Zodiac Academy: The Awakening: An Academy Bullymance (Supernatural Bullies and Beasts Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  He wrapped an arm around my waist and shifted me into a more comfortable position with a deep laugh that sent heat flooding my limbs.

  “Drink with us,” he insisted, waving at the bartender through the glass window beside us despite the fact that the bar was packed and they were clearly run off of their feet. “I swear we won’t lay a finger on you unless you want us to.”

  “Well I didn’t want you to drag me into your lap but that didn’t seem to stop you,” I muttered, though I was fairly sure that me still sitting there weighed against my argument somewhat.

  Darius laughed again and I could feel the deep tone of it where his chest was pressed against my side.

  Caleb shifted closer on my right and brushed his fingers against my arm, raising goosebumps along my skin. “I’ll even promise not to bite you tonight if you want?”

  I caught Darcy’s eye and she offered me a shrug to let me know she was as unsure as I was. Max sent out another wave of relaxing energy and I felt my resolve shattering.

  “I guess we could stay for one drink,” Darcy said hesitantly as Max stroked her arm, the press of his influence skittering through the air. We were surrounded by smiles that sent my heart fluttering and my gut plummeting in equal measures.

  I was almost positive that this was a terrible idea but the tequila in my system, the Siren’s call and the table filled with gorgeous men were working hard against my better judgment.

  “One drink then,” I agreed finally just as voluptuous bartender appeared with a smile and a notepad ready to take our order.

  “Better make it a big one then if you’ll only stay for one,” Seth teased as he ordered for all of us.

  Darius leaned back in his chair, pulling me closer as he brushed my hair away from my ear and I internally kicked myself as I moved nearer to hear what he was going to say. Guys like him were always a bad idea for me. It was like I had a magnet inside me which drew me towards the most ruthless kind of asshole despite the fact that I knew how it would end. And I’d never met one guy who could even begin to rival Darius Acrux’s dark and mysterious vibe let alone his devastatingly handsome features. I was powerless to stop my traitorous body from shifting against his, especially when his fingertips skimmed along my bare shoulder.

  “Do you want to tell me about what happened in that alley?” he asked.

  I couldn’t suppress the shiver that ran down my spine as I thought back to the shadowy figure who’d been stalking us.

  “Is this the part where you laugh at us for falling for some prank you set up?” I asked, refusing to answer his question. “Was that one of your friends back there? Did you get someone to send the messages too?”

  His dark gaze flickered for a moment and he seemed to stop himself from saying something.

  “I don’t need to recruit anyone to do my handy work,” he replied dismissively. “Maybe I’m concerned for your wellbeing.”

  I snorted in disbelief, shifting back so that I was no longer touching his chest. Yes he was stupid hot but he was also damn horrible when he wanted to be and I wasn’t going to fall for his Prince Charming act just because he’d decided to switch it on for me.

  I turned away from him and found Caleb eyeing us with interest as the bartender returned with a tray full of drinks.

  Darcy was telling Max about the fright we’d gotten in the alley as his arm stayed firmly around her waist, drinking in her fear like a big old leech. I wondered again why we’d let them convince us to join them and shifted my focus to the drinks as the bartender placed them down and Darius pressed a wedge of notes into her hand. It looked like way too much money to me but no doubt she’d earned the tip with her push-up bra.

  The drinks were all the same; some tall mixture of liquor and coke and I took mine before anyone else reached for theirs. Caleb was still looking at me and I held his eye as I emptied the contents of the glass in one long drink. It was stupidly strong and I could feel it burning all the way down my throat where it joined the tequila I’d consumed earlier for a warm little party in my stomach.

  “There you go,” I announced. “One drink.” I pushed out of Darius’s lap and he looked up at me in surprise, reaching out like he thought he might pull me back again but I stepped aside, offering him a flat smile.

  Darcy smirked at me she got to her feet too, not even bothering to touch her own beverage. “See you later, guys,” she agreed as she walked away, clearly hurrying to break free of Max’s power before he upped the voltage again.

  I made a move to follow her but Caleb stood and shot into my path using his Vampire speed. I arched an eyebrow at him as his eyes ran over me.

  “I guess your word means shit then?” I asked as his gaze landed on my neck for an extra moment and I prepared for him to bite me.

  “No. I said I won’t bite you tonight and I meant it,” he assured me with a teasing smile. “I’m just wondering where you’re going now?”

  I considered his question for a moment. The night was still fairly young and we hadn’t had any immediate plans to head home before our run in with our mystery tormentor. Darcy had made it to the bar's entrance and was waiting for me, throwing Caleb a scowl for good measure.

  “Dancing,” I replied simply as I brushed past him, my hands landing on his toned waist for a fraction of a second as I guided him out of my way. “You can always join us if you think you can keep up.”

  Why did I just say that?

  His navy eyes sparkled for a moment and I couldn’t stop a small smile in response. I let my gaze run over him for all of half a second then turned away to join my sister. Tequila always made me a sucker for a hot guy with asshole intentions and there were way too many of them about tonight.

  I fell into step beside Darcy as we entered the bar and I looked around at the grey walls which sparkled with silver glitter in the dim light. The place was heaving and a huge dance floor took up the space at the far end of the room.

  “Let’s find some nice men to buy our drinks,” Darcy said with a grin as she began to eye up the possibilities and we fell into our familiar night out routine. We’d never had spare money for our own drinks but it was usually just a matter of time before one or both of us could catch someone’s eye. Of course with our new-found wealth I guessed we didn’t need to do that anymore but why break the habit of a lifetime?

  It didn’t take Darcy long to spot a couple of guys looking her way and she took the lead as we moved to stand beside them at the bar. They looked a few years older than us and I was pleased she’d found guys who didn’t go to school with us and wouldn’t have any opinion on the whole Heir situation to taint our interaction with them.

  The blonde guy led the way over as we super casually pretended not to notice them coming and I offered him a ‘surprised’ smile as he moved into our space.

  “Hi,” he said all smiles with his red haired friend seconding the grin from his left. “I’m Peter, this is-”

  “No,” Max said loudly as he elbowed his way between our new friends and us.

  “Not happening,” Caleb agreed forcefully, giving blondie a glare that made him back up.

  I sighed dramatically. “Really?”

  “Now you’re going to put a stop to our free drinks?” Darcy asked with an air of resignation.

  “Why are you drinking at the bar when we have the VIP section to ourselves over there?” Caleb asked, pointing at a roped off area beside the dance floor.

  “I think you just answered your own question there, Caleb,” I muttered, rolling my eyes.

  Max chuckled at his friend’s expense and I raised an eyebrow at him in surprise. “You’re going to have to work a lot harder to get into this one’s pants, mate,” he teased.

  “Never going to happen,” I said before Caleb could reply.

  “Come on, Tor,” Darcy said, ignoring the Heirs entirely. “If we aren’t drinking then we should be dancing.”

  She caught my hand and turned her back on Max and Caleb with a flick of her blue-tipped hair. I turned
from them too, a little thrill running through me with the knowledge that they hated that as Darcy led me up to dance.

  The music was familiar and I wondered why they listened to human tunes. Maybe Fae had no songwriting skills? Or perhaps Miley Cyrus was part Fae too? Whatever the reason, I was more than happy to lose myself to something familiar for a change. Dancing on a Friday night seemed to transcend the mortal/Fae divide and that was just fine by me.

  I closed my eyes and lost myself to the music as I danced with my sister and we pointedly ignored the feeling of the Heirs watching us from their fancy table beyond the rope. Who wanted to go out drinking and then hide themselves away behind a barrier anyway? Wasn’t the whole point of this exercise to cut loose and socialise a bit? If being an Heir meant spending my life segregated from everyone else then I was doubly sure I had no interest in it.

  A set of hands landed on my hips and my eyes flicked open as I found Darius holding me, his fingertips brushing the line of skin between my waistband and the hem of my shirt.

  My heart stuttered with surprise for a moment and I had to work hard to keep the emotion from my face. Instead I offered him the faintest half of a smile which I hoped translated into ‘truce’ as I let him pull me closer. And as much as I would have liked to deny it, being held against Darius Acrux’s broad chest really wasn’t the worst place a girl could find herself.

  I turned in his arms as we kept moving to the music and spotted Darcy receiving the same treatment from Seth. He’d wrapped his arms around her from behind and was pushing his face into her hair in his wolfy way which in that particular moment didn’t seem to be a problem for her at all.

  I smirked at her as she gave me a ‘when in Rome’ kinda look and I shrugged in acceptance as I moved my body with Darius’s. If I closed my eyes I could even pretend he wasn’t such an asshole but then I couldn’t look at his face or his mouth, or the way his muscles were trying really hard to fight against the confines of his shirt... damn I was definitely going to be in trouble with him if I didn’t watch out.

  Darius turned me to face him again and I looped my arms around his neck as my chest brushed against his.

  He caught me in his gaze for a moment that stretched a little too long and I bit my lip as I tried not to let my imagination get carried away. His eyes dropped to my mouth in response and the heat in his gaze sent an ache of longing right through me. I couldn’t forget who he was or what he’d done but there were certainly a few parts of me that wished I could.

  He leaned an inch closer to me and the space between us burned hot with raw energy for a moment and I suddenly felt like I was caught in a hunter’s snare. The worst thing of all was that I didn’t even want to break free. He had me and in that second we both knew it.

  His grip on my waist tightened and my body was pulled against his in a way that demanded a hell of a lot less clothes be present. My breath caught in my throat and one of his hands slid up my back, a line of fire following it.

  “Drink!” Caleb demanded from beside us and I pushed away from Darius to accept the shot he was holding out for me.

  Darius kept his gaze locked on me as he consumed his own shot but I took another step back. I wasn’t going to fall into his trap again. This was the guy who’d burned my clothes off and circulated naked pictures of me. He was rude and arrogant and full of himself. There was no way in hell I’d be ending up in his bed tonight. I was at least sixty-seven percent certain of that.

  “Orion’s looking for you,” Caleb said to Darius, pointing back over to the bar where our teacher stood watching us. My gut plummeted and I shot a concerned look at Darcy but she was too caught up with Seth to have noticed. “Something about an assignment you haven’t handed in. I told him to chill the hell out and enjoy his drink but he gave me that look, you know the look where you’re not sure if he’s trying to set you alight with the power of thought alone or if he’s just super constipated, so I said I’d tell you.”

  I snorted a laugh, knowing exactly what look Caleb meant and I eyed Orion over the top of my glass. He scowled at us in a way that made me think he’d heard us and I realised that with his Vampire abilities it was possible he had. For a moment I felt like a kid being told off in school and I frowned at the weirdness of that situation. I was out in a bar for God’s sake, why was I being chastised by my Professor? If I’d ever spotted my old English teacher hanging out at Joey’s in her loose fitting slacks and glasses on a string I’d have bust a gut over it. Although I guessed Orion didn’t exactly look like your standard teacher. He didn’t even stick out amongst us. It was more that I knew what he was that made it feel odd.

  “I guess I’d better see what he wants,” Darius said, sounding resigned. He cast a final look at me but I pretended not to notice as I moved away and shoved my empty shot glass down on an abandoned table.

  Caleb was where I’d left him when I returned to the dance floor. I followed his gaze as he threw a scowl at Orion’s back as he and Darius headed out of the bar to talk. A shiver raced down my spine seeing them together like that and I was forced to wonder about what I’d overheard the other night again. Could the guy I’d just been dancing with really be out to hurt me and Darcy? Orion had gotten Darcy alone back at the restaurant and hadn’t laid a finger on her. But he hadn’t denied it when she’d accused him of wanting to hurt her either...

  I glanced at my sister again to find that she was still definitely okay with Seth’s tactile ways. I smirked at her as she leaned into him and he ran his hands down her back.

  Caleb continued to scowl from his position in the middle of the dance floor as I made it back to him. A group of girls were dancing provocatively, casting less than subtle looks at his general hotness but he was ignoring them.

  I caught his hand and placed it on my waist as I snagged him for a new dance partner. I might have been a little overfamiliar thanks to Mr Jack Daniels but I pushed through any concerns about being forward with an air of I-don’t-give-a-shit. As his attention shifted to me, I tiptoed up to speak in his ear over the thumping music.

  “Did you hate Orion before he tried to poach my blood or is it all about me?” I teased.

  Caleb snorted a laugh, pulling me closer as he leaned in to reply. His hands slipped around me, drawing me closer before he spoke and earning me a heap of scowls from the hopeful girls.

  “It’s a Vampire thing. We’re always driven to secure the best Source available. We have a hierarchy that’s determined by power but his position as my teacher makes our relationship a little more strained than most. I should respect him because he’s a professor at my school and is technically my superior but I’m more powerful than him so... it causes a little tension.” Caleb shrugged before a playful smile captured his lips. “Do you like us fighting over you then?”

  I rolled my eyes and slid my hands up his chest before linking them behind his neck. “Well if either of you wanted anything other than my blood then maybe I’d be flattered. But as I’m rather against the whole concept of being a walking juice-box I’ll have to go with no.”

  “What if I did want something other than your blood?” he asked suggestively, his breath dancing across my neck.

  I lifted my eyes to meet his, my body pressing closer without me really intending to do it. I shifted my hands a little higher, my fingertips pushing into the short hair at the nape of his neck before trailing up to brush against his soft curls.

  “Like what?” I asked, adopting an innocent tone which I really doubted he was buying. How much had I had to drink? Why was this starting to feel like it might not be the worst idea I’d ever had? Hadn’t he hung me over a ravine and used me like a chew toy since my very first day? Why didn’t that seem quite so awful to drunk Tory? And why was I asking myself so many questions when he’d just run his thumb down the centre of my back and my skin was lighting up beneath his touch?

  Caleb’s eyes glimmered with amusement. He pushed my hair back over my shoulder as he leaned down, his lips brushing my ear and sending a li
ttle shiver down my spine. “What if I wanted to-”

  The music suddenly cut off and the overhead lights flared to life, filling the dance floor with way too much reality for my fuzzy head.

  I squinted at the bright lights, releasing Caleb and taking a step back as I looked around, trying to figure out what was going on.

  Professor Astrum’s voice blared over the loudspeaker. “Would all students of Zodiac Academy please make your way to the student shuttle buses for immediate transportation back to your Houses!”

  I looked up at Caleb in confusion. “Is that normal?” I asked.

  He shook his head vaguely in response, obviously trying to figure out what was going on.

  A chill crept up my spine and I shifted away from him to find Darcy. She moved to join me too, pulling her Atlas from her clutch with a frown and holding it out as she spotted a message there.

  Falling Star:

  I should have warned her too.

  “Who is he talking about?” I demanded.

  “I dunno. Do you think something has happened or-”

  The doors of the bar flew open and Marguerite burst in, her blood red hair flying around her and her eyes wide with an excited kind of fear. “Geraldine Grus has just been attacked! They’re saying she might die!”

  A cold stone dropped into the pit of my stomach at her words. We’d left that other bar without waiting for Geraldine to show up. What if she’d been hurt because she was alone, or was looking for us? I mean, the girl irritated the hell out of me with her devotion to our lineage but I never would have wished any harm to come to her.

  “We have to find out if she’s okay,” I breathed, looking at Darcy in desperation.

  “Come on,” she agreed, snatching my hand and dragging me towards the exit.

  A tide of students and the other bar patrons had already come up with the same idea and we were stuck at the back of them, unable to force a way through. My attention snared on the kitchen entrance behind the bar and I towed Darcy towards it. My light-fingered ways had taught me to suss out escape routes on the run and I got the feeling that the staff entrance was going to be a lot less busy than the front door.