Chapter 16
Five months, twenty-nine days and twelve hours. It felt like an eternity and now I had precious time left before I got yanked into Hell.
The last gem on my bracelet had already started to emit a faint glow and that didn’t help ease my nerves any.
It had been a long five months and I missed my Virtues, except Orion. He found plenty of occasions to warm my bed even if the others had kept away, although he hadn’t been pleased when I’d explained the bracelet to him.
My other Virtues, though, didn’t know I was on a timer, and I preferred it that way. Something was messing with the mate-bond and until I found Kaito and Cole, I knew I wouldn’t be able to repair it.
Still, I couldn’t hear their thoughts and they didn’t seem to be able to hear mine, and it made everything feel…
off. Orion thought it had to do with Cole after I’d told him about my dream.
He also said that the Dean was watching us, so while it wasn’t so odd that I might hook up with the god of sex, messing around with my other Virtues might get me the wrong kind of attention.
I’d kept myself busy trying to get to Kaito and Cole while figuring out how to deal with the Dean.
Once I had Cole, the mate-circle would be complete and I would have the strength to face Calamity.
Plus, I didn’t have to fight the Conduit.
I just had to distract her long enough to trap her in the Angelstone.
Still, I knew that wouldn’t be easy. Gwen was a powerful supernatural in her own right and with pure chaos driving her madness to new heights, I’d only get one shot to do this right.
Once I trapped the Dean and had control of Fortune Academy, I would get to Hell and Sonya would help me figure out how to deal with Lucifer.
One problem… my plan hinged on finding Cole and taming him.
Step one of that plan was proving difficult.
Now that the demon attacks had stopped—at least Lucifer was living up to his end of the bargain—the Dean decreed that student life must go back to normal. Which meant homework, exams, and a ton of shit I didn’t have the time or energy for.
Thanks to Olivia, I didn’t completely fail my classes. I was still a sophomore and even if I didn’t care about graduation, I couldn’t afford to get kicked out just because of poor grades.
Wouldn’t that be hilarious. “Sorry, humanity, I couldn’t stop the Third Echo of Calamity because I slacked off and failed magical histories.”
On top of my general classes, I also had to mentor with Olivia under the guise of being monster experts as part of our plan to find the vampire from her vision, which meant I needed to be a certified mentor.
Olivia was the bookworm… not me. I was totally screwed.
As predicted, the Dean had grilled me on my knowledge of vampires, sirens, incubi, demons, and a number of supernaturals I’d never heard of before to see if I was suitable for the role.
Olivia luckily had an orb in my ear to feed me the right answers.
I was suddenly very grateful for all that time she’d spent in the library while I’d been running around trying to get a handle on my Virtues.
Or as Olivia put it, wasting far too much time doing the hanky-panky.
Regardless, we took on our roles and got to work.
Today was day ninety-one of our daily grind and I still didn’t feel like I was getting any closer to finding this mystery vampire Olivia had seen in her visions, no matter how many vampires we’d come across as part of our jobs as mentors of Monster Studies, much less seeing any hope in gaining entrance to the Monster Arena.
Today was supposed to be different, though. Dante had brought in a unique vampire, one who had warlock powers. Of course I heard that through Olivia. The Hunter still wouldn’t see me, all for the sake of pretenses. He was being a bit too thorough in making sure the Dean didn’t figure us out.
So, instead of enjoying “hanky-panky” with my mates, I got to sit and thumb through a massive textbook on vampires with Olivia and Yuri while we unsuccessfully tried to figure out what the heck we were going to do next.
“You say he keeps asking to see someone named Evie?” Yuri asked, popping out her cherry lollipop before tapping it on her fang as she pondered. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
I rolled my eyes. Either the vampire was a total idiot, or Olivia’s memory tampering on the girl was having some serious side effects.
Olivia shoved a glass at her filled with cherry-blood champagne, by far our best bribe when trying to jog the memory of our ally from Monster Academy. “Because Lady Evelyn is one of Fortune Academy’s founders,” she said. “That sounds kind of like Evie.”
Yuri chuckled. “Wouldn’t it be hilarious if he was friends with a founder! You guys would be in biiiiig trouble.” When Olivia glared at her, Yuri grabbed the drink. She took a sip and wiggled with delight. “This stuff is the best.”
I shoved the textbook at her, pointing at the vicious vampire with blood dribbling down his chin. “Focus, Yuri. What can you tell me about warlock vampires?”
She shrugged. “It’s not really that unusual. All warlocks came from vampires, and witches too, originally anyway. They just don’t like to talk about it.”
Olivia’s eyes went wide. “Who told you that?”
Yuri downed her drink and released a small burp before covering her mouth. “Excuse me.”
“Let me guess,” I said, leaning my elbow on the couch arm. “Monster Academy 101?”
Yuri winked. “You’re catching on.”
I glanced at Olivia. “I feel like we attend the wrong school sometimes.”
She smirked. “Ditto.”
I tapped my chin. “So, let’s recap. The Dean is only allowing Dark Mages into Monster Academy as part of the surplus Blood Duty needed.
” She’d been claiming the extra sacrifices were for protection against the monster invasions in the event they resumed, but thanks to Olivia, we knew the truth.
The Dean had gone mad and was searching for some “vessel” to reincarnate her lost lover who was stuck somewhere in Hell and meanwhile she continued to merge Fortune Academy with Hell as part of the process.
“If you’re suggesting we work with a Dark Mage, Hendrik is out of the question,” Olivia added. “He’s been avoiding you ever since you guys got back and I doubt he’ll be any help. None of the other mages seem to trust him.”
“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Yuri asked, taking her lollipop again and sticking it between her teeth. “Didn’t you say he was supposed to be their leader or something?”
I’d been giving Hendrik his space, but he should have gotten over his demotion by now. “Yes, and now he’s not and he’s sulking. Which is why I’m going to go talk to him after we’re done here,” I vowed. I’d been more than patient and it was time he stopped avoiding me.
“You want me to come with?” Olivia asked.
“No,” I said, running circles with my fingers over the sofa’s fabric. “He’s an asshole, but he’s my asshole. I’ll deal with him.”
Yuri got to her feet and stretched her arms up into the air. “Well, sounds like you guys got things covered. I’m going to be late for class.” She pranced over to the mirror and waited for Olivia to cast her spell.
Olivia sighed and leaned back into her chair, looking much more tired and weary than she should.
I sat next to her and forced her to look at me. She obeyed, matching my gaze with those golden orbs that had definitely started to dim. She needed to stop devouring her soul for my sake, but I knew she wouldn’t listen to me. It didn’t keep me from trying anyway.
“No more visions,” I reminded her. “We have all the clues we need.”
Her lips creased into a thin line before she replied. “If this next vampire doesn’t turn up any new leads…”
I squeezed her hand. “No more, Olivia. Promise me.”
“Okay, fine. But I mean it.” She glanced down at my bracelet that now had five glowing red gems. “Time is running short and it won’t much matter that I saved my soul if Calamity gets ahold of us.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said with a sigh. “Maybe Hendrik knows something that could help.” It was another excuse to talk to the Dark Mage, at least. Hendrik used to fight vampires in the Monster Arena, so surely he knew something that could help us.
Olivia gave my knee a squeeze. “Go to him. I know you want to.” She glanced at Yuri who tapped the mirror impatiently. “I’ll send her home and then I’ll read up until we have to go to class.”
I hugged her neck and gave her a quick kiss, because I knew she was just giving me an excuse to see Hendrik and I loved her for it. “You’re the best.”
She smirked and peeled me off. “I know.”
Olivia always made me feel better, so I ventured down the hall with a spring in my step.
Even though I’d been able to spend some time with Orion during these past few months, I missed my other Virtues.
We had to stay apart, and I understood the need for caution, but I had a feeling that some of my Virtues were avoiding me for completely different reasons.
I’d barely spoken to Logan, and Dante and Hendrik had avoided me entirely.
It was time to find out why.
Exiting the dorm, I kept my head down and avoided a few of Melinda’s mindless thralls on the way.
The Dean still had the Arena up and running to supply the massive Blood Duty needed to keep shoving Fortune Academy deeper into Hell.
All of the students knew something funky was up, but with Melinda’s thralls running around everywhere as “Mandatory Campus Monitors” while on high alert in case of more “monster attacks,” it was clear that anyone who asked too many questions got zombie-zapped.
The best thing to do was to keep your head low.
I continued down the campus streets and spotted a few students going to their classes.
The demeanor had changed under the sweltering red skies.
Once these streets had been full of wolves chasing panthers, giggling witches, and duds fawning over the Demis like a bunch of groupies.