by Jayme Morse
As we all rose from our desks, I sighed. I knew I couldn’t head in the direction of my next class without waiting for Zay, considering he was my Guardian and all. It was bad enough that I had to be here but even worse knowing that someone had to keep constant tabs on me, even if it was for my own protection.
As I glanced over my shoulder at him, I caught Kassidy staring at me.
If looks were lethal enough to kill Demons, I would have been dead.
Chapter 11
Lux
I would have rather sat through Algebra—my least favorite class ever—than The Balance of Good and Evil.
Professor Humblebee was a middle-aged woman who talked through her nose and had frizzy blonde hair that made me question if she’d been struck by lightning.
She’d spent the whole entire hour giving a philosophical lecture about how there couldn’t be good without bad, just as there couldn’t have been a moon without the sun.
By the time lunch came, I couldn’t wait for a break. Plus, my stomach was growling so loudly that you would have thought an angry Demon had taken up residency in there.
“Wait, Lux!” Zay called after me as I bolted from the classroom, but I was in my own little world.
I heard him calling my name, but I didn’t respond until I was halfway down the hallway and he was right behind me. “You’re supposed to wait for me. I’m your Guardian. Remember?”
“How could I forget?” I asked sarcastically.
His eyes locked on mine. “Then why would you walk away instead of just waiting for me?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why is it that you can leave me whenever you feel like it, but if I take just a few steps away from you, all hell breaks loose?”
“When have I left you?” Zay asked with raised eyebrows.
“When you sat down in the Possessions classroom while I was still in the hallway,” I replied matter-of-factly.
“It’s different. You were in my line of view then,” he explained. “This time, you weren’t.”
“I don’t even understand why I need protection if Demons are so hard to kill,” I said.
“They are hard to kill, but they’re not impossible to kill,” Zay reminded me.
“Still. Who do I even need protection from here?” I asked him.
When his eyes dropped to the marble floor in what was an obvious attempt at avoiding my question, I let out a loud sigh. “Why won’t anyone give me a straight answer around here? It’s like everyone is keeping secrets from me. Why?”
Zay remained silent then, obviously avoiding my question. “Come on, let’s go get some lunch. You must be starving.”
My stomach growled out in response. “Yeah, I guess.”
As we rounded the corner and entered the cafeteria, I spotted Kassidy from across the room. It surprised me that she hadn’t even bothered to wait for Zay. Kassidy must have really been pissed off at him. That or she was trying to avoid me.
I glanced over at Zay. “I don’t think your girlfriend likes me very much.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” he insisted. “And what makes you think she doesn’t like you?”
Not wanting to admit that I’d listened in on their argument, I just shrugged. “It’s just a feeling.”
“It’s not that she doesn’t like you,” he assured me. “It’s just that Kassidy has major trust issues. She’s been burnt more times than she’ll ever admit. You need to gain her trust before she’ll ever let you into her inner circle.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen,” I replied.
“Why’s that?” Zay asked, glancing over at me as he grabbed a soda.
“Because I really have no interest in being a part of her inner circle,” I explained as I reached for a bottle of water, deciding that I would brave the possible risk of noticing any blood in it. “I don’t care if Kassidy likes me or not. I mean, of course I want to get along with her well enough for us to be civil roommates with each other, but I’m really not looking for a bestie. I’m only at Demon Blood Academy so that I can become a better Demon—I mean, Cambion,” I quickly rephrased, determined to never call myself a full-blooded Demon. “After that, I’ll go home and try to resume a normal life.” If that was even possible after all of this. “I’m not here to make friends.”
Zay stared at me for a moment. Then as he grabbed a tray, which held quite possibly the largest slice of pepperoni pizza that I had ever seen, he said, “Well, luckily, you have me. I’m the only friend you’ll ever need. I have saved your life twice, after all.”
“You said you didn’t actually save my life the second time,” I reminded him as I grabbed a smaller slice of cheese pizza.
“I didn’t, but you thought I did at the time, so it sort of counts. I think it’s safe to say that I’ll have your back anytime you need saving.”
His amber eyes locked on mine, and my heart skipped a beat.
Ugh. Why did he have to be so darn cute?
I wasn’t supposed to fall for a Demon. It didn’t matter that I was half-Demon myself. I just couldn’t help but feel like falling for a Demon couldn’t have been a good thing.
And yet, I couldn’t seem to ignore the butterflies that were flapping their wings around inside my stomach. I wasn’t sure what it was about Zay, but he made me feel something that I had never felt with anyone before—something that I couldn’t even begin to put into words.
Just as we sat down at the same cafeteria table that we had sat at the night before, the lights began to flicker.
Then the room went completely dark.
I heard the sound of glass shattering as the floor to ceiling window that separated the cafeteria from the courtyard fell to the floor in broken pieces.
A gust of wind blew across the room. It was so strong that it made my hair blow around me, wrapping around my face. I swept it out of the way.
Some of the other students began to scream, which only made the panic rise to the back of my throat. I glanced over at Zay nervously, hoping that he would reassure me that everything would be okay.
Instead, a look of fear was on his face.
“W-what’s happening?”
Before he had the chance to answer me, I heard a whooshing sound.
“Get down!” Zay shouted at me, leaping over the table and lunging himself on top of me. His weight was enough to cause me to go falling to the floor.
He was on top of me, shielding me, but I was able to glance up just as an arrow shot across the room, right above us.
As it flew across the room, the reality hit me like a ton of bricks.
If I had been sitting in my chair, the arrow would have hit me.
Whoever had shot it had wanted to kill me.
Chapter 12
Zay
As the arrow hit against the wall across from us, I used my body to shield Lux. I tried to breathe regularly again, but given what had almost just happened, I was struggling with that.
That arrow had come so close to hitting Lux. I almost hadn’t saved her in time.
I knew I was being foolish. The important thing was that I had stopped that arrow from hitting her, just in time.
But I couldn’t let go of the fact that I had almost failed the one job I had been assigned to, the one job that actually mattered to me.
I had vowed to protect her life with every ounce of my being and I was going to do it. I would protect her from whatever arrows were shot her way, even if it meant I had to take one in order to save her life.
It was just the almost that scared me. The knowledge that she had almost died, and that it would have been my fault, scared me.
As I shielded her with my entire body, I could feel her trembling beneath me. I could feel her heart pound against my chest, the strong beats thumping through the layers of cotton that separated the two of us.
She was completely terrified. Not that I blamed her, but if she knew the full extent of it, she would have been even more terrified than I was. She may have realized that this had been a
brush with death, but she didn’t even know the half of it.
Lux Whitmore had no idea how many otherworldly beings wanted her dead. She had no idea why her life was so significant or the reason she was in so much danger. If she knew, she would have only been more afraid.
At that moment, the wind came to a halt. I breathed a sigh of relief. The guards must have taken care of the problem, but I knew it wasn’t over yet. It would never be over. As long as Lux was at Demon Blood Academy, incidents just like this one would only continue to happen.
And even when—or if—she left, she would still be at risk.
The reality was that as long as Lux Whitmore was alive, her life would always be in danger.
I just hoped that I would be able to continue to protect her from everything that was threatening her life, that I would be able to shelter from all of the evils that she didn’t even know existed yet in her world.
“W-who shot that?” Lux whispered. She stared up at me with a fearful look in her eyes.
“I-I don’t know,” I admitted. And that was the honest truth.
There were so many people out there who wanted Lux dead that it was difficult to pinpoint who had shot the arrow.
It could have been anyone, really.
“I’m scared, Zay,” Lux said quietly. “I feel like whoever shot that arrow was trying to shoot… me.”
“I know.” I swallowed hard and stared down at her.
“Why would anyone want me dead?” Lux asked.
Staring into her scared face made me want to break down and tell her everything. Even more than that, it made me want to kiss her and tell her everything was going to be okay, that I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her.
But I wasn’t a fool. I knew I could do neither of those things. So, instead of doing either of those things, I lied.
“I don’t know why anyone would want you dead,” I replied, shaking my head.
She didn’t look even the slightest bit convinced, but who could blame her? I knew everything. I just couldn’t tell her. If I did, Kieran would be livid. As it was, I had already told her way more than I should have.
Lux didn’t tell me she didn’t believe me, though. Instead, she just kept talking.
“I didn’t even see anyone outside the window. All I saw was the window break and then the arrow shooting across the room. Who could have shot it if there was no one even there?”
“You’re right. I didn’t see anything, either,” I realized aloud. “That means that whoever it was made themselves invisible.”
And that gave me the answer I needed to know. It told me who had shot the arrow.
There was only one group who I could think of who could make themselves invisible and who wanted Lux dead, possibly more than anyone else.
Demon hunters.
Chapter 13
Lux
After nearly being killed, it was safe to say that I had completely lost my appetite. I forced myself to drink the water so that I wouldn’t drop dead without the blood I needed to survive, but that was it.
The cafeteria had become incredibly chaotic. Big, muscular guys who were dressed entirely in black and towered over the rest of us came into the room to replace the window.
Their presence made me nervous. I couldn’t help but notice all of them staring at me. Just like everyone else at Demon Blood Academy, it was as though they knew who I was. Though I couldn’t seem to figure out how they knew of me, that girl Alice’s words echoed through my mind.
“If all of the legends are true, then Lux Whitmore is too powerful for her own good.”
Was it possible that the legends Alice had mentioned were the reason everyone knew about me? And if those legends were true, then how was I even remotely powerful? From where I stood, I was nothing more than the average human.
I believed I was half-Demon now, but since my Demon side hadn’t shown itself yet, my powers had seemed limited to those of a human. I just didn’t feel powerful, which made me doubt that there could be any truth to it.
But whatever the legend was, it was apparently enough to make Alice want to kill me. Maybe whoever had shot the arrow at me—assuming it wasn’t Alice herself—was doing it because of the so-called legends, too.
Once the guys had finished replacing the window, I glanced over at Zay. He was scarfing down his pizza, almost like nothing had even happened. It made me wonder if this was a common occurrence.
“Do things like this happen all the time at Demon Blood Academy?” I asked him.
“Nope. This is the first time something’s happened here in a while.”
“In a while?” I asked with raised eyebrows. “You said you’ve only been here for a few months.”
Zay wiped his mouth and nodded. “Yeah, but like I said, I have ties to the academy.”
“What type of ties?” I questioned.
“My parents co-founded Demon Blood Academy, along with the Blake’s,” he explained. “I’ve spent a lot of time here.”
“I see.” I paused. “Did you ever spend any time in the human world?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I actually grew up not too far away from you.”
“Really?” I stared back at him, surprised.
“Yup.”
“I’m surprised that we never crossed paths,” I said.
With the way I was constantly bounced from one foster home to the next—and, ultimately, from one school district to the next—it was really surprising that we’d never met before now.
“It’s a big world,” Zay replied with a shrug.
It looked like he was going to say something else, but at that moment, Kassidy approached our table.
“Are you guys okay?” she asked, glancing from Zay to me.
There was a look of concern in her eyes, but I didn’t believe that it was genuine. How could it be when she looked like she had hated me earlier that day in the classroom?
“We’re both fine, thankfully,” Zay replied.
“Well, good.” Kassidy glanced over at him as she slid into the seat next to him. “Did you figure out if you’re going to the dance? It’s only two days away from now.”
“I don’t know, Kassidy. We talked about this earlier, remember?” he replied quietly.
“Obviously I remember,” she replied with an eye roll. “Did you even ask Lux if she would go to the dance so that you can go?” Kassidy just stared at him for a moment and then let out a little laugh. “Of course you didn’t ask her.” She turned to me. “Would you be willing to go to the school dance on Friday night so that Zay can go as my date? If you don’t agree to go, he’ll have to miss out on it.”
There was an almost accusing look in her eyes. It was almost as though she was just waiting for me to say no so she could get angry at me.
I hesitated for a moment. The truth was that I didn’t really want to go to the dance. I didn’t want to be at Demon Blood Academy at all, let alone at a school function.
But at the same time, I didn’t want Kassidy to hate me. I had meant it when I’d told Zay that I didn’t care to be Kassidy’s friend or to be a part of her “inner circle”, but the reality was that she was my roommate. The last thing I needed was for there to be any type of drama between the two of us, especially since it could have been diverted completely if I sucked it up and went to the stupid dance.
I glanced over at Kassidy. “I would go, but I don’t have anything to wear.”
“That’s okay. I have lots of dresses in my closet. You can borrow one.”
“You don’t mind?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
“No, not at all. You can choose any dress you want, as long as it means that Zay gets to go as my date,” Kassidy replied with a small smile.
I tried not to let my disappointment show on my face. I had known that was the whole reason Kassidy wanted me to go to the dance, but I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed that Zay would get to go as Kassidy’s date, rather than my own.
“Well, okay. You can count me in, then.”
“Are you sure?” Zay asked, glancing over at me with wide eyes.
I may have been mistaken, but it almost seemed like he wanted me to say no. Was that because he didn’t want to go as Kassidy’s date?
“Yeah, it’s fine,” I agreed with a nod.
“Perfect. Then we can still go together.”
Kassidy leaned over and gave Zay a kiss on the cheek before she rose from the table and headed back to her group of friends.
Once she was gone, I turned to Zay.
“So, she’s really not your girlfriend, huh?”
“Nope. Not my girlfriend.” He glanced over at me. “Do you have a boyfriend back home?”
I shook my head. “No. There was a guy, but…” I trailed off, realizing that it was the first time I had even thought about Nick since I had come to Demon Blood Academy.
I wasn’t sure if it was because of everything that had happened since Zay had saved me from my balcony, or if it was just because I was trying to block Nick—and that awkward kiss—out of my mind. The less I thought about him, the less I thought about the kiss that had probably sealed the fate of our friendship forever…
“But?” Zay pressed, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“It just wasn’t mutual, I guess,” I replied with a shrug.
“Well, he’s a fool.” His eyes locked on mine. “It’s his loss. Any guy would be lucky to have you.”
I felt a blush rise to my cheeks, and I darted my eyes away from his.
“You’re just saying that because you have to.”
His eyebrows shot up. “What would make you think that I have to say that?”
“Because we’re friends. Friends say nice things to each other.”
“Trust me. I definitely don’t say things like this to all of my friends, Lux.” He paused. “In fact, I’ve never said that about anyone before, if I’m being completely honest. I really believe it. That guy is a tool. He would have been beyond fortunate to have someone like you in his life.”