by Ember Hollis
“Hey, about the unicorns—” I begin, but someone stops by Amelie’s seat and bends down to kiss her.
It’s Christian.
I watch as Amelie kisses him back ardently. Her head falls back, revealing her long, slender neck, and she leans back in her chair, her shapely long legs stretching out in front of her. Suddenly I remember where I’ve seen her before!
I blush deeply as the image of her with her legs spread and Christian’s head between them flashes before my eyes.
As if the recollection isn’t enough, the soft kissing sounds the two of them are making and Amelie’s soft moans make my skin heat up and my breath quicken. The spot between my legs begins to throb, and dampness soaks into my panties.
I wish the two of them would stop, if only so I could stop feeling like this. I avert my eyes and scan the room, only to find that all the girls are looking at Amelie in envy, while all the boys are staring at her, drinking the sight of her in.
All the boys but one.
Though he’s got his tongue down her throat, Christian’s eyes are open, and his languid gaze is focused on me. He draws back just enough to shoot me a mocking smile, then slips his hand down to her blouse. He flicks the tip of her nipples, then squeezes her breast, causing Amelie to gasp in pleasure and press herself against him.
The teacher walks in and Christian winks at me, then pushes his chair back to sit behind the desk, leaving Amelie squirming in her chair. She endures it for a scant few seconds before she jumps up and throws Christian a meaningful look as she flees the room.
I expect Christian to follow her, but all he does is sit back and shoot me another smile.
“Sir?” he says finally. “I forgot to bring my textbook. May I share Miss Ramsey’s?”
My heart skips a beat and I look up at the old, wrinkled professor, but he’s way up at the front of the room, with his back to us as he sketches and explains incredibly complicated diagrams on the blackboard.
“If she doesn’t mind,” the professor says, interrupting his lecture for a moment before he continues on.
Christian extends his long legs out into the aisle between us, then drags his chair forward so he’s sitting next to my desk. He’s so close, I can smell his spicy aftershave and the mint toothpaste on his breath.
“Miss Ramsey,” he drawls, his eyes heavy-lidded wells of desire. “Do share.”
I blink furiously and shove my textbook over to him. “Here.”
“Thanks,” he smiles a Cheshire grin. “I don’t have a pencil either.”
I bite my lip and dig into my bag of school supplies, then pull out a pencil topped with a small pink eraser. “You’re welcome.”
I copy the diagrams down and frown while I try to figure out what on earth Magical Geometry is even supposed to be, until I realize Christian isn’t even looking at the textbook or the blackboard. He’s actually still staring at me, way too close in my personal space.
“We’re on Diagram Three,” I tell him, tapping the image in my textbook.
“Really?” he takes out the pencil and draws the diagram in his own notebook, freehand, and without even referencing the book or the professor’s sketch.
I gape at the elegance of his drawing and lean closer. He’s actually got everything correct, right down to the odd little triangles and circles littering the circumference of the pentacle. I can’t help but be impressed.
Then Christian drops his hand to his side and slides the pencil under my skirt, pressing the end with the eraser smack dab against the nub between my legs.
I jump in surprise. Almost instantly, the sweet ache I’d felt watching him and Amelie flares into a burning inferno. “Care for an after school lesson with me?”
Furious, I try to clap my legs together and shove his hand off, but his fist on my thigh is like stone and I can’t move it.
“Stop it!” I whisper, glancing around the room. “Get away from me!”
“Why?” Christian circles the eraser around the spot, brushing it against my underwear, again and again until I’m trembling and out of breath. “You’re clearly enjoying this.”
“Stop it, or I swear—”
Skillfully, he slides the pencil to the side, hooking my underwear out of the way. The eraser is on my bare skin now, and it’s a thousand times worse. I can barely breathe, let alone speak. My skin feels as if its burning and it’s all I can do to clamp my mouth shut, bite my lip, and clutch the edge of the desk, my knuckles white and quivering.
“Tell me, Miss Ramsey,” Christian says quietly in my ear, “How would you like to lose your virginity?” he slides the eraser dangerously deep between my folds, and I swallow a yelp. He’s not quite at my core, but if he keeps going… I want to burst from my seat and run away, but if anyone were to see me now, they’d have no doubt what we’ve been up to. Besides, I just can’t make myself move, not even an inch.
“What… ha… makes… you… ha… think I’m a…a.. v-virgin?” I stutter. The pencil is swirling faster now, and it feels like all my nerves are on fire and my brain is melting. As much as I want him to stop, I can’t even imagine what I’ll do if he does it now.
I might die. Or scream. Or beg him to take me, right here and now.
“How else could you be our new Unicorn Whisperer?” Christian smiles against my hair, then licks the shell of my ear. “It’s the most vital prerequisite you need. But… if you ask me nicely, I might be willing to relieve you of it.”
For fucks sake, if I’d known the job would entail even more harassment, I wouldn’t have taken it!
Christian presses the pencil even harder against me, his quick, steady movements bringing me devilishly close to coming.
The bell rings, signaling the end of class.
With a final swish that makes my back arch, Christian slides his chair away and stands, leaving the pencil sticking out the bottom of my skirt, tangled in my panties. I open eyes I don’t recall closing to glare at him. I don’t know if I want him to continue, or am relieved he’s stopped.
Everywhere, students are packing their books in their bags and getting to their feet. I know I should stand and run now that I’m free, but I’m also almost a hundred percent sure there’s a wet patch on the back of my skirt.
“Asshole,” I groan out, struggling to overcome the urge to stick my hand up my skirt and touch my throbbing flesh, even as I pull the pencil out. I take off my jacket and tie it around my waist, making sure it hangs low to cover me. Hopefully I can get back to my room for a new skirt before I get caught over my untidy uniform.
Christian smirks and leans down with his book bag over his shoulder. “If you want, we can do it that way too,” he growls, his voice dark and tempting like forbidden fruit. “You wouldn’t be the first Whisperer to try. But either way, the time will come when you spread your legs for me and beg me to take you. Angel-blood or not, that’s all you’re good for.”
His gaze is mocking and his tone derisive, a far cry from the seduction he’d tempted me with. If I give in to him, I realize, I’ll be nothing more than a joke. A mere notch on his bedpost, if even that.
I shove him away, then run from the room, my legs almost buckling from unfulfilled need. Just as I get to the doorway, I slam into another figure.
It’s Bane, entering the room for his next class with Briley and Vivette waiting in line behind him.
I’m so turned on, the feel of Bane’s hard chest against my breasts and his hands on my waist, steadying me, almost sends me over the edge. There’s an intoxicating scent about him that I now recognize as Parnassus blossom, and I breathe it in desperately, unable to help myself as I pant, practically drowning in need.
Bane’s eyes track over my flushed cheeks and heaving chest, then down to my jacket wrapped around my skirt. Knowingly, he looks over my shoulder at Christian.
When his eyes return to meet mine, I see contempt threaded through with want.
“It’s not what you think,” I begin to say, but the scorn in his gaze makes me feel so small,
I just can’t continue. Instead, I lean further into him to push my way through. As I brush against him, the desire in his eyes swells into a river of need, making me tremble from the effort it takes not to just reach up and kiss him.
But all Bane says when he looks at me, his luscious lips curled into a condescending smirk is, “Slut.”
Chapter 21: Heaven
I use the passes Madam Kahili gave me in case I feel weak, to skip my next few classes and hole up in the library to do some research on the Four.
Christian’s humiliating and unsought seduction… Bane’s scornful insults, denial and persecution… Knox’s sadistic hunger and false aid… and Malek’s unreasonable violence and cruelty. Everyone else might be happy to let them get away with it, but I’m not like them. It might take me a while to get my revenge, but I’m determined to achieve it eventually.
The library is located deep under the castle, in cool, stone, catacomb-like chambers lit by eerie green flames in bronze oil lamps. Books line the ornate black shelves from the ceiling to the floor, and the librarian, a true-blue gargoyle made of stone, looms down at me from behind his tall desk when I approach.
“This is not the Medical Wing,” he says, in a gravelly voice when I show him my pass. “I will not have vomit on my floors or drool on my books. And if you bleed on some of these tomes, they’ll never forget the taste of you. Many a student has tripped their way into a lost hell or forgotten realm, you have been warned.”
“I am fully intact, I just feel a little tired, that’s all. I thought I could do some reading on the Four Horsemen while I recuperate.”
“Ah,” the gargoyle smirks. “The Four are at it again. Well, little angel, you’ll find their section at the back of the room. There’s nothing there that will help you though.”
He hands me some gloves and a mask. “In case of paper cuts and nosebleeds,” he says. “I wasn’t kidding about the blood-thirsty books. Some are truly rapacious, and it’s been a while since they’ve tasted angelic blood.”
“Of course,” I nod. It’s not even surprising anymore to hear about something else that could kill me here at Pandorax. “Thank you.”
“Good luck,” his deep voice follows me all the way down the main hallway. It’s discouraging that he immediately guesses why I’m here to read about the Four. It means that others have tried this already, and from the sound of it, failed.
But I’m not one to give up so easily. Not without a fight at least. And since there’s no way I can rival their powers or clout at this school, I’ll just have to find a different way to get the upper hand, and the first step to that is to discover the weaknesses of the Four.
* * *
I spend hours reading dusty manuscripts and massive books, some of which are chained to the shelves or even contained in glass domes with holes lined with long leathery pixie-hide gloves for handling the books. But none of the information I find is helpful. The illegible and faded writing on the smelly silverfish-ridden pages only mentions warnings, praise, or obscure descriptions of the Horsemen, their powers, and the roles they are fated to play in the impending Apocalypse.
Hardly anything there is useful to determine the weaknesses of these particular Four. It’s all impersonal. In fact, the closest thing to what I’m looking for that I can find is an ancient scroll with a long list of names of the previous Horsemen, which dates all the way back to the dawn of humanity.
When the final bell rings, signaling the end of classes, I get up and return all the books to their appropriate places. The librarian just glances up when I pass him by, and barely acknowledges the fact that I successfully survived a session with his blood-thirsty library.
As soon as I’m aboveground, I make my way to the pasture where Chiros told me to meet Amelie. It’s a little way off from the Shattered Forest, but not as far as the cliff side lake that I’d fallen from. A tributary from the Onyx River runs through it, tinkling and singing as it tumbles over stones in a little stream. The water looks fresh and clear here, with little black stones lining the bottom of the spring.
“That’s pure onyx,” a voice says behind me. “It’s supposed to absorb any negative energy before it seeps into the meadow. When the river turns Dark we know the unicorns are in trouble.”
I set down the stone I picked up to study, and turn to see Amelie walking towards me. Beside her is a stunning white unicorn, a male this time. He’s taller than the mare I rode, and his horn is a beautiful shade of burnished gold. His eyes are a soft shade of blue, and hold a measure of dignity I’ve rarely seen in humans let alone a horse. Or unicorn, though I’ve only met the one.
“Wow,” I gaze admiringly at the creature. He looks as if he’s come straight out of a fairy tale.
“This is Triton,” Amelie tells me. “He’s the dominant male of our unicorn herd. I thought I’d bring him with us while I show you around, just in case you felt nervous being around one after your accident. He’s also the leader of the rest of the herd, and I figured that if he likes you, you should have no problem with the others.”
I reach a hand out to Triton. He looks at me with deep thoughtful eyes, then dips his head and presses his nose against my palm. At the contact, I sense a flicker of gratitude and happiness. Then Triton retreats, and the emotions fade.
“Oh wow,” I gasp again. “I think I felt something when he touched me!”
“Good,” Amelie nods approvingly. “Looks like he likes you. We can bring you to meet everyone else then.”
“I’m glad. I’d like to know what happened to the one I…” I trail off. I hadn’t even thought to ask about the unicorn I saved before now, and now I’m afraid to know what’s happened to her. What if I’ve saved her only for her to spend the rest of her life crippled by some terrible injury?
“She’s unharmed,” Amelie says, her eyes sympathetic. There’s no trace of the desire I saw in her with Christian, and I feel the same warmth and trust I felt earlier. But something tells me she’s holding back.
“But?” I ask. “Something else is wrong, isn’t it? Chiros said something has been troubling the unicorns recently.”
“Well,” Amelie eyes are assessing. “I’m not sure I should tell you about that just yet.”
I open my mouth to protest, then hesitate. Of course, I just took her job from her. There’s no reason for her to trust me or to try to make my life any easier. “Look, I wanted to tell you this earlier, but I’m sorry you lost your position. I truly didn’t expect Chiros to offer it to me, and I only accepted because—”
“Oh, no, no, no” Amelie waves her hands quickly, her eyes widening. She gives me an incredulous look and laughs. “Oh you really don’t have to apologize, Heaven. You’re perfect for this, more than anyone else really, and I’ve held the job for long enough. To be honest, I was kind of hoping you’d take it the minute I laid eyes on you… when… you know… when I saw you with Christian and Knox the day you arrived.”
Heat rushed through my face at the realization that she’d known I’d seen her that day, in such a compromising situation. But unlike me, Amelie’s face isn’t tomato red, and she seems completely calm about it all.
“Being the Unicorn Whisperer isn’t easy,” she tells me. “It’s meant for the pure, but not the faint of heart. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to resign, but there was no one else who could take it on… until you came along.”
“Surely not,” I frown. The way she and Chiros talks about it makes it sound like such a big deal. “Surely there are other… ahem… other people with qualifying circumstances,” I say, hedging around the word.
“You mean, surely there are other virgins,” Amelie says, again with a frankness that surprises me. I’m as open-minded as they come in my mind, you had to be with a mother like mine, but I don’t usually discuss things the way she seems comfortable to. “But no, actually,” she says. “I used to be the only one left in Pandorax, but now you are.”
I stare at her in shock. “You’re kidding.”
“No, actually I’m not,” she smiles gently. “You know Christian goes to school here, right? Well, he’s probably single-handedly responsible for deflowering half the new students who arrive here every year, male or female. And if he doesn’t get to them in time, the Bacchanalia usually takes care of the rest.”
“The… Bacchanalia?” I feel almost light-headed at all this information. I can’t really be the single last person on campus who hasn’t had sex yet, can I? Embarrassment sweeps through me though I know that my Mom would have approved.
As promiscuous as she was, the one rule she’d always drummed into me so determinedly I’d never actually broken it, was to ‘not give it up’ to any guy till I was eighteen. The hypocrisy of it given her lifestyle was ludicrous, but she’d shown me in a thousand ways how far she was willing to go to make sure I followed that one rule.
“It’s a sort of celebration slash ritual,” Amelie says. “With the Four here, everyone gets a heightened dose of their powers every single day. Eventually it builds up and side-effects start to occur. Like a Unicorn Whisperer succumbing to an orgy with vampires,” she shakes her head. “Remind me never to do that again. Madam Kahili’s blood replenishing elixir tastes like rusting nails stewed in sour porridge.” She makes a face while I fight not to grin. “It did work to keep me alive though.”
“Anyway, the Bacchanalia happens right in the middle of semester. It’s meant to give everyone the opportunity to let loose their inhibitions and release all their pent up lust, hunger, violence, or loss. You get a day and a night of feasting, fucking, fighting, and… well, whatever else it takes to make you get over whatever Bane does to you.”
She grins. “I’ve heard that it’s a fantastic event, but the only person not allowed to participate is the Unicorn Whisperer. I’m super excited to go this year, needless to say.”
