“This doesn’t mean I forgive you,” I tell him.
“Uh huh,” he says with a smirk. He slowly stands and pulls on his pants. It’s hard to resist pulling him back into bed with me, so I look away.
“I’m serious.”
“It’s fine. I know about your deal with Bastien, but you can’t survive off of him alone. Make the same deal with me, that’s all I ask.”
I hesitate, but I can’t say no. I’m too desperate, and Marcus is too good in bed. His power rushes through my veins, making me feel like I can light up the entire building with magic. “Okay. But it’s just sex. You have to remember that.”
He leans over, touches my chin, and then gives me a kiss that’s somehow both tender and dirty all at once. “Sure it is.”
He’s so damn cocky, so sure that all is forgiven between us just because we had sex. It makes me want to lash out at him, but he walks out of my room before I can do anything but seethe.
When he’s gone, I pull myself together. This is a dangerous game I’m playing. I have to remind myself that the Princes and I are not friends, not after what they did to me last year. That includes Marcus.
It’s time for stage two of my revenge plan.
On Saturday, Araceli and I head into Redding, the largest nearby city, to hit up the department stores. We take my car and fill it with stuff that makes us cackle in delight, especially when we imagine the Princes’ faces. Then we head back to campus, and we wait.
Araceli lets out a huge groan when I wake her up at 2 AM, but she manages to rouse herself after a few minutes. Thanks to my Ishim classes, I know how to make her invisible now too, as long as I’m touching her. Together we grab some department store bags and fly over to the bell tower, which is dark and empty. The Princes are all in bed, leaving their lair unattended. They claimed this space as their own, another symbol of their authority over the rest of the students, and it’s time to mess with it—just like they messed with my room last year.
It takes a few clandestine trips back and forth to bring everything over, and then we begin. Their masculine leather couches are decorated with sparkly pink blankets and pillows. Their dark wood tables get new tablecloths with shiny pink unicorns. Their little mini-kitchen gets pink heart stickers all over it—on the counters, on the microwave, on the fridge—until you can barely see anything underneath them. Sparkly pink streamers hang from the ceiling, while pink shimmering curtains cover the windows. For the final touches, we spray a ton of cheap floral body spray around the room, and cover everything with a heavy dusting of glitter.
“Wait, we almost forgot the best part,” Araceli says, as she grabs the last bag. She pulls out tons of little stuffed animals, all super cute and very pink, ranging from unicorns to kittens to bunnies. There’s even a pink sparkly llama with a nanny cam in it, which I place in the perfect spot to capture the Princes’ reactions when they arrive. We scatter the rest of the stuffed animals liberally around the room, and then stand back to admire our work with a grin.
The Princes’ mancave has been completely transformed into a pretty pink princess room, with three sparkly plastic tiaras on the table waiting to be crowned. It’s totally over the top and ridiculous, and I love it.
I can’t wait to see their faces when they walk in.
Chapter Fifteen
Callan
I fly into the bell tower, with Marcus and Bastien just a few wingspans behind me. The first thing that hits me is the smell as I set down on the alcove. My nose is assaulted by a strong fake floral scent that permeates the space, and I recoil as it hits me hard in the face. Then my eyes catch up to my nose, and my jaw drops as I scan the room, taking in all the pink sparkles, stuffed animals, and glitter. Fuck, there’s so much glitter. We’ll be finding that stuff in weird cracks for the rest of our lives.
Bastien lands beside me and covers his nose, then scans the room with disgust. When Marcus lands, he bursts out laughing, doubling over both from the smell and his amusement.
“Open all the windows and doors,” I command. We can’t do anything else until we air this place out. My eyes are watering just from being in here for a few seconds.
We cover our faces with our shirts and open everything up, then use our wings to create a draft that blows some fresh air through the place. But the smell is only the beginning. Our lounge has been twisted into some kind of pink monstrosity.
I stare at the room for a few minutes, and all I can finally manage to say is, “What the fuck?”
“It’s so petty,” Bastien says, shaking his head.
“We trashed her room, and now she trashed ours,” Marcus says with a shrug. “It’s nothing more than we deserve.” He plops down on the couch, falling into the pile of pink stuffed animals. “Besides, I think it’s pretty awesome.”
“How long is this revenge bullshit going to continue?” I ask.
Bastien plucks a unicorn off his armchair and tosses it aside. “So far she’s gotten back at you for her car, and this is obviously retaliation for what we did to her room. Assuming she ignores the smaller offenses like vandalizing her door and leaving her threatening notes, she should only have one more act of revenge left.” He gives me a hard look. “Exposing a secret to the entire school.”
“We have to stop her before it gets to that point,” I growl.
“Stop her how?” Marcus asks with a snort. “That sort of thing is what got us into this mess.”
I scowl at him. "I did what I had to do."
"Did you?" Marcus throws a stuffed dog at my head, which I catch. "Did you really have to threaten her?” He throws a stuffed llama next. “Or fuck up her car? Or betray her?” His words are laced with anger, and he keeps throwing things at me until there’s nothing else within reach.
“Are you done?” I ask, knocking the last of the animals aside. “I did what I thought was right at the time. I didn’t know she was Jonah’s sister, only that I made a promise to him, a promise to keep Olivia away from this school.”
“Some of it was particularly harsh,” Bastien says, rubbing his chin.
I glare at him. I thought he was on my side. Guess I’m alone here. “Maybe it was harsh, but it was a necessary evil.”
Marcus stretches his legs out on the couch and puts on a little plastic tiara, like he’s totally cool with all this. “We should’ve been honest with her from the beginning. It would have saved us all a lot of trouble.”
“We didn’t know if we could trust her,” I reply.
“No, but we knew she was connected to Jonah somehow,” Bastien says. “We should have made her tell us how from the start.”
Marcus nods. “Yes, and once we knew she was his sister, we should have told her that Jonah went to Faerie on a mission for the Order. We could have worked together to find him, instead of trying to get her to leave the school.”
I roll my eyes. “And if we’d known Jonah would go missing, we never would have let him go to Faerie in the first place. There’s no point wishing the past could be different. We already made the choices we did, and we have to stand by them. Even if we might regret them now.”
“The only way to get this to end is to apologize to her,” Marcus says. “Convince her to forgive you. That’s what I’m doing, and it seems to be working. Very well, if the other night was any indication.” A slow grin spreads across his face, and I want to punch it off. He’s fucking her again, no doubt. Him and Bastien. She’s got them both under her spell.
“Never.” I hate all demons, including Olivia, and I hate that every time I look at her, I want her anyway. She must be using her succubus powers on me. There’s no other explanation. She doesn’t belong here, and even her brother knew it. Her half-demon blood puts her at risk and makes her a threat at the same time. But I’m not going to try to get her kicked out again. I’ve accepted she’s not going anywhere, even though I don’t like it. Considering demons destroyed my family, I think that's pretty fucking big of me.
“I’ll send someone to clean this place up,”
I say, as I pick up the llama on the floor. Something in it catches my attention, and I examine it more closely. A hidden camera. She’s been recording all this, and now she has the perfect video to show the entire school.
I can’t let her do that.
I track Olivia down an hour later, as she’s leaving her yoga class. I land right in front of her in a rush, making her jump back.
“Callan,” she says, her voice breathy and sexy as hell. “Having a good morning?”
I throw one of the plastic sparkly tiaras at her chest. “Thanks for redecorating our lounge. Pink’s not my color though.”
She catches it with a wicked smile. “Too bad. I thought it was perfect for such a pretty princess.”
I grit my teeth at the reminder of my car. “What are you planning next?”
She starts walking back to the dorm, like she doesn’t have time for me. “I’m sure you’d like to know that.”
I match her stride easily. “I know you were watching us on that camera. You recorded us, didn’t you?”
“I don’t have any idea what you mean.”
I grab her arm to make her stop and face me. “You need to quit this shit. Now.”
Her eyes narrow. “Maybe you should listen to Marcus. This could all end if you just apologize.”
“I can’t apologize if I’m not sorry.”
“Then I guess you deserve everything that’s coming to you.”
Fury rises up in me as I face her, and I imagine pushing her down on her knees and shoving my cock in that pretty mouth to shut her up. As soon as I have the thought, she smiles, like she knows what I’m thinking. She can feel how much I want her.
I release her arm in disgust and step back. “Quit using your succubus magic on me.”
“I’m not doing anything. This is all you.” She steps closer and runs a hand down my chest. “It must kill you, how much you want me. I see the way you look at me in class. The same way you’re looking at me now.” She licks her red lips, and I can’t help but stare at them. “Your lust is tinged with hate, but somehow that only makes it more delicious.”
She drives me mad, but for a second I’m tempted to kiss her anyway, and it takes everything in me to hold myself back. Maybe because she’s forbidden fruit. Maybe because she’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever laid eyes on. Maybe because she’s the only woman who’s ever challenged me.
Either way, it’s not going to happen.
I knock her hand away. “You fucked up my car. You messed with my lounge. I accept your punishment as justice—an eye for an eye. But I’m warning you now…stop this before it goes any further. You don’t want to push me.”
“You’re wrong. That’s exactly what I want to do.” She steps back with a cruel smile. “I’m going to push you until you break.”
Chapter Sixteen
Olivia
When I get back to my room, I sit at my desk and watch the recording again with a wicked grin on my face. I originally planned to show the video of their reactions to the entire school, thinking it would humiliate them, but then they started talking about Jonah and Faerie, giving me concrete evidence they’ve known all along where he is and that they’re part of the Order. A video like this could ruin them. Just like they tried to ruin me. All I have to do is share it, when the time comes.
Even though I acted brave in the face of Callan’s anger, I still dread going to Combat Training the next morning. We’re still trying out different weapons to see which one we want to focus on, and today we’re working with throwing knives.
I ignore Callan as best I can, while Hilda barks instructions at us and has us spread around the room to face targets. But then she sends Callan over to help each student with positioning, starting with me.
"Try not to kill me,” I mutter, as he moves beside me.
“I think it’s more likely you’ll kill me.” He grabs my hand and adjusts the knife quickly. “Hold it like this.”
“Wow, that’s some great teaching there.”
“Would you rather I spend a long time with you?”
“No, on second thought, let’s get this over quickly.”
He crosses his arms. “Show me what you got.”
I can feel the steady stream of his hate-lust, and it makes my head spin. Hate is a lot like desire, I’ve discovered. It makes you all hot and sweaty, and unable to focus on anyone else but that person. You think about them constantly. You imagine all the things you can do to them. You want to do whatever you can to get them out of your system.
Callan’s hateful eyes are intense as they stare at me. I wonder if he’s thinking about fucking me or strangling me right now. Probably both.
I roll my shoulders and focus on the target in front of me, but then Callan’s eyes lower to my ass and his lust flares. I drop the knife instead of throwing it, and he laughs.
It’s not a nice laugh.
“Don’t mock me,” I snap at him.
“Sorry,” he says, with a haughty smirk. “Do you need me to show you how to hold the knife again?”
I glare at him as I pick up the knife. “No, I need you to stop thinking about fucking me. Your lust is very distracting.”
His smirk falls and his eyes go hard again. “Just throw the damn knives already.”
I throw one and it hits the side of the target and then clatters to the ground. I grab another, with even worse results. I bet I could do this if Callan wasn’t hate-banging me with his eyes. And every time I fail, his cruel smile gets bigger and bigger.
“This is your fault,” I say, after picking up the knives off the floor.
"Your inability to throw the knifes correctly has nothing to do with me."
“I thought you were supposed to be teaching me.”
He shrugs callously. “I can only do so much for someone so innately bad at combat.”
I’m tempted to bury one of these knives in his arm next, but before I can, he leaves to go work with the next student. Finally.
But even once he’s gone, his desire hovers around me like a thick cloud, making it hard for me to breathe, or think about anything else other than how much I hate him. I picture his face on the target and throw, and this time, I don’t miss.
In Fae Studies, Raziel is discussing time in Faerie, which movies differently than on Earth, and he’s wearing a bowtie with stars all over it.
"The early hours of the morning are spring. The temperature warms somewhat, the flowers bloom, the animals wake and frolic. In the middle of the day, it shifts to summer. The air gets hot, the sun beats down, and sometimes there will be summer showers. Late afternoon is autumn. As the sun sets, the trees lose their leaves, the air grows cooler, and the animals get ready to sleep. And finally, full dark is winter. It's very cold, the animals are snug in their burrows, and the trees are bare. However, this does change a bit depending on where you are in Faerie. For example, in the Winter Court, that season will be the longest."
He continues on about the layout of Faerie for some time, and then asks if we have any questions.
I raise my hand to ask the question that’s been on my mind for months. “What do the fae do with prisoners caught in Faerie?”
Raziel looks taken aback by my question. “I imagine they either imprison them or execute them, but it’s so rare, I’m not sure. No one gets into Faerie these days without their permission.”
Not helpful at all.
In the last few weeks I haven’t learned anything I didn’t already know. The fae are reclusive and rarely leave Faerie. A few of them have wings, and all of them have unusual, colorful hair, unless it’s jet black or pure white. They have extraordinary amounts of magic and can glamour people, although that doesn’t work on Ofanim. Some powerful fae can make magical objects like my necklace. But nothing is getting me any closer to rescuing Jonah, and I’m starting to get frustrated.
“You should go to Faerie and find out,” Jeremy says in a low voice behind me. “Maybe they’ll execute you like the abomination you are.”
; My mouth falls open and I spin in my seat to face him, but I’m shocked into temporary silence by his words. I know many people here hate and fear me, but it’s rare for anyone to say something as horrible as that.
Bastien speaks before I can, his voice filled with cold menace. “How dare you speak to her like that.”
“She’s a demon,” Jeremy practically spits out.
“And you think you’re so much better? You, whose father abandoned his post during the Great War, letting his entire squad die? Whose mother left her family to marry a human?”
Jeremy’s face flushes with murderous rage. I’m impressed Bastien knows so much about him. Then again, he probably knows the dirty secrets of every student at this school.
“Jeremy, please leave this classroom until you can compose yourself,” Raziel says with a disapproving tone.
The jerk stands up slowly and gathers his things while glaring at me the entire time. When he leaves the room, I relax and sneak a glance at Bastien, but he’s back to ignoring me. Everyone else in class stares at us with wide eyes for the rest of the lecture, and I doubt any of us hears what Raziel’s saying at all.
As soon as class ends, I hurry after Bastien to catch him outside. “Thanks for sticking up for me.”
“It was nothing.” His voice is still cold. He’s always cold and emotionless. Or so it seems. But he must have felt something for him to snap at Jeremy that way, and I know from watching the video that he does seem to regret his involvement in what the Princes did last year, at least a little. But he still hasn’t apologized either, so he’s not off the hook.
Chapter Seventeen
Olivia
A rare thunderstorm sends everyone into the cafeteria for dinner one Thursday night, and it takes me forever to get food from the buffet. I plop my tray down beside Grace’s plate and sit across from Araceli, then nearly faceplant into my food because I’m just that exhausted. It’s been a month since I got my second revenge on the Princes, and my classes are kicking my ass. I probably need to feed again too, and not just on food. I had to lay off the sex dreams a little when I overheard two people laughing about how they'd both had a bunch of them recently. I don’t want anyone to start connecting the dots. On the other hand, people on campus seem to be hooking up left and right, so they should really be thanking me. Love is in the air—or at the very least, a heavy dose of lust.
Seraphim Academy 2: Sinful Things Page 7
