Thwarting Cheaters (Artemis University Book 5)

by Erin R Flynn

  I wasn’t hard to sell after that.

  I looked over the list and thought of the properties. “You guys want a remote one, right? I mean, you can use portals for necessities.”

  “That would be best,” Colton agreed.

  “Okay, then take the North Dakota house,” I decided as I glanced over the list again. I nodded; it was the best option they were covering. “It’s huge, like twenty thousand square feet, sprawling ranch with a few buildings. And there’s also a fae dog pack protecting the place that will help you.”

  “That could be a problem,” Colton worried.

  “No, they’re sworn to her,” Mel countered, bobbing her head at all the shocked looks. “Zedd?”

  “Yeah, that’s Zedd’s pack.” I glanced around at the others. “They are incredibly intelligent, like your dragons. He picked his name because he likes Zedd’s music. They all pick their names when they pick their master. So, treat them like you’re treating a dragon you know and you’ll get along fine.”

  “We still have to handle that house,” Mel reminded me.

  “Right, that,” I sighed.

  “Fill us in,” Mrs. Rothchild pushed, interrupting our silent communication.

  I explained how every place I had inherited came with a novel of wishes for a good chunk of their belongings. I wasn’t complaining, not by any means, but it was something to handle before we could freely take over the place. Plus, there was the stasis spell and… There was a lot.

  And never enough time to handle it all, like right then as it was Sunday night and I had to get back to campus.

  “For now we can keep the interrogation to the garage or whatever out building this place has and you introduce the pack to us,” Mrs. Rothchild decided, gesturing to the group there. “Build this door into the barrier Mel told us about and we’ll get you fuel. The rest we can handle and faster than you would think.”

  I believed that as people were already hauling out a ton of shit from the hunting lodge in boxes that I didn’t even know came from where. So, I was pretty sure the Rothchilds were proficient in these sorts of investigations. And that made sense given they would be the ones who handled traitors against the Vogels and those investigations as well.

  Things moved fast after that. I opened a temporary portal to the residence in North Dakota and introduced Zedd and the pack to Mr. Rothchild and the others who were going to be helping. They quickly caught onto the situation and I sat back on my feet and blinked at them.

  “They know. I mean, they know of situations like this,” I whispered. “They used to hunt with a pack sworn to a fairy who led a team dedicated to taking out threats against fairies like this. They know exactly how vampire networks like this operate. They know the signs and places to look for.”

  “Holy shit, you weren’t kidding how intelligent they are,” Colton muttered. “What did they tell you?”

  “That we make Grandpa Moore tell Mr. Moore that the brand didn’t stick to me for some reason so he wiped our memories and put us back at school. He’s going off on a fact-finding mission to figure out why but Mr. Moore should continue making contact as that will undoubtedly be what he’s up to and they will follow the people he’s in contact with if you tell them.”

  “So more people know about you,” Mel worried.

  “No, Granddad and Da wouldn’t be stupid and tell them her name,” Darby admitted. “They’re too distrusting. I doubt they even told my brother if he knows any of this which I suspect he does. But they wouldn’t tell him because he has a big mouth and he would have already mocked me and hinted something I would have caught on and I’ve not heard from him.”

  “We aren’t seriously trusting the guy at the center of all of this, are we?” one of the other Rothchilds challenged when no one seemed to know what to say.

  Darby stormed over to the large dragon and shoved him. “Tamsin is my agra. You might not know what that means to me, but it’s my everything. I didn’t know this was what my family did before I was born or a baby, okay? I’m on her side. This is disgusting and I can’t believe my Ma ever knew either. Even if I wasn’t dating Tamsin I wouldn’t be on my family’s side with this. I would turn them over.”

  “He’s telling the truth,” Professor White declared. “His aura is full of disgust, determination, and rage. Not one ounce of doubt.”

  Darby firmly nodded. “My family is dead to me as of today. I may be a vampire but we are not monsters. We need blood to survive just as you do more meat but we do not prey on people. If my family are disgusting fuckers then I wash my hands of them.” He turned and walked out of the garage but not before I saw tears streaming down his cheeks.

  My heart hurt for him but my feet couldn’t move even if I had any inclination to go to him. I was at the center of this as well and my instincts were screaming to stay away. That might be how he felt now but people changed their minds and he was their family.

  And picking me over them would undoubtedly lead to resentment later. Either way… I shook my head, now wasn’t the time to worry about any of this.

  We came up with a carefully laid out plan and woke Grandpa Moore. Professor White used some sort of rune coupled with a spell and forced him to do as he was told. He called his son and Darby came back in time to learn his dad was just as sick and dirty as his grandfather. He was inconsolable after that and I didn’t blame him.

  I simply couldn’t be the one to help him as I was inconsolable as well.

  Oddly enough it was Hudson who went over and was there for him. They actually got along pretty well and if they could help each other, that was great, because I had no energy for either of them.

  Or anyone right then.

  I hadn’t been to the house yet but there wasn’t a novel waiting for me in the kitchen or study like other places and I had a moment to panic. I started to race around but then Mel caught me.

  “This is a Townsend property, remember? This was the ranch they shut down. I have the list of everything to handle here. I got this. I’ll talk with Avril and we’ll handle it all. Chill, Tams.”

  “Right.” I rubbed my chest. “Right, I know this was their place. We were thinking of spending Christmas here.” I shook my head. “Too much always.”

  “I know, kid,” she whispered, hugging me to her. “Just hang on. You’ll get a break soon.” She sighed when I snorted. “More people knowing what you are isn’t a bad thing if we trust them. It means more help. More people who know more about fairies. We can get further over the summer now I think.”

  That helped settle me. Yeah, that was a solid plan.

  “Why is she so worried about these novels?” Mrs. Rothchild asked quietly when I walked away.

  “She didn’t know any of these people and all of these estates came to her because she’s the last and they died in a war she escaped, Mother,” Mel muttered. “She’s trying to free the others and figure out what the fuck happened. It’s a huge responsibility and she doesn’t want them to all look down on her as having failed. She wants to respect what she inherited even if she never met them. Do you blame her?”

  “No, but it’s amazing given she’s so young and burdened with too much. Most wouldn’t care about every little detail. It’s amazing she’s not lost herself and keeps moving.”

  Okay, that made me feel much, much better and like I wasn’t doing as badly as I felt most days.

  It took a few more hours but then we really had to get back to campus and everyone had the next steps outlined for them. Awesome. Especially because I was exhausted and needed to crash.

  What I didn’t need was Lucca waiting for me outside of the administration building, clearly clued in on part of what was going on. He stood when he saw me and came over. I didn’t slow down, throwing a side punch and smashing in his nose to the shock of everyone with me.

  “I warned you I wouldn’t give you another chance if you ever kept anything from me again. I meant it. Go fuck yourself, Lucca.”

  And I kept walking. I could not handle h
im and what I’d learned regarding him either. I mean, there were limits.

  I’d always known Craftsman had a crazy fucking family but clearly he was out.

  Now Darby had a crazy fucking family.

  And Lucca’s father was seriously fucked up, I’d always known that and I wanted far, far away from the man. I mean, that was my initial reaction to Lucca… Turn around and walk the other way because of his father. Now I was his mate and he kept it from me and he had an insane father who wanted to control and breed me?

  Oh, fuck no.

  I mean, fuck no.

  So the only one with nice parents was Hudson but they were fucking royals and didn’t actually want me with their son. I mean, they had been asking me to end things—though very respectfully and nicely—but end it with him before they found out we were mates and my rejecting Hudson would make him go feral. So that was the only reason.

  Seriously, the top of my head was going to pop off. Just pop off, head explode, brain melt, and everything in between.

  Izzy was waiting for me in our room, studying me carefully. “How bad?”

  My lower lip quivered as I tried to blink back the tears, I thought had dried all up. “I really wish I was a lesbian. Is there a rune for that? Can I bespell myself to switch teams?”

  “Oh honey, if that was an option I think those of us gay in this shitty bigoted society would have used it,” she muttered, her tone chastising me lightly but understanding I wasn’t making light of their strife but I was in a really bad place.

  I bobbed my head. “Sorry.”

  “No, I get it. Sorry for whatever you’re going through.” She cleared her throat. “What are you going through?”

  I opened my mouth and closed it. “I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you. I don’t even fucking believe it and it happened to me.” That was really all I had left in me to say before I yanked off my clothes and crawled into bed, shocking the shit out of her.

  Yeah, it shocked me too but I simply didn’t have anything else in me. I didn’t even have it in me to cry anymore. After she locked up and I put the barrier on the door she moved onto my bed and pulled me to sleep on her lap while she moved pillows to get comfortable against the headboard.

  “Thanks, Izzy,” I rasped.

  “You’d do the same, roomie,” she whispered. “We’ll get through this.”

  “I don’t know I can this time.”

  “Yes, yes you can because you’re Tamsin fucking Vale and we all believe in you.”

  I hoped that was enough.

  21

  The only good thing about when everything went down was the next week was the review week before finals. So for two of my classes that were open book, I was pretty much done. Physical Training III wasn’t going to be the sparring tournament but Rothchilds coming in to help Mel. We were going to square off with them to show what we’d learned.

  And I’d learned a lot so wasn’t worried. I also didn’t have to go to the reviews either… Which was the only class I saw Lucca or Darby.

  Cross two of four off the list. Unfortunately, one of my issues taught my class but he was still ducking me so I wasn’t worried about the reviews for Runes 102 which was really the start of our final. He was kind—as a teacher—and we could opt to go early so everyone could have their turn. It was random lottery of any of the runes we’d learned the semester.

  Tuesday morning I was ready to go, especially after a day of rest and refueling and refocusing myself on my priorities. The moment the bell rang he started.

  “All right class, the drill is the same as last semester,” he said in his normal pleasant British accent and smooth voice. “Who’d like to start us off?”

  “I would,” I declared as I stood with all of my belongings. I didn’t plan to stick around after I was done and he could fucking dock my grade for it if he wanted to.

  I didn’t give a fuck and being near him upset me to the point of being ill.

  Something I think he realized as he studied my aura and flinched.

  “Yes, of course, thank you for volunteering, Ms. Vale.”

  I wanted to flick him off more than anything but I didn’t. I went over to the box on his desk and pulled out a stone with a rune on it. My heart sank into my stomach as I stared at it.

  Space. I pulled the rune to magically give space. Un-fucking-real.

  “Space,” I bit out, tossing it to him. “Fitting.”

  He caught it in the air and looked at it, his eyes flashing shock. He cleared his throat and closed his fingers in a fist around it. “Please begin.”

  “Gladly.” I wrote the rune on my arm and pushed my magic on it, basically pushing myself away from him as if riding on air or skates on ice. I kept it going until I was all the way to the door. “Enough?”

  “Yes, you—”

  “Yeah, for me too,” I cut in, meeting his gaze. “See you next year, Doc.” I turned and grabbed the knob, opening the door and leaving before he could react. I ignored the whispers and shocked reactions as I was always the perfect student in his class and got the fuck out of there.

  Well, everyone thought I’d been but in reality half the time I was showing our professor my panties or pussy but those days were long over. Now I would need the summer to get over him and figure out a way to manage to be civil to him to make it through another year of dealing with him.

  Was there a way to test out of Runes 201 and 202? Now that was an interesting thought. I changed direction and headed for Professor White’s office since I knew where it was now. She knew about Craftsman and I and while I knew she didn’t like it, at least she would be fair about my question. Maybe I could figure out some way to finish Artemis early?

  Now I was really excited. There had to be a way, right? Craftsman had done it as a savant. Clearly, I had power beyond a lot of other students. That should count for something. Runes, physical training, mental shielding, and maybe a few others I should be able to get through faster.

  I jogged the rest of the way there and knocked on her door.

  “Come in,” she called out, glancing up when I entered. She did a double-take and raised an eyebrow at me. “What has your aura so happy when you’ve been walking around with storm clouds above your head?”

  “Can I place out of Runes 201 and 202 if I learn all the runes over the summer? I bet I already learned some for the Power Playoffs. What about physical training? I mean, I’m going to ace Physical Training III, right? So mental shielding I’m ahead. What else can I place out of early? I was going to go over my courses path and next year with my advisor but well, he bailed and—”

  “Slow down and have a seat, Ms. Vale,” she muttered, gesturing to the chair in front of her desk.

  I sighed, closing the door behind me and did what she said. “Sorry. I just was…”

  “Thinking how you were going to deal with seeing him next year, yes, I put the pieces together.”

  “I did want to talk to you anyways,” I admitted when she went oddly quiet.

  “Oh?”

  “You teaching any classes this summer?”

  “No, but I have to come to campus on a regular basis for meetings and whatnot as dean,” she answered, raising an eyebrow at me.

  “I figured but I hear we have portals a supes,” I teased her, smiling when her lips twitched. “We’re summering in Spain. Want to join us? No men. New rule. Just the ladies. Well, plus Zach and Ray, but they don’t count as they’re guards.” I let out a heavy sigh. “Plus, I need to find a new tutor. I was supposed to have a savant and genius tutor and I’m signed up for five high school classes. Fuck.”

  “Your roommate is very smart and so are you,” Professor White reminded me. “It sounds like your bribing me, Ms. Vale.”

  I rolled my eyes and gave her a bored look. “You’re going to be checking up on me and all up in my business anyways as the real adult protecting our posse.” I held up my hand and put up a barrier around her office. “Isn’t that right, Cousin?”

  She
slowly smiled and sat back in her chair, folding her hands on her desk. “Yes, my father was a fairy and went back for the war. It’s blind luck I turned out a witch, probably because my parents weren’t mates, simply my mother wanted a child and not to be forced to mate into a conservative family who would never allow a bastard child.”

  “The next-door neighbor,” I surmised.

  “No, oddly enough, that was simply a neighbor,” she chuckled. “Though that was how my father visited us without anyone every knowing he was my father.”

  “How fast did you figure out I was a fairy?”

  She winked at me. “The moment we were in the same room, Tamsin.”

  Well damn. Just dayumn.

  “You’re really fucking powerful, aren’t you?”

  “As are you.” She gave me a look that sharing time was over. “Spain sounds lovely. Someone has to watch over you troublemakers. I’ll even help you if you run into trouble with your studies. Anyone else joining us?”

  I shrugged. “I was planning on leaving it as an open invitation for any of the female Rothchilds to hang when they’re off duty.”

  “Oh?” She raised an eyebrow at the idea.

  I snorted. “It’s basically its own resort. It’s twenty-eight bedrooms and its own vineyard that’s been in a stasis spell for almost two decades, but yeah, it’s not just a cute little villa.”

  “Certainly not,” she chuckled. “That’s some vacation. I assume you made sure the Rothchilds were already looking over that place? Clearly, that op has been blown and they are not going to catch anyone again, but still, people are watching the estates.”

  “No,” I sighed. “Someone is doing something though before it’s time. The vampires are watching that one but we’re pretty sure the ones who were so keen to jump into checking those places—”

  “Were involved in something despicable like the Moore family,” she surmised.

  “That’s the theory and plan to handle it as it wasn’t any council members and someone ‘trusted’ that offered and was outsourced.” I rolled my eyes, not hiding how stupid that sounded even before we now knew how vile vampires could be towards my kind.