Chapter Nineteen
Bechora
I didn't need to know anything about real vampires to know taunting one was stupid.
Taunting one who'd just attacked me? I'd lost my damned mind. It was sheer luck that Gabriel hadn’t turned around and finished what he started when I yelled after him. Instead, he fled the scene, leaving me feeling as if my heart would burst free of my chest at any moment, and my body wracked with shivers from the lingering adrenaline. I allowed myself to collapse against the wall behind me, the rough, cold stone grounding me. My fingers prodded at my neck where he’d bitten me, and I jerked them back in shock when I felt two raised marks where puncture wounds should have been.
My jaw dropped at the absence of blood on my hands.
Panic threatened to choke me as everything I’d read in the library about the Dreadgraves whirled through my mind.
Gabriel’s family was powerful. His father had been part of the King’s inner circle for centuries, long enough to be noted in the textbooks stored in Blackthorne Academy’s library.
Even if the Academy believed me about the attack, they wouldn’t do anything because of who Gabriel was.
My back slid down the rough stone wall of the library, the contrast no longer working to pull me from my mounting panic.
Geordie said I’d be safe here, and like a fool, I believed him.
My closest friend had lied to me about who he really was for six years, and yet I’d stupidly accepted his word on this.
Gabriel’s attack made it crystal clear that I wasn’t safe at the Academy.
Whatever magic I supposedly held was broken.
Without it, I couldn’t defend myself. More than that, I was a nobody from the human realm.
Gabriel could crush me like a bug without lifting a finger.
The rules were different here, but one thing remained the same.
People in positions of power shaped the world to suit themselves while the rest of us fought for scraps to survive.
Blood roared in my ears, and my heart threatened to burst free of my chest as the realization settled.
My eyes darted around the narrow pathway, and I realized how exposed I was.
Anyone could stumble upon me and decide to hurt me in a bid to increase their standing.
My sweaty palms pressed me off the ground as I scanned my surroundings for signs of danger.
The moment I was upright, I ran for the only sanctuary I had.
My feet pounded against the cobblestone, sending jolts of panic ripping through me as I raced toward my dorm.
By the time I reached my door, I was in a near frenzy.
Blowing into the space I shared with Shadrie, I stopped long enough to slam the door behind me and lock it before gulping down air.
“Bechora?” Shadrie’s voice was muffled by the sound of my heartbeat.
My eyes flitted to where she stood in the open doorway to her room as my hands clutched at my chest in an attempt to catch my breath.
“Bechora, what’s wrong?”
“I-I can’t be here,” I rushed out, my feet moving once again, this time toward my bedroom. “It’s not safe. I have to leave. I need to get away from here.”
I stormed to my closet and grabbed my duffle bag from the bottom before leaving it open on the bed. I barely registered the confusion and alarm on Shadrie’s face as I tore clothing from hangers and tossed them into the bag.
“I can’t protect myself. Geordie lied. I’m not safe if I stay here. I have to go back to the human realm. It’s the only way I can be safe.”
“Bechora, what happened? Talk to me,” Shadrie said, moving to stand between me and my bed.
The words spilled from my lips, my voice reaching decibels I didn’t know I was capable of with each one.
I began to pace the floor as I told Shadrie what Gabriel had done and what it meant for me.
I barely registered her calls for me to calm down and think rationally.
It wasn’t until her palm cracked across my cheek that my panic released me, anger burning it away.
“Did you just fucking slap me?” I roared, halting my pacing and taking a threatening step in her direction.
“Come at me and I’ll freeze your ass in place, B,” she replied coldly.
My eyes flitted to her hands, catching the puffs of cold air coming from her fingertips. “You better have a damned good reason for putting your hands on me, Shadrie.”
Shadrie heaved out a breath, her shoulders drooping slightly. “You were panicking, and nothing I said was pulling you out of it. I did the only thing I could think of to get you back to reality. Clearly, it worked. You’re not raving like a lunatic and trying to pack your bag anymore.”
My head jerked back as if she’d slapped me again as my mouth opened and closed.
I took a moment to glance around my room and realized that I’d turned it completely upside down.
It looked like someone had ransacked the place.
I sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly before moving to collapse onto my bed next to my duffle bag.
“Tell me what happened, B,” Shadrie said quietly, moving to grab my desk chair and sit in front of me. “You were rambling so fast, I only caught bits and pieces.”
Shame washed over me, and I stared down at my fidgeting hands in my lap. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m just not safe here. I feel like a complete idiot for ever believing I was.”
“What happened with Gabriel? I did catch his name, but couldn’t make sense of how he’s involved.”
“He attacked me outside the library,” I replied, raising my head to look her in the eyes.
“That bastard!” Shadrie hissed, standing from her chair. “He’s not going to get away with that, B. I’ll go with you, but you need to report him.”
“With what evidence?” I said with a sardonic laugh. “I felt my neck where he bit me and there’s no marks, no blood. Even if someone would believe me without any of that, it’s my word against his.”
“Shit,” Shadrie muttered, plopping back down into her chair. “You’re right. He’s a Dreadgrave, he’s almost as immune to discipline here as Vallynn and Zypher.” She paused for a moment, her eyes lighting up.
“Why do I feel like that look on your face means you’re about to tell me something I won’t like?” I asked.
“Zypher is the solution, B,” she replied with a smug smile.
“You’re mated to the Demon Prince. The administration might not do anything if you report it, but there’s a reason they play nice with the demons on campus.
Nobody outside of their own really knows how powerful they are with the deals they make, and rumor has it Lucifer Morningstar could burn the entire realm to the ground if he felt like it. ”
“I’m not going to use him like that. I haven’t even decided if I’m going to accept this mate bond between us.”
Shadrie groaned in frustration and rolled her eyes. “It’s not using him; he’d happily deal with Gabriel for you. It’s kind of a whole thing for demon males to prove themselves to their mates before completing the bond.”
“No, Shadrie,” I said more firmly.
“Well, you can’t leave the academy.” Her eyes flitted to my duffle bag in a pointed look.
“No matter how much you may want to, it’s not allowed unless you have your magic bound.
Do you really think Professor Thrackborne is going to do that for you after forcing you to meet with him almost daily to work on tapping into and controlling your power? ”
My mind shifted to the grumpy professor. Shadrie had a point; that man was too much of an asshole to bind my magic after he’d invested so much time into helping me with it. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out.
“If you’re not going to tell Zypher, you need to make Gabriel think what he did had no effect on you. People here view fear as a sign of weakness, so don’t let him know that you’re afraid.”
I considered her words for a moment. They weren’t too far off the lessons I learned on the streets back home.
Even in the human realm, there was always going to be someone stronger, someone better connected, someone who would take satisfaction in crushing you simply because you were afraid.
Not showing that fear was a type of power in and of itself, and exactly why my instincts drove me to taunt Gabriel before I spiraled.
“You’re right,” I replied finally, squaring my shoulders and lifting my chin defiantly.
Shadrie’s face split into a grin. “There’s the bad bitch I’m getting to know and love. Now, unpack your bag, boss up, and show that fucking vamp he’s not even close to scaring you away from the academy.”
Less than an hour later, my room was set to rights, and I was on my way to face Gabriel in combat class.
The closer I got to the training grounds, the harder my heart pounded against my ribcage, but I kept my resting-bitch-face firmly in place.
My composure nearly cracked when I found Gabriel absent from class.
Even as a wave of relief washed over me, I wondered if his absence meant he was plotting something worse for me.
Shaking off the unwanted thoughts, I turned my attention to the lesson at hand.
Rumlock was teaching us basic combat maneuvers.
After walking us through them a handful of times, he paired us off and sent us to the mats to practice with a partner.
I found myself paired up with the girl who’d accidentally struck the bear shifter I’d been against on our first day with lightning.
“Kiri,” she smiled as we took position on the mats. “Nice to meet you.”
“Bechora,” I replied with a smile of my own. “I think I owe you a thanks for our first day of class. Even if it was an accident, you saved my ass.”
Kiri leaned forward conspiratorially. “It wasn’t an accident. Esmara bullied me all last term, so when I saw my chance to get a little revenge without consequences, I took it.”
I barked out a laugh. “Fuck, that’s cold. I like you.”
Kiri let out a tinkling laugh and winked just before Rumlock’s whistle blew, signaling for us to take our positions.
The rest of class flew by. Kiri was a great partner on the training mats.
Between her taking the time to make corrections to my stance and movements and the tidbits she gave me about the other students, I left class feeling like I’d gained another ally in this strange realm.
She managed to erase the lingering doubts I had about remaining at the academy by the time we parted ways after class.
I found Shadrie perched on the couch in our common space, as if she’d been waiting for me. “How’d it go?”
“He wasn’t in class,” I shrugged.
“Oh?” she asked, arching a single brow. “Well, that’s interesting. Maybe he saw you headed to class and went back to his dorm to nurse his ego over not scaring you away.”
“Whatever it takes for him to leave me alone, I guess,” I chuckled. “Class was actually really great without him there.”
Shadrie waggled her fingers in a “gimmie” motion, and I filled her in on the time spent on the mats with Kiri.
“Kiri Forrester?” Shadrie asked, though her tone said she already knew the answer.
“Her mother writes the most popular gossip column in the realm. Rumor has it that after the way Esmara treated Kiri last term, her mother went nuclear and used her connections from the column to completely destroy the Tarrene family’s reputation and business. ”
“Should I be worried?”
“Nah. Kiri is a sweetheart and a good source of information on people. The kind of ally you want in your situation,” Shadrie replied.
“So, stay on her good side,” I said, blowing out a breath. “If class was any indication, that will be easy enough.”
Shadrie stood from her perch and clapped her hands together.
“Alright, enough of that kind of talk. I wasn’t just waiting for you to see what happened in class.
I forgot when we made plans to binge trash TV with Miles and Zypher that I already had plans for tonight.
I already talked to the guys, and they’re fine with hanging out tomorrow instead.
But…” she paused to look me over, “if you’d feel safer with me staying in tonight, I can cancel, and we can have a girl’s night. ”
“I’m fine,” I replied. “Seriously, between you and class with Kiri, I am over my freakout. I’m just exhausted after everything, so I want a shower and then my bed.”
“Sounds like a solid plan. I’ll put a warding spell my sister taught me on our door as extra security, but Gabriel would have to be really desperate to bother you here. Consider it an upside to being in the same house as the asshole prince.”
“You will have to explain how those things are connected to me at some point, but not today,” I said, shaking my head as I turned toward my room. “Go, have fun. Like I said, shower and bed, that’s it for me tonight.”
“You’re the best, B! I’d tell ya not to wait up for me, but I already know you’re going to bed, so… I’ll see you in the morning,” Shadrie said with a soft laugh before returning to her own room to get ready for whatever her plans were.