Chapter 40 Bad Intentions
Bad Intentions
Xerxes
Iam not a happy camper. In fact, I’m not a happy anything because I’m soaked in sweat and bruised to within an inch of my life because this asshat Major has pushed our prince to make us fight until we’re all going to need healing potions.
It’s not very easy to do that to demons, especially hybrid ones like my caliphate and me, and every inch of my body aches as I pant from the bench on the sidelines.
Our only breaks have been in between fights, and that’s only if you’re bleeding—which I am.
Otherwise, you have to do laps around the damn arena.
Poor KK would grit her teeth and kill herself to make it through—or get knocked out.
My eyes move to my leader, noting how he looks as if he’s going to shatter his fucking teeth if they grit any harder.
He’s angry about this class session, and he is going to be extremely difficult to deal with afterward.
Jasper doesn’t enjoy having his hand forced by anyone, and definitely not the watchful eyes of his father’s stool pigeon and our stupid headmaster.
Together, their presence is going to injure more demons than train them, and that’s proven by the constant flow of infirmary workers carrying people out on stretchers.
Luckily, none of those people are from my caliphate, but we’re taking a hell of a beating.
“Hopefully, Kit is doing better with the big guy than we are here,” Salem mutters as he joins me, nursing a bloody cut under his eye that’s dribbling down his face.
“I would not be okay with him being here during this gauntlet. I don’t even think the Games are going to be this vicious.
Magic will help those who are distance fighters, and this fucker is making everyone go hand-to-hand even if it isn’t their skill set. ”
I nod, pushing the towel against my nose as the blood gathers there. “Exactly. This isn’t about training; it’s about finding weaknesses in every student they’re watching. If they had notebooks, I’d assume they’re making a list for later, but they don’t.”
“Doesn’t mean they aren’t using a bounce spell or something,” the panda grumbles. “Some lesser demon could sit in front of a book in another room watching the notes scribble themselves as the dickwaffles watch us. The question is… why?”
“Because they want to figure out how to harm us in Lucian’s case,” Zavida says as he stumbles over with a dazed expression.
“As for the Major? I haven’t figured that out yet.
I can’t see why he’d want to find weaknesses other than to report to the General and King? But what does that get them? No idea.”
“Do you think our parents are actually plotting against us, too?” Salem mutters carefully. “Or at least… the worst of them?”
I don’t want to give that thought credence, but… they took Hell by coup starting with the Games, and some of them are ass-tastic even for demons.
“They could be,” I admit, pushing dirty hair off of my face as I sigh.
“Mine, Annie’s… Jasper’s, Slash’s… Zav’s…
” I’m not sure about Salem or Oriel’s folks; they never make a fuss at the royal stuff, so they’re not actively fighting the bullshit, but they don’t seem nearly as invested in making those guys miserable as much as forcing them to work in their line’s specialties.
O’s folks are the question marks, truthfully, because his dad is fucking awful, but that’s always in service of thievery and their guild shit.
“I don’t know about the others’ involvement. ”
Salem sighs and rubs blood from his knuckles into the black and white strands of his hair as he shrugs. “My folks always go with the flow, even when they don’t agree. If the King says so, they’ll stay in the ballpark. So probably.”
“Oriel’s dad wouldn’t want to lose the future leader of the guild, but his guild wouldn’t have shit to bid on without the royals,” Zavida mutters. “The King could cut them off anytime, so… yeah, probably all of them.”
Now that we’ve identified why the fuck this asshat Major is here, I feel even less comfortable with our new member’s training.
If Slash isn’t helping her learn to shift, I’m going to deep fry that aquatic asshole.
KK has to get better with what little power she’s displaying and fast, or these ‘training’ sessions will become her doom.
I’m not sure if they’ll allow her buddy, Dr. D, to just hang around the sidelines to clean her up, either.
Although Dr. D scares the piss out of most people; I could be mistaken about that.
Filing that thought away to tell Jasper later on, I push to my feet wearily as I check the position of the sun.
“We have a little longer in class. If we can make it to the end, most of us could skip the late afternoon classes and go back to the dorm. It’ll take a bit to clean up, but then by the time Slash brings KK back from the gym, we’d be ready to order a damn pizza or something. ”
“Worried you won’t look so fabulous today, X?” Salem smirks at me, and I roll my eyes at him in annoyance.
“I prefer not to walk around caked in dirt and dried blood; so sue me, fucker.”
His eyes widen, and I chuckle as he realizes just how damn tired I am by my tone. “Damn, X. You’re never this cranky. That almost channeled Jasper.”
“You’re straining yourself holding back the shift,” Zav says softly. “But I get why. You want to save some things for the real deal.”
Our many-tailed hacker is right, and I’m paying the price for it as we speak.
But I’m not the only one holding back, now am I?
By the time the class finally ends, Annie and Oriel have taken their licks as well, and we look like a group of refugees from a no-holds barred fight club. I suppose that’s what the Major and Lucian made Jasper turn this class into, and I’m ready to get this shit out of my hair and off of me.
“Are we all okay?” Annie asks as he studies me with a careful eye. I know he’s worried that while I’m not the smallest, like Zav or KK, I’m not a fighter by nature. Hand-to-hand is a particular dislike for both of us given our parents, and this has been a lengthy, very arduous period.
I nod as I pick up my bag, stuffing my regular uniform into it without bothering to change. “It will be fine, love. Everyone is upright and lacks mortal wounds, so after we eat and rest, all should be well again.”
Zavida takes his cues from me and shoves his clothes in his bag. “I take it we’re not going to the classes this afternoon slash evening? I can definitely get behind that idea. I’d prefer to follow X’s plan of cleaning up and meeting in Salem’s room.”
My lips twist as I look at him with a knowing expression.
“You too, huh? Are we sure the prince will be okay with this? Or can you rebel without getting in trouble?” The Kitsuné gives me a dirty look, and I laugh softly, then wince.
“Okay, okay. I think we should all ditch and wait for KK in their room. All in favor?”
Annie raises his hand quickly, and a happy little buzz in my chest kicks up. “I’m in. We will not need Supe Law if everyone is preparing for a post-Games war, anyway. It’ll all be in the wind once that shit starts.”
“No shit,” Oriel says as he flexes his wings, checking to make sure their range of motion is good.
He shifted more than most of us—well, he and Salem.
Most demons have seen their shifted forms in various situations over the years, and they don’t have to hide.
Slash and Jasper have an equally public shifter persona, but theirs is more terrifying than anything else.
Annie, Zav, and I hold back and use magic from our demon lines rather than shift since our animals appear to be less dominant.
Of course, anyone who knows us well would know that’s a stupid assumption, but we don’t let people get close enough to find out. It’s strategic.
O growls as one of his wings sits a bit crooked, and I arch a brow as I ask, “Should we ask the doc to meet us at the room?”
“No,” he grumbles as the feathered appendages disappear into his back. “It will be fine after a few hours, like you said. Just pisses me off we were put in such jeopardy to satisfy two old fuckers measuring their dicks at one another. I have no interest in being fodder for their wrinkly asses.”
Chuckling, I wait for the others to grab their stuff and then throw my gross hair over my shoulders.
“Agreed, man. But we didn’t have an option, and neither did Jas, so let’s maybe…
cushion that so KK doesn’t go for his gonads and get into a big fight when he couldn’t have stopped it if he wanted to? ”
Salem blinks, then groans. “Holy fuck, he’s gonna lose it for sure. First, Jas made him go train with the big guy—which we know isn’t fun—and now he’s missed everyone getting their asses kicked. Pizza is not gonna do it to soothe that shit, X.”
We all look at one another, and I shrug. “Don’t look at me. I’m not the Kit-o-pedia. Someone makes a suggestion; we have to make sure he doesn’t get scared and upset.”
Oriel holds up a finger. “I can find another trinket. He likes my hoard of trinkets.”
“Jackass,” Salem mutters as he sucks in a breath then lets it out. “I can DormDash some crunkleberry stuff. He loves those, and they make him silly. Maybe cake? Who doesn’t love cake?”
I nod, approving of their suggestions. “Okay, what else?”
Zavida bites his lower lip, then raises his hand like we’re in class. “I can pirate some movies from the surface he mentioned liking? A movie marathon might be good?”
“Excellent,” I reply as I turn and look at Annie with an amused expression. “I made new pajamas I was gonna save for the next crisis, but I can give them to him now. What about you, my rainbow mate?”
Anton straightens, shaking his head so his grime-encrusted colorful hair flips over his eyes. “I found some books he wanted to read at the library that I haven’t given him yet. I read them first and… made some annotations that might help. I think he’d like that.”
Beaming, I walk over and kiss my reserved mate’s cheek lightly. That’s practically a declaration from him, and I’m probably the only one who realizes it. “I think Kit will appreciate your help with his research very much.”
“Anyone have a clue what the fuck Jasper or Slash will contribute?” Oriel says wryly. “I mean, besides Jas causing chaos since he’s gonna be in a mood over this.”
I frown, then I look at Zavida curiously. “Do you think he’s going to be violently furious? Because that’s definitely going to harsh the vibe, man.”
“No,” the Kitsuné says softly. “He’s going to be furious and silent and ashamed.
Remember the time the king crashed his birthday party when he was fifteen and we all ended up being sent to survive for a week in the Wastes alone?
That Jasper is who will show up tonight, for certain.
His guilt about not being able to stop this is going to strangle him. ”
Sighing, I gesture to the tunnel leading out of the arena.
“Then we need to get moving and get back to the dorm. If we can set up the room with all that shit and maybe some stuff to comfort Jasper, too, we can avoid an ugly unnecessary confrontation. Slash will probably help keep the prince level as long as the training session didn’t go poorly. ”
Of course, with our current luck, it will have gone so badly that the shark and our newbie will come back in the pissiest moods ever and peace will fly out the window.