Eight Souls: The Caelum Academy Trilogy: Part TWO

by Akeroyd, Serena

  Before I could do little else than squeak at her, she was down on the floor, her hand grabbing the shirt she’d tossed there. I almost wept as she covered up, but then I didn’t want Becky to see an ounce of my Chosen’s flesh, so I applauded her swift thinking.

  When I sifted through the various things I was picking up on now that my Sin Eater was at the fore, I knew Becky was outside the Gym. Hovering.

  Trying to eavesdrop?

  Bitch.

  My jaw clenched, and I made to storm out, to head the bitch off and make her go back upstairs. But Eve grabbed my hand and dragged me to a halt.

  What was her game?

  Before I could even blink, she’d dashed over to the door, and the next time I looked, she had Becky inside the gym on her knees. In a move I was going to start thinking of as her signature, she had a tight hold on Becky’s ponytail, and the bitch was sobbing from the pain of Eve’s grip.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.

  “I just came to work out,” Becky wailed.

  “Lies,” she hissed. “Do you know what we do to liars where I’m from?”

  Becky’s eyes were bright with unshed tears—Jesus, how hard was Eve’s hold on her hair? “No.”

  “They lose their tongues,” Eve snapped, and she moved her hand, twisting it to the side. Becky eyed it, then eyed me. The scent of her terror flooded the room, and I knew she was certain Eve was somehow about to cut out her tongue.

  To be honest, I wasn’t sure she wasn’t about to do that either.

  Sure, you needed a knife to achieve such a thing, but Eve was resourceful. Only God knew what she couldn’t do. She was better than a Girl Scout!

  Despite my Sin Eater’s grumble, I watched instead as Eve slammed her hand against Becky’s throat. The move had her clutching at her neck, gasping for air before she sunk back into a faint.

  Jesus, had Eve snapped her hyoid?

  The move had been hard enough for that. Then, just as the concern I’d have to bury a body tonight hit me, the Sin Eater keyed me into the fact that Becky was alive. Just unconscious.

  And fuck, my cock turned into a lead pipe again as my body processed just how hot Eve was.

  I grabbed the clothes she’d dumped on the ground, caught up my gear and the book I’d gifted her, and then I strode over to my woman. Holding out my spare hand, I flexed my fingers at her and was pleased when she slid hers into mine.

  With a tight grasp on her, I hauled her through the building, not stopping for a second until she was in my room in the attic. The five-minute walk had passed in a blur, and she hadn’t complained once.

  The second we were inside the safe zone, I pinned her to the wall. She grunted then, and like a spider monkey, started to climb me until my hips were clasped by her thighs. The second the hot silk of her sex touched my lower stomach?

  I lost control.

  I reached between us, managed to shift my shorts out of the way, and pressed my cock to her slick flesh. Females didn’t get pregnant easily—there was a one in a six hundred thousand chance, and if it happened, then the child would be celebrated no matter our age because they were rare as hell—and the sensation of her slick hold on me was enough to have me pushing my forehead against hers.

  “Tell me to take you to the bed, to make love to you gently,” I rasped, my voice shaking as my control lay around my feet in smithereens.

  “I don’t want you to,” she moaned, her ankles crossing so she could dig her heels into my ass.

  The second she arched up, my cock slipped into her. Just the tip. I grunted, then groaned as she clenched on the head. I pulled back, needing to see her, needing to look in her eyes to check in and make sure she was okay. That the Succubus was back in charge was a given. She’d take any pain I had to give her and would transform it into lust. Even as I forged a path deep inside her pussy, even as I reached her hymen and with a thrust of my hips burrowed into her, she melted around me like molten chocolate.

  When she took all of me, shit got weird.

  Hot, but fucking weird.

  I could feel her drawing on the Sin Eater again, drawing him to the surface like she was a magnet and he was a hunk of metal she needed to reshape. I was accustomed to having the soul at the back of my subconscious. There, ever-present, but just hovering. Eve drew him to the front of my mind, as though I was split in two by the rational half and the part the Sin Eater dominated.

  I wasn’t sure if my other souls had disappeared now that she’d done this. We should have asked Dre about what had happened to him, but he’d been quiet, as timid as Dre could be, and considering what had happened to him, and the many dingleberries that kept appearing in our life at the moment, that conversation had been shoved aside.

  Dumb, or what? But in our defense, we were working on reaction. Not like in the middle of a warzone, because we could have dealt with that. But with things we had zero knowledge of, that no one had any knowledge of.

  “Why?” I rasped when she carried on pulling at the Sin Eater. She was making me feel the way the beast did when he drew on the Ghouls and fed from their sins.

  “Because I need him,” she purred, and if I’d needed confirmation that when her souls were truly in charge, Eve wasn’t, I had it then and there. Yet more proof there was a huge abyss between the woman who could bring Samuel to his knees with a throat punch, and the girl who needed Urban Dictionary to understand us on the regular.

  Because she’d Chosen me, apparently for a purpose, I didn’t stop her. Didn’t pull away. I was hers. To do with as she wished, as she willed.

  When I felt the maw open up inside me, my spirit breaking in two in the way that foreshadowed my slaughtering a Ghoul, I wondered if she knew the danger she was in. Wondered if she realized I was a killing machine in that moment.

  The thought stunned me, not because it was news to me, but because she began to rock into me, her pussy sliding down my cock as she moved, awkwardly, against the wall.

  It was a prompt. A prod. One I heeded. I began to thrust into her, fuck her slowly if not softly, and the Sin Eater quivered as he reacted on instinct.

  Just as was the way with Ghouls, her souls began to spread apart, as though they were trying to avoid my wrath. When they did, they weakened themselves. Except, that was what happened in Ghouls. Not with Eve.

  The light of her souls grew brighter in response, burned hotter, like a fire surging from red-hot to white-hot. A purple gleam shadowed them all, hovering over them like a protective blanket, but even that shroud couldn’t blind me to the fact her souls were getting stronger, not weaker, the longer I drew on them.

  For myself, rather than flee, I gave her what she needed, and she gave it to me in return. Clamping down on my cock, fucking me, taking everything I had to give. As my orgasm approached, I reached between us, slid a hand between our bodies, down our stomachs, and uncaring how awkward it was, I began to touch her clit. The lights pulsed in the same rhythm as her heart, her body, and when she exploded into a thousand pieces, I followed her.

  Except, I wasn’t too far gone to miss the light merging into one bright atomic blast that made my senses feel as though they were on the brink of an implosion. Whatever separated our souls? Kept them from merging? Eve’s had just blown apart, and I’d had ringside seats for the show.

  ❖

  Reed

  Was I surprised to see Eve in Frazer’s arms? In his bed?

  Not particularly.

  Was I jealous?

  No. That shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. Sure, we were Pack, but we weren’t perfect. Instead of being envious, though, I just wanted to climb in beside her, fall into the snuggle session they had going down while they slumbered.

  As I stared at them, the longing grew, and mentally declaring ‘fuck it,’ I slipped out of my trainers and trudged over to the bed. Slipping in beside her had Frazer stirring, but when he saw it was me, his eyes settled closed once more and he nuzzled back into our woman.

  Ours.
<
br />   He'd made it official last night. There was no going back for him. Or for her, but whether she realized it or not was another matter entirely. By fucking him, she’d Claimed him, and that was that.

  I didn’t intend on dozing, but I did, and when she wriggled against me, I knew I wanted to wake up every morning like this.

  Not likely considering she had six men to satisfy, but fuck it. A man could dream, couldn’t he?

  “Reed?”

  That she knew I was there had something settling deep inside me. I didn’t question it, didn’t question whatever voodoo she had going on, mostly because I couldn’t.

  Something was different.

  Eve was different.

  I could feel it. There was a tiny bond between us, one that had triggered the mark but wouldn’t fully form until she was coming around my cock. That bond had always pulsed with life, but now? It was pounding. Throbbing. Like it had a heart of its own. And it seriously didn’t help that under Frazer’s tee, she was naked.

  Gloriously naked.

  “Yeah, babe,” I mumbled into her throat.

  “You’re hot.”

  Frazer, obviously awake now, snickered just as I did. “Thanks, babe, I’ll take the compliment.”

  She snorted. “Well, yeah, you’re cute, but you’re boiling. I feel like I’m melting between you two.”

  I had a way of making her melt between the pair of us.

  My mouth watered and catching Frazer’s eye, I saw the twinkle in his as he reacted to her words too.

  “Which soul’s in charge today?” I asked instead, choosing a safer topic. I hoped it was my turn because, fuck, if that meant I’d get some pussy and she’d cement the bond? I might just die a happy man.

  Okay, not die. That would suck. Especially when I’d just found her.

  She tensed, then Frazer mumbled, “Don’t think we’ll be having that trouble anymore.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Frazer sighed. “Last night, she was Succubus and Sin Eater.”

  “Not possible.”

  “Trust me,” he stated grimly, shooting me a look. “She was both. Now we just need her to look normal.”

  “Normal?” I frowned, uncertain if Eve could ever do anything normal without sticking out like a sore thumb.

  She elbowed me in the belly, but it was Frazer who drawled, “She drew out my Sin Eater last night.”

  “Fuck.” My eyes widened. So, what had happened with Dre wasn’t an aberration?

  “Yeah.” Frazer fell onto his back and used the space he’d carved for himself to run a hand through his hair. “I don’t get it. Don’t get what is happening.”

  “I’m not supposed to be just one of anything,” Eve whispered, her voice low, hesitant. Not because she was watching her words, but more like she was thinking them through before she spoke.

  “Why, though?”

  She shrugged at my question. “How do I know? Why can I do half the things I can?”

  “I wish—” I froze. The words came to an abrupt halt on the tip of my tongue.

  “Never mind,” Frazer rasped, shooting me a warning look that was totally unnecessary because hell, I hadn’t meant to wish for anything.

  “Yeah, never mind,” I stated apologetically.

  Another shrug, and she uttered more slow words. “I wonder if there’s a reason why I need your souls to declare before they’re supposed to.”

  “Maybe so they can give you more control over yours?” Fraze hazarded a guess.

  “It would fit,” she agreed softly, then nuzzled back into me. “Yikes, I don’t want to get up.” She let out a huge yawn. “But I have class.”

  “That’s why I’m here. Eren couldn’t find you and didn’t feel like hunting you down in Frazer’s room.” I raised an arm to look at my watch. “You’re probably going to want to skip breakfast if you don’t want to be late for class.”

  She huffed. “Some alarm clock you are.”

  When she scampered over us, her ass was right in my face. Totally bitable.

  It surprised me when she didn’t attempt to cover up, made no move to squeak or get shy. I didn’t say anything, though, just enjoyed the show, but when she turned back to wink at me before she headed into Frazer’s connecting bath, I stared at her in astonishment.

  “She’s been like that since last night,” he murmured.

  “Why?”

  “I told you, the Succubus came out to party—”

  “But you were training her Sin Eater.”

  “I know. Trust me, it came as much of a surprise to me as it is to you.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “We were fucking, and she drew on the Sin Eater. Wouldn’t stop until I was in ‘no Ghoul should fuck with me’ mode.” My mouth gaped at that. “She taunted, no, enticed it into being, then focused it on herself. Her souls just merged into one big light.” He shrugged. “That’s pretty much all I remember. I don’t even have a memory of us falling into bed.”

  “We need to talk with the others.”

  He blew out a breath. “Not much to say.”

  I blinked at him, knew he was right, and nodded. “Fuck.”

  That pretty much said it all.

  Eight hours later, my unease hadn’t dispersed any. A part of me wanted Eve to draw out my Hell Hound, wanted the damn thing over with, and yet another part was trying to figure out what the fuck was happening. Of course, that was futile. Whatever was happening, was working to some higher order than my puny brain was capable of processing, and I knew that, but kept on trying to understand it anyway.

  As I picked at my meal, I watched Eve, and knew the others were watching her too. Everyone knew about last night, but even if Frazer hadn’t said a word, it would have been obvious.

  Before, Eve had been awkward. Timid. Shy, even.

  Now? She was sultry. Sinuous. A true female creature who knew her worth, as well as her power.

  It was, I wasn’t ashamed to admit, hot as hell.

  As she ate, she pulled the tines between her teeth in a way that sucked in her cheeks. An innocent move, to be sure. But added to the way she’d stare us in the eye at the same time? Not so innocent.

  Throw in the faint wriggles in her seat, the shit she was doing with her fingers as she practically gave her water glass a hand job, yeah, a different Eve was definitely in the building.

  “Did that taste weird to anyone else?” Frazer asked, as he reached for his water and swallowed some. Most people drank water with their meals, mostly because there were limited options. Juice was one of them, but it had to be pure, freshly squeezed, and the canteen staff wasn’t about to squeeze oranges for five hundred people.

  “Maybe your senses are sharper after last night,” Eren pointed out as he slid a fry through some homemade tomato relish.

  Jeez, just watching him do that made me want to get up and grab an extra portion.

  The day had felt long, hellishly long, and I’d slammed my guts out in the gym, trying to burn through this edgy feeling worming its way through me like a stomach virus.

  Nice imagery, right?

  Frazer grunted but pulled a face as he pushed his plate away from him. I watched, surprised to see he hadn’t eaten everything. He was quieter too.

  I cut Dre a look, saw that he was pensive as well.

  Whatever Eve did to them when she drew out their beasts, it messed with them for a good while. Dre still wasn’t back to his usual cutting self almost ten days on.

  After dinner, we headed for the common room and stuck to our prospective sofas. It had already been noticed by the faculty and a lot of the student body that we’d all taken to sitting together, but if we’d shoved the sofas together too, that would have caused more than raised brows.

  I didn’t want there to be even that much distance between Eve and us, but fuck, what could I say without coming across as a pansy?

  It was barely eight in the evening when I felt the weight of the day hit me, and by that point, I
was too exhausted to realize that everyone else was just as weary. Well, except for Eren. That fucker seemed to run on something other than sleep. Didn’t know how he did it, and to be honest, I didn’t want to know.

  Bed was my favorite place in the world.

  And if Eve was in it?

  Jesus, I might never leave my pit.

  ❖

  Eren

  It wasn’t unusual to find myself alone in the common room, but so early? Yeah. That was a new one. Still, it gave me jurisdiction of the remote control, and to be honest, I liked the quiet.

  Whatever else Eve had done, aside from bringing some vitality to my days, she’d certainly shaken things up, so I enjoyed the relative peace of Caelum as everyone readied for bed.

  I had time to think, time to wallow, and time to ponder what the fuck was happening with my Pack, but tonight, I didn’t want any of that. I just wanted to be mindless. Just wanted to float a little in the ether of trash TV.

  Why?

  Because what Frazer said had terrified me.

  Did Eve know how close she’d come to death when she taunted his Sin Eater?

  I didn’t think so.

  And what was going on with her? She’d gone from being timid to a sexpot overnight.

  I was confused, but more than anything, I was concerned.

  Other people were going to notice she was acting strangely. She hadn’t been here a long time, but her back story was so perplexing, so unusual that people had taken note of her. They knew her as the cult girl, as the oldest student to ever start studying with us… that she’d gone from Handmaid’s Tale chic to pornstar charming was going to make eyebrows soar.

  Of course, this was the exact opposite of me shutting my thoughts down. And a few hours later, when I heard a rumble in the sky, I regretted switching off immediately.

  I hadn’t heard it at first, because I had the TV on loud and I was watching Captain America for like, the tenth time. The sounds of the airplane engines on the screen were overloud thanks to the kickass speaker system in here, but they couldn’t replicate the deep and throaty rumble that came from a helicopter approaching.