Kissed by Moonlight

by Cate Corvin

  Lu walked through the mist, but I knew it wasn’t the real her, just a figment of some future reality. Her blonde hair spilled over her shoulders like liquid gold as she soundlessly cut through the mist, the only point of color in the whiteness.

  Until a dark shadow stained the white mist like ink, resolving in the air around Lu and enveloping her in a shroud. She didn’t scream, didn’t struggle, but sank into the darkness like it was a lover. Luminescent amber eyes gazed back at her, loving and enraptured, as she pulled the inky shape closer.

  Her mouth opened in a gasp, and blood welled at her neck like a red ribbon. Hands that I recognized as my own pushed through the mist and ran down her legs.

  Steele stepped from the whiteness and slid his hands through her hair.

  Vision-Roman watched, his face hard, but he took one step towards her, then another.

  I blinked, and the mist, along with Lu and her unseen lover, was gone. Sound returned to my ears with a painful roar.

  “I have just as much a right to be here as you do,” Roman was saying. He was sprawled next to me, glaring at Lu across the table.

  Her lip curled over her teeth. There was no blood on her neck. She was untouched but furious. “You weren’t invited to sit with us.”

  “Oversensitive much, Blondie?”

  “She’s right,” I said, pulling my focus to the imminent battle. I could examine the vision later, when we weren’t in danger of starting a battle in the middle of the cafeteria. “You’re not invited to sit with us. You forfeited that right.”

  Roman turned his head lazily to look at me. “Turning against me, brother?”

  We stared at each other. Irritation bubbled in my veins, fusing into rage when I saw the embarrassed flush on Lu’s cheeks. My twin never should’ve touched her if he was going to treat her like that, and he knew it.

  My fangs itched and slid forward, filling my mouth. Every inch of my skin crawled as the wolf struggled to break free. It wanted to fight him on our terms, with tooth and claw.

  Dark hairs sprouted along my arms and my bones creaked as they strained to shift.

  Roman smirked at us. “Cute. Bambi and the Big Bad Wolf.” But he got up, rising deliberately like he’d meant to do just that all along.

  Lu looked down at the table and took a deep breath. Her scent was thicker now, the woodsmoke overtaking the flowers. Whatever was going on in that pretty head of hers, she was close to erupting.

  Someone was going to get hurt, and badly. But all conversation hummed to a halt in the background as the sound of clicking heels filled the hall.

  Of all the people in Cimmerian, I didn’t expect Daphne Vega to save our asses.

  She strode into the cafeteria, looking imperiously across the room like a deposed queen accusing her subjects. Her hands were bandaged, and in some places the skin showed through pink and shiny. Even her red hair was cut six inches shorter after Lu’s wildfire had singed the ends clean off.

  It was clear from the ice in her eyes that she was down, but not out.

  “Get your shit out of my room, Darke,” Daphne snapped, and threw something at Lu. She caught it and held up a silver key. The bow had a number stamped on it. “You have till the end of this hour or I’m tossing whatever’s left in the furnace.”

  Lu stared up at her, but Daphne strode off, revealing her pale shadow: Petra Moon. Dark stitches marked her mutilated fingers, and she stared at nothing with the same catatonic indifference as poor Beckwith Tatter, but she followed her bitch queen obediently all the same.

  “What the fuck?” Roman muttered.

  Lu examined the silver key. “Room C 105.” She gave me a look of mingled joy and panic. “I can’t tell if this is a punishment or a gift.”

  “The silver keys belong to private rooms.” Roman’s shoulders were still tight as he watched Daphne with narrowed eyes. “Someone’s got your back, Blondie.”

  She stared at him, then grabbed her satchel and got up. I followed her from the cafeteria.

  Roman stared after us, his brow furrowed, but I wasn’t going to say a damn thing to make this easier on him. If he was going to treat her like shit, he shouldn’t have touched her in the first place.

  I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, squeezing her gently. Bambi thought she was the reason Roman and I were fighting. She didn’t need to blame herself for his bullshit.

  “I’ll help you. What’ve you got next?”

  “Divination.” She looked vaguely seasick when she said it, and the memory of Bloom’s flat, almost lizard-like eyes flashed into my head. There was something off about her under her studied poise.

  And the condescension when she called me a therianthrope was very clear. I wouldn’t give up my inner beast for the respect of every Great Coven in the world.

  “You’ll have Holly with you, Lu.” Another squeeze. I’d received a schedule under my door sometime in the day; upperclassmen diviners were supposed to have their higher-level courses with Bloom in the evenings.

  That was a resounding no from me. I already had the knack of teasing out the meaning of my visions. Trying to force them to become clear only made it worse.

  Besides, Springbloom was a coven composed mostly of greenwitches; there was nothing more she’d be able to teach me, unless I wanted to learn how to make up stories from clumps of tea leaves.

  “True.” Lu released a sigh and stopped in front of room 126. The lock and knob had been repaired during Conjure and Exorcism.

  She dumped her clothes in her suitcase and I gathered a stack of books before picking it all up. Lu gave me a sardonic look. “I can carry something, Shane.”

  “You can find your room and I’ll be right behind you.” I put as much good cheer in my voice as I could. I was already planning on ripping Steele a new one as soon as I found him for leaving her hanging this morning. She put up a good front, but her unease was clear in the lines of her face, her brow creased.

  She sighed and gave in. Room 105 turned out to be at the end of C Wing’s long hall. The parchment with her name had already been slid into place on the door’s bracket.

  Lu walked in first and let out a soft gasp.

  The private rooms were usually reserved for upperclassmen. As much as I hated to agree with Roman right now, giving her a private room did seem like someone had her back.

  A four-poster queen-sized bed was already made up with crisp white linen and a lavender quilt. A dressing table had a neat length of black silk pulled over the mirror, and the window was open to let the thick, sweet scent of the rose garden blow in.

  “It’s amazing,” she breathed, and flung open a door. “I have my own bathroom!”

  “Don’t get too excited yet, Bambi,” I muttered. I laid the suitcase and books on the bed, shut the door behind me, and started going over every inch of the room with the True Sight, from the door frames to the inside of the dresser drawers.

  Lu’s frown grew. “You think someone charmed it?”

  “It’s Cimmerian. You should be surprised if it’s not charmed.” I got on my knees and lifted the coverlet, looking under the bed.

  Ten minutes later, I was sure the room was free of magical bugs. Gilt must’ve been really pleased with Bambi.

  Or she was trying to butter her up. It was obvious that Gilt desperately wanted Lu’s wildfire at her beck and call.

  For what, I didn’t know yet, but damn if it didn’t put every hair of my wolf on guard.

  “Well… I guess you can get excited now if you want. It’s clean.” I frowned at the pretty room, but Lu was already arranging her books on the ceiling-high shelves.

  “This means you can stay the night in my room,” she said, flinging her arms around my neck. The soft warmth of her body against me had me strongly considering tossing her on that fresh new bed and desecrating the ever-loving fuck out of it, but the end-of-lunch bell chose that exact moment to chime through the school.

  I sighed into her hair. As much as I wanted to break it in with her, Bambi’s safety was m
y first order of business here. With the arrival of Bloom, Daphne and Petra’s release from the infirmary, and now the gift of a private room, I felt that there was a storm brewing, and I didn’t like the scent of it at all.

  “I’m sorry, Bambi. I need to go wolf and run the grounds for one more night.” Her hair was like silk against my lips. If I was lucky, Gilt would have one of her cute little cabal tea parties for me to spy on. “And then three days human, and I’ll spend every night here. I promise.”

  One of the things I liked about Lu was how she took everything in stride. “Damn right you do, Shane Frost.” Her voice was a low purr that almost broke my resolve. “Tomorrow night. I’ll be waiting right here.”

  “Wearing nothing.”

  Bambi’s gray eyes sparkled. “Wearing nothing,” she agreed. “Mostly because you keep shredding my panties- and no, you don’t get to blame that on being a wolf.”

  My gums itched at the thought of her spread out on that bed, nothing but satin skin and gold hair, and my incisors slid forward.

  She pulled my face down for a kiss and a rumble grew in my chest. The phantom taste of blood filled my mouth, the territorial urge to bite and mark taking over my mind in a red haze-

  “I need to go now. I love you, Lu.” I cupped her face, forcing her to look at me. She saw the wolf in my eyes and kissed me back quickly, but her eyes lingered speculatively on my glinting fangs.

  “I love you too, Shane,” she whispered. “Tomorrow night.”

  I left her quickly before she could change my mind. My wolf’s primal territorialism was too strong to fight now, and I couldn’t subject her to that yet.

  As soon as she was safe, I would.

  Chapter 4

  Lu

  “I see you’ve gone over the… broader points of cartomancy in the last several weeks.”

  Holly and I sat at our usual table in Divination, but the room itself had changed.

  We were used to walking down a frill pink-and-teacups hallway and finding the Divination classroom stuffed with mismatched antique tables and hung with dark veils, but like my living accommodations, that seemed to have changed overnight.

  Now the hardwood floors gleamed like honey, the walls had been repainted a tasteful shade of soft cream, and the bookshelves were dusted and rearranged. A bouquet of pink roses brightened up Professor Bloom’s polished desk, and instead of smelling like dust and old potpourri, the expensive scent of musk and blackcurrant filled the air.

  The entire room was like walking into a different world, and it seemed to have been designed to highlight the professor herself.

  “I will forewarn this class that few of you will divine anything at all. I believe I’m correct that there is only one clairvoyant student in this school?” Professor Bloom strolled the room with measured steps. Her shiny caramel hair draped over the shoulder of her navy-blue sheath dress. I wasn’t surprised to see that, like Daphne, she wore six-inch high designer heels. “But at times, even non-gifted witches are capable of flashes of insight. Today, half of you will study tasseography, or the study of tea leaves.”

  She checked a notebook on her desk and pointed to the northeast corner, where a basic tea service was laid out, complete with a steaming pot of black tea. “Clay, Tatter, Vega, and Garth Moon.”

  Daphne sneered at Garth, elbowing past him to take up residence at the tasseography table.

  Professor Bloom gestured to a table covered with crystal balls of every size, ranging from flawlessly clear quartz to amethyst to a smoky quartz so dark it was almost black. “Cold, Darke, Jewel and Petra Moon will attempt scrying.”

  Holly and I waited until the other two had chosen theirs before we went. Petra ended up cradling a globe of rose quartz with a blank stare, and Clarimond had chosen the largest of the clear orbs and was gazing into with what looked like painful concentration.

  Holly chose a smoky quartz ball that she cupped in her hands, and I picked a clear ball the size of a grapefruit and balanced it carefully on our table.

  I had no illusions about seeing anything. I’d never shown even the slightest hint of having a talent for divination but staring into a crystal ball for two hours would give me plenty of time to sort out my thoughts.

  I watched the inverted room through the crystal. Bloom watched as the tasseography group poured their tea and sniped quietly among themselves. Daphne made a vomiting noise when Garth Moon touched her hand, and Professor Bloom touched Daphne’s shoulder to quiet her.

  To my surprise, Daphne did fall silent immediately, looking up at Bloom with open irritation.

  The only emotion I felt when I looked at the new professor was a gnawing jealousy that bothered me deeply.

  There was no reason for me to feel so defensive and sick. Dominic had probably gotten sidetracked before he could write me a note to cancel training, and he was still my professor. Any time I saw him around others, he would need to pretend that I was like any other student to him.

  Knowing that didn’t stop my stomach from churning.

  At least I had Shane and the prospect of a haven away from Daphne to cheer me up. With Shane back in the forest, I made up my mind to steal blood for Locke tonight. I couldn’t stand knowing he was starving down there in the darkness.

  Gilt knew by now that Locke was free of his chains and that I was probably the one who had done it, and her inaction was making me nervous. She seemed to know almost everything that happened in Cimmerian.

  I wondered if the private room upgrade was a bribe of some sort- but for what?

  The soft tread of heels interrupted my thoughts and I looked up to see Professor Bloom gliding past us. She ignored Petra, whose eyes were focused somewhere near the window, and lightly touched Clarimond’s shoulder. The girl straightened out of her slump immediately.

  The professor passed by Holly and me wordlessly, but she gave us an encouraging smile.

  Maybe I was being too judgmental. She was new, after all, and Gilt couldn’t be an easy relative to live with. Just because she was beautiful, and Dominic had given her the tour, didn’t mean she was anything like her aunt.

  I resolved to be nicer. The last thing I wanted was to end up like Daphne.

  Besides, there was nothing to worry about. I took a deep breath and stared at the crystal ball so hard my eyes ached, watching for any hint of a forthcoming vision.

  It took me almost ten minutes to realize someone was watching me back.

  With the room inverted in the globe and Bloom moving around, I almost didn’t notice the extra figure in the room who didn’t belong.

  I sat up, pulling my eyes from the crystal ball, but she remained. The spirit in lace sat at one of the desks, her dark eyes boring into me.

  My breath grew shallow. She was definitely following me.

  “Holly.” My flat whisper was barely audible. I nudged her with my elbow, unwilling to tear my eyes away from the dark-haired spirit. “Do you see her?”

  Holly shifted, pulling herself out of her trance, and her chestnut gaze swept the room. “Who? Bloom?” Her voice was so soft and quiet I almost didn’t hear her.

  She couldn’t see the spirit. I shook my head. “No. Never mind.”

  I felt Holly looking at me, but I couldn’t break eye contact with the specter. The girl raised her arm, pointing to the door, but she made no other move.

  Finally, the spirit faded, and only once she’d disappeared completely did I allow myself to relax.

  “Are you okay, Lu?”

  I smiled at Holly, ignoring my pounding heart. “Perfectly fine.”

  But if the spirit’s desperate gaze was anything to go by, everything was far from fine.

  ***

  I crossed my arms under my head, lying on a dense bank of moss that felt like a cozy pillow. “I could stay out here all night.” The stars glittered through breaks in the canopy overhead.

  Locke licked every drop of blood out of the first bag and stowed it in the satchel before moving on to the next.

  The hollow
s under his eyes were already filling in by the time he was halfway done, his skin growing less ashen.

  He sat almost ten feet away from me, refusing to come any closer until he was done eating. He’d also made me walk behind him when we took the tunnel, fearing that having his natural prey ahead of him would weaken his resolve.

  My skin had prickled at the hungry look in his eye when we stepped into the open air of Moira’s Forest, but I trusted Locke. He’d worked hard since we’d broken his chains, putting every ounce of effort into suppressing his inherent hunting instincts.

  I knew that we would someday need to figure out a different way to feed him. Right now, he was living on what amounted to starvation rations, and the small guidebook I’d found on vampires had emphasized that fresh blood was their ideal diet.

  The hard part of that was finding fresh blood without his primal, mindless instincts kicking in and taking over.

  “I wish I could keep you all night.” Locke licked the second bag clean, his amber eyes running over me in a way that made my heart beat faster.

  He walked in my dreams on occasion, but the hungrier he was, the harder it became for him to visit my mind. The last time I’d dreamed of him we hadn’t gotten much further than kissing and taking our shirts off before he’d vanished from my dreamscape.

  I wondered if we’d ever be able to touch each other like that in real life without him losing control. When he wasn’t starving, he kissed me carefully, like a porcelain doll he might accidentally break.

  Right now, all physical contact was off-limits.

  I sat up and wrapped my arms around my knees. “Once you’re no longer starving, you can. I have my own room now.”

  He raised an eyebrow, lifting the last bag of blood to his lips. I watched his throat work as he drank.

  Locke was so blood-starved that his skin didn’t flush the healthy bronze I was used to seeing after he fed, the pallor only slightly lessened. “I would prefer to use my energy to visit you in dreams, sunlight. You have so much trust that is misplaced.”

  He insisted I was the insane one for wanting him to be free. Maybe I was.