Chapter 26 Lazriel #2
I stowed my phone away then walked out of the Great Hall.
I literally stared at two paths heading in separate directions ahead of me.
The one to the right would be a straight-run burst of vampire speed right back to Wraeven Academy where I could just chill in my dorm room and bide my time. Sylas was at Arcanum Order right now so I couldn’t hang with him.
The one to the left led in the direction of Haven Initiative—another straight-run to that location actually. Yes, shit, I’d looked it up like a goddamn creeper.
“That was… whew… so that’s what Immortal blood is all about. Holy fucking shit.”
I remembered saying that to Sylas when I’d been hopped up on said blood. In a major fucking way.
“He relaxed into it, you know?”
“What?”
“Cassius… as I deepened the draw, he was into it.”
“You’re sure?”
“Shit, yeah. I felt it. No doubt about it.”
Despite the insanity and chaotic nature of what had gone down, I knew what I’d felt, what I’d sensed.
Cassius, uptight, closed-off, almighty Immortal had responded favorably to me feeding on him like a rabid animal. He’d gotten off on it.
The pain?
The depravity?
The danger?
The new experience of it?
I didn’t know.
And it bothered me that I didn’t know.
It also bothered me that I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Feeding from the vein like that and his positive reaction to it… I’d never experienced that before, and it had stayed with me.
I’d heard about what Immortal blood could do to vampires and from that I was apparently supposed to be craving his blood, to be focused on that aspect—but I wasn’t. I mean, sure, it had been the sweetest most wonderful thing I’d ever tasted, but that wasn’t what was nagging at me.
It was the way it had gone down, the fact I’d fed from the vein and it hadn’t just been pleasurable for me. Not just that… he’d been right there with me in the moment.
And I figured without the rabid aspect in play, maybe I could do it again… maybe I could finally be okay doing it again.
Fuck, maybe I was just trying to rationalize something deeply fucked-up and totally out of my control. And saying something was out of control for me was a hell of a statement considering how I led my life—Graverun kind of being the least of it.
Either way, I needed to know.
I clenched my fists.
And then I was vamp speeding down the left corridor.
Haven Initiative was such a bright and positive place.
It was all white stone walls that had massive colorful murals all over them, loads of playground structures covering the grounds, a group of kids learning how to play musical instruments under a tree a few feet in the distance as I’d arrived. There was laughter and singing, playing.
I’d also caught sight of Ketheron letting a couple of kids jump all over him and wrestle him to the ground, before they’d been called into class.
He was the one who’d directed me to where Cassius was at—the Faculty Wing at the far back of the sprawling facility.
I drew closer, chasing the potent scent of sandalwood.
Cassius’ signature smell.
I stopped myself.
I was tracking him.
Tracking him like an animal.
Why?
I knew where he was already thanks to Ketheron being the helpful, accommodating, and absolutely non-judgmental person that he was.
I considered texting Sylas. He’d know what to do. He wouldn’t be weirded out by what I was feeling. He’d help me. He’d know exactly how to help me.
He’d made peace with Cassius too. He’d told me and Velra that after he’d finished at Arcanum Order a few nights ago, Cassius had shown up, and they’d talked it out.
So he wouldn’t be upset from that standpoint.
And Velra was working carefully to bring Cassius into our foursome, so there was also that.
But Sylas was deep in research mode right now with Arcanum Order, and he didn’t like being interrupted there.
And then he was going to do that Death Sense tracking thing in between all that work—now that he’d taken those energy reads from Velra the other night and absorbed them into himself.
I was actually surprised he’d shown up in the Group Chat at all when he needed to focus on that, which was an incredibly mentally taxing task.
Plus, he’d been withdrawn lately, so maybe he wasn’t feeling himself, and he was trying to deal.
Velra had said that we’d wait another day or two, then confront him about it if he didn’t offer up freely what was going on with him.
She’d reminded me that everybody had downturns and bad days and we couldn’t pounce on them if their behavior suddenly changed, because they needed time to deal and everything.
For me, though, I felt it deep when somebody I cared about was off-kilter. In my fucking bones and blood alike. It was hard to just accept it, or wait for the time to see to it. It was like an itch under my skin that I couldn’t fucking scratch.
I sucked in a breath and decided against texting him.
Even texting Velra, who knew much more about Cassius and the way he worked, especially with him opening the Soul Brand to her again, was busy with Nyx. And she’d been looking forward to this tour he was giving her now for a long while. I couldn’t ruin that for her.
No, I’d just… I’d just deal with it.
I guess I’d gotten too used to leaning on the two of them.
But I’d been alone for a long while before they’d come along.
I’d handled a shitload on my own. I mean, my mom had been around, unlike what had been going on for weeks now.
I’d managed to reach out to her via a mind-link, but she’d told me that she was dealing with a dicey situation that she couldn’t speak about.
She’d closed the link before I’d even been able to ask her about sending that protection my way against some still unknown threat.
I was fine.
I was the Halfblood Hound, after all.. I could handle a surly, confusing-as-fuck person like Cassius. Even with him being an Immortal.
I reached the door, turned the knob, and threw it open.
Way too hard.
Shit.
It slammed against the wall—but didn’t make a sound.
And there was zero damage.
Under any other circumstances, that amount of unchecked force would have ripped it off its hinges, damaged the wall in the process, and basically turned the thing to kindling.
Huh. The place was obviously super reinforced then.
It made sense with a bunch of Celestial children running around who were still learning about their powers and abilities.
With a sigh of relief, I walked into the room.
And then I stilled, frozen to the spot.
There Cassius was, his back to me, over in the corner by a massive white marble desk—shirtless.
He was reaching for a neatly folded black tee on the desktop, his muscles rippling as he moved. His back was god-like perfection. Broad and insanely defined.
I went to speak, but stepped forward instead and tripped over something on the floor.
Me. One of the most agile motherfuckers alive, tripped over something that I hadn’t even noticed right in front of me.
I looked down as an abrasive clang sounded, to see a baseball bat covered in blood, the end ruined, all jagged, sharp metal.
Cassius spun, his shirt in hand, eyes wide at the sudden echoing through the space.
Fucking shit.
His whole chest was on display and if I’d thought his back was something to write home about, this was another level. I took in the distinctive mark there—the Soul Brand. It was striking, two jagged lines intersecting, one a glowing white, the other purple with black specks.
“Lazriel.”
My name rolled off his tongue.
In a different way to the sex-drenched way Sylas uttered it when we were getting carnal that turned me the fuck on. But it was spine-tingling from a different perspective. Sure, commanding, ensnaring.
“Yes,” I responded.
Yes? What the shit did that mean?
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
Great question.
Definitely a warranted one.
I bent down and snatched up the bat.
And then I realized… I couldn’t scent the blood on it.
What was happening?
He strode to me and held out his hand. “I’ll see to that.”
“Okay,” I answered, handing it over. “You don’t use baseball bats the conventional way here, I’m guessing?”
He smiled. “We do. This just got away from one of our students. They used too much force and an accidental explosion of magic. There was a brief loss of control, hence me needing to change, my shirt and chest sliced to pieces, unfortunately.”
Hold up. “That’s your blood on there?”
“It is.”
“I don’t understand. Why can’t I—”
“We have two vampire tutors visiting today teaching the children about restraint, so Ariana has cast a spell with the assistance of Kai Hunter and Ryker Morgan to completely mute the scent of all Celestial blood while inside this facility and its grounds.”
“Right,” I murmured, looking away from the bat. “Makes sense. Absolutely necessary too.”
He strode to his desk, his hips—and other things—working in a way I was trying not to notice, even the way his black pants hung low and drew too much attention to—stop it!
He laid the bat across the desk, then came back my way, stopping just a couple of feet in front of me.
“It was an accident, Lazriel.”
“What?”
“I don’t blame you. You have never been given the tools to handle the situation you were thrown into that day.
The way you responded was to be expected and I don’t put the responsibility on you.
I’ve also since come to understand, through conferring with Lucian Black, that when most vampires are confronted with Celestial blood and become rabid, they move to the kill.
Certainly not to merely revel in the act of the feed itself like you did… and… other things.”
Shit, his words wrapped around me.
Like a chokehold with their heaviness.
But a pleasurable, depraved type of chokehold.
I folded my arms across my chest, needing the barrier there right now. For his sake as much as mine, to be honest. “What other things were those?”