Chapter 5
Dagon
“It’s frustrating as fuck,” I say.
“It’s only been a week,” Talon chides me as we walk along the edge of the beach.
Saint grunts in what I assume is agreement. His eyes flit ahead to where Aurora and Annika are about a half-mile in front of us, drinking in the moonlight.
“I know,” I grumble. I’m irritable. Tonight’s venture over to the island next door wasn’t as replenishing as I would’ve liked.
I couldn’t find one volunteer feeder I wanted to drink from, something about each of them smelling off.
Maybe the humans were sick and they didn’t know.
Saint struggled too, and we both ended up shooting the canned shit just to make ends meet.
“Still,” I continue. “She has a wealth of power inside her. I know it. I can sense it. But it’s like there’s this massive block in the way of setting it free. ”
“You didn’t immediately understand your power,” Talon says, shaking his head. “It took practice.”
Lots of practice. It doesn’t matter that it was centuries ago. I remember the training period of my existence well. “I’m aware of that,” I say. “But water is the easiest.” I motion an arm toward the midnight ocean churning onto the beach where we walk. “It’s readily available,” I continue.
Even now, without trying, I can feel the ebb and flow of the waves, the subtle, constant movement. It’s like knowing when someone else is in the room with me. The feeling is hard to describe and apparently, even harder to tap into.
Annika’s laughter from ahead of us pricks my ears to attention. The girls glance back at us before quickly looking ahead again.
“What are they talking about?” I ask at the same time Saint says, “Did Aurora just laugh?”
“None of us know,” Talon answers me first. “Because we’re all being gentlemen and not eavesdropping, correct?” He cocks a brow to Saint.
“Correct,” he answers, but I have to wonder if he’s listening in.
The temptation is real. I know the girls need space to breathe, but damn, when Annika laughs like that, I can’t help but want to know what caused it so I can reproduce it in the future.
Fuck. I shouldn’t want to make her laugh. I’m her teacher. A source of information. Nothing more.
It didn’t feel that way last week at the waterfall. Not when I’d gotten close enough to catch her scent—an intoxicating combination of cinnamon and salt and something warmer. It haunts me. That and her laugh. And her eyes. Her lips.
Fucking hell. The female is under my skin. I think it has more to do with her attitude than her looks, but she is the most stunning creature I’ve ever laid eyes on. And after having centuries to look, that’s saying something.
“Aurora has walls up too,” Saint says, pausing on the beach as the girls do the same up ahead.
“Aren’t you responsible for a lot of those walls?” Talon asks. “In a good way?” he hurries to add.
Saint slides his hands in his pockets, tearing his gaze from Aurora to the water stretching out before us. He shrugs. “Some. Some she built on her own, whether intentional or not. It’s a protective instinct. Annika could be doing the same thing.”
“You think Annika is afraid of something?” I ask.
Another shrug. “Our powers are tied to our emotions.”
“I’ve been telling her that,” I say.
“Maybe she’s afraid of one in particular,” he presses. “Whatever it is, and the fear around it, could be what’s holding her back.”
I furrow my brow, nodding. “I know you’re right, but it’s hard to picture her scared of her own power. Especially when she seems desperate to control it, to be an asset to her family.”
“Maybe it’s not the power she’s afraid of,” Talon says. “What happened when she turned her chamber into a frozen wasteland? What triggered that response?”
I swallow hard, the memory of finding her stark naked, ice crystalizing over everything, crashing back into me. “She was bathing.”
Both Saint’s and Talon’s eyebrows raise.
“Seriously?” Talon asks.
I nod.
“There’s likely only two things she could’ve been feeling in that bath,” Talon presses.
My skin grows tighter at the thought.
“Anxiety,” Saint offers. “Baths help regulate emotion, promote relaxation.”
“Or,” Talon says, eying me. “She was—”
“Maybe she was just getting clean,” I cut over him.
Talon laughs.
“What?” I snap. “Maybe she was.”
“And magically the bathing chamber froze over?” Even Saint sounds like he doesn’t buy it. “Does she have panic attacks?”
“Not that I’ve seen,” I answer with a sigh.
“Sometimes when Aurora has one, her power unleashes like an explosion.” A muscle in Saint’s jaw ticks. “I can feel it when it happens.”
“I don’t think Annika was having a panic attack in the tub,” Talon says. “But, I don’t know her that well. You’re the teacher. You spend the most amount of time with her.” He nudges me, and we start walking again because the girls have resumed their stroll up ahead. “You figure it out.”
“I’m trying,” I say, but now I’m the one who’s terrified.
I’ve been tiptoeing around what exactly she was feeling when she froze her bath over for the last week and every time I get close, the tension stretches so tight between us I could snap at any moment.
Anger is one of her triggers for sure, I’ve played with that enough. But there’s no control or sense in it.
If I want her to succeed and end these lessons, I’ve got to dig deeper.
But I’m afraid of what I’ll find.
Because the closer I get to her, the more I’m learning how much I like what I see.
This female is going to kill me.
Literally. I might die right here next to this waterfall. She looks that fucking good.
Annika has stripped out of her hiking clothes, and now nothing but a royal blue bikini covers her supple breasts and the perfect globes of her ass as she steps into the water.
Thank fuck I’m already in or she’d see right through my swim trunks and realize how much of an effect she has on me. I’m rock hard, my fangs threatening to punch out.
I close my eyes for a second, sinking deeper into the night-cool water to shock some fucking sense into me. She’s my student. My student—
Oh, fuck it. I’m attracted to her. So what? What living, breathing creature on this planet wouldn’t be? She’s impeccable—brilliant mind, fantastic body, and a spicy-sweet attitude that is apparently my weakness.
This isn’t a real classroom, so there are no lines to cross. Not that I’m thinking about crossing lines.
“Again,” I say after she’s tried and failed to raise the water between us. “Focus.”
“I am focusing,” she says, doing everything but smacking the water.
I bite back a laugh. “You’re doing fine—”
“Don’t you dare patronize me, Dagon,” she cuts me off.
Heat blazes down my spine at the way she says my name. Fuck, I like the way her tongue curls around it. I’d like that tongue in my mouth even more.
Apparently, admitting I’m attracted to her has opened the floodgates for fantasies now. Perfect.
“I’m not patronizing you, Annika,” I say her name with equal intensity. She trembles in the water, and I tilt my head. “Are you cold?”
She had ice all over her body last week and didn’t shiver as much.
“No,” she snaps. “I’m…”
I step closer. “You’re what?”
She huffs a breath. “I’m hopeless.” Her shoulders sink, eyes dropping. “Maybe I’m a lost cause. Maybe I really am wasting your time. Everyone’s time.”
“Maybe you don’t trust me.” I arch a brow.
Her eyes meet mine. “What?”
I shrug. “I get it,” I say. “If you don’t. I haven’t given you many reasons to.”
“What does trusting you have to do with anything?”
“It has to do with everything,” I say, stopping when I’m an arm’s length away from her.
“Trust is crucial between us if you want total freedom to learn to control your powers. Not trusting me could be putting up a mental block without you even realizing it.” I shake my head.
“All week I’ve been trying to get clear on the emotion behind your most explosive use of power, and every time you’ve shut me out about it.
You’ve been vague, timid. Almost like you’re afraid to admit what you were feeling when it happened. ”
She visibly swallows.
“And that’s understandable,” I say. “Especially if you don’t trust me with the information.”
“I trust you.”
I don’t know why, but her words hit me in the center of my chest, a burst of warmth and pride that makes me stand taller.
“You trust me?” I ask.
“Yes. You can be dick sometimes,” she says, a small smile on her lips.
“But you’re…you. I’ve seen the way you protect the family.
Seen the pain you feel when any one of them is hurting, like it’s your own.
I see the way you agonize over Samuel, and the way you worry over Saint.
I’ve seen your patience with the king and the priorities he decides are worth your time or not.
You’re one of the most trustworthy vampires I’ve ever met. ”
I can’t stop the smile spreading over my lips. Why does it feel like she just handed over a key to something precious? Something vital?
“But…”
That word turns that sensation to dust. “But what?”
“It’s…embarrassing.”
“What is?”
“What I was thinking about before I froze everything over.” A flush dusts her cheeks.
I think back to my conversation with Talon and Saint on the beach. Of what Talon alluded to what she’d been doing in the bathtub…
I clear my throat. “I promise you,” I say. “Nothing you tell me will be embarrassing.”
She huffs. “Not everyone is as unflinchingly confident as you.”
“You should be,” I say before I can stop myself.
She holds my gaze, her features shaped with disbelief.
“What?” I ask. “You should be. You’re…stunning.
Brilliant. Full of fire. Nothing should be an embarrassment to you.
Struggling with your power in the beginning is normal.
It exploding at emotionally heightened times is normal.
Saint told me it happens to Aurora during…
” I stop myself, suddenly realizing I might be sharing secrets I shouldn’t.