Kipling crossed the room to stand before Hoskins and held the page out to him. “Agent Hoskins, you have been served on behalf of the FIB for failing to provide due care and comfort to a suspect under your charge and for attempting to spy on legally protected conversations between myself and my client. I’ll see you in court.”
Hoskins gaped at the legal document in his hand and Kipling threw the door shut in his face.
I exchanged a dark smile with him as he set about securing the room from any more magical spy work with a series of complex spells and turned my gaze to Lance instead.
I threw my arms around him and he grunted as he leaned into my embrace, unable to hug me back due to his cuffed hands. My heart leapt and pounded in relief as the ache in my chest eased from having him so close.
He looked like shit and smelled like he hadn’t showered. His hair was a mess, he was wearing the clothes he’d been arrested in and there were huge bags beneath his eyes.
“How are you?” I asked him as I drew him close, running my hands up his back.
“How’s Blue?” he asked in return.
“Fucking furious,” I replied. “She beat the shit out of Seth in front of the whole school. He’s been howling all fucking night and day since.”
A merciless laugh escaped him. “That’s my girl.”
“I asked him outright if he did this,” I added because Seth would be lucky to be alive if I believed he had. “But he swore he didn’t. I know you don’t have a high opinion of him, but he’s my brother just like you are. I believe him.”
Lance scoffed and pushed out of my arms, dropping into the chair on his side of the table and I tried not to let the sting of that rejection show.
“Who else then?” he growled. “Who else knew?”
“I haven’t been given the name of the witness as of yet,” Kipling said formally as he finished up his magic and took a seat opposite Lance.
I caved and sat too, folding my arms to stop myself from punching something over the fucking injustice of the situation. I didn’t know who else it might be, but whoever it was had made themselves an enemy of mine.
“As soon as you find out, I’ll kill them,” I promised.
“A full character assassination will take place of course,” Kipling nodded as if I’d meant that instead of bloodshed, but we all knew I hadn’t. “In the meantime, my brothers and I spent the entirety of the last seventeen hours watching the video evidence. It was a six hour tape, so it took a while but during that time we managed to individually catalogue each law break and how we will fight against their use in this case.”
“You watched hours of my girl and me having sex?” Lance snarled protectively and he looked damn close to leaping out of the chair and throttling Kipling just for having seen it.
“If it appeases you, you may wish to know that my brothers and I have very specific tastes sexually and neither you nor Miss Vega fulfil them, so I can assure you the work was in no way gratifying. I prefer men in their fifties or older with considerably more body hair than you. My middle brother only enjoys sex with inanimate objects and my youngest brother likes Medusa women in shifted form.”
“Oh,” Lance said, cutting a glance to me which said he was half relieved and half freaked out by that. I liked to know everything about the people I employed, so I already knew all of that anyway but the plain faced way Kipling discussed it was definitely weird as fuck.
“So, as I was saying. You have the full use of me and both of my brothers for the duration of your case. Both of them are listening in now by the way and relaying ideas to me.”
“You’re on the phone to them?” Lance asked with a frown as he looked for an earpiece and I almost smirked.
“No. We underwent a…procedure, several years ago which links our psyches. It was immeasurably painful, destroyed most of our ability to feel empathy and removed all forms of privacy between us. But it makes our work as a unit so much more cohesive that we all agree it’s worth the sacrifice.”
“Aside from when your middle brother starts humping a grapefruit or something and you’re linked in for the show, I guess,” I joked to lighten the tension in the room and Kipling just shrugged.
“He’s been more interested in sponge cakes recently, but we are getting off topic,” Kipling deadpanned.
There was a beat of silence where I almost laughed before realising it wasn’t a joke and Lance cut me a look like he was wondering if these guys were really the right men for the job. But he also knew I’d only ever get him the best so he didn’t comment.
“So,” Kipling began, drawing another sheet of paper from his curofile. He’d explained the magic of it to me once. Basically, his brothers each had one of their own and any document they created was magically duplicated into the other files no matter how far they were from one another. So while this Kipling had been listing out all of the infractions Agent Hoskins had made against Lance, his brothers had compiled the file and sent it over for him to use. It was seamless and pretty fucking spectacular magic. “We can dismiss the charge of sexual biting. Miss Vega is your Source and that was a well-known fact. There are no rules in the school contract you signed or anywhere else to say that you had to bite her in a specific place. So it doesn’t matter that you bit her breasts, inner thigh and buttocks. That will be dismissed.”
Lance shot me a look and cleared his throat. “Okay. What else?”
“We have, four counts of full coitus, two counts of cunnilingus, one count of fellatio. A single spank which I think we can dismiss as an accidental fall-”
“Fuck me, Lance you couldn’t have just had a quickie, could you?” I muttered as Kipling went on and Lance ran a hand over his face with a groan.
“Four hundred and three kisses-”
“You counted the kisses?” Lance blanched.
“One hundred and sixteen pecks to the lips. Eighty four kisses to the lips with tongue. Thirty seven to her left breast, forty five to the right, eight to-”
“By the stars, is that really necessary?” Lance growled.
“We are extremely thorough in our work. It may interest you to know that the cunnilingus is likely to work in your favour if we have a mainly female jury. They tend to see that as an act of selflessness and love as opposed to the work of a sexual predator. Unfortunately, the fellatio somewhat detracts from it, but depending on the moral standards of the male jury members, it might balance out. Especially once they see how willing Miss Vega is in the tape-”
“You’re not playing that tape in court!” Lance yelled suddenly, leaping to his feet, slamming his fists down on the table and shoving away from it in a rage. “I won’t have countless assholes ogle her like that. I’d sooner just plead guilty and take my punishment!”
“I’m afraid the tape will be played regardless of plea,” Kipling said calmly as if Lance didn’t look about five seconds away from ripping his throat out. I guessed he had plenty of experience working with gangsters and killers to have learned not to flinch under such rage. “Like I said, the best we can hope for now is to convince the jury that this was love, not abuse and get them to be lenient. I won’t lie to you though, Mr Orion. The prosecution will paint you out as a sexual predator who manipulated his way into the bed of one of the most important people in Solaria. They will be looking to prove that you tricked and brain washed her, convinced her to believe she loved you and made her spread her legs for you so that you could use her to claim more power and place a pawn on the Solarian Throne. You will lose your job, no question. You will be power shamed, I guarantee it. The best we are hoping for here is house arrest and magical confinement for an extended period of time. I’d guess ten years but I’ll fight for two. And we can always use appeals to lower it if I don’t get that outcome. But I’ll take any of those outcomes because what the prosecution will be fighting for tooth and nail is a prison term. Supermax because of your power levels and the fact that the girl you abused is a Vega.”
“Darkmore?” Orion breathed, his gaze
sliding to me again as fear spiked through my chest.
That place wasn’t a prison. It was hell on Earth. An underground hive filled with the worst criminals in all of Solaria and beyond who were sent down there to rot in the dark. I’d even heard rumours that they kept a genetically engineered monster down there to make sure the inmates had no chance of escaping. And there were no rules there either, no laws to protect inmates. Only ways to control them. Less than half of the inmates survived their full sentence to be released again. I’d do anything and everything in my power to make sure Lance didn’t end up there.
“Don’t even think about it,” I snarled. “You’re not going to prison.”
“Darius,” Lance said suddenly, looking up at me with real fear in his eyes. “You have to swear to me that you’ll look after Blue. Promise me you’ll keep helping her with the shadows. Swear to me that she will not fall prey to your father or his hateful quest for power!”
I moved to grab him, clasping his head between my hands as he looked at me with wild eyes. “You’re not going to prison,” I growled again.
“Promise me!” he bellowed, shoving me back a step as he snarled at me. “She’s all that matters to me! I need you to swear it. You’ll protect her, teach her, fix your shit with Tory and make something work between the Heirs and the Vegas so that you can overthrow Lionel and Clara.”
“Okay,” I gave in at the desperation in his tone. He needed me to swear it, but I refused to give up. “I swear to look after her, so long as you swear to do everything you can to get yourself out of this mess.”
I looked around at Kipling like he had all the answers and Lance nodded as that hollow look crept into his gaze again.
Kipling cleared his throat like the outburst hadn’t even happened. “Then let’s start from the very beginning. I’m going to need all of the details to get the right spin on this.”
“Okay,” Lance breathed as he sank back down into his chair and I followed as I took mine too. “I’ll tell you whatever you need to know.”
***
I flew back to campus in my Dragon form, a bag filled with my clothes clamped in my jaws as the sun began to set and the orange light made my golden scales sparkle.
I did a circuit of the grounds and as I passed Aqua Lake, a blast of fire caught my attention from the shore.
My gut plummeted as I spotted Caleb and Roxy sitting together on the stony beach, but as Caleb threw up more fire which he shaped into words, a completely different kind of shiver ran through my limbs.
Round 2?
I circled the lake and tucked my wings as I flew down to join them, slowing my speed and landing heavily on the bank behind them as I dropped my bag.
Roxy got to her feet and turned to look at me, laughing at something Caleb said but I didn’t catch it. And that wasn’t annoying as fuck.
My attention swivelled between them as they laughed together and my heart pounded in a desperate kind of way. I ached for her to look at me like that, carefree and happy, enjoying the moment without any drama or pain.
But as she turned to look at me again, her laughter fell away and she bit her lip nervously. I stilled as she approached, looking down at her as she strode straight towards a Dragon who was bigger than a bus like I was a fucking house cat. I hadn’t spoken to her since I’d told her I loved her and I didn’t really know what I was going to say. But I had to think that if Caleb had suggested that the three of us repeat what we did a few weeks ago, he must have asked her first. And as much as it hurt me to know I couldn’t have her to myself, if this was the only way I could have her at all then I was willing to make the sacrifice. Because I woke up aching for her and I spent the day thinking of her and every glimpse I caught of her, every word we exchanged, it wasn’t enough. I needed more. And if this was the only way I could get that then I’d make my peace with it somehow and just ignore the parts of my heart which burned with agony at the thought of him touching her too.
I breathed out slowly and she was engulfed in smoke for a moment, a soft laugh escaping her just before her hand landed on my scaly nose.
“I definitely like you better like this,” she teased as I leaned down and let her stroke me, her palm running right up between my eyes. I wondered if she had any concept of how few people had ever gotten this close to me in my Dragon form.
“Because he can’t talk, right?” Caleb joked as he moved closer too, pushing a hand through his unruly blonde curls.
“Yeah,” Roxy agreed and I snorted smoke in her face again. Her other hand swung out as she coughed against the smoke and she lightly slapped me on the snout to tell me off.
“Did you just slap a fucking Dragon?” Caleb asked, his eyes sparkling as he looked at her with a little too much appreciation for my liking.
“It’s easier to believe he’s not a monster when his fangs are on show,” Roxy said, cutting him a bright smile which made a growl rumble through my throat. She turned to look at me again and I practically sighed as she ran her hands over my scales once more. “How fucked up is that?” she murmured and if I really was a house cat I might have been purring.
“Almost as fucked up as having to have a chaperone every time you want to hang out with him,” Caleb teased and I grunted again before shifting back into my Fae form.
Roxy gasped as her hands landed on my chest instead of my face and her gaze instantly fell to my dick.
“Do you wanna just stand there staring or take a picture to look at later?” I teased.
“I choose the picture,” she replied instantly. “Maybe you can get all oiled up and send me one?”
Caleb barked a laugh and offered her a high five as she withdrew her hands with a grin and stepped back.
“Don’t tempt me, Roxy, if sexting you is on the cards then I’ll do it constantly,” I warned as I grabbed a spare pair of sweatpants out of my bag and pulled them on. I didn’t want to wear the damn suit I’d worn to see Lance again.
She opened her mouth to reply, but the ground began to shake beneath us as she did. “Why is that happening now?” she asked as she took a step back again to put more distance between us.
I glanced at Cal in confusion. The stars had never had an issue with us being together so long as we weren’t alone and he was standing closer to me than Roxy was. So what was their problem? She’d only touched me for a moment.
Roxy kept backing up until she was right at the water’s edge and the quaking ground finally began to fall still.
“So…are we going to go and take a closer look at the stars in the amplifying chamber?” Cal asked, his gaze snagging on Roxy’s bare legs beneath her little denim shorts for much longer than I liked. I wondered if he was hanging out with her like this regularly again or if he’d only invited me to join them because he’d seen me flying through the clouds above them. The idea of that made my heart race in a terrifying kind of way. Because I’d suggested it once to both of them. Back when the hopelessness was consuming me and the guilt of what had happened between us was tearing me apart so much I could hardly think. I’d told them to be happy together if that was what they wanted, knowing that it would destroy me if they did while feeling that I deserved to be destroyed anyway. But could I really handle that? Could I really face that reality day in day out?
No. I was pretty sure it would kill me.
Roxy seemed like she wanted to say something, but the ground started rumbling again and a crash of thunder overhead made me look up to the heavens.
I drew in a sharp breath as I spotted the Gemini, Leo and Taurus constellations lit up brightly above us despite the fact that the sun hadn’t even set.
“Shit,” Cal muttered. “They figured it out.”
I looked back at Roxy just as a tear slipped from her eye, her gaze caught on me like there was something she wanted to say. But whatever it was, she abandoned it as the next tremor rocked the ground at our feet and she suddenly shifted into her full Phoenix form.
My eyes widened as her entire body was coated in flames, b
eautiful burning wings blazing from her body before she took off so fast that the blur of her motion was left imprinted on the backs of my eyelids.
I watched as she flew away from me with more pain in my heart than I felt I could bear as the quaking ground finally fell still.
I dropped down onto the bank, hiding my face in my hands as I growled in frustration over the loss of something I’d never really had.
A moment later Cal sat beside me with a heavy sigh, throwing his arm around me as he rested his head against my shoulder.
“I’m sorry, man,” he muttered. “I was afraid they might figure it out the first time. That was why I went to all the effort of keeping it secret, hiding your magic with the bangles, even the blindfold…”
“The blindfold was fucking hot,” I muttered. I didn’t think I’d ever gotten hard as quickly in all my life as I had when he’d presented her to me all wrapped up like that and waiting. Hands tied behind her back, blindfold on, she’d looked entirely vulnerable and utterly corruptible but as badass as they come all at once.
“I’m sorry it’s fucked now though,” he said.
I sighed heavily. “It was fucked anyway. Even if we could make it work long term with you in the mix, how is that fair? For us to be fighting to be together when the stars have made the entire world fight against it. And to pull you into that shit too, tangle you up with us and whatever the fuck it is we’re doing...”
“It wasn’t exactly a hardship,” he said with a shrug, but there was an edge to his voice which said that wasn’t quite the truth.
I shifted away from him, turning to face him so that I could look into his navy eyes and I psyched myself up to ask a question I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer for.
“We need to talk about Roxy,” I said slowly.
“You mean Tory,” Caleb said with a smirk. “You know she hates it when you call her Roxy, right?”
“No. She doesn’t hate it, it gets under her skin but that’s exactly where I like to be. Besides, you’re wrong, her name is Roxanya Vega and she was born to be a Solarian princess. Calling her Tory is just a crutch to allow yourself to forget that.”
Zodiac Academy 5: Cursed Fates: An Academy Bully Romance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts) Page 53