Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I’M CLOSE TO TAPPING OUT
Arlan moves so fast he physically blurs, and Bugby jumps up at the same time, making my pulse explode.
It’s so hard not to make a noise or move a muscle, but I refuse to give him anything again.
He stops in front of me, and I look at him blankly, ignoring him, he gets none of what I’m feeling.
I’m confident he’d get off on me being freaked out by his presence.
“Is the silent treatment the best you’ve got?” he asks as he leans forward like he’s dissecting a bug.
Clearly, he’s never been ignored before, or simply doesn’t get the concept that I don’t want to speak to him, but I just want him gone.
I don’t rush or hide what I’m doing when my eyes move off his face and down his chest. His hand shifts, and the towel that was hanging on his hips falls to the floor.
Of course, Arlan is gorgeous, though everything about him is different from Cane.
His skin is pale, but he has a scattering of light-colored freckles over his skin, and while he’s broad across the chest, he’s smaller than Cane.
Of course, the asshole has great hips and muscle definition.
“Like what you see, doll?”
I lift my gaze back to his face so he can see my unimpressed expression.
But then, because it’s Arlan and he treated me so dirty, I do the same to him.
Dropping my eyes, I return to my inspection of his naked form.
I haven’t seen a lot of guys naked, so it’s hard to compare Arlan’s size with others, but I know if nothing else his ego is massive and I’m going to make it my mission to shrink it back to size.
“If you’re cold, I can close the window,” I say as I move past his dick, which he’s clearly very proud of, and lean forward so I can see his feet. “Oh, wow… you’ve got small feet too.”
He doesn’t at all, they’re huge, but because I’m screwing with him and enjoying it so much, I purposely turn from him and search out Emrys’ feet and then Bael’s, not hiding the grimace on my face.
Arlan moves fast again. His hand grips my chin, forcing me to look at him. “That was a shitty thing to do, Maya.”
I don’t fight against his hold—there’s little point—instead I lean into it and close my eyes.
Once I hear his sharp inhale, I know I’ve got him, so I reopen my eyes and smile up at him.
“So was forgetting to ask if you could feed from me. And also getting into my bed without invitation. You know that’s a prick move, right? ”
Cane walks back in and stops at the door. Arlan doesn’t let go, and I turn to Cane, letting out a dramatic sigh that screams, see what happens when you’re not here?
“Arlan, get dressed,” Cane orders.
His fingers flex, and I look up at Arlan as innocently as I can, but we both know it’s an act. Amazingly, he doesn’t say anything or bite me, so I take it as a win.
Cane and Emrys leave the room, and when Arlan goes to follow, I check out his butt, which of course is round and cute.
The thought of calling anything of Arlan’s cute makes me feel like laughing.
Then the knowledge of how offended he’d be at my word choice tips me over the edge, and I snort out loud.
And while there’s a noticeable change to the tension in the room with them gone, it also makes the malignant darkness pooling around Bael impossible to ignore.
He climbs to his feet, and I obsess about plucking fluff off my leggings and wishing I was anywhere but here.
Anything to avoid looking or talking to him.
There’s a noticeable tremor in my hands, leftover adrenaline from what just happened with Arlan and Cane, but also apprehension at being left alone with a demon.
Out of all the others, I have the hardest time accepting them and their angelic counterparts.
Shifters, magikals, and vampires make sense to me, perhaps because they’ve been romanticized in books and movies for a long time, but demons have been portrayed as evil for even longer.
My tremors get worse when I think about celestials until I realize it’s not thinking of them that’s making me shake.
The faint humming builds into a constant, urgent chiming.
I jump up, eager to outrun the vision coming in, but I stumble as it takes hold. Before I lose myself completely to the message, Bael’s hands lock around my wrist, my own hands gripping the same way.
Then we’re no longer at Professor Cane’s house.
We’re hurtling through time and space, landing in the forest again.
The tear in the fabric of reality that the Legion used as their entry point is gone, but lingering around the scene are motes of magik and signs of a fight.
But those things are incidental, and it’s a luminescent glow against the base of a tree which drags me forward, like a magnet.
Something brushes against me, and despite being mid-vision, there’s a part of me that recognizes the dark smoke clinging to me—Bael. He only steals my focus for long enough for me to sense and accept his presence, then the mysterious glow pulses impatiently.
“I remember this.” I’m struck by familiarity. The gravitational pull and intriguing sensation are a mirror to when I found both the bracelet and the arrow part.
Thinking of them, I look at my wrist and see hidden among Bael’s foreboding hold the shimmering strands of gold. Both he and the bracelet bring a sense that everything is as it should be.
In the next break in my awareness, I’m on my knees, digging through the rich soil. My fingers brush against something solid, and as soon as this happens, I don’t need to dig anymore; the ground simply wells up and offers the hidden object to me like a gift.
I see it, but before I can process what it is, the vision blinks out and Bael’s fingers digging into my skin is all I can see.
“Let me go,” I plead, trying to pull my arms free.
He talks over me, tugging me closer. “How did you do that?”
For every attempt I make to escape, he tries to keep me confined as he waits for answers I don’t have. The others crash back into the room, catching the tail end of our tug-of-war.
“Bael?” Cane says, physically inserting himself as a mediator when neither of us gives up the fight.
Bael hisses over Cane’s insistence. “She had a vision.”
“She did on the field too,” Arlan says blandly. “Noms do. Honestly, she is not worth you losing your shit over.”
Bael’s chin tucks, and he looks like he’s getting ready to argue. “She also dragged me along. I saw what she saw.”
Emrys inserts himself into the huddle, his purple magik weaving erratically to match his palpable mistrust. “That’s impossible.”
“I’m aware,” Bael snarls, his eyes blinking black as he tugs me close again.
“Settle down,” Cane insists, his demand coming out like a bark.
Resistance against his command is futile, and a wave of exhaustion hits, taking my fight with it. I let go of Bael, but my arms are still his prisoner, and everyone sees.
Cane growls under his breath, then starts lifting each of Bael’s fingers attempting to snap his stranglehold. Of course, though, Cane can do two things at once—deal with Bael while he continues snarling at me with obvious suspicion. “And what, exactly, did you see?”
I try to find the right words, which he reads as hesitation.
“Now, Maya. We’re waiting for some semblance of honesty from you.”
I shove down the incredulity burning my throat, because it definitely involves high-level screeching and perhaps a bit of Alpha shoving.
Then I wait until I know I’ve got control of my emotions, and with a practiced smile on my face, I look directly into Cane’s eyes.
“Being honest? Yeah, well, that involves some level of trust, and I have to say, Professor, nothing in the time I have spent with you or your friends suggests I can trust you. I will, however, tell you what I saw. You’ll do whatever you will, because that’s how things are in this world. ”
Arlan doesn’t seem to have the same control. He scoffs loudly. “Enough of the world according to Maya.”
I shift my gaze, not hiding what I think of him, before I turn my attention back to Cane.
“The vision took me back to the place where the attack happened, and where the Legion appeared. There’s a large spruce on the edge of where we were standing.
There’s something hidden near the base of the tree. ”
“What was the item?” Cane pushes, his skepticism makes the green of his eyes harden like emeralds again.
I look down and take a calming breath because he won’t be happy I don’t have the answer.
Bael interrupts. “Her vision stopped before we saw what the object was, but I know where it is.”
“Good. Take Arlan and Emrys with you and retrieve it. In the meantime, I’ll finish the test we obviously need.”
“Obviously?” I ask, no longer able to hide the contempt these men continue to conjure.
“Some Noms have a few visions, Maya. A few, but that’s it.
And they don’t have the ability to share visions with other beings.
No one does. So, yes, the test is obvious because we’re at the point once again where the questions about who you actually are and why you’re here are piling up.
I’m thinking of locking you in here to protect all the other students at Thales. ”
I burst out laughing at the absurdity of his explanation. Then my laughter keeps going until I’ve got tears wetting my cheeks at how offended he looks that I’m not taking him seriously. It takes a few minutes to pull myself together.
My giggles stay with me as Cane sets everything up for the test, even when the others leave us. Of course, my frame of mind dips dangerously close to hysteria when he reaches for my hand.
“Ready for the magik?” He doesn’t wait for a response; Cane uses his shifter speed to nab my finger.
There’s a pop in my ears one second, then a sharp, sudden pain the next. It makes me try to rip my hand away from him, but he holds it so tightly that it makes escape impossible.
“Don’t faint again, will you?” Cane says it is like a challenge.
Using his supernatural speed, and before I can catch the scent of iron or see the result of his jab, he puts my damn finger in his mouth.
“What the fuck… Professor!” I screech.
I thought I knew conflict, but here I am with Professor Cane’s lips curled around my finger.
The small tug of him sucking on it blitzes through my body and scrambles my brain.
Then my brain loops again. He’s got my finger in his mouth, and the torment grows but gets diverted and lost in the sensation all over again.
I want the world to swallow me whole because I should be incensed.
He doesn’t trust me, he cut my finger, he’s locked me in the house, and he talks like an asshat to me all the time.
But his eyes are like golden orbs as they watch me closely.
It’s disorientating and doesn’t help my thoughts right themselves because I know what he’s doing is wrong, but it feels so very right.
Then throw in that his unique, and slightly addictive, scent is all I can breathe. I’m so lost, but happily so.
“It’s Cane, Maya,” he says softly, his voice vibrating through my senses. A small smile tugs at the corner of his mouth as he continues sucking on my finger while he talks. “And there’s no need to swear.”
“I’m pretty sure this is a great time for profanity, Professor. You’re not exactly consistent in the personality stakes, and right now I’m very confused.”
He growls and does something with his tongue that echoes through my soul. “You keep forgetting I have two very distinctive sides to who I am.”
“Maybe,” I squeak, finally finding the strength necessary to pull my finger free.
Then I wish I had the courage to push it back between his lips, which are outrageously soft. To make things even weirder, I then talk to Cane as if he’s someone I can rely on, trust, even.
“Honestly, I don’t understand anything in my life. Not since I had to climb the fence to escape. Nothing makes sense.”
A rumble spills from him and I’m thrown again, not knowing why he’s upset until I see his eyes and know the wolf is receding.
I figure we need a distraction before we both start offending each other again.
“How long does the test take?”
“A few minutes.”
“Why did the Legion attack?”
“Perhaps to test our defenses.”
“To what end, though?”
His eyes are back to gold, and his voice delves into the rumbly zone again. “No one was at risk. The Kleis have been moved to a secure location.”
Cane locks up as he realizes what he just admitted. To save time and a lot of angst, I pretend I missed what he said by twisting his words into a question that’s been bugging me for a while. “Gossip around Thales is that your unit already has a Kleis.”
He scoffs, reinforcing that I’m dealing with Professor Cane again. “I know you don’t believe everything you hear, Maya. It’s also not your business, is it?”
“I disagree. And before we go around in circles, now’s a good time for me to say again, my being here is pointless. You clearly know how to work together, and your Kleis is supposedly safe. I don’t need to be here.” Angry golden eyes sear me into submission. “Or I could stay a while longer.”
An alarm sounds, Professor Cane turns away, doing whatever it is he does and sends off a couple of texts from his phone. When he spins back, he’s all business again.
“You’re still a Nom. The information you shared earlier saved us a lot of time, but I think you need to find a way to sort fact from fiction.”
My mouth falls open in shock and offense. “Pardon?”
“Bael said they didn’t find anything at the base of the tree. They went on a wild-goose chase for nothing.”
“I’m not the one who said they should check, Professor, you made the decision. I have said that I’m a complete novice when it comes to visions. Now you’re crabby at me? Anyway, I appreciate your feedback, but like I keep saying, I really don’t think we should do this anymore.”
He storms off, leaving me feeling more settled than I have been. At least when he’s a dick, he’s consistently dickish.
After checking he’s not waiting outside my door, I race to the bathroom to wash my finger because that is infinitely easier than unpacking pretty much anything to do with Cane or his actions.