Dark Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  Maybe I hadn’t gotten the answers I wanted from him, but he’d made it clear where I’d find them.

  Looks like I’m transferring to Aurora Academy.

  Two Weeks Later

  I stood before the mirror in the bathroom of the crappy apartment I’d called home my entire life. Mom was gone. I’d sold the only thing she’d ever cared about: a ruby engagement ring Gareth’s father had given her before he’d found his Elysian Mate and dropped her like a sack of shit. Yeah, that’s how things went for Fae sometimes; one minute you’re planning your life with the man you love, then the next, the constellations align just right and he finds himself standing under the stars with another woman - his one true love. You only get one chance to solidify that connection with them or you end up star crossed forever.

  I couldn’t really blame him for choosing to take his shot at true love - who wouldn’t want that? But it left my mom alone. She was already pregnant with Gareth when it happened but she never told him. She just up and left, moved to this apartment, got a job stripping and...doing other things with her beauty and body for money. Then she went and fell for my dad and he disappeared too. Poof. Here one day, gone the next. She claimed someone had kidnapped him but it seemed more likely he didn’t want to be landed with a brat and did a runner when he realised she was pregnant with me. Whatever the truth of it was, having her heart broken twice was the end for our mom, she focused on her job and her kids and never fell in love again.

  It broke her. We’d always known it growing up. Something was missing from her. But no matter how bad things got, she never sold that ring. Her love for her children was almost enough to make her happy at times. Not anymore. Gareth was dead and the little bit of hope she’d clung to had died with him. She was a shell. She hadn’t even noticed when I took the ring from her finger.

  I’d used the money from selling it to pay for a year in a wellness centre for her on the east side of the city. Who knew that bit of jewellery had contained a priceless blood ruby rather than a bit of cut glass? But it had. And despite the asshole who bought it from me trying to rip me off, I’d managed to intimidate a decent price out of him for it.

  Rule one dickhead: don’t try and lie to a Vampire, I can hear your fucking heartbeat.

  Maybe he could smell the stench of death on me. Maybe he’d seen the emptiness in my eyes. Or maybe I was just that damn scary now. Who knew? All that mattered was that she was safe and the centre would do what they could to bring her back to herself while I worked on getting vengeance for Gareth.

  I pursed my lips as I looked at myself in the mirror. I stood in my black underwear, the tattoo which ran across my ribs reading backwards in the glass. Even angels fall... The words had spoken to me in my dreams the nights following Gareth’s death and I’d gotten them marked onto my flesh, feeling the truth in them so viscerally it hurt.

  I pulled my long, white-blonde hair over my shoulders and scowled as I raised the scissors. I’d never looked anything like Gareth; he was all dark, strong features and hooded eyes. My colouring must have come from my father. White hair, pale skin, freckles spattering my nose and bright, green eyes peering out beneath long lashes. I looked delicate, like a doll and I’d never minded that before. But now I needed to be something tougher. And I needed to be sure no one at Aurora Academy recognised me. It wasn’t likely; I’d never been for a visit and Gareth had never brought friends home to meet me. We didn’t look alike and we even had different surnames. But there was the chance he’d spoken about me, had pictures of me. Thankfully he always called me Ella. The only person who ever did. My heart ached a little as I realised I’d never hear him call me that again.

  Come on, Ella, you need to learn to run with the big boys now.

  His voice echoed in my memory, haunting my dreams. He’d never seen me as delicate; he’d always known I was fierce. And now that was all I’d be.

  Anyway, Ella had long, blonde hair so before I headed to the academy, I’d be rectifying that.

  I lifted the scissors and took a deep breath before cutting the long locks off in line with my chin. I was careful but I doubted it looked like a professional job. Ah well.

  When my hair fell to the ground around my feet I shook my head a little, marvelling in the feeling of air on the back of my neck, the lightness of my head. The cut made my features more striking, drawing attention to my high cheekbones, full lips, wide eyes. I looked different even to me and I wasn’t done yet.

  I cast an eye over the bottle I’d balanced on the edge of the sink, double checking the instructions before emptying it over my hair. I worked the dye in then headed back into my bedroom to double check the bag of belongings I’d be bringing with me to Aurora Academy. My life looked pretty pathetic packed up in one big backpack like that, but there it was.

  Elise Callisto: a handful of clothes, toiletries, a couple of notes from my mom and the only thing I had of real value; a binder filled with Gareth’s sketches. I hadn’t been able to make myself part with them. And it wasn’t like he’d signed his name on them anyway. I could easily claim to have drawn them myself if anyone asked. Not that I had a lick of his talent as far as that was concerned. I’d considered having one of them tattooed onto my skin but in the end I’d decided against it. I just didn’t think they’d hold the same meaning on my flesh as those pieces of paper did. He’d drawn them himself, those were his pencil strokes, his passion poured onto the page.

  I did a sweep of my room, checking to see if I’d forgotten anything even though I knew I hadn’t. I was just counting down the minutes on my hair dye. Counting down the seconds until I left for Aurora Academy.

  It had taken a few hours on the computer in Old Sal’s back office at the strip club for me to hack into the academy’s databases and get them to offer me Gareth’s scholarship place at the school. I was a Sophomore and he’d been a Junior but it hadn’t been much of a change. No doubt starting off in the middle of the school year was only going to draw more attention to me, but that was fine. I was happy to let the spotlight shine on me when I arrived.

  Let the sharks circle, I’m ready to bleed for them.

  ***

  Aurora Academy loomed before me as I strode up the long, paved road to the iron gates. Why did the towering metal fences ringing this place make it seem more like a prison than a school to me?

  I hitched my backpack a little higher, cocked an eyebrow at the glimmering sign which spelled out the academy’s name and chewed on my cherry gum a little harder as I strolled towards the gates.

  They parted magically as I reached them, no doubt recognising me and knowing I belonged. Even though I didn’t. I hadn’t passed the entrance exams. I hadn’t had my power Awakened here. I wasn’t my brother...

  But here I was all the same. A fox among the wolves.

  I approached the huge, gothic building in front of me, the ancient stone and towering walls casting an ominous shadow across the ground. Wide steps carved with the signs of the zodiac led the way to a set of double doors which were pushed open as I approached.

  I stopped at the foot of the steps, my senses tingling as I listened with my Vampire senses to find out what I was about to face.

  One steady heartbeat reached me, thumping to a tune that was just too casual to make me think I should be expecting violence. I wasn’t a fool though. I tossed a shield of air magic up around me as I waited for the door to open fully, ready to defend myself against whoever was coming my way.

  The doors opened and a huge guy with sun kissed skin and long, beach blonde hair stepped out. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as I spent a beat too long looking at him. His golden eyes trailed up from the toes of my black boots to the top of my lilac hair. I didn’t miss the way his gaze lingered on my chest or the way that casual heartbeat was pounding just a little bit harder at the sight of me. Which in turn sent a zip of energy right through me.

  His black blazer seemed to be having a little difficulty making it over his broad shoulders and my gaze caught
on the way his biceps strained at the confinement too. His shirt was untucked, tie hanging loose and a general attitude of just-tumbled-out-of-bed hung about him. If that was the case, bed hair looked seriously good on him. Sex hair would probably look even better...

  Down girl.

  I held my fangs back by pure force of will as I gazed upon the first King of this school and the start of my problems. When Lorenzo had let that little nugget slip to me, I’d thought it was gold. Turned out, Aurora Academy currently held court to four Kings so although my search for answers might have been narrowed down, it was by no means going to be easy to get them from any of the men who might have them. I’d done my research well, stalked social media and found out all I could. Safe to say I recognised him easily enough and he looked even better in the flesh. After all the research I’d done, I’d concluded that the man standing before me was my least likely suspect and though I wasn’t quite sure enough to rule him out yet, I didn’t really think of him as the one to blame for my brother’s death.

  “Are you Elise Callisto?” he purred, his eyes slipping to my chest again where my shirt was giving him a fairly easy view of my breasts so I could only really blame myself.

  “Who’s asking?” I took the steps slowly, still chewing on my gum despite the fact the taste had gone. It calmed me though, helped me keep the fangs in place.

  He scrubbed a hand over the golden stubble which lined his jaw as he assessed me. “Leon Night. Principal Greyshine sent me to be your tour guide. He has other things to do this morning, I guess. I promise I’m more fun though.” Leon winked at me in that casual way that guys did when they knew just how good looking they were. And dammit my stomach squirmed with butterflies in response. “You’re late,” he added as an afterthought.

  “You didn’t seem to be waiting for me,” I pointed out.

  “I’m always late.” He shrugged. “I’m a Nemean Lion Shifter, we take life slow most of the time.”

  I snorted a laugh as I made it to the top step and stood before him.

  “Something funny?” he asked, running a hand through his golden hair. Everything about him screamed sun and sand and fire. It was captivating and more than a little alluring, but I maintained the visage of being unaffected.

  “Leon the Lion?” I teased, a smirk hooking my lips up. I’d laughed out loud when I’d read it in his file during my research before coming here. His star sign was Leo too, it was too fucking funny. “Is that an unfortunate coincidence or something?”

  “I come from a family of Lions actually,” he said with a shrug, pushing off of the door so that he was right in my personal space, towering over me. “My mom thought it was cute.”

  “It is,” I agreed, still teasing. “Very cute for a little lion cub.”

  A rumble sounded in his chest but it was more amused than annoyed; I got the feeling it would take a hell of a lot to shatter his cool facade.

  “Yeah that’s me alright. Cute.” Leon pointed the way into the dark hall and I took the hint to start walking. “Don’t spread that around though, my family are supposed to be terrifying.”

  “Oh?” I asked, blowing a bubble with my gum like that didn’t interest me at all. Of course I knew all about his family. The Nights were so powerful that they hadn’t even aligned themselves with one of the gangs. They were a power of their own. In Solaria all Fae were supposed to claim their own place, fight for the position they wanted in society, and the Nights took that idea more literally than most. They were thieves. It was said that there wasn’t a lock in existence that a Night couldn’t pick and if you owned something they wanted, you’d be better off giving it to them than wasting your time trying to hide it. Not that I was going to let Leon know that I knew who he was.

  “Yeah,” he said, frowning at me like he’d never come across someone who didn’t know his name before. And maybe he hadn’t, but I wasn’t gonna start fawning over him any time soon so he’d just have to get over it. “My mother is Safira Night. My father is Reginald Night, you know…”

  I shrugged innocently. “Are they reality TV stars or something?” I asked. “‘Cause I don’t go in for trash TV much.”

  Leon chuckled and the sound made me want to smile too. There was something seriously inviting about him and I made a mental note not to get sucked in by his charm.

  “No, nothing like that,” he replied, not bothering to elaborate.

  We started walking down a huge hallway with dark panelled wood lining the walls and burning sconces lighting the way. The smell of parchment and smoke mixed with the underlying tone of wood polish and I looked all around, drinking everything in.

  “This is Altair Halls,” Leon said, sounding a little bored now. “All of the buildings on campus were named after the Celestial Councillors and the dead Royals. There are statues of the four ruling Councillors too and even one of The Savage King if you like looking at stuff like that. Maybe someone thought it might make them come for a visit.”

  I snorted a laugh at that. The rulers of Solaria were about as likely to drop in on an academy in the gang controlled city of Alestria as I was to suddenly sprout wings and start reciting a sonnet. People like that didn’t bother with people like us. They may have been our rulers but I doubted our existence meant anything at all to them.

  “So this is where all the classes are held,” Leon explained. “Classrooms to the right and upstairs, faculty offices to the left. Everything book related is in this building. Everything physical is outside. Do you need me to walk you around every hallway or is that clear? I’ve got a map for you anyway...”

  I looked around at the vaulted ceilings, gothic archways and imposing walls which didn’t hold a single noticeboard or poster. The quiet hung around us and seemed to echo back to us too. It was almost ten, but I guessed as it was a Sunday no one needed to be here for classes. I wondered vaguely why Leon was in uniform. Did we have to wear them in our free time too?

  Leon pulled a scrunched up bit of paper out of his pocket and passed it to me. I cast an eye over the hand drawn map for a moment before folding it more carefully and placing it in my own pocket. It didn’t look very detailed but I guessed it was better than nothing..

  He led me down several long corridors, pointing out things like that’s a picture of some old Altair dude and these are lockers, one of them must be yours and that bannister is the best fucker for sliding down in the whole school. It was super educational and I couldn’t help but wonder why he’d been chosen for this task. Maybe he’d just been wandering by the head’s office at the wrong moment?

  We made it to a set of glass doors at the back of the building and paused as Leon pointed up at a huge chart in the shape of the sun which glimmered with golden light on the wall. It was split into four columns each of which were lined with names numbered from one to two hundred.

  “This is the leaderboard,” he explained. “Each year has its own column and each student has a rank from most to least powerful. The teachers award and detract points based on your strength, your skill with your Element, how well you perform in classes, how well you keep control of your Order form and that kind of thing.”

  “So I’m guessing no one wants to be at the bottom?” I asked, my gaze slipping to the foot of the Sophomore column where Elise Callisto was marked in silver with a big fat zero beside my name. The guy ranking above me, Eugene Dipper, had four hundred and six points. How the hell was I supposed to catch up after missing half a year?

  “Don’t worry about that. Principal Greyshine said you’ll be given a ranking after a few weeks once the teachers have a grasp on where you should fit. Then you’ll be on a level playing field with the rest of us.”

  A flicker of relief filled me at that thought and I nodded, letting my gaze skim up the column until I found Leon’s name at number twelve. He grinned proudly then turned away from the leaderboard towards the glass doors.

  We stepped out into the sun which had just broken free of the clouds and Leon groaned in a way that was downright sexua
l. A shot of excited energy raced through my body in response as it took me by surprise. I looked around at him as he started thumbing open every button on his shirt so that his body was exposed to the golden light. I knew Lion Shifters replenished their magic by bathing in the sun, but this was like walking onto a porn shoot. He’d be asking me if I needed help servicing my pipes any moment. My mouth dried up, my gaze swept over his washboard abs and my lips parted without a sound finding its way free.

  “We had a bonfire down by Tempest Lake last night,” Leon said as if that was an explanation for him getting half naked. “I used a shit load of my magic,” he added in response to my blank look. He quickly shed his blazer and shirt, leaving him standing there topless with his plum tie still on which was weirdly hot. Before I could say anything to stop him, he tossed the shirt and blazer into my arms and I almost dropped them, only managing not to by using my Vampire speed to save the catch.

  “What the hell?” I demanded.

  I knew I’d have to fight for my position in this school the moment I arrived. Fae fought for their place in the world and I was joining a fully established ranking system. I was bound to get it hard from all corners until people realised I wasn’t a pushover, but if this was a power play it was the weirdest fucking one I’d ever engaged in.

  Leon raised an eyebrow at me in surprise. “Don't you want to carry that for me?” he asked innocently.

  “No, asshole, carry your own shit.” I tossed his clothes back at him and he caught them easily, cocking his head in surprise. “What?” I demanded.

  “Women just tend to want to do shit for me,” he said with a shrug. “It’s a Lion thing, you know. King of the pride and all that.”

  “Well I’m not a Lioness.”

  “No...you’re some other kind of little monster, aren’t you? Not many Orders can resist me that easily. What Order are you, anyway?”

  I half considered biting him just to put him in his box, but that pleasure had already fallen upon the bus driver who had made me late. I’d probably ruined his day and to make matters worse, his blood had tasted bland. Like a salad that was all lettuce. But I’d gotten enough magic from his veins to fill me up so I didn’t need any more. I’d bet Leon tasted pretty damn good though...