I closed my eyes and rubbed them with both hands. I didn’t know if I wanted to jump up and pace to rid myself of nervous energy or hide under the desk forever.
“Are you feeling alright, Amber?”
I jumped at Mr. Denholm’s voice. How had he snuck up behind me without making a noise? Quickly, I shut down the file and pulled the stick from the PC before turning towards the librarian. I didn’t know what Mr. Denholm read on my face, but he looked alarmed. “You’re white as a ghost, and your energy is fluctuating. Are you sure you’re not sick? Do you want me to call the healer?”
Shaking my head, I stood up and stuck the drive into my jeans pocket. “Thanks, but I’m just hungry. I’ll be fine once I’ve eaten.”
Then I walked away as quickly as I could. I had fifteen minutes before my next class. Just enough time to run to the bricks and put the stick back. Except, as I left the library, I saw Sharon walk towards our dorm building with Lance on her arm.
Oh, no way, bitch. Not again. Turning on my heel, I stomped across the campus. I was going to get to the bottom of what power Sharon possessed over Lance. There was no way he was accompanying her voluntarily. His gait was stiff, and she seemed to drag him alongside her.
I got to our room and tore the door open. Lance was lying on the bed with Sharon on top of him. It took me literally seconds to pull her off him and fling her to the ground. “Stop. What the hell do you think you’re doing? He doesn’t want this.”
Sharon sat on the floor, smirking. “You’re wrong, honey. Ask him yourself.”
I turned towards Lance, who’d sat up. “Tell her. Tell her you’re with me.”
Lance shook his head slowly. “No, I’m not. I’m with Sharon.”
I stared at him. His pupils were like pinpricks, despite the relative darkness of the room. He looked drugged.
“What have you done to him?” I asked as Sharon got up off the floor. She shrugged, but I kept staring at her. I wasn’t stupid. I wasn’t going to let up until I’d figured out what her powers over him were.
It worked. After glaring at each other for what seemed like hours, Sharon lowered her gaze and sighed. "You’re right. And I'm not proud of myself. But it's not what you think."
Really? She's pulling the "this is not what it looks like" excuse on me? I kept my mouth shut, although I was sure my expression and bunched fists must have told her exactly what I thought of her. Sharon turned to Lance and waved her hand in a complicated gesture. My boyfriend closed his eyes and relaxed on the bed. Sharon nodded as if satisfied with her handiwork before turning back to face me.
“Is he okay?” I asked.
“Sure. He’ll just nap for a little while.” She fell silent. I waited. Eventually, she said so quietly I could barely hear her, "I'm not here by choice."
She ran a hand through her hair and stared at her hands. "What I'm telling you now may be a shock to you. I'm not fully human."
Oh, come on. Another one? "What are you? Another faerie?"
Sharon's head whipped up. "There are fae at the academy?"
Crap. I tried to cover. "That's not important. What are you, if not human?"
"I'm half-nixie."
Ah. The same word the librarian has used. I’d meant to look it up, but with everything going on, I’d totally forgotten about it. Sharon looked like she was steeling herself for my response, but I didn't know what to say, except the obvious. "What the hell is a nixie?"
Sharon huffed in irritation. "I keep forgetting you're not one of us. A nixie is a magical water creature. I was born in Moraine Lake in Canada. I've got a huge family, and we've lived in the area for generations. We can appear human for extended periods of time. But because our magic is tied to our nature, we're far more powerful than the average water mage."
I nodded. "Is that why you always seem a little… damp around the edges?"
Sharon grinned. "Yeah. Even on land, the hems of our clothes collect the moisture we expel."
"That's cool. But getting back to the elephant in the room. Why is Lance so important to you?"
My roommate seemed disappointed I took her news so calmly. But honestly, I'd gotten used to the idea of non-humans living among us. Once I'd accepted the existence of succubuses... succubi... and fae, the rest came easily.
Sharon ignored my question. "I'm not at the academy because I want to. My parents thought it would be a great experience for me, getting training at one of the most renowned magical academies in the world. Because I'm half-human, my powers can be a little patchy. Sometimes they're super strong, other times they fizzle.
"Anyway, once I got here, Ms. Farkas asked me to take part in an experiment. In return, I'd get a stipend for the entire degree, including food and accommodation. So I jumped at it."
Her hands were still running through her hair, but instead of separating the strands, she clutched and pulled at them. Her voice sounded defeated as she continued. "Farkas had me collected by Lawson and his men. They took me to a place not far from here. The first few times were fine. They hooked me up to a heart-rate monitor and some medical machines. It didn’t hurt at all. But after a while, I started to get really tired. Bone-deep exhausted. I told them, and they gave me a glucose drip."
At that, my ears pricked up. Julian had received the same treatment after we'd inadvertently drained him. I had a sinking feeling I knew where Sharon was going with her story.
"Is that why you have such a huge stash of sweets?"
She nodded. "Yes. And that's why I get upset when people take it from me. I need the sugar to recover from the treatments."
"Treatments?" I asked.
"That's what they told me it was. Research to help people with incurable illnesses. They said because of my unique biological setup, I could help develop medication to cure cancer and other stuff. So I stopped complaining. But then, I got worse. My hair started falling out. I lost weight. I barely woke some mornings."
"So what happened the other day? At night, there were patches of bare skin on your head. But the next morning, it was like nothing had happened."
Sharon dropped her face into her hands. I could barely understand her as she murmured, "Lance came by."
Had I heard her right? "What do you mean?"
"Lance came by. I'm not proud of this. You've got to believe me. I never wanted to steal your boyfriend. But I figured out I could draw energy from him. Sleeping with him helped more than eating sweets all the time. Last time I was picked up, I thought I was going to die. I was unconscious when they brought me back here. But somewhere along the ride, I woke up enough and overheard one of the guys say I wouldn't last."
Sharon grabbed my arm. "Amber, I was so scared. I woke up when Lance knocked on the door. I compelled him to make out with me. Otherwise, he wouldn't have."
"Compelled?"
"It's a nixie power."
I nodded. I was beginning to understand. If she told the truth, then she'd had little choice. It was either drain energy from somebody or die. "Did you go to the head witch to ask for help?"
The moment I'd said that, I knew it was a mistake. Sharon jumped up and stared at me. Her eyes were wild, and her hair seemed to sway like seaweed, even though there was no breeze in the room. "I don't trust her. She's the one who got me into the program. It is her men who're doing this to me. You can't tell her what I told you."
Her voice had risen in volume until she stood in front of me, shouting into my face. I held up my hands to calm her, to show I had no intention of selling her out.
Sharon flinched back, and her eyes turned the color of pond water. The muddy-green on her irises seemed to bleed into the surrounding skin, and her hair thickened to resemble lake weed. She looked terrifying, and I retreated until my back hit the wall.
"Sharon, calm down. I'm not going to tell anybody if you don’t want me to," I said as calmly as I could. But even I heard the tremor in my voice.
My roommate had stopped moving, her eyes pinning me to the wall. I tried to think what else I could say t
o her, to convince her to trust me. But my mind was sluggish. I was drawn to her eyes, and everything but her irises faded out.
Water. Cold, foul-smelling. Rising to my ankles, past my belly, higher and higher. Soon it reached my chin. I tried to scream, but my gaze was held prisoner by Sharon's. Her expression was sad, but determined.
"I'm so sorry, Amber. This isn't my choice. It never was. I'll make it quick."
41
My panic ratcheted up another notch. It didn’t sound like she wanted to let me go. The smell of the water reminded me of a summer long ago when my parents had taken me to a local pond in the forest an hour's drive away.
It had been a hot afternoon, but among the trees, the sun rays had been filtered. We'd picked a spot with dappled shade, and I'd helped my mom spread the picnic blanket while Dad unpacked the food hamper.
I hadn't much liked the water. It hadn't been clear like that of our local swimming pool. When Dad had taken a stick and poked around the edges of the black and still water, the smell of rotten plants had bubbled up and made me gag.
Dad had teased me. "Don’t you want to swim?"
I remembered shaking my head vehemently. "No way. That's gross."
Mom had said, "Leave her be. There're mosquitoes breeding in there. It's stagnant water. No way are we swimming in that. Besides, I heard there are plants under water that can wrap themselves around your legs and drown you if you're not careful."
Is this my life flashing before my eyes? The water had risen even higher and reached my lips. I kept them tightly pressed together while praying for somebody to come help me. This couldn't be happening. No way was I drowning in my own bedroom.
How will they find me? A bloated water corpse like those in police procedurals? Will it look like I had a heart attack? Will they find water in my lungs? I struggled hard and managed to raise my arms.
But Sharon shook her head. "Don't fight it. It'll hurt if you do. Just take a deep breath and go to sleep. It'll be over in seconds if you don't struggle."
The compassion in her voice confused the hell out of me. She'd never been that nice since I'd known her. And now, as she was taking my life, she decided to be kind? I glared at her furiously, inhaling deeply through my nose.
The water was touching my nostrils. I tried to throw my head back, but her hold over me intensified. I couldn't move, couldn’t plead with her, only blink desperately.
The cold, stinking liquid was running into my nose. I exhaled strongly, expelling some of it. Then I held my breath and fought to conjure my lightning power. Nothing happened. I still couldn't move, and the water had risen above the wings of my nose.
Hot moisture ran out of the corners of my eyes. I'm going to die. Closing my eyes, I surrendered to my fate.
Sharon stretched her hand out and wiped the tears away. "That's it. Submit. I want you to take a deep breath through your mouth. You’ll just fade away. You'll see."
Instead of fighting, my limbs relaxed. My lungs were burning with the lack of oxygen. I couldn't hold out any longer. Lights were exploding behind my eyelids, and I gave up completely.
My mouth opened, and the water pushed in. First, it filled my mouth, and then I inhaled. Cold liquid ran down my throat into my lungs. I tried to cough, but the pressure in my chest was incredible.
Sharon had lied. There was nothing easy about this. The pain was excruciating as my body struggled to expel the water. Every muscle cramped tightly, and I convulsed, held upright by the column of stinking water. I gaped and writhed in agony, my lungs on fire, and my eyes rolled back into their sockets.
Then a new pain broke through my death throes. Searing agony hit my ankle. Again. And again. And suddenly I realized something was biting me. My vision was going black, and I knew I had seconds before there was no returning from certain death. But something was holding on with its teeth, shaking my Achilles tendon. The pain was even worse than that of my seizing lungs.
Slug. He's holding on, not letting me go.
With my last remaining strength, I opened my eyes. Sharon scowled at the ground, distracted by whatever the cat was doing to my ankle. That was all I needed. I still couldn't move, but her hold had loosened enough for me to dig deep inside my core. Beyond my waterlogged lungs, beyond my chest full of bursting with whatever cursed water she had filled me with.
Sharon's gaze flew back to mine, but it was too late. My skin, my limbs, even my hair was bathed in white sparks. I hoped Slug had enough sense to let go of my foot, because my lightning power was exploding out of my very pores.
The energy shot out, hitting Sharon, and enveloping her in a glow so bright, her face was hidden behind a sheet of powerful light.
The moment she lost visual contact with me, her compulsion over me vanished. The column of water covering my face and body disappeared, and I fell to the ground. For a moment, I thought it was too late. That the water in my lungs had done its job and made the tissue too soggy to take in oxygen. My heart was beating madly as I lay on the ground, my mouth wide open, and my eyes staring into nothingness.
Then a rough tongue licked my cheek. The stimulation did the trick. I rolled to my side, coughing weakly. A swell of water erupted from my mouth. I gagged, then inhaled deeply. That set off another round of retching and coughing, but eventually my lungs were drawing in precious oxygen. With every breath, my head cleared a little more.
Slug kept licking my hands, my face, my mouth, whatever he could reach. I was so weak, I lay on my side, eyes closed, and enjoyed the grooming. That was until my brain reminded me urgently that there was still a danger in the room.
Sharon. Where was she? Why hadn't she finished me off? I lifted my head and stared straight at the face of the girl who'd tried to kill me just now. Sharon's body lay contorted, electromagnetic discharges crawling over her still form. Her hair was smoking. Was she dead? There was no way of telling from here.
I closed my eyes and rested for another few moments, confident Sharon wouldn't hurt me any time soon. But eventually I pushed up on my elbows and reached out to feel for a pulse. The skin of her neck was hot and dry, as if she had a fever. Her heartbeat was barely there under my fingertips.
"Dammit," I whispered. I'd have to get help. Even though she'd tried her hardest to kill me, I couldn’t bring myself to leave her here. If she died, I was no better than her. But as weak as I was, I wouldn't be able to crawl, never mind walk outside.
"Slug." The orange fur-ball licked my face again. "Slug. Ew. Stop. Go get help."
The moment I said that, I felt stupid. He wasn't a dog. He was a cat who spent his life slinking around the academy grounds. That and eating. I was still thinking about how to call somebody, when Slug stood up, tail straight in the air. He walked to the door, jumped up, and pulled the door handle. Before I knew it, he was gone.
Great. Now I was all alone with my would-be murderer. I couldn’t even sit up to wake Lance. His hand hung off the side of Sharon’s bed, but he hadn’t moved throughout my entire ordeal. Whatever she’d done to him hadn’t worn off when she’d collapsed.
My head fell back. I'd have to wait until Beth came back to find us. Hopefully Sharon didn't wake up before then. Or die. My eyes filled with tears again. I'd never felt so damn helpless before.
I must have passed out or fallen asleep. Whatever. But when I woke up, two arms were cradling me against a broad chest. Kiernan held me tightly against him as he walked toward the infirmary. When our eyes met, he smiled, although the expression didn't reach his eyes. "Hey, lovely. We're nearly there. Just hold on."
I nodded tiredly. His gait reminded me of a ship on the ocean. I barely managed to warn him before I turned my head and got sick. Kiernan lowered me to the ground and rolled me to the side. I gagged and heaved as green, murky water exploded from my lungs. When the paroxysms were over, he picked me up again.
"What happened to you? And to Lance? He’s fine but won’t wake up. The healer is working on Sharon to stabilize her enough to get her to the urgent care ward."
Kiernan continued talking while I had another mini freakout. "You scared the living crap out of us. I thought you were…" He grabbed me tighter before continuing. "I had to get Sharon's heart going again. She looked like she'd been struck by lightning."
His eyes widened as I watched the penny drop. "Jesus H. Christ. Did you do that? I thought you were dead as well. You didn't move and looked all pale. Then you coughed, and I turned you on your front to help you get rid of all the water. Where did it come from?"
He mercifully stopped talking as we reached the door to the infirmary. Before the nurse took over, I whispered in Kiernan's ear. "Keep her away from me. She tried to kill me."
The check-up didn’t take long. Mr. Odwell did some magic juju, spreading both hands an inch above my midriff. The space above my skin glowed yellow, then orange. Something heavy pressed onto my lungs, making it hard to draw in oxygen. I tried to struggle, but whatever he was doing held me immobile. With every struggling breath, the weight lifted, until I was able to breathe easily.
The taste of brackish rot was gone from my mouth. The air moved effortlessly as my chest and belly lifted and sank. It was pure bliss after how congested the waterlogged lung tissue had felt.
"Rest for an hour, and then you're cleared to go home," Mr. Odwell said.
He turned to leave, but stopped when I asked, "How is Sharon?"
Regarding me with a solemn expression, he said, "Not well. We've put her in a healing coma. She suffered serious burns, both internally and externally."
"Will she be okay?"
Mr. Odwell shrugged. "It’s not in our hands any longer. We've done what we could."
My throat still ached from all the retching, but more than that, my mind ran through the images of how I’d nearly died, the pain in my lungs, the feeling of utter surrender to my fate. How Sharon's face had been full of regret, but also the intent to watch the water suffocate me until I was dead. Gone.
Second Chance Soul: a paranormal reverse harem steamy slow burn academy adventure (Second Chance Academy Book 2) Page 20