by Callie Rose
“Nope. Relax, man. You’ll find out when the rest of us do.”
Kai didn’t look at all pleased with that. He was probably counting the minutes until he could get away from me, but he was just going to have to suffer. This was too important to be sidetracked by whatever messed up thing existed between us.
Still, Kai seemed almost on the verge of turning around and leaving anyway. When we finally made it to our secret hangout, he skulked by the door.
Just like he did the night he watched my four-way with the other men.
A shot of pure, demanding desire made my clit pulse.
I shifted, rubbing my thighs together surreptitiously as I mentally berated my body and my succubus power for wanting stupid shit it couldn’t have.
“Come all the way in,” Kingston said grumpily. “I’m not going to shout about this, you know.”
Kai huffed and walked over, gingerly avoiding the general area where the rest of us had been having sex the day he had watched. I gave him a pointed look, but he avoided my gaze.
What the fuck else is new?
“Okay. You ready?” Kingston held his breath as he looked around at our group.
“Been ready,” Kai snapped. “Get it over with.”
Shooting the black-haired man a withering look, Kingston pulled the phone out and flipped it open, showing them all that it was connected to earth. Astonishment rippled across my men’s faces.
“Duuude.” Jayce drew the word out into several syllables. “What. The. Fuck?”
“Where’d you get that?” Xero asked.
“Why do you have it?” Kai added suspiciously.
Kingston filled them in with the same explanation he’d given me, finishing with, “I should’ve told you all earlier, but… it goes against every instinct I have as a dragon to guard my treasure.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I’m still getting used to this ‘trusting people’ thing. But students are starting to crack, and despite what the teachers believe, there has to be a way out of here. We just have to find it.”
“What are you going to do, Google it?” Kai leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms.
Kingston huffed at him. “No. Have any of you noticed who’s been missing from the school this whole time?”
We all shared looks. Even I didn’t know the answer to this one, and I’d thought I was pretty well in tune with Kingston’s plan. The man in question groaned and rubbed a hand over his face.
“Dru,” he told us. “And his elite team of third-years. They left on a mission right before we came here. Remember? There was a whole thing about him wanting to bring students for extra manpower and Toland being on the fence about it but finally agreeing to let him have a small team. Am I really the only one who eavesdrops around here?”
“Yes,” Jayce said.
“Obviously not,” Kai said at the same time, and he and Jayce shared a mutually distrustful look.
Then Jayce grinned, reverting back to his default state of easygoing cheerfulness. “Okay, apparently not.” He turned to Kingston. “But I get what you’re saying. If Dru took the team out before the school got transported, that means he’s still on earth somewhere.”
“Exactly.” The elegant man nodded in satisfaction.
“So we should take the phone to Toland—”
Jayce didn’t even get the whole question out before he was cut off by a chorus of, “No!”
He paused, looking around in confusion. “But won’t Toland know Dru’s number?”
I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter if he does or not. We can’t tell him that Kingston has been carrying an illegal cell phone around this whole time. He’ll be expelled.”
“Really? Even though it’s an emergency? And maybe our only way home? I don’t think he’d expel him.”
“Not immediately,” I agreed. “He’d make the phone call first, then he’d expel him. Toland rides the line between pragmatic solutions and the letter of the law like a sex therapist with a license to hook.”
Jayce’s face fell, and he glanced dourly at the phone. “Well, what do we do with it, then?”
Xero shook his head. “Fuck. I don’t like knowing about this. If they find a reason to interrogate us again…”
He let the thought trail off with a small shudder.
“No, it’s fine,” Kai said sharply, and I got the feeling he was trying to convince himself his words were true. “We just won’t be suspects next time around.”
“Really? We won’t? We always are,” Xero pointed out.
“Well, next time someone should persuade them that we’re above reproach.” Kai shot me a meaningful look.
I shifted uncomfortably. “We need to get in touch with Dru.”
“Okay,” Kingston said. “Anybody got his number?”
“You know we don’t.” Jayce made an exasperated noise.
“Then what are our other options?”
“Can’t you have someone on your staff look him up?” I asked. “You already said you’ve been using the phone to keep in touch with people at your family’s company. Don’t you have an assistant who can help find him?”
He shook his head, looking a little disgruntled. “I already tried that. Dru isn’t exactly ‘on the grid’. There’s no data on him at all—as far as human record-keeping goes, the man doesn’t exist.”
“Shit.”
We sat in silence for a while, contemplating.
Maybe there was someone else we could try to reach out to for help? I didn’t have a whole lot of connections left earth-side, and the ones I did have wouldn’t know where to begin looking for answers. Every direction my thoughts took led me back to Dru. He was the only person in the world who could help. I was sure of it.
“Dru used to talk about his away missions.” I massaged my temples with my fingertips, wishing I could get Cassandra to poke around in the dark corners of my mind a little to see if any information was hidden there. “If we can remember some of the specifics, we might have a shot at reaching him somehow.”
“He liked Seattle,” Kingston recalled. “And Canada. He made a point of volunteering for those places.”
“Sheesh. That’s a lot of ground to cover. We can’t just call every place of business across a whole continent trying to find one guy.”
“Especially since he won’t want to be found,” Kai said. “He probably suspects Gavriel is behind the school’s disappearance. I’m sure he and the rest of the Custodians will be on high alert, hiding out to make sure no one else gets dragged away from earth. They’re operating at less than capacity anyway.”
“Where would he hide?” Jayce mused, interlacing his fingers and resting his chin on his hands. “Okay, hold on. People usually go to people or places where they’re most comfortable when they’re scared, right? Does Dru have any human family?”
I shook my head. “He follows the rules to the letter—and one of the first rules they have for the fallen is ‘no contact with your old life’. He wouldn’t put his family in danger. But you might be on to something.”
Something tickled at the edges of my mind, and I squeezed my eyes shut, willing it to break through. I could almost remember it.
Dru was a member of the Custodians, but he’d spent a good amount of time at FU since he’d worked very closely with the students. One day, he’d been talking with some of the third-years in the combat gym about a mission he’d just been on, showing them some new moves that the opposing monster had pulled on him.
“But I kicked his ass anyway,” Dru had said. “Me and my team wiped the floor with him, actually. They did such a good job I treated them all to drinks at Sticky Mick’s. I love that place. Used to go there all the time, still hit it up whenever I’m in town.”
“Sticky Mick’s in Seattle,” I said suddenly.
The guys all stared at me.
“That’s where he goes to celebrate victories,” I explained impatiently. “He probably also goes there to nurse losses, but he doesn’t talk about those. He’ll be the
re, I’m sure he will. Or he will be before too long. Look it up, Kingston, call him.”
Kingston shrugged, but found the number for the place and pressed the button to connect the call. It started to ring, and he pressed another button to put it on speaker. The fact that we were actually connected to earth gave me a weird feeling like I was floating between realms or something.
“Hi, I’m looking for someone who goes there a lot. Do you know a guy named Dru? Mid-thirties, dresses like a hipster, has definitely seen some shit? Yes? Perfect! Is he there?” The dragon shifter listened for a minute then sighed. “No, I’m calling from a… payphone. I’ll try again later. Thanks.”
He hung up and sighed again.
I stared at him, shaking my head in disbelief. “Why did you say that? You could’ve left your number! He would have called back, I know he would.”
He gave me a flat look. “I’m not exactly on Verizon, Piper. Unless he’s calling from an enchanted phone, he won’t be able to get through. This is a one-way deal.”
My shoulders slumped. We couldn’t even get a call-back. Fucking great. Reading the expression on my face, Kingston scooted over to me and put his arm around my shoulder.
“Listen,” he said, his voice softer and more gentle than I’d ever heard it, but with a hard edge that told me he was serious. “This is our way out. I know it is. We’re going to keep trying. We’ll poke around a little bit, talk to some of the advanced students he was close to and find out where else he liked to go. And we’ll keep calling Sticky Mick’s. Apparently, he was there this morning, I just missed him by a couple hours.”
“Yeah,” Jayce said. “We’ll figure something out. Don’t worry about it, okay?”
Right, don’t worry.
We had highly illegal contraband that could potentially save us all, but not to worry. We’d figure out how to use it.
I hoped.
Chapter Twelve
Word about Wyatt spread around school quickly. He’d been put in isolation somewhere in the basement labyrinth, and rumor had it that the Psychic Advisor was working with him every day to determine whether he was just cracking under the strain, or if he was turning evil. All of the teachers seemed to be on high alert. Even being in a bad mood didn’t feel safe anymore; if a person showed up to class grumpy, they’d be getting the third-degree before lunch.
The halls became our sanctuary for venting. Because, I mean, let’s be fair—we were trapped in a fucking cave in the middle of nowhere in the vast hellscape of the underworld. It was bound to put at least a few people in a bad mood. Not to mention the fact that the school finally ran out of coffee entirely.
It was all I could do to keep my own temper in check the day I found out about the coffee. Tea had been a good enough replacement for my second, third, and fourth cups of the day, but I relied heavily on that one perfect, life-giving cup of coffee to start my day.
I glared at what had once been the coffee bar. We’d made it six months before the day of reckoning had finally arrived. Oh, they were trying hard to lessen the blow; someone had put out extra tea, and every different flavor combination I could imagine was there. But no damn coffee. Furious, I filled my cup with a strong black tea and stormed over to my table.
“That’s it,” I groaned. “It’s all over. All hope is lost. We might as well send flares from the roof and tell Gavriel we’re here, because it’s over.”
Xero shot me a sympathetic look. “No coffee?”
“Not a drop.” I sipped the tea and made a face. “Just leaf water.”
“Better learn to like it unless you want to talk about your feelings for half an hour,” Kingston said, nodding toward the door. “Cassandra’s on cafeteria duty.”
I glanced at the door and saw that the siren was staring right at me. I didn’t know if it would work—I’d only really tried it on my own guys—but I pushed a feeling of utter contentment at her. It wasn’t much, because honestly I didn’t have much to draw from, but it seemed to be enough. She turned her attention to a different table.
“Thought police,” I grumbled.
“They just want to make sure nobody’s going full evil,” Hannah said pragmatically. “It’s not like they’re out to get anybody.”
“I guess. I wish they’d keep their snooping to the classroom though.”
“Save all your aggression up for Combat,” Kai drawled. “That’s what I’ve been doing. My scores have improved and nobody’s asked me about my well-being.”
“Not even Beedle?” Jayce asked.
Kai shook his head. “Beedle gives no fucks. As long as you aren’t trying to destroy the school on his watch, he doesn’t care how you feel.”
The table that Cassandra had her eye on now was full of a bunch of second-years, most of them young. Like, high school sophomore kind of young. I’d noticed them the year before, but hadn’t really given them much thought. They mostly kept to themselves and kept their heads down—not surprising, considering they were surrounded by a bunch of full-grown demons—but today they were being a little louder than usual. A food fight broke out suddenly and was quickly quashed by the cafeteria staff. One of the kids, whose name I was pretty sure was Taylor, stood up and shouted.
“Really? The one fun thing we’ve done in months, and you have to jump in and end it? Come on, dudes! What the fuck?”
Nobody took a whole lot of notice. Just a teenage kid having a tantrum, right? But Cassandra immediately went over to him, hurrying through the cafeteria until she reached his table. She whispered a few words in his ear and he sat down, dazed and silent.
“I’m not liking the direction this is going.” I lowered my voice a little, leaning toward the others as I spoke to make sure the school healer wouldn’t hear me. “Hypnotizing people out of a tantrum feels like an overstep.”
“He’s a teenage boy,” Jayce pointed out with a shrug. “She wouldn’t necessarily have had to hypnotize him. Look at her. Just standing that close to him would have short-circuited his brain.”
Well, he’s got a point there. I wasn’t sure whether it had anything to do with her being a siren, but Cassandra was undeniably hot. The school’s resident healer was a wispy woman with large ocean-colored eyes and reddish-brown hair that hung down her back in loose curls. I could easily imagine Taylor growing a little dazed just from all his blood rushing to his dick.
And to be fair, the kid did seem to shake it off pretty fast. Maybe Jayce was right.
I tried to put the whole Big Brother feel of it out of my head and save my complaints for the hallway. When we finished our breakfast, I made a point to smile at Cassandra as we passed by her.
Still, I couldn’t really say I agreed with how the school admins were handling things.
“If they’re worried about people losing their shit, they’re handling it all wrong,” I muttered under my breath as soon as we were out of earshot. “If the pressure wasn’t getting to me before, it sure as hell is now.”
“Keep your head up. This will all blow over eventually.”
Jayce dragged two fingers along my jaw, then slipped them under my chin and tilted my head a little so he could kiss me thoroughly. Ignoring the grumbles of students pushing past us in the hall, I wrapped my arms around him, losing myself for a moment in his fresh seafoam scent. We broke apart reluctantly before he turned to head toward his class on the other end of the castle.
“He’s right. Plus, I’m still trying to—you know.” Kingston made a furtive little gesture toward his back pocket.
I nodded and took a deep breath. “Yeah. Right.”
Then I stepped forward and pressed a kiss to his lips, reveling in the fact that I could do this now, that he returned the kiss with equal intensity. This was new for us, and I fucking loved it.
Brushing my hand down his chest and over his abs, inching just close enough to his hardening dick to drive him crazy, I looked up at him through my lashes. “See you at lunch.”
Heat flared in his forest green eyes, and his hands tighten
ed on my hips for a moment. I definitely wouldn’t be eating at lunch today. Or rather, I would, but it wouldn’t be food.
Who needs food anyway?
With a light, taunting slap on my ass, Kingston turned and strode down the hallway. Xero and I went the other way. Kai was nowhere to be found—probably in class already. He was still twitchy about getting too close to any of us, me especially.
We were about halfway to our class when a voice I recognized rose up from ahead of us.
“Answer me, you little punk!”
Sonja.
Goddamn it. What the fuck is she doing now?
Xero and I shared a look and hurried around the corner, where we found her pinning a kid to the wall. It was Taylor, the same kid who had flipped out in the cafeteria. The fucking sixteen-year-old who was in way over his head and had just been trying to blow off a little steam.
Fury exploded inside me.
“Hey! Back the fuck off!” I shouted as I ran over to her.
Breathing hard, she turned to me with wild eyes, one hand still pressing the kid into the wall. “You back off,” she snarled. “This kid’s turning evil, just like Wyatt!”
I grabbed her arm and yanked it away from Taylor, who crumpled to the floor and held his head as he hyperventilated.
“Jesus! Look at him. He’s not evil, he’s just stressed out!” I gestured toward him, glaring at her as I stepped in front of him. “He’s having a hard time being stuck down here, just like the rest of us.”
“Bullshit! He’s flipped sides, you saw how he went after the cafeteria staff!”
She made a move to dart around me, but I shifted quickly to one side, blocking her with my body again.
“I saw a young boy get frustrated,” I said stubbornly. “What are you, the emotional stability watchdog?”
She turned her nose up at me, breathing hard. “Excuse me, but as an advanced student, it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of the school. Including culling the herd of traitors like him!”
“Traitor?” I scoffed. “Are you kidding me? If bad moods make someone a traitor, then the admins should haul you down to the dungeon.”