by Sofia Daniel
“I see.” He was silent for a few minutes as we reached the bottom of the staircase. “What have they done?”
Turning around, I held onto his hard biceps. “T-the full moon party with you. The girls will kill Zarah if I don’t stay away from you and your brothers.”
His brows furrowed. “What makes you think—”
“Juno said so.”
Raphael’s gaze flickered down to my lips and up to my eyes. The dim light softened his features, accentuating his chiseled cheekbones and beautiful, kissable lips. “I suppose you don’t want them to see us together.”
“Not really.” A lump formed in my throat. Gates had escaped, taking with him the secret of how he had managed to slip out of the building. Raphael had offered me his protection, but I couldn’t accept it for fear of the Coven of Bitches hurting Zarah.
He guided me across the hallway to another wooden door. My heart fluttered. Would this be goodbye? I hoped the shunning and the pranks wouldn’t become worse, but it was hard to predict anything with vampires.
With a sad, half-smile, he opened a door that led to another hallway. “I was looking forward to dancing with you tomorrow.”
My shoulders drooped. Deep down, I had looked forward to being dragged to the party and kissed until I came undone at Raphael’s hands. With a heavy sigh, I stepped through the door, and it slammed shut behind me.
Turning around, I asked, “Where is this—” He’d gone. “Raphael?”
Deep within the hallway, someone groaned, the sound low and deep and resonant. I hurried down to find a door that led to a chamber where Gates lay unconscious on a bed of straw.
My throat dried. Had he escaped and was brought here? He’d already done so twice. Maybe he had used up his final warning, and they were going to turn him into a knocker.
I knelt beside his prone body and shook him awake. “Gates. What happened?”
“Huh?” He blinked his eyes open.
I drew back and sat on my heels, wincing at how the straw dug into my bare knees. “Why are you here?”
“They caught you, too?” he sat up and shook the straw out of his hair.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I tried escaping at noon,” he replied. “A group of those mindless goons dressed up as vampire guards surrounded me and brought me back here.”
“Knockers?”
He rubbed his temples. “I have no idea what they’re called. Help me to my feet.”
I pulled myself up, hooked both hands under one of his arms, and heaved. Gates pressed his palm on the ground and pushed himself up. The young man towered over me with a grateful smile and rubbed the back of his neck. As he moved, metal clanked against stone.
My gaze dropped to an iron restraint around his ankle. “You’ve been manacled.”
“Got a hairpin?”
“What for?”
“I wasn’t in juvie for nothing. If you’ve got something small enough, I can pick any lock.”
I rummaged in my hair and pulled out a pin. “Here you go.”
He took it with a muttered thanks, straightened out the pin, and bent down and examined the manacle. I turned my and headed back to the door. It was still bolted shut. Frustration flared up in the bit of my belly, and I ground my teeth. Raphael had gone to all the trouble of warning me off Gates, only to lock me in with him. Had one of the commanders told him to do this?
I ran my hands along the wooden frame, looking for secret latches that likely didn’t exist, and pushed at the door. What the fuck? I hadn’t rejected Raphael outright. I’d just told him someone had threatened my friend. Why was he doing—
“UGH!” A heavy body fell to the ground.
I spun. Gates lay on the straw, curled up in a ball. Panic shot through my heart. They had turned him into a knocker. A mindless being that would serve vampires until their bodies wore out.
Without thinking, I rushed to his side and pressed my hand on his quaking shoulder. “Gates. You’re stronger than these bastards. You can fight this!”
His back arched, revealing a red face with thick veins bulging from his temples, over his corded neck muscles, and onto his face like thunderbolts. Agony twisted his limbs into unnatural positions, and sweat soaked his shirt and pants.
I held my breath. Whatever the vampires had injected into him had to be powerful. Tears filled my eyes. I was here. I’d used up my third strike, and they would transform me next.
“G-Gates.” The words died in my throat. Vampires had probably perfected the knocker procedure over centuries. Telling him to fight was futile. “Gates.”
“ARGH!” he screamed out garbled words, and his teeth elongated into incisors.
The blood in my veins turned to ice. Knockers didn’t have long, sharp teeth. Nor did they have claws where they should have fingernails.
Gates wasn’t turning into a knocker.
He was turning into something else.
Chapter 12
Terror rooted my feet to the stone floor. In moments, Gates’ human features morphed into a short-snouted wolf with amber irises that filled their entire eye sockets. His hairline lowered halfway down his forehead, down his temples and around his jawline, while thick, ropey muscles burst through his blazer, revealing pale flesh covered in dark fur. My mind went blank, and Mom’s voice screamed at me to run, but my muscles wouldn’t budge.
His malevolent eyes settled on me, and every ounce of blood drained from my face and into my legs. I backed out of the chamber with my palms uselessly outstretched in front of my body.
I shook my head from side to side. “Gates… N-no… C-calm down.”
My ass hit the door. With trembling hands slippery from sweat, I fumbled for the knob and pulled it open. Even when I stepped out and shut the door on the still-transforming werewolf, my pulse wouldn’t slow. I still needed to leave through that bolted door and run up the stairs.
A howl echoed into the hallway, making the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. My steps quickened, along with the beat of my frantic heart. Gates must have been bitten the night we arrived. Commander Shanks had joked about werewolves patrolling the forest, and Gates had bolted through the doors of the van and escaped into the trees.
The thud of a body hitting the door sent a chill through my veins. I imagined that Gates—the werewolf—would burst out and either rip me to shreds or infect me with his lycanthropy. I didn’t know which would be worse.
THUD
THUD
THUD
CRASH!
Wood splintered out from the door, and the werewolf stuck its snout through the jagged hole. His lips curled back in a snarl, revealing the most horrifically large and sharp teeth I’d seen on any canine. A scream caught in my throat. What if he broke through his chain?
I sprinted to the end of the hallway and pounded my fists on the locked door. “Raphael! Open up.”
A low, guttural snarl made the lining of my stomach tremble. I turned the handle, but it was stuck. I slammed my palms on the door, but no one answered.
CLINK
CLINK
CLINK!
The sound of rattling chains shook me to the marrow, and when one of the links snapped, fear set every nerve ending alight. In a moment, the werewolf would burst from his restraints and attack.
Tears filled my eyes, and terror filled my heart. Was this the Stryx Brothers’ revenge for what I did to Dante’s face? I hadn’t even done it on purpose. A sob caught in my throat. “Raphael, please!”
BANG!
With an almighty leap, the werewolf burst free of the door and landed on his front paws in a low crouch. He stalked toward me, taking his time. Ropes of saliva hung from his teeth, making my stomach want to heave out its contents.
My gaze darted up, down, left, right… looking for an escape, but there was none. It was just me with a locked door at my back and to my front, an approaching werewolf.
Black spots danced before my eyes, and shallow breaths barely touched the top
s of my lungs. Sweat poured down my brows, down the back of my neck, and out of my armpits. I hoped the creature would rip out my throat and let me die. After seeing Gates’ transformation, I couldn’t face enduring this for the rest of my life.
I sent Mom and Daniel a silent goodbye and sent my friend a silent apology. He’d been infected through no fault of his own, and now, he would have to face having killed an ally.
The wolf pounced, and at the last minute, my traitorous hands rose to protect my neck.
But before his jaws even grazed my skin, the door opened, and strong arms yanked me into the stairwell. I skidded against the stone floor on my back, and Nero rushed past, caught the werewolf by the neck and threw him back into the hallway. The creature smashed against the ceiling and landed in an awkward heap.
“Don’t hurt him!” I screamed. “It’s Gates.”
Nero turned around, his eyes wild. “This is what you chose over my brother?” He slammed the door shut and slid the bolts, just as the werewolf’s jaws tried to bite through the window. “A beast?”
“N-no!” I scrambled to my feet, wondering how the fuck he came to that conclusion.
“I ought to leave you here for your ingratitude!” Nero snarled.
“Thank you.” My voice was hoarse from screaming, and I wrapped my arms around my middle. “Did Raphael tell you where to find me?”
“What?” he snapped.
“Raphael brought me down here.”
Nero shook his head, as though I was talking nonsense. I let out a long, relieved breath. Even if he didn’t believe me, I was grateful for the rescue.
The werewolf scrambled and scratched at the door. “Will he escape?”
“It’s doubtful, considering this is where they keep students suspected to be werewolves. What did you do? Help him out of his chains?”
The werewolf snarled and threw his head against the glass. Flinching, I skittered to the staircase, but the glass didn’t shatter.
Nero shook his head. “You must have helped him escape the first chamber. That was stupid, even for you.”
I clamped my lips shut. How was I supposed to know Gates would become a werewolf? He’d been taken back to classes as though he was a frumosi like the rest of us. I thought the chains were the first part of being transformed into a knocker. What kind of person would leave someone to such a grisly fate?
Nero stomped up the stairs with his fists clenched. I hurried after him, my insides still clawed out with fear.
He glanced over his shoulder and shot me a look of disgust. “According to the laws of Stryx, you belong to us.”
My feet stumbled over each other, and I held onto the wall for support. What the fuck? I stared at his broad back. This was just like the story I read when I was growing up, where a bully tricked a greasy-haired boy into entering the lair of a werewolf. When the bully’s friend saved the victim at the last minute, the unfortunate victim ended up owing the bully’s friend his life.
“No way,” I said between clenched teeth. “Raphael sent me down here to die. I shouldn’t have to become his property.”
Nero’s eyes flashed, and his incisors elongated into fangs. “I should have left you to be mauled!”
Every ounce of blood drained out of my face, and I clapped a hand over my throat. Nero’s expression morphed from fury to disgust, and he continued up the stairs, leaving my heart rattling in my empty chest. I paused for a moment, but an enraged snarl from the werewolf made the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
Hurrying after Nero, I flared my nostrils, wishing I had the power of telekinesis so that I could throw all three Stryx Brothers to a pack of wolves.
Pigtails and Juno waited at the top of the stairs. “At least we know why she doesn’t like vampires. What do they call her type? Zoophiles?”
“Dog-fuckers.” Juno clapped her hand over her mouth and giggled.
“Hey, everyone!” Pigtails into the hallway. “Alicia Stephens tried to hump a werewolf.”
I stormed up the stairs to the sound of the students’ howls ringing in my ears. There was no point in telling a teacher. They would twist things around, so the vampires weren’t at fault.
Professor Proust would probably tell me that I had walked alongside Raphael of my own volition without asking where we were going, therefore I consented to be fed to the werewolf. I stormed down the hallway with my fists clenched. Then he would say that I had suffered no harm. The wolf hadn’t touched me, and Nero had swooped in at the last minute to save my neck. He would probably wag his finger and tell me to inform future boys that I didn’t consent to be thrown to werewolves.
“Bastard,” I snarled.
Rage burned through my veins. Rage for Zarah, whose fear had turned herself into the chew-toy of a bunch of blood-sucking bitches. Rage for Gates, who had tried his best to escape a situation not of his choosing and ended up cursed to be a werewolf until the end of his life. Rage for myself. At myself. For letting vampires mess with my head so much, I’d walked into a remote part of the academy building with Raphael.
“Bastards!”
I stormed into my room and threw my satchel against the wall. Books and writing materials spilled out, making satisfied clunks on the ground. Raphael meant to kill me because I hurt his brother. Maybe his invitation to the full moon party had been his original ambush.
Blood rushed through my ears, screaming for revenge. It was time to put the sunstone to use. If they thought what I had done to Dante was terrible, they would be shocked at what I would do to Raphael.
After throwing off my sweat-drenched uniform, I stepped into the shower and turned the water to its coldest setting. It cooled my senses, chilled my bones, turned the fires of my rage to ice. I needed the cold blood to commit my revenge on Raphael.
I dried myself off, put on a fresh uniform, and applied some of the makeup the academy supplied for frumosi girls. For the first time since joining this hell hole, I pinned my hair the way Raphael had styled it and hoped he wouldn’t scent the murder in my heart.
The lunch gong sounded, and I exhaled all the air out of my lungs. It was time.
Practically every vampire in the dining hall howled at the top of their voices as I passed.
“Were-fucker.”
“Wolf-whacker.”
“Hairy-whore.”
I let the insults wash over me like a summer rain. They were meaningless, as were the offers to fuck me doggy-style if that was what I was craving. Reptilian eyes on the left side of the room tracked my movements. Vampires bayed at me. Voices called me a bitch in heat. I no longer cared. All I wanted was revenge.
Raphael stood from the Stryx Brothers table, his eyes wide. “Alicia. Nero told me—”
I placed my finger on his lips, just as he had when I had tried to speak to him earlier. “Shhh.”
His beautiful eyes sparkled. Hopefully, for the last time.
“I’m sorry for earlier,” I murmured. “It took the efforts of Nero to realize that I’d been resisting you for no reason and almost got myself killed.”
His brows drew together. “What are you—”
“Kiss me.” I bit down on my tongue, letting blood pool in my mouth.
Raphael grabbed me around the waist and pulled me into his hard body. Adrenaline rushed through my veins with reckless abandon, and the tip of my tongue darted out to smear blood on my lips.
His forest-green eyes dilated, and his nostrils flared. Before I knew it, his lips crashed down on mine, and he delved his tongue into my mouth. The kiss was hot, demanding, like he was devouring me from the inside out. Blood flowed from my mouth into his, and a groan reverberated across his broad chest that went straight between my legs.
Raphael’s hands cupped my ass, bringing us even closer until I felt my core melt against his hardening length. I kissed back with equal fervor, my chest heavy with regret. He was everything I might have wanted in a man. The way he kissed, the way he touched me… In time, I might have even accepted his being a vampire, but
I couldn’t forgive being thrown to the werewolf.
My heartbeat accelerated, and blood surged through my veins. In a bittersweet moment, it would be over, and we’d both perish.
Raphael stilled. Then his arms dropped to his side. I stepped away, pulse pounding in my ears, dulling the volume of the students’ hooting and howling.
Then he doubled over and fell to the marble floor.
Dante wrapped his hand around my neck and raised me several feet off the ground. “What did you do to him?”
I glared back, defiant. “Payback for feeding me to a werewolf.”
“What did you do?” He gave me a rough shake.
Nurse Sora rushed through the tables, slung Raphael over her shoulder, and sped out of the room with Nero on her heels.
Rage burned in Dante’s eyes, and his aquamarine pupils slitted. Despite this, he had enough self-control not to crush my windpipe. “Tell me!”
Professor Proust stepped between us and held onto Dante’s outstretched arm. “Mr. Striga. Harming Miss Stephens isn’t the answer. Why don’t we go to my office and work out together how she managed to hurt your brother?”
Dante released me, and I fell onto the ground in a crouch.
My fury receded, and the sounds and sights of my surroundings returned to sharp focus. Vampire guards in black armor formed a ring around us, each holding off students baying for my blood.
My adrenaline spiked, and my pulse pounded in my ears. In my haste for revenge, I hadn’t considered the aftermath. If I’d had full control of my senses, I would have lured Raphael somewhere else and tricked him into ingesting the sunstone. Now, everyone had seen what I had done, and I was screwed. If they didn’t kill me, they would turn me into a knocker before sunrise.
“Gentlemen,” said Professor Proust, “Please escort Miss Stephens to my office for a disciplinary hearing.”
Dante led the way, and I walked behind him, flanked by two layers of vampire guards and with Professor Proust at my back. A riot broke out around us, and the students jostled the guards.
I clenched my teeth and forced shuddering breaths through my nostrils. Stupid, stupid, stupid. How could I have been so stupid? There was no way I would be able to survive the academy now that everyone had witnessed what I had done. My gaze darted around at the furious students being held back by guards. I was a danger to vampires. A scourge that needed to be eliminated.