widen a fraction at it. I can feel his lust and hear his whispering thoughts about what he wants to do to her.
“I need to go,” she repeats. Teeth gritted and now her hands are fisted where they’re crossed over her abdomen.
Castiel hums. “So you would taste as sweet as you smell. Tell me, poison flower, where are you bleeding from?”
Like a piece clicking into place, my mind makes the connection.
She has poison trapped within the scar tissue but it’s not stuck there. That’s why she needs food and sleep and why she’s semi-immune. The poison has been seeping into her blood so like with any other being, when their blood is exposed it heightens their scent.
Which means this entire time she’s been bleeding.
My muscles tighten as I glare at her. “Where the fuck are you bleeding from?”
Was it Darian? Did he do something to her? Or did someone else try to do something before she got here?
She glares right back at us. “May I go?” she growls. Like a little kitten.
“No,” Castiel says the same time as I do. Repeating what he said, Castiel asks, “Where are you bleeding from?”
Her hands tighten around her middle area and Castiel jerks back at hearing my thought. A thought that couldn’t possibly be plausible, but I can feel his agreement anyway. Only it’s impossible. Vampires can’t menstruate.
Letting out a frustrated groan, she hunches an inch over as she winces. “Holy shit, unless you want a bunch of blood all over your fucking hard wood let. Me. Go.” Wincing again she breaths out, “Fucking cramps.”
Cementing what I thought.
Only it’s not possible.
Castiel shifts and says, “There’s a bathroom in my office.” Causing her to clench her jaw and straighten before marching straight towards the door. Sliding past me, uncaring that her entire front brushes along my side, and out the door.
I hear a heavy door open and then shut as I turn to face Castiel with a look of disbelief.
“How is that – “
Not out loud, I interrupt.
He nods and then blows out a breath. It can’t be possible, right? I mean, we both know how vampires are turned and what changes are made to their human bodies. The only reason they need to drink blood is because they’re dead and drinking blood is how their own cycles through their veins.
I know.
Could it be because of the poison? Or is the new generation of vampires evolving? She needs blood, that isn’t an act. And she burns in the sun.
I shake my head and drag my hand down my face. None of this makes sense.
Extending the shadows of my mind further I reach for Thorne. It takes a few seconds before he opens his mind to me.
I’m on call with my father, As –
She’s menstruating, Castiel blurts. I’d laugh at the bluntness but Thorne processes the words and his shock splinters through.
Inaudible whispers come from Thorne before he fully has a presence in my mind.
That’s impossible, he states. Like a fact. Because it is a fact and yet here she is.
Well clearly not, Castiel huffs. Varian opens the door and from her scent you would think something was happening but instead I realize she had to have been bleeding. Afterall, the poison is in her blood as well as her scars. It could have only been that strong if she was bleeding.
Castiel gives me a pointed look.
Though I’m sure other things influenced it.
I did not fuck her, I grumble as I glare at him.
But you thought about it.
And I roll my eyes at him as his office door opens again. The bloodsucker emerges and jolts when she sees us where we’ve been the whole time. A guarded expression contorts her face and her scent is now just barely sweeter than it normally is. Just a hint of berries and floral.
“Would you mind – “
“No,” she snaps, interrupting Castiel as she straightens her back and gives us both a deadened expression.
“I realize how much coming here was a mistake, so let me just make this clear. I am not a spy and I don’t give a single shit about why you thought I was one.
I am only here because it’s either this or death and unfortunately I do want to live a bit longer.
So I will keep any and all interactions strictly about classes.
You will do the same. I won’t go near your business, and you don’t go near mine. ”
So much power in her words yet not a single thread of power around her. She speaks as if she’s a celestial with power higher than all of us. As if she isn’t a vampire who was formerly a human.
“Do I make myself clear?”
Her voice shifts. The power in her words darkening. For some reason it sounds like a threat. Saying without saying all the things she could do if we don’t agree.
Who raised her after that devil to have given her so much confidence?
Castiel and Thorne both stay quiet, though I didn’t directly ask them that question. But I can feel Thorne thinking and I’m about to ask her when her energy shifts. Her soft pink eyes deepen a shade and for the first time I can feel a whisp of her aura.
And all I get from it is blackened rage.
Only a moment. A split millisecond I feel it before she goes back to feeling like nothing. Though her body relaxes with a predators calm as her eyes bore into mine.
Almost.
I almost submit before catching myself and I can feel Castiel and Thorne’s astonishment at that.
Only one person has ever been able to make me submit, has ever had the power to be more dominant than me, and they’ve been dead for nearly a hundred years.
Yet this little bloodsucker nearly did it with almost no aura and the smallest amount of magic a non-mortal could have.
Frustration flickers through my body as I shove Castiel and Thorne out of my mind. She’s a complexity I can’t figure out and secret after secret continues to reveal itself. I want to know every crevice of her mind and thoughts and past while also wanting to bend her over my –
No.
No. Fucking. Way.
Gritting my teeth, I glare like the devil the humans believe in. Yet she doesn’t back down and meets my eye without hesitation.
“We’ll keep our interaction limited.”
I spin to go back into my office and slam the door shut when her voice physically stills me.
“And stay out of my business.”
Like someone who knows they’ve already gotten what they want. Her tone oozes dark satisfaction and primal confidence. The fucking brat.
“Yes,” I growl, before promptly slamming my door shut to her.