Chapter 4
Chapter four
Kyren
The fading sun covered the quad in a faint orange glow. If I’d been a younger vampire, the very presence of the sun would have set my skin ablaze. However, my hundred and fifty-four years made the touch of the sinking sun barely a tickle on my flesh.
Footsteps thundered, and the mingled scents of blood, fur, and potion smoke assaulted my nose. Another year, another set of fools pretending we can all get along.
“Ah, nothing beats the first day of the semester,” the cheerful growl came from my long time human servant, Tate.
His large frame left me staring at his shoulder.
His defined muscles flexed as he laced his fingers behind the dark braids in his hair making my mouth water.
Fifty years, and I still wanted nothing more than to sink myself inside of him at every turn.
“Keep looking at me like that, and we won’t make it to the registration hall to see the new meat,” Tate flirted, pulling his lip piercing between pouting lips. His dark gaze slid over me as desire flashed down our bond adding to my own. My cock became a steel rod in my slacks.
“Unlike some,” I gave his cheeky grin a pointed look, “I have self-control. I can wait until we have privacy.”
Tate’s eyes crinkled. “Sometimes I forget how old you are. Fucking where you can get caught is the best part. The tension, the danger, the gasps of surprise when someone stumbles across you.” He inched me against a column, one dark-skinned arm over my head as he traced his thumb across my lower lip.
His voice grew low and husky, “Showing them exactly who you belong to. Doesn’t that sound like fun? ”
My shadows twisted and latched onto his wrists, twisting us around until I had him pressed against the column, a hand around his throat, making him laugh. “Fuck your side pieces for all to see, what do I care? But show anyone what’s mine, and I’ll have to remind you who you belong to.”
“Oh, daddy, do that again,” Tate teased, cupping the wrist of the hand at his throat. “You know it gets me hard when you get all possessive and growly.”
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes at his theatrics, I released him and continued the trek toward the front of the campus. As we circled around to the entrance, my eyes lingered on where the sunlight glinted off the crest of the college, a crow surrounded by Latin words.
Sanguinem meum in saecula, loosely translated to ‘blood of my blood now and forever.’ The same motto of the House of Durand and their not-too-subtle way of letting those who came here who owned this campus.
Durand Supernatural Academy.
The first ever supernatural college that brought all three species together — four, if you counted the human servants who resided alongside the vampires. It was a delicate balance that was on the cusp of breaking at any moment.
The werewolves kept to their side of the campus, the witches lifted their noses, while the vampires waited in shadow for everyone else to fade.
I would give one credit to the Durands, they knew where to push and where to leave things be.
If they had forced the species to live together, I doubted there would have been any of us left to even attend the college.
Of course, that was one of the few things the Durands had done right since they’d come into power.
“You’re glaring again,” Tate murmured, soothing waves of calm pushed through the bond as he tried to ease my rising ire.
I ripped my eyes away from the crest, and my gaze swept across the open quad. Students new and old filtered into the campus, some chatting with excitement, others shooting wary looks at the other species.
I’d felt the same way when I arrived a few years ago, full of rage and the need for vengeance. Then I found out the Durand didn’t actually spend time at the college and reluctantly found I enjoyed my time here.
Tate would tell me to let it go. That the death of my sire was so long ago and, from everyone else’s perspective, he’d deserved it. Regardless, the depth of my loyalty to my creator demanded blood payment in the form of a Durand, any Durand.
If only I could get my hands on one.
“Look at that.” Tate pointed toward the front of the registration office. “Fresh meat!”
Tate’s excitement shot down our bond as the roaring of a motorcycle pulled my attention to the front gate.
A feminine figure wrapped in black biking gear zipped through the open metal gates of the academy drive.
My eyes followed, watching as, instead of pulling into student parking, she pulled her bike up along the others parked at the curb.
“Think she’s a new wolf?” Tate asked. The curiosity from him that pulsed in my chest started to wane at the prospect of another wolf.
I didn’t answer right away. My gaze focused on her every movement.
The mysterious woman swung her leg over her bike and pulled her helmet off.
Long, dark curls trailed down her back, settling just above what had to be the most biteable ass in all the centuries I’d been alive.
Her black pants weren’t doing anything to hide her figure, and my hands ached to grip her hips before sinking my fangs into her pale slender neck.
A subtle breeze carried her scent straight through me. I bit back a moan. The pulse of desire that echoed from Tate told me I wasn’t the only one undone by it — steel and herbs, with something soft and sweet buried underneath.
“Definitely, not a wolf,” Tate moaned, biting his knuckle. “What do you think—?”
I followed closely behind my mate, my shadows writhing beneath the surface as three large werewolves approached my newest obsession.
“Uh-oh. That’s no good,” Tate quipped, hurrying his pace.
Unfortunately, before we could reach her, the three burly werewolves surrounded her, grinning from ear to ear, to menace her.
“You can’t park there,” one of them snapped. I thought his name was Finn, but I didn’t keep up with all the mutts. Only one wolf concerned me, and he was headed straight for the middle of their little altercation.
“Oh?” The woman lifted her nose in the air, peering up into the wolves’ narrowed gazes. “It looks like I just did.”
Two of the wolves growled while their leader leaned in for a sniff.
“You’re not a wolf. Only wolves park at the front.
Vamp whores park in the back of the lot.
” His menacing grin turned into a leer, sliding up and down her form like grease.
“Or you know,” he wrapped one of her dark curls around his fingers, “maybe we could come to an arrangement.”
My shadows stiffened, ready to lash out.
“Looks like we better go save the princess.” Tate clicked his tongue with a smirk, stalking in her direction.
My lips curled at the edges, ready to shed some blood. The wolf’s shout of pain turned my expression into a full-on grin.
My woman had him kneeling on the ground as she twisted his wrist at a painful angle. The other two wolves growled at her, their chests puffing up in preparation for an attack.
My woman? I hadn’t even met the female, and already I’d put a claim on her. That was a first. I hadn’t felt this way about anyone so strongly since the first time I met Tate.
Tate’s steps slowed as he took in the scene. “Well, maybe there’s a bit more to the princess than we thought.”
We hurried over just as the two wolves launched themselves at her. She surprised me again by twisting around to kick one of them in the chest. The wolf went flying across the quad with more force than one would expect from someone her size.
The other wolf, distracted by his friend, didn’t see her fist coming straight for his Adam’s apple. The wolf grabbed his throat gasping for air as he fell to the ground.
“Be still my heart,” Tate exclaimed, a hand to his chest.
The woman spun around her hands up in a defensive position, those pale brown eyes assessing Tate and me.
“We come in peace.” Tate held his hands up. “We were actually coming to your rescue, but it seems…” He gestured to the three wolves still picking themselves back up. “We’re not needed.”
“Yeah.” My woman lowered her hands and shifted her shoulders, adjusting the leather jacket over her shoulders. “Well, thanks. I’m good.”
“We can see that.” Tate beamed at her. His tail would have been wagging if he was in his wolf form. “So, princess, let me guess, you’re a…” He sniffed the air again, and that desire that hadn’t wavered came on in full force, almost knocking me on my ass. “A human servant?”
“Princess?” She angled her head to the side, taking Tate in before her eyes slid over to me with an equal amount of assessment. Either she had one hell of a poker face or she wasn’t sure what to make of us.
Tate tucked his hands into the pockets of his jacket and rocked on his heels. “Ah, yeah, that was before… you know.”
She nodded slowly. “Got it. Well, I’m good. Thanks.” She turned to go.
No lingering or trying to flutter her eyes at either of us, as most human servants would have. Most could sense the power of other vampires and strived to get close to whoever had the longest fangs. This one couldn’t seem to care less.
“Hey, wait.” Tate reached for her and then stopped when she glared at his hand. “What’s your name? Or maybe you’d just like to be mine.” He wagged his eyebrows with a wolfish grin.
A normal woman would have blushed and giggled at Tate’s come on, but my woman simply stared at him for a long moment before pursing her lips, head cocked to the side. “Does that usually work?”
Tate shifted from foot to foot, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, usually.” He pulled his lip ring between his teeth, a nervous habit that he knew drove me wild.
“Right,” she drew out before turning on her heels again.
“Then I guess I’ll just continue to call you princess, then?” Tate called out after her, and the eagerness in him vibrated down our bond.
She didn’t turn as she waved a hand over her shoulder.
“Awkward,” Tate sing-songed with a nervous chuckle, talking to me though his eyes never left her retreating form. “Haven’t struck out like that in… well… ever.”
Letting out a low hum, I discretely allowed my shadows to follow after her. For the first time in fifty years, I was intrigued by someone other than Tate and I wasn’t about to let her go now that I’d found her.
This mystery wrapped in leather didn’t know it yet, but she was about to be mine.