CONVICTION OF THE DAMNED: SUPERNO ACADEMY BOOK ONE

by Tierney Storer

  He was strong, and I could see him shoving them about just as good, but his skill set wasn’t physical strength, it was emotional, and as there was no talking going on right now there wasn’t much his Siren gifts could do for him. It was two versus one, and he wasn’t as used to physical confrontation – my sisters were going to destroy him.

  Caleb on the other hand wasn’t limited with one power, and he jumped in the pile to yank Kaida away with ease, making the entire thing two verses two instead.

  “Chill out Kaida; it’s just a joke.” I had to give Caleb credit; he wasn’t trying to fight Kaida, he was purely restraining her. But I knew that it would make no difference in Kaida’s head, and she would turn her rage onto Caleb instead.

  She had told us over breakfast how she thought she had seen Caleb yesterday only seconds before she was battered against a tree. And I knew despite his calm now, she was harbouring a judge for his presumed assault against her in the woods.

  “Vaffanculo sanguisuga!” Kaida yelled insults as she fought against Caleb’s iron grip, threatening all manner of death and pain against him. “Bastardo!”

  Xavier took a step towards me, his head tilted to the side as he grinned. I noticed a few spots of blood on his white shirt and wondered if those fingers were actually real after all.

  “Don’t want to participate Laina? We could join in and make this even more fun.” His eyes flashed red for a second and I tried to figure out what the hell being a Phoenix meant he could do in a fight. But before I could there was an almighty roar from down besides us, which sounded an awful lot like a lion.

  Dari was on her feet, her usually dark eyes shining bright gold as she picked Mikel up by one of his arms, span him around and threw him at the wall on the other side of the room. He tore through the air like he weighed nothing, hitting the wall with such force that the brick cracked and shook. The entire room stopped and stared at Dari, who looked confused as hell herself, no idea what had just occurred.

  Caleb and Kaida had stopped fighting, both of them more concerned with how a little girl had just chucked a huge man thirty feet into the air like that. But before any of us could do anything Ryder flitted across the room, picking Dari up over his shoulder and running out the room with her. His Vampire speed was no match for me and Kaida to catch up with when we followed, but luckily Ryder had stopped running just outside the room.

  Dari was stood in front of him cursing and shouting, her eyes now back to their normal shade of brown, but the fire inside them still burnt bright.

  “I don’t give a fuck about expulsion. I want his stupid fucking pesce head!” Ryder had nothing to say to her and remained silent as he glanced between us all and back towards the Green Room.

  “Come on Dare; we’ll go back to our rooms for the day.”

  Ryder agreed with my suggestion, giving all three of us permission to cut our afternoon classes and go to the dorms. Kaida wasn’t too pleased about the change of structure, but she said nothing, knowing it was probably for the best that Dari went somewhere else for now.

  “Come on then, let’s go get drunk and watch shitty Netflix or something.” Kaida suggested, and without another look at Ryder, we all left without any of us wanting to mention what the hell had just happened.

  Dari

  By the time the clock chimed seven I was mildly drunk, undressed and in bed, ready to end the dreary day with a nice long sleep before having to suffer through it all over again tomorrow. Even blasting Machine Gun Kelly over my speakers wasn’t helping.

  “URGH!” I screamed into my mound of pillows, begging the night to end already, just as my pad beeped a few times in quick succession.

  I had two emails and a private message, none of which I was in the mood for reading due to having to look at stupid Mikel’s face ten minutes ago when he came back to the dorms and ruined my drinking session. The private message was the only one I had the slightest bit of curiosity about, so I opened it first. A list of names went through my mind of all the people I had met the last two days, not once did the name Kyan or anything remotely close come to light.

  Kyan

  Just sent you an email; you’re welcome

  Dari

  Who TF is this.

  Kyan

  Your favourite professor; now check your emails Princess!!!

  My heart tripped over itself as I realised who I was talking to, using the seconds of uncertainty to do as he asked whilst my heart stopped hammering. The email app was easy enough to find and I jumped onto my new messages, discovering a list of bank details and passwords, as well as a link to our new bank account. It took me less than a minute to log in even with my shaky hands, and even less time to completely implode at the amount of zero’s that were in there.

  This was the monthly stipend that Ryder had promised we would get, and it was far more money than any of my family had been in possession of our entire lives. The fact we would be getting it on repeat each month both terrified and excited me beyond belief. There was no possibility of me spending that amount on anything useful; we were already given food and everything we needed for school that usually cost people money.

  Dari

  Professor Long? Emails checked; guess who’s going clothes shopping $$$

  p.s thanks I guess, sorry for threatening to murder you :)

  Kyan

  You’re funny Princess.

  p.s you’re forgiven, and I hope you’re not buying more porn skirts ;)

  Was Ryder flirting with me or was I a lot more drunk than I thought? I didn’t know the boy could even take a joke, let alone say one. When we had argued today in class I thought I spotted the slightest hint of humour in his eyes but had put it down to wind. He was an idiot anyway, but with his Heir loyalty and his brand new teacher position I hadn’t realised he still had the capabilities to behave like a normal twenty three year old and didn’t know what to make of him.

  Not that I had much experience with people his age other than the ones I hooked up with or beat up. And in both cases we rarely stopped for conversation long enough for me to find their sense of humour. As the minutes blurred by the only logical conclusion I could come up with was that Ryder was drunk too or even high. It was the only way him being nice to me made any sense and I was more than happy to take advantage of his inebriation for my own gain; it couldn’t help flirting with the teacher if it got him to help me out a little more with his shithead friends.

  Dari

  R u drunk? & Skirt isn’t my style; I prefer to remove all my clothes entirely.

  p.s since when were you called Kyan, Wtf?

  Kyan

  Ryder is my surname and the only name you’ll ever use to refer to me stronzo!

  p.s as your teacher I say shut up, but as Kyan I say less is better too. Also did I use stronzo right? idk what it means

  Dari

  Glad we can agree on one thing at least Kyan xoxo

  Stronzo means asshole, so u tell me if u used it right.

  Kyan

  Detention after school Friday; don’t test me Princess

  p.s DELETE THESE MESSAGES STRONZO ;)

  An honest laugh escaped me, and I swore into my empty room. Kyan Ryder was definitely more than I expected him to be, and I knew he would be trouble. It was hard to get a read on him, but I sort of liked that. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I wanted to cave his head in. But then other times I found myself wondering what it would be like to fuck him, so it was a rather strange predicament.

  Kaida text to say she had the money too, and asked if she could send some to Pablo, the guy who had owned our apartment back in the Human world. I had no issues with helping out people that helped us, so minutes later a sizeable donation had been made into Pablo’s bank account and we were free to get to the far more important things; shopping for clothes.

  By the time I was done I had ordered pretty much the entirety of a mall. The first choice had been a brand-new wardrobe for every occasion, but then I had moved onto hair, beauty, and random
crap I liked the look off. I didn’t need a pair of lightsabers to go on my wall,

  but I wanted them, and so they had gone into the cart without hesitation. The same logic went towards sunglasses that were ridiculous pink triangles and an umbrella that looked like a lettuce; I wanted them, so I got them. It was probably a good thing I had never had money before, or else I would surely have ended up broke.

  By midnight I was thoroughly chilled out, drunk on more rum and coke, excited for my future deliveries and not even close to denting the money I had been given. A quick call to my sisters confirmed it was the same for them; we had all gone overboard yet had plenty of money left.

  The entire thing was thirsty business, so I took the chance Mikel and his stronzo friends had vacated the common room and gone to bed by now and headed to the kitchen for some water to help me sober up. On tiptoes I padded along to the kitchen, almost sure that nobody was in there until I came past the sofa and spotted a shock of blonde hair snuggled under a blanket on the couch. Presuming Caleb had passed out there I ignored him and continued to drink two bottles of water and search for some snacks.

  I was halfway through the cupboard debating what flavour Doritos I wanted when I heard the faintest of creaks, and discovered the couch was now vacant, and the blanket had been chucked on the floor.

  “What are you doing Princess?” A voice purred from behind me.

  “Hunting for snacks.” I replied, spinning around, and coming face to face with Ryder, who was topless and standing far too close for me not to notice every single part of his body.

  Drunken Dari had even less boundaries than sober Dari, so I unashamedly checked out his abs and torso, nodding appreciatively at the tattoo across his ribs. Ryder had a set of vicious waves that were crashing violently and bringing a huge ship to its destruction.

  “You liked that tattoo the first time you saw it too.” He mumbled, barely loud enough for me to hear.

  “What do you mean?” I replied.

  Ryder let out a deep breath, telling me of the time a few weeks before he barged into our apartment, where he had been trailing us and happened upon me in a bar.

  “You were drunk and smoking outside with some handsy asshole who kept trying to kiss you.” He growled, unconsciously moving closer to me. “When I interrupted you said you liked my tattoo because it reminded you of the sea, and you loved the sea.”

  I remembered that night; I woke up in my apartment the morning after and didn’t know how I had got there or anything I had done.

  “That’s because I knocked out the guy you was with, and made you go home. The entire way back you wouldn’t shut up about how hot I was, and all the filthy things you wanted to do to me.” He chuckled. “Once you were at your door I coerced you into forgetting everything; didn’t need you knowing of me until I was sure you were a Darklight.”

  I didn’t know if he was speaking the truth about me flirting with him. It was something that sounded like me, but Ryder was also full of shit so who knew.

  “So, you saved me?” I mused. “That seems to be something you like doing. But I would appreciate that memory back if I can have it.” He nodded, and his eyes flickered dark for a second.

  “When you wake up tomorrow you will remember the memory I stole from you.”

  He finished, his eyes returning to normal, and a small frown formed on his lips. As though he couldn’t believe he had actually just done that for me. My fingers reached out without meaning to and I trailed them along the bottom wave. Ryder took in a sharp breath before I realised what I was actually doing.

  My eyes widened and I stepped back, pushing myself up against the fridge and trying to think of any excuse as to why I had just touched my new teacher across his ridiculously nice chest.

  “Well, I was here to ask if you were feeling okay after today, but you seem fine to me.” Ryder whispered, the scent of beer drifting to me as he spoke. I was right; he’s been drinking.

  “I'm mad at you stronzo; you didn’t need to out me in front of the class.”

  He may have been hot as hell, and barely even half a foot away from me half naked, but I wouldn’t be so nice to him yet. Ryder had still been a massive asshole this morning and I was pissed.

  “I wasn’t going to tell anyone you were in the gang, I just wanted to scare you a little because of yesterday. It’s not my fault you decided to try and strip in my first lesson and needed to be punished for it.” He sighed, leaning a little closer and resting his hands either side of my head.

  I was trapped in a cage created by my Vampiro teacher, and I couldn’t deny that I liked it a whole lot. Ryder smelt like mint and lemons, the alcohol only adding those and making me want to taste exactly what his mouth would be like.

  “Maybe next time you need to punish me you do something a little less life-ruining. Half the school thinks I'm completely deranged now.” I gulped down a breath of Ryder filled air, hoping his hearing couldn’t pick out the way my heart was racing ten times faster.

  I had never really been in a situation like this before, and so had no idea whether I was feeling this way from the influence of alcohol, or from Ryder himself. But every nerve in my body was alive, and I was full of burning energy that I needed to release.

  “Maybe instead of asking me to not tell you off, you should learn how to behave… Plus I know you don’t care what anybody here thinks of you though Dari, so is it really that bad?”

  Ryder was right. I didn’t give a damn if any of the stronzo’s in this school hated my guts. All I cared about what that I was true to myself and my family, nothing else mattered. But still…

  “Fuck okay. You’re right. But you’re still a bastard though Kyan.” I muttered, using his first name as a last-ditch attempt at irritating him.

  It worked. He growled a little, narrowing his pretty eyes at me and looking every inch the terrifying Vampire he was.

  “Princess, you can’t call me that; nobody knows my first name here and they might talk. Your sister was already getting the wrong idea today and I couldn’t afford to have anybody thinking I liked someone like you.” I'm not saying I was offended; I swear I didn’t care if Ryder thought I was hot or anything, but the way he said someone like me got me riled.

  I wasn’t the one who had said anything earlier, that had been Kaida. I hadn’t said a damn thing that was inappropriate apart from a handful of flirty texts that he started. And I sure as hell wasn’t the one stood in the kitchen, two fucking inches from my face whilst I was half naked.

  “Don’t worry about a thing testa di cazzo; someone like me thinks nothing about you. In fact, I think it’s best if you move the hell away from me, so that I don’t have to stand here in your company anymore. I would hate for people to start talking about the way I’ve lowered my standards by associating with a Vampiro like you, sir.”

  I shoved Ryder away as I called him a dickhead, forgetting all idea of snacks and things I came out here for as I stormed back to my room and slammed the door shut. Ryder shouted my name after me but fuck him if he thought I was going to respond. I wasn’t some piece of crap he could mess with; I was a god damn Princess in the making. Stronzo’s like him weren’t ever allowed to fuck with my heart or head, and I wasn’t about to change that.

  Laina

  Starting your morning off by being chased by a pack of wolves, and consequently tripping over, and getting mud all over your white shirt was not the best. I was late, on account of it being a Monday after our first hellish week of school and missing my alarm. By the time I was ready to go I only had ten minutes left of breakfast before my first lesson; potions.

  Being late meant I bumped into the Heirs on my way out the dorm, and Mikel wasn’t too impressed, still carrying a grudge for Dari throwing him into a wall last week. And her still wanting revenge for when they had been in detention together last Friday and he had apparently tried to soaked her, and got Caleb to use his air powers to force her into a closet for an hour when Ryder left the room. Which is why she’s plotting
revenge with Kaida over bagels.

  I knew I should have been mad for Dari’s sake, but I was too tired to care much at the moment so had wanted to avoid conflict. But even when I tried to reason with Mikel and say I didn’t actually do a thing, he didn’t seem to care. He had flicked his hands towards me, shooting a jet of freezing water over my head and soaking me to the bone.

  Before I knew it he was laughing hysterically as I gasped like a fish, and he asked Bette to continue my torture. I bolted out the room as fast as I could, but it was no use. I had never been particularly fast. Bette was howling as she chased me down the stairs, transforming into a ginormous pale grey wolf when she got outside.

  I ran like the wind towards the Green Room, but it didn’t make a difference; wolves were quick. Bette’s pack were flanking me on either side, a mixture of brown and white coloured wolves all running around and snapping at my ankles. They growled, bared their teeth and did pretty much everything they could to scare the crap out of me and boy did it work.

  To my credit I didn’t scream. Not even when the silver-grey coloured wolf jumped out onto the path in front of me and sent me stumbling to the ground as I thought for a moment they were genuinely going to eat me.