Chapter 4 #2
“Don’t. Stop doing this. Every fucking time!” I slammed my hands into Cassius’ chest and screamed at the top of my lungs, “Stop! Stop! Stop doing this to me!”
That nightmare slammed into me so brutally.
“So, that’s it?” I found myself snapping before I could snatch onto rational thought.
He jerked and spun back to me, his brow furrowing. “I hope to shit not.”
“It’s… what?”
“Is that what you want? To chalk this up to an error in judgment or something?”
“No. Of course not.”
His eyes lit up. “Of course not. That’s incredibly definitive.
” He smirked. “Good to know. Really fucking good to know.” He gestured at the alcove.
“Here wasn’t the right time. After your episode.
Your magic sending my control to hell. Gotta start from a place of calm and control. Especially with how I am.”
“Okay.”
“Yeah?” He took a step closer, but noticeably didn’t breach my personal space this time. “So, you liked my hands on you? Or was it my big dick?”
I burst out laughing. “You’re impossible.”
He chuckled. “Thought that would take the edge off.” He cocked his head to the side. “It’s become very clear with this interaction that you actually do like the flirty, more brazen side of me. You really hid that well.”
I hid a lot of things well.
“It’s growing on me.”
He grinned. “Sure, I’ll let you have that one.” He held out his hand. “Come on. I’ll vamp-speed you to your dorm room so you don’t have to deal with those shitheads in the Grand Atrium.”
I stepped up to him and pulled the key out of my back pocket and held it between us. With a flicker of my magic, it activated, glowing gold.
“Lock’s opening,” he said. “Let’s get you there.”
In the next beat, I took his hand, and then he was blurring us away again.
Lazriel stopped inside the Obscura Common Room.
Thankfully, it was actually empty at this point in time, nobody hanging out or lounging around chatting away. I figured students were either setting up their dorm rooms or still downstairs immersed in that awful crowd situation.
“Nice, huh?” Lazriel commented, gesturing around the space.
There was a soft, dark carpet lining the floor of the vaulted chamber.
A hearth crackled on the far wall. In the center an orb of blue magic hovered above a carved table, filtering announcements from the Academy.
Bookshelves lined the far walls. At the heart of the space were blue upholstered chairs that looked so cozy, even a couple of couches interspersed among them.
“Yeah. It seems comfy.”
“Comfy. Adorably cute.”
I slapped his arm and he chuckled, then led the way through a gothic-style archway that gave way to a corridor full of doors extending either side—dorm-room central for Obscura Circle students.
“It’s at the far end,” Lazriel told me, zeroing in with his vampiric senses to make out my name in a tiny elegant script right down the other end of the corridor. Away from everyone else and even set back too.
“Perfect!” I cried, forgetting to check myself.
Actually, not feeling like I needed to.
Lazriel beamed out at me.
I spotted something as we got closer.
In all the chaos I’d totally forgotten about my suitcase and bag.
That wasn’t like me at all.
I was very aware of my possessions. Of everything.
But, thankfully, there they were positioned right outside my door.
“Did you do this?” I asked him. “How? I’ve been with you the entire time. I mean, I know you can move fast—faster than other vampires, actually, but I would have at least seen you coming back and forth.”
“I can move faster, yeah. A lot faster than regular vampires. My father was an Ancient. But you would have seen if I’d left you to do this, yeah.” He frowned as he approached my suitcase, and then he bent down and snatched something off the floor. “This fell.”
“What is it?” I asked, walking to him as he held up a folded piece of paper with two words scrawled on it.
Dark Beauty.
A growl escaped Lazriel and he opened it.
That growl only deepened as he read over what was inside, me doing the same as he held it between us.
Velra,
What happened earlier was unfortunate. Don’t allow that to frame this new experience in a negative light. They are fools and their words hold no weight, nor do they deserve your time spent focusing on them.
I recovered your personal items. I hope this helps a little and alleviates some stress.
Enjoy your first night here.
You are truly striking and a force to be reckoned with.
We’ll be seeing each other soon. Count on that, Dark Beauty.
Sweet Dreams—Sylas Morgrave.
I took the note and pocketed it, while Lazriel glared at the wall, muttering a slew of curses to himself under his breath.
“Well, that was unexpected.”
“Unexpected isn’t exactly the word I’d use.”
I stroked his arm and he turned to me.
“Are you all right?” I asked him.
His jaw tightened. “Fine.”
“Lazriel.”
He pulled away and grabbed my suitcase and hauled my bag over his shoulder. “Let’s get you situated.”
I stared at him for a moment, then I inserted my magical key into the door.
The moment I turned it, a wave of golden light shot up all over the door and the walls, and then the door blew open.
“A really cool way to first access a dorm space.”
“That it is,” he said, clearly humoring me, because he’d been here for three years already, so it had to all be old hat to him at this point.
We walked inside together and he set my suitcase and bag against the inner wall.
I took in the space.
Those familiar arches stretched into high ceilings above, a whole shadowy effect that really fit the whole Obscura Circle thing well.
A stained glass window cast a silhouette of a winged creature over the space.
Beneath it was a desk of twisted dark wood with an antique journal ready and waiting for my input.
There was a four-poster bed draped in heavy black velvet.
It was absolutely stunning. A bronze candelabra flickered, giving off a mythic vibe that I loved.
There was a gargoyle statue and a suit of armor standing on guard with the Obscura symbol etched into it—a moon pierced by a dagger.
“Does your dorm look like this?” I asked Lazriel, turning to face him as he gazed around as well.
He smiled out at me and it was less restrained than it had been for a few moments there after the whole note thing. The heavy-handed note thing. I needed to look into that—and soon. What was Sylas playing at? Was he playing? Was there some game afoot here?
Thankfully, Lazriel’s deep voice brought me back to the moment as he told me, “There are some elements that are similar. The heavy woods, the upholstery, curtains. But there are some differences too. I’ll show you sometime soon.
” He smirked. “For the record, that wasn’t a come-on.
” He pulled something from his pocket and held it out to me.
I looked down at his palm to see a glinting black shard.
“What’s this for?”
“It’s a token. It will give you access to The Fade. It’s a magical party realm temporarily generated by the fourth years here. It’s in a couple of nights. The entry point changes constantly, but this will guide you to it.”
“Wow, this is really something.”
He nodded, and then an intensity took him as he told me, “I’ll be there. If you come, we’ll hang out, spend some time together. Like a… date, if you want. If you don’t, no worries, and I’ll see you the very next day. No pressure, all right?”
He wanted me to be absolutely sure because he couldn’t stand the idea of me blowing him off again in any way.
I took the token from him.
“I understand.”
“Good.”
He leaned in and kissed the top of my head. “Have a good night. You have a few days to settle in before classes. If you need anything, or just want to hang, you have my number from our Crossborn work, so just shoot me a text.”
“I will.”
He smiled, hesitated for a moment, then walked on out, closing the door carefully behind him.
I stared after him for a while, stunned by the whole thing, and struggling to process what the hell had happened.
And then I took in the space again.
My dorm room.
My space in a brand-new place.
The start to a whole different life.
Yes.