by Sofia Daniel
From what I remembered, he had been a student who had been handed to vampire sisters, only to be discarded when he’d gotten them all pregnant and was no longer useful.
I craned my neck, examining each table in turn. Every knocker I’d come into regular contact with was there, including the pair who tended to the fire in the boys’ suite, the woman who worked at the salon, the kitchen staff, and the twins who guarded the headmaster’s office.
But there was no sign of the onion woman.
“Please serve the evening meal,” said Radu.
The vampire students standing at the wall disappeared through the doors that led to the kitchen, while another group of vampire girls dressed in nothing but white tunics walked in through the double doors.
My breath quickened, and a ripple of apprehension crept up my spine. It was like a fashion show, but there was only one outfit.
The sad-eyed girls stood in front of the head table and curtseyed. Radu tapped his fingers on his lips, surveyed them, and shook his head.
“Does anyone know what’s going on?” asked Annette.
A black-haired frumosi boy who usually asked jokey questions in class leaned forward. “Stop questioning them. Don’t attract any attention to us.”
“I’m just ask—”
“No,” he snapped. “Kat was mouthy, and I’m not having you take up the reins and getting us all absorbed. Put your fucking head down, shut up, and do what they say.”
Annette looked at me, her eyes pleading at me to speak up. I turned my gaze back to the vampire girls. “He’s right.”
Justine also shook her head, but Renée leaned forward, her eyes glittering. “So much variety.” She pointed at a blonde vampire girl standing next to Juno. “Where do you come from?”
“Harding House, ma’am.”
“You’re not a noble,” said Renée.
The blonde shook her head. “I earned a scholarship to the Sanguine Academy, Ma’am.”
Renée wrinkled her nose and pointed at an Indian vampire girl. “And you?”
“Me?”
Leaning forward, I drew my brows together. What was the big deal about the girls’ backgrounds?
“Where are you from, my lovely?” asked Renée.
“Rajah, Ma’am,” whispered the vampire.
“Ooh!” The hunter clapped her hands together, making Radu chuckle. “Sit with me.”
The Indian girl wrapped her arms around her middle and trembled. “No, please!”
“Turn her to dust,” drawled Radu. “There is no room for rebellion in my regime.”
With a whimpering cry, the Indian vampire sprinted around the head table and took a seat next to Renée. The blonde-haired hunter wrapped an arm around her quaking shoulders, pressed her lips to the girl’s temple, and whispered soothing words into her ear.
A sound turned my attention to the doors at the back of the head table, where the male vampires returned holding bowls of French onion soup with garlic bread, and shots of what appeared to be bloodroot.
As the vampire boys served the soup, I glanced back at Renée, who stroked the girl’s shiny, black hair and purred into her ear. Tears streamed down the vampire’s cheeks, and my chest tightened. At least vampires had to get a frumosi’s permission before feeding. Renée didn’t seem to care that the girl wanted to get away.
“Aren’t you eating?” asked Annette.
“I’m not in the mood.” I still needed to keep my blood attractive for Dante and Nero, who needed healing. Eating two of the most potent blood repellants—onion and garlic—might hurt the boys in their weakened states.
“Suit yourself.” The frumosi boy from earlier snatched my garlic bread and dunked it into his soup.
My gaze skipped back to Renée, who groped the Indian girl over her white tunic, to the other girls wandering over to the tables occupied by uniformed hunters. A male hunter grabbed the blonde Renée had rejected and pulled her onto his knee, making her shriek.
“It’s disgusting,” whispered Annette.
Clamping my lips shut, I focussed on the bigger picture. Instead of small rebellions that could get me killed, I needed to bond with the boys to obtain enough magic to help the onion woman summon the spirit that would banish Radu.
As the group of vampire girls passed Zarah’s table, Juno cried, “Help me.”
Zarah gave her a warm smile. “Sit with me, if you like.”
“Thank you!” Juno lowered herself into the seat next to Zarah and rested her head on the smaller girl’s shoulder.
A new set of male vampires returned with plates of roasted chicken with potatoes and vegetables. I pushed my French Onion soup to the middle of the table and sat straighter in my seat.
The doors opened. Captain Tanar and Lady Mantis walked through the dining room, each wearing the same white tunics as the girls. The captain caught my eye and gave me a look he probably thought was significant.
I lowered my gaze. If he thought I would meet him in secret, form a bond so he could power up and kill the hunters, he was mistaken.
“Zarah!” Juno placed a hand on Zarah’s forehead, seeming to push her away. But the blue-haired vampire’s torc flared a vicious shade of red, and the sizzle of burning flesh filled the air. A scream ripped from Juno’s throat.
“What the hell?” muttered the boy who had taken my garlic bread.
As Juno let out gasping whimpers, Zarah dipped her napkin in her glass of water and dabbed at the other girl’s burns.
Juno eventually calmed, and Zarah opened her mouth, revealing a mouthful of fangs. My mouth fell open, and a gasp caught in the back of my throat. Every single tooth had lengthened and sharpened into points. A heartbeat later, Zarah clamped her jaws around Juno, who opened her mouth in a silent scream.
“Oh, fuck,” I whispered. If Zarah had already adapted to feeding on vampire blood, it meant that she had made the full transformation in less than a month.
Up at the table, the hunters fed on their vampires. Radu placed Lady Mantis on his lap and bit down on her throat. He rubbed her belly with his large hand, as though that might increase the flow of blood. Next to him, Renée fed on the Indian girl, who cried and shuddered with pain, and on the other side, Justine fed on Captain Tanar.
Throughout this violation, the captain kept his eyes on me. It was as though he was convinced I was the key to saving us all.
I couldn’t finish my meal, and neither could anyone at our table. It was one thing to see a monster like Radu and his lieutenants feed on vampires, but it was another to witness Zarah doing the same. Zarah, who had been too cowardly to refuse a vampire her blood. Zarah, who had become vamp-struck and whored herself out to younger students.
Now Zarah was a bigger predator than any vampire at the academy. She was worse because she fed on the life-force of her own kind.
Instead of following the crowd to the Frumosi Tower, I walked to the boys’ suite, needing to be alone after everything I had seen. My gaze blurred on the walk through the hallways, and my steps dragged on the smooth, marble floor. Right now, my classmates would want to talk about the hunters, and I couldn’t get caught participating in a conversation like that if Justine was lurking about to eavesdrop.
A chill permeated the boys’ reception room, partly due to its size and partly due to the knockers no longer tending to the fireplace. Not bothering to take off my uniform, I crawled into Nero’s bed and wrapped my arm around his pillow. It smelled of spices and home and belonging.
Tears streamed from my eyes and soaked into the pillow. Everything was so messed up. I even felt bad for Captain Tanar, who didn’t deserve an ounce of my sympathy. Exhaustion weighed my bones and pulled me into a deep slumber. Right now, I never wanted to wake.
I’m not sure how much time passed. Hours, probably, when gentle kisses on my eyelids woke me from my slumber. I opened my eyes to find Raphael smiling down at me. We lay together in the dark with a single candle illuminating his underground lair. My heart filled with love as I took in his wa
rm smile and familiar green eyes.
“Raph.” I reached up and brushed a strand of copper hair off his face. “How are they?”
“No change. Gates has gone out to fetch some more aloe vera.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “How was your first day of school with the hunters?”
Pain tore at my heart, and I turned my face to the wall. “I should have listened to you when you told me to kill Zarah.”
Raphael wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his hard chest. “If it’s about Dante and Nero’s injuries, Zarah’s information would have incriminated them regardless of whether she was dead or alive.”
“No.” A sob caught in the back of my throat. “She brought the hunters. They’re worse than Captain Tanar described.”
The entire story spilled from my lips, and I told him how Zarah had led them through the academy and proclaimed they were here to save us. But they were now using the vampires as food and the frumosi as fuel to boost their power.
Raphael nodded throughout my tale, not seeming surprised. Perhaps stories about hunters had circulated among the vampires. I didn’t bother to ask.
When I told him about Zarah’s transformation and what Justine had done to the werewolves, his mouth gaped open.
“They’re going to turn you into a person like that?” he asked.
“Not if I think of something first.” I trusted Raphael with my life, but I kept quiet about the onion woman’s plan. I couldn’t guarantee that a hunter wasn’t listening around the corner. “But their presence here is my fault.”
He shook his head. “They were probably looking for a way into the academy. It would have been a matter of time before they broke through the wards.”
I drew him down for a kiss. Right now, I needed a loving touch to balance out all the horror I’d witnessed these past few hours. I’d seen things I hadn’t known were possible, and I longed to regain my ignorance. Longed for a world without supernatural beings.
Raphael broke away from my lips, his gaze darting to the other side of the lair, presumably where Dante and Nero slept. “I hate to ask, but—”
“We need to get to work right away.” I drew back, raised my hips off the dog bed, and pulled down my panties. “Don’t stop. Keep milking me for nectar, and no matter how much I beg, don’t let me orgasm until I’ve produced enough to heal their wounds.”
Chapter 9
Over the next few hours, the lair became dark and hot. Dark because my thrashing had knocked over the oil lamp and extinguished its flame, so we only had a single candle for light. Hot because of Raphael.
He kept me on the brink of orgasm the entire night, driving me to the heights of ecstasy until I thought I would die of frustration. Sweat drenched my trembling body, and my throat became hoarse from all that moaning.
I jerked, spasmed, begged for release, but he continued stimulating me with his hands and lips and tongue. Every few minutes, he scooped my fluids and fed them to his brothers, giving me a break from the sweet torment, but he quickly returned to arouse me again.
My mouth dried. My heart spasmed in time with the twitching of my core. My pulse pounded in my ears like a battering ram. I even grabbed hold of his erection, but he moved my hand away, showing me no mercy, not even when I pleaded.
“Just a little bit more.” He sucked on the column of my neck. “Most of the burns on their skin have healed.”
“It’s over?” I bucked against the fingers circling my clit.
“Their stomach wounds are still festering.” Raphael pumped the fingers of his other hand in and out of my channel.
“Oh!” My eyes crossed, making me see two candle flames flickering against the earthen walls. “Maybe we need a break.”
“Sorry,” he whispered. “Without Dr. Grannus treating them, we’re completely reliant on you. I’ll be as quick as I can, then you’ll get what you need.”
A sob burst from my throat. How much of this could I take?
He continued teasing me, milking me, driving me crazy for longer. I lost track of time and even forgot my name at one point, the sensations were that excruciating. The pressure building up in my core intensified, making me feel like a tire about to burst. It spread up to my diaphragm, turning my breaths shallow.
“Fuck me,” I cried. “If you don’t pound me hard, something’s going to rupture.”
Raphael returned from feeding his brothers, leaned over me, and sighed. “Alright.”
His lips pressed on mine in the gentlest of kisses, but I wanted more. Sticking my tongue between his lips, I clamped my arms around his neck and drew him closer. Making love was for another time. Right now, I just needed him inside me.
Raphael growled, the sound making my nipples tingle. I reached down at his boxers, pulled them down his hips, and wrapped my hand around his hot, pulsing erection.
“Oh, Alicia,” he whispered into my neck. “You’re unbelievable.”
The head of his penis slipped through my sopping folds and stretched my opening wide. Then my muscles pulled him in.
Raphael shuddered. “I’ve wanted to make love to you for hours.”
“Fuck me hard,” I whispered.
He slid himself to the hilt, the feel of being filled giving me relief and soothing my frayed nerves. I wrapped my arms around his broad, muscular back and trapped his hips with my legs.
“Please.” My word came out a desperate whimper.
He drew back and forth, pumping himself into me like he was the one who needed healing. It was hard. It was fast. It was exactly what I needed. Bolts of pleasure shot from our joined flesh and made my clit throb. I bucked against him, increasing the friction, waiting for something to snap.
“Cum as many times as you like,” he said between panting breaths.
The first orgasm tore through my body like a whirlwind. Pleasure swirled around my core, picking up speed the faster Raphael thrust. I clung onto him, riding the out-of-control sensations like I was swept up in a cyclone on my way to Oz.
Moments later, Raphael stiffened and then shuddered out his climax.
“Thank you,” he whispered as my spasms settled. He pressed his lips to mine and slid his hand between our bodies. “I know it wasn’t easy for you.”
A fresh wave of pleasure swept me up in another powerful climax. This time, I arched my back and dug my nails into Raphael’s shoulder. “Aaaah!”
“You’re so amazing,” he whispered. “So perfect for us.”
I closed my eyes and fell back, wondering if he included Gates in that definition.
The next time I awoke, I was wrapped up in Nero’s sheets, holding onto his pillow. My muscles ached from all that straining, and a pang of sorrow struck my heart. That time in the first term, when I had burned through Raphael’s digestive system with sunstone-infused blood, it had only taken one session to heal Raphael.
Did Dr. Grannus’ treatment make that much of a difference, or had the infrared weapons and the sun cell made things worse? It seemed an unusually cruel punishment for schoolboys with royal connections. Had Lady Mantis ordered the attacks and imprisonment with a higher motive than revenge?
Someone knocked on the door.
I raised my head. “Who is it?”
It creaked open, and Zarah stepped in, her gaze down at the floor. She wore the burgundy uniform of a hunter, but her shoulders drooped, and she wrapped her arms around her middle. “You have a lesson in a few hours.”
Dropping back down to the mattress, I threw the covers over my head. “Come back later, then.”
“We need to talk,” she said.
“About what?”
“Where were you last night?”
I clenched my teeth and sat up in bed. If this was the start of another blackmail effort, I would slice her throat. “What’s it to you?”
“Lord Radu wanted you watched.”
“Did he also want you to creep on me in the middle of the night?” I snapped.
“You’re doing it again,” she said.
“What?” I pulled the covers up to my collarbone and glowered into her pale, green eyes.
“You get really defensive when you’re up to something.”
I bristled. Zarah was right, but I’d be damned if I would acknowledge that. “Has it occurred to you that I might despise all the unwanted attention?”
“Where did you go?” she asked.
“For a walk.”
“Where?”
“The hallways. The stairs.” I waved an arm around to indicate anywhere and everywhere. “My body clock is messed up from two terms of sleeping during the day. Is that a crime now? Are you going to have your new family barge in on me in my most private moments because I’m struggling?”
Zarah crossed the room and lowered herself onto the edge of the bed. I opened my third eye, watching out for creeping tentacles. Blood-drinking and life-force-stealing aside, there was something seriously wrong with that girl.
She stared up at me through her lashes. “How did you learn frumosi magic without bloodroot?”
A palpitation reverberated through my chest, causing me to stiffen. This version of Zarah was more astute than the girl who had blackmailed me into helping her escape. And yet, I longed for the days when she was half-conscious from the exertions of being the Coven of Bitches’ blood whore.
“The only thing I had left of my father were some hand-written notes about meditation,” I pulled the covers closer around my chest. “When I was younger, I used to do those exercises and feel like I could connect with him.”
“He’s the frumosi, right?” she asked.
I nodded, hoping Zarah would be satisfied with my explanation.
“Did you know the vampires tried to suppress our magic?” she said.
My eyes narrowed. Professor Proust had wanted us to develop our powers, but he hadn’t known how to teach us. Clearly, Zarah had spent time with Justine and had learned her tricky way of questioning.
Swinging my legs out of bed, I said, “Did they?”
