Chapter 3
“My ears are ringing,” I murmured. It was annoying, especially compared to all the other not annoying sensations rippling through me, like my blood traveling through my veins like heated molasses, thick and sweet, and my neurons humming happily along, incapable of little else at the moment.
“I hate to break up this moment with tedious things like reality, little star. But that isn’t your ears. It’s the Academy’s alarm system.” Orion nuzzled my navel.
Just the feel of his lips on my skin made my toes curl and I threaded my fingers into his hair, arching him closer.
But then I realized he was talking—had been talking.
Alarm.
Attack.
Students.
“Wait, what?” I fisted my hand in his hair and tugged him up—the movement served dual purposes. It got him to stop kissing his way from my navel to my hipbone, ending that delightful distraction.
It also gave me a few much-needed seconds to suck in air so I could clear away some of the sexual haze clouding my thoughts.
“What did you just say about alarms and attacks and students?” I bit my lip not to finish that with an “Oh my.”
Orion heaved out a forlorn sigh before easing away, lingering only long enough to tug on my wrist so I’d let go of his hair, then he kissed the sensitive flesh.
At some point, he’d pulled me from the throne to the dais. We’d been sprawled inelegantly on the stone floors, only protected from the rough, cool surface by a thick rug that had likely been thrown down with just such possibilities in mind.
He took my hand and pulled me upright, the gesture all chivalry and possessiveness on his part because we both knew I didn’t need the help. However, I loved that he cared enough to do it, so I curled up against him as I listened to the clanging racket happening outside this room.
“That’s annoying,” I murmured.
Orion stroked a hand down my spine, left bare by the halter. His fingers eased down my backbone, over the slight ridges as if he was learning some great work of art by touch alone.
“Isn’t it?” He waved a hand and I felt the slight rise in the air. His magic, I realized, strong enough now that he could diffuse the alarm to less obnoxious levels.
He shifted his golden gaze to mine. “The attacks come almost nonstop now. Judging by the rhythm of the alarm, it’s a breach.
” He cocked his head and listened, eyes slightly narrowed.
“Code Orange,” he decided. When I stared at him with blank confusion, he added, “Demons are trying to breach the Academy’s defenses.
Dante insisted we needed a classification system so both students and instructors would know what we were dealing with before we went out.
Anything over a code orange and the younger students have to stay in their dorms. This might get messy but most of the demons are weaker ones; cannon fodder basically. ”
He rose, uncoiling his big, powerful form to his full height.
I just stared.
“You grew.” Like, just now before my eyes.
Flashing a broad smile at me, he flexed and preened, his vanity coming through.
It made me laugh, because if he could do that, then the pain I’d sensed within him was something we could fix.
And just maybe, Cole could be forgiven.
Maybe.
“All thanks to my beautiful star.” He offered a hand and I let him help me up, aware we both needed the connection. “Come on. I’m ready to kick some ass and even though this isn’t a large threat, we don’t like to leave the younger students out there without as much backup as we can provide.”
“Backup?” I followed him toward the door as we spoke.
“There’s extra credit for kills,” he told me. “As the severity of the breaches rise, only students of certain skill levels are allowed out, because we don’t want to lose the entire student body. At the same time, we’ve only got so much firepower.”
He gave me another wicked grin.
“Of course, now I’ve got a hell of lot more firepower than I had an hour ago.”
“I bet,” I said, blood staining my cheeks pink at the lascivious look he gave me. “Great to know this place is still as crazy as ever—students, rushing into the breach.”
“We aren’t human,” he said with a shrug. “None of us were made for sitting on the shelf, Lily. You know that better than anybody. Alright, are you ready?”
I stepped past the broad double doors, wrinkling my nose as the scent of sulfur hit me in the face. My eyes watered against the substance and I blinked rapidly to clear my vision.
This side of the campus wasn’t nearly as empty now. A crowd of students rushed toward a crack in the dome, the other side writhing with shadows.
“Let’s go,” Orion said, tugging my hand. He seemed excited to fight, to finally feel alive.
“No,” I said, tugging against him. Something in my gut drew me the other way. “This way.”
Orion didn’t argue, just walked with me, then fell into a jog as urgency drove me to quicken my pace.
The alarm’s rhythm abruptly changed just as we rounded a row of hedges. We came to a halt in one of the more secluded areas of the Academy.
“Is this a second breach?” I asked him as I stared at the dark silhouettes barely visible through the soft, pearly barrier of the Academy’s protections. A long crack ran up the perimeter, and it was getting wider.
“Yes.” He put a hand at the small of my back. “The first was probably a decoy. Big and showy, while they sent their stronger forces to this spot. We’ll have to adjust the defenses and—”
The barrier burst inward, spraying us with pearlescent shards that cut off Orion’s instruction.
For some reason, I was mesmerized as I stared at those shards, watching the glow leeching away.
“Come on, Lily,” Orion said, squeezing my shoulder before he launched himself toward the breach.
The Demonspawn flowed in a sinuous line to meet him and my demigod laughed; a joyful, bright sound that seemed out of place as literal demons flowed into our sanctuary.
Good thing I had Demonspawn blood in me. Fight fire with fire, as they say.
Letting my claws free, I lunged into the battle, tearing and slashing, losing myself to the violence.
The Demonspawn kept coming and we hacked them down; Orion with a blade he’d pulled from thin air and fierce golden energy he hurled from the other hand.
It wasn’t until I spotted golden magic slamming into a Demonspawn and turning it into nothing that I remembered my own magic and called a fireball to my hand.
A Demonspawn grinned at me.
How about a fireball to the face, asshole?
Launching my attack, I squealed with victory when the creature writhed and screeched, the flame consuming him.
Apparently offended, another Demonspawn came at me and sank his teeth into my arm, making me scream.
Before I could deal with it, Orion slammed a massive fist into the thing’s skull. It went limp, skull caved in and Orion gave me a wince as he worked the Demonspawn’s mouth free.
“Sorry,” he said when I hissed in reaction to the teeth coming free.
“No problem.” I smiled at him, feeling a rush of warmth in my body that was unfamiliar, but my instincts told me it was nothing dangerous. As I watched, the wound on my arm began to knit itself closed before my eyes. “Wow. That’ll come in handy.”
Orion agreed, but then something jerked hard in my Virtue bond, making me fall to one knee.
“My darling little angel.”
That voice, low and rough, with the faintest sibilance to it, came from behind us.
Orion’s jaw went tight. He turned before I did and tried to keep me behind him.
It didn’t work well.
I shoved him aside. I knew that voice.
Cole.
Acquiescing, he rested a hand on my shoulder as we both faced the rage demon.
“I knew I smelled something sweet,” Cole said, emerging from the shadows as if they’d created him. His tail flicked around his ankles. “You’re on the wrong side, Lily.” His gaze fell to my bloodied claws, an undeniable display of my Demonspawn nature.
Screams carried on the warm breeze and I instinctually searched my Virtue bond. My mates battled elsewhere on the campus, but they were alive.
For now.
“Perhaps you’re the one on the wrong side, Cole.”
A faint smile, saturnine in its beauty, curved his lips as he held my gaze. “I’m the only one who can lead you to your full potential, little angel. Come with me. Let’s finish what we started.”
“Lily doesn’t take orders from you, Cole,” Orion said, his tone easy, but I could feel the fury vibrating inside him. “Or anyone else, for that matter.”
Cole didn’t even look at Orion. “What’s it going to be, Lilith?” he asked, a twinkle of violence glittering in his eyes.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I ground out. “You are the reason the Dean killed me, or have you forgotten?”
The Dean had used me as leverage, hoping to protect her lover Lancelot from being returned to Hell where Cole had tormented him for the gods knew how long.
Cole had called her bluff… only, she hadn’t been bluffing and had ripped my heart out.
My chest stung with the memory.
“I did what had to be done,” he said. “It didn’t turn out so badly for you, did it?” he asked, his gaze flicking to my dark wings.
Cole wasn’t an idiot. Ancient knowledge glimmered behind his violence.
Was it possible that he knew what would happen? That dying was the key to unlocking my angelic side?
That I would become stronger from it?
“You can’t trust him, Lily,” Orion said. “He’s spent the past year tormenting us, playing head-games and getting his rocks off by seeing how miserable he could make us.” His freckles shone with brilliance. “I had it easy compared to Dante.”
Several taut seconds passed as I glared at Cole before finally seeking Orion’s gaze. I knew he had suffered, but there was one of my Virtues who’d been bound to Cole at the time of my death. “Tell me what happened to him.”
“No.” Orion shook his head, eyes haunted with grief and fury. “That’s Dante’s story to tell. He’s taken the brunt of the demon’s influence—him and Hendrik. But I will tell you that Cole enjoyed every second of misery he could drag from us. It was like a drug for him.”