"Your father, is that why you aren’t inside with the rest, you're going to see Julian?" Adriel skips talking to Kagan and looks right at me as if he doesn’t exist. He is being incredibly rude, but his worry is plain on his face. He is such an open book that I can read everything that passes over his face over the expanse of seconds while he waits for an answer. None of them are angry, and one of them is fear again, this time a fear I recognize. It’s the fear of losing me.
So, that’s what has brought him back, but what makes him think he will lose me?
"Don’t worry, the Magistrate won’t execute me once they know what I truly am. I am not a Blood Witch, Adriel. I just need to find out who did this to me and why. I don’t think anyone is equipped to handle me here at the school."
"No, Riley, you can’t go. You can’t tell anyone. The Magistrate will fear you if they know what you are, and that is not something you want. Trust me."
"Hey, Adriel, it sounds like you aren’t here on official business. I have kept my mouth shut for a long time now because you are superior to me in every way. But when it comes to her, I can’t stay in the background any longer. I don’t know what the status of the two of you is anymore, but I am not going to let you stop her from doing something that is going to keep her safe. My father and the rest of the Magistrate will only help her get to the bottom of what happened."
I narrow my eyes at Adriel, reading between the lines. "You know what I really am. How long have you known?" I demand to know, walking towards him and closing in on him, not caring if Kagan sees our exchange or not. This is too sensitive to worry about hiding anything anymore. "Please, tell me you haven’t known the whole time."
His jaw is hard. "I already told you that I can’t lie to you."
My anger flares, and I want to lash out at him. I want to punch him until he can feel it, but he is an angel, and I know he never will.
"Whose side are you on, Adriel?" I as him instead, my voice shaking, "because it doesn’t sound like you are on the one I thought you were."
"You'll find that a lot of the things you thought were true are wrong, but you have to trust me right now when I tell you that you have to keep this secret." His eyes plea with both Kagan and I right now.
"How can I trust you when you have been hiding this from me, allowing me to fail my classes because I believed I was something I wasn't? A demon had to be the one to show me what I am!"
A car pulls up, black with tinted windows, and I am sure the tenseness between us shows on our faces. I step back from Adriel as if I have been burned, and we all turn to see who is getting out of the car.
It is Julian and Reyes. Adriel nods to them, and Julian looks surprised that he is here.
"Father," Kagan says, "I didn’t expect to see you here. We were expecting to meet with a car to take us to see you."
"We heard that there was an incident with a demon the school made a poor decision to experiment with and thought it best to come. I see that Adriel is already here. I should have known; he was the one we have assigned to watch over the school's troubles this year. This just seems to be something that requires more of us. Is your girl wrapped up in this?"
Kagan nods. "Yes, it seems the demon has been trying to convince her of something that was proven today which caused the incident. It was purposeful."
My eyes go to Adriel, and he looks like he might be sick. I don’t understand why we wouldn’t be able to tell them what we found out, but I don’t see much choice now.
"Julian, why don’t you talk with her and your son. I will go with Adriel to question this demon about what happened," Reyes says.
Adriel nods. "Yes, that is a good idea. I was just making sure protocol was being followed here when I saw these two leaving and skipping out on the lockdown." His eyes scan over me sadly for a moment before he follows Reyes back through the gate, leaving us alone with Julian.
"I am sorry for not following the order for lockdown, but when she came to me and told me what happened..."
Julian puts up his hand to cut Kagan off. "Don’t worry about it. You did the right thing by contacting me. The Magistrate would need to deal with this either way. Why don’t we find a quiet place inside to talk?"
I follow behind father and son numbly as we pass through the gates and go into the main office, which Julian orders to be cleared out. He doesn’t have to ask twice as everyone files out, leaving us alone in there. "Now, tell me from the beginning what happened."
I leave out anything incriminating about Adriel. I don’t know why now that I know he has betrayed me, but I just can’t bring myself to get him into any more trouble than he might be in. I am sure they suspect something since they found us embroiled in a fight. If it had gone on any longer, I was sure it would have come down to a physical altercation between Kagan and Adriel because I could feel Kagan’s anger. He is always protecting me and feeling what I feel like we are connected, tethered. That’s what he calls it.
I guess we are.
Adriel and I are linked differently. We can be across oceans, across dimensions, and still feel one another, but it is volatile. Almost toxic. No doubt part of that has to do with this secret he has been keeping, and I want to know why. I selfishly want that answer before I make any hard decision about him.
Julian is unexpectedly attentive; he may look like a cold man, but like his son, there is a warmth surrounding him that makes you feel at ease. Like he can be trusted.
"An Aurora Witch. That is what we call what you are. They used to be created back when angels still roamed the Earth more freely when the battle between angels and demons raged in plain sight. They were powerful beings, and even some humans were able to take on the blood and exhibit gifts. I am sorry we didn’t catch this before. It could have saved you much trouble," he apologizes, and it sounds sincere.
"What will be done with her, then?" Kagan asks the very question that has been on my mind this whole time, but I have been too afraid to ask.
"I will need to convene with the rest of the Magistrate about this, but she remains a great asset to us, maybe even more so now. I don’t see any reason why she could not continue here at Paranormal Hunter Academy, but she may need special training that the school does not currently offer. We will appoint someone to that I am sure."
Kagan looks at me with relief in his gaze, but this only solves part of the problem. "I understand why a demon would want to change me, but why would an angel? And who would do that to someone?"
"Those are questions I would like the answers to as well. Making an Aurora Witch is forbidden for reasons beyond that of not making a Blood Witch. Aurora Witches are not inherently evil, of course, so there is no need to go around and control their population, but the change itself is cruel. Being an angel is an intense experience form what I hear, and mortal bodies are not equipped to handle all that comes with it. And angels are supposed to believe in fighting their own battles, a pact made long ago when they left this plane."
Reyes walks into the room with a smile on his face as he looks at the three of us. "The demon has been questioned. It looks like it was all a grand curiosity for him, which I can’t blame him. I have never met an Aurora Witch before." His eyes sparkle as they look at me, and I feel strangely exposed. For the first time, I do feel there is something wrong about all of this. Reyes looks more like a creep than someone who comforted me and was friends with my father right now. "I am sure we will continue seeing interesting things from you, my dear." He nods and then leaves the room just like that.
"I am sure the demon won’t be a problem any more, but if anything happens, feel free to contact me or go to Adriel. He will likely stay close more often now that we know the school is trying to rehabilitate a teenage demon," Julian says with a scoff before he leaves as well. Kagan follows his father to see him out, and I take it upon myself to sneak out the back door. I have some things I want to know, and I doubt Kagan would approve.
It doesn’t take me long in the empty halls to get to the infirmary, and
since two members of the Magistrate were just in there questioning a patient, it is also clear of any staff at the moment. I find exactly who I expect to find - both an injured Dru and Adriel who is whispering to him in hushed tones, his back to me. It is Dru who stops him to point me out.
Adriel turns and looks at me with complete relief, crushing his lips unabashedly to mine. So much for letting ,me get over it.
This doesn’t mean he is off the hook, though.
"Tell me everything, Adriel," I ask of him, my voice coming out raw as he breaks away from the kiss but still cups my face and won’t look away like I might disappear if he does.
"I can’t. Not yet. Especially now that they will have their eyes on you. I was sure they would kill you on the spot for what you are."
"You’re not making any sense. I am part angel. There is nothing that would make them want to kill me."
It is Dru that scoffs then. "This is why you shouldn’t leave her in the dark."
I look back and forth between them. "You're both in on this? You are working together?"
"That’s a loaded question," is all my favorite, snarky demon has to say.
"Yes and no," is my angel’s cryptic answer.
But then I see it. It hits me so hard I feel the air rush out of my lungs. "You," I say.
I back away, frightened of my entanglement with Adriel, one that apparently began long before I came to the academy. “It was you at the party. The eyes, the laughter. It was your blood I drank."
"Bingo!" Dru chimes in, but I am not in the mood for his antics. I feel like I am choking on battery acid.
"Please, just let me explain. Your Ostara break is about to start. I can take you somewhere during the break, just the two of us, and I can explain everything if you really want to know."
I turn and run because I don’t know what else to do. I run all the way to Kagan;’ room where I wait for him to come up.
When he walks in the door, I don’t say any words, I go to him and crush my body up against his in desperation.
"I'm scared," I admit to him in a whisper, and he pulls me close, his kisses distracting me from the fear that I have. The fear of what I am. The fear that nothing is what it seems.
The fear that I will never get over the angel that flipped my life upside down.
But I can pretend to be over him.
I can pretend until I am.
My kisses on him leave me breathless, and before I know it, his shirt is off, and I am tracing his tattoo all the way up and down his muscular arm. His pants slide off next and then my shirt. It is a frenzy that is not going to stop this time because I am not going to let it.
We fall onto the bed, him on top of me with his hair hanging down on either side of his face like a curtain. I will never forget this moment for as long as I live.
His hands blaze a searing trail down my bare skin, and his thumbs hook in my panties.
I close my eyes and wait for this moment to overtake me.
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About the Author
Coming off the high of becoming a USA Today bestselling author, she is stuck somewhere between having the ambition of a Slytherin and the quiet smarts of a Ravenclaw. Rae has had her heart set on riding on broomsticks, throwing spells with wands, and making friends with fairies her entire life.
Published for the first time at the age of 13, she always knew that writing was in her future. So, she dabbled in all kinds - the dark arts of fantasy and paranormal, even stretching her talons into erotica and dark romance, after trying to keep her head up in the shark-infested waters of the SEO world.
She can spin a tale about almost anything and still believes in fairy tales and romance, even if she has to put it onto paper to make it real. Now, she has written for NY Times bestsellers and dived into the pool of indie authors and publishing, defeating each boss one at a time with her editing, writing, and marketing knowledge.
She is now on a journey, providing new reads for young adults and the young at heart to vacation to just like she loves to do while also raising a spunky little girl and still getting tongue-tied by her husband of almost a decade.
Blood Witch (Paranormal Hunter Academy Book 1) Page 14
