Monster’s Melody (Blackthorn Academy for Supernaturals #19)

Prologue

Vorzak

“Ow! Since when do you guys bite me?” I couldn’t believe it. The little bastards had actually nipped me!

Bad enough they refused to communicate with me, now they were biting me too?

“Oh, don’t be such a baby.” Yukiko laughed. “Besides, you probably deserved it, didn’t he, my darlings?” She crooned to my snakes, who lapped up her attention like the little bastards they were, nuzzling and petting her while sending me smug looks.

I don’t know if all serpents have expressive faces like mine do, but The Hissies, as I call them, have a highly developed superiority complex and their eyes alone tell a thousand tales.

Add the ability to move their jaws independently of each other and my snakes can express a whole lot of human emotion with just a tiny shift in their jaws and the glint of their eyes.

Right now, basking in the glow of Yukiko’s adoration, they radiated smugness.

I deliberately took a step away from Yukiko and by default, pulled my snakes with me. “I definitely did not deserve to be bitten,” I belatedly protested.

Yukiko cocked her head to the side in that way she had when my snakes were talking to her.

I’d forgotten how annoying that was.

Every time I came home for the holidays or summer break, I was confronted with the bond my snakes had developed, not with me, but with my twin sister.

That I couldn’t communicate with my own snakes had been an irritation my entire life, but that they often chose to communicate with Yukiko instead was a slap in the face.

I blamed our parents.

Both monsters with monstrous abilities, they should have avoided procreation at all costs. They didn’t and we were the result.

The powers we inherited from them split in uneven, disastrous ways and the result was a head full of serpents for me and the ability to communicate with them for my sister. We could thank our gorgon mother for that disaster.

Our father’s snow beast powers were split as well, leaving me with the unrelenting cold that came of being a snow beast, a cold that made The Hissies irritable and quite often, maddened with pain.

Yukiko, however, got the short end of the stick on that one.

She ended up with the powers of the snow beast, a literal snowstorm waiting to happen.

Worse, our mother’s stone gaze got melded with our father’s wintry powers and Yukiko risked turning people to ice should she stare at them with intent, or lose control of her gaze.

Truth was, Yukiko and I were a muddled mess of genes that shouldn’t exist at all.

I was a gorgon, one of the few males in existence, who couldn’t communicate with his snakes, and Yukiko was a snow beast without the unrelenting cold that kept her emotions in check.

That wasn’t the worst of it for Yukiko, though.

She was the first girl born in several generations on my father’s side. This meant she was the Ice Princess, heir to the Snow Beast Throne that our great–great–grandmother had held for centuries.

This was horrifying to Yukiko, who wanted nothing to do with ruling our kind, but was a huge relief for me, because as a male and a gorgon, I didn’t qualify at all.

Yukiko felt this was terribly unfair, but considering she was able to communicate with my snakes when I couldn’t, I considered this to be just a little bit of justice.

“Really?” Yukiko murmured, making me roll my eyes.

They were still communicating. What could my snakes possibly have to say that would take this long? “Stop telling tales,” I admonished them.

They ignored me and continued weaving and waving between us, their movements pulling on my scalp in ways so familiar I’d long since stopped registering the tiny pinpricks of pain.

Their movements got so elaborate and excited after a few moments that they completely blocked my view of Yukiko’s face, so I only had the sound of her voice to tell me how incredulous she was when she exclaimed, “You met your mate?”

* * *

Jasmine

The scene on the dock between Vorzak and the beautiful woman waiting for him there was an eye-opener for me.

I walked away, completely disillusioned, and as a result, spent my entire holiday break lecturing myself and preparing to return to Blackthorn Academy as a new woman.

I’d wasted entirely too much time mooning over that idiotic gorgon and I wasn’t going to continue down that path anymore.

Clearly, I wasn’t as special as I’d believed, considering how his snakes had interacted with the other woman.

They’d been absolutely delighted to see her, weaving and waving before Vorzak had even reached the dock. Then, they’d greeted her by nudging her and petting her hair and fawning all over her.

Until that moment, I’d believed that I was the only one they’d ever treated so excitedly.

They’d never danced or waved at anyone else at the Academy that I’d seen, which had given me a false sense of confidence.

I’d been absolutely convinced that I was Vorzak’s mate and it was only a matter of time before he’d realize it.

Unfortunately, despite his snakes’ enthusiastic greeting every time they caught sight of me, Vorzak was a blind idiot.

He never even noticed me!

Not once.

It was like I didn’t even exist.

Sure, we’d never had any classes together, and I wasn’t exactly in his circle of friends. We’d never even found ourselves at the same table for a meal at the Academy, but still.

You’d think a supernatural creature like a gorgon would be more in tune with his snakes and the people around him. You’d think he’d sense it when his mate was near!

That moment on the docks, though, when his snakes were all over an entirely different woman, I realized I wasn’t so special after all. All this time, I’d been blaming Vorzak for not noticing me, but clearly, I’d been wrong.

He hadn’t noticed me because he wasn’t my mate.

It took me a while to accept this because I’d been so convinced for so long and let’s be real, I found the man to be the utter epitome of everything I’d ever wanted in a mate.

The whole package was just so damn electrifying.

The tattoos, the lip ring, that body.

The snakes, though. The way they weaved and waved at me. The way they danced anytime they caught sight of me. I’d fallen in love with them.

By contrast, I’d never had any interactions with Vorzak. We’d never even been officially introduced, so I had no idea whether I’d even like the man.

But his snakes.

I adored them.

They were the reason my heart broke on that dock. Because they were the hardest dream to give up.

The truth was my obsession with Vorzak may have actually prevented me from recognizing my true mate, who might still be out there, perhaps even at Blackthorn Academy.

It was imperative, therefore, that I accept reality, so that I’d be able to recognize my mate, whoever he might be, even if it turned out he didn’t have a headful of snakes for me to fall in love with.

The idea of it was so wrong, though, so difficult to accept—that Vorzak wasn’t my mate, that his snakes weren’t mine to adore and that somewhere out there, was someone else I was meant to be with.

It wasn’t easy, but by the time my month of holidays was over, I’d managed to harden my heart to Vorzak (not that he’d even notice), and to accept that we were never meant to be.

* * *

Vorzak

I spent my entire holiday break trying to get Yukiko to tell me who my mate was, but she just taunted me instead.

She’d say things like, “You’ll just have to figure it out for yourself.”

Or, “If you can’t recognize her on your own, you don’t deserve her.”

And multiple variations that always began with, “According to The Darlings,” followed by descriptions of some idiotic thing I’d apparently done (spying bastards), before ending with, “Better get ready to grovel.”

Ugh.

“Those little bastards are no darlings,” I growled, an argument we’d been having pretty much our entire lives.

She snickered. “Are you sure about that? Because at least The Darlings recognized their mate when they met her.”

“Are you saying we’ve actually met her, as in, been properly introduced to her, had classes together and all of that?” If so, that would narrow things down a bit, but I’d also be shocked if that were the case. After all, I should have recognized her the moment we were introduced.

Yukiko just gave me a little smirk and said, “I guess that’s for you to find out, isn’t it?”

“Oh, come on, Yukiko. How can I make it up to my mate if I don’t even know who she is?”

“Maybe you should listen to your snakes once in a while.”

“Are you kidding me? You know I can’t hear what they’re saying!”

“That sounds like a you problem.”

And so it went. The entire month we were on break, Yukiko took great joy in torturing me with little side conversations only she could hear.

“Really?” She’d exclaim at the dinner table, at least once every night, making our father grin and our mother scowl.

Our father delighted in Yukiko’s sassy attitude and beamed with pride anytime she tortured me by communicating with my snakes.

Our mother, on the other hand, hated being reminded that her gorgon genes had split in ways that made neither one of her children a gorgon to be proud of.

Despite this, Yukiko never hesitated to engage in one-sided conversations with my snakes, tilting her head to the side as she listened intently, all while giving vague responses that did nothing more than torture me.

“He didn’t!” she’d exclaim. “Why, his mate must have been devastated. I’m sure she’ll never forgive him for that.

” As usual, she took great pains not to say my mate’s name.

I had no doubt she knew it though. The little bastards had probably said it right off the bat and she was just taunting me by keeping it a secret.

“What’s she like then?” A pause as she listened, nodding with delight, a look of joy on her face. “Oh, I like her already.”

And so it went.

The entire holiday season.

Finally, though, it was time to return to Blackthorn Academy and for the first time in my two and a half years of attending the Academy, I was excited to return.

Every other semester, I’d been full of dread.

As much as Yukiko and I gave each other shit, we were closer than most siblings. We’d grown up practically joined at the hip, our powers so intertwined that when it came time for us both to head off to an Academy, our parents had insisted we attend separate ones.

Yukiko, as heir to the throne of the snow beasts, would eventually stand as the first guardian of that race, and thus, was always destined to attend Guardian Academy, and I had always planned to go with her.

Instead, our parents had insisted that we needed time to develop our powers independent of each other, and so, I was sent to Blackthorn instead.

That first year was the worst year of my life.

The only thing that kept me sane was knowing that Yukiko could communicate with my snakes, even over long distances. Though I couldn’t hear their conversations, I always knew when they were speaking because my snakes would begin to dance and weave.

In those moments, I no longer felt so abandoned or alone.

This time, though, I would not only have the comfort of my sister communicating with my snakes. I would also have my mate to stave off the loneliness.

If I could figure out who she was.

Unfortunately, Yukiko was a stubborn snow beast, and the day we were scheduled to return to our Academies, I was still clueless as to the identity of my mate.

As usual, Yukiko and I traveled to the docks together. I walked her to where her ferry waited and was glad to see her best friend, Ember, already there.

My ferry would be leaving shortly after theirs, which meant I would only be able to stay long enough to see the two of them on board.

I hugged Yukiko and murmured, “I’ll miss you, Kiko.”

“I’ll miss you too, Zak.” Her voice broke a little.

I pulled away, then said, “Look. I know I’m always giving you a hard time about chatting with The Hissies, but I want you to know, it’s the one thing keeping me sane when we’re apart.”

She gave me a confused look. “What are you talking about?”

Great. She probably didn’t know that I knew. “It’s not a big deal. I mean, it’s pretty obvious when they start dancing and weaving that you’re talking to them. It makes me feel like we’re not so far apart. So don’t stop, okay?”

She blinked. “Zak, Blackthorn’s three thousand miles from Guardian Academy. I can’t chat with your snakes over that great a distance.”

My jaw dropped. “What? Then who have they been weaving and dancing for?”

She rolled her eyes. “You really are an idiot, you know that?”

Holy shit.

“Yukiko.” I poured as much pleading into my voice as I could.

She snickered, then grabbed me in a tight hug and whispered in my ear, “Her name’s Jasmine.”

Jasmine.

Did I know a Jasmine?

I didn’t think so. I couldn’t pull up a single memory or face to go with that name.

My thoughts were whirling as Yukiko dropped a kiss on each of my snake’s heads, one by one, then gave me a jaunty grin and sauntered down the dock toward the ferry where Ember waited.

When she reached Ember, both women waved, then boarded the ferry and were lost in the crowd of students already on board.

I spent my own ferry ride, circulating among the other Blackthorn students, trying to find out if anyone knew a Jasmine.

By the time we docked at the island, I’d learned of a year two and a year three student.

Since my snakes had comforted me with their dancing from my very first month at the academy two and a half years before, I immediately eliminated the year two student and tried to get as much information as possible about year three Jasmine and her schedule.

A couple hours after walking through the doors at Blackthorn Academy, I left its main office with a new schedule clenched in hand.

I’d managed to enroll in Dragon Riding 101, which had required some fast talking on my part, considering I’d missed the entire first semester. I’d also switched from Extreme Sports Ed to Extreme Water Sports Ed.

Switching from one sports ed class to the other wasn’t a big deal. My snakes loved the water, so we’d be fine in either class.

However, Dragon Riding 101 might be a different story as my snakes weren’t fond of dragons. Worse, the dragons at Blackthorn Academy were positively ferocious in their hatred of the little bastards. Probably because The Hissies were major instigators.

I just hoped I hadn’t signed up for an entire semester of dealing with cranky dragons for a woman who wasn’t even my mate. If she was the right Jasmine, though, I’d brave worse than dragons just to be near her.

Now, all I had to do was show up for our mutual classes and let nature take its course.

I couldn’t wait.