Nine Lives: The Caelum Academy Trilogy: Part THREE

by Akeroyd, Serena

  So, I stayed quiet, even though it burned me to do so, and decided that falling into this discussion was priority enough to turn on my heel and head to the fridge.

  Though I empathized with Eve about the stench of burning flesh, I was used to it. We all were. So, hitting up the fridge to see if it had been stocked up might have seemed cruel, but it was just the way of it. Tonight wasn’t our first Ghoul attack, nor would it be our last.

  More’s the pity.

  The second the rest of the Pack realized I had my head stuck in the fridge, they got to their feet and sauntered over to the counter, which separated the kitchen from the lounge and acted as the table. It had high counter stools that they slouched on, watching me haul shit out of the thankfully full fridge.

  I scowled at their eager faces and grumbled, “If you think I’m feeding you, you’re fucking stupid.”

  They grumbled back but made their own sandwiches from the stuff I put on the counter, and we were quiet as we chowed down. We’d last eaten on the boat, so we were fucking starving anyway, but I thought we’d all noticed that we were eating more now that Eve had worked her wiles on us.

  Halfway through sandwich number three, I mumbled, “You think she’s dangerous?”

  The four words sank into the atmosphere like bullets into flesh. They probably caused as much pain as those bullets would too. The fear was hitting us all, and trepidation had us lowering our sandwiches as we stopped stuffing our faces to contemplate exactly what was going on with our female.

  Reed rubbed a hand through his hair, then mused, “Do you know of any Ghouls who are mated?”

  His question resonated. “No. Not as far as I’m aware. They don’t mate, do they?”

  “How would we know?” Frazer countered. “The whole point is that they don’t get to be around others of their kind, so they have no chance of becoming anything other than Ghoul.”

  Dre shook his head. “That’s BS. Not every child like us turns Ghoul.”

  “No, just most of them.”

  We shared a grimace because the statistics were pretty shit. Without Caelum, without people like us around, and forced to depend upon the human meds that exacerbated our symptoms, there was little to no hope of a child not turning Ghoul.

  Before Caelum, it had been a sixty-thirty chance. The sixty being in our favor. But now? The tides had turned, and the trouble was, the humans were overpopulated. They kept on reproducing, creating a glut for the scourge to feast upon.

  The sandwich churned in my belly.

  “I doubt they’re capable of procuring a mate,” Reed said eventually, his gaze on the OJ he’d poured himself. “I mean, how could they? Everyone knows what it’s like when the souls start fighting. Imagine that on a constant basis. It’s enough to drive anyone insane on a regular day. For them, it’s no wonder they look for anything to dull the pain.”

  At the heart of every creature was the ingrained mixture of pity and revulsion for a Ghoul. We could so easily have been them, and that stirred our revulsion. But our pity was born from understanding the torment they’d had to endure.

  “Eve isn’t like us,” Dre added eventually, his tone as heavy as lead. “She has that eighth soul, and we had front-row seats to what she did today. She’s morphing the powers of all our souls.”

  “What was that shit with Samuel about?” Reed rasped, evidently preferring the direction of this conversation to the one mine had taken—none of us wanted to think about losing our mate.

  Eve had wandered into our world and like Little Bo Peep, we were her sheep, and no way in fuck was she getting rid of us.

  Just thinking about losing her made my soul rebel. The gouille had been calm ever since she’d Chosen him, ever since she’d made him hers that day on the stairs as she’d pushed me out of the sick bay in a wheelchair. And when, on the yacht, during our first lesson together, she’d made me a true Gargoyle? Both man and soul were beyond grateful for her.

  But more than that, we needed her.

  Each of Eve’s seven Chosen did.

  “The blood stuff?” Frazer nodded. “That was weird. She had to get blood on her. No way she couldn’t with that shit she pulled with the leg.”

  My nose crumpled. “That was gross.”

  “Cool, though,” Dre pointed out with a wicked grin.

  “Only you’d think that,” I retorted, but I smirked back at him because it was beyond badass. Like something from a zombie movie or some shit. “But yeah, she should have been covered with the way she was fighting the fuckers.”

  “So, what? She transferred the blood to Samuel by diffusion?” Frazer questioned skeptically.

  Dre snorted. “I can’t believe that. Shit doesn’t work that way.”

  “Aren’t we learning that nothing works how it should where she’s concerned? Maybe the eighth soul was behind it,” I reasoned uneasily. None of us liked calling the eighth soul the djinn, even though, with the whole wishing shit, that was pretty much an apt name for it.

  “Could be. All it makes me grateful for is the fact that Professor Anheim can see us tomorrow,” Reed murmured, and blew out a sharp breath. “We need help. We need to understand what’s going on with her arms, and we need to know what to do next.”

  “I can’t help but feel like we’ve crash landed in a movie with a treasure map or something. Those marks have to be a clue,” I muttered, shaking my head.

  “X marks the spot?” Frazer quipped with a faint smile.

  “Maybe,” Reed retorted, his eyes narrowing at Frazer’s mocking tone.

  “I think we should get some sleep too,” I suggested, glancing between the pair of them. The last thing we needed was for them to get into a fistfight while Eren and Sam were helping Eve get ready for bed.

  My words were the key we all needed to break the tension, because I knew everyone else was just as exhausted as me and tempers could easily run high.

  “Should we leave the food out for Eren and Sam?” Frazer asked, running a hand through his hair.

  “No. They’ll crash with Eve, and if they’re starving, they can raid the fridge. No need to let food go to waste,” Stefan replied.

  My lips curved at his predictable reply and I began gathering the stuff we’d eaten, and with the others, began to store it away.

  Within five minutes, we were all heading upstairs and, though the cottage was small, there were five bedrooms, each with twin beds.

  I’d have preferred cozying up to my mate for the night, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. And, where Eve’s well-being was concerned, I was glad she had Eren and Sam by her side. Eren, because it was unlikely he’d sleep and could watch over her, and if she had a nightmare, he’d wake her up. And Sam, because there was something so solid about him, so rational, and after what Eve had done and seen, she’d need a dose of both if the memories plagued her nightmares.

  ❖

  Eve

  There was a light outside my window.

  It was amber and gleamed straight into the bedroom. My bed was puddled in the light, which revealed the entwined legs of my mates and I. I didn’t even have to turn my head to know who was there with me. I just knew it was Eren and Sam.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Eren’s whisper had me shifting slightly on the bed. “Nothing.”

  “Bad dreams?”

  “I should have had some, shouldn’t I?” But I hadn’t. What kind of monster did that make me? As I stared at the amber glow from the window, I asked, “What is that?”

  “The light?” When I hummed, he said, “It’s a streetlamp.”

  Something that everyone the world over took for granted, except for me. I’d noticed them earlier when we’d gone hunting Ghouls, but it was only now that I was in bed, resting, when I realized how invasive they were.

  Maybe for humans they were effective. But for me? I could appreciate their use, but I didn’t like how they bled into the room, cutting away the complete totality of the dark.

  “Want me to close the curtains?” he w
hispered, and I shook my head.

  “You’re not my slave, Eren.”

  “I’ll die your sex slave, Eve,” Samuel teased, his voice sleepy but choked with amusement.

  I narrowed my eyes at him and whacked him on the belly. “No dying allowed.”

  His lips curved. “I’ll try my best.”

  “So long as you do,” Eren tacked on wryly. “No more going Lara Croft on us, yeah?”

  “Tomb Raider.” I clicked my fingers. “I liked that movie.”

  Sam tensed. “Which one? The Angelina Jolie one or the new one?”

  I hummed. “The Angelina Jolie one.” I couldn’t withhold the grin. “Daniel Craig was in that one, and he’s cute.”

  Growling under his breath, Sam rolled on top of me, making me squeal with laughter. As I stared up at him, stared into his beautiful face with a mouth that looked like it was constantly sneering, and a brow that was continuously puckered, it was hard to remember that a few weeks back, I’d tried to break his nose.

  Reaching up, I tapped said nose and inquired, “Did I break it?”

  “When you hit me?” He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “Shame.”

  He bit off a laugh. “Bloodthirsty wench.”

  “If you’re going to punch, aim true and hard,” I informed him.

  “Who said that?” Eren asked around a laugh, his head tilting to the side as he looked at both of us. “Coach?”

  I snorted. “That chauvinist? Nope. Me. I said it.”

  “Look at you. The world’s next Confucius.”

  “Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart,” I quoted, the words slipping from my memory as easily as the sun shone over Caelum. “Actually, they’re pretty similar. I mean, his is a lot less violent but then, I doubt he was a creature.”

  “Who knows? He could have been. Back then, we didn’t have the best records. He could have been a contender,” Samuel joked.

  “More movie trivia?” I groaned, then reached up and covered my face with a forearm. “I have a distinct lack of a database on movie trivia.”

  “You say that like you’re a computer,” Eren teased, his hand coming up to tangle with the fingers attached to the arm I was using to hide from them.

  “I think I am sometimes. With the way I remember stuff, it makes me feel like one.”

  “That will come in handy before too long,” Samuel pointed out.

  Eren agreed, “You read as much of the N-Files as possible, didn’t you?”

  “I did,” I replied with a huff. “I learned a lot of information about a few of the Great British nests.”

  “Nowhere else?” Samuel asked.

  I shrugged. “That’s where the teacher was focused on.”

  “I wonder if I could access the databases for you to read up on them remotely.” He shifted position, leaning so his belly pressed into mine, and considering our legs were tangled, and I could feel his cock, that had me softening in ways I really didn’t want to tonight.

  Thankfully, though, Samuel was curious and that meant his focus had shifted. If anyone was like me, it was him. He couldn’t remember everything he’d ever read, not like I could, but he was close. He had an affinity with languages and knew how to get whatever he wanted when he was hooked up to the internet.

  Whether it was illegal or not.

  “Is there much point at the moment?” Eren countered. “It’s not like we’re going Ghoul hunting—”

  “You mean like we didn’t tonight?” Sam cocked a brow at us both. “Ghouls are everywhere. You know it, I know it. We’re going to come across them, and it’s handy to know what we’re dealing with.”

  “Didn’t you have to study the N-Files?” I retorted with a huff.

  “Some, but not like the females do. Males are for fighting,” he told me, but I heard the laughter in his voice. “Don’t tell anyone at Caelum that you managed to beat three Ghouls while holding your seven mates in stasis, yeah? God forbid we wreck the patriarchy’s view on womanhood.”

  I snickered, because he and Stefan were always coming out with shit about the Man, and the patriarchy, arguing over human and creature rights alike. For people who possessed penises and not a vagina, I was coming to realize that women’s rights bothered them more than they did me, an actual woman.

  But then, that was what happened when you were raised having no rights and no voice.

  You grew accustomed to it, and the very worst that could happen didn’t seem so bad, and yes, I was aware of how stunning an indictment that was against the New Order…

  I heaved upward, pushing him off me so I could sit up properly. With my knees bent, I stared over at the window with the light that continued to fascinate me. “When I was at home and we needed the bathroom, there were outhouses on the demarcation line of the compound. We used to have to use them whether it was sunny or pitch-black, freezing or boiling hot.” I pointed to the light. “They would have been very useful back then.”

  Eren’s hand came up to squeeze my shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here with us and not there.”

  I wanted to say that I was too, but… “Even if I’m turning into a Ghoul?”

  Both men stiffened, but it was Samuel who murmured, “There’s no empirical evidence to prove that.”

  My lips quirked. Empirical evidence. See? Who’d say that if they weren’t AI? I’d check for circuit boards if he wouldn’t take it the wrong way and think I’d gotten mixed up with his erogenous zones again—and yes, that was as embarrassing as it sounded.

  “Considering we’re working blind on all fronts, I’d say we have no idea on any front as to what’s happening. But I saw the way you all reacted when I said it wasn’t me who was in control. You were all scared. I could scent it.”

  Eren blew out a breath. “It’s disconcerting how you can tug on all our powers at once, Eve, that’s for damned sure.” He shot Sam a look. “Scenting is a Were talent. On a…” He stared at me. “What are you today?”

  “The gouille is mostly in charge today.” The keyword there being ‘mostly.’

  Ever since I’d come across the guys, had started Choosing them and then turning them, the lines had begun to blur. So, while the gouille shone a little brighter in my psyche today, there wasn’t that much difference between her and the rest.

  That was why I was concerned. Even if they weren’t fighting, weren’t struggling for space in the tight confines of my soul, it couldn’t bode well, could it? When the creatures could overtake me, as well as overpower my mates like they had in the alley?

  Eren’s hand moved over to cup the back of my neck. “We’ll figure it out, Eve.”

  His words and tone were reassuring, but I wasn’t soothed. How could I be?

  “The appointment’s at ten tomorrow, isn’t it?” I asked instead, scampering over the sheets because I wasn’t going to be able to sleep unless the curtains were closed. Something I hated, because I liked waking up in the morning with the sunlight coming in to greet me.

  “Yes. It’s about thirty minutes away from here.”

  I hummed in pleasure, accepting that we could sleep in for a little while. The days started early at Caelum, but over the last two weeks, our six AM starts had morphed into ten AM.

  Shutting the curtains, I stared out into the sleeping street. It was neatly appointed, and I really liked the little stones that paved the road, even if they were hard to walk on. The building parallel to this one was like a mirror image, except for the fact its door was red and not navy, and they didn’t have as many flowers and plants decorating it.

  Peering up at the sky, I saw that there were no stars in sight, and with a glum sigh, I returned to the bed. I didn’t bother to get under the covers, though, I stayed on top. I wore Eren’s shirt from yesterday because it scented of him, and I was warm enough with both of them on either side of me.

  “Are you going to get some sleep?” I questioned Eren.

  “I’ll try.”

  He said that every night, and every morning, he appea
red even more wrecked than the night before.

  There had to be a way to calm him. To lull him into experiencing a dreamless sleep.

  As Sam sighed and curled onto his side, he hugged me to him so my butt was curved into his body. He was too warm, but I was growing used to that as well.

  Staring at Eren, who was messing around on his phone again with the lights from the screen illuminating his face in a way that augmented the lines of fatigue, I began to hum. A soft, low sound I remembered Merry, the recruiter from Caelum, singing from before, when she’d let my entire compound drift to sleep so we could escape the New Order with little to no fuss.

  The second I hummed it, both men stiffened. And not in a good way either.

  Samuel wriggled slightly, but he pressed his face into my throat and snuggled deeper into me. Eren, on the other hand, twisted to look at me. “What are you doing?”

  I ignored him and began to sing. The words falling from my lips, the tune escaping me as though I’d heard the song more than once.

  “As the darkness falls,

  And the warmth beckons,

  Jenny seeks you in her calm embrace,

  And as her arms enfold you tightly,

  The need to be at one overtakes,

  The rest you need is all she gifts,

  With her loving touch and her gentle kiss…”

  The lullaby had Eren shifting in bed, but I sensed him fighting the pull of my Lorelei. Sensed his soul’s displeasure at my controlling it. I ignored it, of course. Ignored his discomfort, ignored his choice because I knew why he was scared—the nightmares. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t sleep.

  He’d always woken up alone before.

  Now, he had me.

  I was there, just as Jenny from Merinda’s song, to take him in my calm embrace and soothe him from the horrible images that plagued his slumber.

  When he tumbled into sleep, both my men began to snore. As I listened to the house that squeaked and creaked slightly, from both old age and the pipes that fed the property, I tuned into the place where the souls were housed and touched upon each creature. Now I’d forced their creatures to become dominant, they each were linked now to their other half, and as I brushed against each one, they enabled me to sense my mates.