by C. R. Jane
Finn walks over and grabs the bottle that Braxton had been using before.
"Let's try this again," he says as he pours me another glass.
It’s going to be a long wait.
Chapter 12
(Braxton)
There's excitement in the air when we walk into the cavernous Council room. I know immediately that Adeline was right, someone had seen her walk to my room. The excitement stems from the fact that the vampires are looking forward to having another feeding source. It sickens me to think that a few months ago I might have been feeling the same way.
I look around the room and note that the only beings present are the Council, Alexander and myself, and Clarissa. She's looking at us with pride gleaming in her eyes. She thinks she has us.
I just hope we can actually pull this off. I wouldn't think that members of the Council would go there, but there's always the chance that Clarissa has her fangs stuck into at least a few of the members.
"I assume that you know why you've been sent for?" Elliott Culpepper asks.
Dante walks in just then, my heart starts to beat faster. I can only hope that his allegiance to Adeline means more to him then getting approval from his father. His presence also means that the Council has been watching us closer than we thought. I'm just hoping that they haven't called Finn and Nyx to make an appearance. I don't want to leave Adeline alone.
I school my face and concentrate on getting my heartbeat down to its normal rhythm. The Council will be looking for signs of anything out of the ordinary.
"Is this about the fake attack earlier?" I ask, working on keeping my voice steady. Elliot gives me a searching glance. He thinks that I'm hiding something, and it's only my reputation and years of service that's keeping me safe right now.
"Clarissa has come to us with some interesting news about Miss Jones," Elliott says, pausing once again to try and read my reaction.
“And what would that be?" Alexander asks in a bored voice. "I haven't quite figured out Clarissa's obsession with the girl."
Elliott turns his focus to Alexander for a moment, searching his features to see if there's anything out of the ordinary. But Alexander's mastered the poker face, just the same as me. Even Dante's doing a great job of looking bored as he lounges against the cavern wall.
Elliott is beginning to look a bit flustered. I guess he was assuming this was going to go a different way. I can see out of the corner of my eye that Clarissa’s face is starting to get red.
Principal Asher interjects. "Clarissa is telling us that we have an angel on our hands," he says, his eyes gleaming greedily.
"An angel?" Alexander says dramatically, like this is the most surprising news that he’s ever gotten. He starts to laugh uproariously. A clever move, since none of the men in this room like to be laughed at. Principal Asher looks flustered.
"Adeline Jones is the farthest thing from an angel that I've ever seen. The Council needs to get better sources if they're going to waste my time with things like this," I tell them in a bored tone as Alexander continues to laugh.
"What the hell are you laughing at?" shrieks Clarissa.
"Just the fact that anyone would listen to you," Alexander says venomously. "Everyone knows that you're obsessed with her. You couldn't come up with a better story than this? You might as well pretend that you're pregnant and it's mine," Alexander says snarkily.
Elliott straightens himself up, trying to get in control of the situation. "Alexander, we've had you watching her. You really haven't seen anything out of the ordinary?" he presses.
Alexander pretends to think. "If by out of the ordinary you mean exceptionally self-righteous? Then Miss Jones is your girl," he says with a mean-spirited laugh.
The Council members are beginning to look a little bit embarrassed about their accusations in the face of our sarcasm.
“They’re lying,” Clarissa says desperately, her eyes darting frantically around the room, trying to see if anyone believes her. “They’re all obsessed with her. Braxton’s fucking her. Hell, they all probably are.”
There’s an intake of breath at her accusation and I know I’m treading on dangerous ground now. Surprisingly it’s Alexander’s mother that pipes up before I can say a word. “Are you accusing my son of having relations with a human?” she asks Clarissa menacingly.
Clarissa takes an audible gulp at the threat in the council woman’s voice. “I…” She takes a deep breath, steeling herself and bracing her shoulders. “Yes, I am as a matter of fact.”
The room erupts, everyone talking over themselves as they discuss this new development. Alexander and I sneak looks at each other.
“It’s funny you should say that, Clarissa,” Dante says suddenly. “For someone that’s fucking a professor yourself, you would think you would know to have proof when leveling accusations like that. You do know that something like that would violate about a million different Raven Academy rules,” he says with a smirk.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Clarissa throws back, even as the room starts to get loud again in the face of yet another accusation.
I’m holding my breath that Dante has something concrete to get us out of this mess. I watch as he pulls out his phone and walks towards his stepmother, holding it out for her to take. She sends him a questioning glance before taking the phone and pressing something on it. Suddenly the sound of Clarissa and Dusk groaning and moaning fills the cavern. Alexander’s mother looks horrified at what she’s seeing, and she quickly presses something to make the recording stop playing.
She tosses Dante his phone and stands up so fast that her chair topples to the ground behind her.
“I believe we’re done here. Make sure Dusk is out of the school within the hour,” she orders as she begins to walk away, trying to hold her head high even in her obvious embarrassment that the Council even called this meeting to begin with based on Clarissa’s accusations. She stops, as if she’s just remembered something. “Clarissa, make sure your bags are packed as well,” she says stiffly before storming off.
Clarissa looks pale, but it’s not from worry or embarrassment about what has just happened, it’s from rage.
She turns to look at us as the rest of the Council begin to file out of the room. She doesn’t stop staring at us even when they’ve all left. There’s determination in her gaze and tendrils of unease spread all over my skin. She has some kind of plan. And it’s not going to be good for us.
We may have won this battle, but it’s obvious that Clarissa is determined to win the war.
(Adeline)
I’m walking down the hall with Nyx and Finn, a bit unsteadily, when Clarissa suddenly storms to a stop in front of me. For some reason, I had thought that it was a good idea to try and go to class drunk with the danger of my wings popping out at any moment. Nyx and Finn hadn’t been that far off from my intoxication level so it had been an easy sell that I couldn’t afford to put my academic future in jeopardy over something as simple as a pair of angel wings.
We obviously weren’t thinking straight.
Clarissa gets so close to me that her nose is only inches away from my forehead. ”Listen you little bitch, it’s only a matter of time until everyone knows your secret. I’ll make sure of that,” she hisses.
I wobble in front of her, almost falling into her. “What are you talking about and why are there two of you,” I giggle, vaguely aware that she’s threatening me about something important, but too drunk to care. Maybe giving me enough alcohol to lay down an elephant in order to get my wings to relax wasn’t the best idea.
Clarissa sniffs me and looks at me incredulously. “Are you drunk right now?” she asks in shock.
Nyx and Finn just laugh in response. “Are you all drunk?” she asks wide-eyed.
She begins to laugh. The sound is distorted in my hazy mind, sounding more like a cartoon villain’s laugh then a real person’s... “This is too good. The entire supernatural world is plotting what to do with you and you’re ge
tting drunk with two of your harem. You’re making it too easy, Adeline. Why don’t you give me a little challenge?”
Her words are beginning to sober me up. I have no idea what she’s threatening to do, but it’s obvious she knows more about me than she should.
(Clarissa)
“Fuck off, Clarissa,” Nyx growls, pulling Adeline tight under his arm like she’s a fragile ornament. “I’m so sick of your jealousy,” he barks.
Finn is on her other side, both watching over her.
That whining little cow stares at me with drunken glazed eyes, half giggling, half rubbing herself up against Finn. I want to smash my fist into that perfect little nose, to remind her that her place at this Academy is beneath our shoes. We rule this place, not humans or anyone else.
“Whoaaa. I know you have fantasies but keep them to yourself,” I snap at Nyx, lifting my chin in his direction.
But he’s already turning away, taking Adeline and Finn with him, and I can’t keep looking at them without wanting to gag.
I storm off in the opposite direction, clenching my fists, my tongue slipping over my extending fangs, the tips pointy and sharp. On her first day Adeline walked in on me and my sexy Dusk, I should have torn her throat out then been done with her. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Won’t make that mistake again.
I now know her secret, and I’m doing what I should have done before.
Something that will not only eliminate her but also serve as payback for those arrogant assholes who think they’re too good for me. Traitors who put a damn angel before their own kind.
Recently, I heard the nurses talking about a command to take Adeline’s blood for Council testing, which was bewildering enough. I kept wondering what they’d want with a human’s blood, but now it all makes sense.
Seeing her trying to conceal her wings in the hallway.
And those four grovelers and Braxton chasing after her 24/7.
She’s a damn angel. Can’t believe I didn’t see this earlier based on her freakish show of strength that day in the hallway and the crazy way that the other vampires in the school acted towards her. Her kind are almost extinct on Earth because down here, they are weak and at our mercy.
Vampires rule this world.
My grandparents kept an angel as a slave to clean the house and to be fed upon. They managed that by clipping her wings, literally chopping them right off her. This was many years ago, and the snippets I remember were of the young woman in her twenties pleading for her life every day. But grandma told me something very important.
Angels affect everyone around them, influence their emotions with a strange pheromone-type energy. It brings out the truth in someone’s heart, Grandma used to say. Sweeps into unsuspecting hearts like a siren. Elicits such powerful emotions in everyone they encounter. So care must be taken.
Never let angels get too close to you.
They will change you, deceive you.
Angels are good for one thing--food.
Then Grandma fed on the angel, drinking in her soul until the angel passed out, like she did most days. The thing was, if Vampires fed on humans too long, the humans’ souls can rapture and break since humans already have cracks in their soul from the fall of Adam. But angels on the other hand can be fed on without destroying their soul as they have the purest, most whole souls of any beings on Earth. It makes them the ultimate food source.
Except, there’s a double-edged sword with angels and it comes with a downside my grandma didn’t see before it was too late. She fed on the girl so frequently, the angel finally died. Soon after, my grandma died also. Her addiction for angel blood had driven her insane to the point where she finally took her own life to stop the excruciating hunger.
So, if those idiots are feeding on Adeline, they’ve just screwed themselves royally. But I can live with that.
Fuck them!
I push myself into a run down the hall for one reason. The nurse confided in a friend that Adeline’s blood samples had been swapped with human blood since she smelled the difference and was too scared to tell the Council. And I bet my life I know exactly who took it and where it is now.
Her lover boy...the only one who’d have easy access to the nurse’s room after hours.
As I reach Braxton’s door, I pause and listen for any sounds coming from inside.
Silence.
He’s a fool to not have more locks on his room to prevent people from entering easily, but yay for me. I rush inside and do a quick scan to confirm that I'm alone in the bedroom, then I jump toward his study desk and shuffle through the papers on the desk. I rip open the drawers, one after another and come up short. No blood sample.
Hell. I whip around and sprint across the room, hopping up and over his bed to the wardrobe and yank open the door.
Pants and shirts perfectly pressed hang in perfect order by colors from blacks to grays, whites, blues, and greens.
I snort a laugh at how anal he is and shove aside the clothes, searching for anything toward the back of the wardrobe. Nothing, and there are only shoes at the base. Useless.
Where would he hide the blood sample. I eye the bedside table and search the drawer finding only books and a reading light, along with a box of condoms.
“Too bad he wastes those on Adeline.” I shove the drawer shut with my hip and lift the edge of the mattress, finding nothing.
Am I wrong to think he’d hide it instead of destroying the evidence immediately?
I search every corner of the room until I look behind the small two-seater eating table and discover a small bar fridge.
Mr. Dusk has his filled with all kinds of blood types for when I spend nights with him so we can gorge, and I assumed it was only him who had such a luxury in his room.
I lunge forward and wrench open the door, my gaze shooting to one blood sample in a test tube inside a plastic bag. My fading hopes jack up inside me, and I’m smiling.
“Fuck yeah, bitch. You’re done.”
I hear voices outside the room; Finn and Nyx. Concentrating, my ears perk as I focus and note they’re farther down the hall, the footsteps of three people coming closer. Bet that bitch is still with them.
Snatching the blood sample, I stuff it into the pocket of my school skirt and kick the fridge door shut. I dart outside with the speed that makes us a superior race. A quick glance over my shoulder, I catch the guys’ shadows rounding the corner of the corridor, and I run out of there, beaming with satisfaction.
I can’t wait to see how Alexander and the others are going to try protecting Adeline now.
The always perfect Alexander, with his powerful family... he’s about to see his life come crumbling down around him and I can’t wait for the showdown.
And once I’ve dealt with Adeline, I’ll enjoy having power restored in the Academy.
Vampires feeding on the fresh new recruits coming into our school as a smorgasbord, none of them special.
Finally, Alexander will see me as the only one for him as it should have been all along.
I move with speed towards the Council’s room and burst inside without knocking.
A startled Elliot turns in my direction, his mouth twisted, eyes furious. “Have you completely forgotten your place? Aren’t you supposed to be packing?”
“I apologize for the intrusion, but this can’t wait. You’ll want to see what I have for you,” I respond smugly. With my hand in my pocket, fingers curling around the blood sample, I march toward the Councilman feeling like right now, I can take on the world.
Yep, things are going to get very interesting now.
(Nyx)
I take quick steps out of Braxton’s room and head towards the vending machines. After all that alcohol, Adeline’s feeling queasy, and eating something will help her.
Students are roaming the hallways, blissfully going about their business, many totally unaware of all that goes on in this school. My lips quirk just thinking about the fact that there’s been an angel walking these halls without anyone
knowing. A being that the vampire students would do anything to claim as their own if they knew.
Adeline is unbelievably special, and it surprises me she’s gone undetected for this long. I’m just glad that we all came to our senses in time to be able to work together to keep her safe.
Fuck everything else. All that matters now is Adeline, and that’s all I concern myself with.
Further down the hall, there’s movement that catches my eyes. I glance down the long corridor and spot Clarissa shutting the door that leads to the Council’s den. She’s practically skipping, wearing a huge grin, and my gut clenches. The only time she smiles that way is when she’s done something awful.
I slide into an empty classroom and peer out the door, waiting for her to pass, not wanting her to know I saw where she came from. She’s licking her lips as she strolls past, and I’m itching to deliver violence her way, to make her talk. But she won’t tell me anything. The bitch will probably get turned on by my attempts. I want to gag.
The moment she’s out of sight, I dart out and reach the Council’s door in two seconds.
Curiosity is a bastard, so I’m leaning closer, pressing my ear to the door like a damn spy. Focusing, I listen to the voice coming faintly from inside.
“Yes, you heard right,” Elliot quips, and when I don’t hear a response, I’m guessing he’s on the phone. “I have actual proof.”
Proof of what? My gut is tightening with each passing second, each agreeing sound he makes. I don’t want to think they are talking about Adeline. Braxton, Dante, and Alexander said we had time, that they had thrown the Council off the scent of Adeline.
I’m still picturing Clarissa’s maniacal grin after leaving Elliot’s office.
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying, you need to get here fast. I just tested the blood myself. She has the ey' compound. She’s what we’ve been looking for!”
At his words, I die on the inside, and I can’t move at first as the realization of what I’ve just heard sinks in.