Shadowblade Academy 1: Darkness Calls

by KC Kingmaker

  Genevieve stepped inside the room and closed the door. She sashayed to my bed, plopped down, and crossed her legs. Propping her arms out behind her, she pushed her tits out and gave me a wicked sneer with half-lidded eyes.

  If she hoped I would ogle her deep cleavage and manhandle her delicious body—that that’s how things were going to play out tonight—she was about to get a rude awakening.

  Yes, I was apologizing to her. Yes, I had invited her to the Shadowball team to placate her ire. But it hadn’t been for nothing. It hadn’t been so I could get my dick wet one more time.

  “So, what’s on the menu tonight, daddy?” Her crossed legs fell open, showing me the menu, giving me a not-so-subtle clue what was on her mind.

  I couldn’t help but sneak a peek under the darkness of her miniskirt. I had to clamp my jaw down when I noticed she wore nothing underneath. Her bare slit rubbed across my sheets, exposed as her skirt hiked up to her hips.

  “Looks like you have an idea,” I said, perking an eyebrow.

  She chuckled in a dark way. “Of course. I always know how to treat my man, especially when he comes crawling back to me.”

  I took a step toward her. She leaned back in a leisurely way, exposing more of herself as her legs spread further apart. She was telling me to take her, and it was damned hard to resist my baser instinct.

  I could have ravaged her across the bed, all night long. I could have had her screaming my name and moaning with delight as I pumped her full of my cock.

  But Genevieve Jade did nothing for me these days. My eyes were firmly glued elsewhere and, if anything, Vivi had been one of the catalysts that had twisted me into such an angry asshole. She was manipulative and hateful.

  She’d hated Coralia right from the get-go, just as she had hated Myria before her. Or, rather, she’d been jealous of Myria because of all the time we spent together.

  I had been saving up this moment for months. Getting closer to the snide bitch, fucking her six ways to Sunday while I worked my ulterior motive on the side. Ironically, even though Vivi regularly opened one set of lips to me, she kept the other lips tightly shut. She had remained secretive about this, not being the babbling gossip queen I assumed she would be.

  I was going to pry open those lips, no matter what I had to do.

  Now that the moment was upon me, I hesitated. All my work—putting up with her bullshit, hanging around her, acting like I was her boytoy that would do whatever she wanted—came flooding back and made bile rise up my throat.

  I took another step forward, towering over her. She stared at me with a knowing expression, thinking she had won.

  I pushed forward, shoving my body against hers until she was forced to recline on the bed. My arms framed her face, keeping me aloft as I stared down at her.

  She smiled and licked her puffy lips, face inching closer to mine, ready to make heated contact.

  With one hand, I reached into my back pocket.

  When I produced the black glove and held it in front of her face, I noticed a flicker of doubt cross over her fine features.

  “Remember this, Vivi?”

  Her forehead creased. “Huh? What’s that?”

  “Don’t play dumb, pet.”

  Angry recognition replaced the glazed, lustful look in her eyes. “What the hell is going on, Sunny?”

  She tried to wiggle out from beneath my bigger body.

  My hand closed around her neck and forced her back down. Her eyes bulged, filling with panic.

  I leaned close and licked the side of her face, from cheek to ear. As she shuddered beneath me, my warm breath found her shell in a whisper. “I know you had something to do with Myria’s disappearance, Vivi. You can’t lie to me.”

  “Y-You’re crazy!” she gasped.

  I hadn’t applied much pressure to her throat yet, but I knew it was inevitable. She wouldn’t be getting out from under me until I had some answers.

  “You were jealous of my friendship with Myria. I caught you spying on us, all the time. Even after you and I started dating, your jealousy made you wicked and untrustworthy.”

  “All this time? You’ve been . . . playing with me all this time?”

  “I can’t say it hasn’t been fun,” I growled. When I bared my fangs, the color drained from her cheeks.

  I dipped my head and stuck my teeth into her neck. The arousal hit me full-force once her blood began to siphon into my gullet. My cock hardened in my pants and bulged between her thighs.

  She squeezed her legs against my hard-on. “O-Oh fuck, you . . . you freak.” Groaning, she couldn’t stop from wrapping an arm around my neck. She pushed herself into me as I drained her.

  Perhaps she thought all this was foreplay.

  What she didn’t know, perhaps, was I was willing to drain her dry if she didn’t give me answers.

  When I snapped my face up from her neck, I licked the blood from my lips. “The night Myria left Shadowblade Academy to go searching for Quentin, you and I were supposed to be together.”

  “So?”

  “Something came up. Last minute. You said your plans had changed, that you couldn’t meet. I’ve never known a time when Genevieve Jade couldn’t fuck. It’s in your blood.”

  Her eyebrows arched. “Get your hand off my neck, Sunny. I’m warning you—”

  Instead of doing that, I squeezed tighter. Her face reddened. “Tell me, you fucking bitch.”

  “T-Tell you what?!”

  “What you did to Myria Hargrave!”

  “You’re insane, Sun—p-please, I can’t breathe!”

  “Tell me the fucking truth!”

  I couldn’t see past the red that had fallen over my eyes. My anger was absolute, all the memories of Genevieve spying on me flaring to life inside my mind. Staring down at her struggling face was like staring down at a stranger.

  She blinked rapidly, mouth opening on a silent scream. My hand tightened. Her red face started to turn a rare shade of purple.

  Vivi’s eyes widened. She had no oxygen.

  A knock came at the door behind me. “Sunny?”

  I snarled like an animal and dashed a look over my shoulder.

  “H-Help!” Genevieve gurgled through my loosened hold. She raised an arm and punched the wall behind her.

  I clamped my hand over her mouth to shut her up. I was lost in a vampiric throe, unable to control my hunger or my rage.

  The door burst open.

  Coralia charged into the room. I glared daggers at her over my shoulder. The pale shock on her face told me I must have looked like an absolute monster—a savage animal with blood running down my chin, a rictus grin, and flaming red eyes.

  “Sunny!” she shouted. Her eyes dipped to the body writhing beneath me. “G-Genevieve? Oh fuck, oh shit.”

  Genevieve flopped as she used all her strength.

  “Sunny, stop it!” Coralia screamed. “You’ll kill her!”

  “For . . . Myria . . .” I squeezed past gritted teeth.

  “Not like this!” she yelled, and then her arms were moving.

  I removed my hand from Vivi in a hurry, turning to defend myself. The woman beneath me started coughing violently.

  My hand flew up—

  Too late.

  A shadow wrapped around my wrist and yanked it back, shot out from the wall. With her other hand, Coralia controlled an inky black web to push my shoulder and throw me off Genevieve.

  I flew to the floor and tried to get up but couldn’t—the two shadows from opposing walls were stretching my arms akimbo.

  “This isn’t going to be like last time I met you two together,” Coralia growled. Her voice sounded different, hardly recognizable. Her body positioned in a fighter’s stance. With her arms extended, she controlled the shadows to coil around me until I was immobile. “I’ve gotten stronger.”

  It was true. The “last time” she spoke of, Genevieve had bullied the poor girl and I’d fed on her. Now, Vivi was hacking up a lung in a fetal position and I was caught with my
pants down, unable to move against the shadows.

  “You don’t know what you’re doing, Coralia!” I roared. My head lurched from side to side, but Coralia had good control of the spell. I couldn’t budge against the manipulated blackness.

  Finally, Vivi managed to wobble to an upright position. Standing over me, she slapped me hard across the face, whipping my head to the left. “You fucking asshole!” she screeched, massaging her neck with her other hand.

  I growled at her like a beast.

  She reeled back to slap me again—

  A launching shadow from the floor caught her wrist midway, holding her in place.

  “Not so fucking fast.” Coralia’s voice was deep and broody. “After all the shit you’ve put me through, Vivi, you think I’m just gonna let you get a free pass? No. We’re going to figure this out together.”

  Coralia had managed to immobilize me with one hand and Genevieve with the other. I could have possibly broken out of her tendril hold, but my anger flooded out of me in an instant. My jaw went slack.

  I was finally seeing Coralia Hargrave unleashing her power. All it had taken was to walk in on what appeared to be a murder-in-progress.

  Just as the admiration inside me grew, Vivi spun and clutched the shadow around her wrist with her free hand. Her palm glowed orange. Sizzling flames inched along the shadow’s snakelike, physical form, toward Coralia.

  Coralia dropped her manipulation in an instant and the flames dissipated with the tendril, puffing into thin air.

  Vivi scowled and flattened her palm at Coralia in a counterattack.

  That’s when I broke through the inky binds holding me. I flexed, ripped, and charged, smacking Genevieve’s hand out of the way just before a curl of wind shot out from her palm and gusted across the desk next to Coralia, sending papers billowing into the air.

  “S-Shit,” Coralia gasped. She clearly hadn’t anticipated retaliation, or planned for it.

  I bear-hugged Vivi from behind, pinning her arms against her, my arms wrapping under her breasts.

  “You fucker!” She flailed her legs and tried to headbutt me with the back of her skull. “Get off me!”

  “Do you really want me to tie you up, Vivi?” When her eyes flickered, I added, “Yeah, you probably would like that. Just calm down. You won’t take both of us.”

  “Screw you, traitor! I trusted you!”

  Her body went slack in my grip, all at once. Defeated.

  I didn’t trust Vivi at all, so I remained holding her, my breath dancing over her neck. I could see goosebumps breaking out along her nape. Despite everything that had happened, she was aroused by my presence and the way I dominated her. Her body couldn’t lie.

  If I had been alone, and my thoughts hadn’t been firmly locked on Coralia, I might have considered smooth-talking my way into her panties, bending her over the bed, and ravaging her right then and there. Just to teach her a lesson.

  Coralia cleared her throat, drawing my attention. “What’s your plan—”

  “Where did you lead Myria, Genevieve,” I growled in her ear. “Tell me, and this will all go easier.”

  For a moment, there was only silence. The fluttering papers feathered to the ground.

  Vivi’s dark chuckle filled the silence. “Oh Sunny, you big idiot. I didn’t lead Myria anywhere. You truly think I’m that vile?”

  Coralia raised her hand. “Do I have a vote?”

  “I don’t trust you, Vivi. Tell me the truth: Why did you disappear from the Academy at the same time as Myria, but only you returned? I’m sure you can see how that looks.”

  “My jealousy doesn’t run deep enough to kill the girl, asshole. Even if she is a scummy human.”

  “Just answer the fucking question!” I bellowed, squeezing her and making her limp body stiffen in my arms.

  “I didn’t lead her anywhere, Sunny, I followed her!” she blurted. “To see what mischief she was getting up to! I know humans are always up to no good, sticking their noses where they don’t belong. So I tailed her shadow.”

  Coralia harrumphed. “Sticking their noses . . . says the girl who stalked my fucking sister like a creep. Why do you hate us so much?”

  My eyes shot over Genevieve’s shoulder, landing on Coralia. With a tiny shake of my head, I said, “A story for another time, princess.”

  She frowned. “Fine. You said you followed Myria, Vivi? You’re going to show us exactly where.” Coralia loomed over Vivi, finger thrust inches from her eye. Her seething voice even shot a shiver through my cold body. “And if you try to lead us astray in any way, I’m gonna bitch-slap you so hard those fake puffy duck lips are gonna deflate.”

  THE THREE OF US STEPPED out of the shadowgate. Luckily, it was the one night where the Academy faculty looked the other way concerning missing students, so we didn’t have much to worry about. Wrangling up all those kids from the woods would take the spotlight.

  As we walked out from the shadow on the wall, Genevieve stumbled. I reached out to hold up her shaky body. She doubled over and started panting, hands on her knees, exhausted from the exertion of facilitating the journey to get here.

  I let her rest a moment, my eyes roaming the eerie, dark scene. Weeds sprouted from jagged lines in the concrete, creating blocks of impassable growth that latched to the pavement like mold. Vines slithered up the sides of crumbling buildings and twisted around busted lampposts. Cars riddled with spider webs, broken windshields, and dented doors lined the streets.

  Nature had begun its slow descent to reclaim this city, turning it into a nightmarish vision of abandonment and dilapidation.

  There wasn’t a single living soul in sight. Given the plethora of umbrage cast by all the tall structures, that fact didn’t give me much solace.

  “Spirits twerk on my tits,” Coralia gasped, spinning. “Where the hell are we? It looks like a dystopian hellhole.”

  Even in the dim moonlight, which barely grazed the tops of the buildings in the distance, I immediately recognized the location. I was shocked it had degraded so swiftly.

  “Back where it all began,” I said vaguely. My hand pointed far off, to the top of a decrepit structure. “That building is where Quentin plummeted to his death . . . and where Myria came to look for his remains.” I spun on Coralia and narrowed my eyes. “Keep your wits about you, princess. This place isn’t safe.”

  She took my ominous timbre in stride. “No shit, dude. The whole Walking Dead vibe is sort of a dead giveaway. No pun intended.”

  I grunted and nudged my chin at Genevieve, who had finally regained her bearings and breath. “Then let’s go. Lead on, Vivi. Take us to where you last saw Myria.”

  Chapter 32

  Dax

  I TOOK THE VANGUARD position in our Glove’s bird formation. As the spearhead of the operation, I was tasked with scouting out any obstacles or problems that might lie ahead. Though I played goaltender on the Shadowball field, I acted as the forward on our missions, because of my stealth and speed.

  I skulked through the winding, desolate streets of Asberald City, wondering why Shadowblade Academy had brought us here. It was a city on the outs, with crumbling infrastructure and a stench of stale oil. But our Wrist, Jace Hudson, had ordered us here to find our target.

  We weren’t about to disobey our leader’s direct command—not when our futures at the Academy rested on this mission. If successful, we would advance to become Phantoms, one step closer on our road to becoming full-fledged shadowblades.

  Failure was not an option.

  Donovenn acted as our communicator, having employed his fae mind-link to keep in touch with Wrist Hudson back at the Academy. He had nested at the top level of a building a few blocks back, keeping a bird’s-eye view of our approach. If anything went wrong, he would get word from Hudson to abort the mission and send the signal for us to escape.

  Sunder and Quentin were our strikers, on either wing of the formation, just a block behind me. Once I gave the all-clear and the go-ahead, they would emerge an
d do the dirty work. If all went well, we would be in and out within five minutes.

  Myria flitted on the peripheries, making sure communication between the Glovemates didn’t become stilted. She also acted as a last line of attack in case Sunder or Quentin failed on the first strike. She was our rover.

  In my mind, sending the five of us to extinguish one target was overkill. But who was I to know what we were getting into? Who we were dealing with? I simply followed orders. If Wrist Hudson had deemed it necessary to employ the entire Glove, so be it.

  My initial advance caught nothing suspicious or unexpected. Using my keen nose only picked up traces of oil, plants, and machinery long been left to rot.

  I passed through the shadows, keeping in the darkness of a building’s facade, turning the corner to the next empty block. I slipped between two beaten cars on the side of the road, perking my head up over the hood of one to look ahead.

  When I sniffed, a new stench rocked my senses. It was foreign, which was the first sign of danger.

  A silhouette passed through a window of a building across the street. At first alarmed, I settled when I caught a glimpse of Quentin sneaking his way through debris. He was moving too far ahead on the position. Sunder, who occupied the other street, was still out of my sight like he was supposed to be.

  Quentin must have been antsy to get a head start.

  I tried to reach into the fae mind-link we all shared to tell him to back off, but I wasn’t adept at using the power so I struggled to communicate.

  Before I could say anything, a man walked across the street in front of me, appearing out of my peripheral.

  Our target.

  I clamped my jaw and narrowed my eyes. He was tall, lanky, with slicked-back hair the color of a raven’s feathers. He moved swiftly, away from me, gliding like a specter over the dead streets.

  “Target sighted,” I managed to say through the mind-link. “Solitary, brisk pace, third street east from Donovenn’s nest.”

  The man veered to the right, nearly out of sight as he made his way to the next street over. I stepped out from behind the cars sandwiching me, to tail him.