Chapter 14
Fourteen
Females should be more worshiped than they are. They should be bowed to like gods. Revered because we are divinity, we are the definition of holy, we are – “
“Delirious,” Jullia interrupts and I roll over to smush my face into my pillow and groan. “Are you sure you’re okay, Mavyn? You’ve been grumbling like this all weekend. I know you haven’t really eaten any regular food, but you said you’d be fine with enough blood and water. . . “
Another cramp seizes my uterus. They’re always the worst right when my period comes and right when it ends. Which wouldn’t be a problem, only vampires once turned no longer get periods.
Curling up into a fetal position, I don’t answer.
No one has really questioned the amount of times I’ve had to go to the bathroom.
I don’t bleed outright. . . or at least I can make it so I don’t bleed outright but I can only keep the blood contained for so long which means I need to use the bathroom at least once an hour.
That’s the only reason no one has been able to scent my blood on me. If anything I probably just smell a bit sweeter than normal.
I wish I had my things. I have a balm I rub on my abdomen that helps with the cramps and a tonic I add to teas to help with all the other side effects. It’s not monumental, I can still go to class and do my job – which I have been doing these past four days, but it’s still a bitch.
“I’m dying,” I groan. The words muffled by my pillow practically shoved into my mouth.
Jullia makes a distressed noise and I can hear her getting off her bed.
“Do you need more blood? Or is this a side effect from the poison?” Her anxiety is like a ball hovering right over her. “Want me to see if they can give me some pain relievers at the clinic?”
If only they would work.
Rolling back onto my back, I take a deep breath and blank out the pain. It’s not too bad, not like it can get. Pain-wise it’s definitely an eight out of ten, but my management of it is like a three. It hurts, but it’s a pain I can handle because I’m used to it.
Doesn’t mean I want to though.
Turning my head to the side I see Jullia standing in the middle of the room looking stressed. This poor girl, I doubt this is how she thought her university life would go.
“I will live,” I sigh. “And this just. . . happens. . . occasionally.”
Like once a month.
She relaxes and nods her head. “Is it a human thing? With all your anomalies I wouldn’t be surprised.” I hum. Technically, humans have menstrual cycles too. All females except goddesses and vampires. At least in some format or another. “Ah, okay. Did you need anything?”
I wave her off. She goes back to her bed to finish whatever homework she has.
I made sure to do everything I needed to yesterday before I had to work.
I have it off tonight and tomorrow night, but I’ll be back Tuesday after classes.
That’ll be the start of my official pay period.
The head manager loved my work in the arena.
Turning back towards the ceiling, I try not to think about that first day I had to clean it. Key word is try.
Stupid fucking demons and devils. Stupid fucking morals too because I highly doubt Thorne would have cared so much about the mark the devil left on me if it wasn’t because Thorne is a blood demon and they have “feelings” on stuff like that. Claiming’s and blood sharing and ownership and fated shit.
Deep in the resets of my brain I know it’s important. But also it’s all bullshit. None of it matters. Just because someone bites you doesn’t mean you actually marked them. And a true claiming mark won’t fade.
Except, of course, when the fangs are embedded with blue belladon and then they just can’t fade.
Motherfucker.
I’ve already concluded I’ll be alone for the rest of my life. To be honest, I’m surprised I’m still a virgin after everything with the devil. Looking at it realistically, I’m sure he was waiting till I was a bit older. Which is a shitty, disgusting, abominable reality, but it’s truth.
Then all the abuse in the foster homes and the sleazebag males who I could physically feel the lust from.
You would think a strip club and brothel was the furthest place I would be, but Ms. Elaycia puts our safety and needs above everything else.
And she’s never pressured me to go anywhere near those secret rooms or the stage.
Even the male workers Ms. Elaycia employs and the few she houses are only ever respectful. One of them, Caleb, I actually miss him too. Rosemary is like all of ours big sister and Caleb is like our big brother. The damn mage – of all things – is the perfect boy next door vibes.
And sure, he’ll flirt and play around but it’s only ever platonic. I can feel that from him. He never pushed past my limits. He also let me drink his blood. And mhm, light mage blood tastes like freedom.
He would be able to do this thing where he created this ball of light and could make it warm giving the impression of the sun. It never burned.
What I would give for that warmth right now. What I would give to go roll in the grass on a warm, sunny day.
“Jullia?” I call. She hums in response. “Do you know anything about runes or runic curses?”
I can tell she stops what she’s doing and turns to look at me.
“Where did that question come from? I don’t really know much except what is talked about.
Runic magic is technically a learned magic anyone can do, but the mental aspects of it are why not every does do it.
It’s more than just knowing numbers and symbols and having intent. ”
“Does Asher know more about it? He knew how to make a blood oath.”
She hums again. “Maybe. . . his ancestors used to be one of the main experts in runic magic, but after the War of Gods a lot of the knowledge wasn’t passed down. He only knows how to create the rune for the blood oath and how to draw a protection circle. Maybe a few other ones too, but that’s it.”
I wonder if the library would have more information.
Nana said she wasn’t an expert in runic magic – though she seemed like one with how easily she could do them – and she said she couldn’t break mine.
She said I’d have to find someone who is an expert in runic magic and explicitly knows runic curses.
“Why. . . ?” Jullia asks again.
I blow out a puff of air. “Just curious, I guess. I’ve seen runes around the school. Do you know anyone who would be an expert in them? One of the professors maybe?”
I slide my eyes over to her and watch her ponder. Her lips form a thin line as she glances at me, and when she notices me watching her she winces.
“Don’t tell me it’s Thorne.”
I want nothing more to do with that fucking demon.
Her expression softens a bit. “No, but. .
. “ Why does there have to be a “but”? “. . . the only professor I know of who might know about runes is Professor Asier. Asher’s first year he said Professor Asier subbed for his astronomy with relative astrophysics class and there was a chapter about how runes correspond with astrophysics. Asher said it was one of his favorite classes and chapters even to this day.”
Ahh, so not the demon but one of the devils. He hasn’t talked to me or interacted with me since the first day. Even when he came back for the next class after the demigod subbed he didn’t even look at me.
Not that I’ve given him a reason either.
I’ve made sure everything has been turned in on time, if not before then.
Same with the demigod too, now that he’s my race insight and theology professor.
My only days I’m free of them are Tuesdays and Thursdays when I have philosophy and physics and astronomy with relative astrophysics.
And even then, Callahan is in my astronomy class but at least he sits a few rows behind me so he’s not next to me.
“Are you going to ask him?” she asks me.
“I don’t know.”
Someone knocks on the door and that must mean it’s about six o’clock because Asher always comes over to bring dinner for him and Jullia. The last two Sunday’s I’ve been passed out so his look of surprise mixed with guilt as Jullia opens the door and lets him in is no surprise.
There’s a plastic bag with takeout in his hand.
“I thought you’d be a sleep,” he says as he crosses the room to set the food on Jullia’s desk. It smells like chow mien. “If I had known I would have gotten you something.”
He shrugs out of his jacket and drapes it over the back of Jullia’s desk chair. I wave him off and look back at the ceiling.
“I’m not hungry.”
Which is a lie because I didn’t eat any food yesterday and haven’t eaten anything today. Asher scoffs lightly under his breath. Yeah, even I wouldn’t believe that.
“Want me to go grab you something?” he asks, even though he already has his shoes off by the door and is crawling onto Jullia’s bed.
She snickers at him as she moves all her notebooks and textbooks.
Part of me thinks it’s weird no one has laptops since they have other modern twenty-first century technology.
I wave at him again. “I might go out anyway.” Not that I have any money to buy food, but maybe I will see if Professor Asier is in his classroom or office.
“The sun doesn’t set for another almost two hours,” Asher supplies, even though I already know that. That’ll be the one plus to fall, the sun setting sooner. “Where are you gonna go?”
“She might visit Professor Asier to ask about runes,” Jullia whispers not so discreetly.
“What do you want to know about runes?” Asher asks me, which is followed by a slapping sound. “What?”
“You and Hanna are the most un-discreet people I have ever met,” she grumbles.
They make me smile. “I was curious about runic magic and runic curses. I wanted to know if anyone knew about them. Or maybe the library has some books on them. . . ?”
There’s some shuffling and then the smell of orange chicken enters the room and I don’t know how but my stomach doesn’t growl.