Chapter 5
Chapter five
Jack
My foot tapped an impatient rhythm as I stood in the registration line. Golden light filled the room from the ancient-looking scones. They’d repurposed an old castle for the academy apparently, upgrading it to modern technology without destroying the classical elements.
At least my parents weren’t wasteful.
The horde of supernaturals squeezing in around me made my skin itch with anxiety. While I wasn’t unused to crowds, usually they were other hunters, not unknown supernaturals. The inability to tell friend from foe while I waited in line made my pulse race.
It didn’t help that, ever since parking, I felt a prickle on the back of my neck. Like someone was watching me. If they were, they were good, because no one around seemed even remotely interested in me, more absorbed with their own stuff.
I took a few deep breaths and focused on lowering my heart rate.
Everything would be alright. This was what I wanted, after all — a chance to prove myself.
If I fucked this up, I didn’t know when I’d get another chance and then I would likely be stuck here, like the rest of the bored supes looking for some sense of normal in a human-ran world.
Thankfully, the Durand Supernatural Academy was everything I expected it to be, an ode to my family and their power. The house sigil decorated practically every surface, not letting anyone forget who they owed their education to.
I bet that was Antoine’s doing. He wasn’t exactly subtle in his rulership.
Strangely, the interaction with the werewolves right out the gate had been a surprise. My parents always preached unity and harmony amongst the supernaturals. But the harsh treatment I’d received just for parking in the wrong spot — being called a vamp whore — didn’t exactly scream harmony.
My mind drifted back to the large dark-skinned werewolf and his lingering pale friend, likely a vampire, but I hadn’t been close enough to tell.
The intensity of his gaze had been enough for me to want to get out of there quickly.
The positive was that at least a few of the other supernaturals hadn’t been prejudiced against me right away.
Once I’d gotten my assignment, it was smooth sailing from there. With my parents owning the academy, it was easy enough to get enrolled, classes selected — which I had little say in, since I needed to be able to meet with my support — and rooming set up.
I’d argued there was no reason for me to live at the college when I could drive the thirty minutes from the house every day. Except my mom argued that it would look better for my cover to stay on campus and limit the likelihood that someone traced me back to them.
I was to be a human servant whose master dumped me here to get an education and keep out of the way while they handled business. When I questioned anyone believing that story, my dad, Antoine, simply sniffed.
“Not everyone treated their human servants as family. Some of the older ones keep human servants more as pets than companions.”
The answer had made me feel a bit better about my cover story, but only just.
“Name?” a gangly human squawked at me, not looking up from their computer.
“Jaquelynn Billings.” I was using my mom’s maiden name instead of Durand. We’d all agreed it made more sense to use my real given name, especially if it turned into a long-term placement.
He clicked on his mouse, muttering my last name over and over, his brows furrowing. “I have a Jack Billings.”
“That’s me.”
“Oh, uh…” He trailed off, staring at the screen and then glancing up at me.
For a moment, I thought he knew who I really was, that my cover had been blown not twenty minutes into my mission, and I’d be back to where I was fighting to be trusted to hunt on my own.
“You’re a female?” he said it like a question instead of an obvious statement.
I glanced down at myself and then back to him arching a brow. “The last time I checked.”
“Oh. You see… we thought you were male.” He cleared his throat, pushing his glasses up his nose. “So we paired you with a male roommate.”
“Alright.” I was beginning to see the problem. “You can’t just switch me?”
He shook his head. “That’s the problem. All the female human servant rooms are full. We might have something later in the semester. Vampires tend to pull out their humans on a whim, but until that happens, the only place we have for you is…”
“It’s fine,” I answered, giving the guy a break. “I have lots of brothers. I think I can handle a male roommate.”
Not technically true but, when you had seven dads and had bunked with more than a few male hunters throughout the years, one male wasn’t much different from the other.
I was more concerned with living with a stranger than their gender.
I’d have to hide who I was at all times, and that sounded stressful.
The guy behind the counter gave me a look as if he wanted to protest, but then eventually acquiesced. He handed me a piece of paper with my schedule on it and a key to my room, my room assignment written at the top of the schedule.
“I’ll let you know if anything comes available for you to switch.” With that last reassurance, he dismissed me, looking at the next person in line.
Folding the paper, I shoved it and the key in my pocket before deciding to find the bookstore first. While most books were available in ebook form, my dad, Marcus, had made me fall in love with having a physical book in hand and, with the amount of times I’d broken or lost my phones on hunts, having the physical copy at home had saved me far more times than not.
“Are you looking for the bookstore?” a sweet voice asked next to me.
I whipped around to find a petite, dark-haired girl with golden undertones in her skin and pink tips in her dark hair.
Her equally dark eyes peered up at me, curiously.
Her head barely came up to my chest and, while she certainly didn’t dress like a vampire in her baby pink A-line skater dress, the familiar stink of blood tinged her floral scent.
“Uh, yes, I am.” I glanced around, searching for some sign to point me in the right direction.
“I’m heading that way, if you want to tag along.”
She seemed harmless enough, and I needed to make friends if I was going to find out any useful information for my mission.
“Sure.” I nodded.
“I’m Xinyi, by the way.” She turned to me before strutting down the wooden hallway with the confidence of someone who knew where they were going.
“Jack,” I offered up.
“You’re a human servant, aren’t you?” Xinyi asked with a sly look. When I nodded, she smiled and did a little jiggle. “I knew it. You just had a look about you.”
“I did?” My lips quirked up. “And it didn’t scream vampire or even werewolf?”
“Well…” Xinyi walked backward as she talked, her eyes skimming over me.
“You’ve got the leather biker things down, which screams werewolf, but also a mysterious vibe to you which totally shoves you more toward the vampire vibe.
Werewolves are all loud and bluster. You seem like the quiet type.
But since my vampire sense isn’t tingling, I have to go with human servant. ”
“Ah,” I said as if her logic made sense to me. “You’re right.”
“Another point for Xinyi!” She shot a fist up in the air with a bit of a hip wiggle. “I’m a human servant too, if you didn’t catch on. It’ll be nice to have someone I know in the dorms.”
“Is this your first year?”
Spinning back around, Xinyi eagerly bobbed her head. “Yep! My mistress, Iris, wanted to check out the college and told me it would be good for me to be around other vampires and servants.”
We stepped through a partially glass door and into the bookstore. Once inside, Xinyi continued as if she’d never stopped.
“Not that she wants me to be around other supes, you know? She’s protective of me that way. At least, the vampires respect each other’s human servants. The werewolves consider us less than less. So don’t feel bad if one of them calls you something rude. They’re just jealous.”
I chuckled. Been there, done that.
“At least the witches couldn’t give two shits about us.” Xinyi covered her mouth and glanced around with wide eyes. “Oops. Sorry, I’m not supposed to curse. Iris says I have a potty mouth, and I’ll get punished if I don’t learn to curb my tongue.”
“How will she even know?” My brow rose, side-stepping someone to get to the bookshelves. I pulled my schedule out of my pocket and skimmed the shelves that listed what books belonged to each class.
“Oh, I’m horrible at hiding my feelings. She likely felt the guilt the moment I said it.” Xinyi reached for the same Econ 101 book that I did. “Hey, we’re taking the same class! When is yours?”
She pulled at my arm to lower my schedule to her eye level. Her gaze skimmed over the paper before pouting.
“Well, sh — I mean, poop. We have it at different times. But hey!” She pointed at another class. “We have History of Vampirism together at eight. Thank fuck — I mean, frick. Geez, this is hard.”
She sighed and went back to searching for her books.
“Thankfully, they follow a nighttime schedule instead of a normal college schedule. I mean even the werewolves and witches like to live nocturnally, so it only makes sense to keep with the majority, even if some of the human servants prefer to keep the opposite schedule of their masters.”
“Why would they want to do that?” I questioned while piling more books onto my stack. It was becoming a juggling act with my helmet in one hand and my books in the other, my schedule pinched between two fingers.
“You know, for, like, running errands and being their daytime person.” Xinyi turned to me with a frown. “How long have you been a human servant?”
“Uh…” I drew out, trying to keep everything in hand. We hadn’t really discussed it. I supposed they wanted me to just ad lib things as they came up, like now. “Only a few months.”