Chapter 20 Izzy
IZZY
Vyns showed me around campus, though we talked little after he’d poured his heart out. I got to know where most of the buildings were. He even showed me a set of stairs which descended to a stretch of beach below the cliffs on which the school sat.
Then he escorted me back to my room and would have left then, if I hadn’t invited him in… but only to show me how to use my new computer and phone.
Once he got me set up, he left.
“I’ve put my number in your phone,” he said at my door. “Call if you need anything. For now, I’ll tell Saldrea I haven’t learned much, that I need to get to know you better.” He gave a faint smile. “I look forward to doing just that.”
And he was gone.
What was a girl supposed to do with a man like that?
I definitely couldn’t trust him, but he also hadn’t done anything to give me any reason to doubt his intentions to deceive Saldrea.
I shook my head, exhausted, then headed down for dinner.
In my room that night, I tried to input what I could remember of the lesson on magic into my new computer, but it was all jumbled in my head. I’d have to wait for Rook’s help.
God.
Rook. The bastard who’d turned me in to the magical authorities, but who’d healed me and comforted me today.
And Myel. A sexy Goth shifter who wore his heart on his sleeve and was inextricably bound to me.
Now Vyns. A literal angel who thought I could change the world… assuming he wasn’t lying through his perfect teeth.
For a girl who’d only ever had one-night stands because she didn’t want a relationship, I sure did have a lot of guys interested in me.
And not just interested in my body. Myel was all apologetic that we came crashing together physically, while clearly wanting more from me emotionally.
Rook hadn’t comforted me today to get into my pants.
He’d already done that, so what reason did he have to be kind to me now?
And Vyns was a mystery wrapped in an enigma, under a layer of sexy Hemsworth gorgeousness who thought I was all-powerful.
Too much.
This world was to much.
Learning about magic and history was too much.
Saldrea was far too much.
And these three guys were way beyond too much.
I drowned in bewilderment, overwhelmed both emotionally and intellectually.
Collapsing onto my bed, I tried to work through it all as darkness fell.
“You okay?” Myel’s soft voice startled me from my thoughts. I still hadn’t figured out how the lights in my room worked so his voice filtered out from the gloom.
“Gah, stop doing that!” I hissed, sitting up, startled.
“Sorry.”
“And stop apologizing!”
“Sor— fuck.”
Okay, that made me laugh.
I sat on the edge of my bed. “How do I turn my lights on?” I asked, defeated. Yet as soon as I said the word “lights” they came on, dim, but on.”
“They react to your voice,” Myel said, a tall shadow in my room. “If you say the word again, they’ll get brighter. They have three settings. You can also say “lights low” or “lights full” to get to the two extreme settings.”
That made sense.
Since he was being so talkative… “How do you disappear and appear like that?” I asked. I then added, “lights,” to bump the level up one, bright without being overpowering.
Myel took two long strides to reach me, sitting on the edge of my bed beside me.
“It’s something my clan can do, but it’s not common among shifters or even other chiroptanthropes. We call it shadow-stepping. Essentially, whenever I’m not in full light, I can jump to another place of shadow nearby. I can’t go far, and I have to know the place I’m going to.”
That sounded curious and wonderous, but also… limited.
Myel continued. “When I leave here, I jump to a shaded spot in the trees below, then walk across campus and shadow-step back into my room. I could shadow-step four or five times to get across campus, but I don’t like to use it if I don’t have to. It’s a secret.”
Useful.
“But enough about me, I can sense your unease. What’s wrong?”
I told him about my day. Though, for his sake, I left out how Rook had comforted me and how interested in me Vyns seemed to be.
“You can’t trust him,” Myel said, shaking his head, referring to Vyns.
“I don’t.”
“He’s done horrible things for Saldrea.”
I was sure, though, from what he’d said today, he’d hated all of it. That was assuming he wasn’t lying.
God! Why did everything in this world have to be so complicated? Though, if three men had been interested in me back on earth, that would have been nearly as complicated.
“I’ll be careful,” I said to ease Myel’s worries.
“Good. Now you should rest.”
Great idea.
We stood and undressed. When Myel pulled his shirt off, I noticed blood-stained bandages around his abdomen, covering a wound just under his ribs on his right side.
“Jesus, what happened?” I asked, kneeling to get a better look.
Myel sighed. “Please don’t worry. I’ll heal. It’s nothing.”
It’s nothing? Like Fuck!
There was a good six inches of blood on these bandages.
I looked up at him. “Training?”
He nodded.
God that burned me, that shifters were treated like dirt, their lives worthless.
“How quickly do you heal?” I asked.
“I’ll be fine by tomorrow,” he said, but his face — and the sense of insincerity I got from him — told me another story. He couldn’t fully heal this in just a day.
“There’s healing magic, why doesn’t someone heal you?” I asked.
He cocked his head, with a look of: you have to ask?
Right, shifters aren’t worth it.
Screw that.
I laid my hand on the skin above the bandages and closed my eyes.
It was what Rook had done when he’d healed me.
I really had no idea what I was doing, nor any expectations it would work, but one of the few things I remembered from class today was: magic is transforming the anima within you into the effect you desire.
I desired Myel to not be bleeding through his bandages.
I concentrated on that, and my hand touching him, and his wound.
It took a minute or two of focus before… energy flowed out of me.
Myel gasped, then sighed heavily with relief. “What…?”
“Did that work?” I asked, blinking my eyes open.
Myel nodded slowly. “I felt it.” He gingerly unwrapped the bandages, and when they fell away a long fresh scar ran along his side.
“You healed me,” he gasped. “When did you learn to do that?”
I shrugged. “Just… tried it.”
He breathed out a laugh. “I should have known you’d be special,” he whispered. “Nymphs have water affinity, and water is closely associated with healing and transmutation magic, but I still would have expected you’d need a few weeks of study before you could do anything like this.”
Yeah, me too.
Cool!
I could use magic to do something useful! Not just randomly shift my features or pour the perfect shot.
I stood and finished undressing as he mulled things over.
“I supposed it’s possible,” he began slowly, “that the increased magic in this realm is bringing out some latent talents within you…” his last word trailed off in a long “ooooo” sound as his gaze caught on me.
One of the things I’d bought today was something to sleep in, a silky number with a camisole top and sexy little shorts.
“You like?”
It was clear he did. If his widened eyes and dilated pupils hadn’t spelled it out, the bulge in his pants and the rather hot blossom of desire through our connection told me all I needed to know.
And his lust billowing through our bond sparked my own.
Something told me I wouldn’t be wearing this for long.
After a quick and steamy fuck, with me sitting on my desk, legs wrapped around Myel as he stood and delivered — and we both tried to keep quiet so no one would hear us — we lay satisfied, wrapped together, in my bed.
I wasn’t one for snuggling, but being this close to Myel soothed all my cares away and I needed that if I was going to get any sleep tonight.
“Sleep well,” he whispered behind me, kissing my hair. Hair which was fading from platinum blond back to light brown. I really needed to learn to control that. I should make friends with another nymph… if I could.
One more item to add to my long list of things to do and learn and be. Luckily, I wasn’t worried about that list while Myel held me close.
I woke to my new phone’s alarm — which Vyns had helped me set — at six-thirty in the morning. I should have plenty of time before my first class… for real. I didn’t understand this whole thirty-hour-day equals twenty-six of my old hours, but I didn’t have to. I just had to live with it.
And it seemed Myel and I had finally done enough to satisfy the bond, since we both felt a light pleasant attachment the next day, no need for morning sex. He kissed me, dressed, and shadow-stepped away.
I needed a shower, but I knocked on my door to the shared bathroom before I went in.
“Come in, I’m indecent,” came Rook’s silky voice.
I didn’t really want to see him naked again today.
“How long are you going to be?” I asked through the door.
“Twenty minutes?” he replied.
Fuck that, I wouldn’t risk being late again.
I sighed and opened the door. “I’m going to have a shower, don’t peek,” I said, working hard not to look at the tall specimen of demonic allure grooming himself at the vanity.
“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” he said, but as far as I could tell, he kept his eyes on himself.
I quickly stripped and stepped into the shower, the glass separating the tub from the rest of the room wasn’t even glazed, so if he did glance my way, he’d get an eyeful.
“Who was your guest last night?” he asked casually.
“I was alone,” I replied, probably too quickly.
He laughed. “Sure,” he drawled the word. “Let me give you another quick lesson about the fae realm, this one’s biology. Concubi can sense and manipulate lust, and if you were alone last night, you were generating enough lust for two extremely horny people.”
Fuck. Of course I’d be roomed next to the one type of being who could tell if I was having sex no matter how quiet Myel and I were.
“Maybe I’m just that horny?” Wow, not what I wanted to admit to Rook of all people.
“Oh… I know you’re extremely horny, but this was… even more intense than what you shared with me. I may be a bit jealous.”
“Don’t be, just me and my hand getting very well acquainted.” What was I saying?
Gah! Shut up, girl!
“Sure,” he said, drawing out the word like before. “Look, I can keep a secret. I swear I didn’t hear you admit to being bonded to someone yesterday. Just… be careful… okay? Depending on who it is, you or they or both of you could get into a lot of trouble if found out.”
Yeah, I knew that.
“Ah… sure,” I said. “Well, I appreciate you keeping the secret I definitely don’t have.”
He chuckled.
After that we both did our thing in peace, though, as he was leaving, he added, “Next time you and your extremely horny hand have a date, perhaps you can do it at your hand’s place?”
“And if I can’t?” I asked.
Another breathy chuckle. “Then I’ll be jerking off in here, because with that much lust floating around, it’s hard not to give into it.”
“Oh.” I had no clue what to do with that.
He walked out, but I was left with the image of him rubbing his perfect cock right here in the shower. And that got me all hot and bothered with zero cocks to play with.
Damn you, Rook. Damn you back to the hell you came from!
I sighed and hoped he felt it when I rubbed one out.
Take that you meddling demon.