Chapter 17 Sylas
~Sylas~
He was staring at me.
Again.
Of course, normally I would delight in that.
But it wasn’t lust or playfulness, or the good kind of smoking hot intensity that I was used to him bringing to the table when it came to me.
It was a worrying intensity.
There was a heavy edge to it.
Upset, concern, and suspicion seemed to lace those stares he was throwing my way, which he’d been doing for the last couple of weeks.
I’d accounted for him being unnerved during this new exploration of his sexuality with me, him opening up to that aspect of himself finally.
And it certainly wasn’t that. It had most definitely been ruled out when we’d spent that entire night in my dorm room devouring one another.
He’d taken to it well and with delicious enthusiasm.
He’d reveled in our sexual connection and my teachings.
“Death Sense.”
I shifted my querying gaze from him opposite me to the left where Velra sat beside him at our end of the table in the Dining Hall.
We’d spent the last two mornings having breakfast together before classes, and it had been such an enjoyable time that we’d now extended it to lunch for today. A couple of times a week, all our class schedules worked out seamlessly where we could take lunch at the same time.
I munched on my roast beef sandwich on pumpernickel with spicy mustard that I enjoyed, moving between that and sipping at my blackcurrant tea.
I’d also brought some of my homemade jerky from my dorm room stash, only managing to eat one of them before Lazriel had nabbed the rest and shoveled them down.
I watched as she and Lazriel chatted away while she ate her flatbread with roasted garlic and goat cheese for her lunch.
Lazriel’s plate was piled high as usual with a steak sandwich, stacked with arugula and red peppers, along with spicy sausage bites and crispy sweet potato wedges.
He was also sipping from a glass of whiskey. Something he’d taken to doing for the last few days ever since it had been revealed that his mother had sent along protection in response to an ominous and yet to be revealed threat.
As they continued talking about Velra’s idea to use Death Sense to track down the homebase and commander of the group of vampires Rhyza Thaine had employed to safeguard her son, I finally intervened.
I’d been hoping that they would both realize the inherent dangers in going that route to gather intel on this unknown threat.
But the fact that they continued to discuss it had me concerned that it wouldn’t just remain in the theoretical or planning stage.
“You’ve never used Death Sense to track before, have you?” I spoke, eyeing Velra.
“No. But I was able to ascertain the death essence from three different people.”
“Drawing that out is a far cry from using it to track them via Death Sense. We’re talking about vampires boasting centuries each—millennia between them.
The speed alone, the ground they can cover—it would be overwhelming on your psyche to seek them out that way.
It takes experience and a steel trap of a mind to be able to withstand the process, let alone succeed at it. ”
Velra took note, nodding along, and absorbing my warning. “I’d have to practice beforehand. On someone easier.”
“On me,” Lazriel said. “I’m only part vampire. The intensity might be muted.”
“Incorrect,” I cut in. “You have Ancient vampire blood. But what could make it easier on her is if you don’t employ your vampiric speed, move more easily, so when she practices tracking you it’s not like a swirling vortex of insanity running through her mind.
” I took another sip of my tea. “Or you allow somebody who is already well-acquainted with this ability to handle it.”
“You can do it too?” she asked me.
“Master of Death Magic at your service, little Wraith.”
“Master of Death,” Lazriel muttered, leaving off the Magic part. “Interesting.”
I frowned at him. Did he—had he… no he couldn’t sense anything on me. I’d made sure nobody could before I’d even set foot inside the Academy. I’d ensured it the moment I’d fallen sick. I had a lot of enemies—most from my vigilante work—and if they sensed weakness it would be open season on me.
“Interesting?” I queried.
He merely lifted a shoulder, then looked at Velra in that starry-eyed way of his.
Not that I wasn’t doing it also, let’s be frank about that.
“It’s the better bet. Let Sylas do it. He already has full command of that ability.
And you’re pushing yourself so hard with your frost and shadow magic, expanding your usage and understanding. ”
“Yeah, that’s true.” She eyed me. “But I’m the one who read those vampires.”
“I can extract that from you with a simple, targeted spell,” I informed her. “Access their signatures for myself.”
“Wow, that’s really something.”
“I suppose it is.”
She gave a nod of agreement. “Tonight? After classes, before Circle lockdown protocol?”
“I’ll come to your dorm room.”
“Perfect.”
It was perfect. Because it would allow me to take control of this situation.
Something I was already in the process of doing. My way.
My underhanded way that would protect them and be absolutely inconspicuous, rather than their intent to track the vampires who Lazriel’s mother had hired to protect him and then interrogate their leader.
Something that could rattle Rhyza’s deal with them, that could compromise Lazriel’s protection.
Their approach was too aggressive. Especially when we possessed barely any intel—something I would be fixing later tonight when I met with a contact of mine.
Well, after I’d performed a favor in exchange for the information.
In the meantime, while I pursued answers, I would use this Death Sense tracking to stall—and to calm them at the same time with them believing action was being taken.
“You’re heading out to that sorcerer group after classes?” Lazriel asked me.
He’d asked three times now—all today.
“Yes,” I responded. “Is that reality getting lost in translation somehow?”
He shifted his weight on his chair. “No. Just disappointed, I guess. I thought the three of us could go out or something. Hang beyond just eating lunch.”
“And we will. Just not tonight.”
“Fine,” he gritted out.
Velra and I exchanged a look.
I reached out and laid my hand on Lazriel’s, the one that wasn’t currently clutching the glass of whiskey—spelled whiskey that gave it a major kick.
I didn’t get much further than that, when an interruption came our way.
In the form of Kelsana Torl.
She gave me one of her flirty smiles as she’d been doing since the moment I’d arrived.
Fortunately, I’d shut it down quietly and had a word with her and our interactions were now reserved to just a brief smile or a glance here and there.
While to others it had appeared that she was attracted to me, that she wanted me, that wasn’t actually the case.
She hadn’t even realized the full extent of it until I’d explained.
It had happened before. Many times over.
Especially from Dark Fae beings, vampires.
Fortunately, in the case of both Velra and Lazriel, their hybrid natures prevented that from occurring.
But with Kelsana, it wasn’t attraction or sexual desire, it was about what I was—an experienced, highly-skilled, powerful Necromancer.
She was drawn to what I represented to her, especially as a Dark Fae.
An apex predator that didn’t bow. It was her hunger for dominance, control, and proximity to raw power.
A growl rumbled from Lazriel and as she turned her attention to Velra, it ramped up in ferocity.
I squeezed his hand, and it lessened a little. Not quite enough to be civil. But enough for him not to react aggressively.
Kelsana’s gaze flicked to him and she swallowed hard, then stopped at Velra’s chair and spoke quietly. “I’m sorry to bother you, but I just came by to ask you something.”
Velra frowned up at her. “Okay…?”
“We both have Harmonic Discipline: Dark Fae Magic & Ethical Focus with Dark Fae Professor Kiera Rae in a few minutes, and I was wondering if you’d sit with me?”
“Sit with you?” Velra asked, as shocked as we all were.
“Yeah. I’m… my track record for using Dark Fae magic responsibly and ethically isn’t exactly the best. It’s why I no longer attend Maven.
I don’t have the best… instincts. But I’m trying to get better.
You already are that, you already operate that way.
Would you… help me? Even if I could just observe you, it would do wonders.
” She wrung her hands. “I know after what I said that first day here, something I am so very sorry for, that you have no reason to want to help me or to—”
“We’ll sit together.”
Kelsana started. “We… really?”
Velra smiled one of her dazzling smiles. “I know what it’s like to fear your own power. Not my Dark Fae side like you do, but that is something I can help you with. If I can make a difference to somebody and ensure they don’t have to go through something like that alone like I did, I’m on board.”
“Oh my God, thank you.”
“No worries. See you in class.”
“Yeah. I will,” she said, brightly.
As she headed off out of the Dining Hall, Velra returned to eating like nothing had happened.
“Seriously?” Lazriel grunted.
“She needs help,” Velra told him.
“So, she’s suddenly no longer being an utter fucking cunt, and now she gets to use you for her own benefit?”
Fuck. “Take it down,” I warned.
He ripped his hand from mine. “No.”