by C. R. Jane
“That’s the difference between the scholarship students and the non-scholarship students...isn’t it. We’re brought here to be your food.” I can’t hide the heavy dose of disgust present in my voice. “Is everyone lured here with the promise of something they desperately need, like my father’s medical bills?”
I feel wounded. I thought that all the misunderstandings between the guys and I had been solved. But this is huge. I was literally brought here to be their food source. I couldn’t have even imagined something this insane as the backstory of who the guys really were.
They exchange looks. “We think that one was special for you. Someone must have had suspicions that you were something unique and wanted to make sure you ended up at the school. The rest of the students were just offered scholarships as far as we know,” Braxton explains.
I look at Alexander and Dante. “That girl that I found you with…you were feeding off of her, weren’t you?” I murmur, feeling sick as I envision the scene that I walked into. The both nod guiltily. “Sometimes we have to use certain “tactics” to get humans where we want them. If they’re scared or angry...they won’t taste as good. We had just used a bit of compulsion on her to get her relaxed,” murmurs Dante tentatively, looking scared that I was going to bite his head off. “But nothing actually happened. There was no kissing or anything,” he quickly continues when he sees the furious look on my face.
I decide not to go anymore into that. I don’t think I want to hear about their seduction tactics to entice their food. I understand better why they’re so beautiful. Aren’t the most dangerous predators in nature, usually the most beautiful. Being able to easily lure in your food is necessary.
“You said that feeding on a soul can fracture a human’s soul. Does it make them act weird after it? Or are the students at this school really just that strange?”
Finn grimaces at my question, so I turn my attention to him to provide the answer to my question. “There’s always a period of adjustment after we feed. There are rules in place of how often we can feed on one person. But...sometimes those rules get broken.” He hesitates before continuing averts his eyes from me so that he’s looking at the ground instead of my face. “There are certain souls that taste better than others. Happier souls have a different taste than depressed souls. Good people usually taste much better than those with a lot of sin in their history. It’s all preference really, but if a student here is known to taste better than others, the rule of limiting feeds ends up getting broken quite a bit.”
I think of Jenny and how strange she always seems, like she’s constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown. But Mercy also acted that way a lot lately. Was she getting fed on too much? Had the guys…
“Did you feed on Mercy?” I ask in a horrified voice, already knowing what their answer is going to be. Mercy is one of the best people I've ever met. I’m sure her soul tastes like candy, if that’s possible for a soul.
They all look guilty and my heart sinks. I’m oddly jealous though as well.
What is wrong with me?
“Have you fed off of her since we started dating?” I ask, in a voice that isn’t very good at hiding how upset I am right now.
“It was just me who fed on her once,” says Nyx guiltily. “But it hasn’t happened since you came to the school. We just would make her go back to her room anytime she was in the way of us getting to you.”
Finn shoots him a dirty look before speaking. “We didn’t exactly make her off limits to other people though, Adeline. If we’re going to be admitting everything tonight, I guess we should admit that Mercy hasn’t been very high on our priority list.”
“How did you send her away?”
“We can compel other creatures when we need to. The stronger the vampire, the stronger the compulsion. Our compulsion also is affected by how strong or weak the person is. As I’m sure you’re aware, Mercy deals with a lot of self-doubt. It makes it easier for us to influence her and others like her. Basically, high school students can all be controlled very easily. They’re all a mess.”
I’m about to yell at them for compelling Mercy when I realize that I have no memory of them sending Mercy away. “You said you sent Mercy away when you wanted to get close to me,” I begin slowly, trying to figure it out. “Where was I when this was happening?”
The guilt in the air ramps up a notch...or two. No one answers. I look at each of them, trying to understand.
Suddenly it hits me. “Have you fed off of me?” I choke out.
Still nobody answers and I’m dying inside. The fuckers actually have. They’re just like Dixon. Had I been near death before and just didn’t remember it.
“Adeline...” Braxton says brokenly, taking a step towards me.
“Don’t come any closer,” I hiss out as tears start sliding down my cheeks. Braxton stays still but Alexander is on me before I can say another word, disregarding everything I have to say like usual.
“You aren’t allowed to push us away because of this,” he says angrily, gripping my chin in his hand fiercely before slamming his lips against mine.
I rip my lips away from him and glare at him. “I can do anything I want,” I tell him angrily, pushing him away from me. He takes a few steps back and glares at me.
“You knew we weren’t good from the very beginning. We didn’t exactly do anything to hide that. We didn’t know you when you came here. It wasn’t like it is now. You have to differentiate between then and now. We would never feed on you without your permission now. I won’t let you turn away from us after how far we’ve come. You’re mine, and that’s not going to change even if you’re angry. We’re never letting you go.”
In a fit of rage, I lunge at Alexander, my heart racing, my only intention to get him to shut the hell up through any means necessary. But he’s much too quick for me to get a jump on him. In a flash of heat and burning blue eyes and and bared teeth, the bastard’s got both of my wrists firmly in his grasp and he’s pulling my screeching body back towards him.
In one fluid motion he shoves me back into my chair and leans me backwards, pinning my arms above my head, and pressing himself against me. I can feel the unmistakable sensation of his hard-on pushing against me. I’m not proud of it, but I lose all resolve to resist him, grinding myself against his hardness and straining my face up to kiss him. The second my lips make the barest of contact with his, he groans loudly and presses his lips against mine like a man possessed.
Someone clears their throat loudly just then and I freeze, becoming aware that I was about to let Alexander mount me in the middle of the room. Alexander pulls away from me with a triumphant chuckle and I roll my eyes.
He somehow succeeded in extinguishing my anger. Sexy bastard.
But thinking of what he said, he’s right. As long as they haven’t fed on me since we became “this” ...whatever “this” is, I can’t really blame them. These are not good boys, and combined with the fact that their vampires, it isn’t really surprising that they were tempted to try the new girl’s soul.
“You promise me you haven’t tried my soul lately?” I ask begrudgingly, annoyed with myself for letting this go so easily.
They all immediately begin to assure me they haven’t, and I smirk a little bit at how desperate they sound.
I sigh and then continue to pepper questions at them. “Why don’t I remember any of this?” I ask, frowning as I struggle to remember being alone with them in the beginning.
“It’s part of the feeding and the compulsion,” Braxton explains. “It makes you forget so that you won’t tell anyone, and we can do it again later.”
“Except you have something about you, I guess an angelic trait or something, that makes it very hard for you to be compelled,” says Finn, an interested look in his eye.
“What do you mean?”
“Every time we tried to compel you in the beginning you would come out of it quickly. We could still get you to forget things, but we couldn’t make you do anything for mor
e than a few minutes.”
“How often did you try to make me do things?” I practically screech. Finn holds up his hands in supplication. “Calm down. It was only in the beginning as well,” he tells me soothingly.
My mind is racing. How much have I forgotten about my first few months here? What has happened to me? It’s a chilling thought. Like waking up after you’ve been blacked out drunk, not having any clue what happened to you the night before.
“Nothing bad has happened,” Nyx says softly when he sees my panic-stricken face.
“How do you know what has happened?” I ask tearfully. “Were you around 24/7? Who knows what has been done to me, how many times I’ve been fed on. This is terrifying,” I cry out.
Alexander comes close to me again, crouching down in front of me. “Baby. You know we run this school,” he tells me soothingly. “We would have found out if something had happened. And we’ve been watching over you for a while, ever since the attacks started. You haven’t been alone.”
For once I’m grateful for their stalker-like tendencies. I can feel myself relaxing because I can tell they are serious. I haven’t been alone.
I feel exhausted. This is so much to take in...so much to think about. Suddenly a thought hits me. I’ve had sex with two of the vampires. And aren’t vampires...
“Are you dead?” I blurt out, shivering at the question since I’m not into the idea of necrophilia in the least bit.
Finn answers this one, shaking his head with a small, amused smile on his far too handsome face. “I think that rumor came from the fact that we don’t have souls. So whatever priest was trying to describe us back in the day labeled us as the dead or undead because to them we were veritably dead in the water without a soul. Without a soul there’s no path to redemption,” he explains. “But to answer your question, we’re born just like you. I was a baby...and now I’m grown. We just kind of stop aging after a certain point.”
“I saw yearbooks that made it seem like you’re quite a bit older than me,” I tell him accusingly, wondering if he’s lying to me.
The guys exchange looks again. “Don’t freak out, okay,” says Finn, holding up his hands beseechingly. “We do grow up like you, but like I said...we stop eventually and are kind of frozen like this indefinitely,” he explains, gesturing to this god-like body. “We’re basically immortal, so schooling and training is kind of an ongoing thing rather than just something you do when you’re young. You’re not really considered an adult in our society for a few hundred years.”
My mouth drops. “How old are all of you?” I ask incredulously. “And can you stop doing the side eye thing with each other? It’s annoying watching you guys try to talk over my head...wait. Are you telepathic?” I ask, feeling panicked.
Now they all start laughing. “I wish,” says Nyx. “I would love to be able to do that.”
I breathe a quiet sigh of relief. I really didn’t want to think that they’d been able to see all along how infatuated I’ve been with them since the beginning. That would have been embarrassing.
“To answer your question, Finn and Nyx are the babies of the group, they’re both around one hundred,” Dante explains. “I’m one hundred and five, and Alexander is a year older. Braxton of course is the oldest at one hundred and ten.”
I look at him shocked. It all just keeps getting crazier and crazier. I have a headache building from all the stress and it feels like my brain is going to explode.
“You’re basically robbing the cradle then,” I finally say with a huff while they all burst out with relieved laughter.
It’s so much to take in. I have so many more questions. I open my mouth to ask something else and the room starts to get blurry and spin...and that’s about the time I pass out, my poor brain apparently too overwhelmed with everything I have learned to stay awake any longer.
Chapter 11
It's hard to concentrate in class, not after the revelation I’ve just been told. I didn’t wake up until right before class, apparently too overwhelmed to join the living for a while after the big reveal. I haven’t really talked to the guys about anything as I’ve had back to back classes. My head still swims with the information overload.
Braxton keeps sending me looks as he can tell that my mind is elsewhere in his class. Aside from finding out that I’m surrounded by vampires who desperately want my soul, there’s a twitching sensation that keeps spreading across my shoulder blades and distracting me. I feel a sharp pain often and I wonder if I slept on my back wrong last night. I awkwardly reach behind my back to try to rub the itch, but it doesn't do anything.
Class finally ends, and I stand up from my desk. Clarissa is talking to Braxton, and I can tell that he's anxious to get rid of her and talk to me by the way his eyes keep shifting towards me. After a minute, when there's no way I can cover hanging around without it being awkward, I decide just to leave. I can catch up with Braxton later. Besides, I'm thinking I should lay down based on the fact that my back is starting to hurt worse and worse.
I begin to walk down the hall. But I have to start taking breaks, leaning against the walls until the pain in my back subsides. Something is very wrong. I know that people are looking at me strangely, but I'm feeling too weird to do anything about it. I’ve just turned down an empty hallway when the twitching intensifies. It feels like my bones are about to break through my skin. The way I'm feeling, there's no way I'm going to make it to my room. I force myself to walk into an empty classroom and find a seat, thinking that I can text one of the guys to help me if it doesn't subside.
Every step to the seat grows harder and harder. I take a step, and then it happens. It feels like my skin is starting to split open across my back. I take a shuddering breath and stop trying to get to the seat. I start to sink to my knees, knowing I can't go any further. Pain slices across my body, so intense that all the air in my lungs rushes out with a great gasp.
A sharp crack coming from my body sounds throughout the room. My knees buckle and I'm forced to the ground, face flush against the stone floor as something shoots out of my back. I hit my head as I fall, and the room spins around me. It takes a moment before I can see well enough to start trying to figure out what just happened. My heart is pounding as panic surges through me. I pull out my phone from the pocket in my skirt and I turn on the camera, switching it to selfie mode so I can see myself better. My face is pale in the camera, beads of sweat are flecked across my forehead. But I can deal with that. It's the silvery white wings extended from behind me that I'm not sure what to do with.
It takes me a while for the image to sink in… like really sink in. Panic is crawling over my flesh.
Wings!
I have freaking wings!
Am I hallucinating?
You have angel blood. Braxton’s words roll over my mind.
Fuck!
“Guess this confirms I'm not human,” I mutter out loud to myself, even as hysterical laughter starts to swell up in my chest.
Hesitantly, I reach an arm back to touch my new wings, my mind unable to comprehend that they are real. They extend behind me at least three feet, and they’re heavy against my back. So heavy that I'm not sure that they have any utility, because I don't see how I could possibly be able to fly with them.
Did I really just think that? Flying?
Maybe I've gone crazy. The school has finally driven me off the deep end. That would explain what I'm seeing. And what I'm feeling. My hand strokes the soft feathers that cover my wings. They’re silky and smooth to the touch. They definitely feel real.
Cautiously, like it's an alien I'm touching and not something that's connected to my body, I continue to explore the wings. I shiver at the touch, thinking that it's a ticklish feeling. My heart's beating so fast I'm afraid it's going to burst from my chest. At that thought, my wings give a little flutter behind me.
The move surprises me and I give a little squeak feeling like a fool. I push myself back up, and this time I try to move my wings on purpose.
Thinking about moving them doesn't work, so I start trying different things, trying to see if I can elicit any movement. Finally, I concentrate on pushing my energy into where the wings are connected to my body. Blocking everything else out, I put all my focus on that spot. And surprisingly, it works. My wings began to gently move. I'm in awe as I stare at them, which means that I lose focus and they immediately stop moving. Which is probably a good thing, because just then I start to hear voices in the hallway as students start to walk to their classes.
The noises stir me to life, as I remember that I am in a classroom right now. And judging by the lack of dust on the desks, it's one that's used. "Shit, shit, shit," I murmur to myself anxiously as I move my phone from camera mode to the call log. I don't have very many numbers in it, but it feels like it's an important decision who I call to help me right now. My thumb automatically gravitates towards Finn's name. And without another thought I press the call button and wait anxiously as it rings. He doesn't pick up on the first call, and I panic, remembering he's in class at this time.
Just as I’m about to try Alexander's number, my phone buzzes. It's Finn, calling me back. My heart gives a leap as I fumble to accept the call.
Adi?" he asks in a soft concerned voice. "Are you okay?" he whispers. For a second, I'm struck at the fact that he must've left class immediately to call me back. I'm still not used to the way these boys care for me. I've never had anyone care for me like this other than my parents.
"Adi?" he asks again carefully, worry in his tone.
I shake my head, trying to stay focused. I'm not sure why my brain wants to bounce all over the place when I'm in the middle of crisis mode. All right, because I just sprouted wings. Anyone would be a little disoriented after that.
"I need your help," I tell him urgently as I hear more voices coming down the hall. Any minute now someone's going to come in and see me sitting on the floor with giant wings coming out of my back. I’ll probably be put into some kind of freakshow exhibit or something. The way the guys have put it, I'm somewhat of a rarity, even in the school filled with vampires. Who knows, maybe whoever found me would just attack me on sight, trying to get a piece of my soul.
