Chapter 21
After potions class with no Nix, Bael burst into the dean’s office. Ryker stepped in behind him, knowing there was nothing he could do when the incubus got worked up like this. Not that Ryker wanted to stop him. Ryker wanted to know where Nix was. Now.
“Where is she?” Bael snapped at Dean Felling.
“Mr. Obsidius, I was in the middle of a—”
“I’ll ask one more time.” Bael’s blade shone in the light of the office as he held it up, ready to throw it directly into the dean’s eye. “Where is she?”
“Blatantly threatening me? If you think I will allow—”
“I would like to remind you, Dean Felling, that the people who gave you this power did so because they have money. Money. Like what humans value. I, on the other hand, have the ability to sentence you to an eternity of torture.”
“Yes, well…” The dean sputtered as he tried to one-up the incubus. “I can expel you.”
Ryker growled at the threat.
Meanwhile, Bael grinned crazily, amused. “Send me back to Hell, and I’ll take you with me.”
“Where is she?” Ryker asked. The deadly edge in his voice lingered menacingly in the room.
Nix had never shown up for potions class, and Ryker could not scent her anywhere on the academy grounds. Ryker had never felt the desire to roast another shifter alive before, like he did when he saw the dean’s nervous and guilty eyes glance off to the side.
“I assume you are talking about Miss Oadess?”
Bael stabbed his blade into the dean’s wooden desk and carved the letter “B” while looking into the dean’s eyes. “For a second, I was worried you weren’t smart enough to be a dean.”
Dean Felling’s cheeks pinkened as he stated, “Destruction of my property—”
Bael began carving an “I” onto the desk. “Here is the thing, you can either answer us, or I make you answer us.” Bael shrugged. “Either way…”
“You answer,” Ryker grunted, finishing his friend’s sentence.
“Not that I ‘need’ to do anything,” Dean Felling replied quickly. “But Miss Oadess happens to be with her family today. She will return for the dance tonight.”
“Her family?” Bael sneered the word, carving another letter while keeping his gaze secured on the dean’s.
“Will you leave my office now?”
Bael tapped his chin in thought. “No.” Bael kept his blade standing straight into the desk as he shrugged off his uniform blazer. He began unbuttoning his dress shirt, and Dean Felling sputtered.
Dean Felling’s face reddened. “Are you undressing in my office?”
“I’m running out of shirts,” Bael said and tossed his shirt to the floor. His black webbed wings shot out of his back and gleamed with the sheen of hellfire.
Ryker averted his gaze and smiled to himself as Bael’s horns curled out of his head and his eyes turned to black spirals.
“Dean Felling, we’re going to play a game.”
Dean Felling blinked but fell victim to Bael’s hypnotic gaze immediately. “Mm, game,” he echoed in a weak monotone.
“Do you know about the student disappearances?”
Ryker snorted. So much for their instructions to “lay low.”
“The…”
“The students of rare species who have gone missing. What do you know?”
“They…drop out.”
“Do they?” Bael asked, challenging his words.
“Yes,” Dean Felling replied.
Ryker huffed. The dean could not lie under hypnosis.
Bael grabbed his blade and etched another letter into the desk while he mesmerized Dean Felling. “Why are you the dean here? You had no experience in education. As a student here many years ago, you were below average.”
“I am favored by the council,” Dean Felling said sleepily.
“Why did you want to be dean?” Bael asked.
The dean’s lips curled up slightly in a gross, dreamy smile. “The perks.”
Bael stared into his eyes, and Ryker knew the incubus had just entered the man’s mind. But Ryker was shocked to see Bael shudder at what he saw in the dean’s head.
“You fucking asshole,” Bael spat out the words.
Ryker stepped forward, wanting to know what Bael had just learned. It took a lot to upset the incubus. “What?”
“Tell my friend here what your favorite perk is.”
Ryker narrowed his eyes on the dean.
Dean Felling licked his lips and dreamily said, “The girls.”
“What girls?” Bael grabbed his blade and shoved it back into his pants pocket.
“The girls who pleasure me for the best grades. The girls who are willing to show me what good students they can be when they kneel at my desk and—”
Ryker’s fire spewed from his mouth, but he was too late. Too slow.
Because Bael had grabbed Dean Felling and disappeared into oblivion.
The papers of the dean’s desk burned as the fire grew from where Ryker breathed angry flames. What remained were the letters Bael had carved out, spelling BITCH.
Bael popped back into the room. One second, gone. The next second, he dusted off his wings and retracted them. Ryker always was envious of Bael’s transportation ability. Granted, the incubus could only transport between Hell and the Earth realm.
Bael shrugged nonchalantly. “Thought I’d help him get to Hell a little earlier than planned.”
Maybe Bael’s earlier suggestion of burning the school down and starting over had merit.
“He admitted some more things to me when he got shackled down to a platform.” Bael cracked his knuckles. “Apparently, council leader Kellan Oadess was planning to give a formal announcement to the academy in the auditorium.”
“To say what?” Ryker asked.
“Dean didn’t know.” Bael tugged on his school blazer, leaving his shirt on the floor.
Ryker pointed to the button-down. “I thought you were running out.”
Bael ran a hand over his abs, which were on display thanks to the blazer’s deep V shape neckline. “Nix will like me better like this anyway.”
“Should we find her?” What if the Oadess family tried to hurt her somehow? They knew she was a phoenix, so why had they adopted her instead of having her hunted and killed like the rest?
Bael waved off the concern again. “Our girl is a freaking phoenix. She can handle herself around some shady swan shifters for a few hours. He said she would be back for the dance tonight. We will catch up with her then.”
Bael gripped the doorknob to exit the office and paused. “You think Stoney wants a promotion to dean?”