Dark Water: A Collective World Novel (Academy's Rise Book 2)

by Lia Davis

  "Pleasure," he said in a British accent.

  Every woman in the room, and a couple of the men, sucked in a breath at the sound of his sultry voice, myself included.

  Those bitches could breathe as hard as they wanted, this hot motherfucker was mine. As hard as I wanted him, equally, I didn’t. He sauntered forward, the buckles on the leather of his coat jingling softly as he moved his cocky self to the seat beside me.

  "Don’t." I raised my eyebrows at him.

  "Don’t what?" Paw asked.

  As an empath, this was my idea of torture. The room was a big ball of anticipation, curious what was happening between me and the new sultry, sexy, slender... son of a bitch I couldn’t take it.

  Jumping up, I finally looked away from Kevin and straight into the eyes of Randell. His fury and confusion pelted my emotions. Nope. Nuh-uh. I noped it right out of the room, using every ounce of speed I possessed.

  Someone followed me out of the room, but it only took me a fraction of a second to know it was Elijah. I didn’t mind him. He didn’t have a claim to my heart or body or mind. As my sentry, he was pretty good. As my friend, he was better. Plus, he was a vamp, so he had the best chance of keeping up with me as I ran out of the building and into the woods.

  If Randell had followed, we might’ve finally had that fight to establish definite dominance. It would happen eventually, and he would be mighty disappointed when it did.

  I ran until the scream building in my throat broke free. With my speed, I was many miles away before stopping, hand on a tree trunk, releasing my frustration with an inhuman shriek.

  Elijah stopped a few feet behind me, quietly giving me space to be emotional. My family, my sentries included—except for Randell—understood that as an empath, my emotions rode me heavy almost all the time. I'd left the room without any of my candies, so I didn't even have any magical means of help to push back the wave of pure emotion that built inside me.

  My water churned, the ocean during a storm, adding to the cacophony of disturbance in me. Rain began to fall, the weather responding to my panic and upset.

  Elijah stepped forward, putting a hand on my shoulder, the only show of support he would give me. Not because he didn't want to, but because he knew that overstimulation by touch would be too much for me, yet he wanted me to know he loved me and was there for me.

  Elijah would be a wonderful father and mate one day. Everyone had hoped he'd bond with one of us sisters, but I knew he preferred men. He was shy about his sexuality, exploring it at his own pace, but I'd known for years. Probably longer than he had. When he was ready, he'd blossom.

  Thinking about Elijah's state of mind instead of my own helped me, but only marginally. The water inside me frothed, eager to be released.

  Another hand touched me, on my other shoulder. Jerking my head to my left in shock, I stopped myself from reacting violently just in time.

  "Hey, sweet girl." My Poppy smiled gently down at me. "Need some help?"

  Tears filled my eyes as I realized I didn't have to fight it anymore. Poppy would help me.

  "Please, Poppy."

  He squeezed my shoulder and looked at Elijah. "You can go. You did well, sentry."

  Elijah beamed, the simple words from Lucifer, the Father of Vampires more of a boon than any amount of money could buy. He ran off toward campus, no doubt to fill in the rest of the family.

  Poppy pulled me into his arms. It didn't overstimulate me when Poppy hugged me. He was the original Empath and knew exactly what to do to push the feelings back so that I could grab the reins of my own mind and heart.

  "You're going to have to teach me how to do that," I said into his suit jacket. "Poppy, you're getting your nice suit all wet."

  "Tala, I don't care about this silly suit." He tightened his arms around me. "You'll learn how to do this, but it isn't something that can be taught. It comes with time. Aren't you already better at it than you were even a year ago?"

  I nodded, still not willing to let him go.

  Meda always said that Poppy smelled like cinnamon, but I never got a scent off of him. Instead, when I was near my Poppy, I felt like I'd been wrapped in a warm blanket on a cold day. Like thick, soft down feathers stroking my cheek.

  "So, you met your mates?" he asked when I finally calmed enough to pull back from him.

  "How?" Shaking my head at him, I walked over to a big, overturned tree and sat down. He always knew stuff. Not everything, always, but randomly he turned up with pertinent information.

  "I'm Lucifer," he said with a shrug. "I know some things. And, you get your visions from me."

  "Poppy, you've told me all my life I'd have visions, but I still haven't had the first one."

  He sat beside me and took my hand, pulling me close. His heat seeped into me, warm enough to calm my waters but not enough to take it up to bubbling.

  "They're coming. You're not going to like it." Squeezing my hand, he turned his head to look me in the eye. "Tala, you have to remember, these visions never show every eventuality. They never show every truth. They are warnings to help us prepare for things that could come to pass."

  "Okay, Poppy." I scooted closer, looping my arm around his and taking his hand again in both of mine. Placing my head on his shoulder, I breathed in the rain, soaking in every ounce of comfort I could get. He wouldn't be here long. I'd learned over the years to drop everything and enjoy every second I could get with my Poppy because his visits were sparse and random. Except for Christmas. He always made time for us at Christmas.

  "I know you don't believe me, Tala. Empath, remember?" He chuckled, his humor filling me with happiness that I sorely needed.

  "It's not that I don't believe you. You've warned me so many times that I have it memorized. When the visions come, I'll let you know."

  We had ways of summoning him and Lilipad, but had been taught over the years to only summon them in extreme circumstances.

  He sat with me nearly in his lap for several minutes as the rain washed away the last of my anxiety. I was soaked to my skin, but thanks to my wonderful Poppy, I was warm, safe, and loved.

  "Voss is worrying," Poppy said, cocking his head. "Your sentry went back and told him you were okay, but you know your father." He stiffened. "And it's time for me to go." That happened a lot when he visited. Some unknown message from Hell reached him and he’d take off.

  He disentangled his arm from mine and took my face in his hands. When he kissed my forehead, I felt reinforcements go up around my wall, the only thing that kept me sane. Sometimes it cracked, and on days like today, it came half down, but thanks to my own practice, potions, and Poppy's occasional booster, it never came all the way down. I didn't know what would happen if it did.

  "Go text your father. I'll see you soon." He disappeared from my arms, leaving me feeling a thousand times better than when I'd entered the forest, but slightly worse than when his arms were around me.

  I did as he said, hurrying as fast as I could to my dorm, where I could open my laptop and shoot Paw a message. My phone had been in my backpack, which I'd left in class.

  Tala: Hey, sorry. My emotions hit me hard and I had to escape.

  He replied immediately. He must've had his phone in his hand, even though he was teaching. Poppy was right, of course. He was worrying.

  Paw: Are you okay? Do you need me? I can call Kane. Or send your sisters. Or sentries.

  Tala: Thank you Paw, I love you, but Poppy found me. He helped me. It was bad this time.

  Paw: Any idea why?

  Tala: Yes, but I'm not ready to talk about it. Love you. Go teach your class.

  Paw: Love you too, Tats.

  His pet name for me made me smile. He'd called me that as long as I could remember, and the other niswi had picked it up.

  I stripped and toweled off, throwing my wet clothes in the hamper. It was spelled to dry anything in it. That had become necessary as soon as my powers manifested as a child. I couldn't control them at first, and my clothes—and half our
home—stayed wet for a couple of months. My parents had come up with creative solutions to the damp. Meda's fire and Ami's air helped, but sometimes too much. I'd put out several fires over the years.

  Exhausted after my ordeal, I slipped on some comfy pink panties and climbed into my bed, burying myself under the covers. I'd just gotten really comfortable when my door opened.

  "I see your eyes peeking out," Randell said as I watched him lean against the door jam. "I was sent to check on you."

  Opening the gap in the covers enough to expose my mouth, I contradicted him. "You mean you were worried and volunteered to come check on me."

  "I'll never be able to lie to you, will I?" He smiled, and actually didn't look totally upset at his statement.

  "Never," I told him and covered back up.

  He was a lycan, and as sneaky as sneaky came, but I was a hybrid empath. I heard him move toward the bed, no matter how softly he did it. His voice came from beside my ear, on the other side of the covers. "May I join you?"

  "Sex is the last thing on my mind." My voice was muffled by the thick comforter, but no doubt he heard me.

  He took my statement as permission and slid under the covers behind me. He'd slipped off his shoes, surprising me with his cold feet. I stiffened and bit back a squeal as he tucked them against mine, but I didn't make him move. I didn't mind warming him up.

  "Why are you cold?" I asked.

  "Because I've been standing out in the rain since you left the classroom. I didn't follow you into the woods, I knew Elijah would help you, but I couldn't let you go out there alone."

  "Shit, Randell," I said as he slipped his arm around my waist and tucked it under my bare breasts. He got brownie points for not giving in to the temptation to touch them in a sexual way.

  My emotions were cut off enough that his didn't bombard me. Instead, I felt him from a bit of a distance, as if watching a movie in high definition. He was concerned about me, and a feeling that was far too close to love was beginning to grow deep inside. Without my empath powers on full blast, I barely felt it, but it was there. He probably barely felt it himself.

  I often knew emotional truths about people close to me before they did. The mind had a way of protecting itself as feelings grew by ignoring them or denying them.

  He was probably denying still.

  "What are we going to do?" he asked, scooting closer. His dick was hard as a rock, pressed against my ass through his rough jeans, but he ignored it.

  I nearly gave in to the feeling of it, hard against my soft butt cheek. A quick fuck would help me ignore his question, but I was way too damn tired. Maybe if he did all the work, and I just laid there... But no, I'd never been one to let Randell have his way. Active participation made the act far more enjoyable. Better to lay there and explore how good it felt to lay there.

  "He's my mate, too," I said, throwing the elephant right out into the room.

  "I figured."

  "You're taking it well."

  His chest pressed into my back as he sucked in a deep breath and sighed. "I got really fucking angry at first. But then I turned and looked at you and saw the sheer panic in your eyes. You don't want this any more than I do, and when it comes right down to it, what choice do we have?"

  "None," I said bitterly.

  "The ancestors, they choose the mates?" he asked. Since Mom had gone through her trial when she became High Alpha, she'd been free with the information she'd learned, and also encouraged her father, my Papaw, to tell what he knew. Much of the Collective was much more informed about things like our history and fated mates.

  It had become somewhat common knowledge that if mates were fated, it was the doing of our ancestors. They apparently had enough information to know which pairings would be successful, loving, and be the best for the continuance of the species. All three species, as it turned out. Meda's mates were from the lycans, vampires, and witches.

  Now I knew, so were mine.

  "Paw and Papa gave up being Mom's sentries because they were the High Alphas. Emphasis on high. She stepped into her role basically as soon as they mated."

  He stilled, totally invested in what I was saying.

  "I don't see why you have to give up being a sentry," I said. "I think possibly you'll have to give up being our sentry and switch to being mine. And you may end up with backup for me, probably while this shit with Calista is still unresolved. But that's happening anyway. Papa told me over the weekend they were bringing in two seasoned and a newbie."

  "Shit. Nobody told me. As the head of your sentries, shouldn't I have been informed?" He sounded pissed.

  "Take that up with my niswi," I told him. "All I know is that our becoming mates doesn't have to be the worst thing ever."

  "I know why I've been against it, and you alleviated my fears," he said, pressing a kiss to my bare shoulder then covering it up again. "Why are you so against it?"

  "Such a loaded question," I whispered, trying to figure out how to describe my fears. "How long have we known each other?"

  "Since you were born," he said, squeezing me. "My parents brought me to your nursery when the three of you were newborns and pledged their and my loyalty to you and your sisters. Not your parents, not your grandfathers, you."

  I nodded. I'd heard the story before, but before he'd always told it with a bit of an apathetic attitude. This time, he sounded proud. "I never minded being devoted to you three, but becoming your sentry was pushed on me. I didn't want it at first."

  "Why is it so important to you now?" I asked. "If you didn't want the job?"

  "You three are the most frustrating, infuriating, rebellious, ungrateful brats I've ever seen in my life," he said in a stern voice. I jerked and twisted my neck and shoulders around to stare at him in shock. How rude.

  "Relax," he said, kissing the tip of my nose. "I love the three of you to the bottom of my heart. I began falling in a sort of brotherly love with each of you when I officially became your sentry, and as you know, that evolved to whatever this strong emotion and desire is with you. Maybe not love yet, but it’s something intense. I was quiet and angry at first because I didn't want to be there. But then as time went on, I learned about the three of you, and I learned about myself. And I found that I didn't want to be anywhere else in the world but standing by your sides, protecting you."

  "So, why are you so grumpy and angry all the time now?" I asked, still twisted around looking at him.

  He grinned. "It became who I am, love me or leave me."

  Giving him a hrmph, I turned and snuggled back into him again. I didn't know about the love him part, but I had no immediate plans to leave him, at least.

  Chapter Four

  The dorm shook like we were experiencing an earthquake. But we didn’t get quakes in Virginia. At least, we’d never had one worth mentioning in my lifetime. I jumped out of bed and stumbled to the window. Gripping the wall on either side of the glass, I steadied myself.

  Just then, a fiery ball lit up the sky and the earth quaked again. It took me a few seconds to realize the whole damned campus was under attack. Demons and other creatures I didn’t recognize swarmed the grounds, killing students, teachers, staff, and the sentries.

  My chest tightened as my Empathy absorbed all the pain and fear. Fenton. Kevin. Randell. The names of my mates screamed in my mind like I was trying to call out to them, but they weren’t answering. If not for that, I would’ve been a mess of panic, trying to fight off the emotions bombarding the campus.

  Tears streamed down my face as I raced to the nightstand and grabbed my phone. I snatched it up and called my dad. He answered on the first ring. "Thank Lucifer you're alive. Get your sisters and meet us at the safe house."

  The call cut off, so I shoved my phone in my pocket, grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, then raced out of my room, yelling. "Meda, Ami, Randell!"

  My sisters were already in the process of emerging from their rooms, their eyes wide. Meda asked, "What the fuck is going on?"

  "
I don’t know. Dad said to meet at the safe house." My eyes instantly locked onto Randell’s as he and our sentries stormed into our side of the top floor of the dorm. I ran to him and threw my arms around him. He was alive. "Where are Fenton and Kevin?"

  Randell kissed my forehead. "They went with Dorian and Sterling to Keegan Hall."

  Horror sliced through my gut as the memory of the classroom building exploding filled my mind. "It blew up."

  I didn’t have much time to get worked up before the door to our dorm opened and in stumbled the guys. Each one was covered in blood. They reached the middle of the common area and collapsed. Meda and I screamed at the same time as we looked at our dead mates, piled up on our common room floor. Fenton’s lifeless face looked right at me, his sightless eyes slicing pain through my heart. Dropping to my knees, I reached into my mind to the little bundle of personality that was my connection to him, but it was gone. A gaping hole was in its place, and beside it, the hole that had been Kevin.

  As I took in a breath to sob, my phone rang again. I pulled it out of my pocket as I fought the wail building in my chest and answered on speaker. Dad’s voice filled the room, strained and as if he was fighting for his last breath. "It’s too late for us. Safehouse is a trap. Take your sisters and go to Poppy."

  The line went silent, and I cried harder. "Dad! Dad, say something!"

  Nothing. As I punched the button, I felt it in my soul. My parents were dead. Two out of my three mates were dead. Meda’s mates, all three gone. I tried to call my water, which should have been easy considering how high my anxiety and emotions were at the moment, but it didn’t come. What the fuck was going on?

  "Meda can you reach your fire?"

  She met my gaze and shook her head. "No. It’s gone." She cocked her head, focusing. "Or just out of reach."

  We looked at Ami and she shook her head and her bottom lip trembled. Harper wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into a tight hug.

  "Dad said to go to Poppy," she whispered.