by Callie Rose
“He was in Beedle’s office,” Jayce said. “And he was with me before that.”
Beedle snapped his fingers. “Yes. That’s right. He was with me.”
Toland shook his head. “I’m afraid that isn’t good enough. The sabotage was set up long beforehand. How long, we aren’t sure. But he wouldn’t have had to be in the proximity at the time of the blackout to be responsible.”
“That’s crap,” I said coldly. “If that’s the case, then anybody in the school could have been responsible for it. You can’t pin that on Xero just because he’s convenient.”
“You would know how convenient he is, wouldn’t you?” Sonja glared at me from across the room and it took everything I had not to bum-rush her and beat her down then and there.
“Enough,” Toland said. “We’ll read the rest of the charges.”
And he did. He went down the list of destruction, one thing after another. The bathroom. The pillars. The walls. The increased fallen activity near the school, clearly indicating that someone had given at least a vague location to Gavriel’s army. I hadn’t been with Xero for all of those things, but my guys stepped up to the plate beautifully. Kai, Jayce, and Kingston all remembered where Xero was and when, and called other people out to corroborate their truth. Owen didn’t contribute anything, but he added his adamant nods whenever someone called for Xero’s exoneration.
By the end of it, there were only a few moments left unaccounted for.
Toland ran a hand over his face. “It seems the case isn’t quite as open and shut as I was led to believe.”
“Does any of that matter?” Sonja demanded. “We all know he did it, we just haven’t figured out how.”
Toland shook his head. “Sending a student to the underworld is not something to take lightly. Like a death sentence, one must be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt of the party’s guilt prior to enacting the sentence.”
Sonja huffed in disbelief, then crossed her arms and scowled. Toland tapped his fingers on the podium, apparently lost in thought, but I was pretty sure he was reading off the sheet in front of him. After a moment, he looked up.
“Now we bring it to a vote. To clear Xero of all charges pending future evidence, or to hold him in isolation pending further evidence. Custodians, Professors; all in favor of pursuing Xero as our primary suspect, say aye.”
The single “aye” struck a nerve deep in my core. I met the eyes of the Custodian who uttered it and memorized his features. Round face, blue eyes, a shock of blond hair. Mid-thirties. Fit. I made a mental note to keep an eye on him moving forward.
“All in favor of clearing the charges?”
“Aye.” The answer resounded through the room, echoing from both tables.
Toland struck his gavel. “Charges dismissed.”
I let out a noise between a whoop and a sob and leapt out of my seat. My guys, Hannah, and Owen all cheered around me. It made something painfully sweet squeeze my heart. No matter what we’d all been through, no matter how tense it had been at times, we were a solid unit. Xero was one of us. He looked stunned as he slid out of the seat and shook Toland’s hand. A slow grin broke over his face as he walked over to us.
“You’re cleared!” I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him.
His strong arms locked around me as he held me close and kissed me back tenderly. When he released me, he brushed my hair back from my face, his dark, entrancing eyes open and warm. “Wouldn’t have happened without you.”
I beamed up at him. “We should celebrate. Pub?”
His smile was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. “Pub.”
We all went this time, even Kai, though he seemed to be having trouble getting into the mood. He’d been fine up until we got to the pub, but once we walked through the door, he seemed to get lost in his beer. The more he drank, the quieter he got. The quieter he got, the less he tried to control his true features. I was glad that the signature physical characteristics of vampirism could be passed off as a pissy mood, but he still wasn’t being nearly discreet enough.
“Kai,” I told him when we were on our third round. “Move around in front of me so you’re facing the wall. Either that or fix your face. People are starting to stare.”
He glared balefully at me. “So? Let them stare. Let them stake me.” He flicked a crumpled bit of paper off the table and glowered out at the crowd. At least the pub was more sparsely populated tonight than it had been before. Still, there were too many people here for my comfort.
“For fuck’s sake, Kai, come on. Don’t be an idiot. Look, you’re scaring the poor girl behind the bar.” Jayce gestured subtly at the girl.
The stubborn man didn’t move, so I tried something else. “Well, that isn’t going to help, Jayce. Kai’s a vampire. He likes scaring girls.”
Xero froze beside me, and Jayce winced. Kingston snickered along with me. Kai growled, actually growled, then shoved away from the table and stormed out the door.
I watched him leave, an uncomfortable feeling twisting in my gut. What the fuck? I’d meant to poke him hard enough to get him to move to the other side of the table, not to make him leave entirely. And I’d just been kidding. Kai was a grumpy fucker, but I thought we’d all gotten comfortable enough with each other to withstand a little gentle teasing.
Xero put a hand on mine. “That wasn’t very nice,” he murmured.
I turned to him and frowned, confused. “What? Why? It was just a joke.”
Kingston shook his head, as confused as I was. Jayce sighed and leaned onto the table.
“Okay, rumor is that Kai was in love with some beautiful woman before he became a vampire. He had to leave her behind or kill her or something… I don’t know, hazy details, you know how rumors get. Anyway, that’s why he doesn’t like coming here. That girl behind the counter reminds him of his girl.”
“And you pointed her out.” Xero shot him a look across the table. “Good job, man.”
“I was just trying to snap him out of it,” Jayce said with a sigh. “Guess that didn’t work the way I thought.”
His words floated at the top of my brain like oil on water, refusing to dissipate or fully sink in. I felt sick. The half-drunk beer in front of me had lost all appeal, and it was a little hard to breathe.
Competing against Kai’s defiance was one thing, but I’d never thought I would have to compete with a sacred memory. How could I even try without coming off as heartless? It would be cruel. But he couldn’t live an immortal life carrying that kind of heartache around, could he? It would weigh him down. It would break him eventually.
I wanted to help him, but I had no idea what to do. How do you tell a person that they have to forget the love of their lives so they can take their rightful place in a pack of lovers? You can’t. Not without being a complete dick. I sighed heavily and killed off the last of my beer, forcing it down past the lump in my throat.
“Guess I’ll apologize to him later,” I muttered. All I really wanted to do was chase after Kai and find him before he made it all the way back to FU, but I knew he wouldn’t want to talk to me. In all the different versions I could imagine of how that might play out, none of them ended well. I sighed. “Sorry to kill the mood.”
“You didn’t know.” Jayce’s bright blue eyes shone with sympathy. “Besides, you didn’t kill the mood. Listen, they put that crazy music on. Let’s dance!”
His infectious grin was impossible to resist. I’d become way more empathetic since being turned into a succubus, and like most things having to do with my four, that effect was compounded around any of them. Jayce’s optimism and easy good mood slipped under my skin, banishing a little of the cold that had taken root in my chest.
Nobody else was dancing, but I was more of a leader than a follower anyway. I let him pull me out of my chair and started to dance. Power swirled around my toes and floated up my body like incense as we moved together to the beat. It called to my men like a beacon, and before I knew it, Xero and Kingston were dan
cing with us, pinning me in the center of a gyrating triangle.
Hands rested on my hips, my shoulders. Heat flickered between us through touches and eye contact.
Our heartbeats synchronized.
I looked from one to the other, watching the rhythm pulse in their irises. Blue, green, gold.
Maybe it was just Kingston’s influence, but I felt like a dragon hoarding her treasure, surrounded by her jewels.
We danced for a while longer, but with every moment, the space between our bodies grew smaller and smaller, and the heat licking through my veins burned hotter and hotter. We could only keep things decent in public for so long before we were forced by magic and biology to make our way back to my room.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Hannah stayed behind at the pub, winking at me as I moved to the doorway with my trio. Owen waved goodbye with a bit of a sad puppy look, and the rest of Hannah’s crowd grinned at each other. The way I’d been projecting pure lust, there was no way people didn’t know what was coming. Or who.
The bitterly freezing wind cut right through my coat, taming a little of the heat rampaging through my body, but as soon as we were back inside the school, I grabbed fistfuls of the two nearest men’s shirts and practically yanked them up the stairs, trusting the third to follow close behind.
It was an easy transition from dancing to making out once the four of us made it back to my room. While I kissed Kingston, Xero kissed my neck, Jayce nibbled my earlobe, and six hands ran over my body. Gasping, groaning, and grinding, I wove my magic around them, giving as much as I took.
When we tumbled to the bed, I landed on my back on the mattress. Xero and Jayce were on either side of me, and Kingston hovered over me, his body pressed hard against mine as he teased my mouth. The atmosphere was thick with desire, completely isolated from any outside influence. I was in total control.
And then suddenly, I wasn’t.
Kingston broke away from me and pushed off the bed, then turned away from me to face the wall.
“Wait—! What are you doing?” I gasped out the question as Xero’s mouth moved over mine, making another spike of lust shoot through my body.
“Sorry,” Kingston said. “Gotta go. See you tomorrow.”
“Wh-what?”
As he whirled to leave, I noticed a faint blue glow that disappeared quickly before he slipped out the door.
What the fuck? Did he just cast some kind of spell? Or is he glowing? Is that part of his dragon shifter power?
Curiosity, strong as it was, couldn’t quite break the spell I’d woven. My body was still buzzing with lust, and a moment later, I’d forgotten all about Kingston’s sketchiness, completely distracted by Xero and Jayce.
I was sandwiched between the two men, and neither of them even seemed to notice Kingston’s abrupt departure. Then again, why would they when the thing they wanted, the singular object of their focus, was right in front of them?
And, lucky bitch that I was, that thing was me.
Jayce and Xero hadn’t known each other before coming to FU—none of the guys had, as far as I knew—and I wasn’t sure they would’ve become friends at all if not for the common focal point of their bond to me. They were different in so many ways. Jayce was exuberant, energetic, and optimistic, while Xero was more reserved, always listening but slow to speak. But despite their differences, or maybe because of them, the two men complemented each other perfectly.
Sex with Jayce usually involved broken furniture, torn clothes, breathless laughter, and accidental bruises that healed almost as soon as we got them.
The sex I’d had with Xero had been slow and intense, overwhelming and deep.
But the two of them together?
It was fucking amazing.
Xero kissed me in that incredible way he had that felt like falling into a bottomless ocean while Jayce’s hands roamed over my body, tugging my tunic up to massage my breasts and play with my nipples before sliding down my stomach to circle my clit. When he slipped two fingers inside me and bent his head to suck hard on one of my breasts, my hips rose off the bed, chasing his touch even as I drowned in Xero’s kiss.
When an orgasm slammed into me, I grabbed onto Xero’s close-shaven head with both hands, my tongue and lips moving faster against his, the movements more desperate.
I’d pretty much proven to Jayce that my body had no limit to the amount of stimulation it could handle, so he kept fucking me with his fingers even as the orgasm receded, working me back up again almost immediately. He let go of my breast and moved his lips down to my core, sucking and nipping my clit as the finger of his other hand gathered moisture from my dripping pussy and used it to wet the tight bud of my asshole. When he slipped that finger past the ring of clenching muscles, I came again, my body writhing and jerking.
“Fuck yes, Piper. Someday I’m gonna claim that ass, and when I do, I’ll make you come harder than you ever have in your life.”
His words were muttered against my pussy lips, and when I grew impossibly wetter at the sound of his filthy promise, he lapped at me eagerly, groaning low in his throat.
Xero had taken over touching my breasts when Jayce had moved south, and his hands massaged the aching flesh while he continued to kiss the breath out of me. My own hands were moving wildly, grasping at whatever I could reach, trying to explore every inch of both men. Jayce was angled too far away, but I managed to palm Xero’s cock through his pants, and the grunt that fell from his mouth into mine made my pussy walls clench around Jayce’s fingers.
“I—want you. Both. Now!” I gasped.
Speech was becoming a little difficult, but those were all the words they needed to hear. It was almost hard to believe the two men hadn’t known each other their whole lives, because they worked together incredibly well as a team.
“She’s fucking ready.” Jayce grinned as he sat up, wiping off the wetness that glistened on his chin.
“I’m fucking ready,” Xero murmured, his voice rough as he shoved down his pants, squeezing his cock hard at the base. Guess even the patient fire demon has his limits.
The thought made heat burn in my veins. I wanted to drive him crazy—liked being the reason his calm, self-contained demeanor cracked.
And his cock was just too tempting to ignore.
Crawling forward on shaky limbs, I made my way toward him and tugged his tunic over his head. His pants were gone in an instant, and I heard a rustle of clothes behind me as Jayce stripped too. Xero’s large, warm hands pulled my tunic off as I rose to kneel on the bed, and a second later, Jayce was working my leggings down over my hips.
He didn’t pull them all the way off though, leaving the fabric gathered around my knees, and then I felt the heat of his chest against my back and the press of his cock against my ass cheek as he wrapped his arms around me.
“I see you eyeing Xero’s cock, Pipes. You want it in your mouth? I want to watch you suck him while I fuck you. You into that?”
Fucking hell. Yes.
My body shuddered against his, and I felt the rumble of his chuckle everywhere our skin was pressed together. Then he lowered me onto all fours on the mattress, and Xero moved forward slightly, gazing down at me as I leaned forward to draw him into my mouth.
His cock felt and tasted just as good as it had the first time I’d done this, and I made a small noise of pleasure, wrapping my fingers around it and coordinating the motions of my hand with my mouth.
Xero groaned, tipping his head back, and Jayce cursed under his breath. I felt the brush of his thick tip at my entrance, and then he surged into me, filling me completely and rocking me forward so more of Xero’s hard dick slid into my mouth.
The hellhound behind me set a steady pace as he began to thrust, and Xero mirrored him, fucking my mouth as Jayce fucked my pussy, making my body rock between them.
I relaxed my jaw and the back of my throat as much as I could, keeping my lips wrapped firmly around the fire demon’s cock as I released my hand, dragging my fingers dow
n my body to find my clit instead. I could feel the rough motion of Jayce’s cock impaling me, and I spread my fingers wide, sliding them down to frame his dick as he thrust harder and faster.
“I can tell you like this, Pipes,” he grunted. “Your pussy is like a fucking vise right now. Come. Come for us, baby. I’m so close, and I wanna feel you milk me.”
Damn. The mouth on this man drives me crazy.
The tempo of everything increased. My heart rate sped up as Jayce drove into me harder, and I worked my mouth over Xero’s length, my nose practically brushing his stomach with each bob of my head. Saliva was dripping down his cock, and tears squeezed from the corners of my eyes from the intensity of the sensations flooding my body—but it was the best damn thing I’d ever felt.
Jayce hadn’t been wrong. I did like this.
I fucking loved it.
My fingers flew in desperate circles over the hard nub of my clit, and when the dam broke, I quickly dropped my hand to the mattress, trying to maintain my balance as waves of pleasure washed over me, making first white light and then darkness dance in my vision.
Jayce gave a harsh grunt and slammed into me a few more times before stopping and grinding his hips against my ass as he pulsed inside me. I could feel the tension drain from his body, and with the flood of his cum, my own body felt like it was floating on a massive high.
My lips were still wrapped around Xero, but the broad-shouldered man had slowed his thrusts to give both me and Jayce time to recover. And as the stars cleared from my vision, he pulled back entirely. He fisted his cock as he gazed at us, staring hungrily at the place where Jayce still impaled me.
“Your turn,” I murmured, my sated body already revving back up, demanding more.
“Greedy girl.”
Jayce chuckled as he spoke, giving my ass a light slap as he withdrew from me. A gush of wetness slid down my thighs, and the idea of having both of these men’s cum inside me made my breath hitch.
“Yeah, and you love it,” I shot back at the hellhound, arching a brow at him over my shoulder.