8. ~Nyx~
~Nyx~
I fiddled with the silk scarf I’d wrapped around my neck before I’d left the dorm this morning. At least being white with black stars, it still matched with my outfit of my black leather pants and the studded long-sleeve gray tee I had on for classes today, so it didn’t exactly look out of place.
Although, it was.
And it would have looked out of place to Kai, because he knew me so well.
But I’d gotten lucky and he’d been up at the crack of dawn and down at his secret lab before I’d even woken up this morning.
I couldn’t believe it, but the marks the hot-as-sin dragon had made from sucking and biting my throat during the dreamwalking last night had remained in reality, too.
The guy had some power, because I’d never experienced anything like that before that had carried over from a dreamscape to waking state.
More than that, I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that any of that had happened between us.
I certainly hadn’t intended it. I mean, I’d definitely noticed him when I’d seen him passing on by through the dorms, and a couple of times when Kai and I had been eating in the Cafeteria and I’d observed him there gorging on steaks and a whole lot of meat.
But since I’d been turned into an Incubus-Sorcerer hybrid, Kai had been the only person I’d ever done anything sexual with.
I hadn’t expected there to be anybody else who I could be with.
I mean, we weren’t exclusive or anything, and the sexual aspect to our relationship was pretty much him doing me a favor.
But it still felt weird and that was especially apparent because Kai hated Vorzyr.
He was gonna freak out when he discovered what had happened.
I knew he was gonna ask me how the dreamwalking went last night, so it was bound to come up.
And now with these marks on me, too… fuck.
I healed fast, so I didn’t understand why they were still there.
But I also didn’t know a lot about dragon-kind.
It was because they’d mostly kept to themselves in their Realm and they’d only very recently started venturing out to this plane more so.
Vorzyr was the first dragon shifter student who’d even attended this specific academy.
Had he… marked me? Was that what had actually happened?
“Hey, sexy,” a voice spoke to me, pulling me from my thoughts as I made my way down the corridor toward my first class of the day.
I looked to see two Light Fae girls giggling and eyeing me up and down, now walking beside me and giving me highly-suggestive looks.
The one with the bright-pink hair was twirling her curls at me, being all flirty, while her friend with the silver hair in a cute little pixie cut was playing with the hem of her lavender sundress.
I blinked, realizing in my stressed state, I was inadvertently putting my Incubus allure out there and impacting them.
I glanced down the corridor, the floors a sleek white marble and the walls covered in obsidian-black wallpaper with a striking geometric pattern, vertical chrome accents and the soft glow of the LED lighting embedded in the matte-black ceiling breaking up the darkness.
Others had their eye on me too.
Yeah, I was definitely doing it.
I smiled politely at the girls, then smoothly veered off to an alcove away from everyone.
I slumped against the wall and clasped my hands together, breathing in deeply.
“Get control. Get control,” I whispered to myself.
After a few moments, I felt that familiar snap, indicating that I’d shut it down.
And then I left the alcove and continued down the corridor with only a few glances coming my way now. That part was normal for me, because I was a hot piece. But it wasn’t anything more than that and being casual interest from others now. Phew.
I made a turn into my class for this morning— Predatory Influence and Energy Manipulation.
It was certainly apt right about now.
All the classrooms in this place, aside from Combat Hall, were pretty much identical with a cool, modern design.
The walls were a deep onyx with shimmering veins that pulsed when magic was cast inside them.
There were rows of chrome-framed desks with black glass surfaces.
Each had an interactive panel for research and note-taking.
The chairs were a sleek black leather. And, at the front, where the professor stood was a massive panel that responded to touch and magical input.
I took the usual seat that I took in every class, at the back on the far left of the room.
Out of the way, basically.
I pulled the textbook out of my messenger bag that had been assigned for this course, which was an overview of predatory species, and set it in front of me, then fired up the interactive panel, pairing it to my laptop, as was standard procedure at the start of every class.
It meant I could review my notes in my dorm later on.
As the throngs of students started filtering in, I also caught sight of Professor Lorian Blackwater making his way in. He was a vampire-sorcerer hybrid. His hair was in his same dirty-blond buzz cut and he was dressed in his casual jeans and hoodie combo.
I tensed when someone moved to sit down right beside me.
But then they were eased away by someone else getting up in their space and smoothly moving around them, using a whole lot of muscle and girth to accomplish the task.
I choked when I actually looked up properly and caught sight of who it was.
Vorzyr.
He winked at me and even licked his lips suggestively.
Oh, damn.
“Hey, babe,” he greeted. “Sleep well?”
His long, silk black hair was down and he was dressed up wearing a crimson and gold high-collared coat, the collar itself and the cuffs encrusted with what appeared to be real rubies. He was wearing his maroon leather pants with a thick leather belt that had a gold jeweled buckle.
“Wanted to make a good first impression for my first class of the year,” he told me, as he obviously caught me checking him out. He reached out and fingered my scarf. “Is that what this is all about?”
“No,” I whispered. “It’s because you left marks on me.”
“Having a dragon mark you is a great honor.”
“As if that’s why you did it.”
“Let me see,” he said, easing my scarf down even as he spoke the words.
I batted his hand away and loosened it so he could see exactly what he’d done, while I covered the marks from view so no one else could see. I guess I was still hoping that it didn’t get back to Kai.
“Wow,” he breathed when he saw his dragon hickeys all over the side of my neck, the red-raw angry flesh there, as well as some deep bites from his teeth, not just sucking on my skin.
“I didn’t honestly realize I’d gone that far.
I was caught up in the moment. I must’ve wanted to make a mark on you. ”
“I’d say.”
“I mean, something akin to a claiming mark. It was a purely animalistic impulse.”
“So Kai would see and it would cause a whole drama.”
“No. In fact, I’ll prove it to you. Right after class, come to my dorm room and I’ll take them away.”
“You can do that?”
“I can. I mean, they’ll heal in a couple of days, but if you want them gone right away, I can make that happen.”
“Yeah… well… thank you.”
“No worries, babe.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“You like it when I do. You demonstrated that last night.”
I could feel my face flushing.
“Wow,” he said. “You’re all so much about repressing your true wants and desires and abilities around here, huh?”
“Maybe. To an extent.”
“More like definitely. And to the nth degree.”
“Yeah, it is like that actually.”
He laid his hand on mine. “Maybe it shouldn’t be.”
Our gazes clashed.
“You let go of that repression last night and it was a fucking revelation for you, wasn’t it?”
“It was an experience, yeah,” I admitted.
“Then why go right back to repression?”
“You don’t get it. Because my head wasn’t clear today, I accidentally infected several students with my allure.”
“There are worse things they could be infected with.”
“It’s not the point.”
“You didn’t take advantage of them in the midst of that, did you?”
“No. Of course not. That would be a major violation of consent.”
“Then, no harm, no foul.”
“That’s not exactly—”
“This is a college for supernatural beings learning how to control their abilities and perfect them to an extreme degree. I find it hard to believe that other being’s powers don’t leak out all over the place either. It’s par for the course, part of the learning experience.”
“My abilities violate free will and—”
“Other abilities can take your life. Or severely damage you, at the very least.”
“I… that’s true.”
His molten gold eyes were blazing at me, and I realized as we’d been talking, I’d been stroking his fingers with mine as he held my hand on the desktop.
“Do you want to come into my dreams again tonight? I’ll let you fabricate the surroundings this time. As long as it’s not in a pool, anything that involves immersing ourselves in water.”
“Dragons hate cold too, right? I mean, except the kind that Draven is.”
“My kind do, yeah.” He stroked my fingers back, then placed our joined hands on his thigh. Oh, damn. “So, what do you say?”
“Let’s deal with the marks first.”
“You and Kai aren’t exclusive, right? I mean, if you were, it would be a hell of a blow about him and Ariana, right? You would have reacted far more strongly.”
“I would have. We’re not.”
“Let me guess, he makes you feel like he’s the one doing you a favor?”
“Can we not?” I went to pull my hand away, but he held fast.
“He’s not, all right?”
“What?”
“Last night, the pleasure was definitely mine. You were incredible. I’m not usually one for repeats, but here I am asking for another go, because it was that amazing.
You were that amazing. The way you move, the sexy little sounds you make…
all of it.” He lowered his voice and made a show of whispering, clearly for my benefit. “And your magnificent cock.”
I choked at his words.