Chapter 21
Sensing the change in the atmosphere, Luther backed away from me.
I remained bent over the back of the couch with my pants partially lifted around my hips but still unbuttoned.
I moved in a daze, turning and dropping on the cushions, watching as he finished adjusting his clothing.
He ran his hands through his ruffled hair, giving me an odd look I couldn’t decipher.
“Are you…” he cleared the rasp from his throat, “Are you alright?”
The absence of his body heat and the distance between us cleared some of the erotic fog in my head. I snapped out of my daze and curled my hands into fists on my thighs. A tremor ran through me as steam whistled out of my ears.
“What the fuck was that? I mean, honestly… what just happened?”
Professor Quinn froze and his demeanor twisted. “I brought you back from a panic attack, sweetheart.”
I jumped to my feet. “Oh, so I’m supposed to think you didn’t get anything out of that? That you were just helping me?”
His brow arched. “It helped, though. Didn’t it?”
“You took advantage of me in a moment of weakness!” Even as I said it, I didn’t believe it.
There were just too many volatile emotions storming through me to think clearly.
The aftermath of everything I had seen, days of endless research without adequate food, and increasing madness had combined into a poison in my blood and mind.
His entire demeanor shifted, flashing from incredulous to hard and unreadable. His fists curled before he shoved them into his pockets, and his eyes narrowed into a partial glare. The seconds stretched as he looked at me, masking his emotions before scoffing.
“Really? Do you truly think I would take advantage of you, Ophelia? At any point during that you could have told me ‘no’ and I would have backed off. Don’t insult me like that.
” His eyes dripped over my disheveled appearance.
“And don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it—that you didn’t need it as much as I did. ”
“No… I…” I deflated. His brows pinched together, and I slumped back onto the couch, avoiding his gaze. It seared into me and my face flamed.
I had needed it. And I had wanted it. More than a distraction from my panic, the effect of human touch and physical connection soothed an ache I hadn’t noticed taking up space behind my ribs and festering in the tender meat of my internal organs.
The isolation had slowly sunk beneath my skin and began squirming, needle-thin and worm-like.
His presence, his touch, acted as a bandage on the wound of loneliness infecting my mind and body.
My head dropped into my hands, and I huffed.
“Yeah, it helped. I’m… I’m sorry.” A beat passed.
He scoffed and turned to his desk. I gnawed on my bottom lip, watching him pivot around the corner and stand on the opposite side of the bulky piece of wood. It became a barrier between us, as if he needed a wall to protect himself from further backlash.
I hadn’t intended on biting his head off post-orgasm, but the rush of adrenaline and endorphins had unmoored me. The come down and the chemicals stormed through me and briefly transformed me into a harpy.
He had helped and rocked my world.
Professor Quinn picked up a folio on his desk, flipping idly through pages as the silence stretched.
It was then I realized the late hour. I had stayed out too long, skipped too many meals once again, and…
seen things impossible to describe. Lost in the claws of panic, Professor Quinn was there for me.
No matter how unorthodox the method, he had found me in a moment of need and helped me through it.
I should leave.
But I had too many questions bombarding my skull.
“What were you doing out there?” I asked.
Ocean eyes trailed upward, flicking over my face. “I work on campus, Miss Ashcroft. It’s not too far-fetched to imagine I’d be in the vicinity.”
“You’re always there, aren’t you?”
The corner of his mouth twitched.
“Nearby when I need you, I mean.” I swallowed and stood. “Always lurking about.”
He shrugged. “I look out for good students. You do well in your field.”
“That’s not all you do. You’re everywhere. Watching me.” My heart faltered as another rush of fear hit me. “Are you following me?”
His mask dropped and his expression darkened.
“I found you having a panic attack outside the library. I merely stepped in to help, as you needed.”
“Well,” I stuttered for a retort before snapping, “there’s no need. I could have helped myself.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Miss Ashcroft. You were screaming your head off—”
“I didn’t!” I stomped a foot before realizing it.
“—You were!” The professor swerved around the desk, coming to a stop right in front of me.
The sweet tobacco and spice scent of him twirled around me, and I had to resist insensibly swaying into him.
He grinned viciously as I shrunk under his intense stare.
“I warned you about this place, and you didn’t listen.
Now curiosity is coming after you, isn’t it? ”
An undertone in those words reached from beyond and gripped me tight. No longer a simple argument, it morphed into an exchange hiding sinister intent. A secret volleyed back and forth with neither of us willing to unwrap it and face the truth.
“Yes, you warned me. And you were right, I was panicking. Something out there scared me. Something unbelievable.” I waited for him to dissuade me from that train of thought. Instead, he arched a dark brow in interest. “Why were you out there so late, Professor?”
“I was hunting,” he said, laying the first breadcrumbs guiding me toward the truth.
“Hunting what?”
“A stolas.” His expression remained hard as he dropped a bomb on my head.
I backed up until my legs hit the couch. My heart ricocheted around in my ribs.
“A… a what?”
“A stolas.” He shrugged, then ran a hand through his already mussed hair. “An owl demon. That’s what you saw.”
My throat constricted around a nervous gulp.
“A demon?” My head shook slowly, disbelieving what he was telling me.
“One of many. And if you were smart, as I believe you are, you’ll stop going out at night when they’re active.”
It couldn’t be real. In all my life there had never been any truth to myths or legends of vampires, werewolves, or ghosts. All fiction and story. Nothing genuine amidst all the folklore circulating around the world. And I was supposed to believe him when he told me the opposite?
“Demons aren’t real,” I whispered.
“They are, Miss Ashcroft.” He stood in front of me, stealing into my personal space and drowning me with the dark blue of his eyes. A sharp shiver cut down my spine. “They are real. Very real, and you are in very real danger.”
I paled, trembling as a fresh wave of hysteria surged within me. A terrible lightning storm bolted through me from head to toes, and my stomach threatened to heave despite being empty. It wasn’t possible and they couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be happening, but why…
“Why me?” I voiced the question drilling a hole in my skull.
Professor Quinn sighed heavily. He ran his knuckle along the line of my jaw before crooking a warm finger under my chin and lifting my face. An unconscious tremble wracked through me and my exhale thinned into a silent whine.
“To my detriment, you seem to be highly sought after.” His thumb swiped across my bottom lip. “And I don’t intend to share.”
Little flutters swept in and bullied away my logistical side.
All I wanted was to sink into the touch, the pressure of his skin on mine, and relish the contact.
But suspicion trapped me in a whirlpool I couldn’t swim out of.
Those thoughts needled at me and his hand on my face wasn’t reassuring enough to help.
I placed my hands on his chest and stepped away. His hand fell, a mask slammed over his expression, and the distance froze me to the bone. I would have preferred to burrow into his clothes and inhabit them with him, but I needed to shake his enthralling presence off and think clearly.
“No… No, that’s not good enough.” I crossed my arms to hide the shaking in my hands. “What do you mean you were hunting them? Are you some kind of… demon hunter or something?”
A broken laugh breached him. “A demon hunter? Don’t be tedious, Miss Ashcroft. It’s beneath you.”
“You said you were hunting them!”
He directed his annoyance at me. “Something like that.” Then he became tight lipped, shifting from foot to foot and avoiding eye contact. It gave me the impression he was holding back information.
“It’s…” he sighed, fighting back a scowl, “it’s complicated. There’s a lot to explain.”
A gentle scoff escaped my throat.
I stood there, feeling his come seeping into my underwear while the aftershocks of panic invaded every cell of my being. A ripple of exhaustion weighed down on my shoulders and a bitter laugh followed.
“I can’t do this right now.” Fatigue tore through the seams of my composure, and I think he realized it. I saw his throat bob on a harsh swallow before he carded a hand through his dark hair.
He didn’t speak, and I turned for the door.
An iron grip snapped around my wrist, halting me in my tracks.
“You should have listened to me a month ago when I tried to warn you—”
I snatched my hand from his grasp, fully outraged.
“You should have told me something believable! Not this crap about bird monsters! Do you even hear yourself?” My arms flailed as I raged at him. “Are you out of your mind? A professor who hunts demons and fucks his students. Great. This is what my life has become. Just fucking great.”
Silence tumbled in after my tirade faded.
Arms crossed, gaze on the floor, I pressed my back to the office door, aware of his presence but hesitant to face him.
I pouted, battling the urge to weep between my upturned emotions, hunger, and need for sleep.
If I didn’t get a break soon I feared being declared clinically insane.
A foul mood settled over me.
I turned into a feral cat, hackles raised, and lip curled as I prepared to hiss at him. It was all too much. And I was too damn tired. The thought of this interaction turning into a fight had me on the verge of angry tears, and I needed to redirect my focus away from the mess of it all.
“Look, Ophelia,” his tone had softened into smooth butter, “you’re clearly tired and overwhelmed. You should eat something.”
“I don’t need you to worry about me, professor. Why don’t you worry about your own delusions and stay away from me!”
He stepped closer again and I shrank into the door at my back.
“Any other time I’d love to rile you up and tame that bratty little attitude of yours, but at this juncture, you’ve stretched yourself thin and you’ve had no aftercare.
” My breath betrayed me, catching when he lifted a hand to brush a loose blonde strand behind my ear.
“When’s the last time you had a real, nutritional meal—and, no, a bowl of buttered noodles doesn’t count. ”
I stomped my foot. Not because he was wrong, but because it frustrated me that he was right. I didn’t want him to be right about anything.
“You’re an arrogant, bossy madman!”
“And you’re a stubborn brat.”
“Oh, leave me alone!” It suddenly became important for me to grab my things and make an escape. I grabbed my satchel, fumbling to keep everything in my arms as my breath sawed out of me.
“Ophelia, wait—”
I slammed the door behind me, leaving my professor in his office alone.
The hallway pressed in around me, constricting like a swallowing throat. This damned school truly would consume me if I didn’t get out of there.
I rushed down the corridors, hugging my bag to my chest and failing to reconcile all the bizarre things happening to and around me.
I’d failed to anticipate… any of it. How could I?
And now everything felt so wrong.