by Cara Wylde
“So, are you just going to give up?”
I shrugged.
“You said you’re a villain. Didn’t you know that villains never give up?”
Fuck. I had to give her that.
CHAPTER FOUR
Corri and I were the last ones there. The AC was waiting for us. Why did I let Lorna choose the name? It doesn’t even abbreviate right. Francis and Sariel were tending to the candles, while GC and Pazuzu were whispering heatedly in a corner, arguing about something.
“Morningstar was all up in my ass, I couldn’t do shit,” GC was saying.
“You didn’t try hard enough. Teleport in, teleport out. It’s not rocket science.”
“As if it’d have stopped him from killing her…”
“It could’ve.”
“Don’t blame this on me, mate.”
I walked over to Klaus and Lorna. Joel was there, too, sitting a few feet away from them, on a rock, his head in his phone. He was playing something. Weird. When they were in the same room, Joel and Klaus were usually smooching. Something’s not right here. Patty came over to me, arms crossed over her chest.
“Finally! We don’t have all day. I have to go back and help the girls make the smoothies for breakfast tomorrow.”
It struck me she was the only one who was doing actual work around here. She and Joel, that was. He was working in the kitchen, too, mostly peeling veggies and doing the dishes. My super-secret group was made up of people who would’ve never talked to each other if it weren’t for me and my problems.
“You look good,” Lorna said.
“Thanks?”
“Not dead and rotten at all. Your first ritual went well, then?”
Did we really have to talk about this right after dinner? I nodded, hoping she’d let it go. Corri flew off my shoulder and onto Klaus’s, as if Lorna had just reminded her what her Mistress was.
“I like your tat,” the mage girl tipped her chin toward my inked arm. “It’s cool. I heard Pandora say she wants to get one. It’s becoming a trend.”
“Never thought I’d be a trend setter…”
“Enough with the chitchat,” said Patricia. “Let’s gather round and figure out what’s to be done to catch that bastard, so I can get back to my chores.”
“There’s nothing to be done.” There was no point in wasting everyone’s time, and I had every intention to make them see that. “We have no clue where he is, he’s probably in some parallel universe by now, and even if we found him, I wouldn’t be able to retire him. We all know why. I don’t even know why we’re here, having this conversation.”
“We’re here because Patty insisted,” said Joel, never taking his eyes off his phone.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Lorna stepped up. Fire blazed in her deep blue eyes. “What kind of hero are you? Is this why we risked everything to bring you back to life? Is this why I let you have the only man I ever loved?”
Sariel scratched the back of his neck in discomfort, avoiding Lorna’s gaze.
“Is this why I joined your stupid secret group? I’m friends with a succubus who makes my breakfast, and a merman who peels my veggies, for crying out loud! My ancestors would turn in their graves if they knew!” She raised her gaze to the ceiling, a silent apology in her eyes. Oh, she sometimes beat my ass so hard at being a drama queen! She shook her head and fixed me again with an unforgiving look. “You promised the Council you’d track down your father. I know you spent your summer drinking and smoking weed. Fine. You needed time to recover, to get used to being a revenant. I gave you a break. We all gave you a break.”
“You gave me a break,” I chuckled sarcastically. “As if I needed you to…”
“You needed us to save your life!” She cut me off. “Now we need you to save everyone from whatever Morningstar’s cooking in his self-imposed exile. Because he’s up to something, and we all know it’s not unicorns and rainbows.”
I sighed, exasperated. “I can’t dream, I can’t find my father, and I can’t find my mother, okay? It’s over. You know what the Council should do? Find themselves another prophecy and another savior.”
“Forget about the prophecy,” Paz said. “That’s not how you’ll defeat him. He’s a hybrid – a nephilim, – he must have a weakness. We just have to find it. GC was supposed to talk to his grandfather, the original Golden Calf.”
“I told you,” GC groaned. “We were all being watched. I couldn’t teleport to the bloody Himalayas.”
“All summer, Apis? You couldn’t go investigate all summer? You had one job…”
“Guys! Knock it off!” Last year, we’d established GC would talk to his grandfather who’d retired in the mountains, Patty and Joel would research the Great Old Ones, and Paz would see what he could find about Valentine’s parents. GC had masterfully failed at his task, too distracted by my insatiable sex drive last summer, and I don’t know what Paz had done. For the most part, I’d been drunk and high, but if I wasn’t mistaken, there’d been days when he wasn’t around. Patty and Joel hadn’t found much on the cosmic gods sleeping in our universe. They concluded that if there was any serious information on them, it wasn’t in written form.
“Come with me, Mila,” GC said. “We’ll visit him together. He’ll be glad to meet my girlfriend.”
“Our girlfriend,” Paz growled, his demon eyes turning red.
“He’s old school!” GC protested. “He doesn’t believe in polygamy!”
Lorna laughed out loud. “He’s from the Old fucking Testament! There was no monogamy back then.”
“A man could have more wives, not the other way around. If I tell him I’m sharing Mila with three other guys, he’ll disown me.”
That made Lorna cross her arms over her chest and sneer at him. “Fucking patriarchy.”
GC ignored her. “Mila, will you come?”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. I doubt we’ll find out anything useful about the nephilim, but whatever makes you happy. I already read the Old Testament. Twice. It doesn’t say how to kill someone like Morningstar.”
“There are things, secrets, they never put in the Old Testament,” said Klaus. “I think it’s worth a shot. If nothing else, you get to see the most beautiful mountains in the world. Merciful Reapers and Neutral Reapers get called there all the time. Violent Reapers… not so much.”
“A vacation in the Himalayas,” I said sarcastically. “That’s what I need. Clear my head… maybe I can come up with a way to dream travel again.”
“Maybe you can come up with a way around that,” Lorna said, tired of hearing me complain about not being able to dream jump and see my mother. What she didn’t know was that I didn’t only want to see my mother again, but to bring her back where she belonged. In this universe, with me. “You think all is lost because you can’t dream jump anymore. So what? There are other dream jumpers out there. Learn to delegate.”
My eyes went wide, and my jaw dropped. I could almost imagine myself as a cartoon character, jaw hitting the floor, light bulb blinking yellow above my head. Good gracious, Lorna was smart! I didn’t have to do it myself. I just had to find someone to do it for me, dream, travel, then travel some more, until they found my mother. I could describe her universe to them.
“It could work, in theory,” Francis said, looking at me worriedly. I pulled myself together and gave him a smile. It was as if he could see the cogs in my head turning, and he was afraid I might come up with a crazy idea. “But where would we find a dream jumper?”
Lorna poked Patricia in the ribs. “You’re half succubus, half human.”
“I can barely remember my dreams in the morning.” Patty said. “That should tell you I’m not as gifted as Morningstar.”
“It can’t be a hybrid,” I reasoned. “It’s too hard for them. We need to find someone who’s a natural.”
If Francis was thinking what I thought he was thinking, then he was right. I was on the verge of coming up with a crazy idea. I just di
dn’t know what it was yet.
“Someone’s who’s human,” Lorna and I said at the same time.
“We can’t involve humans.” Sariel stepped up between me and Lorna, forcing us to break eye contact. Seeing us on the same page made him feel uncomfortable. He knew what she was capable of, and he didn’t want her to influence me. “Mila, whatever you’re thinking, stop now. We’ll find another way.”
“There is no other way. Morningstar is out there, jumping from one universe to another, and I can’t follow him.”
“Oh, now you want to catch him?” Sariel cocked an eyebrow.
No, I don’t give a shit about him. I just want my mother. I didn’t say that out loud. Since I saw her last spring, in that dream, reading on the porch, the sun shining in her long blond hair… I’d been asking myself every night… She’s a dream jumper. Her gift is so powerful that people thought she had schizophrenia. So, why didn’t she find her way back to me?
I pulled away from Sariel and turned to Paz.
“You still have that family tree you put together?” He nodded. “Great. See you in your room in ten. I want to go over it again.”
CHAPTER FIVE
I was close to a breakthrough, I knew it. I memorized my family tree and went over it in my head a few times a day. I knew every name, every birth, and every death. I mulled over this alone, as I knew no one else agreed to my plan. I was going to bring a human into this. Someone gifted. Someone from my own family, on my mother’s part. But who?
“Corri, I need you to do something.”
“Anything, Mistress.”
I was in Anthropology with Sariel, Lorna, and Klaus. If Paz had been here, he would’ve read my thoughts. It was a good thing he wasn’t. I pulled out a post-it and scribbled five names from memory.
“Check on these people. See where they live, how they’re doing… you know, stuff like that.”
She flew around my head, then landed on top of the post-it, reading the names under her feet.
“Any idea where I should start?”
“Try Bulgaria.”
“On it.” She grabbed the post-it, rolled it up like a scroll, and zapped away.
“What are you up to?” Sariel leaned in.
“Nothing.”
“It can be dangerous.”
“Oh, shush it,” Lorna hissed at him. She was excited I’d finally gotten off my ass and did something. She didn’t care about dangerous. “You’re all coming to Mabon, right?”
I smiled. “A proper Mabon party in the forest. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Party girl…”
“You know it.”
* * *
Being a revenant had its perks.
I couldn’t feel the cold, so I could dress however I wanted. Corri was still away on her little mission, so there was no one to pester me that no, a proper lady shouldn’t attend a party in a leather bra and a mini skirt. I might have drunk one too many Margaritas while putting on my makeup and fluffing up my long, blue hair. I wanted to show off my tattoos. After all, why the hell did I have them? So I could look at them in the mirror? I pulled on my long leather boots, finished my drink, then teleported right in the middle of the party.
No professors allowed. Just as I liked it. After a whole year of no parties or celebrations, they knew we needed to blow off some steam. They were probably having their own Mabon party somewhere inside the walls of the Academy. There were plenty of secluded room that could be turned into orgy chambers.
“It’s not like that,” Paz said, hugging me from behind. He’d read my thoughts again. “They’re decent people with families at home.”
I rolled my eyes and swayed my hips with the music.
“I wasn’t being serious.”
“I don’t know what you’re being, lately.”
“Really? Because you read my mind all the time. You should know better than anyone.”
“Your mind is a cacophony. I can’t make sense of half of what you’re thinking.”
“Good. My thoughts are none of your concern. You demons should mind your own business, maybe learn a thing or two about privacy.”
He chuckled and hugged me closer, burying his head in my neck. I sighed and relaxed against his chest. This was nice.
“Oh God, what are you wearing? Or… not wearing.” Sariel made his way through the crowd of dancing students. “Aren’t you cold?”
I laughed. “It sucks, doesn’t it? That I don’t need you guys to keep me warm anymore.”
The Fallen One still seemed concerned about my well-being.
“I wear whatever I want to wear.” I stepped away from Paz, taking his hand. He spun me around. “You don’t like it?” I purred. Paz spun me faster, and when I let go, I landed into Sariel’s arms. The archangel wrapped himself around me, protectively. It was as if he didn’t want other men to look at me. And, oh… did they look! Everyone was looking.
GC danced his way toward us, expertly avoiding the chicks trying to get his attention. Sammy and Kitty knew he was mine, but they still tried their luck every time they had the chance. Their failure only made me feel more confident. Or inflated my ego, as Francis had pointed out once. Where was Francis, anyway?
I grabbed my demon, my archangel, and my false god, and went to look for my revenant. He’d found a spot at the edge of the clearing, away from all the madness. He was leaning against a tree, nursing a cocktail that probably didn’t even contain much alcohol. I jumped into his arms, almost spilling his drink.
“I’ll get you a real one.”
He smiled, slightly annoyed. He knew what I meant.
“Come on, let’s dance.”
“I don’t dance.”
I sighed and turned to GC, grabbed him by the jacket, pecked his lips, and stole the bottle I knew he was hiding in the inside pocket. Rum. I topped up Francis’s glass, not caring that the drinks might not mix well. The revenant cocked an eyebrow, shrugged, and gave it a try.
“All of it, please.”
He scrunched up his nose. “Mila, this is awful.”
“Bottoms up!”
GC and Paz were laughing their assess off. Even Sariel was smiling. As a supernatural, my alcohol resistance had increased, but not by much. I just had to drink a bit more to get the buzz I wanted, which suited me just fine. Francis emptied his glass. I took it from him and smashed it on the ground. I pulled him to the middle of the clearing, where bodies rubbed against each other on a sensual, drumming rhythm, and wrapped my arms around his neck. The guys followed us, each touching me where they could reach, rubbing against me, stealing a kiss or two. But they let Francis have this dance. It was like a mutual understanding between them. GC and Paz were used to fighting over me, but when it came to Sariel and Francis, they were more tolerant. I guessed it was because they didn’t perceive the archangel and the revenant as rivals. They weren’t as desperate to possess me like they were. And Francis… Francis touched me so rarely, that they were almost encouraging him to step up for once and claim what was his.
Things got heated fast. I couldn’t tell who’d procured the cigarette between my lips, and I didn’t care. It was a mix of mugwort, hawthorn and something that was illegal for sure, and it went so well with GC’s rum. I pushed it between Francis’s lips, and he took a drag. Before we knew it, we were all high and buzzed. The music blared through the speakers, and the bodies around us were all hot and sweaty. At some point, someone told a dirty joke and I laughed out loud. We were all laughing. Pandora took it as an opportunity to lean against Paz’s chest, which made me see red. I stomped over to her, grabbed her by the arm, and shook her harshly. She looked at me like she didn’t understand who I was and what I was doing. And she didn’t. Normally, a human shouldn’t have had the physical strength to grab a demoness like that and send her reeling through the crowd, leaving dark bruises on her skin. I only hoped she was too drunk to put two and two together and figure out I wasn’t human anymore.
<
br /> “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Paz ran after me, yelling that he was sorry. I spun around, grabbed his jaw harshly, and kissed him like there was no tomorrow. Sariel was close by, so I pulled him in for a kiss, too.
“I want to fuck,” I whispered against his lips.
Sariel needed a moment to process, but GC was right on board. He pulled me to his chest and rubbed his hard cock against my ass. My skirt had ridden up, leaving nothing to the imagination. I felt like the little clothes I had on were suffocating me. I wanted them off. I wanted to be naked.
“Not here,” I breathed. “Down in the caves.” I pulled Francis in for a demanding kiss, then looked into his mossy green eyes. “Right against the well, what do you think?” I laughed, and it probably sounded a bit maniacal.
Francis blinked once… twice. When my words finally sank in, he shook his head, touched his temple as if he had a headache, and took a couple of steps back. I tried to pull him back up against me, but he slapped my hand away.
“Come on,” I whined. “What’s wrong? Let’s do it.”
“Mila, that’s sick,” he said.
I furrowed my brows. I wanted to spit in his face “No, Francis, you’re sick!”, but then I saw GC, Paz, and Sariel had stepped away and sobered up, too. I crossed my arms over my chest, pushing my round, half-bare breasts up. My nipples were hard under the shiny leather, and I needed a good fuck so badly.
“Let’s go to your room,” Paz said.
“No.”
“Let’s do it right here,” GC suggested.
“No.” I stomped my foot. What was wrong with them? What was wrong with me?
“Hey, we can go to my room,” Sariel tried. “You never fucked in the MDC dorms, right?”
I suddenly felt like I was about to cry. I didn’t know why, but tears were already gathering at the corners of my eyes, and if I waited another second, they’d run down my cheeks, and then they’d see them. See me. See me crying, when there was literally nothing to cry about.
“No.”
I turned around and ran. I heard Francis curse under his breath, and then I heard them all run after me. They were fast, but I was fast, too, and I had a head start. I reached the edge of the cliff and jumped. The cold water enveloped me, and it was fine now, I could cry.