by Lane Hart
For some reason, I want to be the one who corrupts her and brings on her powers. Which means all of the other warlocks at the academy, young and old, are my competition. And I hate losing.
When Harper leaves my room, heading to my father’s office, I find myself hurrying to catch up, to walk with her in case she doesn’t remember the way. Of course she does. How could she forget the room where my father and the other masters tortured her for information about her parents? Although, I admit that I too am curious as to how her mother, grandmother, and so on were able to stay hidden from the masters for so long. The two-hundred-year-old prophecy mentioned that the only remaining witches would go undetected by magic and man for two centuries until the day the most powerful witch ever made would come to us in the dead center of the colony of North Carolina and save our kind. The town of Star didn’t even exist until 1897 when there was nothing but a trading post within dozens of miles. That’s when the old coven masters decided to build the academy here to await the witch who would save our species.
Honestly, the whole prediction doesn’t make any sense. As warlocks have weakened over time with the mixing of our blood with humans, so should the witches. Harper is sweet and beautiful, but how could she be the most powerful witch ever made?
“Here we are,” I say when we reach my father’s closed office door.
Harper chews nervously on her bottom lip as she holds her textbooks to her chest. “Could you…I’m sure you have a million things to do, but would you mind staying?”
“Staying?” I repeat. “I don’t think my father is going to allow me to supervise his lesson.”
“Well, what if you just stayed out here in the hallway? I’d feel better knowing you were close.”
“Sure,” I agree because refusing her doesn’t even seem like an option. Besides, it’s just for an hour. Everything else I need to do can wait, because leaving her alone with my father when she’s still terrified of him wouldn’t be right.
Chapter 9
Rowan
“Hey, I see you survived another day,” I say to Harper when my flashlight lands on her face as she makes her way through the woods.
“I did, yeah.”
“How was it?” I ask when we’re finally standing across from each other in the quiet night.
“Not as bad as I expected, although Voss is so pervy. I’m pretty sure that everything he said to me in Latin was about getting in my skirt.”
“And what a short skirt it is,” I mutter, unable to resist shining the light down over her legs. They’re sexy and tempting, but mainly I notice that her scuffed knees are healed, no doubt thanks to magic.
“I think Kingston gave me uniforms that are about two sizes too small, but at least he healed me,” she says as I start leading the way to the same boulder we sat on last night. When Harper sits down, there’s barely enough of the pleated skirt to cover her panties. She may be way too young for me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t notice or have a reaction.
“There are not many nice things I can say about the warlock, but kudos to him for the first-aid and the outfit,” I joke.
Harper fidgets next to me, like she’s uncomfortable with my comment, so I climb up on the boulder next to her and try to think of something to change the subject. She beats me to it.
“How’s your, ah, patrol going tonight?” she asks.
“Boring as usual, but the night is looking up now that you’re here.” I bump her shoulder with my own, enjoying the contact and warmth. There aren’t many sups here that I like to spend time with or would call friends. It’s more like I have to tolerate the people who live on my hall and in our house because the other option is raging out and living life as an animal constantly.
“What would you be doing tonight if you didn’t live here?” Harper asks.
“No clue,” I reply. “At least nowadays. But I know exactly where I would’ve been if Voss and the masters hadn’t ever found me and my mom.”
“Oh yeah? Where’s that?”
“I had a fiancée. We were planning our wedding…” I admit to her, my chest still aching from the memories of Rachel and the life we had planned to spend together even though I had never told her the truth about where I disappear to one night a month.
Covering the top of my hand with hers, Harper asks softly, “They took you from your fiancée?”
“Yep. Wouldn’t even let me tell her goodbye. One day I was there, sharing an apartment with Rachel, and the next…I never came home or called her again.”
“Why couldn’t you call her from here?”
“Believe me, the thought frequently crossed my mind. But then Voss threatened to kill her on the off chance she knew I was a shifter, so I gave up on that idea real fast.”
“Did she know what you were?” I ask.
“No, of course not. I worked in construction, mostly home building projects. So near the full moon every month I would tell her I had to go out of town for work.”
“How long ago were you taken?”
“Five years.”
“Wow. And you still miss her?” she asks.
“Of course I miss her. I loved that woman more than life itself and was planning to spend the rest of my life with her.”
“Maybe…maybe you could see her again…”
“Nah, that’s not gonna happen,” I reply. “She’s engaged to a guy she worked with in their real estate office.”
“Jeez, I can’t imagine how hard that must be for you,” Harper says, giving my hand a comforting squeeze.
“I think it’s easier now that I know she’s moved on,” I tell her truthfully. “The worst part was worrying that she would never give up, that she would keep waiting for me to come back. I’m glad to know she’s happy again.” Even if it still stings like hell. “I didn’t want her to be alone, even if I hate the new asshole’s guts.”
“But you’re not happy. How could you be when you were ripped away from your life?”
“I’m no different than you, darlin’, or the other shifters, psychics, vampires or warlocks that were rounded up and locked in here. We all had a life out there in the world that we had to give up for the “safety” of our species and fellow supernaturals.”
“It’s not fair,” she remarks, which is the understatement of the year. “I mean, I didn’t really have a life before, but I had just started college and had my whole life ahead of me. Now I’m supposed to learn how to do spells or whatever and pop out a bunch of kids for people I just met because I’m apparently a witch.”
“Like I said, it still sucks worse to be you,” I reply with a chuckle.
Pulling her hand away from mine to twist her fingers nervously, she admits to me quietly, “And I’m a…I’m a virgin. I’ve never even kissed a man, and I’m supposed to…well, I just don’t know if I can do this –”
Her words are cut off when I reach over and cup the side of her face, covering her lips with mine. At first, I think Harper is so shocked, so caught off guard that she freezes up and just sits there like a chunk of the boulder while my lips keep connecting with hers over and over again. Hopefully, she’ll eventually warm up. And she does. When my tongue brushes the seam of her lips, her body slumps against mine. Her lips part on a gasp which is when I let my tongue stroke along hers like a naughty handshake.
As if it’s second-nature, Harper is suddenly mimicking my every move, grabbing both sides of my face and kissing me back. The two of us keep going until we both have to pull away to suck in a little oxygen.
“Wow,” she says on sigh as she watches my face in the darkness.
“Sorry,” I say and then have to clear the gravel from my throat. “I just couldn’t let your first kiss be theirs.”
“Theirs?” she repeats as her fingertips come up to touch her lips that are probably still wet and swollen from my sudden assault.
“The warlocks,” I reply. “Fuck them. They’re going to manipulate you to do what they want eventually. At least they won’t have any say in who g
ets your first kiss.”
Harper
“Right, revenge on the warlocks,” I agree as my hazy mind finally catches up to the reason Rowan just attacked my mouth. It was with the intention of flipping the finger to the coven masters, not because he actually wants me. Still, even if he didn’t enjoy it, I did. It felt like hot lava was running through my veins, somewhat uncomfortable, but I wanted to keep going anyways. In fact, I want him to kiss me again.
“Will you, um, will you take my virginity?” I blurt out and then slap my hand over my just kissed mouth in mortification.
“Whoa now!” Rowan says when he flees from me, jumping down from the boulder and walking several feet away. I worry that I’ve scared him off, but he returns a moment later, shining his flashlight in my face, making me wince away. “No one is going to take your virginity, darlin’. That’s something that you get to give away on your own terms. If anyone tries, you tell me, and I’ll rip their throat out!”
“What if the masters insist that I choose a warlock to…make babies with?” I ask. “They could threaten to hurt my family like they threatened you!”
“I wouldn’t put it past them,” Rowan grumbles.
“So I would rather have you…I would rather give my virginity to you.”
“You haven’t even known me a day,” he says. “I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“I’m glad you did,” I tell him honestly. “And I want you to do it again.”
“I’m a shifter, and you’re the only witch in the world. They would kill me if they knew you snuck out here to talk to me alone in the woods,” he explains. “What do you think they would do if they found out I kissed you or touched you?”
“They won’t find out.”
“Eventually all secrets come out,” he says when he comes closer.
“This one can just be ours,” I assure him.
Rowan doesn’t respond with words. Instead, he steps up against the boulder so that his hips are between my knees and grabs the back of my neck to kiss me again. This time it doesn’t take me nearly as long to respond. As our tongues explore each other’s mouths, Rowan pulls me closer to the edge of the boulder until I feel what I’m pretty sure is his erection jutting out of the front of his pants, so big and hard it could be easily mistaken for his flashlight. He presses himself into the center of my legs, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever experienced. And it’s also the scariest because of the fiery flames racing throughout my limbs and chest before becoming the hottest in my lower belly. Something happens that I’ve never felt before – that liquid heat actually seeps out of me, coating my panties.
Rowan sucks in a deep breath, and then he suddenly reels back, removing his mouth from mine and taking away the hardness between my legs. I make the most embarrassing whimpering sound after his loss.
“You’re killing me…in the best way…and, fuck, you smell like heaven,” he says through panting breaths. “It’s been a long time since I…Harper, I want you, I do. And if you’re sure you want to do this, we’ll need to go slow.”
“Slow is good for me,” I agree.
“Okay, good, but that’s, ah, that’s probably enough for tonight.”
Combing my fingers through my hair, I ask, “Just one more kiss?”
With a groan, Rowan gives in, thrusting his tongue deeply into my mouth and then pulling back. “That’s enough. You need to get back to the house, and I need to get back on patrol before I do something to you that you’ll regret in the morning.”
“I won’t regret it,” I promise him. “See you here tomorrow night?”
“Seeing you is one of the first things I’ve had to look forward to in years. Of course I’ll see you tomorrow. Same time? Ten, when it’s fully dark?”
“Ten,” I agree with a smile before I slide down the boulder onto my legs that feel like Jell-O. When I think they may actually cooperate by holding me up, I finally head back to the house and into my room.
Thanks to Rowan’s companionship and Drake for promising to warn my father about the masters, I actually have some very happy dreams.
Chapter 10
Drake
After calling to tell Harper’s dad that the gig is up and to get out of town, I’m just cruising around town on my bike right before curfew, trying not to think about how much I want another taste from the witch when out of nowhere the lust hits me. Hard. It’s not just the blood lust either, but the horny one too.
The speed at which my cock swells down the leg of my jeans makes my head spin and my hold on the handlebars to falter, causing my bike to wobble underneath me. I slow down and pull over to the side of the road, coming to a stop to wait until the sensation subsides.
I’ve been hit with both lusts out of nowhere before when I’ve gone too long without blood, but I just had a pint two days ago and should be fine until next week.
But no, this time is different, I realize as I climb off my bike to take some pressure off my hard dick. It’s not only swollen to epic proportions, but it feels nice and wet like it’s getting squeezed by a woman’s pussy. Not just any woman, but a human. Because of our lower body temperature, female vampires only warm up after a few thrusts and it’s never quite hot enough.
The sensation feels so real that I turn my back to the road to unzip my pants and take my cock in my hand. But the wonderful hot wetness slowly begins to fade away until all that’s left is a tingling in my shaft.
Fuck, maybe I imagined the whole thing. The cravings usually last until I finally sate them.
Oh fuck!
The lust is instantly replaced with nausea so strong I actually lean over and start heaving like a cat with a hairball.
What in the hell is wrong with me?
Did I get a bad batch of blood the other day? That must be what’s going on because the only other thing I’ve done differently was to taste a few drops of Harper’s witch blood.
Oh shit. Could that be what’s making me feel like a crazy person?
Witch blood doesn’t just cause cravings. I think I’m having withdrawal symptoms and hallucinations because of it. I need to find someone who knows about witch blood and how it effects vampires.
Unfortunately, there’s only one person who would probably give me an answer without asking too many questions and he’s an asshole.
Still, I vow to go and ask Kingston first thing tomorrow morning, especially after I drive back to the academy and my feet take me to the second floor without me realizing it before I turn around and go back down to my room on the first.
Damn witch!
“Hey man, have you got a second?” I ask when I rap my knuckles on Kingston’s open classroom door.
The warlock lifts his dark head from the stack of papers in front of him on his desk for only a second before going back to it. “Drake? What do you want?” he huffs.
“Just a quick question. Is witch and warlock blood really addictive?”
“Hell yes, like the cocaine of all blood sources,” he answers without looking up again. “That’s why the coven forbids it. Not only is it highly addictive, but once tasted, vampires can’t survive off human blood and they become dependent.”
Dependent? Oh, that’s just fucking great. I need more of the blood from the one person who hates my guts.
Kingston suddenly looks up and glares at me. “Why are you asking?”
“No reason. Just thought it was some bullshit the masters made up to keep our fangs out of your precious kind.”
“It’s not BS, and the masters learned it the hard way first-hand about, oh, fifty years ago when a female vamp killed a warlock in the dorms while they were…well, you know,” he explains. “Hold on. Weren’t you the one who brought Harper in?”
“Ah, yeah. How is she?”
“Good. She’s good,” he says while still staring me down. “Did you need anything else?”
“Oh, no, that’s it. Take it easy,” I tell him as I hurry out the door. Shoving my fingers through my hair, I try to figure out what the hell I
’m going to do.
What the fuck am I going to do?
Harper is still pissed at me for lying to her and bringing her here, so there’s no way she’s going to willingly open up a vein for me after I stole a tiny little taste of her.
At least she won’t do that for me right now…
Somehow, some way I need to convince her to forgive me, because I not only want to drink from her again, I want her in my bed. I would never be stupid enough to drain her. I could stop with just a few drops while I’m inside of her. Or maybe half a pint. Yeah, I bet that’s all it would take to satisfy my thirst.
Too bad it’s nearly impossible to think and come up with a plan thanks to the splitting headache I woke up with this morning. I haven’t missed these fucking aches and pains. I feel…human again, and it sucks worse than I remember.
Chapter 11
Harper
Over the next week I start to settle into somewhat of a routine at the academy.
In the afternoons, I endure lessons from Kingston and his father, although Kingston is actually a pretty amazing teacher. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s easy on the eyes during the two hours we have to spend together. He seems a little annoyed that my blood still doesn’t work in any of his potions, but covers it up with a fake smile and a wave of his hand, continuing to say, “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll come into your powers soon.”
Then, I usually encounter Drake, the vampire jerk, after at least one meal where he tries and fails to engage me with his awkward small talk. Each day he looks a little worse than the one before like he’s coming down with the flu. Can vampires even catch the flu? His pretty blue eyes continue to look bloodshot and sunken. And even though he was thin before, he seems to be losing weight, making his clothes hang off of him. Despite whatever ails him, it’s not fair that Drake is still so beautiful he takes my breath away every time I run into him. I almost start to feel sorry for his declining health, but then I remember he’s the reason why I’m locked up in this place with a shock collar that never comes off and only one friend.