Chapter 27
Twenty-Seven
I’m going to beat her fucking ass.
Another presence is made down the hall right where she had been running from. I glance away from the chalkboard to see Callahan with furious eyes making his way here. He looks like he ran around the whole damn school.
And he’s not in his uniform.
Gritting my jaw, I open my mouth the second he steps foot into my classroom but he beats me to it.
“Mavyn, so help me God of Fire, get your ass out of this classroom right now!”
His words echo in the room as I shut my mouth and turn to face the problematic bloodsucker. Her eyes are round and her plush lips hang open as she stares at Callahan. Her friend and roommate next to her has the same expression, but neither of them move.
Callahan begins climbing the stairs to their row.
“Mr. Armani,” I warn, but he dismisses my words with a shake of his head.
“Get your – “
“Do not tell me what I can and cannot fucking do,” she snaps, but Callahan pulses a wave of his magic to try and silence her.
Stupid.
She stands up so fast out of her chair it hits the step and desks behind her with a force that mirrors how it felt when she slammed on the door. It shakes the ground. I’m surprised it doesn’t splinter the chair itself.
“If you ever – “ And I can feel her aura. The same blackened rage I had felt for a fraction of a second when she threatened me. Now a simple flame but with the power to consume us all in fire. “ – try to silence me again, Callahan Rusilan Armani, I will reduce you to dust.”
Her aura disappears again like it was never there but the energy remains. Fire. Like the remnants that had remained burning in Thorne’s rooms even after he should have been able to douse them.
Blue flame is a lost magic. There is no one alive still who has the art – let alone the type of powerful aura needed to contain it.
The last person in recorded history was from five thousand years ago.
A blood witch who was an expert in runic magic and a vampyr with an exceptional blood art who were able – together – to harness the magic of blue flame.
They were the tipping point in the War of Gods and both of them were consumed in the end by their flames as they ended a war that had lasted a millennium.
And before that I only know of one other person. Syngenia the first Vampyr. Daughter to Syngenia the Blood Witch, first witch created at the dawn of beginning.
But she had answered my questions. She said she did not burn down Thorne’s rooms. She answered the question bluntly and without hesitation.
Not to mention she doesn’t have the magic or aura to do it.
Though, that fraction of a feeling of her aura I did feel.
. . it makes me think she does have some sort of a power.
Something strong and having to do with flame – which would align with her pink eyes coming from a vampyr line of red eyes.
But that is not what makes my own eyes go wide, along with Callahan’s. No one, and I mean no-fucking-one, knows our full names. It’s a type of tradition with devils – and usually angels – to keep second names secret because they’re the names of our true forms. The things we harbor within us.
Fire and wood snake through the room with a toasted quality. There’s a warmth with Callahan’s scent as his name continues to echo in the room. His expression of shock morphing into complete awe and admiration. Making his aura go soft and gentle like a warm campfire in a fairy glen.
“Say it again,” he whispers. Gentle in only a way a devil can be because of his fated. They may have not bonded their souls, but being fated goes above all minor traditions. They either finish cementing their bond, or one of their souls dies.
The bloodsucker twitches back at Callahan’s display. Does she know the power of saying a devil’s full name? Does she know what it means to say it to them?
More importantly, how the fuck does she know his? Not even I knew it. Not that I would ever say it. For anyone other than their fated – or occasionally their parents – to use a devils or angels second name is practically a death sentence.
Her pale pink eyes glance at me but immediately look away. I doubt she’d find anything helpful, considering I’m still reeling about the fact that she still has secrets that she won’t tell me, she challenges me at every incident, and the fact that she broke a Devil’s Lock.
It’s not hard for a celestial to break the lock, but even Castiel and Edmond have trouble with mine.
There’s a reason I’m responsible for keeping the old books secure in the catacombs of the library.
No mere student, let alone a nineteen-year-old vampire who was just barely turned, should be able to break it.
Even if she does have power from the blood of the vampyr who caused her to turn.
Because she didn’t just pick and unlock the damn thing, she full on crushed it.
“Why?”
Her voice snaps me out of my thoughts. It reminds me the interruption that is happening in my classroom during my class.
“Because.” My voice demanding and full of annoyance. “Second names, or what you would call a middle name, is the name given for a devil or angel’s True Form. To say it would be equivalent to accepting both the being and their beast.”
She jerks back and panic rises up. A flash of hurt crosses Callahan’s face as she starts shaking her head and gets lost in thought but he covers it.
An interesting reaction from someone towards their fated.
She had a similar emotional state when I asked if she was keeping secrets from her fated as well.
Callahan gently raises his hands like you would so you don’t scare a meek creature. “It’s alright, Mavyn. You didn’t know, it’s okay. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”
There’s an off-ness about his tone. Knowing Callahan his whole life from partially growing up with him and how he’s viewed romantic notions and beliefs about fated’s and claiming’s and blood sharing.
. . this does not sound like the Callahan I know.
He has only ever been surrounded by true, unfiltered, pure love and that’s all he would talk about for a year when he was ten – wondering when he’d find his fated.
It’s a thought that has always been at the back of his mind.
He did the same thing when we were in the Dean’s office too when we all learned she had been claimed already.
And while it’s true that it becomes void if one of them dies and they aren’t fated, her marking from him will never disappear.
And it being right over her heart. . . I’d rather skin myself than have a forced claiming mark on me like that. It’s a disgrace.
Mavyn straightens and grabs her chair. “I’m fine, Callahan.”
But her voice is cold and speaking to Callahan like that grates on my nerves. She has no right to use that tone with him. My mood is shifting from wanting to spank her ass as a punishment to actually wanting to punish her. Callahan above all of us does not deserve any hardship.
“I don’t need rest, I need to not fail this school.” Her frigid eyes point at me. “And if I don’t pass this class then I automatically fail, and if I fail I’m dead. Your father said so.”
Guilt pricks in the back of my conscious but I ignore it.
I didn’t know she was on a death sentence if she didn’t graduate.
I had assumed – actually I hadn’t assumed anything.
I hadn’t thought about it and what would happen.
All my focus was if she was a spy for the Mage Board, but after finding out she wasn’t I didn’t look further about why she was here.
It should have been obvious. Illegally turned vampires are immediately sentenced to death.
Usually on the spot by the enforcer who found them.
With their newly gained strength, human mentality, and bloodlust they’re a danger not only to us but also to humans – most of who know nothing of their non-mortal world.
Still. . . I shouldn’t care. Afterall, she said I needed to stay out of her business. Meaning she, and whatever happens to her, is not my concern.
“If you both don’t sit in your fucking chairs right now,” I rumble, letting my magic influence my tone, “I’m automatically failing you both right here, right now.”
I can’t, nor would I, do that to Callahan, but the bloodsucker doesn’t have to know that.
She immediately sits, focusing her eyes on her tablet. Callahan glances at me with an emotional exhaustion before looking away and taking his seat. These two will be the death of me.
After a moment, Callahan finally takes his seat next to her and I turn back towards the board.
So many minute thoughts are running through my mind.
About the bloodsucker, her past, her herself.
I have questions about what her magic is, why the Mage Board let her enroll, does she have anything to do with what happened?
Or. . .
Maybe it’s not the Mage Board she’s a spy for. It could be the rebels.
They’ve been more active lately. More bold with their attacks and standoff’s and energy. Something has shifted with their underworking’s and everyone is getting antsy about what they plan to do next.
In the beginning their goal had been to overthrow the Mage Board.
There may be eight seats each with a different race, but favor tends to point towards the mages themselves despite not being a celestial.
They have the closest relation to witches and while it isn’t common, mages do have the ability to adapt and learn how to wield other elements they weren’t born with.
Especially after the fall of witches, the mages were smart with conducting their power. They have only grown stronger in recent years as well.