Kissed by Moonlight

by Cate Corvin

  My stomach dropped at the look of blatant satisfaction on her face. As much as I adored Dominic, I knew I was condemning him just by being here. If he felt for me as I thought he did, he would end up under Gilt’s thumb the same way I was.

  “How goes her training, Dominic?” Gilt’s voice was soft with a touch of rasp. It was the kind of voice that sent unpleasant shivers down my spine, especially when combined with her insectile way of looking of people, like they were meals instead of humans. “We’re impatient to see some progress.”

  “She’s made some improvement, but I need to erase a lifetime of bad habits.” He shook his head wearily, like I was the world’s most difficult student. It gave me the chills when he talked about me like I wasn’t standing right in front of him, even if I understood why it was necessary.

  Gilt might already know there was something between us, but she didn’t have to know how deep that something went. I had a feeling when she saw us together, all she saw were two unwitting pawns moving into place on her gameboard.

  “Luckily for you, Miss Darke has all the time in the world.” Gilt’s smile was thin as a knife-stroke. “But that’s not what I’m here for. The students are being given a free study hour- all staff are to report to the conference hall for interviews. I want our new staff in place before the incoming students arrive.”

  My stomach plummeted somewhere near my feet. A couple weeks ago, Professor Sweet had mentioned that Cimmerian was looking to hire on a new teacher. She herself was covering for divination classes at the moment, which she clearly hated.

  And new students? That was something to be worried about. They’d just end up as so much cannon fodder for Cimmerian’s endless appetite.

  “I’ll be there shortly.”

  Gilt gave us both the smile she used when she was attempting to seem pleasant and turned on her heel.

  We wouldn’t have Conjure and Exorcism today, which meant I wouldn’t have any excuse to be around Dominic. He glanced at me sideways.

  Usually I’d be happy to spend some unexpected free hours holed up in the library, but my veins were still fizzing from Dominic’s body overpowering mine in such close quarters.

  When the clicks of Gilt’s heels had faded, I sidled to the garden wall and shoved an ugly gnome statue over the side. “Oops.”

  Dominic’s hazel eyes glinted. “That’s one Corrective Counseling session for the destruction of school property, Miss Darke.”

  “Oh dear,” I murmured, my heart fluttering as he walked into the school on my heels. “Whatever shall I do?”

  His hand surreptitiously ran down my back and cupped my ass before he strode off.

  I watched him go, his broad shoulders limned by the thin cotton training shirt. It was going to be a long morning.

  ***

  Classes ended up cancelled for the entire day, which filled most students with glee. The news of a fresh batch of students coming had spread like… well, wildfire, and Daphne and her cohorts were already whispering to each other about the upcoming arrivals.

  I ended up sulking in the library, digging through a dusty box of damaged books. Shane was running the forest as a wolf. Things had been tense between him and his twin since Roman had cut me off with a few cold words.

  Even if I hated Roman, I didn’t want to be the cause of Shane’s pain or heartache. He’d already lost enough when Frostbone had cast them out for being therianthropes.

  I wouldn’t be the wedge that divided him and his brother.

  We’d agreed to three-day intervals in which Shane would take to the forest to spend time with Roman. We were only on day two this week. I already missed him with a bone-deep craving that seemed to fill every cell of my body.

  I brushed off an old photo album and laid it to the side, my stomach churning as the memory of Roman’s icy blue eyes filled my mind. He’d looked at me like a stranger.

  I’d been right about him the entire time. He’d tried to make himself seem likable and relatable, but that was just an act. At the end of the day, Roman didn’t care about anyone but himself.

  And Shane, my annoying inner voice reminded me. He does everything for Shane.

  Like hell was I going to spend all day thinking about Roman Frost.

  Tonight, I was going down to see Locke. That thought was enough to cheer me up when the memory of Roman darkened my day.

  Something moved in the library. I looked up in time to see a dark-haired girl stroll behind a shelf, wiping her eyes. The yellow lace of her old-fashioned dress dragged on the floor behind her.

  I remained where I was. In the month I’d been living here I’d seen her plenty of times. Whoever she was, her spirit was growing bolder, sometimes showing herself during daylight hours.

  Thanks to last week’s trial and error every time she popped up, I knew that if I walked over there now, there’d be no trace of her left.

  If I wanted to communicate with her, I’d need to set up a séance or ask a mirrorwalker to talk to her for me. I’d never been any good with conjuring or exorcism myself.

  Which meant I would need to bring Dominic in on the mystery soon. He’d already exorcised her once, but she’d come back within days.

  I hadn’t sensed any malice from her yet; she just seemed sad and helpless in a way that made my heart hurt.

  I made a stack of books to pick through another time as evening descended and the stained-glass windows lit up with rich jewel tones. The library was slowly coming back together under my ministrations. At this rate I was going to need to ask Gilt to start paying me for the sheer amount of time I spent sorting and shelving.

  The corridors were deserted, the students holed up in their own rooms or the cafeteria, and the staff still hadn’t been released.

  The black door hummed under my palm as I pushed it open and shut it behind me. I knew this section of the basement by heart now and walked into the darkness without fear. Five steps forward, ten steps down, and I knew the moment my feet passed Locke’s barrier.

  Powerful fingers slid over my arms, finding my wrists. I let out a soft rush of air in surprise. No matter how many times I went into Cimmerian’s basement, Locke’s speed and silence never failed to shock me.

  But of course it was unnatural. He was a vampire.

  Every time I visited, he tested himself in the same way, like he needed to prove to himself that he was still in control. He gripped my wrists, his thumbs pressed against my thrumming pulse, face buried in my hair.

  I kissed the warm skin of his shoulder, like silk under my lips. “You’re still yourself.”

  “For today,” he said. He brushed my temple, tracing a line over my cheekbone and jaw.

  Locke rarely allowed me to kiss his lips, except in my dreams. He thought that his need to consume blood would disgust me, and while I did have some trepidation over it, I still wished he would let me kiss him in return more often. I’d even offered to bring him a toothbrush if it bothered him so much.

  He released my wrists. It didn’t matter whether he tested himself or not, since his chains were just a ruse now. If he really wanted to feed from me, I would be helpless to prevent it.

  But I had faith in him. He was more than the monster he believed himself to be.

  “Every day.” I ran my hands over his shoulders, over the hard planes of his chest. “Every night. To the forest?”

  I started to move past him, but he stopped me, his hand looped around my wrist.

  “Not tonight, sunlight.” Something in his flat tone made me pull out my wand, sending a tiny ember of wildfire through the rowan-and-silver spiral.

  Locke’s carved Mediterranean features were illuminated by the light, showing ashen skin and dark, hungry eyes.

  Without knowing where the staff was, I hadn’t dared an attempt on the kitchen’s blood supply tonight.

  “You need to feed.”

  Locke grew tense. “She’s reduced the rations.”

  I stared up at him, carefully holding my wand as far from him as possible. �
�Gilt knows. It was only a matter of time.”

  Just because Gilt didn’t need light to find her way down here didn’t mean she wouldn’t notice that the vampire had slipped his shackles.

  “Perhaps so.” Locke inclined his head. A wave of dark hair fell over his shoulder. “If she does, she has said nothing. I can only wonder if this is all a part of her plan.”

  “What plan?” The flame dancing on the wand’s tip wavered and I took a deep breath, calming myself. “What else do you know about her?”

  His amber eyes seemed lit with their own inner fire. His brows drew together as he fought, lips drawing back over his teeth. “I… do not know. I don’t remember.” He let out a frustrated sigh, turning away from me, and I reached out to touch his warm back.

  Locke shuddered. “Please go, sunlight. When I am no longer struggling with myself, I will find you in dreams.”

  “I could bring you blood,” I offered. If Locke was in pain from hunger, I’d take on the risk of being caught stealing. “Or you could hunt in the forest, couldn’t you?”

  He looked back at me with a bitter smile. “And risk hunting you? No, Lucrezia. The risk is too great.”

  I drew a breath to argue but forced myself to shut my mouth instead. He was a vampire, who knew himself far better than I did. When I’d decided that I couldn’t stay away from him, I’d known it would be a long process. He wouldn’t recover from being chained alone in the darkness in just a few days.

  It could take months. Or much longer.

  Locke sensed my acquiescence, touching my face. “I am glad you came for me.”

  I leaned into his touch and let the wandlight die. The rowan was still warm when I slid it back into my jacket lining. “If you haven’t walked into my dreams by Sunday, I’m coming back with blood.”

  “Yes. Good night, sunlight.” His warm lips touched my forehead. I felt the strain in his body as he drew away.

  “Good night, Locke.”

  I wanted to say something more, but there was nothing to be said. As long as he was thirsty, he was suffering, which only made his progress that much harder.

  That night my dreams felt empty and cold without him, my body chilled without Shane in my bed. My only company was the dark-haired ghost, who stared at me with sad, strangely familiar eyes.

  Chapter 2

  Lu

  I paced the forest the next morning, shivering in my shorts and T-shirt in the cool predawn air. Dominic was nowhere to be seen and the silence of the grounds at this hour was a little unnerving.

  A strange cloud of trepidation hung over me, like a storm waiting to unleash itself on my unsuspecting head.

  My stomach churned as I paced. He would’ve at least sent a message if he’d canceled, wouldn’t he? Unless he’d been waylaid by Gilt.

  Or if something had happened to him. But that seemed impossible- no spirit would be mad enough to go after a master exorcist.

  I gave up on my anxious vigil as the distant spike-topped wall gleamed with the first light of morning and headed back for Cimmerian’s hedged gardens, only to stop in my tracks almost instantly.

  The spirit in lace sat on a bench, staring back at me. I’d never seen her outside the mansion before.

  My mouth went dry. Just because I didn’t sense animosity from her didn’t mean she was harmless, and this was the boldest she’d been yet.

  “Who are you?” I took several slow steps closer, my footsteps as loud as gunshots in the silence. The spirit said nothing. Her fine-boned hands were curled in her lap, hair hanging in a lank waterfall down her back. “What do you want?”

  She didn’t answer, which I’d been expecting. I was struck by how familiar she seemed, unable to quite put my finger on it. “You look like someone I know.”

  Her eyes widened, and something cold touched my leg. I jumped and look down at a pointed canine face, cream-and-black snout wrinkled in a wolfish grin. “Shane!”

  Shane began the shift from animal to man, making a low groaning noise as his body reformed itself. “Who were you talking to?” His words were garbled as his mouth shrunk from a long snout back to his human jaw.

  I glanced back at the bench. It was empty. Several shredded rose petals blew from the marble surface in the breeze and skittered along the white gravel path. “Um. No one.”

  For some reason I didn’t want to share my spooky new friend with anyone yet. Like all restless spirits, she obviously wanted something, and she’d been showing herself to me since I arrived. There was a purpose to her haunting.

  “You don’t sound so sure about that.” Shane was now fully human and completely naked. I kept my eyes firmly fixed above the level of his waist, but his muscular upper body was just as delicious as the lower half. Broad swathes of quicksilver scars streaked his dusky skin. The silvery claw marks cut from his temple to the corner of his mouth, bisecting one carved cheek. He wasn’t any less handsome for them, with his dark lashes, twilight-blue eyes and full lips.

  “No, you’re right. I’ve finally succumbed to the madness. I’m talking to myself.”

  “I find that strangely believable.” Shane looped his arm around my waist, pulling me close for a kiss that had me trembling in seconds. He maneuvered us back into the hedges, hiding us from the sight of Cimmerian’s thousand windows. “Where’s Steele?”

  I ran my fingers through the short black hair that tickled my palm. “He never showed up.” I tried to sound nonchalant, but Shane frowned, his hand tightening on my hip.

  “So you’ve been out here alone this whole time?”

  “Yeah. According to you, Gilt wants me nice and cozy, so I shouldn’t have anything to worry about-”

  Shane quieted me with a finger on my lips. “Bambi. Gilt’s not the only shark in this pond. Sometimes this place just does what it wants.”

  That was true. Only a few weeks ago, Cadogan Brand had walked down a corridor and vanished into thin air. Cimmerian’s spirits were restless and hungry. I still hadn’t found any sign of his reappearance or death, let alone the corridor in Holly’s drawings.

  Maybe I was putting too much stock into the warmth I felt from the mansion’s wards. Just because it had good feelings towards me didn’t mean its denizens would.

  Although I felt like I’d made an inch of progress with the dark-haired girl.

  I kissed his finger and pulled his hand away, winding my fingers through his. “To be fair, I thought he’d be waiting for me.”

  Shane scowled, his dark brows pulling together. “He just ditched you without notice?”

  When he put it like that, my stomach did another slow, nauseating flip. “I’m sure he had a reason. They canceled classes yesterday for staff interviews. Maybe he got held up with that.”

  I couldn’t shake that trepidation. Not even Shane’s serene, happy nature or warm hands diminished it.

  “Maybe.” His nose brushed mine when he leaned in for another kiss, hardening against me. I gasped into his mouth and dug my nails into his shoulders.

  “Keep this up and you’ll have to cut your three days short,” I growled, reaching down to grip his thick, silky cock. Shane drew in a hissing breath.

  “I’m cutting it short anyways,” he said, his voice hitching as I stroked him. “Ro- my brother is being insufferable. He can run alone for a while.”

  My hand had frozen when he’d almost said his twin’s name. It shouldn’t have been that big a deal, but I still flushed with humiliation when I thought of how easily I’d fallen into his brother’s arms, and how easily that asshole had tossed me aside once he’d gotten what he wanted.

  “Good. That’s a whole extra day I get you to myself, then.” I nibbled his lower lip and slid my thumb over the smooth crown of his hardness.

  He pulled my hand away and almost dragged me to the hedge his spare clothes were hidden under before pulling on a pair of jeans and white T-shirt.

  Not even the lawless twins risked walking around naked in Cimmerian.

  Shane said it was because it was the
one thing Gilt didn’t overlook in their behavior. I personally thought it was because the sight of his brawny, glorious nude body might cause a riot.

  We moved through the silent garden like ghosts and slipped into the North Entrance. Shane pulled me towards D Wing, where the males lived, and the fastest way through was to cut through the hall of entomology, where the emerald walls were lined with framed insects.

  Two pairs of footsteps that didn’t belong to us echoed from the other end of the hall. The storm that had threatened to break all morning finally cracked open right over my head.

  Dominic strode towards us, his rough-hewn face as stern and cool as I’d ever seen it, wearing his usual impeccably tailored suit instead of his training clothes.

  The woman walking with him was gorgeous.

  The air froze in my lungs as they approached, her heels clicking on the floor with every perfect, hip-swaying step. Caramel hair spilled over her shoulders in shiny waves. Pearls gleamed at her earlobes and throat, and her black dress was nipped in to showcase an enviable figure. She looked us over with dark, long-lashed doe eyes.

  I suddenly felt like something that’d been dragged out with that morning’s trash, a complete schlub in the training shorts and T-shirt with my hair pulled back in a ponytail.

  She must be the new professor. Gilt probably asked him to show her around.

  There was nothing to worry about.

  “Mister Frost, Miss Darke, may I introduce Professor Ivy Bloom.” Dominic’s accented voice was flat. He hadn’t spoken to me that coolly since the first day I’d walked into his classroom late. “She’ll be taking the Divination post and covering Elementalism courses for upperclassmen.”

  Professor Bloom looked us over, her eyes almost skipping right over me to linger on Shane’s scars. She didn’t look a day older than twenty-five. “Mister Frost? You must be one the therianthropes.” Her smile was blinding.

  His grip on my arm was almost painful. “Yeah. One of them.”