I don't think I want to fight this anymore. I just don't know how I am going to tell them.
“Samuel Graywood, in particular, is both hated and feared among demons. Our parents tell stories about him.”
It’s a little funny to think that the hero of my bedtime stories is the enemy to a whole population of beings. However, it makes sense he would be a sore spot for them, considering he killed so many and brought them to justice.
“You’ll have to tell me one of the stories some time. To me he was just my father, even though I knew what he was doing for the Magistrate. But now that I am going to be a hunter, I’d like to know that part of him better. My mom too.”
“You know that would require spending time with me?” he teases.
“Looks like I’ll be seeing you once a week either way; might as well get used to it,” I challenge him, knowing my five minutes is up as Ursula comes to me and nuzzles my hand.
“I’ll see you next week, unless you plan to stalk me again before then,” I joke as I walk away, with Ursula falling into step next to me.
I am giddy as we get back to my room, and part of me wants to call Jake and have him come to my room so we can talk about it. But it seems selfish for so many reasons. Besides, I know she is an animal, but what better way to bond with Ursula than over boys?
“Do familiars feel love the way humans do?” I ask her as she begins licking at her fur, her spot on the west side of the room claimed.
“I think some of us can. We are more than animal, though not quite human. There was a time when many familiars fell in love with their witches as well. But I think it’s more practical than what I see humans engaging in. Humans don't seem to have much of a purpose to their longing for each other.”
“Well, aren’t you the romantic?” I scoff as I lay down in my bed and look at my phone, seeing only one text. But it’s a good one.
Goodnight. We should have a date this weekend.
~Kagan
Sounds good.
“It is just the nature of a wild creature, Riley. Nothing to take offense to. But I have seen human love enough to recognize when its good and when it's bad.”
I think on that. Some familiars can live to be centuries old depending on their powers and how many generations the family they belong to survives, so they can be passed on properly. A familiar like Jinx probably won’t make it far as a century. Ursula has possibly been alive for hundreds of years, meaning she saw more than my parents fall in love.
“My parents?” I ask, hoping she knows what I mean.
“I can’t say I have seen a stronger bond, but such a thing is often detrimental. As with your mother.” She is gentle when she says it, and I am grateful for that.
I’d like to think I would be stronger if that happened to me – especially if I had children. Now that I have had to think about losing Kagan or Adriel, I don't know how people recover from that. And it isn’t like my mother committed suicide; it was like heartbreak killed her.
I don't dare ask her what she thinks of my guys because I don't know if I want to hear it. But it seems she is in the mood to say it anyway.
“They all feel something for you, but they all offer something different. I think Kagan is good for you. He’s the most in a position to understand you and provide stability for you. He can be a gentleman, or you can have fun with him. He is the most practical match.”
I roll my eyes and try not to laugh at her insistence on practicality.
“How do you even know how I am with Kagan?”
“Our connection ensures I can see your memories and feel what you feel. It turns out your head and heart are so like Sam’s that I find this easy.”
I file the fact that she called my father Sam in the back of my mind to ask about another day. “What about the other two?”
“Adriel is powerful and feels love in a way a human or a demon cannot. It is unbidden, pure, all consuming because that is all an angel can feel when presented with the rarity of falling in love with someone. This is one of the many reasons they don't mingle with humans, much. No matter how much he knows it is wrong, he would do almost anything you asked of him. But that other boy … “ she stops and makes that strangled cackle that sounds more like a dingo or coyote than a wolf. “he’s trouble. Demons are unpredictable, even if they do care about someone.”
“Yeah, tell me something I don't know,” I mutter under my breath, but I know she hears me.
“If you’re asking me who to choose, I think you already know my answer, though, from the standpoint of a wolf, even if I would mate for life, the truth is there is every advantage to not choosing.”
When I look over at her, she is pretending to be asleep, and I swear she has a grin on her face.
I roll over on my side and try to drift off, but it takes awhile as my mind plays the moments I have had with these boys over and over, analyzing them far too much.
***
“C’mon, Riley, your life depends on this! You can do better than that.”
“What, do actually want me to succeed at killing you?” I yell back at Dru, frustrated and not finding our practice together nearly as fun or hot as I might have thought it would be three weeks ago when he pressed me up against a tree in the woods.
He is even more of a hard ass than Adriel is, and his motivations are still over my head, which bothers me.
So, here I am, sweating in a black lace tube top and a pair of black leggings, my hair in a high pony now that I have decided to even up the cut, and it’s matting to my face in little strands as beads of sweat act like a paste.
“At least then I would know you were making progress, and I could die with you getting a job well done and you would be safe. More than safe. You’re a Graywood and an Aurora Witch! Quit holding back.”
He is good and pissed at me, and I don't understand why. I have worked harder in these past three weeks than I have ever worked in my whole life. Even all of my teachers have noticed the difference in my abilities, because of this extra training.
I am somehow keeping up with this strenuous schedule even though it sucks that it's keeping me from seeing Jake or Kagan as much as I would like.
I have survived so far as the angel blood takes over more and more in its fight for dominance, so that I can do what I was created for.
I don't understand why Dru is expecting that I am going to be able to kill him so easily yet, or even pretend to.
Even if I am scared I will actually hurt him, all of this struggle isn’t just because I am holding back, it's also because as much as I have improved, I am still not ready to be a hunter. I don't know how a demon moves, or any of the other instinctual things that come with experience in the field, which I don't have. And may not be allowed to build up to that ability, considering I am to believe the Magistrate wants to get rid of me, the first chance they get.
“That’s not funny!” I yell back at him as I try to fake him out with a magical attack only to come at him with my physical strength instead.
It hardly works. It’s like he expects that kind of tactic form me even though I haven’t used it yet.
“It’s not a joke. It’s kill or be killed. Do I really need to show that to you?”
I am surprised by his threat. He knows that Adriel would have his intestines on a platter for even thinking it. Of course, Adriel left us alone like he always does on Fridays. I think he goes to meet with the Magistrate about my progress, or maybe he is meeting with angels about whatever he is supposed to be using me for.
Either way, he isn’t here to protect me. He would only get revenge afterward.
“You’re bluffing.”
“No, I’m not. The most important thing is that you learn.”
I’m not ready when he comes at me from the side after zig zagging over the field. Not only is he superior to me with his physical combat, he has a weapon which is not something I am comfortable with yet. I have tried to use both a sword and a whip in my training with Adriel, but it’s awkward
when I am so used to telekinetic and spoken magic, and even those are not something I am that experienced with, in a battle setting.
His sword is infused with Hellfire.
I know this because he has warned me already, and I know from memory I don't want to feel that again.
I focus so hard on dodging that knife, that I don't see he has a second blade hidden in his other palm, and he slices it across my skin.
I double over in pain as the long cut down the side of my arm burns in a way I can’t even begin to describe.
It has to be infused with Hellfire too.
I land on top of him, blood dripping on his clothes, when I remember that as much as this hurts, my blood can kill him.
I throw myself off and sit in the grass. “What is wrong with you!? If you really want to die, then go do it on someone else’s watch because I am not doing it for you.”
He pants and looks up under his lashes, glaring daggers at me. “I am not suicidal, simply willing to take one for the team, assuming you’re going to make yourself useful.” His cruel words sting, and I look away.
“I think we’re done here.”
He stands up and turns his back on me, but I am not letting him walk away from this. This is the second time he has endangered himself.
I perform a quick healing spell and then get up, grabbing at his arm at the elbow and yanking him back. With him being a young demon, my strength as an Aurora Witch rivals his when I can channel it in short bursts, and I know I have succeeded when he spins around, catching himself before he falls.
“You’re not walking away this time without an explanation. I want to know why you’re here and why you’re risking yourself like this.”
His silence angers me, but I look at him and wait until he is ready to tell me. He is not winning this one.
“I thought I already told you that,” he finally says.
“That is such a cop out, and you know it. You mentioned I am a great leader and you’re on my side, but why? You say you’re different from the other demons, but I don't know any other demons.”
“I met your father, okay? I actually met both of your parents.”
I blink, unsure I heard him right. How could that be possible? “I don't understand.”
“It was like right after they got married, or something. I was pretty young and not getting along with my siblings or liking the way things were. I was in a mixed den of demons and vampires, and it was nothing but selfish fighting all the time. My mother was the only one that really loved any of us the way that family should. We were attacked one day, and your parents were the ones sent to get rid of us. But they didn’t just blindly kill us. They gave us a chance to surrender, and they didn’t hurt the children. I had always been told to expect them to slaughter everyone without discriminating or thinking twice about it. They aren’t like that.”
“So, they spared you?”
“I ended up in a special program for demon children. The Magistrate knew it looked bad if they publicly condoned slaughtering children, even if we were pure demon. Very few make it past coming of age in there, though. It’s in our nature, and I won’t even begin to get into the way we are treated in there. I am sure you can imagine.”
He pauses as I try to let it all sink in. Now that I think of it, my heart hurts for all these orphan demons that are out there because their parents are taken and killed or put in prison just for what they are without being given second chances.
If my father could see past the demon label, then I guess I can too.
“I came to the school because I heard you were here. I knew that Adriel would be making you into what you are. I didn’t know many specifics, but I wanted to help, and I wanted to see if you could be anything like them.”
“You came … for me?” The words sound strange coming out of my mouth as Dru reaches out and begins stroking my lips with his fingers.
On the one hand, I don't exactly feel great having him so close with me in this state – smelly and sweaty and not at all made up, but I also want to know what it’s like to kiss a demon.
A demon that came all the way to a school training witches to hunt him just to meet me.
As if reading my mind, he leans in and presses his lips against mine, his teeth biting at my lip seductively. His tongue slides into my mouth and his hands grip me, slipping down my back to my ass.
He doesn’t mess around.
“That’s one way to incapacitate a demon.”
I gasp and jump away, seeing that both Kagan and Adriel are standing a few feet away, looking at me like I just stepped on a baby bird.
Chapter Eleven
I pace back and forth in the tiny space I have as I notice this dorm room is not as big as it seemed now that I have an angel, a demon, and Kagan all crammed into it as well as poor Ursula who is whining in the corner.
I know it’s because they are basically invading her territory, but I am not sure what else to do.
I may have made the decision that I was going to continue to pursue all three of them, but they didn’t formally know that yet. I had naively hoped they would get the picture and let it go.
The looks on their faces when they saw me kissing Dru told me that this is far from the case. We need to talk this out, but I am unsure how to even broach this.
“I was almost positive you all knew that I had feelings for all three of you,” I begin, knowing that it is coming out sounding even more ridiculous than it does in my own head.
“The thing is that one of you gave me permission for this and said he would stay out of it, one of you I didn’t even realize felt something for me until recently, and the other one has told me it doesn’t matter what we feel because we can’t be together. Now, I don't know about you, but your behavior just now contradicts some of this. I don't like that I can’t choose either. It’s weird for me because I don't know anyone who is with more than one guy at once or who has had to choose, but my heart right now is torn. If you don't like that, then my only suggestion is for the three of you to stay here and work it out amongst yourselves which one of you gets me.”
Not too proud of my decision to do that but feeling good that it is off my shoulders, I leave them in a time out like that and take Ursula with me, out the door.
I know that there is a risk that doing this means losing all three of them, but I have to believe that if that’s the case, they aren’t the ones for me anyway. I’ll survive it even if it hurts.
“Are you sure leaving them alone like that together is a good idea?” Ursula asks, and I snicker.
“What do you think they will do, kill each other?” I look down at her and smile. “Don’t answer that.”
I don't bother texting Jake, since he rarely texts me before showing up in my room whether I am in it or not. I don't know how he has ended up with a key this time, but he has one that I didn’t provide. My only guess is he made a copy when I wasn’t paying attention.
Sometimes, having a best friend is the same as having a sibling.
With us now it’s even complete with teasing about our significant others. I know he has been texting Vivi up a storm lately.
Sincerely, I am happy for them. I think Jake has always felt like no one would accept him as is and so hasn’t tried, and Vivi has been so focused on being both boring and perfect that she hasn’t experienced too much in the world of men.
“Knock, knock,” I say, giving about a 30 second warning in case he is indecent. But I find him on the bed, thumbing away on his phone. “Vivi again?” I ask, and he shakes his head.
“No, my stepfather. Just seeing how he and my stepsister are holding up.”
“Oh, are they okay?” I can’t really expect them to be ecstatic that Jake is here at school and they are all alone, facing life without his mother.
“Yes, they are going to go ahead and leave the country even without her. They know it's what she would want, and they want to be ready for when she finally gets out. I think he is in denial and thinks she might get out
early on good behavior or something.”
I give Jake a wry smile knowing as well as him the chances of that are slim to none.
He puts his phone down and then picks up an envelope that’s on his night stand. “This came for me today from the Magistrate. I don't know if I want to read it myself, but maybe you could.” He shoves it into my hand, and I look at it like it's a bug.
“I don't know if that’s the best idea. You should really do it yourself.”
“Look, there’s nothing that I would keep from you anyway.”
It’s probably true. “On that note, before I open this, maybe I should let you in on the fact that Adriel, Kagan, and Dru are all in my room being told to decide which one of them gets me.”
I slap myself on the forehead in embarrassment at how dumb that decision was; as if anything good is going to come of it.
Ursula comes up next to me and nuzzles my hand until I run my hand across her smooth fur. I know she is trying to comfort me, but it only reminds me of what I have gotten myself into.
“You have got to be kidding me, right? As if they’ll be able to do that.”
I shake my head. “I don't expect them to come out with a real verdict. I am just hoping it gets the point across. Adriel and Kagan walked in on Dru and I kissing and didn’t take it well. I need them to understand and respect that I have these feelings for all of them or just walk away.”
Jake pats me on the leg, and I let out a pitiful laugh, knowing it's not a sign I did anything as smart as it felt like, when it flew out of my mouth.
“Okay, I need a distraction. Let’s see what this letter says.”
Dear Paranormal hunter Academy Student,
We are pleased to inform you that your academic record with us is outstanding. You among the top 10 students in Year 2, and we would like to extend a warm welcome to you in our early hunter program.”
I pause and look up to jake in confusion. “I’ve never even heard of such a thing.”
He shrugs and urges me to go on.
This summer we will be taking on a few outstanding second year graduates to participate in field work where we need you most. You will gain invaluable experience that will lead you into a successful final year at the academy.
Aurora Witch (Paranormal Hunter Academy Book 2) Page 8