“Vampires obtain the memories of other vampires,” he said. “That’s all. It’s nothing. A small moment might trigger a memory from the vampire who sired me, or the vampire who sired him…and so on, through the memories of every vampire in the line still living. Alec is concerned because it has changed me a little. There are brief moments when I forget myself.”
I thought I had seen one of those moments before. And I understood why Alec was concerned.
“I see…”
“You’ll like me better this way,” Montague said. “Becoming a vampire has tamed my immaturity and made a gentleman out of me. Stuart even commented on how adult I seemed after class the other day. You probably wouldn’t like the old me as much in the first place.”
Behind him, Alec still looked unsure. I was skeptical myself. Montague sounded like he was trying to convince himself.
Maybe Alec just missed whoever Montague used to be. Or maybe that wasn’t the end of it.
I’d better be careful around him. It’s hard when he’s the only one willing to spend time with me, but I’ve been getting myself in enough trouble already.
Chapter Nineteen
Charlotte
Since it was the weekend, the teachers were all gathered in their lounge playing what seemed like a rousing game of poker, although it seemed like they were missing their top hats.
“Stuart, you devil,” chuckled Mr. Gruben. “That’s the third of these you’ve won from me, isn’t it?” He shoved a jar of eyeballs toward Stuart, who quietly pocketed them and shrugged.
“I just don’t know where my luck comes from,” Stuart said. “When I was a kid I never won anything. I even enchanted my car in the soapbox derby, and I still lost.”
“I think I’m going to do it,” Professor Gruben said. “I’m betting my cufflinks.”
“Ho!” said Professor Das, who taught Enchantment and Illusions. “Now we’re talking.”
Alec looked incredulous and cleared his throat. They all turned around to the doorway.
“What is it, boys?” Master Blair said. “Oh—yes—and girl. My apologies. I keep messing that up.”
“They look kind of messed up,” Stuart said.
“A demon attacked us,” Alec said. “I have no idea what kind, but the feeling was much more than a normal sinistral. It felt to me like a high demon.”
Montague and Firian nodded, so I also nodded.
“That’s impossible,” Master Blair said. “We have put so many wards on this place, no high demon could break through in a thousand years, unless they were summoned.”
“We certainly didn’t summon anything,” Alec said. “We were trapped in the world of your playlist and I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to summon a demon while listening to disco.”
“If you insult the music of my glory days at Club Owl, I’ll expel you,” Master Blair said. “Well…tell me every detail of this encounter.”
We did our best, under the skeptical expressions of eight men whom I was starting to realize were all much older than they looked.
“I’ll check and double-check the wards,” Master Blair said. “This makes no sense.”
“It has something to do with Samuel’s death!” Professor McGuinness said.
“And her being here,” said Professor Das. “She is bringing trouble with her wherever she goes. She lost control of her fire magic again?” I was especially hurt by this because Professor Das seemed like the most mellow guy here and he had never brought up this stuff in enchantment class.
“Thank you,” I said, in a tight voice. “You forced me to come here, and I was just attacked by a demon when you swore I’d be safe, and now you’re blaming me for causing trouble? I could just go home to my dad. That would be fine with me.”
“She’s right. We aren’t being very nice,” said Professor Adams.
Master Blair got up, walked over to me, and gave me a gallant bow. “Charlotte, I’m so sorry. You’re very right. The last thing I want is for you to feel unsafe here. I’m going to give you an extra warding charm to wear, and we’re going to look into it. If we can get Samuel’s belongings, that might give us a better idea.”
“We should bring this up to the council,” Professor McGuinness said.
“Hsst!” Master Blair waved a hand. “Give me a chance to figure it out before the bureaucracy descends! Charlotte…try to stay in public areas and crowds as much as possible, just in case, until we figure out how this thing got in here.”
“Hmm,” Professor McGuinness said. “There is one way to get past the wards that I can think of. That would be through a blood tie. A blood tie,” he repeated, like he was angry at me, his rather grim face growing more drawn and his tone more ominous.
“You’re saying this in a tone like I should know what you’re talking about, and I don’t,” I said.
“Your grandfather was a werewolf,” he said. “Isn’t that right? You are the child of the witch who married a werewolf.”
“That thing wasn’t a werewolf,” Alec said. “Well…not exactly.”
“It is a bit wolf-like,” Monty admitted.
“‘That thing’ better not have been my grandfather,” I said.
“Let’s put a pin in that,” Master Blair said. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”
Chapter Twenty
Charlotte
“You can use my outlet,” Alec said, when we got back to the room. “Just for today. Since you look like you need to relax and I know you enjoy your game.”
We’d parted ways with Montague downstairs. He seemed like he was simmering at Alec for talking about the vampire thing. I hadn’t even had a chance to think about that. Maybe I didn’t need to. It’s not like we’re dating…yet.
I wasn’t sure I actually planned on dating a vampire. Even normal human girls get a pretty thorough fictional education on how well that turns out.
(I mean, hot. It turns out hot. But someone usually dies, or kidnaps you, etcetera. I felt like I was already on track for that sort of outcome without dating a vampire.)
Still, maybe it was just some sort of vampire hunger or teenage boy lust, but I got the feeling Montague was a genuinely fun guy. Whatever happened to him this summer, it must have been pretty traumatic to be turned into a vampire. I felt like I could trust him a little more than anyone else here. Maybe it wasn’t much, but what else did I have?
I kept thinking of him lacing my skates and holding my hand, just having a good time. It felt like a date, despite Firian and Alec being there, but a relaxed kind of date. I shouldn’t have teased him about the roller rink, I thought. That was actually way more fun than just seeing a movie.
But Alec was giving me this deeply concerned look, like he couldn’t take his eyes off me. “You’ll be okay,” he said, in a voice that turned slightly husky. He had beautiful eyes. The slightly reddish color of his pupils didn’t seem strange anymore. It looked natural. And his dark eyebrows framed them so well. If he was half-demon, he looked the part, but it came across more as strength than danger. The sound of his voice and the presence of his tall, solid body in my room—our room—made me feel safe.
“Yeah. I will,” I said. “I should probably call my dad…”
“I wouldn’t,” Firian said, putting a hand on my shoulder. He raised an eyebrow at me. “Let’s forget about this for a night.”
“Firian…are we ever going to tell Dad?”
He paused, and then gave me a twisted, humorless smile. “When it’s all over, we’ll tell him.” He opened my laptop and handed it to me.
I fired up the game. Alec put a fresh canvas on his easel and I realized, despite the detrimental effect of electricity, he was sticking around. That eased my mind, even if he wasn’t as powerful as the demon.
“Okay, kobold hides,” I said.
“Yup.”
“Oh…but did you get the message from Simon about fighting the witch queen?”
He clicked a few times. “Yeah. Oh. That is tonight. We still have time to do this fir
st.”
Pretty soon I was distracted and having a good time on the hunt. It was so nice to do magic with a few clicks of a button and have it all turn out as expected. I cast ‘Magefire’ and didn’t burn down anyone’s office or singe anyone’s uniform. My dark mage dude, with his handsome alabaster face and eyepatch, longbow and bare, muscular arms—oh yeah. He knew what he was doing. He’d never had to fight anyone while wearing roller skates.
At first, I felt a little awkward with Alec around, but pretty soon I was getting into it. “Yes! Get him, get him, get him—yes!”
“In your face, Cerberu,” Firian said.
“Cerberus?” Alec asked.
“Nah, these are like, roaming mini-Cerberuses, so they’re called Cerberu. For whatever random reason.”
“Ah.”
“We need to head over to Pyra Forest preeetty soon,” Firian said.
“Just one more hide…”
“Yeah, I’m going to use Lucian’s Bell.”
“Are you sure?”
“We don’t get to play that often anymore, so might as well go all in.”
Alec added a few dabs of something to his canvas. It was turned away from us, so I didn’t know what he was painting. After a minute, he murmured, “What’s Lucian’s Bell?”
“It’s a rare item that guarantees a rare drop,” Firian said in a monotone as he was getting into the zone.
I was having a little more trouble getting into the zone because of Alec’s presence. His sleeves were rolled up and he had put on a canvas apron to protect his uniform from paint. I was going to put ‘man painting’ right up there with ‘man baking’ as a turn on activity for me. Something about taking a big muscular guy like Alec and placing him in a context where he was slowed down, contemplating a creation…
“Charlotte!” Firian snapped. “I used the bell, so don’t blow it.”
“Yes! On it!”
Alec put down his paintbrush and walked over to watch this unfold.
“I don’t know how you do this and still manage to cast spells,” he said. “I can feel the disruptive energy of these computers filling the room.”
I had no time for that right now. I fought off distraction as I cast one of the better spells in my current arsenal. Firian finished the kobold off. It collapsed and vanished, leaving behind a little icon of a brown hide.
“Of course, Monty used to have a cell phone,” Alec said. “That was worse.”
“That’s it!” I said, grabbing the hide.
“All in a day’s work.” Firian high-fived me. “I think we have time to turn it in before we head over to the forest.”
Alec was still watching as my guy ran around and went to Madame Beale’s Apothecarium.
“So who is this guy?” he asked.
“You mean my character?”
“Is he a character in a novel that you get to enact?”
“Oh, no, you create whatever character you want,” I said. “So Firian’s is the elf girl with the side boob, and this is me. I’m very brooding.”
“I didn’t design the side boob,” Firian said. “There’s a limited number of costumes.”
“Yeah. There is a practical suit of armor, as we’ve discussed,” I said in a you’re-not-fooling-me voice. I glanced at Alec. “You want to make a character? There’s a 30 day free trial. The combinations are endless. When I started out I was a pirate, before I settled on this guy.”
“A pirate?” He paused. “No, no.”
“Are you sure? You sound a little intrigued… I bet you need a break too. It’s the weekend.”
He stood up. “I’m already weaker than the other guys on account of my…tainted blood.” He shrugged. “Not that it’s a problem. I work hard to be stronger.”
“I see that,” I said, trying not to ogle the gorgeous arm that was leaning on the bed beside me after I’d just harassed Firian about side boob.
He drew back with a faint smile. “Sorry. That’s my magic working on you again. Anyway, my dad expects a lot of me. I intend to live up to that expectation. I’m not getting distracted.” He turned his easel around. “How’d I do?”
He had painted the monster, caught in stylized motion like it was leaping at us, teeth bared. He perfectly captured the way its body seemed caught between wolf and man, and the way it seemed to be a part of the shadows, not quite a part of the real world. “Badass!” I said. “It looks like video game concept art. Although…why?”
“I wanted a scene-of-the-crime shot for the professors,” he said. “I won’t put it on the wall if it scares you.”
“A painting doesn’t scare me,” I said. “Maybe it’ll help prepare me for…life here.” I glanced at Firian. I still wasn’t sure about not telling dad, but I realized there was nothing he could do.
It’s still not a great day when you realize that monsters are real, they’re after you, and your own parent can’t do anything about it. But I guess I still slept pretty well that night…sort of…
Chapter Twenty-One
Charlotte
I stepped into the shower and turned on the hot water. Since I’d started sharing my room with Alec, I always felt a little embarrassed when I was in there, because I was surrounded by his preferred shampoo and body wash and stuff. It smelled like his clean body.
The hot water sluiced off me, and I lathered up a wash rag. I thought about Alec standing in this same shower. He was already gorgeous with clothes on. Clothes off, he had to be especially tasty. I knew he worked out. He probably had the abs of a celebrity. And I already knew he was pretty…endowed. His pants could hardly contain him.
Oof. I really shouldn’t be getting so hot for my roommate.
I’d never seen a man naked before—in real life. But man, was I ready for it, and if he was the first…it would be like cracking open a hundred dollar bottle of champagne the first time you ever had a drink.
Why couldn’t I get my head out of this dangerous vision?
I reached for the shower head. Kind of weird that this bathroom even had a shower wand, right? Hotels never did.
Oh, girl, you should not go there.
He was out there studying. Right out there, on the other side of the door. He might even hear me if I spent too much time…blasting a focused area. And if I moaned, well—I’d never be able to look him in the eye again.
I drew my hand back and grabbed the shampoo instead.
As I was lathering my hair, the door creaked open.
“Charlotte…,” a husky voice said. I saw him silhouetted against the curtain.
“Alec?”
“I can’t stand it anymore,” he said. “Just thinking about you—in here—those gorgeous curves of yours—“
“I can’t—stand it either,” I said. “I was just thinking—“
He threw open the shower curtain. I gasped, covering myself with my hands.
He was already undressed.
It was just as good as I dreamed. How did he seem even taller without clothes on? Maybe it was just the way his muscles formed lean, strong lines along his arms and legs. He looked god-like, from pectoral muscles to six pack, hairless until you got to a thin line of black hair leading to a tidy thatch that framed a thick, erect cock. Despite having no experience, I wanted to stroke it. I wanted to stroke every inch of him. And then lick every inch of him. And then feel every inch of him.
“You look like…you were…born from Zeus or something. Zeus? Is that the right god? I’m—not making sense right now.”
“I can’t help it,” he said. “Incubi are a little different from humans. That is…it’s part of our nature to be appealing. This is your lucky day.” He scoffed. “But I think I’m as lucky as you are.”
He stepped into the shower with me. My skin was tingling all over anticipating his touch.
He looked at me like I was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. I knew it was probably just from being deprived of girls, but I drank it up. He was definitely the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. When he was stan
ding in the shower I felt so small next to him. I imagined he could easily lift me up. I could wrap my legs around him and he would hold me there…
“I can’t touch you,” he said.
“Wha—I mean—even if I want you to touch me? Can I touch you?”
“No. The spells works both ways. I need to learn control.”
“You said this was our lucky day.”
“Just being near you like this is pretty damn good,” he said. He reached for the shower head. “I can still satisfy you. Safely. Incubi always find a way to make their women happy…”
His woman? Is that what I was? Should I protest?
I didn’t really want to. He turned the little dial on the shower so it was a tighter stream. Then one of his arms was spread on the tile behind my head, while the other hand twisted around the wand so it was pointed between my legs.
“Spread those legs for me,” he commanded.
I was already so sensitive that the feeling seemed ten times more intense than when I went DIY at home. My legs were all shaky and I had to force them apart. “Ohh…ahh…”
“We’ve been waiting so long,” he said. “Don’t be afraid to let go.”
He shifted the blasting water a little, back and forth, so it was hitting my sweet spot. The intensity built quickly. I grabbed the shower bar. It felt like it was pretty sturdy, thank goodness. “Ahh…! Am I—making you stronger—?”
“You’re making me feel like I could slay a hundred werewolves for you.”
“Am I—getting weaker?”
“You don’t need to be the strongest, because I’ll protect you…” His breath was in my ear.
I paused. “I mean, I can protect myself though.”
“You want me to stop?”
If a friend asked me, “Should I give my magical powers to an incubus just because he can do things to me in the shower?”, I would have said, “Sounds like he’s using you and also wasting water.”
But what was I supposed to do, tell this beautiful man to stop? I was too far gone. The pussycat was hungry and the cat food can was already open.
A Witch Among Warlocks: The Complete Series Box Set Page 11