Chapter 12 #2
The alarm on his phone chirped, reminding him that his lecture was in just a few minutes. “Come on, then. We can talk about your argument on the way to class.”
The lecture room was mostly full by the time they got there, the students all with their laptops out, ready to learn. Alexander placed his own computer on the table in front of the room, going to erase the blackboard.
His phone buzzed. Normally he would ignore it so as not to encourage the same bad behaviour in his students, but the thought of Tobias trying to contact him and Alexander ignoring him for nearly two hours was almost unbearable.
He slid the phone out of his pocket and his stomach dropped to find that it was just Maria.
Maria (09:58): Did you get the location that father sent you of that second attack?
It was an Oxford uni student, by all accounts.
PLEASE check it out today. He’s been storming around all night pissed that you’ve not been home, and he’s threatening to cut you off now, so it would behove you to just… fix this. Xo
His father had never threatened to cut him off from the family fortune before.
It wasn’t as though Alexander didn’t have access to his own accounts – he wasn’t an idiot, he knew how to put money into a bank in Switzerland – but they weren’t nearly as bottomless as the Damianos family’s wealth, the result of nearly a thousand years of empire and pillaging and blackmailing their way to the apex of power in England.
Every time Vladimir had killed off another clan, he’d absorbed their wealth as well.
He was likely the richest man in the world, many, many times over.
There was a lot he wouldn’t be able to do if he didn’t have access to that money, including feed all the families that came through the soup kitchen.
Alexander shuddered, his blood running cold at the intensity of Vladimir’s threat, and bit his lip hard to focus himself.
He typed out a quick response to his sister, reassuring her that he was going to look at the site of the second attack today and that he’d report to their father over the phone if he didn’t have time to drive back to the estate.
He’d have to put any thoughts of either work or Tobias aside for the afternoon and focus on his father’s fucking investigation.
Vladimir probably knew who it was anyway, and he was using this to test Alexander, because everything and everyone was a game to him, pieces on a chessboard that only he could see the whole of. The thought of being used as a pawn made Alexander grind his teeth together.
He stuck his phone face down on the lectern and summoned all his scraps of willpower to stop thinking about his father, his fortune, the boy whom he may be hurting with every single interaction, all of it.
Part of the peace of teaching was that for two hours, nothing else existed except his students and the information he was trying to jam into their heads.
He took a breath. “Hello everyone,” he said, trying for a smile that didn’t look like he was about to eat them all. “Let’s talk about anarchy.”
The peace of being in the classroom lasted precisely one and three quarter hours.
He’d relaxed, the tension in his limbs easing away under the familiar routines of instructing students.
It never changed much, unless one counted the clothing they all wore, the fact that they all bathed quite a bit more than people had in the Middle Ages, and the blissful invention of both heating and air conditioning.
Routine soothed him. Knowing what, precisely, to do to get a situation right pleased him.
It stilled the tapping of his fingers against his thigh and the way his teeth would compulsively grind together until his jaw hurt.
He didn’t know if it were possible for an immortal vampire to have clinical anxiety, but then again, being related to Vladimir Damianos was as good an excuse as any for developing it.
It all felt nice and normal until the door opened, and Alexander’s entire body tensed. Because in walked Tobias.
Walk was likely the wrong word. Saunter was somewhere closer, because Tobias was smirking and eyeing him like he was the vampire and Alexander was the mortal prey.
There was something about the insouciance of his expression, the way he dropped his book bag onto the ground and draped himself over a seat, his legs splayed, that caused heat to flood Alexander’s body.
Tobias stared at him, licked his lips, and blew Alexander a kiss. And Alexander was lost.
The rest of the students didn’t seem to notice the intrusion, none of them giving Tobias a second glance.
They likely assumed he was Alexander’s graduate student assistant, dropping in to help with grading.
They didn’t need to know – Alexander needed them not to know – that the only thing Alexander wanted Tobias’ help with was clearing the students out of the room so he could fuck Tobias hard enough that he’d be hobbling out of the lecture hall.
It was an interminable amount of time before Alexander’s phone chirped again to let him know that class was over. This time, there was no chance of him holding the students late.
“See you next week.” He waved them all off, and they stood and started packing up their things. “I’ll have your essays marked by next class.”
They all exited in single file, a few stragglers hanging around to ask questions that Alexander dispatched as quickly as possible, doing his best to avoid staring at Tobias all the while.
He was wearing a navy knitted jumper with nothing underneath.
Alexander caught a flash of skin through the loose weave.
Fuck. Tobias’ faded jeans clung to his hips, and his Doc Martens had clearly been laced up in a rush.
The mid-afternoon light was reflecting off the gold of his hair from the room’s enormous windows.
Finally, they were the only two left in the room. Tobias got up, crossed over to the lecturer’s desk, and leaned forward on his forearms, staring up at Alexander through his eyelashes.
“Hello, professor,” he said, a smile spreading across his face.
“Tobias, have you surprised me by signing up for my seminar?”
“What can I say,” Tobias replied, walking closer. “I felt inspired.”
“And here I was under the impression I was meeting you later.”
Tobias’ voice dipped lower. “Couldn’t stay away.”
“Is that so?”
Tobias blinked rapidly, caught his lower lip between his teeth, and nodded like some innocent cherub. Alexander knew he was nothing of the sort.
“So, with what can I assist you, Tobias?”
“With everything.”
Alexander allowed himself three seconds of restraint, then pounced.