by Jade Alters
I don’t know where she came from, but I don’t even need to look straight at her to know who it is. That posture. That obnoxious black gown, coupled with the long fall jacket. That ridiculous brimmed hat to hide her graying hair. I hand out the last of the orbs and trudge over to her. Serge reaches for me instinctively, as if to hold me back, but I’m already too close to her.
“Deliah,” I greet the woman.
“Emery,” she says. She gives me a little tip of the hat. I’m not sure if it’s real or mock respect at this point. I’m also unclear on which would be worse. “I heard you and your brother were…teaching your little self-taught technique.”
“And you just came to remind me it’s little?” I counter immediately. It’s the first time we’ve been alone since the Point Arena facility. The first time I could actually wrap my fingers around her throat without the entire Council and Kyrie seeing. “You do realize this is the technique we used to cage and kill the Gray Fiends,” I decide to stab at her instead. After all, only half the crowd behind me might help if I made a move for her here. The other half still worship her like a deity. Like I did.
“Actually…I came to observe,” Deliah admits. Her hand climbs high over her head. She grasps the brim of her hat. My jaw drops. A display of humility? Of reverence? I’ve only ever seen her take off her hat, if she were wearing one, at a funeral. She holds it over her stomach in both hands, showing the thick braids of her sideswept hair. One snake of hair is still that perfect dark brown. The other has gone almost entirely silver. It’s like the hair of two different people. Who she was…and someone I don’t know. “This…is all we have to defend ourselves against those locusts.”
“Observe… Finally entering retirement?” I jab at her, to try and force out the wicked harpy I know is still in there. A single, muffled chuckle from her lightly wrinkling throat shakes my soul. She turns halfway from me back to the hall from whence she crept.
“I hope it’s enough,” says Deliah. Then she’s gone. She leaves me frozen in the doorway, her whispers screaming across my mind. What hits me hardest is how genuine she sounded. This is her only hope at survival. Of course she wants us to win now. But she doesn’t get to. She doesn’t get to root for us now! She doesn’t get to doubt us, to fear! How dare she leave me here with those words etched in my brain. I cock my feet to chase, until Serge calls out:
“Em.” It’s all he needs to say. I look, and he shakes his head. He knows as well as I do, beneath all the rancid knots she leaves in my guts, that she’s not worth it. But he never let them down quite like I did, nor was let down so hard.
All that pulls me away are the students. The others who want to live, and depend on Serge and I to teach them how. I walk back to our ranks of Magician trainees, frustrated with their glass orbs. My fingers curl in two tight fists.
I’ll show her how much is enough.
Emery,
The Broken Academy, Darius’ Room,
“Alright, what is it?” Darius’ voice rattles my chest in the middle of the night. I almost jump when I hear it, despite being entirely awake. He doesn’t usually mind when I fidget a little, but we’ve been laying here for hours.
I open my eyes to sheer darkness. His head is still in my hands, between my breasts. I run my fingers through his thick hair for the thousandth time. It calms me, but it can’t chase the thoughts from my head. The torturous replay of Deliah in the courtyard. She couldn’t just let things lie. She couldn’t just stay the fuck away from us.
“What do you mean?” I try to play off.
“You know I don’t actually sleep, right?” Darius snorts past my pathetic attempts. “I sort of zone out, eventually, but that’s pretty hard when I’ve got the world’s most meticulous stylist sorting my roots.”
“So-sorry,” I sputter. Suddenly, I realize just how hard I’ve been gripping Darius’ tufts of hair. How he managed to stay quiet until now is baffling.
“How about we skip the sorries and you tell me what’s going on in that mystical noggin, instead of ripping the hair out of mine?” Darius suggests. He turns his head up to mine. I slide my hands free of his admittedly well-organized strands, down his back. I graze my fingernails along the ridge of his spine just to feel his hairs stand up. A constant reminder from me that he’s nothing but perfectly alive. He shudders a little at the tickle. “Come on, quit trying to distract me.”
“I thought you liked my distractions,” I divert. He smirks at my well-played maneuver. The longer I run my fingers down his back, the harder his muscle pulses between his leg. It’s wedged against my thigh.
“Let’s cut a deal,” Darius tries. He shuffles halfway upright. “How about you spill whatever it is rattling around up there, and I’ll rattle you a little bit. Help you sleep.”
“Hmm…” I pretend to consider. I sit up a little while Darius’ fingers dance along the edge of my underwear, inside my thigh. “I…I’m worried it won’t be enough.” My face sinks to hide just how much I’m actually doubting it all.
“It will,” Darius says.
“You don’t even know what it is,” I chuckle.
“If I had to guess...I’d say it was your first day training those useless sacks of pretentious bloodlines,” Darius shrugs. His fingers slide down to cup the muscle of my skinny legs. The chill of his skin acts like the sobering first strike of a cold shower. “But that hardly matters.”
“Doesn’t it?” I murmur. He must hear the cracks deep inside, where the words are coming from. Darius slips the fingers of his other hand into mine. “If we don’t have an unshakable defense…when the Lotus decide it’s time to come knocking…we won’t-”
“That’s not what I mean,” Darius shakes his head. “I mean…it hardly matters what you’re worried about, not being enough. It will be. Because it’s you. There’s nothing you couldn’t be enough to do. Training some deadbeats. The Kyrie. The Lotus. Me… You’ve just got too much to give. You couldn’t spend it all if you tried.”
“How…are you so sure?” my voice trembles out.
“You feel that?” he asks. I know what he means, as it expresses itself through several venues of his body. I feel it through his chest on my hand. I feel it in his cock, pushing up towards me. His pulse. His heartbeat. “I don’t know how I’m so sure. Just like I’m not sure how you do that. Make me feel…things I haven’t.”
“Then I guess there’s no point in trying to figure it out,” I sigh. But, at the edge of despair, my lips curl into a smirk. I push them into Darius’. My fingers wiggle down inside the tight line of his boxers. He squirms a little at the first few slides of my fingers down the shaft of his penis. I make sure to really push down against his pelvis. To awaken every cell of his body with the stimulation.
His hands fly up my shirt as he kneels over me. I don’t wait for him to grab or squeeze before I free my breasts from their cloth prison. I feel Darius’ cold fingers glide up the length of my vagina. The shiver arches my back against his bed. I’m not entirely sure where our clothes all end up. I giggle as he fires my underwear into the darkness of his room like a child with a rubber band. His boxers vanish. His icy muscles flatten against mine.
Our bare bodies rub together like two sticks starting a fire. With a gentle but strong grip, he pushes my legs up over his shoulders. He leans down over me once I’m wet enough. I feel his cock squeeze inside me while he hugs my legs. His ecstatic smile tells me just how good it feels. To be alive. To be with me. I feel the shape of him perfectly as a cold probe. Darius pushes in deep as my legs fold back near either side of my face. He eases himself in with wet little jabs, each one drawing a little groan from within me, until our lips meet.
Then he falls back. He holds himself up on the bed. He slams his pelvis into my ass. The crash of our bodies over and over threatens to scrape his bed across the floor. I raise a finger to remind him that my brother is right next door. Darius needs no reminder. He quickens his pace and controls the force. It’s me who has to fight with my volume. I bite m
y lip to keep from screaming as our hips lock together. As Darius’ cock slides deeper into the tightest, most inner walls of me.
The back of my head hits my pillow as his finger slides in to join his penis. He rubs while he thrusts. Darius lifts me to the cusp of explosion, just where he is. When we’re both ready, I nod to him. Everything will happen if he just shoves. He braces against the bed with both hands now. Blood rushes to my head as I form a bridge with my back. I push myself onto him as hard as I can. Darius slams into me slow, but hard. My vaginal spasms put him over the edge. Now we both struggle to swallow our screams as my insides massage thick pumps of heat from inside his otherwise cold body. Darius pushes against me until my entire body melts between his arms. The last few drips of his orgasm fill the space between my legs.
When Darius lays his head on my chest for the last few rocks, I bury my face in his shoulders. I close my eyes. If I let go here, now…maybe I can actually sleep.
I decide to embrace the moment. I don’t need to worry about teaching again until tomorrow, which is precisely when my eyes open next.
Rescuers
Lee,
The Broken Academy, Administrative Wing
Being here brings things back. Memories so sweet they sting. My shoes kick through grass in the courtyard. They tap down the stony halls under high, arched ceilings in the class halls. I follow a loose path back to where I still wish I could go. A path that was once bursting with life, with the chuckles and conversations of a hundred students everywhere I turned. Now those same paths hardly house a handful of tense bodies. There are no students at the Broken Academy anymore. Only refugees.
I can’t go back. Before the Lotus – hell, before the Kyrie. I can’t go back to class. I can’t connect with Cece through the Soul of Fire while we struggle to stay awake through basic classes. I can’t go pick a fight with her in the courtyard to make her see what she really is – amazing. I can’t go out on rescue missions to bring other lost souls through the door. I just now feel it, from the fibers of my bones and the soles of my feet. It’s gone. It’s all gone.
My feet carry me along this lonely path of realization, to the only person who might be able to make it better. My living bastion. My knuckles jump in excitement at the sight of Cece’s old door. How many times have I done this, and yet sparks fly in my chest. The ghosts of our first dates still live here, in the halls of the Academy. But, before my second rap on the door, it swings open on its own.
“Lee!” Cece chimes quietly. She slips out her door and closes it gently. Behind her, I see why. My heart flutters and sinks, just a little. Through the crack to her room, I see Bryant laid out in her bed.
“Oh. And I was sure I’d set the record this time,” I laugh to shake the unease out of my voice. It’s not like Bryant and I aren’t aware of Cece’s unique relationship web. Still, we’ve managed to avoid walking in on one another until now.
“Oh, no, it’s not… They gave Bryant’s room to another Demon. He’s got no place to stay,” Cece waves me off. The way she does it, without a hint of guilt or embarrassment, inclines me to believe her. “He’s been asleep pretty much since we got back. I guess the Truce Camp battle really took something out of him.”
“I see,” I hum. Little as I want to admit it, I’m thrown. Every halfway smooth line I dreamed up on the way here jingled right out of my skull when I saw him, already here.
“Crazy, huh?” Cece says as she slides over to me. She puts her back to the wall of the hallway. Her muscular arms hang around my neck. “Being back here?”
“I don’t know how you do it,” I whisper. She pulls me the slightest bit closer, cocking a curious look up at me. “Read my mind,” I finish the thought.
“You tend to be very... honest,” Cece teases. “Especially around the eyes.”
“Cece…are you saying I’m predictable?” I pout, lower lip out like the child I’m pretending to be. She leans in to trap it gently between her teeth.
“More like…dependable,” Cece tells me with a kiss. Only she could put a positive spin on it in such a way. Right now, I don’t mind. Especially as her hand slides down the length of my body. I feel her tongue in my mouth and her fingers around the base of the hardening muscle between my legs at once. “And not just in your eyes,” Cece adds. I lean back for a quick check of the hallway. We’re all clear on both sides. I put my waist forward to indulge in every pleasing stroke.
“Well, it doesn’t take much to predict this,” I chuckle quietly. A sound so sudden and so loud is just about the only thing that could pry us apart just now. A toneless horn blares through the air all throughout the hall. “No… Already?” I sigh.
“Another day, another Vampire raid,” Cece shrugs. I cringe as her hand slides away from my penis. We both know the importance of our roles. As two well-established warriors of the Kyrie, we’re essentially supernatural first responders. We head up to the Administrative Wing together.
After our briefing from the Council and the Kyrie leaders, I marvel at the irony, considering how Cece and I met. My first rescue mission. Maybe there’s hope to go back after all.
Lee,
Solvang, California
The name of our destination mystifies me right up until our group arrives. I ride in the rental car from Big Sur with Cece and River. Emery, Helena and Fey Deller follow close behind in a second car. It’s a long three hours, even with Cece’s breakneck pace. She rips down the main thoroughfare onto a sidestreet called Aarthus Drive. Our doors pop open in the hazy gray-yellow of dusk. In this odd light, I see how Solvang seems to fit.
The place looks like a slice of rural Denmark, plucked up and dropped in the middle of southern California. We’re surrounded by a few light-colored homes, outlined by external dark wood framework. Dark-paned windows are crossed by thin metal rods. Front doors are tall and rounded at the top. Emery pulls the backup car up beside us, just across the street from a tiny pond and park. The silhouette of a massive spinning windmill rises up in the day’s last breath above us.
But the most remarkable thing about the quaint little town is all the blood. Streaks of it criss-cross Aarthus Drive. Little rivers of it run down into storm drains. Shallow puddles of it fill the divots in the road. The culprits are still here, still drinking. The frenzied newbie Vampires restrain weakened Normans while they drain the last life from within.
“I’ll create a perimeter,” Emery announces from behind us. We won’t be making the same mistakes from San Francisco. Our resident Magician slaps her palms together to send a ripple through the last remaining light particles around us. With a few powerful, bending arm motions, she’s created a large circle around us and our targets. A circle through which no one outside can see.
“Alright, we’ve got a few minutes at most before the Lotus send another cleanup crew. Separate them from their prey,” I announce to Cece and Helena. When I see all the fear, it comes over me like a solid wave. The victims’ fear. The Vampires’ fear, as they realize they just can’t stop. Most of us weren’t so different, once. Suddenly, I understand exactly why Dragonlord Thise vouched for me to lead this operation. Adrenaline turns to orders. For myself. For others. Anything to preserve the most lives. Anything to bring these lost souls home. “Fey Deller. You’re on Norman cleanup. Get them to Emery once they’re stable.”
“Understood,” nods the Fey with the gnarled scar down her face.
Cece and I shoot straight into the heart of the bloody struggle. A flash of fire transforms us both into scaly-armored beasts. We turn out from one another to take on opposite halves of the Vampiric crowd. I give one of the Vampires a taste of their own medicine with a hard bite to the collar. I rip the man, no older than me, away from his prey. The Vampire skids on his heels to a stop a few feet back. His hand pulls slowly away from the already healing jaw-mark in his neck. He marvels at his own blood for a moment while Fey Deller moves in to treat the woman I just released.
“Stay where you are!” I snarl when the Vampire makes a motion t
o sprint. I seal the deal with an infernal plume from my throat, close enough to singe his hairs. It’s enough to keep him still, at least until Helena arrives. Lightning jumps from her hands into the Vampire’s nerves. He goes rigid and topples over just as I move to the next target.
Cece and I thrash who we can. We scorch those we can’t, taking care not to burn the Normans caught in their jaws. Helena and Fey Deller are never more than a step behind, each with their own role to play. Fey Deller staunches the gushing wounds of survivors. Helena sends the Vampires horizontal, twitching from the pulse of burning plasma through their bodies. Survivors, once treated, are brought to Emery for the treatment of their mind. Using some sort of internal illusion, she’s able to hide the memory of what happened here from the minds of the Normans. They’ll wake up in a hospital somewhere, when someone finds them all, with no recollection of their attackers or their rescuers.
I take a huge bound across the pavement to cut off the escape route of one of the last Vampires. I scorch a flaming line across the street to wall off his path. He tries to jerk for another direction, only to be met with the waiting claws of my draconic colleague. Cece puts him flat on the ground.
“Damnit, why can’t you all just leave us alone?” the Vampire roars. “Leave us alone or take us out! Stop…toying with us!” He tries to rocket up to his feet. He’s met with the talons of mine in his chest. I dig in just enough so he knows I mean business.
“People might be more inclined to leave you alone if you controlled your feeding habits,” Cece snarls down at him. Behind us, Helena shocks the last few Vampires into submission. Fey Deller’s work stabilizing their victims seems unending.
“We were controlling them! We were doing fine… I…I never killed anyone,” the Vampire under my heel can hardly bring himself to say. I sense the true weight of it in what he’s left unsaid. I raise a gentle hand to signal to Cece that I’ll take it from here.
