by Cara E Holt
He shakes his head and walks in our room and sits himself down on my bed. “Scared of being alone in my company Latimer?” He winks and damn if it isn’t hot and frustrating at the same time.
Cursing I throw the fleece cover off me and hand the popcorn bowl to Norah. I magic my shoes over to me and quickly slip them on my feet.
“Let’s go then.” I gesture to the door, and giving me one last frown he stands and I follow him out.
“Have fun.” Norah quips from behind us.
“That’s unlikely.” I mumble as I quicken my pace to keep up with him.
When we arrived at the headmistress’ office I am surprised to find she is not alone. Coach Grey is seated on one of the ornate purple velvet sofas and alongside him another man who I do not recognise.
“Ah Elara and Drayce, please do come in and have a seat.” She gestures to the other free sofa opposite from where she stands in front of the fireplace. “I hope you are both feeling okay? I know this morning must have been a horrible shock for you.”
“How is she?” I ask. I’m more concerned about getting an update for the girl, rather than talking about how I am feeling.
Isolde gives me a sad smile. “There has been no change I’m afraid, but she is in the best hands the council have sent in an expert in the field of unofficial magic.” She gestures to the other sofa. “You both know coach Grey and this here is Remus, he is head of the academy security.”
“Elara, we need to know what you saw this morning.” Remus asks me, getting straight to the point.
I shake my head. “I don’t really have much to tell you. I was taking a morning jog around the school grounds and I came across her body, seconds later Drayce came along and I came and got Mistress Isolde.”
“Did you see or hear anything out of the ordinary whilst you were out running?” Remus asks, leaning forward in his seat.
“Not that I recall. It seemed a normal quiet morning. I saw no one else during the time I left my dorm room to the moment I found the girl.”
Remus looks at Isolde, looking disappointed with my news.
“Nothing on the campus security cams?” Drayce asks Remus.
“Nothing.” He replies, the frustration clear in his voice. “Whoever did this broke through our wards completely undetected and left no trail.”
“Meaning whoever or whatever did this could strike again.” Drayce states rather than asks and a sense of dread washes over me.
“I am going to call an assembly and I will be informing that students of the incident. We will be increasing our security and placing more wards up around the grounds. We’ll also be changing the curfew times to ensure student safety.”
Drayce nods and chews on his lip. “We have some good fighters in the school. I know I, and many of them would be happy to run shifts helping to patrol the grounds.”
Isolde nods. “That is an excellent idea. Coach Grey if you and Drayce can come up with a list of students and plan a rota?”
“Of course.” Coach Grey answers. “Are we looking at across all years, because if so, I think Miss Latimer here should be included?”
I blink, looking over at him and wondering if I just heard him right. “Me?”
Coach nods. “I saw you sparring the other day with Drayce and you have a level of skill above your years.”
“My dad is a guardian. He has been training me since I was a girl.”
Drayce looks unhappy with this suggestion, frowning first at coach Grey and then at me. “She isn’t trained enough.”
I lift my head and glare at him. “I can handle my own.”
Mistress Isolde rests a hand on my shoulder and gives me smile. “I think we should stick to final year student working on patrol for now.”
Drayce’s stiff posture immediately relaxes. “I’ll take Elara back to her room and then coach Grey and I can start working on that list.”
“Thank you Drayce.” She turns back to me and squeezes my shoulder gently. “I’m sorry that you had to find a fellow student like that. If you need to talk it through anytime, my door is always open.”
“Thank you.” I tell her as Black impatiently ushers me out of the room.
The minute we are outside and out of earshot, I turn and stop in front of him, anger rolling off me.
“What the hell was that about? I am more than capable of helping with patrols.”
Drayce sighs and runs a hand through his dark hair. “This isn’t some fun little mission you know? Whoever did this, got through the wards undetected. Some of the strongest wards there are. They managed to get into the academy grounds and injure a student without being seen on any cameras. Whoever this is, they are very dangerous.”
I throw my hands up in the air. “Well thank you captain obvious. I know they are dangerous. You haven’t seen me fight properly yet, but I am good.”
Drayce steps into my space and glares down at me. “Good doesn’t stop you becoming the next victim. You need to leave this to the big girls and boys.”
I scoff and fold my arms. “Oh you did not just try and play the ‘I’m older than you card’?”
He grins. “I am older than you, and a more experienced fighter.”
“You’re an arrogant, opinionated, idiot.”I hiss at him.
“And you’re annoying and frustrating!” He snaps back, before turning away from me and muttering under his breath. “Let’s get moving. I need to get back and work with coach and you need to get back to your movies.”
I hold it in, knowing that if I don’t I am going to release a barrage of abuse his way. We stay silent the rest of the walk to my dorms. When we reach my door he mumbles a sharp goodbye and leaves as fast as he can. God, he was an arsehole of the first degree, no one made me as mad as he somehow managed to. I storm into my dorm and throw myself down beside Norah who is chewing on a mouthful of food.
“What’s wrong?” She mumbles, as she tries to eat and speak at the same time.
“Drayce Black is what is wrong. He is a conceited, opinionated arrogant fucker!”
“Who is also extremely hot and you want in his pants.” She comments, waggling her dark eyebrows.
I turn and glare at her. “I do not!”
Norah grins and puts the popcorn down and turns in her seat and faces me. “He gets you all hot and bothered. You just don’t know whether to punch him or kiss him.”
“I choose punch, right in his pretty little nose.”
Norah chuckles. “See, you even think his nose is pretty.”
I chuck a handful of popcorn at her. “Shut up witch.”
I can Handle Myself Black.
I’m still fuming over Drayce Black well into the evening. Who did he think he was? I was born a fighter. It’s what I am good at. I am a beast with my daggers. Well Drayce Black doesn’t get to tell me what to do. Smiling to myself, I rush to my closet and pull out my black training leggings, a black roll-neck jumper and my trusty black Doc Martens.
Ten minutes later I am patrolling the outer-edges of the school grounds. I may also have broken into the defence gym and taken two daggers. Well, a girl needed to be armed if she was going to catch the guy who had hurt that girl. The fact that they had gone undetected and had made it through the academy wards, made me thinks even more that maybe this was a teacher or student. I hear a noise over to my right. It sounds like footsteps in the gravel. Now why would someone be out here at almost three in the morning – way past curfew. I press my back up against the large elm tree and ready myself with my daggers. The footsteps come to a stop and I wonder for a second if I imagined them. The silence continues and with a steadying breath, I slowly, and as quietly as I can, move around the tree. Then I hear it, someone drops down from the tree behind me. I spin and kick out my leg, intending to take them down to the floor, but they counter my move and grab my leg causing me to fall down to the ground. Within seconds they are on me, sat over my torso with a knife at my throat. Breathing heavily I look up into the eyes of my attacker.
“Yo
u.” We both say at the same time.
Drayce Black looks down at me, eyes blazing in fury. Did I mention he looks good in all black attire.
“What the fuck are you doing sneaking around here at night?” He pulls the dagger from my throat and pockets it.
“I was patrolling.”
“Patrolling? Are you stupid as well as deaf Latimer? This isn’t some game. This is real life. Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“I can handle myself Black.”
His eyes flash, meeting mine in challenge. “If you can handle yourself then how come I was able to take you down in seconds?”
I bristle, underneath him. It was very distracting having him sat on me and he was also heavy. “Do you think you could get up off me please?”
He gives me a lopsided grin. “Now why would I want to do that?” He leans down so his face is inches from mine. “This is becoming a bit of a habit little raven. You, being underneath me.”
“Well don’t get to used to it Black, because soon I’ll be on top.” I snipe back at him.
He sniggers and shakes his head. “You’re a lowly Latimer witch. You’ll never be on top. You’ll always be in the gutter where you belong.”
“Ha. You’re such a conceited spoiled arse. Living in your ivory tower, having that inflated ego of yours stroked daily, being told you’re the best. I’ve had to fight for my position in this world, but it made me strong, determined, and someone like you isn’t going to stop me.”
He leans in closer and scoffs. “You think a lot of yourself don’t you Latimer?”
I shrug. “Takes one to know one. Now get off me.”
He is ever so close to me right now. His lips are millimetres away from mine. I can feel his breath on my face and his eye’s up this close are mesmerising. He shocks me when he runs his thumb over my bottom lip. “You know Latimer you’re one of those irritating girls, who a guy doesn’t know whether to put over his knee and spank her or bend her over and fuck her into silence.”
“Neither of which you will ever get to do to me Black.” I tell him with an icy glare, which irritatingly just makes his smirk wider. Inside my heart is racing ten to the dozen in reaction to his words.
“Is that challenge little raven?”
“No. It’s fact. Now get the hell off me!” I demand wrestling to get my wrists free from his grip.
Grinning he gets up off me, and I quickly stand to my feet, but before I can make a move to leave he magic’s a rope around my wrists that attaches to his belt.
“What the hell?” I ask him, fury rippling off me as I angrily try to pull my wrists out of the rope.
“They’ll only tighten if you do that. Now be a good little girl and keep quiet. You were so desperate to patrol the school, well now you will until six in the morning.”
“I’m not spending the next three hours with you!”
Grinning he pockets my daggers and winks at me. He starts to move and the rope jerks making me follow him.
“Come along now. You wanted to patrol. Well now you are.”
I quietly seethe, as I am forced to walk along behind him. I try the rope again and he’s right, it just tightens when I try to pull at it. We spend the next thirty minutes in silence until we come to a side door in the west side of the building. He enters, forcing me to follow and we climb a narrow staircase that seems to go forever until we eventually come out, and to my surprise we are on the roof of the school.
“Wow.” I exclaim as I take in the view from up here. The stars in the sky are so bright and you can see for miles around.
Drayce moves to the edge of the roof and sits himself down, his eyes constantly scanning the grounds below. With a huff I sit myself down beside him, but making sure there is a good space between us.
I look up at the stars and smile when I spot Orion’s belt. When I pull my gaze away, I find his assessing eyes watching me, and for a second we just silently look at each other. It does strange things to my heart and my stomach. He turns his eyes back to surveying the grounds, and I do the same.
“What’s that over there?” I ask pointing to what looks in the dark to be some kind of circular building.
He follows my gaze. “That’s a mausoleum.”
“A what?” I ask him puzzled.
He sighs and shakes his head. “You’ve never heard of a mausoleum?” The Sarcasm is clear in his voice.
“Of course I’ve heard of one.” I reply tartly. “I just didn’t think there’d be one here at the school.”
“All the academies principles are buried here. It’s been a centuries old tradition.”
“What a strange tradition. Surely they want to be buried amongst their own.”
Drayce pops his shoulder. “They are buried here because there are those that believe their spirits help to protect the school.” Drayce pulls out a pair of binoculars and hands them to me. “Make yourself useful and scan the east side of the grounds.”
As I take the binoculars off him our hands briefly touch, and I kid you not I feel sparks of electricity along my arm. I know I sound ridiculous but that’s how his touch makes me feel. Trying to look completely unaffected I bring the binoculars up to my eyes and look out.
“Whoa, these are some cool binoculars.” I exclaim, as I realise that when I look through them it is as if it is day light.
“You never had some of these as a kid?” Drayce asks me surprised.
I pull them away from my eyes to look at him. “You think my parents could afford things like this? No black. I never had a pair.”
He nods and turns away, looking out again.
“What time is it?”
He arches a brow. “Bored with patrolling already? Not as glamorous as you thought it would be?”
“I was just asking the time.” I tell him with an icy glare. I throw the binoculars on his lap. “Survey the grounds yourself.”
Sighing, he takes the binoculars and pockets them inside his jacket. We stay silent for the next few minutes. Drayce’s eyes constantly survey the area, always alert.
“So what does the high and mighty Drayce Black do to wind down? That is of course if you’re capable of relaxing?”
He gives me a sideways glance and then returns his gaze forward. “You want to get to know me Latimer? This isn’t a date you know?”
I scoff as if he has suggested the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. “Trust me Black I’d rather gouge my own eyes out than go on a date with you. I am simply passing the time.”
Smirking he meets my eyes. “I like to fuck and fight for fun.”
I gulp. I’m not sure what answer I was expecting, but it wasn’t that one.
“Rendered you silent little raven? Well wonders never cease.”
I’m not ready with a come-back, so I avert my eyes back out into the dark night.
“So whilst we are being all friendly, tell me what raven does in her downtime? Apart from watching Magic Mike.”
“I go clubbing and fuck vampires.”
He sniggers. “Should have known you’d be into filthy blood-suckers.”
“Should have known you’d have such a narrow minded opinion on other supes. I guess living in your ivory tower you’ve never deigned yourself to mix with other supernatural races?”
He turns sideways and leans closer to me, making me lean back. “I’ve met plenty of other supes, and what I know about vampires is that they are devious and not to be trusted.”
“So ignorant.” I comment, wishing he’d move back over into his own space, because having him this close was strangely distracting.
“I don’t like vampires because thanks to one of them my family has been cursed for the last four hundred years.” He tells me as he settles back away from me.
“From what I hear it wasn’t the vampire that laid the curse on your family, it was the Bennett witch?”
He glares at me. “It was because a witch strayed away with a vampire that the curse happened.”
I shrug. “Maybe if the m
ale witch had accepted that she did not wish to marry him instead of condemning her to death for daring to fall in love, then the curse would never have been made.”
Drayce scoffs and looks away from me. “A hopeless romantic. Should have known. We marry who we are told to Latimer, that’s how it always been and she thought she was above that rule. Love has nothing to do with making a match that strengthens your coven.”
I shake my head. “Spoken like a true elite. You’re nearly twenty-one so are you not matched yet?”
“Not yet.” He replies with a frown. “But whoever my parents match me to is who I will accept because that is our duty.”
“No doubt she’ll be from the crème-de-la-crème of blue blooded covens.” I state rather than ask.
He arches a brow at me. “You sound bitter Latimer; anyone would think you are jealous of the elites?”
“I’m not jealous Black, and I certainly would never be jealous of the poor girl who got saddled with you.”
“Trust me.” He says winking. “There’s many a girl out there who would jump at the chance to be my intended.”
I sigh and shake my head. “Yeah dim-witted, power hungry girls who want to climb that social ladder and probably don’t have a brain cell between them or an ounce of self worth.”
Drayce simply chuckles and turns his attention back out at the school grounds. We sit silently for the next half an hour and I feel my eyes starting to struggle to stay open.
“You fall asleep Latimer and I’ll dunk you in the pond.” He warns me as he catches me jerking my eyes open as I fight the tiredness. “You’re no good on patrol if you can’t keep your eyes open.”
I yawn and stretch my arms. “It’s the company. It’s not very stimulating.”
His response is to simply chuckle to himself and shake his head.
“Want to play eye spy?” I ask him.
“No.” He tells me firmly, leaning back on his arms which raises his t-shirt slightly and gives me a glimpse of that chiselled stomach. He suddenly presses his hand over my mouth and puts a finger to his lips and then points out into the dark. I follow his finger and can see a figure moving across the school grounds towards the woods. Drayce pulls out the binoculars and hands them to me.