Chapter 11
I raged down the halls before Dante growled and shoved me behind him, yanking me down a path I’d missed. “You’re going the wrong way.”
I would have figured it out eventually, especially if I had been able to do my superwoman-seeing-through-walls trick, but I was far too pissed off to concentrate on my new powers to make them functional.
Following him without saying a word, I quietly stewed in my anger. Shortly after we had left I felt that cold pit in my stomach return ten-fold and I dumbly realized that he had a protection spell on his room. It only pissed me off more that Dante had taken me there to interrogate me.
Why did it feel like all of my Virtues were making my life miserable?
They were supposed to be there for me, enable me to reach my ultimate potential and save the world, but I felt like the universe had gotten it wrong this time.
Maybe it was screwed up by the Echoes of Calamity that had already passed that it wasn’t thinking straight when it had picked its Virtues for me.
“This is a mistake,” I growled out as Dante shoved me into a cold chamber.
“Now you say that?” He held the door open. “We can still turn back.”
“No, not this,” I said, pulling my shirt over my nose to mask the smell of rot and mold. “Thinking that you were actually trying to help me. That just because you’re one of my Virtues that I can trust you.”
He went still, but didn’t deny that he knew what I was talking about. Kaito would have informed him, I was sure of it. “Now is not the time or the place to talk about this,” he said. “If you want to go back to my room we can—”
“No,” I spat. “If you can’t talk to me without magical wards then we’re not having this conversation at all.”
“That’s not—”
His protest was cut off by a sickly wheeze that caught my attention. It was dark in here and my eyes automatically adjusted. Within seconds I could easily make out the walls of individual cages. Bodies slumped in them, unconscious with tubes lined up along the walls.
Sedatives.
Jess was the only one fighting. She had her human appearance again, but it had mingled with her demonspawn body.
Long, ribbed horns protruded from her head and her hair had darkened.
Black claws extended from her fingertips from one hand as she picked at the tube attached to her arm.
I stuffed my hands into my pockets as I approached.
“Damn it all,” she hissed. “All the shit I go through and I’m bested by a piece of fucking tape?”
I giggled and the sound made her shoot her gaze up to me. I was taken aback for a moment by the dark irises that overtook the whites of her eyes, but then I relaxed when I still spotted my friend beneath the demonic exterior. “Hey, Jess.”
A glimmer of hope lit her eyes, then glazed over with anger.
She staggered to the bars and pressed her face against them as she showed me her elongated teeth.
“Well, look who’s come to collect.” She tilted her head, the jerky movement reminding me she wasn’t human.
“Did you send your Hunter boyfriend to kidnap me?” Her gaze shifted to him in the darkness.
“What was the payment? Did she finally put out or something?”
I smacked the bars, making her jump away as she hissed. “Enough!” Glancing back at the Hunter, I unclenched my fist. “I think it’s better if you leave, Dante.”
He moved to my side, radiating heat that contrasted against the cool darkness pooling inside of me.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” I itched to run my icy fingers over his skin and leech his warmth, but I knew what that feeling meant now.
I was part succubus, which meant I fed on men through touch.
Leaving the campus made it all come rushing back, and without Kaito’s binds I was having a hard time resisting the call of my hunger.
“If you stay here, I’m going to feed on you,” I answered honestly.
He was quiet for a long moment, then finally conceded with a grunt. “I’ll be right outside. If I hear anything, I’m coming in.”
Jess chuckled after he’d left. “You really have him on a leash, don’t you?” She scratched at the tape again as she forced her heavy eyelids open. I wondered how much sedative she was hooked up to, and if I should be worried or impressed how hard she fought it.
“I can help with that,” I offered as I reached through the bars. “Come here.”
She smirked at me. “You’re either very brave, or very stupid. You know I could chomp your hand off, right?” She playfully snapped her shark-like teeth at me.
I opened and closed my hand in invitation. “Whatever, Jess. If you want to bite my hand off, go for it, but then you’ll need to remove that IV yourself and you don’t seem to be doing a great job of it.” I grinned. “Plus, Dante will probably kill you, so there’s that too.”
She sighed before complying. Inching closer to me, she offered the bruised wrist. There was no denying I was part demonspawn when I saw familiar black skin scab over into dangerous claws.
She and I had more in common than I was willing to admit.
Clearing my throat, I worked at the tape.
She hissed as I ripped it off. “Bitch,” she grumbled as she scurried back into the corner and cradled her arm.
“I could have left it on,” I replied.
“Not that, you dumb blonde. You’re the reason I’m in here!”
“I’m not,” I said flatly, then crouched and swiped away dirt from the floor before sitting down. “At least, I’m not the one who ordered Dante to kidnap you. Would you care to tell me how that went down?”
She studied me for a long time with those dark, eerie eyes before replying. “You’re telling the truth.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, duh. The Hunter kidnapped me just as much as he kidnapped you,” I said, the realization hitting me. I looked around at the cages. “He just has a different use for me, and if I fail, I’m going to wind up here.”
It hurt to say it out loud, but I couldn’t deny it.
He might be one of my Virtues, but I had no doubt that Dante, Kaito, and all of my other Virtues had agendas of their own that didn’t have my best interests in mind.
I fisted my skirt and stuck the other hand into my pocket, finding the badge I’d ripped off.
I took it out and toyed with it over my fingers. “Do you know what Dante wants from me?”
She studied me for a long time before replying. “You’re special, Lils. I was supposed to recruit you to Monster Academy, but the Hunter got to you first. I imagine he wants what any Hunter wants—to sell you to the highest bidder.”
“And why does Monster Academy want me?”
She chuckled. “You really don’t know, do you?”
I slammed my palm against the bars, making them rattle. “No! I don’t know anything and if someone doesn’t start giving me answers, I’m going to bust a bitch.”
She burst out laughing, the sound so genuine that I almost forgot she had horns.
“Wow. I really had you all wrong.” She crossed her arms and settled herself against the wall.
“You’re special, Lily. Part succubus, part demonspawn.
” She tapped her horns. “You’re a special demonspawn, though.
Since you have a hybrid heritage, you have a mortal body.
Me? I have to make do with a human sleeve.
” She scratched at the place where her horns protruded from her hairline.
“After that Hunter friend of yours ruined my last one, I can’t quite get it on all the way. ”
Ew. I didn’t ask what she meant by a “human sleeve” because that sounded self-explanatory, but that also sounded disgusting.
I narrowed my eyes. “Why use a sleeve at all?”
She shrugged. “At first it was part of the job. I not only had to look human, but I had to be a supernatural that wouldn’t send you off screaming.
Cindy thought that if I impersonated a succubus—with a little magical help, of course—and eventually revealed my demonspawn likeness to you that you’d be able to unlock those powers.
” She lifted her lip in a snarl. “But there’s another pesky little part of you that kept interfering.
It was what had wiped your memories and took a bunch of supernaturals down with you.
Every time Cindy tried to dose you with evil, you burned it right out. ”
I blinked a few times. “What do you mean?”
The side of her plump lips ticked up. “Remember those shots we’d sneak behind the bar? Well, yours were pure evil, a concoction from Hell itself. We were hoping it would Awaken you.”
“No,” I whispered, my voice going hoarse. “What did you mean that I took a bunch of supernaturals down with me?”
She laughed. “How do you think supernaturals have been losing their memories?”
“I thought it was because of the Echoes of Calamity.”
“Wrong,” she said in a singsong voice. “That was all you. You’re powerful, Lily. When the third part of you took over, it took away your demonspawn form, gave you a mortal’s body, took away your painful memories, and the shockwave rippled out through all the realms.”
I swallowed hard. “And the skull rune on Cindy’s door?”
“Meant to attract you. It worked, but it also attracted others you had impacted. We decided to use it to our advantage to recruit for Monster Academy on the down low.”
“I can’t believe it,” I murmured. All of this was my fault. I was the reason thousands of supernaturals didn’t know who they were, where they were from, or where they belonged.
I’d done this to them.
I almost didn’t feel bad for Jess poisoning me with evil, because I deserved it.
The booze that Jess had favored always did have a funny taste, but I’d liked it before the burn came.
I’d always taken that to mean it had high alcohol content.
A shiver ran up my spine. “I don’t know what the third part of me is,” I admitted, “but now I’m not sure I want to know.
” What if I had wiped out my memories for a reason?
Another thought rumbled through my body and made me tremble. What if Kaito knew I was the origin of the memory wipes? What if by binding me as his Virtue, he guaranteed that he could study me, all up close and personal.
Bastard.
Jess crawled closer to me and wrapped her clawed fingers around the bars. “You’re different now.” She sniffed the air. “I sense darkness within you.”
I nodded as I continued to stare at the torn badge in my hand.
“The Academy has been trying to Awaken me, too. They succeeded, to an extent.” I let my claws come out, shredding the icon.
It tore a little piece of my heart with it.
I had wanted the Academy to be my redemption.
Wanted to believe Kaito when he said that my Virtues would bring out the best in me.
Instead, it had just shown me where I really belong.
Jess gasped and delight lit her dark eyes. “So, when are we busting out of here?”
I told Jess everything. My debt to Hendrik. How I had bonded with Kaito and Orion. How I felt betrayed. How Kaito bound my succubus and demonspawn powers.
All of it.
She even apologized for trying to kill me and I believed her. When Dante had come to collect me, she really thought that I was going to embrace Fortune Academy’s rhetoric, resulting in the destruction of her and all the “monsters” that had come to Earth.
I was starting to see who the real monsters were.
She also explained that I had called a demonspawn to me in the panthers’ locker room out of instinct from feeling threatened.
That unnerved me and I didn’t want to accidentally call more demonspawn to my “aid.” The dumb thing had tried to attack me, or so it had seemed.
Maybe it was just trying to drag me down to Hell where it thought I might be safe.
Thanks, but no thanks.
“I’ll make a mental note not to ask the stone for help again,” I promised.
Her gaze lingered hungrily on the object of our discussion.
“I can’t believe a Dark Mage had one of those,” she admitted.
“It’s pretty rare, and only members of the royal bloodline can use it without severe consequences.
” She smirked. “Which means he either knows what you are, or he wants to find out.”
That didn’t surprise me. Hendrik no doubt suspected I wasn’t telling the full truth and he liked to play with his pets. He also didn’t seem the type to have any qualms about letting someone else suffer magical consequences.
As for others being able to use the Blood Stone, well, there went my plans on letting Olivia use it to restore her magic. I highly doubted she had any relation to a demonic royal bloodline.
But that left Hendrik. “Why would he want me to charge it, then?”
She grinned. “I like Dark Mages. They have no soul, so they have nothing left to lose. Consequences wouldn’t mean much to him.”
I hummed in response. “I guess so.” At least Hendrik was open about his agenda in using me. He’d never pretended otherwise.
The stone warmed my icy fingers as I turned it over in my grasp. “Do you think it’ll give us enough power to jump realms?” I had no desire to pawn more power off of Hendrik. I’d seen what it had cost Dante. Hendrik did not offer up his clan’s magic for free.
Jess hummed in thought as she tapped a claw against a plump lip.
I hadn’t noticed the tail until now as she quietly whipped it across the cell’s floor.
“It seems that Fortune Academy is close to Hell. I think getting back to Earth would be out of the question, but the stone could easily take us to the Hell realms.”
I went dizzy at that. Sure, maybe I was starting to embrace my dark side, but that didn’t mean I wanted to go to Hell.
“And why would we go there? I mean, I know Fortune Academy is full of two-faced assholes, but surely it’s better than Hell.
” If that was her idea of escape, then I’d rather just stay put.
She chuckled. “This would be so much easier if you remembered who you are. You have allies in Hell, Lily. You’re the first demonspawn in a long ass time to walk the earth as native-born. And your royal lineage? Don’t even get me started.”
My claws retracted so I could wring my hands.
Royal lineage.
Allies in Hell.
I really didn’t like where this was going.
“So, who are my parents?” I pressed, swallowing the lump in my throat.
She grinned. “Oh, sweetie. I’m not going to tell you. The look on your face when we get to Hell will be all the sweeter.”
Her gaze dipped to my Blood Stone and I realized I had been cupping it for strength. I let it fall to my chest. It pushed warmth into me, easing my hunger to a dull ache. “Fine. Then I need to finish charging it.”
Jess’s smiled dimmed as she slunk away from the bars. “Well you’re not charging it on me.”
I chuckled. “Don’t worry. I have plenty of other options.”
It was time to teach my Virtues a lesson.
Starting with Kaito.