Bond of a Vampire (Durand Supernatural Academy #3)

Chapter 1

Chapter one

Jack

The leaves have browned, littering the yard with their dead carcasses. Through my bedroom window upstairs, I could see my dad, Darren, raking the leaves into large piles, the afternoon sun beaming down on him. His head lifted and turned toward the kitchen back door.

I pressed my face harder against the cool glass where I sat in my window seat in my bedroom, watching as my mom walked out into the yard, a coffee cup in her hand and a mischievous grin on her face.

My brow arched. This couldn’t end well.

She stopped in front of my dad. Their voices were too muffled through the glass for me to make them out, even with my supernatural hearing.

Whatever she said made my dad tip her chin up, his usual unreadable expression hinting amusement.

He reached for the cup in her hand, which my mom held out of his reach with a laugh, backing up from him with a taunting wiggle of her body.

My dad set the rake against a nearby tree before approaching her.

He said something that made her stick her tongue out before he struck, grabbing her around the waist. My mom twisted her legs between his, knocking him off balance, and they went falling into the freshly made pile of leaves, the coffee cup crashing to the ground, its contents splashing across the stone pathway.

Neither of them seemed to care anymore, their attention completely on the other. When they started kissing, I turned away from the mirror. Partly because no one wanted to see their parents make out. Partly cause of the fist that felt like it was squeezing around my heart at the sight.

I’d been back at my parents’ house for two weeks now, and it felt like eternity. Tate had messaged and called me. Most I’d left unread or let go to voicemail. I knew he was just worried about me, like everyone else. But it was hard to pretend that everything was alright.

I didn’t blame him that I was stuck here at my parents’ house instead of back at the academy.

It wasn’t like it was his fault. It was utterly and absolutely clear that I was the one to blame.

I was the one who went out on my own without backup or telling anyone again.

Julian had warned me over and over again, and I hadn’t listened.

Julian was another thing.

Besides that one moment before I walked into the headmaster’s office, I hadn’t seen or heard from Julian since.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt. We had just gotten back together, or I thought we had, and already we were having issues.

Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. We were too different.

He liked to follow the rules, and I… well, I followed them when they suited me.

I didn’t even want to think about Kyren right now and what had happened at his apartment. If it hadn’t been for him, my mom and dad would be mourning me instead of making out in the backyard. The thought of how close I’d come made it feel like a heavy ball was sitting in my throat.

Sighing, I pressed my face to the material of my leggings, my eyes burning as I stared out the window.

Maybe my dad, Antoine, was right. Maybe I shouldn’t be a hunter.

Maybe I could go into something else. Law enforcement?

No, I might have an advantage over the human cops, but a bullet could still kill me as easily as it could kill them.

There had to be something I was good at other than tracking down supernatural beings, right?

“Still spiraling, I see.”

I sniffed, not turning to look at my dad, Rayne. “It’s not polite to read people’s minds.”

“Yeah, but when it’s my daughter…” His presence moved closer until he stood beside the window in the shadows, even though the special laminated glass didn’t allow any UV rays in to harm him. “I’ll make an exception.”

I rolled my eyes. “One of these days you’re going to listen in and hear something you don’t want to.”

He chuckled, running a hand through his red hair before he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. “I think I’ll take my chances.”

I hummed in response.

Rayne stood there for a few moments, watching out the window. No doubt he saw Darren and my mom out in the leaves. I kept my eyes up on the trees, though it did nothing to keep the melancholy feeling out of my chest.

“The others are worried you’re going to waste away up here,” Rayne began after a few minutes.

I snorted. “With how much food dad brings me for every meal, I highly doubt that has a chance of happening.”

“Still,” he squatted down in front of me, peering up into my face, “you’d keep everyone from worrying so much if you left this room.” He sniffed a bit and then wrinkled his nose. “Maybe take a shower.”

“I do not stink.” I grabbed the pillow off the window seat and threw it at him.

He laughed.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I leaned back and sighed. “I just don’t know what to do with myself. Can’t go back to school. Can’t hunt. Can’t even go to the guild and train. I’m just… stuck.”

Rayne sank to the floor beside me. “You could take up a hobby?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Like what? All I know how to do is kill.”

He placed a hand on my knee. “Now, that’s not true. You also know how to give an entire household a heart attack.” He smiled at his joke before continuing, “You could read? We have that whole library down there which no one but Marcus seems to bother using.”

I stared at him, arching a brow.

Rayne chuckled. “Okay, okay. No books. God knows your mom moaned and groaned daily trying to get you to put down your daggers and pick up a book.”

I couldn’t help but smile, thinking back to all the times mom and Marcus tried to get me into anything other than fighting.

They’d have me reading all sorts of books in the library.

Sonnets. Philosophy. Classics like Moby Dick or Pride and Prejudice.

I whined and begged to be done with all of them in a matter of minutes.

Mom even tried to get me to read some of her vampire smut, which seemed a bit weird when she was in a relationship with six vampires of her own. Why read about it when you could live it?

“How about knitting?” Rayne asked with a smirk. “You get to stab yarn with two needles. It’s kind of like training?”

I scoffed. “I don’t think I’ll—”

The doorbell rang throughout the house, a low booming bong that always reminded me of a bell in one of those cathedral towers.

Both of us cocked our ears toward the open door of my bedroom, listening to the sound of footsteps as they moved toward the front door. Since my other dads would be sleeping for a few more hours, it was likely Darren answering the door.

A quick look outside told me that both Darren and my mom had come inside.

“May I help you?” Darren’s cultured voice asked, his tone indiscernible.

A familiar, low growly voice danced up the stairs and had me tensing in my seat. “Hello. I’m Tate. I go to school with your daughter?”

A muffled laugh told me my mom had answered the door, too. “You don’t seem so sure about that.”

“Uh… I mean, I do go to school. I mean… the academy. Your academy. Which is great, by the way.” Tate let out an exasperated sigh. “Is Jack here?”

I could just imagine the awkward smile on Tate’s face as he stumbled over his words. I probably should go save him before my mom takes it too far.

Rayne arched a brow at me.

Shaking my head, I stood, walked out of my bedroom, and leaned over the balcony, looking down into the foyer. There Tate stood in the doorway, his hands in his pockets, tongue pulling on his lip ring while my mom and Darren stared him down.

“Mom, leave Tate alone.”

Tate’s head lifted, his dark brown gaze meeting mine. Immediately relief came over his face, his shoulders loosened, and he released the hold he had on his lip ring. “Jack! Hey, princess. How are you?”

My mom turned to look at me, her brow rose as she mouthed the word princess with an amused grin on her lips.

“Come along, Piper.” My dad pressed a hand to my mom’s lower back and ushered her away from the front door. “Leave them be.”

“But I wanted to give him a hard time,” my mom pouted.

“Another time,” my dad reassured her, then winked up at me.

I turned my attention back to Tate and then jerked my head, urging him to come upstairs.

I didn’t wait for him to follow my instructions, moving back through my open bedroom door.

I opened my mouth to tell Rayne to give me some privacy, but he was already gone.

Likely gone back to his bed in the basement.

Tate’s footsteps squeaked on the stairs, and I quickly glanced around my room, hoping I hadn’t left anything embarrassing out for him to see. Before I could even think about whether or not a pile of dirty clothes was something to be embarrassed about, Tate was standing in my doorway.

I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. Even if I’d ignored a lot of his messages, we’d still texted and talked on the phone some. This was the first time he’d shown up at my house.

It was strange seeing him here in my parents’ home and not at the academy. I’d never had a friend, let alone a boyfriend, in my bedroom before.

How was I supposed to act? If we were back at the academy, I might have hugged and kissed him in greeting.

It felt wrong almost to do that in my parents’ house.

Like one of them would show up at any moment to chastise me.

Though, thinking about it now, that seemed silly.

There were far worse things I’d done than kiss a boy in their house.

So I sank back down onto the window seat and waited for him to speak.

Tate braced his hands on my doorway, his eyes taking in my bedroom from the dark blue comforter on my bed to my sheets and pillows in disarray. He stepped into my room, his fingers trailing over my dresser, and he picked up random knickknacks I’d kept from my childhood.

After a moment, his finger looped into a pair of lace panties that hung out of one of the top drawers. He arched a brow, lifting them up for me to see.

“Don’t even think about it.” I gave him a pointed look. “I’ve already lost enough clothing because of you.”

“Party pooper.”

The pout on his lips made my heart stutter in my chest, the most movement it had made in days. I felt as if I’d been in hibernation, heart slow, blood sluggish, barely able to feel much of… anything, really.

Until Tate.

That seemed to be the way things were with him. It was hard to stay stuck in my feelings when he smiled at me like that. Like his world didn’t revolve around the sun, it revolved around me. It was as intoxicating as it was overwhelming.

I shifted my gaze toward the window, swallowing thickly. “You shouldn’t skip class.”

Tate’s presence moved toward me, his footsteps almost as quiet as a vampire’s. Warm hands curled over my shoulders, his breath brushing against my ear.

“I thought you’d be happy to see me.” His hands smoothed down my arms, his back pressing against mine as his head ducked down to kiss the side of my neck.

My head leaned to the side of its own accord, a small sound of pleasure escaping me. “I didn’t say that.” I reached back, letting my fingers tangle in his black braids. “I just don’t want you to fall behind on my account.”

Tate snorted, pressing his lips to my cheek. “I’m bound to a vampire. If I fail, I can just try again. Forever, if I wanted to.”

I let out a laugh. “That sounds like torture.”

“What?”

I turned in my seat to lock eyes with him where he squatted next to me. “Going to school forever, doing the same thing over and over again with nothing changing.” I stroked my finger along his lip ring. “You know that’s the definition of insanity.”

“Not quite.” Tate’s tongue darted out and licked my finger, causing me to pull it back and scowl. “But if you were there, I’m sure I could handle it.”

“Well, I’m not.” My heart sank, and I withdrew my arms from him, sinking back into the window seat once more.

“Hey, hey,” Tate said softly, cupping my chin and turning my attention back to him. “I was trying to cheer you up, not make you sad. What can I do to make it up to you?”

I shrugged.

For a moment, he said nothing and then, without warning, scooped me up into his arms.

“Tate!” I squealed and clasped my hands around his neck. “What are you doing?”

“Getting you out of this house.” Tate strode across my room and out into the hallway. “I’m going to show you there’s more to life than school and hunting.”

My heart sped up with each step, worried that one of my dads would come out and see us and get all protective over me. Nothing I said to Tate seemed to dissuade him from his plan, and I had to admit I was only half-heartedly trying to convince him otherwise.

When we reached the front door, he finally put me down. His eyes were soft but determined as he peered down at him. “So what’s it going to be, princess? You going to stay locked up in your tower or come out with me?”

I contemplated going back to my room and moping as I’d done the last few days. Honestly, the thought of it made me depressed. I’d let myself become so focused on the mission and hunting that, when it was all taken away, I didn’t know what to do with myself.

Tate offered me another path I hadn’t considered. Even if it was more of a temporary relief to my current situation, it was still better than sitting up in my room with my parents hovering close by.

Sighing with mock reluctance, I pulled the front door open. “Very well, I suppose I could use the fresh air.”

“That’s the spirit.” Tate wrapped his arm around my waist and ushered me out the front door.

My head turned at the sound of a giggle to see my mom and Darren watching us from the shadows of the staircase.

I sighed and leaned further into Tate . I was never going to hear the end of it now.