Dark Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  But if I didn’t do something soon then Ella was going to pay the price and there was no way in hell I’d be letting that happen.

  I was running the line of being late for class, but I wasn’t too concerned. My Cardinal Magic teacher, Professor Montague, was pretty easy going and I was acing her class so I knew she wouldn’t mind if I wasn’t quite on time.

  “For the love of the stars, where the hell is it!” a girl’s voice caught my ear and I looked up as she stomped her foot. Like, actually stomped her foot like a Disney character or a three year old. I wasn’t sure why, but it made me smile.

  She turned around and caught me looking, my smile widening as I spotted the pout on her full lips. Her dark eyes were shrouded by long lashes and raven hair fell to her waist in a straight sheet like a spill of ink. I hadn’t seen her before but I sure as hell wouldn’t mind getting to know her better.

  “Can I help?” I asked, moving closer to her as her eyes swept over me slowly enough to let me know she hadn’t missed an inch of my muscular frame.

  “Yes please, sugar,” she said, a hint of a southern accent spilling out as she moved towards me. “I’m supposed to have Potions with Professor Titan but I can’t find the classroom anywhere. I started school late because there was a mix up with my paperwork so today’s only my second day and it’s already all going wrong before it’s even begun.”

  “Don’t worry about it, no one can ever find the Potions lab without help the first time,” I reassured her, moving even closer. “I’m Gareth.”

  “Cindy Lou.” She held out a slender hand and I took it, smiling down at her.

  “Come on, I’ll walk you to class.” I tilted my head in the right direction and she fell into step beside me with a relieved smile.

  I asked her about her family as we walked and she told me she was one of six siblings, all girls. She was the first to go to an academy for her education and all of her sisters were jealous enough to spit. I told her about Ella but was vague about my mom and then we were rounding the staircase which concealed the entrance to the Potions lab in the basement.

  “Here you go,” I said, offering her a smile as I turned to leave.

  She caught my hand before I could and I looked at her in surprise as she pushed up onto her toes and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

  “Thank you for coming to my rescue, Gareth.” She gave me a quick smile, her cheeks heating a little before she darted into her class.

  My skin burned with the mark of her lips and I was half tempted to follow her inside and ask her to meet me in the cafaeteria later for a drink. But I couldn’t really barge into her class and I imagined if I did the embarrassment alone would be enough to guarantee she gave me a no.

  I turned away, my smile widening as I thought about her full lips and I made a mental note to seek her out again at some point.

  The corridors were almost empty and I really was late now so I broke into a jog as I headed for my class.

  I ran up the stairs and rounded a corner suddenly, slamming straight into another student before I could stop myself.

  The guy cursed and books fell all around us as I was almost knocked onto my ass from the impact. He was a freshman but he towered over me and his body was lined with hard muscle. I knew his name, though I doubted he knew mine. Gabriel Nox. The only student to attend Aurora Academy while wielding two Elements in ten years. Who knew why a Fae that strong had applied to attend this place. A guy like him might have even gotten into Zodiac Academy – the best damn school in Solaria - but he’d chosen to come here instead.

  He was untrained but was still the strongest Fae at Aurora. News of his arrival had spread like wildfire after his powers had been Awakened and his picture was splashed all over my FaeBook feed every day. He even had groupies who called themselves the Harpers because he was a Harpy. It was sad but true. And it probably would have served me well not to piss him off the first time he’d even noticed my existence. But shit happened I guessed.

  “Watch out,” he snapped and I bit my tongue on biting back. It wasn’t worth it with someone that powerful.

  “Sorry, man,” I muttered, moving to help him gather his shit.

  His Atlas had skittered right across the hall and I hounded after it, picking it up quickly. He’d been looking at something when he’d dropped it and the page was still open. My eyes fell on the bank statement with more than a little surprise.

  Payments received this month:

  Falling Star - 10,000

  Falling Star - 10,000

  Falling Star - 10,000

  Falling Star - 10,000

  Falling Star - 10,000

  Account Balance: 834,679.76 Auras.

  Before I could tear my gaze from the screen and the insane amount of money this guy had at his disposal, Gabriel snatched it out of my grip and grabbed a handful of my shirt.

  He slammed me up against the wall hard enough to drive the breath from my lungs and I stared up at him in shock.

  “What the hell?” I snapped, trying to shove him off of me.

  “Why were you snooping into my personal shit?” Gabriel snarled in my face, not backing down one bit.

  “I wasn’t!” I denied even though I fucking had been and we both knew it. “I was just trying to help you pick it up.”

  “Who asked you to spy on me?” Gabriel demanded, lifting a hand as water started to run between his fingers.

  I was a sophomore; I had a year’s worth of training on this guy but something about the look in his eyes made me hesitate to fight back. He seemed unhinged, like he was actually considering killing me for looking at his fucking rich boy bank statement.

  “No one asked me to do jack shit. Now get off of me,” I growled.

  Gabriel looked deep into my eyes for a long moment then shoved me away from him so roughly I almost fell.

  “Fucking psycho,” I muttered as I started to stride away from him.

  A torrent of water smashed into me so hard that I was thrown from my feet in an instant. I cried out as I tumbled across the floorboards, rolling and rolling until I hit the wall at the end of the corridor.

  Vines sprung up around me, twisting their way all over my body and pinning me in place as I fought to get up.

  “You might want to think a little harder before you insult me like that again,” Gabriel said as he strode past me, leaving me bound in a puddle in the middle of the corridor. Soaking wet and fucking fuming. “And stay out of my business. If I catch you trying to look at my personal shit again, I’ll fill your lungs with water and let you drown.”

  His footsteps moved away from me and I was left struggling against the vines he’d created with no chance of escaping them without help.

  Shame burned through me as I failed to free myself, knowing I’d be stuck like this until someone came along and released me from his magic.

  I clenched my fists against my sides and ground my jaw. I hadn’t wanted anything to do with that asshole or his fucking stuff. But I had seen his bank account balance. And the one thing I needed was money. Which he seemed to have altogether too much of. Especially for someone who was as big of a dick as him. Which got me thinking. Why was he receiving payments from someone with a code name? Who was Falling Star? And why had he freaked out so much about me seeing it if there was nothing unusual about the transactions?

  Growing up the way I had, you got to know how to read people pretty quickly and I’d formed a damn good sense of what made people tic. Normal people didn’t react like that if someone caught a glance at their finances. Only someone with something to hide would overreact that way.

  Gabriel Nox had a secret.

  I was going to find out what it was.

  When I did, he’d have to pay to keep me quiet.

  And the price would be the cost of my sister’s freedom.

  My dorm was empty so I took the opportunity to call my mamma. The phone rang and rang as I lay on my bunk, twisting my medallion between my fingers. When she answered, a series of howls sounded b
efore she spoke. She was out of breath and jealousy hit me as I realised what she was up to tonight. I could run with my pack at school, but there was nothing like running with my closest famiglia.

  “We’re on a run, dolce drago, is everything okay?” She called me her ‘sweet dragon’ and I quietly loved that. But if she ever said it in front of my friends I’d electrocute her.

  My family were all Werewolves. I was a rare-ass Dragon born to a family of baying hounds. You should really see the family photo album. There was nothing quite like a twenty foot Dragon at the heart of ten wolf siblings to point out how different you were. And because of my overly tactile, fantastically friendly family, I was more used to physical affection and overt touching than most Fae of my Order. Dragons were known for being standoffish. But nurture made me crave warm hugs and wet licks. I just didn’t let that side of me show too often while I was at school.

  “It’s okay, Mamma. How is Uncle Matteo coping?” My uncle had lost his son Lorenzo to fucking Killblaze a few weeks back. He’d gone insane and skewered himself on a blade of ice while out of his goddamn mind. Looked like he might have run into a wall first too. My family covered it up so fast, you’d barely know Lorenzo even existed once.

  The two of us hadn’t been close. He was a year older, a bit of a shit if I was being really honest and he’d brought shame on the Clan by getting hooked on Killblaze. My brightest memory of Lorenzo was him forcing my head down a toilet when I was eight years old to try and make my Order Awaken. Wolves tended to Awaken young, but I was the odd one out. Guess I still was.

  I’d lost my temper watching a Pitball match when I was thirteen and turned into a huge ass Dragon in the middle of the stands; it had been a shock to everyone involved. But half the Oscura Clan had attended that match and I’d been celebrated for fucking days. A Dragon in their ranks? The Lunar Brotherhood couldn’t claim that shit. Dragons were rare as it was. And when they found out I breathed electricity, my mamma cried tears of pride for a week.

  “He’s been starting fights with the Lunar Brotherhood all over town. It’s anger mostly, but it’s causing a few more turf wars than we need right now. And your Uncle Felix isn’t helping. He’s leading the attacks.” I ground my teeth. Felix was my father’s mentally unstable brother. The last fucking person I wanted holding my position right now. He was too volatile to be making decisions for the entire gang. He’d once caught me stealing from his wallet and hung me from a bridge in downtown Alestria for a full day.

  “I could come help?” I offered, sometimes hating that I had to be stuck here while the real gang war went on outside these walls.

  “No dolce drago, you focus on your education. You’ll be King of our family one day, but you need to be bright. Learn all you can. La conoscenza è potere.” Knowledge is power, that was true. We didn’t underestimate education amongst the Oscuras. If you wanted to win a war, you had to be smart smart, not just street smart.

  A creak sounded somewhere close by and I yanked back my sheet to check Gabriel hadn’t snuck in like a silent fart. Empty. My mind always played tricks on me when I spoke to mia famiglia. I didn’t want any of the Brotherhood lurking in and listening to what I said to them. I had a silencing bubble in place, but a senior could slip past it if they knew the right spell.

  “I have to go, Mamma. Have a good run. Maybe we can fly under the moon together next time I come home?”

  “I’d like that, bambino. Ti amo.” The line went dead and I sighed. As a Dragon I shouldn’t have let anyone ride me. It was a law amongst my kind, but I’d broken it a hundred times with my family. I’d never met the Dragon Commander, Lionel Acrux, and I imagined he wouldn’t be seen dead in a city like Alestria. So fuck if I was gonna obey his rules.

  I’d carried all of my ten brothers and sisters to the top of Mount Fable once. Mamma said I had to stop doing it when I went to school. People would talk. And talking led to rumours. Rumours led to lies. Lies led to cut throats. But I’d never met any other Dragon in Solaria so hell if I respected their opinion. Most of them were born from pure-blooded families who refused to mate with anyone outside of their Order. Seemed pretty boring to me, but I supposed it was the only way to ensure future generations of Dragons considering how rare we were. They probably didn’t even realise I existed, so why would any rumours reach their ears about me? I didn’t really give a shit either way, but Mamma was adamant so I’d stopped letting anyone on my back.

  Needing a piss, I jumped up and closed the distance to the door. I opened it and fate would have it that Elise was walking in. I smiled broadly, planting my shoulder against the doorway. “Look who it is? Amore mio.” I clutched my heart as if she truly affected it.

  “Move, Dante.” She wafted her hand to try and make me move. Yeah, like that was gonna work.

  “Has anyone ever told you how bossy you are, carina?” I lifted a brow.

  “Multiple people on multiple occasions. Now move.” She stepped into my personal space, a threat in her stance, but I wasn’t afraid. Turned on maybe, but never afraid. “You won’t like what you find in there, I just jerked off into your pillow.”

  “You’re joking,” she snarled, fangs on show.

  I smirked. “Am I?”

  “I swear to the sun, Dante, if you have I’ll-”

  “You’ll give me daily blowies to keep my libido under control? Deal.” My grin widened and she slammed her hands against my chest, throwing a blast of air into them that sent me stumbling backwards. I continued to smile as she ran across the room, climbing up to her bunk and inspecting her pillow from a safe distance.

  I snorted and she let out a growl.

  “Asshole.” She threw herself up onto the bunk, laying down on her not so spunky pillow.

  “I don’t need inanimate cushy objects to get me off, Elise. Besides, your pillow smells like you. Why would I want that all over my dick?” Time to play hard to get.

  She didn’t bite the juicy worm I was dangling and I pressed my lips together. I moved to exit again, finding Gabriel standing there for who knew how long. He was shirtless, wings pressing against the doorway so my way out was thoroughly blocked. He stared off into the distance, apparently thinking about something.

  “Gabriel,” I snapped. “Get out of my way.”

  No response. And I was seriously starting to need a piss now.

  I snapped my fingers under his nose and he didn’t even fucking blink. “Stronzo!” I barked forcefully in his face, and he wiped a fleck of spittle from his cheek, still lost to his trance.

  Elise started giggling and for a second, I could have sworn the two of them were silently ganging up on me.

  Fuck this. I’m not gonna stand for it.

  Electricity crackled in my veins. My spine pulsed with the urge to shift, but not here. I couldn’t. But I could cast a storm which would knock bird boy through a wall. I didn’t care if he fought back, he was clearly baiting me. And Dante Oscura did not back down from a fight.

  “You asked for it, Gabriel.” I gathered air in my palms, charging it with sparking electricity as the Dragon part of me came to life. “I am Dante Oscura,” I growled, drawing my shoulders back. “A morte e ritorno!”

  Gabriel walked past me, his wing brushing right over my face. By the time I turned around to glare at him with a vein about to burst in my temple, he was already perched atop his bunk like a fucking eagle.

  “Fuck you, Gabriel. Fuck you so hard.”

  “No thank you,” he said calmly and my lips twisted with rage.

  Elise’s giggles rose into the air and I scowled as I marched out of the door, nearly knocking Laini over as she headed in too. “Are you all just showing up on cue to piss me off?” I snapped at her as I walked by, making her recoil against the wall for half a second before she hurried into the dorm.

  I headed to the bathroom and had the angriest piss of my life. I knew what was really stoking my rage though and it wasn’t lilac haired girls or even winged assholes. It was Felix Oscura standing in my damn place
back home and making shitty decisions for the gang.

  I felt threatened and with Elise’s laughter still ringing in my ears, I knew it was time to assert some dominance. To remind the world who the real leader of Oscura Clan was. Since Elise had arrived, that dorm was bringing down my reputation. So I was gonna show her why screwing with me was a bad goddamn idea.

  I zipped up my fly, stalking back to the room and kicking the door wide. It smashed against the wall, juddering on its hinges before I threw it shut again. I strode toward Elise, electricity rushing along my skin and making the lights flicker above us. I pulled off my medallion and dropped my rings to the floor with a clang clang clang.

  Elise moved so fast, I barely caught her. But I was ready for her Vampire speed and I hazarded a guess at which direction she’d take as she sprang off the bed. I caught her with a grunt of triumph, locking my arms around her so she had no chance of escape. Her back was to my front and I couldn’t ignore the feel of her ass against my crotch. But that was the last thing I was going to focus on.

  “Get the hell off of me!” she demanded, kicking, scratching, trying to bite. But I didn’t let her get near me with those teeth, tightening my grip so she couldn’t. I dragged her to the window and she gasped as I elbowed it open. I caught sight of Gabriel watching us with a frown and Laini flapping her arms up and down, shouting something I didn’t care to hear.

  We were on the top floor. Plenty of time to catch her before she broke her neck. Probably.

  I shoved her out and she screamed bloody murder as she plummeted. I was already jumping after her, saying goodbye to my clothes as I burst free of them, my size doubling, tripling, expanding and expanding. My wings tore out of my back and my navy blue scales shimmered like oil under the waning moon. I nose dived toward the ground, tucking in my wings, releasing a roar that made the school walls quake. Everyone would hear that sound and everyone would damn well know who it belonged to.