Chapter 17 Winter #4
Zayn shook his head. “You’re gonna need a better cover story than that, Win.”
“Look, I understand that you’re not exactly on board with my refusal to clue in—”
“I’ll help you figure one out.”
“I… you’ll… what?”
He came to me and grasped my hand. “I might not agree with it, but I do understand your stance. And I’m here with you, to help you. So if this is what you need, the way you need it done, you’ve got me, all right?” He squeezed my hand. “No matter what. I’m here now. I’m fucking here now, Win.”
I lifted our joined hands and brushed my lips over his knuckles. “Thank you, fireball.”
Vax grinned out at us. “Very nice.” He rubbed his palms together then.
“So, as for this morning, I suggest we prepare breakfast for our lovely dragon princess. She endured much last night with Torvek and the Dracoryn Realm political ramifications that will come to pass all too soon. And she was also incredible last night when she took us all so very powerfully and courageously. She deserves to be pampered.”
“Damn, yes. She really did. Just thinking about that pleasure-fest last night is getting me hard,” Zayn uttered.
I eased my hand from his, chuckling. “Then any extra stimulation for you needs to be avoided so you don’t suddenly jump her the moment she wakes up, hmm?”
“I do have some self-control.” Off both our looks, he added, “When it’s called for.”
“Which it should be now,” Vax spoke. “Although she’s dragon and can recover in moments, there’s still the emotional toll of taking us together like that and enduring that level of sexual intensity.”
“Agreed,” I said.
“And you?” Zayn asked Vax. “You’re really new to it all as well.”
“Yeah, how are you faring with it?”
“Invigorated. Ecstatic. Thankful. Enamored. Astounded. It was primal, chaotic, filthy, yet also loving and comforting at the same time.” He smiled. “I truly never imagined experiencing anything like it.”
Because of the fear instilled in him concerning his Basilisk nature.
“Your petrification and venom didn’t come into play at all,” Zayn commented.
“I was at peace, I suppose,” he mused to himself.
I went to him and wrapped my arm around him, giving him a squeeze. “I’m glad.”
“Wow, this whole after-sex assessment is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard,” Evira’s voice sounded, just before she came into view and stepped out onto the balcony.
In my hoodie.
Her stunning naked body wrapped in my hoodie, only partially zipped up and reaching to just mid-thigh level. Her long hair was all wild and in very much a just-fucked state.
Jeez. My body reacted, and I had to ease from Vaxan in order to avoid any physical stimulation. So much for me warning Zayn about it.
“What?” Evira questioned as the three of us merely stared at her, mouths basically agape.
Vax cleared his throat and managed to fight through it first, telling her, “Morning, beauty.”
Her eyes twinkled at his endearment. I wasn’t surprised. The way those rolled off his tongue was something else.
“Love it when he calls me that too,” Zayn said.
“And beautiful for me,” I added, smiling at Vax.
“Also, little death. Your true favorite.”
“That’s the only time I’ve ever known you to be okay with the death aspect of your nature being referenced,” Zayn said.
“Well unlike ‘death boy’ and the like, Vax’s intention and reasons behind it are a world away from the derogatory nastiness of the rest.”
“The sexy way he says it doesn’t hurt either, hmm?” Evira chimed in.
Vaxan chuckled, then shook his head at us. “You’re on the verge of descending into carnality.”
“And you’re not affected by it?” Zayn challenged.
“Oh, I most definitely am. I just clearly have greater self-control, especially compared to the two of you,” he said, gesturing between me and Zayn.
“No doubt,” Zayn and I spoke in unison, then laughed.
“It’s nice seeing the camaraderie between you two back on track,” Evira said.
“It certainly is,” Vaxan concurred. Then he asked Evira, “Would you like to have breakfast and spend some quality time together before classes begin for the day?”
A sparkling smile spread over her face. “That sounds great.”
“Excellent,” Vaxan said. “I’ll conjure whatever you like.” He gestured at Zayn and me. “Put your orders in.”
“Conjure?” Zayn questioned. “Why don’t we just head down to the Cafeteria?” His eyes lit up. “Like a relationship unit.”
“Relationship unit?” Evira chuckled.
Zayn frowned, then looked to me. “What does your family call it again?”
“A foursome.”
He snapped his fingers. “That’s it, yeah.” He took us all in. “So, why don’t we head down there, kind of make this now established foursome thing between us known, and have it mark it for ourselves as well?”
“I believe last night marked it extremely well,” Vaxan pointed out.
Oh. That, combined with his first reaction to be to conjure food, rather than just go to the Cafeteria made it clear what was happening.
I reached out and stroked his arm. “You haven’t been to the Cafeteria since that day?”
I’d been keeping an eye on him, but not every moment of the day, not when I’d been in classes. And he was also very slippery, harder to keep track of than I’d ever imagined. He hadn’t said anything, but I thought he’d registered me watching over him.
He averted his eyes—very unlike him. “I have not, no.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry, Vaxan,” Zayn told him. As Evira stroked Vax’s back sweetly, Zayn went on, “Although, this morning seems like the best time of all to put an end to that avoidance.”
I looked at Zayn, while he was focused on Vax. That had been incredibly sweet of him. I beamed out at him, and he caught me, stilling for a moment, before smiling back.
“The threat is gone,” Evira reminded him.
“Plus, I can see through illusions. Those vampires used an enchantment stolen from a sorcerer here that fabricated illusionary magic. It enabled them to mask the scent and appearance of the true state of your food to even get past your highly-perceptive senses, so they were able to poison you with things you can’t eat as a Basilisk,” I told him.
Yeah, I’d looked into the whole thing.
Both him and Evira looked stunned.
Zayn not at all, because he already knew about it, and he’d even seen me employ that skill once as well.
“That’s not an inherent ability of either Wraith or Necromancer,” Vaxan pointed out.
“No, but it can be. With the right training. And enough of it.”
“Sylas ensured you could do it?” Evira asked. “You use your necromantic side to see through illusionary magic?”
“Exactly.” My dad had taught himself how to do such a thing in his twenties, after he’d been faced with some brutal situations where illusionary magic had been used against him in devastating ways.
Glasswake Massacre, for instance. He’d ensured that could never happen again.
“But it won’t even be necessary for breakfast. Those two vampires were exceptions, nothing more.
The rest of the student body respects and reveres you.
Even the other vampires and vampire hybrids here don’t resent you for the Sunveil protections.
I promise, Vax. If it will put you at ease, and if you even think you could bring yourself to head down there, I can definitely do that for you, though. ”
“Hold on. How do you know that about the student body?” Zayn asked me. “I mean, I know all that, but I keep an eye on things, and I have for the last three years before you guys got here. You’re more of a chill-in-the-corner kind of wallflower guy, staying out of everything.”
“I might have ensured that I was made aware of every single student’s intentions here ever since the attack.”
Evira chuckled. “That’s some real protective and territorial dragon-like energy you were channeling there, lovely.”
“What?” I asked Zayn as he eyed me with amusement. “You know better than anyone how intense I get when I grow close to someone.” Off his look, I added, “Fine. Maybe verging on obsessive.” I acknowledged Evira’s observation. “Territorial, too. But in a protective way… not toxic alpha posturing.”
“Toxic alpha posturing?” Zayn chuckled. “You’re not capable of that. Nothing to worry about there. And I mean that as a compliment.” He winced. “That was my thing.”
“‘Was’ being the operative word, Z.”
He smiled that sweetheart smile of his, one that had been all too rare beforehand.
“Thank you,” Vaxan spoke, looking between us. “Your efforts are much appreciated, and deeply thoughtful.” He told Evira, “You also with the magnificent draconic river rock, beauty. I believe taking breakfast together in the Cafeteria will be an agreeable way to start our day.”
“You’re sure?” I asked.
He leaned in and brushed his lips over my cheek. “Very much so.” As he eased back, he said, “I wish for us to all be together as one in the light.” He winked at me, making it clear that had been a nod to me being unable to be acknowledged by Evira and Zayn for so long.
He’d kept that promise to me.
At the time, I’d just never thought it would be possible that it would come to include all four of us.
Yet here it now was.
No more dirty little secret.
Things had shifted.
And I was here for it in every way.
As Zayn bounded over to Evira and wrapped his arm around her, the four of us heading off the balcony and back into her suite, she eyed me. “As we shower and dress, want to fill me in on your plan of action concerning the magical attack on you last night?”
“Definitely. Like you said, no more lone-wolf approach.”
She beamed out at me, her relief clear that I was sticking to what I’d agreed to last night after our intense talk, even in the light of day.
Of course I was. This development between the four of us meant the world to me.
And I’d absolutely honor it.
While Zayn had been fussing over what to wear, I’d taken that extra time of the delay it had caused us in leaving Evira’s suite, to respond to all the text messages from my family, managing to calm things properly and put them at ease.