Chapter 1 #2
The door swung open and two males stepped into the room, halting as shock crested their faces.
Logan.
Kaito.
My spirit soared. When I got to my feet, I wobbled and sat back down as my wings curled around my sides. For whatever reason, I felt self-conscious with my changes. Would they still want me like this?
“Wow, Lily,” Logan said with a low whistle. He closed the distance between us and didn’t even hesitate to reach out and touch my wings. “Those are… sexy.”
Laughing, I flung my arms around him and hugged him close.
I had been an idiot for leaving him, for leaving any of them.
“I’m so sorry,” I murmured into his neck.
“Don’t apologize,” Logan said as he nuzzled against my cheek. “It’s not your fault that the Dean… that she…” His jaw flexed as he buried his face in my neck again, obscuring my view of his perfectly blue eyes that always glittered with mischief.
Pain swept through our connection, making my heart twist.
Glancing up, I found Kaito lingering nearby as he watched the exchange. He had watched me die—they all had, and it tore me to pieces that they’d spent an entire year suffering that loss.
I would make it up to them, somehow.
“Keep your distance, Koneko-chan,” Kaito warned when I reached for him, and I spotted why a moment later as I took in his appearance.
Small horns rose from his hairline, curving slightly before pointing forward. His eyes emitted a faint red glow, reminiscent of Hellfire surrounded by a rim of silver.
Breathtaking.
He’d warned me that he was a Kami, a lower level demon with an inhuman form.
His true form slowly clawed a little bit out of his mortal frame every day, and a year spent without me had done some damage.
The silver tattoo slicing up his left cheek glowed with power, running blue flames into his hair like a crown.
“I knew you were alive,” he breathed as I stared at him in complete awe. “I never stopped believing.”
Logan untangled himself from me as I gravitated toward my mentor, unable to stay away.
He stiffened as I got close, but he was my Virtue. He couldn’t hurt me. Not after everything we’d already been through.
When I wrapped my arms around him, his lips grazed my cheek. I lifted my chin and pressed my lips to his, opening for him, relearning his new taste.
Darker, I decided. Headier, the changes in him more than just skin-deep.
Need pulsed inside of both of my mates, something that confirmed the Virtue bond had survived my transformation. My fingers threaded through his hair, caressing the flames that didn’t burn. I was part Demonspawn and a Princess of Hell. In this, Kaito and I were made for one another.
Even though I yearned for more, Kaito pulled away. He awarded me a small smile, cupping my cheek as he eased back as Logan squeezed my hand.
“Your eyes,” Kaito murmured as he gazed at me. “They’re different.”
Logan leaned around to get a look, sneaking in a kiss in the process. “Almost silver,” he agreed. “The green is there, but it’s as if all the color has been leeched away.”
The observation made me squirm. I’d been through a lot. Hell—I’d died and then come back. I was a firm believer that eyes were the window to the soul, and if the color had faded, what did that mean?
“It’s beautiful,” Kaito added, stroking my cheek. “As are you.”
Logan hummed in agreement, his touch running down my shoulder before tracing my wings.
Which felt… amazing.
I shivered and my eyelids drifted closed. “I can feel that,” I informed him.
“Good,” he said, pleasure evident in his tone. “I plan on seeing what else you can feel when it comes to your wings.”
The promise in his words made me sigh. “I missed you,” I admitted, opening my eyes again.
“All of you,” I clarified as Logan and Kaito smiled.
“I’m so glad that you didn’t give up on me.
” Perhaps all of my worries about my Virtues were unfounded.
They had missed me, too, but they didn’t believe I had died in the permanent sense.
An uncomfortable silence intruded on the moment, making me raise my eyebrow in suspicion. “Nobody gave up on me… right?”
Kaito and Logan glanced at each other as Yuri held up a pink-tinted champagne bottle. “Who wants blood champagne?” she squealed, obviously trying to distract me.
Olivia rolled her eyes.
“Where are the others?” I asked, my voice turning shrill.
“They’re… busy,” Kaito said, glancing once more at Logan before facing me. “Hendrik is handling Blood Duty. Dante is off on a hunting expedition with his students.”
“His students?” I asked. I caught another furtive look being passed, this time between Olivia and Yuri. “Never mind that. What about Orion?” I pressed.
“Teaching,” Kaito said a little too quickly.
Uh-huh.
Suspicious, I focused on Yuri who was now guzzling her blood champagne. “I need to talk to my mates—like yesterday. Can you send word to Hendrik and Dante? I want to see them here. While you do that, I’ll go get Orion.”
Yuri lowered her glass and stared at me, eyes wide. “Ah, you sure you want to walk around campus all on your lonesome? Things are a bit different here. And you should really see the Dean first.”
“I can go get Orion,” Kaito offered, little blue flames betraying his anxiety atop his head. “Logan and I will bring him back here.”
“That’s a great idea!” Yuri smiled just a bit too cheerfully.
I propped my hands on my hips.
Now I was really suspicious.
Smile wobbling, then fading, Yuri bit her lip and shot Olivia a look. “But… the Dean…?”
“Fuck the Dean,” I said as I decided to take matters in my own hands.
Whatever everyone was trying to hide from me, it was time that I saw it for myself.
“Fuck the Dean.” I muttered again under my breath as I strode down a path, keenly aware of all the stares I was getting as I struggled to keep my wings aloft.
At this point, they could stare all they liked. I had more important things to worry about.
Like what Orion, Dante, and Hendrik were up to that had everyone so worried.
Had they given up on me?
Were they suffering?
Inside, I could feel something tugging me, guiding me along and I followed willingly, knowing what I would find.
The mate-bond would lead me to Orion, as surely as it would have led me to Kaito, to Logan, Hendrik and Dante.
I followed the guidance that drifted with sunlight and sex, my demigod tugging at me just as I always remembered.
The path forked, confusing me as it split off into twos and threes several times over, but I unerringly follow that tug that would never steer me the wrong way.
After I had gotten hopelessly lost, I came across a building with silver spires that set it out from the rest. It huddled up against the rainbow-oil barrier, looking out of place in the goth-noir campus.
Tension gathered in my muscles as I opened the main door and stepped inside, my footsteps echoing down long, empty halls.
The dim surroundings made me wonder if this part of the campus was abandoned, but my connection to Orion tugged me deeper into the building, assuring me that my demigod was here.
The connection drew me down the halls until a faint beat sounded, thumping against the walls. I followed it until I came across a thin crack of light that spilled out from a door near the end of the hall—a light that pulsated like a heartbeat and changed color with every strobe.
A party, maybe?
When I opened the door, techno music came blasting out and I followed it down a set of stairs. Flashing lights played over my feet as music hummed in my veins.
A sense of excitement and arousal drifted through my senses and I recognized Orion’s magic at play. Was he hosting one of his orgies? The thought stung, because Orion was mine.
Curling my fingers into fists, I descended until I reached another set of doors. I stepped through, unsurprised what lay in wait in the room beyond.
Lay being the operative word. Because there was a lot of that going on. A lot of lays, a lot of reverse cowgirls—and a lot of orgasmic sex.
Excellent coordination skills, I thought absently, gaze moving from one group to another, then another, then another.
An orgy.
I’d walked into an orgy.
I skimmed the tangle of arms and legs until I found him alone, surveying the orgy playing out beneath him. He wasn’t a participant, which made me relax.
“There you are,” I whispered.
As if he’d heard me, Orion jerked his head up, gaze slamming into me with the impact of a double-fisted punch.
His eyes.
Pain ripped into me at the sight of his eyes, filled with such a raw emptiness it hurt to look at him.
He stared at me for a long moment, almost as if he couldn’t quite understand what he was seeing.
To him, perhaps I was a mirage. A ghost.
He blinked, then reached up to rub his eyes and still he just sat there, staring, while the space between us was filled with people going at it like mad.
Alright. We’ll do this the hard way.
Striding in, I came to a stop in the center of the room and snapped out my wings. It was an instinctive movement, like I’d had these wings my entire life and although pain flared at the sudden, abrupt use of muscles unfamiliar with such movement, it felt…right.
Smiling, I released a burst of power and focused on my Virtue, staring him down.
The music came to a screeching halt and fear choked the air as the people around us suddenly realized a black-winged angel had just shut this shit down.
A few startled cries, a rush of hushed whispers rose in the air but neither Orion or I could look away from the other as the room emptied, leaving us alone.
“Fuck me,” Orion said raggedly. “Kaito was right.”