A Demon's Horns: Vice College For Young Demons: Year One

by Marie Mistry

  Nelly shifted closer, peering at my head. “That is bizarre,” she said. “But I think you’re well attended to… I will tell Lulu what we said… and then if she keeps it secret…”

  “I’ll keep my end of the vow,” I promised.

  She stood. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She declared, then glared at the men surrounding me. “Take care of her, or I’ll kick your asses.”

  Daron nodded, but Aeron and Blaze just gave her an identical, disgruntled look.

  When she’d left, Aeron moved closer, climbing onto the bed with me and squeezing me to him.

  “It’s supposed to be a sign from the Strange God that you’re on the right track,” Blaze told me solemnly.

  “I wish he could just send me a motivational postcard” I retorted, letting my hands wander up to feel the larger protrusions on my head.

  They chuckled. “What was the vow?” Aeron enquired, less demanding than I thought he would be.

  “I told her that if Lulu managed to keep the fact that demons have mates amongst the unshown a secret, I would tell her why I had seven,” I mumbled, guiltily. “Nelly heard Blaze bidding me goodnight at the door, and I didn’t know what to do.”

  “So, you took a chance and trusted her,” Blaze muttered, leaning against one of the bedposts. “You’re too trusting, Lilith.”

  “She’s my friend.” I tried to get him to understand.

  “From this, we can hypothesise that it was the correct decision,” Daron interrupted, waving a hand at my horns from the foot of the bed. “I highly doubt that the Strange God would have bestowed a sign of favour for Lilith making a tremendous mistake.”

  Aeron looked at me strangely. “The Order trusted my mother before you revealed her,” he reminded me. “Nelly may look trustworthy but end up being worse than my mother.” He sighed. “I won’t say don’t trust anyone, because I know her, and I think you were right to tell her.”

  Blaze cut in. “I understand it was mostly my fault you were put in that situation, and I should have been more careful. I’m sorry. But in the future, if possible, it should probably be a group decision on who we trust with your safety,” he insisted, and then paused, “Is that an acceptable compromise?” He was obviously trying his best not to order us around as was instinctual to someone who was so used to being in command, and I loved him a little more for it. I sensed his apology wasn’t something he gave often, and I was flattered he had done for me.

  I looked at Aeron and Daron who both nodded. “Okay, we’ll discuss it first, then vote,” I promised.

  “Good,” Aeron agreed.

  “A very democratic solution,” Daron approved, then glanced at the door. “Are you feeling any better?”

  I smiled, warmed by how thoughtful he was. “I’m feeling better, I only have a small headache now.”

  “It’s almost curfew, so I might just leave you with these two... unless you need anything?” He met my gaze with his own blue ones for a split second. He looked torn before he glanced away at the others.

  “I’ll be fine,” I assured him, pushing myself further upright. “Thank you for coming to help.”

  He gave me a sweet smile. “Anytime.”

  He disappeared out of the door before I could blink.

  “I need to teach that boy how to talk to women,” Blaze grumbled. “The awkwardness between you two is painful.”

  I scowled. “Don’t you dare,” I objected. “Daron is sweet and considerate. I don’t need another barbarian mate. I’ve already got you two commanding everything I do.”

  “He said sorry for entering your room,” Aeron objected.

  “Unlike you, who I have had to remove by force before?” I raised a brow. “I like that Daron is sweet, just like I like that you two are so protective. It’s your differences that make you the men you are.”

  Blaze smiled, kissing my forehead. “I will follow him back, but only because I need to talk to him about using his tech to search out the people targeting you.”

  “Stay safe,” I said, smiling at him as he left the room.

  Aeron snuggled closer to me now that we were alone. “Are you sure you feel okay?” He gently pushed my hair aside to examine my new horns. “The skin looks quite red.”

  “I barely feel anything anymore,” I promised, pushing myself up off the bed. “I don’t want this to get in the way of what I had planned.”

  Aeron caught me, pulling me back onto the mattress. “What did you have planned?”

  I smirked, throwing his hands away. “I am going to mate you tonight,” I insisted, dashing over to the dresser before he could stop me and snatching up the lace babydoll I had had earlier. “And I plan to dress for the occasion.”

  A sexy smirk played on his lips as I headed for the bathroom. “Your room or mine?” he asked.

  I twisted the shower on, thinking about it. “Yours,” I decided. “The bed is bigger.”

  “See you up there,” he said, and I stuck my head out of the door for a kiss before he left me too, finally granting me alone time for the first time that day.

  Chapter 23

  It wasn’t until later, as I sat under the spray thinking over the crazy events of the day that I put my hands up to my horns, feeling them gently and prodding the slightly sore skin at the base of them, that I realised I had heard of ferrokinesis before, when Maddox had been talking about his advanced second year class.

  Daron had been using energy manipulations we hadn’t even learned yet, and he’d done it with a casual air that spoke of constant practice.

  The possibilities of that sort of talent had me distracted all through my shower, and I mused over thoughts of him stopping bullets with a wave of his hand as I dried off and slipped into the tiny baby-doll and matching thong.

  I banished those thoughts as I dried my hair, taming it into loose curls down my back, and pulled my robe on over my outfit. It was late enough that I probably wouldn’t meet anyone in the hall, but just in case, I pulled the hood of my robe over my horns to hide how much larger they’d gotten. I’d have to face curious looks at breakfast, but for now I just wanted to focus on mating Aeron.

  I tiptoed up the stairs, relieved not to pass anybody as I reached Aeron’s door and quietly let myself in, slipping up to his room and looking around.

  It was tidier than I’d ever seen it, but it was also deserted. The closed bathroom door and the noise coming from within told me he was showering, so I moved over and perched on the bed to wait for him. His bedside lamp was lit, but most of the light came from the moon outside, and I used the illumination to study his stuff. To the left, a whole wall was taken up with bookshelves; even the space under the window had piles of books, carefully stacked together in a beautiful disarray. The right half of the room was the polar opposite. Every inch of wall space was taken up by an assemblage of archery equipment. There were bows in all conceivable shapes and sizes, old bows that looked antique, modern bows that were a confusing mass of strings, weights and wheels. And there were arrows too, some obviously well used, and others which looked so pristine and deadly that I hoped he’d never fired them.

  He’d never mentioned the archery to me, though I had known he loved books from the way he often read whilst we hung out with the others in the common room. I found myself intrigued by the idea of Aeron shooting a bow, and my dirty mind immediately gave me a visual of him doing so shirtless. I could almost see the way those arms would tense, showing every muscle in perfect definition for the instant before he fired.

  The bathroom door opened, and I swivelled my head to find him entering the room in nothing more than a towel. My mouth watered at the sight of him, even though I’d seen him dozens of times before. He stopped in the doorway, staring at me like I was an illusion.

  “Where have you been hiding that?” he asked, prowling forward like a cat on the hunt.

  “I asked Nelly to get her parents to send off for some things.” I played with the strap.

  Nelly and Lulu had Lust parents who took
my money and didn’t question the need for such things, getting pieces that I would have chosen for myself without even knowing me.

  “Remind me to send them a Christmas card,” he commented, crawling over me on the bed, pressing me down into the mattress with his warm weight.

  He gave me a sweet kiss, but it still left me breathless.

  “Mate me first,” I demanded, knowing how easily I would be distracted if he carried on that way.

  With a sexy smirk that didn’t hide the serious look in his eyes, Aeron shifted onto his side and lifted one palm towards me, summoning a small ball of swirling air into it. The dust motes, illuminated by the moonlight, swirled in beautiful patterns that held me mesmerised for a split second before I focused.

  I summoned the same thing into my own hand, then held it up to his, willing the two to merge together.

  The pinching sensation from before returned, expanding to fill my chest. This time, knowing what it was, I embraced it even as it became uncomfortable, locking eyes with Aeron in a shockingly intimate moment. When the feeling released us, Aeron’s arm gave out, leaving him sprawled beside me.

  I breathed once, then again, before turning and stroking his face lightly in wonder as I started to pick up flashes of smug contentment and adoration from the bond between us. If having a link to Daron was like having a spark of lightning in my chest, Aeron was like a tornado, pushing and shoving his way into my soul.

  “Hello, mate,” he whispered.

  “Hello right back.” I stroked a hand through his dark hair in a tender caress.

  He kissed me, mouth possessing mine as I gave in with a silent sigh of contentment. The bond between us lit up like a storm, rewarding the contact and heightening the sensations.

  “This is almost too nice to destroy,” he murmured, finger sliding under the lace of one strap and running under it, stroking my shoulder as he did so. I shivered at the slight touch, my entire being craving him as much as I could feel that he also craved me.

  The babydoll ripped straight down the middle, cleaved by his impatient hands.

  “I liked that one,” I complained as the thong followed suit.

  He smiled against my lips. “I’ll get you a new one,” he promised, moving his hot mouth down and across my jaw, stopping to lavish attention to my earlobe before moving down my neck with bruising intensity. He paused at the hollow of my collarbone, kissing the tiny indent before running those sinful lips downwards to my breast.

  My hands fisted in his hair as he teased and nipped first one nipple, then the other, letting his tongue swirl around them like his favourite sweet.

  I was panting and writhing on the bed, all but begging with my body for his attention to go lower and fill the deep ache that had taken over me. I was wetter than I’d ever been, feeling the combined force of our desire through our new bond just as he must be, but he kept playing and teasing. His fingers danced against the skin of my thighs with the barest of touches, promising more but keeping me on edge.

  “Aeron,” I protested.

  “Problem?” he taunted, cocky smile lighting up his eyes.

  “Stop teasing me,” I demanded, reaching down for the edge of the towel and ripping it from him in a smooth motion.

  I grabbed his erect cock, pumping shallowly in a mimicry of the torture he was putting me through.

  He reached down, carefully removing my hand and placing it above my head, then he shifted between my legs, putting his full weight on my lower body and gathering my hands over my head in one of his.

  I pouted. “But I want to play too.”

  “You’ll have your fun later,” he promised. “But right now, I’m showing my mate the appreciation she deserves.”

  And that was the last thing he said before he shifted again, pressing his mouth to my core and delivering a punishingly short suck directly to my clit. His tongue returned on its mission to drive me insane, swirling around the little bud but never quite putting the pressure where I needed it most. The laughter in his eyes told me that he knew exactly what effect the light feathering motions were having on me, and I wriggled futilely against his grip on my hands, trying to press where I needed relief.

  “Aeron,” I breathed again.

  His fingers suddenly joined in, two of them slipping inside me with ease and curving forwards, putting pressure on that special spot. That motion, combined with another short, hard suck had me shooting over the precipice on a shout of completion.

  “Inside me, now,” I demanded as he lifted his head, wiping his mouth against the back of one hand.

  Mercifully, he complied, thrusting home in one smooth glide, filling and stretching me so suddenly I couldn’t suppress the long moan he drew from me. Power stirred within me, but instead of moving as I so desperately needed him to, he stayed still. His hands slid from my wrists to my breasts and massaged and tweaked them, driving me so crazy that I caught myself trying to use the bouncy mattress to thrust up onto him and take what I wanted.

  He didn’t cooperate, instead leaning down to take my mouth in a kiss.

  I twined my tongue with his, squeezing my internal muscles until he gave in with a groan and set a frenzied pace, pounding into me like an uncontained animal. He claimed me with an intensity that made every cell in my body sing with the rightness of it.

  We came together, screaming each other’s names into the night. The last thing I remembered was the rush of power and a sweet kiss to my forehead before I drifted straight into sleep.

  Chapter 24

  People did notice that my horns had grown, but fortunately the next two weeks were consumed by people being randomly summoned for Rina’s tester lessons. As a result, she usually caught more attention than I did.

  Training to be the new tester was clearly draining on Rina. Dark circles had become permanent fixtures under her eyes. Her friends were beginning to look at her with an air of contempt. Keeping company with me probably was not helping matters, as the Prides and Envies often gave us a wide berth when we were together. I didn’t ask her about it, because I didn’t know what to say. I knew, though, that she was busy, so I did my bit by giving her slack when it came to group work.

  As a result, when our group was together, we had to work hard and fast. This left very little time for casual conversation between Daron and I, despite my desire to know more about him. He also seemed to do lots of work for the Order with Aeron, making it almost impossible to catch up with either of them outside of work. Even Bane, who I used to spend time with regularly, had gone on another disappearing spree. To my irritation, Aeron wouldn’t confess where his brother had gone.

  Blaze was the only person whose presence I seemed to be able to count on seeing regularly. With the amount of time that I was spending away from Aeron, I had to take power from him more than once on the way back from dinner. But he couldn’t be with me all the time, and I spent much of my free time during the last few days either alone or with my caste friends.

  That was how, almost a fortnight after mating Aeron, I found myself wandering into the library by myself at lunch. Daron and Rina had both cancelled our plans to work together. In all honesty, I felt quietly optimistic about our chances in the exam anyway, so I planned to do some reading for demonic etiquette instead. Despite how dull the books were, I needed to be able to pull off the solstice ball in a couple of months.

  The library was packed as always, but I spotted a familiar figure sleeping on the couch and headed over. Sharax was taking up far too much space, as usual, so I felt little guilt in perching on the edge of his sofa by his legs, as had become my habit on my many recent library trips. Doughnut scurried over to me, and I happily made a fuss of the little creature before setting the heavy book on the table in front of me and opening it to the page about table manners.

  Sharax shuffled, and I glanced at him to see that the arm he kept over his face had been lifted slightly, and a sleepy pair of eyes was studying me intently. After a few seconds of staring each other down, he bent his knees, m
oving his legs up and leaving me one cushion of the three-seat sofa to sit on properly. This was a first; in our recent interactions, he’d looked at me sleepily and then ignored me. I considered that downright friendly, considering the way he kicked anyone else off the sofa almost instantly.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled, shuffling backwards into the space he’d vacated.

  His arm fell back over his eyes, but he was smiling. “No problem, Pet,” he mumbled.

  I blinked at the strange term of endearment. “My name is Lilith.”

  “I know.” He stretched, making his shirt ride up slightly, revealing a thin sliver of a trim abdomen.

  “And you are?”

  He shrugged. “I thought your friends would have told you already. Jin Sharax, Sloth.”