Fallen University: Year Two: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance

by Callie Rose

  “What opportunities?”

  Xero smirked and glanced over his shoulder, then dropped his voice. “There was a girl at the pub on Mönkh Saridag who was completely certain we were supernatural in some way. I think she saw someone use a portal once. She offered him thousands to give up our secrets, and he refused. Of course that was thousands of whatever currency she was using, and he’s rich so thousands is like—I don’t know—a dollar, but still.”

  “That’s not real convincing,” I said with a grin.

  Xero sobered. “I’m not even supposed to know this next part.”

  “My lips are sealed.”

  “Your lips are…” He trailed off as his gaze lowered to my mouth, and a spark of fire lit in my veins in response to the hungry look in his eyes. “Mm. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, right, Kingston. I overheard him talking to one of his CEOs or CFOs or whatever.”

  “Oh?”

  Xero nodded, a bead of sweat trickling down his mocha skin. He swiped his forearm over his temple, brushing it away. “He was pretty heated, I think, or I never would’ve been able to sneak up on him with that phone. From what I gathered, the guy on the other end came up with some kind of scheme to use supernaturals as a cash source. Or the university. Whatever it was, it would have involved selling out the school and blowing the lid off of the whole supernatural truth—and it would have resulted in billions or more.”

  I whistled. “Okay, that’s convincing.”

  “Mm-hm. And this was after we’d been here for a few months. Besides, look at me. I never turned evil. Neither did Vee, and she’s been here a lot longer than I ever was.”

  “But how many people in the underworld are like you and Vee?”

  “More than you’d think, maybe. I can’t guess an exact number, but our time down here has opened my eyes to a few things. The idea that all fallen turn evil is a misconception. We have solid proof of that. The fallen have been—well, demonized I guess—because we look scary and we can do scary things and the underworld is scary. It’s all a fear thing. And I think you’re right. I think Gavriel does perpetuate that myth for his own ends.”

  I frowned, considering. “The ratio though. The numbers alone look like evidence that being fallen turns some people evil. I mean, there are more demons doing evil things than humans.”

  “Are there?” He let the question hang heavily in the air for a long moment. “I don’t know about that.”

  My face wrinkled in a grimace. It’d been over ten months since I’d last been on earth, and another year before that since I’d been a part of human society in any way. But I hadn’t forgotten some of the awful shit I’d seen and read about in the human world.

  Yeah, people can be plenty evil, fallen or not.

  He looked away for a moment and cleared his throat. “I won’t deny I saw demons and other fallen do horrible things in Gavriel’s service. But for a lot of them, I’d guess it wasn’t even their natural inclination. He warps people, fostering their worst qualities through fear and pain.”

  I could hear echoes of those emotions in Xero’s voice as he spoke, and I took his hand, squeezing gently, reminding him through my touch that he was no longer in that place.

  Not that the place we were currently in was a picnic either, but at least we had each other.

  He squeezed back, shooting me a grateful look. “The point is, he makes it easy to fall. When all the evidence tells you that you’re evil, it’s easy to let evil happen. Because most people aren’t like Jayce or Gavriel—purely good or purely bad. They’re like you and Kingston. They’ve got a little of everything inside them, and what kind of person they turn into comes down to the choices they make. Or they’re like Kai and Vee—disinterested as long as it doesn’t affect them, but willing to help if it doesn’t put them out too much.”

  I chuckled, glancing out at the landscape around us as I scanned for threats. “I’m not sure I like your sketch of my character, but you’re not exactly wrong. I like to think of myself as a fairly even-tempered person, but I’ve reached my snapping point before, and it’s not pretty.”

  He raised a questioning eyebrow at me.

  I sighed. “The last time I can remember losing my shit was right before I was turned. I’d had a long day. My car broke down. My feet hurt. I thought at the very least, I could count on my boyfriend for some comfort sex and a ride home, since I’d broken down right by his place. I walked all the way there in these killer boots—seriously, these boots were badass, but they killed the hell out of my feet—and walked in to find him balls deep in some other bitch.”

  “Ooh.” Xero cringed and shook his head. “Shit.”

  “Yeah. I beat the hell out of him and took his banana.”

  “You did what?!”

  I laughed loud enough for the sound to echo off the mountain, then quickly quieted. “His banana slipper,” I clarified. “Well, both of them, actually. He had these stupid bedroom slippers shaped like bananas.”

  “Compensating?” Xero asked, raising an eyebrow.

  I grinned. “Comparatively? Oh, yes.”

  He grinned, dipping his head to claim a kiss that was quick but full of fire. We walked in comfortable silence for a little while, then he made a thoughtful sound. I nudged him and lifted an eyebrow, silently inviting him to elaborate on whatever the thought was.

  “I just wonder—you saw how Vee set traps for Gavriel’s soldiers. Makes me wonder how many other demons are going to extremes in order to avoid joining up on the wrong side.”

  I shrugged, then grinned. “Maybe the Custodians should be recruiting from the underworld directly instead of just catching humans who’ve been turned,” I said jokingly. “Humanity’s falling behind.”

  He startled me by tugging me to a stop. I looked up at him, and the deep glow that burned in his eyes made a rush of emotion wash over me.

  “Hey. I love you,” he murmured.

  My heart skipped a hopeful beat, then took off at a gallop in my chest. But before the happiness could truly settle in, my stomach clenched. I smiled at him and brushed a palm over his cheek, relishing the feel of his soft, gorgeous skin.

  “It’s the succubus thing,” I said gently. “It has that effect. I feel it too, but it’s not—” I swallowed. “It’s not real. It can’t be.”

  He shook his head and kissed my palm. “No, Piper. Listen. I love powering you up. I want you constantly, and I love that too. But it’s so much more than that now. It’s not magic or bonds, I’m sure of that. They’re one part of what I feel for you, but it’s not just about that anymore. I’m in love with you, Pipes. If my mark disappeared tomorrow, I would still follow you anywhere. I would want to be by your side.”

  I swallowed hard, blinking back tears that surprised me with their intensity. I had spent hours, days—more time than was probably healthy, to be honest—trying to sort out my feelings for these men, trying to find the lie in what felt so damn true. Over and over, I had convinced myself that what felt like love was just an illusion, that it wasn’t “real” in the way that I had always defined it.

  But the certainty in Xero’s voice made something crack open in my chest. He sounded so damn sure, and it melted away my own doubts and fears. There might be a magical bond between us, but that didn’t change the fact that we had spent the last year and a half confiding in each other, leaning on each other, supporting and uplifting each other. We had fought side by side, slept skin to skin, and if it came down to it, I would lay down my life for his.

  Sliding both hands around his neck, I gazed up at him, reveling in his magnificence. The words burst out of me as if they’d been dying to escape the prison I’d held them in for far too long.

  “I love you too, Xero. So fucking much.”

  The last word was barely out of my mouth before his lips sealed over mine, a kiss as warm and deep and passionate as the man himself. Time seemed to stretch and expand as we lingered in the kiss, drowning in each other.

  Then a noise on the path drew our attentio
n, and we reluctantly broke apart. The others were coming up the trail behind us. Xero shot a glance their way, then turned back to me and smiled.

  “I’m pretty sure the rest of our bond mates feel the same way,” he murmured, brushing one last kiss to my lips before releasing me.

  “Yo, let’s go! This mountain isn’t going to climb itself. And I think I’m getting the hang of this hiking thing,” Kingston said wryly.

  “Look at that view,” Jayce breathed, staring out at the valley beyond. “Awesome.”

  I grinned and took Xero’s hand as we continued. The path we were walking soon widened into a valley between two peaks, giving us all room to walk beside one another.

  Kingston’s mood had elevated in spite of himself, and when he smiled at me, his jade green eyes gleaming, I could almost believe that he loved me. Jayce was a given. He loved everybody and everything all the time, the bond was simply a boost in my direction. I had never questioned his genuine feelings for me, even knowing that he could have fallen for anyone and been happy about it.

  But Kai—sullen, grim Kai who still kept so much of himself hidden away from me? No, I doubted it very much. He was here with me, here with all of us willingly, and I believed he would stand by that decision. He had stopped struggling against the bond and had even given me what I needed when I was most desperate for it.

  He certainly craved me. He couldn’t help it. And he might have grown to tolerate me and even grudgingly respect me, but love me?

  My heart constricted. No. I don’t think so.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The valley, which had been open and dotted with tufts of blood-red grass when we began, slowly grew more foreboding. Large outcroppings of shining black and mottled gray stone sprang up to crowd the pass at irregular intervals, and as we walked deeper into the valley the plant life grew taller. I stuck close to Xero and kept my eyes open.

  “Do you feel that?” I asked him in a low voice. I didn’t want to alarm the others.

  “What do you feel?”

  “Like we’re being followed.”

  “I’ve been feeling that since we left Vee’s. Since we left the school.”

  “Yeah. Me too.” I looked around warily, peering closely at shadows. “I thought I was just paranoid and that it would pass. It hasn’t passed. It’s actually getting—”

  I was going to say stronger, but before the word could pass my lips, an earth shattering roar from behind knocked me flat. I rolled over, turned around, and rose into a crouch as a beast charged out from behind a stone outcropping. All I could see was spiky black fur and vicious, sharp teeth before Xero knocked me out of the way.

  “What is that thing?” I shouted.

  Nobody answered. They had all shifted and were trying to fight it off. It had eyes like Kai’s when he was in his vampire mode, but they were bigger and more evil—like black pits that permitted no light to enter. Its teeth were like the vampire’s too, only longer and more abundant. The black fur covered a grotesquely elongated humanoid frame, and on its belly where the fur was thinner, black arteries and veins were visible through its deathly pale skin. It swiped at Kai, slicing his chest from shoulder to rib with vicious blood-red claws.

  Blood rushed in my ears, the intensity of it almost making me lightheaded as fear filled me. I summoned my persuasion, trying to keep my tone calm even though all I wanted to do was scream.

  “Stop.” My clear voice rang off of the mountains around us, echoing back at me. The monster didn’t even hesitate. “Fuck. You aren’t thinking. Can you think? Do you even have a brain?”

  My powers were useless against a beast with no sex drive and no higher-level thought process. I had no idea what its mate would look like if it had one, and I was afraid to shift into an exact copy of the monster—it might think it had competition for the food supply and become even more deranged and aggressive. So far no one but Kai had been hurt, but the others weren’t having much luck wounding the thing. For as thin as its skin looked, it seemed to be impenetrable.

  “Kingston, fire!”

  Xero gave the order while yanking Kai and Jayce back several feet.

  My dragon shifter mate blasted the thing, and it caught fire faster than dry grass. Shrieking in pain, it fell to the ground, flailing and rolling. As soon as the fire was out, it scrambled back to its feet, looking singed as fuck and royally pissed off. Patches of hair were missing, and its skin had gone from pearl white to a crackling gray, but it didn’t seem hurt.

  Kai launched an attack at a crispy spot on the beast’s chest with—was that a stick?

  “Stake it!” Xero bellowed.

  Oh. Vampire rules? Maybe the principle was the same for everything in the vamp family.

  Kai buried the sharp wood in the monster’s chest and pulled down, trying to slice the thing open. A fountain of noxious black blood spurted from the wound, soaking Kai’s torso. It shrieked and swung again, but it was clumsy in its pain and only knocked Kai down. It must have hit him hard though, because he stayed down. Jayce, Xero, and I attacked it with more stakes until its savage screams became pitiful whimpers, then Kingston finished it off with a blast of flame, scorching its entire body. We all stood panting, staring at the thing, for a long moment. Then my heart lurched as the adrenaline faded, and I ran to Kai, who still hadn’t moved.

  “Kai. Oh, shit. Kai! Are you hurt?”

  I touched his shoulder. It was soaked in blood, and I reflexively snatched my hand back again. Red and black blood smeared together on my palm, mingling into an almost purple color. I wiped it on the grass and rolled Kai over carefully.

  He stared up at the sky with wide, slitted eyes. For one horrible, devastating second, I thought he was dead—but then he started to breathe. Fast, then faster.

  “Hey! Kai, look at me. What’s wrong? How can I help?” I held his face in my hands and turned his head to face mine, trying to figure out where he was hurt. How he was hurt. His fangs sprang out over his lower lip as he growled.

  “Piper.” Jayce’s voice was distant and utterly calm, the way it was when he was practicing that perfect neutrality thing his parents had taught him. “Get away from him.”

  Jayce never, ever gave me orders. He’d always seemed to consider our relationship more of a partnership—probably something else he’d gotten from his parents—so issuing commands wasn’t really his style.

  But that’s exactly what he’d just done.

  I looked up at him sharply and saw fear burning in his eyes, a growing terror that belied his tone completely. The beginnings of a growl gurgled in Kai’s throat, and I jumped back just as he leapt toward me, claws out and mouth open.

  “Kai, stop! What’s the matter with you?” I jerked back, stumbling away from him, but he was stalking me like a predator. His eyes were fixed on my throat, and he just kept coming, slowly at first, then faster. He caught up to me in a flash, swiping at me the way the other monster had swiped at him. I dodged and kept dodging, but I couldn’t find it in me to fight him. If we went toe-to-toe, the only way I’d survive would be to fight with everything I had, and I didn’t want to risk injuring or killing him.

  But what the fuck is wrong with him?

  “Hey, asshole! Pick on someone your own size!” Jayce punched Kai in the back of the head.

  “Jayce!” My tone was scolding and pleading all at once.

  The hellhound barely had time to shoot me an exasperated look before Kai whirled around to attack him. He’d found his footing now, I guessed, because he was flying around in a snarling blur of teeth and fangs, attacking whoever was nearest.

  “It’s the blood!” Xero shouted as he shoved Kai away with his boot. “That feral vamp’s blood, it’s mixing with his!”

  That thing had been a vampire? Shit. So much for Dracula being a suave, sexy lady killer, I guess.

  “What do we do, Piper?” Kingston’s question was more a warning than anything. “I don’t know how to stop him without killing him.”

  My bond with Kai was sti
ll very much alive, even though he’d lost his mind. I could feel his bloodlust, his insatiable hunger, and his confusion. The brutal animal inside of him was tearing him apart. If he died, I knew I’d feel that too.

  And I couldn’t let that happen.

  “Just slow him down,” I ordered. “Do not kill him!”

  Kingston shot me a look halfway between fury and helplessness, and I felt that too. I was on all sides of this conflict, imbued with the emotions of everyone around me—feeling focused and frightened with Jayce, analytical and precise with Xero. It was paralyzing. I stood on the fringes of the conflict, eyes darting everywhere. It was too much. It had to stop. I had the power to stop it, I knew I did, I just couldn’t reach it in the midst of all of these strong emotions.

  Fuck this. I’m not letting any of my men get hurt.

  Persuasion. I thought the word, trying to summon my power, but I couldn’t make the controlled, soothing feeling rise. Persuasion, damn it. Come on, work with me here!

  It flickered this time, almost rising up to where I could grasp it, but it was shoved away by a flash of terror from Jayce.

  I felt the emotion radiate from him like a bomb’s blast.

  “We got company!”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The men’s attention shifted away from Kai as three more of those monstrous vamps roared into the little hollow. It was just enough for me to break free of the emotional and mental paralysis and hurl myself at my feral mate, taking him completely by surprise.

  He grunted as I slammed into him, knocking him onto his back. Behind me, Kingston had taken flight and was busy lighting the newcomers on fire.