Waking Darkness: A Supernatural Academy Paranormal Romance (Academy of the Underworld Book 1)

by Laney Powell

  When I opened them again, Xavier had moved off the bed and was stripping out of his clothes. He joined me on the bed, positioning his body over mine. “I wanted to watch you come, but I don’t want you coming without me,” he growled, his voice deeper than I’d ever heard it.

  His hand moved between us and I felt a heat on my stomach as Xavier said something I couldn’t understand.

  “What was that?” I asked, momentarily distracted.

  “No little demons for us,” he said as he claimed my mouth. His tongue plundered me, demanding that I kiss him. As he kissed me, I felt the head of his cock at the entrance of my pussy. “Are you sure?” he asked between kisses.

  I was ready to die to have this man inside me, and he was still checking. The idea that I could say no warmed me, even though there was no way in hell I was saying no. I thrust my hips toward his cock, bringing him into me. “I’ve already waited too long,” I said.

  He thrust into me fully and I gasped against his mouth. He was huge, filling me completely. I arched against him, wanting more, and he ground himself against me.

  Xavier took my hands and held them over my head, our fingers laced together. “You are… “ he stopped, and kissed me.

  I got it. There weren’t words for the way this felt. I had him, and it was amazing, and I wanted more, and at the same time, it was everything.

  “Don’t think,” I said. “Don’t let me think.”

  He pulled out of me, and then slammed into me again. All my nerve endings were screaming in joy. Then again, and again, our hands still laced together. I wasn’t going to last long.

  “Oh, my god,” I breathed, spreading my legs to welcome more of him. He arched his hips, somehow thrusting deeper, and my breath caught.

  Over and over he thrust into me. I cried out, feeling myself fall of the edge, but he didn’t stop. I could feel the building of another orgasm, and still, Xavier pounded himself into me, giving me all of him, taking all of me. I think I orgasmed again, but I couldn’t tell. There was only me, and Xavier, and the two of us together.

  Something shifted, and his thrusts became faster, less rhythmic. His breathing was ragged and I could feel slickness all the places where our bodies met. Faster he drove into me, and I came again, crying out loud, unable to contain myself. He thrust into me harder than he had and as he did, he said something in a language I couldn’t understand, his hips straining against me.

  The feeling of rightness was all around me.

  I think I closed my eyes; I don’t remember. When I blinked, Xavier was wrapped around me from behind, his arms under my breasts, his legs tangled in mine.

  “Oh, my god,” I said.

  “You keep saying that. It’s not god, it’s oh my demon,” I could feel his smile against the back of my neck.

  I laughed, and his arms tightened a little. “I beg your pardon for calling on the wrong guy.”

  It was his turn to laugh then.

  “Hey, what did you say, you know, just before we…”

  “It’s Latin, and I said ‘Bear no fruit’ along with a spell,” Xavier replied.

  “And that works?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Well, that’s handy. I didn’t think we were allowed to use magic.”

  “You’re not, not during your first year. But this is different,” I felt his shoulders shrug against me. “If I get in trouble for this, so be it. This is magic that your family teaches you when you start noticing the opposite sex.”

  “Oh, so your mom isn’t dying for grandkids?”

  He chuckled. “She’s got a ton already. I’m one of nine. And I’m the youngest. So she doesn’t nag at me.”

  I twisted around to look at him. “One of nine?”

  He nodded, his face more relaxed, less on alert than I’d ever seen him. This version of Xavier was younger looking, less worldly.

  And he was all mine.

  I loved it.

  He kissed my nose. “How many in your family?”

  “Just me and my dad,” I said.

  His eyes widened. “What? You didn’t have to share a bathroom, or get beat up by older sisters, or deal with being the baby?”

  “Well, my dad runs a bike shop and motorcycle club, so I have five thousand overprotective uncles,” I said.

  His lips twisted. “That might be worse than older brothers.”

  “I think it is, but that’s because all of them effectively squashed my dating life until I came here.”

  “And now you’re taking advantage of all that Darklight has to offer,” he said with a laugh.

  “Don’t you think I should?” I teased.

  “Oh, absolutely. I’m a big believer in enjoying yourself,” he said, parroting our talk earlier.

  “That is completely obvious,” I leaned toward him to kiss him, and the kiss deepened.

  We spent another hour or so talking, not about anything important, but getting to know one another more. The attraction I felt for him was still there, but hearing him talk about his family, and his mom, and growing up a demon, as I shared how my life as a human with him made me like him even more.

  As he got up to get dress, I cursed the rule that students needed to be in their own beds. “I wish you could stay,” I said.

  “So do I,” he pulled on his shirt, and then leaned over to kiss me. “But this is one thing Madame Perpetua gets pretty sniffy about, so it’s better not to cross her. Just be discreet,” he kissed me again.

  “Like you know anything about that,” I shot back.

  “More than you know, little miss siren,” he replied. When he was dressed, he reached down and cupped my face in his hand. “I’m glad you let me come in,” he said.

  “As if I could say no. I didn’t want to.”

  He smiled the sweet, unguarded smile that I wanted to think of as just for me. “I’m glad.”

  I sat up, pulling him closer for another kiss. “I’ll see you later, then.”

  As he walked toward the door, he looked over his shoulder. “Goodnight, Raven.” He looked like he wanted to say more, but he didn’t.

  “Night,” I said quietly.

  With one last smile, he walked out the door, closing it softly behind him.

  Chapter Thirteen

  With so much to think over, I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep, but I laid back down, still naked, and pulled the blankets up to my chin. When I woke, my alarm was going off. I smiled, and stretched, and headed for the shower.

  As I got ready, I went over the things I wanted to take care of that had nothing to do with school. First, get the list to Madame Perpetua of what I knew of my mom. Then, ask her if I could please call my dad. Finally, ask her how to get in touch with Margiana of the Concilium, and she if she’d been serious about looking for information on my mom.

  The whole question of what to do about the nightmares, and the demon who was harassing me in them was still something that I couldn’t answer. So I put that aside for right now. I noticed that I’d had no nightmares last night, even after Xavier left and I was alone. Was that because I was too tired? Or just satisfied and happy?

  I really wanted to ask someone but how the hell would you even phrase such a question? If I have crazy amazing sex, will that keep the nightmares at bay? Not really something I wanted to ask even my friends, much less my instructors. And what was with the sensation that came over me afterwards? So many questions. I had no one to ask.

  Well, all my questions would have to wait. I laughed a little as I was drying my hair. I could do my own private tests, and see what the result was. It was a measure of how good I felt that I could make jokes to myself about the nightmares.

  I needed to talk to Mikhail, although maybe that would be easier, since he’d been here with Xavier. And Carrick. I didn’t know how that would go.

  And Devin. I couldn’t forget him, even though there was nothing that had happened between us. The pull I felt toward him hadn’t gone away.

  I left my room early so that I
could stop by at the headmistress’ office before breakfast and class. She was at her desk when I knocked and opened the office door.

  “Miss Nox. How are you feeling?”

  “I’m feeling much better, Madame,” I said.

  She nodded. “You have the information I requested?”

  I handed over the single sheet of paper. “Madame?”

  “Yes?” she looked up from reading what I’d given her.

  “Is it possible to get in touch with my dad, and with Margiana, the woman who brought me here?”

  “Why?” Madame Perpetua asked.

  “Well, I miss my dad,” I said in a rush. School had been crazy, but with getting hurt, and all that was going on, I found that I did, in fact, miss him terribly. I’d been pretty good at keeping it under wraps, but I didn’t want to anymore. “He doesn’t know anything about me being a siren, or magic, or any of this,” I gestured vaguely. “Margiana and Cornelius seemed to think that was a better call, but I don’t know. I’m worried that he’s worried.”

  “You’ve never been away from home, have you?” Madame’s voice was quiet.

  “No, and he and I lived and worked together,” I could feel the tears just behind my words. “I don’t think it’s too much to ask to talk to him regularly. I also think I should be able to tell him about all this, but I can respect the rules for now, I guess.” That last bit surprised me. I generally wasn’t a rule breaker. It was hard enough growing up in a small town with the local biker for a dad. People expected that you’d be a certain way. I had worked hard to not meet those low expectations, because they were low as shit, but it had also made me understand that I needed to follow rules and not put a toe out of line, because I’d be judged more harshly than most. This rule, however, that I couldn’t tell my dad the truth—I didn’t see me keeping to it forever.

  Madame Perpetua gazed at me for so long that I began to feel antsy. “I can understand,” she said, not clarifying what, exactly, she understood. “So yes, you can call your father. Come back and see me after dinner tonight, and I’ll make sure you can speak with him. In regards to Margiana, may I ask the nature of your desire to speak with her?”

  “She said she’d look into my mom,” I said.

  Madame Perpetua nodded. “I understand your desire to find out as much as you can. However, I think that it would be best if I contacted Margiana on your behalf.”

  I opened my mouth to object, then something stopped me. I couldn’t tell what the something was, but I shut my mouth, and confined myself to a nod. “Okay.”

  “Is there anything else, Miss Nox?”

  “No,” I said. “No, I think that’s it.”

  Madame Perpetua smiled. “Well, then off to the dining hall with you.” And she looked down at her desk, dismissing me.

  I smiled. I’d accomplished what I wanted to, so I took myself off to see my friends.

  I didn’t expect the reception I got. Nicola and Carla got up and hugged me. When I finally sat down, Bettina patted my arm.

  “We’re so glad you’re all right!” Carla said.

  “How are you?” I asked, remembering her earlier words.

  “I’m all right,” she said, the happiness fading from her face a bit. “Not great, but all right. How are you feeling?”

  “It was just a migraine,” I said. “Nothing to get upset about.”

  “Well, with everything going on, I think we’re all on edge,” Bettina put in.

  “That’s fair. But it’s only been a day,” I said.

  Nicola shook her head. “No, you were out for three days,” she said.

  “What?” I whispered. “How come no one told me?”

  “We all took turns sitting with you,” Carla said. “And I have to say, you had an equal number of male friends who came to make sure you were all right.”

  I held up a hand. “I’m still stuck on the fact that I was out for three days. Oh, my god,” I smiled as I remembered Xavier’s complaint about the phrase. But the smile was gone as soon as I thought about it. “I am so behind in my work!”

  “I have notes for you,” Nicola said. “And all the instructors know.”

  “That only means I don’t get an automatic zero,” I groaned. “How come no one told me that it was three days before right now?”

  “Have you ever had a migraine last that long?” Bettina asked.

  “No,” I shook my head. “Never.”

  Nicola frowned. “That’s weird, along with the nightmares.”

  I shrugged. “It happens. Migraines can have patterns, but they can change for no reason at all, and everyone is different.” I had a doctor who’d told me that environmental changes could affect how, why, and when a migraine would occur, and to my way of thinking, coming to Darklight definitely fit into the environmental change category.

  “So, don’t keep us in suspense!” Nicola leaned forward, her voice dropping.

  “What do you mean?” I asked. I was still thinking about all the homework I had. It would take me all week to get caught up.

  “What’s up with your men?” Carla asked, smirking.

  “I did what you suggested,” I said, lowering my voice. “I’m talking to them.”

  “And?” Bettina asked.

  “Well, one is on board,” I said, a smile creeping over my face at the thought of just how on board Xavier was.

  “Look at that grin on her face!” Nicola said.

  All three of my friends howled with laughter, drawing stares from nearly everyone else in the dining hall. I didn’t care. I was better, I had good friends, I was finally going to find out what happened to my mom, and I had romance galore in my life.

  What else could a girl want?

  After breakfast, we made our way to class, and I found that my fears about just what I’d missed were not strong enough. It would take me all week and the weekend to get caught up. Apparently, all the instructors started loading on the work after we’d been here for a month. I was so concerned about all that I had to do, I didn’t even take the time to look around for any of the four guys I thought of as mine, or at least, potentially mine.

  The last class of the day was a relief in that at least there weren’t any more after it. That was the only bit of relief, because my last class was Guidance. The name sounded benign. The class was anything but. It was an Ordeal focused class, meaning for sirens who’d tested as Ordeals, and it dealt with helping those who’d passed and were headed for Hell. The actual, mythological Hell, with demons, and torture, and all the bad things. Ordeal sirens often worked with reapers to give people a chance to repent, and to make sure that if a soul was marked for Hell, it was supposed to be there. I found the idea that a shady person could repent and change to a reaper and a siren and find their way to some kind of paradise, which was what the Olympian sirens did, unfair. I was too tired to worry about the fact that Sorcha and a fair number of her minions were in this class and spoke up to Zoe, the instructor.

  “Why can someone decide at the last minute to be a good person? What about all the harm they did while they were alive?”

  There was tittering in the class, but Zoe answered me as though this wasn’t a bad question. “If someone is sincere in their repentance, they are moved to an Olympian. Once they are assigned to work with an Olympian, they must prove that their soul has truly repented, and is worth being allowed to ascend to something greater than themselves.”

  “What if they are just trying to get a better deal?” I asked.

  Zoe laughed. “Look around you, Raven. Do you think that the Ordeals in this classroom would be fooled for long regarding a soul’s change of heart?”

  “No, but it’s not the Ordeals they have to convince.”

  “But it is,” Zoe insisted. “The Ordeals are the sirens who allow the soul to change their path. Reapers must deliver a soul. For a reaper, however, where it delivers the soul doesn’t matter. The goal is to get the soul to the proper destination. Sirens are the ones who must determine the destination. That�
��s why we have some of the toughest sirens as Ordeals. We must, as Ordeals, be able to see through any deceit, or foolishness a soul may attempt. Just because someone has died doesn’t change the essence of who they are. It’s our greatest responsibility,” she finished.

  I noted that some of the other girls were nodding. I wondered if the class of siren you were ran in families. Even Sorcha agreed with Zoe, although she’d been laughing when I started asking questions.

  “You were not raised by a siren, so you have not been exposed to those who have worked hard as soul readers. They are both compassionate and hardened, because they see the entire range of the human soul,” Zoe added.

  “Are you an Ordeal?” I asked. I didn’t know if this was taboo, but I really wanted to know.

  She nodded. “Yes. And you can tell when people are lying. After seeing so much of it, because believe it or not, most of the souls we see are headed to where they should. I can tell when you lie to me, ladies, much as I would bet your mothers could tell,” Zoe said with a laugh.

  Some of the other students laughed with her. I felt a pang. I would love to have had a mom who caught me in lies. I remembered something Margiana had said—that she didn’t know sirens with children. Did that mean that she didn’t know any, or that it wasn’t normal for sirens to have kids? All these girls seemed to have moms. I wished I could ask, but this might be going too far. I didn’t want to open up more teasing about my mom from the likes of Sorcha. There was chatter as Zoe turned to a different part of the lecture.

  “Remember, I can tell when you’re lying,” Sorcha leaned forward to whisper to me.

  “Bring it,” I replied. “I don’t owe you anything.”

  “Stay away from what’s mine,” she said.

  I half turned in my chair to look at her. “I have taken nothing of yours. Anything I have, it’s been given to me freely. If you think otherwise, you need to sort out your own shit.” I stared at her until she looked away, and only then did I turn back around.