“While bloodlust should be your number one safety concern, you must understand that being a courtesan to a vampire comes with other considerations.” Candice’s eyes glazed over, and when she opened her mouth, no words came out. She blinked rapidly, recovering from whatever flashback she was in while I tried not to think what a highly acclaimed courtesan like her had endured.
“For homework, write an essay about what you will bring to the table for your master. Please don’t focus on your sexual abilities or lack thereof. While sex is certainly part of the equation, any vampire could purchase a lover for the night. You are more than someone to sleep with. You take care of your master’s emotional well-being. You are his companion, his champion, his muse, and there to make a tense political meeting or sales negotiation run smoothly.”
Great, so she was basically asking us to prostitute our souls and hearts, too. Is that what she had done? Did Candice actually believe that her master loved or cared for her? Was she grateful to him?
The gong rang. I was glad to get out of Courtesan Studies and go to our Home Décor class. After our last two teachers ended up either dead or imprisoned, we hadn’t been given a replacement yet, which meant we’d be on our own, only supervised by a vamp.
“Candice is pretty good, isn’t she?” Virgie asked as we put our books into our bag and shuffled out of the classroom.
I snorted. “She’s nice, but a bit delusional.”
Virgie threw her mane of silky, black hair back, her Asian-Caucasian features looking stunning and radiant as always, despite the lack of natural sunlight in the academy. “She did well for herself.”
I shot a furtive glance at Thorsten who was waiting for all of us to file out of the classroom. He still kept his gaze on the opposite wall as if he was studying the stone bricks as we left the room. Fine. Whatever. I didn’t care. The painful tightening in my chest wasn’t because of him.
“I mean she even gets to teach here.” Virgie rearranged her blouse, highlighting her D-cup as we stepped into the wide castle corridor.
I bit my lip. “Is that how you plan to do it?”
Virgie chuckled. “Oh, no. I’m not that good of an actress. Candice is really selling the love she has for her master.”
“Or maybe she has Stockholm syndrome.” The brief, blank look sort of gave it away.
Virgie shrugged. “I’m not going to pick a master who is most enchanted by me. A guy like that is likely to become possessive. I need someone who will value me and allow me freedom as long as I bring in income. I want my own business, whether it’s a brothel or a lingerie store. I need something where I get to call the shots.”
I nodded. Virgie had always been extremely business-minded. And while in theory, her plan sounded smart, I wasn’t sure it was the right path for me. Besides, Virgie’s luck hinged on the contracts she got, leaving much that could go wrong. “What do you think I should do?”
She looked me up and down, then said slowly, “I honestly don’t know.”
“Don’t know what?” Lily joined us, feet tapping on the stone floor of the corridor, having just finished her Servant Studies class. Since she was the only fae in Independent Study, she took her first class with the other Servant Majors.
“Nothing.” I smiled weakly, not wanting to bother her with my problems, but she was too smart to not understand what was going on.
“How was class?” she asked with a cautious frown.
I shrugged. “Candice is nice.”
“I hope I get Steinberg to buy my contract.” Virgie tilted her head, a dreamy look entering her eyes.
“Can we really do that? Influence who buys our contract?”
She nodded. “If you’re smart and make the right connections.”
I huffed out a bitter laugh as I thought of Thorsten. Good luck to Virgie on that. “How? We’re stuck in Nocturnal Academy until we graduate. Outside vamps have only come once to evaluate us. Are they paying us another visit before the day of our graduation?”
Virgie shook her head. “Not graduation, but the bidding ball at the end of the year. Stop thinking like a human. Anyhow, rumor has it that we’re allowed an outing or two before graduation. Also, we might be stuck here, but the Elites are still getting intel on us. Trust me.”
I chewed on my lip as we walked down the dark, narrow corridor to Home Décor. The vamp students left campus every night to go party, mingle, and feed, taking gossip with them. For all I knew, they were giving daily reports to anyone who was considering buying a fae this year. But how was that a good thing? Most vamps thought we were the dirt under their shoes, and the few that engaged with us made me wish they would ignore us. Mei Wu, a Chinese heiress, was only interested in Kristen, who she used to spy on Thorsten since he was a Steinberg. The twins, Kayden and Kassius, only saw us as collections of body parts. If I asked them to pick my homework off the floor, they would probably demand a blowjob in the middle of the cafeteria.
“Cheer up. We’ll figure it out. We have the whole term.” Virgie pushed herself in between Lily and I and hooked her arms with ours. I smiled, not because of what she had said, but because finally, she was acknowledging her friendship with us.
Feeling like an invincible trio, we walked into Home Décor, a triple room where we practiced plant magic, decoration, music, or dance talents.
As always, the uplifting mood didn’t last.
Inside the room, Peony and Kristen looked up from a pot of flowers and stormed right at us. I tensed, waiting for the confrontation.
“Why are you hanging out with the losers, Virgie?” Peony narrowed her hazel eyes in challenge, twirling a blonde curl.
Virgie shrugged. “Last time I checked, Lily was the one with the Independent Major and Onyx was at the top of the scoreboard for our Placement Tests.”
Peony snorted as a nasty, crazy gleam filled her eyes. Her time in the dungeons had done a number on her. “They got lucky.” She stepped closer toward me. “Or they fucked someone to get better results.” She focused her attention back on Virgie. “You’re wasting your time. Come back to where you belong.”
Virgie bit her lip, but didn’t reply.
“Don’t test my patience.” Peony whirled around and stalked away. Kristen followed her like a good lapdog.
“She’s full of bullshit.” I tried to reach for Virgie’s arm, but she stepped away.
“Don’t just stand around. Train,” a vamp guard barked from the desk on the plant side of the room. Even though I didn’t recognize his voice, I was still disappointed when I looked at him and confirmed he wasn’t Thorsten, who normally supervised this class. Today we had a shorter guard with dark hair and a mean face. Was this a one-off or had Thorsten switched posts to avoid me? After all, in Candice’s class there was no way for me to talk to him, but here, I could’ve tried. Not that I wanted to. It was for the best that he wasn’t speaking to me.
“Those of you who don’t start practicing immediately will be written up,” the guard growled. Quickly, I hurried over to the newly installed mirrors and began warming up since dance was my specialty. “I will report on everyone’s progress during class, so don’t slack.” The guard took out a clipboard and began checking off our names.
I moved through a jazz routine that I found on a video recording. Fae students at Nocturnal Academy weren’t permitted such modern luxuries as computers, cellphones, or Internet, so I had to rely on methods that had worked in the Eighties. At least our library had plenty of old VHS tapes and a VCR.
The rest of the day went smoothly, and I almost felt good by the end of it. I didn’t spot Thorsten, which was for the best. Maybe he’d let me move on.
After dinner, I put on my PJs and climbed into my bunk bed. “Good night, Lily.” I slipped under my covers.
Wetness and stickiness greeted me. A scream ripped from my throat as I scrambled out, pulling the sheets with me as I jumped away from the disgusting stuff that was in my bed.
Lily, who had been about to turn off the light, hurried over. �
��What?"
“Those damn—” Hysterically, I tried to wipe away whatever was sticking to my PJs and hair. Was it blood? No, it was brown and smelled earthy. Mud, possibly combined with worse, caked the sheets’ inner surfaces. I held my breath, not wanting to know for sure.
Lily gasped. “Who did this?”
I didn’t reply for a beat. It could’ve been Thorsten or the twins or someone else. But my gut told me it was Peony. “The Queen Bitch?”
“I’ll get cleaning supplies.” Lily hurried out of the room, leaving me alone. The supply closet was all the way down by the kitchen.
I had to take a breath. Yes. It was just mud, maybe mixed with compost, likely taken from the Outer Gardens. Reporting this incident to the vamps would be pointless. Things could’ve been much worse. When Lily returned, we carefully stripped off the sheets without dragging the mud everywhere.
“Thanks,” I said, bristling now that I'd confirmed I probably wouldn't catch a disease and die.
“I’ll put them in the washing room.” As Lily bunched the sheets up into a ball, something drifted to the ground.
I crouched down and picked up the soggy piece of paper. The text was smeared, but I could still make out the words.
You’re neck-deep in shit, bitch. I’m coming for you.
Lily peered across my shoulder. “Peony for sure.” She wasn’t asking, but making a statement.
I nodded weakly. Peony was officially back and whatever had been done to her in the dungeons, she’d pay me back tenfold.
2
Thorsten
My life was on the highway to hell just like that damn AC/DC song.
Each day at Nocturnal Academy, I was digging a deeper grave for myself.
My probation had turned into a problem from the moment I spotted Onyx Logan outside the academy’s walls. Without her here, all I'd have to worry about was shutting up and serving my time.
I hadn’t asked her what she was doing outside in the middle of the night back in Summer Term. There was no need. It was clear that she was in the midst of a failed escape attempt and had just realized how futile it was. She had cleared the academy’s stone walls, but there was nothing she could do about the unforgiving cliff, the deadly drop, or the icy lake that surrounded us. One couldn’t leave Nocturnal Academy unless one had permission or if one could fly.
Flying. A skill I was working on every moment I didn’t have to watch those damn students. I wasn't supposed to have the ability at my age, but Lord Steinberg's blood was strong. Even so, I doubted I could do it long enough to get anyone off campus without killing them.
So I turned my thoughts back to probation. If I did well, it would be over by the end of the term. Only one year of my life wasted to clear the Steinberg name. It was ridiculous, especially since I hadn’t been the one to besmirch it in the first place. But that’s how it worked in the vamp world. You rose and fell together as a family. Your family’s standing was everything.
I curled my toes inside my boots, remaining at the shadowy end of the corridor where I belonged as the mousy fae girl, Lily, rummaged through the cleaning supply closet. She was the first person I'd seen in two hours anywhere near the kitchen corridor.
If she was up in the middle of the night, then either she or her ungrateful roommate Onyx had become a victim of a prank or worse. It was none of my business. I shouldn’t care. Caring was a human attribute, something I couldn’t afford any longer. Not since I had agreed to be turned into a vampire.
And yet, I did care. Maybe I was as big of a fool as Onyx.
Sniffing, I detected traces of earth, carried by Lily. Her blood, like that of all fae, smelled of exotic herbs and possibilities. I flexed my muscles, wishing I could drop and do a hundred push-ups to fully block out the fae scent that set my stomach rumbling.
Being surrounded constantly by blood that tasted like ambrosia and acted like a drug was torturous. After Steinberg had made me and I had awoken, my desire for human blood seemed overwhelming. It made me laugh to think of how naive I had been. I had really believed that learning to control regular bloodlust would be my biggest challenge as a vampire.
Lily moved inside the cleaning room, shuffling around, and I got another whiff of her scent. Compared to Onyx’s complex, tangy scent that reminded me of ginger ale, Lily’s earthy scent was bland, but my vampire body didn’t care about the finer points. All it screamed was fae, and along with it the need to sink my fangs and suck her dry rose within me.
I swallowed the nasty saliva gathering in my mouth, feeling like an animal. This was another punishment for what I had become—a creature that was no longer human.
I could blame my thirst on not getting to quench it until close to sunrise, when Lord Sullivan or Mr. Chad brought me a bottle of cooling blood taken from the outside, but the night was too young for that.
This had all to do with Onyx. I could sense she was in trouble. Again. My tongue begged me to ask Lily why she was in the closet, but the part of my brain that still worked knew it would be a waste of time. She’d never trust me with the truth. A smart girl, she was. The intelligent fae trusted my kind with nothing at all.
Onyx, on the other hand...
Onyx was different from them all.
Was it because she was a descendant of the Winter Court?
Or was it because she did things to me, things I couldn’t even allow myself to contemplate?
She was a trap. She had to be. Lying in wait, ready to spring on me if I stepped out of line.
If the Elites found out what she was, and what I had done for her...
I shook my head. I wouldn’t let them.
Lily exited the room, carrying extra sheets and blankets and a bottle of laundry detergent, clueless to my presence. The supplies didn’t suggest anything truly bad had happened. Just a prank, then.
My breath came more easily now that the scent of blood had gone, and yet, my feet carried me to the door, wanting me to check on Onyx.
I dug my fingers into the stone wall and pressed as hard as I could. No, I could not go to Onyx. Even if most of the staff and vampire students had gone out for the evening, allowed free movement privileges and drinking from a direct source while I had to remain behind.
I could not be weak. The person I had been back in Germany was dead. There was no going back now. I had made my choice three years ago and had to live with it for the rest of my eternal life.
Lily’s footsteps faded, then vanished completely. She’d be at the stairwell now, running up to meet the top contender of the Placement Tests. A contender who should not have given up her status and relegated her body to the highest bidder. A contender who, like me, was too soft to embrace her cold nature and survive.
Unable to stand still a moment longer, I peeled myself from the wall and headed down the stone corridor, needing to get outside. Far away from Onyx.
There was one thing that consistently obliterated my thoughts, shutting my mind down. And I needed it now. The hunt. The blood.
I crossed the main entryway and paused by the South Door, the main exit that the vampires used to get in and out of Nocturnal Academy. Nestled in a narrow, otherwise unused hall between the kitchen and the Home Decor wing, the door itself looked like a stretch of wall and rested on old metal tracks. We all knew the sequence well. I pushed on the top right brick, then the middle brick, and then a brick to the left, a slightly greenish one that the fae never seemed to notice. The door obliged, sliding back silently as gears turned and cranked within the darkness on the other side. I inhaled the mixture of cold stone, clear mountain air, and citrusy firs.
Leaving the narrow corridor, I stepped through the door. It clicked into place behind me. My vision adjusted, letting every detail of the passage pop. Following it, I reached the spiral staircase that led downward, nodding a greeting to two fellow guards standing at the bottom.
“Thorsten. Did Lady Cardinal remove your probation conditions?” McKenna, a guard with a permanent frown etched onto her face, asked me. A
s she spoke, she flashed her fangs in warning.
“Not yet. I need a drink and can’t wait,” I said. “If she wants to reprimand me later, I understand.” At most, she could convince the Elites to add a week to my sentence. The Elites weren’t that worried about a new vamp struggling with his urge for blood. In fact, they had a lot of understanding for that. What they didn’t appreciate was a new vamp attempting to cling to his vanishing humanity.
I glared at the second guard, a male who was new, and he stepped back, nodding in acknowledgement of my high status. I might be on probation, but I was still a Steinberg.
Once I was alone, I broke into a run, needing to work off the adrenaline. The tunnel network under Nocturnal Academy was winding and confusing, full of crates, straw, and supplies. The West Doors led to that side of the mountain, and I pushed them open, needing the illusion of freedom that being outside gave me.
Every one of my muscles tightened with anger at the lack of autonomy I had, which only fueled my thirst. The wilderness spread out in front of me, made up of arrangements of boulders and collections of scraggly pine trees.
Was I any better than Onyx? I’d done the right thing, letting Griffin Steinberg take me as his heir in exchange for his generous favor. And, yet despite my gratitude, I found myself time and time again only an inch away from undoing everything and dooming myself and…them.
Stay away from Onyx.
Hiking up my shoulders, I sniffed for prey, an animal, something I could kill swiftly and with mercy. I detected the meaty, yet metallic scent, of animal blood down the mountain, near the lake. I descended quickly, leaping over boulders, hovering in the air for a couple of seconds each time with intense focus. But the more I practiced flight, the more my stomach rumbled, distracting me and pulling me back down to earth.
It would take a long time for it to become truly useful.
Halfway down the mountain, I gave up on the flight, maintaining my balance on gravel that would have thrown any human or fae down into dark waters far below. Following a narrow trail at first, and then climbing down a cliff, I grasped an opening with the grace of a spider. Jumping down on the gravel beach, I landed yards from where a coyote, old, emaciated, and with milky eyes, lifted his head and eyed me with a strange peace. A battle wound had opened at the scruff of its neck, raw and bloody, and I knew that if I left the creature alone, the wound would get infected and lead to a slow, agonizing death. The coyote’s scent filled the air, drawing me closer. In that moment, I was its angel of mercy.
The Nocturnal and Fae Prison Academy Boxset [A Complete Paranormal and Fantasy Series Boxset] Page 26
