Chapter 33 Raven
Raven
Anyone casually glancing my way would assume the incubus lounging in a chair next to me had fallen asleep. His feet rested on the desk, and he’d closed his eyes. But beneath my desk he stroked my thigh, his fingers dancing ever higher as Professor Dunton droned on.
“Stop it,” I hissed. Glynda gave me some side-eye before smirking when she realized who I was mad at.
Zane didn’t need to be here in Dunton’s class with me, but he’d insisted.
I couldn’t decide whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.
Good, because it stopped Demented, sorry, Demelza, from uttering disgusting slurs about me and my mates, but bad because I was having a really hard time concentrating on anything Dunton said.
“Focus, pet.” Zane smirked before his fingers danced higher and brushed between my thighs.
Professor Dunton scowled at us but kept his nasty mouth shut.
“Today we’re going to be talking about the Vampire Blood Wars of the 1800s. Does anyone know why they started?”
One of Demelza’s witch friends put her hand up. “Because a psychotic, blood-sucking vampire murdered a bunch of poor innocent witches?”
My hackles rose. Everyone assumed the vampires were the bad guys, but from my knowledge of historical events involving the covens, the most power-hungry witches were rarely innocent.
“A fair assessment, Miss Porter, but the story is more nuanced than a powerful magical going on a murder spree, similar to what happened in the Vanyx case.” Zane’s eyes snapped open.
“Are you hoping for a repeat performance, Professor?” Dunton paled but stood firm behind his desk. Like that would save him.
“I was merely drawing parallels between what happened in the 1800s and your father’s unfortunate lapse into madness. If you care to listen, you may learn something.” The odious mage sniffed and turned his attention to the rest of us.
Zane said nothing else, but coiled fury leaked down our bond, causing my magic to heat in my chest.
“Fucking asshole mage,” my incubus muttered while stabbing the desk with a small, curved knife.
“He’s trying to wind you up,” I whispered. “Ignore him.” I covered his hand with mine and squeezed. If Zane lost his shit, he’d be playing into Dunton’s hands, and we both knew it. This was partly why letting Zane sit with me in this class was a bad idea.
But the incubus did what he wanted.
“Returning to the topic, please open your textbooks and go to page one hundred and fifty-two.”
A black and white illustration of screaming witches greeted me. Lovely.
Kenji popped into sight with a sausage poking out of his mouth. Several witches jumped in surprise, and a wolf shifter bared his teeth at my familiar. Kenji took no notice as usual.
“I thought you were busy.”
“I’m free now. Figured I’d come and annoy you for a bit.”
He was joking, of course. My familiar loved me really. Or so I deluded myself daily.
“Disgusting creature,” a wolf shifter sneered over his shoulder. Zane caught the comment and grinned like a psychopath.
“I heard a guard spotted a demon in the forest last night,” he said. “Demons love wolves. Their bones make nice crunchy sounds.” The wolf shifter gulped and lowered his gaze before the stench of urine made my nose twitch.
Kenji shook himself. “Weak wolves.”
“Did you make that wolf pee himself?”
“Me? How rude.”
Zane snorted before repeating, “Crunchy bones.”
I didn’t dare ask how he knew wolf bones crunched.
“Mr. Blaze, remove yourself from this classroom immediately!” Dunton quivered with outrage as several witches complained about the smell of wolf shifter pee.
“Unless you have a verified medical problem that causes a weak bladder, urinating in my classroom is not allowed. Please report to my office at five p.m. for detention.”
The wolf tried in vain to complain, but Dunton sealed his mouth with a silencing spell and used wind magic to expel him from the classroom. I thanked my lucky stars when the mage followed this up with a cleaning spell.
“Now, where were we? Oh yes. The Blood Wars.” I gazed down at the image of screaming witches and prayed this story had a happy ending.
“We’re extremely lucky to have access to diaries written by members of the Du Boix Coven from New Orleans.
These contemporaneous accounts of the events that preceded the Blood Wars offer us a valuable insight into how vampires reacted to perceived threats against their power back in the day.
Sadly, any accounts written by the vampire clans remain lost to us because of the very sad demise of the entire vampire race. ”
Kenji snorted. “So this is a one-sided, and not at all biased, tale, then.” My familiar made a good point.
“Ramona Du Boix noted in a diary entry from August 1852 that her youngest sister, Ysabella Du Boix, barely eighteen years old, with her powers newly manifested, had been spotted in the company of Radimir Dvorak.” My pencil snapped in half at the mention of Rasmus’s family name.
“This should be interesting,” Zane commented, having given up pretending to nap.
“Did witches and vampires not mix back then?” Glynda asked, making me sit straighter in my chair, eager for Dunton’s reply.
“Not in a romantic sense, no.” Dunton ground his teeth.
“Witches back then, as now, place great importance on keeping their bloodlines pure. Contaminating a coven’s bloodline, which would happen if a witch mated with a lesser magical, was considered highly undesirable.
” He looked me in the eye as he said this. “Coven law forbade it.”
“Quite right,” Demelza agreed.
Zane snorted. “Doesn’t stop you boning shifters though, eh?”
A few wolves sniggered, but Demelza sniffed loudly and ignored Zane.
“Later diary entries reveal that Ysabella and Radimir had formed a romantic attachment. The vampire, who was Rasmus Dvorak’s younger brother and second in line to the vampire throne, was not much older than Ysabella, and from what we know of him, he lacked moral fiber and routinely seduced females—and males—of all species. ”
“So Ysabella got pumped and dumped?” Demelza’s friends all laughed at the mage’s gross comment. Even Dunton smiled for a microsecond before resuming his tale.
I ground my teeth while trying hard not to show any kind of reaction.
“The vampire king met with Ramona Du Boix one evening in late October. He claimed his son was Ysabella’s soul-bonded mate and they were destined to be together.”
A few witches oohed, probably caught up in the romance of a soul-bond, even though the lot of them disparaged my soul-bond connections on the regular.
“Did they live happily ever after, like in Twilight, sir?”
Kenji rolled his eyes.
“What part of Blood Wars don’t they understand? Stupid witches.”
“If you care to listen, I’ll tell you.” Dunton tapped a key on his laptop and an image of a very imposing vampire came to life on the whiteboard. The resemblance between this male and my mate was unmistakable.
“King Leo Dvorak was widely considered a rational male, but he didn’t take kindly to Ramona Du Boix’s insistence that his son’s relationship with her younger sister should not be allowed to continue.
The meeting between the coven and the vampires ended badly, with threats made on both sides.
Despite deteriorating relations between the coven and the clan, nothing happened for many more weeks. ”
Dunton tapped his keyboard again, and a new painting of a sobbing witch popped up.
“Ysabella Du Boix. One of our doomed lovers. The witch and her vampire lover continued meeting in secret, against her sister’s orders.
Things came to a head when Ramona discovered her poor, sweet, innocent sister was with child.
She accused the young vampire prince of taking advantage of her sister, a claim he denied. ”
I shivered, knowing in my bones where this story was going. Rasmus had told me vampires rarely produced offspring, so the royals must have thought a half-vampire baby was a goddess-granted blessing.
“Leo Dvorak entreated Ramona to let the couple wed, but the coven head was adamant their bloodline must be kept pure to ensure the magic flourished. Radimir tried to steal Ysabella away, but the witches were waiting for him. They captured and staked the young vampire and then locked Ysabella up.” I gasped in horror.
This was way worse than I expected, and from the look of revulsion on Glynda’s face, she agreed.
Demelza laughed. “Serves the bloodsucker right.”
Violence was not in my nature, but it took all my powers of self-control not to turn the bitch into a pile of smoldering rags like the sea witch.
“Calm down, my pet,” Zane whispered, squeezing my hand. “She’ll get what she deserves soon enough.”
I blinked away tears and sniffed. Maverick reached out to me down the bond, asking if I was alright, but fearing what he might do if I said no, I quickly reassured him I was fine.
“When the vampire king heard the witches had killed his son, he declared war on the covens, and this is how the Blood Wars began.” An animated image of people running from murderous vampires came to life on the whiteboard.
Gruesome depictions of vampires tearing witches apart with their bare hands, severed limbs, and more filled the board. It took a lot of effort not to vomit.
“Radimir’s older brother, Crown Prince Rasmus, hunted down every member of the Du Boix coven who’d been a part of his brother’s demise. He slew every sympathizer and many innocents too.” Dunton shuddered dramatically. “These were dark days indeed.”
“How do you know he murdered innocents?” I refused to sit here in silence while Dunton painted my mate as a psychotic mass-murderer.
“Because there are multiple accounts from the time describing scenes of mutilation, dismemberment, and worse.”
“All written by witches and mages.” Kenji huffed and resumed his personal grooming.
“What happened to Ysabella?” a shifter asked.
“Ramona’s diary entries stopped when she died at Rasmus Dvorak’s hands, so we don’t know Ysabella’s fate.
However, some accounts say she escaped and made a new life for herself in Europe.
Others claim she died, along with her baby, murdered by angry vampires out for revenge.
” That made no sense. Why would the vampires kill Ysabella when she’d done nothing wrong?
I scoffed loudly, much to Dunton’s irritation.
“Something to add, Miss Blackstone?”
“Only that I think it’s unlikely the vamps killed Ysabella when she was carrying a vampire-witch baby.”
“Hybrids were considered an abomination, Miss Blackstone, so it’s very likely Ysabella was killed.”
“Maybe she deserved to die for whoring herself out to a bloodsucker.” Demelza sniffed and examined her nails, oblivious to the many shocked gasps of outrage.
“Well, yes, I suppose one might be forgiven for thinking that,” Dunton agreed. My jaw unhinged. Was he actually condoning the murder of a witch because she’d fallen in love with a vampire?
“Before the bell rings, I would like you all to read up on this topic before the next lesson. Your assignment will be about how the brave coven leaders of New Orleans negotiated a peace agreement, despite the perilous danger they faced from marauding vampires.”
Everyone gathered their stuff while I sat in silence, processing Dunton’s revelations.
“Dunton’s retelling of what happened is probably bullshit, pet, so I suggest you talk to our vampy to get a first-hand account. He doesn’t strike me as a thrill killer.”
Kenji mumbled in agreement before hopping off my desk. While Demelza was distracted reading something on her phone, he sidled up to her bag and cocked his leg, filling it with a pungent stream of urine. When the smell hit her, she looked down and screeched so loud my eardrums popped.
But Kenji had already vanished, so she turned to a wolf shifter standing a foot away and blasted him with a fireball.
“You disgusting piece of shit! That’s a ten-thousand-dollar designer bag you fucking peed in!”
“I didn’t know you had a pee kink, Demented.”
Glynda fell apart laughing at Zane’s remark while I tried to school my expression in case the nasty witch blamed me.
“Come, pet, it’s time to go before Demented loses her mind completely.” Zane grasped my wrist and whisked me away from the classroom while Demelza had an epic meltdown.