by Erin R Flynn
“Yeah, I wouldn’t like it now either.”
“And that was what I was trying to say. I was saying it wrong and…” He frowned.
“I wasn’t helping,” I sighed, realizing what he didn’t want to say when he was apologizing. “I was pushing you to sound like an ass because it seemed like that was how you felt but you wouldn’t be stupid enough to just say it.”
“Plus your PTSD,” he brought up again. “Tamsin, being sexually assaulted or raped is vastly different than agreeing to film sex.”
I blew a raspberry. “I know that. I do. You’re right. I don’t lump them together, of course. It’s the perception of dirty or ruined goods that society has a lot. It’s like a line of having sex for porn but a leaked sex tape is totally different. Having sex with other guys versus being raped is such a mark against women.” I shrugged. “I saw a lot of those marks get lumped together with what I was doing.”
Understanding filled his eyes. “Because you were dealing with monsters who see victims as ruined goods so what’s one more? Or they’ve already had sex so who cares if there’s a hundred more guys.”
“Yeah, like that.”
“That’s not normal people. Those are monsters.”
I gave him a sad smile. “I’ve known a lot of monsters. Sorry I reacted like you were one. I didn’t see I was blowing it up bigger than—I felt attacked and I lashed out. I do that when feeling cornered.”
“I realized that later too because I couldn’t seem to understand how we’d had two different conversations.”
“So what now?” I asked after we ate for a while longer and I polished off the first container.
He shrugged. “I hope you’ll forgive me and we move past this.” His lips twisted into a forced smile. “And Sean loses his fucking bet about us.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t thrilled to hear about that either,” I drawled. I cleared my throat and accepted the next container he handed me. “I guess that depends if you’re going to forgive me for letting my shit cloud the situation and blowing up too much?”
“I can manage that since you weren’t doing it to try for drama or attention which we both hate.” He smiled when I snorted. Yeah, I could never be the person who wanted drama for drama’s sake. I found myself in the middle of drama a lot but it was for a reason, because I was fighting for something.
That was completely different.
“So we kiss and make up after our first fight? How does this work?”
He blew out a harsh breath. “Sounds good to me. It’s my first too. Well, that I cared about. Maybe add in a nap since I’ve barely slept.” He reached over and moved his hand onto mine. “And I get the chance to tell you how beautiful you looked last night. You were stunning, Tamsin.”
“Thanks.”
“Not going to tell me I was pretty too?” he teased me.
I snorted. He knew full well I’d avoided looking at him. I didn’t know if he’d worn the suit I’d picked out for him before or he was wearing a penguin costume. I swallowed a snicker. The idea of him in an animal costume too amusing to not picture.
He seemed to know I was mentally amusing myself but ignored it. “How about we skip dinner out and do something simple at your house? Use that killer theater you just put in and still go fruit picking in the morning to bring back?”
“Yes, no, yes,” I answered. “How about a reading date? Is that a thing? We read in the library because I have a shit ton of reading I need to get on since I was pulled into the event and that wasn’t on the agenda.”
“If there’s snuggling on a couch, I could get on board with that,” he agreed, smiling when I did. “Yes, I’ll still sleep in the guest room.”
I shrugged. “My room is fine but you’re keeping that third leg covered.”
His eyebrow slowly went up. “Third leg, huh? You’re going with that?”
I snorted. “You know you have a big dick, Darby. Don’t be one and take the compliment.”
“Is that why you agreed to go out with me?” he asked after several moments.
I burst out laughing, which I was sure was the goal. He seemed pleased with himself, especially when I kept laughing. He didn’t get why I was, but it made me realize all three guys I was involved with had huge dicks. Hudson won—by far—but they all were well above average.
Go me?
We finished eating and then actually went for a walk in the woods, getting caught up on the event as it went for the other. He’d put in a lot of work to help the master’s students and got some shit from vamps again as the booth wasn’t run by vamp students. Was that really all vamps cared about?
How petty.
He sighed as we reached the tree line again and pulled out his phone. “Sorry, it won’t stop. Something must be up.”
“It’s fine,” I muttered, realizing I hadn’t grabbed mine.
“What the…” he whispered and then his eyes went wide. He tapped it a few more times and then the side of the phone for volume.
“Oh yeah, that’s how you want it, right, you dirty slut,” a guy grunted from the phone. There was a lot of moaning and chuckling. “She’s nothing but a cock slut. All bluster and bitching until there’s a cock to suck. That’s your game, Tamsin?”
There was a loud slurping sound. “Yes, please, fuck, give me more. Stuff me full of cock. I’m your dirty slut.”
I had the phone out of his hand before he could even react. My eyes went wide as I saw what was “me” in a gangbang by that asshole vamp I’d had problems with and a bunch of his friends. I restarted the video to see it was typical porn-style fantasy crap where “I” was tearing into him but the moment he kissed the girl she was putty in his hands, begging for it and all of his friends.
Gag me.
No, literally, they were gagging “me” with all their dicks.
“There’s no way that’s you,” Darby drawled, holding up his hands in surrender when I shot him a dry look. “You would never flip and go for that douche and you never would be stupid enough to let someone video it like this.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” I agreed, frowning as I took in her state. “She’s drugged. They gave her a potion or something. She’s sweating up a fucking pool and muttering it’s hot. She doesn’t mean the sex, her skin is red. It’s like one of those date rape aphrodisiac drugs someone’s always giving girls in manga or bad Asian dramas.”
He moved in closer and watched over my shoulder. “Her eyes are glassy with fever, yeah. I didn’t notice because—”
“Because it’s hard not to focus on ‘me’ getting gangbanged by assholes, yeah,” I drawled. I flinched as they got onto the fucking and they were not gentle with her. I did swallow a laugh though at what I saw that would completely bust them and the chick playing me. “Still want that calm date tonight?”
“Yes, this doesn’t change anything for me,” he promised, kissing my hair and rubbing my back. He was trying to comfort me—which I appreciated but didn’t need as I wasn’t upset.
I was amused and pissed.
I checked the time and saw lunch was already going and if this was being passed all around, people would be there for the gossip. It wasn’t on social media or any site but linked to an open file on a Google Docs account. Right, good way to get around the rules once again.
“Wait, you want to go into the lion’s den?” he demanded when I led him towards the cafeteria instead of just to my dorm. “I thought you were asking so we’d leave now instead.”
“Nope, I’m not hiding,” I chuckled. “That would make it worse.”
“Maybe, but you know this is going to be vicious, right?”
I sighed, but kept moving. “You’d think a school with magic wouldn’t be so quick to believe everything they saw.”
He snorted, clearly thinking I was giving the people at Artemis too much credit.
I probably was.
The “whispers” started before we even went inside. I handed over my ID to swipe in and so did Darby. Oh, it was definitely the right
place to gather and talk about the latest gossip on a Saturday afternoon because the cafeteria was packed.
I dropped Darby’s hand and didn’t hesitate, going right to the middle of the cafeteria and hopping up on one of the tables.
“We already saw your video, Ms. Vale,” Professor Richardson hissed at me when I took off my bulky sweater. “We don’t need a striptease next.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Well, guess we were civil for a full week, huh?” I shook my head at him. “You of all people I wouldn’t have thought could get caught for a fool or wrong about someone twice. A school that teaches magic should be smarter than assuming everything they see is real.”
“You’re saying it wasn’t you?” he challenged.
“Ms. Vale, let’s take this discussion to my office where it will be private,” Headmaster Edelman suggested, looking like he’d been through the wringer and it wasn’t about to let up anytime soon.
“Naaah,” I said, waving off the idea. “Let’s get this all out in the open right away before someone tries to turn it around later.” I glanced all around. “You all watched it, right? You all saw ‘me’ in the video?” I didn’t give them a chance to answer, yanking down the left side of my lounge pants to show my hip bone and a bit lower. “Anyone see what was in the video? No?”
“She’s got a birthmark in the video,” someone muttered, several looking at the same phone.
“Ding, ding, ding, ding,” I sang. “And I don’t have one. Before someone says I’m glamouring it now—” I glanced down at Edelman. “How does that work? If someone touches it they can tell I’m not hiding a birthmark?”
“Do you even know glamour?” someone else asked.
“Nope,” I answered, popping the P loudly. I smirked at the guys in the video. “I also don’t sleep with tiny dick assholes who don’t know how to treat a woman and I’m not talking the sex. That girl was drugged so believe me, if it had been me, you’d be dead all over the quad. But you knew that, right? That’s why you got someone to act as me? Please, even with drugs I wouldn’t do your pathetic asses.”
I let my pants go back into place as I glanced around the room as whispers started of people trying to figure out who it was then.
“If you figure out who it was, I want several words with them. Actually, you might want to take them into protective custody so I don’t gut them for impersonating me like that.” I hopped off the table, ready to move on with my day and forget this shit.
Except it wasn’t over.
A few of the professors went over to a woman, Professor White addressing her. “You need to come with us, dear.”
“What? Why?” she whispered, her eyes going bug wide.
“There are laws about using magic to impersonate a member of our community,” she said, her tone firm and fierce. “And everyone here was feeling confusion or amusement, those boys over there anger, but there was only one person here with guilt in their aura. So you need to come with us.”
Oh shit, busted! That worked out better than I could even have thought of.
“You wanted to be cast in the role of me, so be me,” I demanded when tears filled her eyes. “Suck it up and admit what you did in front of everyone who was so quick to write it off as me without using their damn heads.”
That was all it took. She broke, wiping her eyes as the tears fell.
“It’s like she said, they drugged me,” she sobbed. “It was just supposed to be a prank. They said they wanted to do a prank on her for getting Blake kicked out and I wanted to get in with the seniors but I didn’t know they were going to do that. They put something in my drink and then I couldn’t control what I was doing or saying. They were talking for me and they made me do all that stuff—”
Everyone was shocked and outraged… Except the guys. They were pissed she was narking on them.
I met the ringleader’s gaze and gave him an evil smile. “I warned you what would happen if you ever drugged a woman. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.”
And of course I wasn’t armed. The one time I wasn’t armed to the teeth I needed to kill someone.
No matter, we were in a cafeteria and people had steak knives on their trays. Those would be fine in a pinch.
I was over the initial table before anyone even realized what I was doing, grabbing the first knife I could and flipping it over for close-contact fighting. I made it over the second table and was almost to him when I was hit with a fucking freight train.
And her name was Mel.
“I warned them,” I seethed as she pinned me down to the table she’d flipped me onto.
“I know, I know you did, but not like this, Tams,” she growled as I struggled against her.
“They did it to her to get me,” I bellowed. “They owe several debts and I want them paid!”
“They’ll pay them but not like this!” She grunted as I landed a shot and got free of her enough to get off the table.
Only to square off with Hudson. Fuck.
“Get them out of here!” someone yelled.
“Hurry, mate, before she guts them,” Craftsman added as he moved to stand next to Mel. Crap, they had me surrounded.
I met the gaze of the dean of the vampires as I tossed my knife down. “You gut them or I will. They did this to one of your own and you should want to gut them.”
“Oh, they will be,” he promised, taking the rest of the fight out of me.
“Nice shot, Tams,” Mel grumbled.
Craftsman snorted. “She was being nice or she would have used her power clap or runes.”
It was my turn to snort. “I haven’t been using them long enough to default to them or I would have to get those guys. I was too angry to think straight.”
“Yeah, which is why I blocked you. I want them dead too but gutting them with all these witnesses won’t do anything but land you in jail too. And unlike the human authorities, we have trackers like you cannot fathom yet and there’s no slipping them. You’d be caught and tossed in jail for murder as everyone here saw it wasn’t self-defense.”
“I wasn’t going to kill them.”
Craftsman snorted again. “I saw their death in your eyes.”
“I was just planning castration,” I grumbled, sidestepping Hudson and going for my sweater. “Seems fair given they gang-raped someone they glamoured as me.”
“She’s right,” Craftsman defended to several of the teachers. “If she was drugged and didn’t agree to it, they recorded the evidence of their crimes and raped her.”
“There are limits to what people think their money and power can really buy them. How could they really think she wouldn’t ever have told the truth?”
“No one would have believed her if you hadn’t done it like this,” Darby said as he handed me my sweater and we went for food. “She’s at a level like Izzy, new money with parents wanting to move up the ladder and not caring if she’s roadkill to do it. It would have been swept under the rug with a mating or something if it didn’t blow up.”
“Oh, so their answer would be to mate her to one of her rapists and have to deal with his friends?” I almost vomited in my mouth when he nodded. “That’s so sicker than what they did to her.”
“Women in our society are pretty expendable and easily sent away if not useful,” he grumbled. “It getting this big means we might not see those guys next year again.”
I almost tripped over my feet. “What are you talking about? How could they still go to school here after that?”
He gave me a sad look. “You’ll see Blake back next year too.”
“Wait, I thought Artemis didn’t give second chances and this society was more cutthroat than humans?”
“Yes, but money and power talks people into a lot of redemption,” he drawled. “They’ll go before their council and read the same script they all do that they made a youthful indiscretion and after working with tutors and self-reflection, helping the poor even, they’ve grown and learned, which is the purpose of educating our young on
es. And then the council will petition Artemis to continue their education.”
“Un-fucking-real,” I whispered, floored down to my toes when everyone had acted like Blake was out for good and the school didn’t allow the same bullshit as in the human world.
I knew Katy, Holly, and their friends were on probation and doing a bunch of penance but I had thought Blake was really out for good.
“Don’t get on the wrong side of this,” Craftsman warned quietly, giving me a serious look when I glanced at him. “It’s a serious issue in our world. Not having a road to redeem oneself and try again is what led to the start of the Underground decades ago. Those tossed out and weren’t let back in formed their own society and many believe if they had been given a second chance, things would be different.
“It’s just like those studies in the human world that if people finish school or get a second chance after juvie, they have a better chance to thrive instead of landing in prison again as an adult. Yes, too many abuse the system and know what we have in place isn’t perfect, but the other way could lead more to the path of anarchy. And those who fight this point are seen as Underground sympathizers.”
“Oh, for the love of fuck,” I groaned. “I just wanted to get some reading done and chill at home. Not everything needs to be so complicated and so much fucking drama. Yes, I agree with second chances but some people won’t ever change. That guy was pissed he was caught and his ploy busted, not upset at what he’d done. There’s no saving someone like that who doesn’t regret what he’s done.”
“Yes, but should you be the one to decide that for them and not give all the chance to do better?” Professor Campbell challenged as she moved up along the buffet. “Are you any better if you would be so cruel to write them off completely than the cruelness he showed?”
“I think I get a vote in this instance as it involved me. Even victims or those involved get to speak at trials or parole hearings and their sentences longer than a year,” I defended, annoyed she sounded like she was taking his side.
But she wasn’t. The look she gave me next made it clear that wasn’t the case but she was teaching me something important. “You’re right, you should get a vote and say before their ruling. You should make sure you do.”
