But I hadn’t taken more than a few steps out of the classroom, when I heard Lance’s voice behind me. “Amber. Please wait.”
I stopped, not turning around. The sound of his steps was dragging, as if he could barely lift his feet. I knew I couldn’t avoid him forever. Alright, then. Better to get the coming discussion out of the way. Sighing, I turned to face him.
Lance stood ten feet away from me, his head hanging down on his chest. I couldn’t see his eyes, but his skin was waxy, and his posture screamed exhaustion. As I watched, he took another step, and like a toy that had run out of batteries, he collapsed.
“Lance!”
I kneeled down next to him and rolled him over. Was I caught in Groundhog Day? His eyes were closed and his breathing barely audible. What was going on with him? I shook his shoulder, trying to rouse him, but he didn’t react. Maybe I need to slap him?
A couple of students had noticed Lance on the ground. One of them said, “Should I get the teacher?”
Before I could answer, Lance groaned and opened his eyes. “What... where...”
“You passed out. What happened? Are you sick?”
Lance shook his head. “No, but I woke up this morning feeling completely exhausted. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this tired in my life. I’m so sorry I couldn’t help you when you had that accident in class. I literally couldn’t get up from my chair.”
I helped him to his feet. He seemed more alert, and some color returned to his face. I held on to his waist until he was steady enough for me to let go of him.
“Thanks,” he murmured, rubbing the back of his neck. “I can’t believe I fainted like a gi—” He caught my raised eyebrow. “Like that,” he corrected himself.
The other students were moving away, now that the show was over. Lance had only been out for a few seconds, and the bulk of the kids were still in the classroom, noisily chatting before the next class. But Lance collapsing had changed my anger to worry.
Something weird was going on. Hadn’t I experienced the same thing as Lance right now? He’d looked drained before his collapse. Like his energy had disappeared and then suddenly come back to him. I remembered the one night when I’d fallen into bed, so exhausted that every breath seemed an effort. and then the next morning, I’d been just fine. And what about the blackout after sleeping with Kiernan and Julian?
I reconsidered talking to Ms. Farkas. Actually, it might be a good idea to approach Mrs. Palmer first. Maybe she had an idea of what was going on. Decision made, I picked up my bag, nodded coolly at Lance—because I still hadn’t fully forgiven him—and made my way to my next class. Lance trotted behind me like a scolded dog.
I loved Elemental Magic, not just for the teacher, but because I learned how to control my powers without making me feel like I was being trained to be some magical assassin. But I would have to wait until the end of the class to speak to Mrs. Palmer.
When Lance and I sat down, she was unpacking her leather bag as she did at every start of the class. Cursing under her breath, she tugged on a massive book that refused to budge. We watched her wrestle her bag with growing amusement.
When she finally freed the book, her face was red with exertion, and her swirling eyes were flashing green fire. Not for the first time, I saw a glimpse of the formidable woman our teacher was. She took a deep breath and addressed the class.
“Today we will discuss the concept of magical compatibility.”
I grimaced. I’d been hoping for some practical exercises, but it sounded like we were in for the usual lecture at the beginning of a new subject. Lance, who’d wisely kept quiet until now, whispered, “I’m sure it’ll be interesting. Long, tedious, but interesting.”
I gave him a cool look before opening a new page in my notebook. We weren’t okay until we’d talked about his behavior.
Mrs. Palmer had turned to the whiteboard and hung up a chart. “As you can see, these magical concepts are not dissimilar to Feng Shui. In fact, Feng Shui is an aspect of oriental magic thousands of years old. Non-magic users have adapted the principles to themselves, without being aware of how much power there is in the constellations. You, as magic users, will be able to tap into your primary and secondary elemental powers to get the most out of them.
“There are limitations, of course. Magic is not limitless. It can be altered, but it can’t be destroyed, and it can’t be created out of nothing. If you work magic, you’re drawing on an unimaginably large, but ultimately limited pool of energy.
“You always need to keep that in mind. Unless you’re skilled in drawing from your environment, you run the danger of turning the drain on yourself if you augment your own magic with spells. And if you drain your own magic, you can literally die from it.
“You need to imagine it like this—you’re like a battery. If you manage to feed this battery through an external charger, you’re fine. If that connection is interrupted, you will drain yourself.”
Luke raised his hand. “So can I drain somebody else?”
“Excellent question, Luke. Yes, you can. But I wouldn’t advise it. What is commonly known as ‘dark’ magic is exactly that. If a magic user drains another person, they can use that person’s charge. If done to excess, it would ultimately cause the other person’s death.
“There are occasions where magic users work together in circle magic where they voluntarily feed their power to the leader of the circle, but this is dangerous and must not be done at your level.”
Luke asked again, “Can it happen accidentally? I’d hate to drain somebody when I’m practicing.”
Mrs. Palmer nodded. “Yes. In fact, that’s the next point I’d like to discuss. Certain elements are capable of overpowering others unless precautions are taken. For example, a water mage can drain a fire mage quite easily, unless the fire mage is powerful enough to protect themselves.
“To put your mind at ease, Luke, this is not usually an issue when dueling here at the academy. The dampeners make sure nobody’s power goes above a certain level, so accidental drains are rare.
“There is one exception, however. I know some of you are sexually active...”
I was not the only to cringe or snicker at those words. I leaned over to Lance, forgetting for a moment I was still pissed at him. “Oh, come on. I got The Talk from my mom when I was sixteen,” I whispered. He looked at me strangely.
“Didn’t you?” I tried again, just stopping short of nudging him with my elbow.
“No. I didn’t. I had to figure it out myself.” His mouth twitched into a weak grin, but it didn’t reach his eyes. There’s a story here. It hit me how little I knew about Lance.
But while I was busy imagining what Lance’s cryptic comment meant, Mrs. Palmer had moved on. “—reason why magic users tend to have more than one partner. Unless the participants are fully compatible, there is a real danger of one partner draining the other during sex. In the previous example, the water mage could literally kill the fire mage during the moment of completion.”
That got my attention. I raised my hand and asked, “How would they know they’re draining their partner?”
“Well, one of the early signs might be an inexplicable fatigue. They might feel very tired to the point of falling asleep or even fainting. This won’t happen immediately, but over several encounters.”
What? I stared at Lance, then at Kiernan and Julian across the room. Their jaws looked as dropped as mine. Couldn’t we have learned about this literally on the first day here? Wasn’t that a piece of information that might have been useful in a school full of horny young adults?
“So how would you prevent that?” The question came from Kiernan.
Mrs. Palmer smiled at him. “There is an immediate remedy, but of course, it won’t solve the underlying problem. But if this should happen to any of you, I would suggest to eat some candy or similar sugary sweet. Sugar stimulates the adrenal system and overrides the drain in the short term. Just remember, if you continue to engage in sexual activity with a p
artner who drains you, the stress might eventually make you very sick.
“However, the more partners you have, the more this effect is diluted. So if our imaginary fire mage has sex with an earth mage and another fire mage, the water mage can’t drain them as effectively. And quints don’t suffer this problem at all, no matter who’s included in the relationship. It turns into a power exchange, making each of the partners stronger.”
Mrs. Palmer rubbed her palms along her sensible woolen skirt, the only external sign she was at all uncomfortable with her impromptu sex ed lecture. “To finish off this discussion, I’d like to ask you to please be very careful. The compatibility chart is in your book, page two-hundred. Learn it by heart and make sure you take precautions before engaging in intercourse with anybody. Find out their primary power, and by all that’s holy, don’t forget your candy bars before hooking up.”
That got another snicker from the class. Hearing prim and proper Mrs. Palmer talking so casually about safe sex blew our collective minds. For the rest of the lesson, I took notes on autopilot. My mind was whirring with what I’d just learned. Every time I’d had sex with the boys, I’d been exhausted afterwards.
More importantly, Lance’d had his fling with Sharon, and the next day he’d collapsed. Did that mean he’d been sleeping with Sharon for a long time? Even before he’d made a move on me? I was so caught up in my thoughts, I hadn’t realized class was over.
Lance got up and touched my arm. I pulled away reflexively, glaring at him.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I blurted out. Then I packed up my stuff as quickly as I could and stormed off, ignoring the hurt expression on his face.
28
Kiernan was trying to catch up as I stormed off. But I had no interest whatsoever in talking to anybody right now. I didn’t want to put a happy face on when I felt so pissed. Or, even worse, listen to Kiernan’s rationalization or commiseration. No, thanks. So I ignored him and kept walking.
The only place I could think of, where nobody would pull me into a discussion, was the library. As long as I stayed close to the librarian, old Mr. Denholm, I’d be safe. Hunching my shoulders, I stalked across the campus as fast as I could. Thankfully, the boys got the message and stayed behind.
Once I was inside the building, I sat down at a table hidden by a pillar so I couldn’t be seen from the entrance, but close enough to the front desk in case anybody tried to talk to me. I pulled out a sheet of paper and started drawing a mind map.
What did I know so far? Drains happened between sexual partners. Power moved from the dominant to the weaker partner. Eventually, that exchange would make the weaker partner sick. But there were dampeners around the academy to prevent a catastrophic event. Although, as I'd learned with Strickland, they weren't foolproof.
Moving on from the general to the specific, I added another branch to my map. I’d had sex with Julian and Kiernan that had left me very tired, but nothing a good night's rest hadn’t solved. And yes, I'd had a big craving for sweets that night. Kiernan hadn’t suffered any ill effects.
But both Julian and I’d had that weird blackout afterwards. Except Julian’s had been worse than me. Which meant Kiernan was dominant, and Julian and I were the weaker partners. Of course. That figures. I sighed in frustration. I thought my lightning magic was stronger than anybody's else's magic. Apparently not.
What else? I'd lost my virginity to that cheating shit Lance, and I’d been fine afterwards. But then Sharon and Lance had had sex, and Lance had collapsed today. So what did that mean? Had Sharon drained him? Had I drained him?
I remembered how Sharon had been sickly for weeks. She'd been gone every second week on some errand for Ms. Farkas, and every time she'd come back, she'd looked more and more exhausted.
Hold on. Could that explain her sugar consumption? But that would be crazy. Was she sent off on some kind of… some kind of sex errand?
Okay, stop. I might have been able to believe all kinds of conspiracy crap, but using the students as supernatural prostitutes? That was pushing it a bit far, even if Sharon did seem to sleep her way around the academy.
So what else could have caused a major energy drain? Because the more I thought about it, the more I believed that was what was happening to my roommate.
Well, I’m at the right place to do some research. I wanted to learn more about energy drains and power exchanges. Something told me whatever I'd find might also be relevant to the relationship between the boys and me.
For the next hour, I scoured the shelves for anything that could shed some light on what was happening. But beyond classic novels and copies of the schoolbooks we used in class, there was nothing here that could help me. Dropping into the chair, I huffed in exasperation.
The old librarian must have been watching me. While I was staring into space, trying to figure out my next move, he sat down at the other side of the table and put a large book in front of me. The sudden noise made me jump.
He snickered. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. My intentions are honorable."
I smiled politely, not knowing what to say. He sighed, turning serious. “Look. I didn’t want to say anything, but it’s very obvious to me your life energy is fluctuating. When you were in here the other day with the redhead, it was even lower than now. Have you been feeling sick?”
I stared at him with my mouth open. Kiernan had mentioned the librarian was an empath, but I’d had no idea he’d be able to tell so much about me. Mr. Denholm waited patiently for an answer. Eventually, I replied, “Yes. Very sick. But mainly exhausted.”
The librarian nodded. “And you’re not the only one. Every year, it’s the same. You young kids are bursting with hormones, and somebody always gets drained. Usually, you figure it out in time, but in your case, there’s more going on than just a few misguided hours of passion.”
Oh, man. My ears were turning red. The guy could have been my grandfather. I didn’t want to have this discussion with him. Squirming, I avoided his gaze. The old man cleared his throat. When he spoke again, the laughter in his voice took me by surprise. Great. Now he’s making fun of me.
But his eyes were kind as he said, “Don’t be ashamed. When I was your age, I was part of a sept. It didn’t work out, but we had a lot of fun while it lasted.”
Yeah, not making this any better. If he embarrassed me more, I’d burst into flames right here in the library.
“The point is,” he continued, “you need to be careful. Talk to your partners. I assume you have more than one pretty girl like you?”
I surrendered. “Yes. I have three.”
Mr. Denholm nodded and pushed the book toward me. “Here. This is from my private collection. It explains how energy drains and transfers work, not just during sex, but also between species.”
That got my attention. “Species? What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “You tell me. You’re the one sharing your room with a nixie.”
I stared at Mr. Denholm. I had to get to my next class, so couldn’t ask him what he meant. As I walked away from the table, clutching the book to my chest, my mind was spinning. Who or what is a nixie?
Lance waited for me outside the library. He looked like he’d been there for a while. "Please. Amber. I know you think I'm cheating on you. And technically, I was."
Pushing thoughts of my roommate being some kind of mythical creature aside, I cut him off. "What do you mean, technically? I saw you with Sharon. I don't mind if you prefer to date her," I said, my stomach clenching at the thought, "but I don't want you to lie to me. Why would you pretend to be interested in me? So you could brag about busting my cherry? Well, you did it. I just don't know why you're here, talking to me, instead of hanging with your new girlfriend."
Lance lifted both hands. "No, seriously, you've got it all wrong. I want to be with you. I don't know what happened when you saw us. I don’t remember much. It was like a… a dream, or something. You've got to believe me."
I stared at him. He really lo
oked terrible. His eyes were red and sore-looking, as if he'd smoked weed. His skin had the pallor of sour milk. Again, I had the feeling I was missing something. Stepping closer, I held up my hand. "Can you follow my finger with your eyes?"
As I moved my finger to and fro, Lance's eyes strayed away in tiny jerks before he forced them back again. It was disconcerting, as if his eyeballs were jumping around out of his control.
"Did you take something?" I asked.
He shook his head vigorously. "No way. I don't do drugs. I saw what they did to my pare—" He shut his mouth as if he'd blurted something he didn’t want me to know. Something else to remember for a future discussion.
But if it wasn't drugs, what else could cause this? I remembered the taser in Whitehall's lecture. Julian had also been groggy afterwards, but not quite as bad as this. A spell, maybe? He sure didn't act like a guy who was caught cheating on his girlfriend.
I made up my mind. Putting my hand on his shoulder, I said, "Hey, I don't know what happened, but I believe you. But if you and I and the boys want to have a relationship, you have to promise me to stay away from Sharon. Don't eat with her, don't come to my room when I'm not there. Just don't expose yourself to any situation where she might get control over you."
Lance grimaced. "Do you think she did something to me?"
"I think so. Because you seem completely out of it. I mean, look at yourself. You look as exhausted as she does. And you collapsed today. Please promise me you'll stay away from her."
"Okay. I promise."
I got on my tiptoes and kissed him. Lance stiffened before bending down and hugging me tightly against him. For a moment, he held me with a ferocity that took my breath away. I grabbed on to his coat and inhaled the warm scent of his body. He snuffled his nose into my neck, as if he were suppressing a sob. He was scaring me, but I didn’t let go.
Second Chance Soul: a paranormal reverse harem steamy slow burn academy adventure (Second Chance Academy Book 2) Page 14
