Dark Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  I threw my fist into his kidney one, two, three times until he flinched back just a little. With a growl, I twisted in his arms and swept my leg around, catching him in the backs of his knees.

  It wasn’t quite enough to take him down, but it unbalanced him and I sprang forward, grabbing his shoulders and throwing my weight into his chest.

  Dante fell back and I went with him. I slammed my knees down on his biceps as I pressed my weight onto his chest and smirked at him.

  “One, two, three-”

  Dante snatched his arms out from beneath my knees, grabbed my waist and flipped me beneath him in the blink of an eye.

  He laughed as he pressed me down into the sand, catching my wrists and pinning them above my head so that I couldn’t use my magic against him. I didn’t even bother trying to fight my way free as Mars counted down from five to zero.

  Dante’s huge body pressed me to the ground and I sighed, blowing a strand of lilac hair out of my eyes.

  “We can practice more in my bunk later if you want to see if you can make it on top,” he teased, his dark eyes glimmering with excitement. I’d quickly come to realise that Pitball was one of the few places where Dante let his mask slip entirely and just let himself have fun. Most of the players were unallied aside from him and one other Oscura gang member and it was like he just let himself forget about all that bullshit whenever he stepped onto the pitch. And I had to admit I liked it.

  “Thanks,” I said. “But I’ve had enough blood today.”

  “That wasn’t what I was offering. What I have in mind requires us to ditch these kits and-”

  “I said five!” Coach Mars snapped above us. “You can let her up now!”

  Dante grinned as he took his sweet time climbing off of me before offering me his hand. I let him pull me to my feet then moved away from him to join Harvey Bloom.

  “Hey,” I said, smiling sweetly as I approached.

  “Hey,” he replied. We’d been training together for weeks now but between the various team members and subs and the fact that I’d been giving most of my attention to sussing out Leon and Dante during these sessions, I hadn’t spoken to him much before. But now that I knew he was interesting that was all about to change.

  He was tall and his copper hair fell in front of his eyes in a way that made me want to just push it back for him or demand he get a hair cut. I bet he had a mother somewhere who was blue in the face from nagging him about it. He was well built, though slimmer than the other guys and his position as Fireside meant he was in an attack position like me. Better built for speed than brute force. I actually had a shot at pinning him down if I was lucky.

  “You’re a Pegasus, right?” I asked as we moved to stand opposite each other.

  “Yeah. What gave me away?” he teased, letting his skin sparkle for a moment with a faint blue hue.

  I smiled at him. “My mom and the rest of the family are Pegasuses,” I said. “I’m kinda missing the whole vibe of your kind.”

  “A Vampire who hungers for the warm feelies, huh?” Harvey mocked.

  Coach Mars blew his whistle and I sped forward. Harvey was a much easier target than Dante had been and I managed to throw him to the ground with my first hit. I didn’t intend to give him the chance to uproot me like Dante had and before he could fight back, I directed a blast of air at him, pinning him in place.

  “Good job, Callisto!” Coach called as he finished the countdown and I remained on top.

  I withdrew my power and offered Harvey a hand up.

  “Well you’ve certainly got the cutthroat nature of your kind even if you’re secretly craving warm hugs,” he joked.

  “You have no idea,” I agreed, meaning the cutthroat bit though he assumed I meant the hug cravings.

  “Well, there’s a group of us who tend to hang out most nights. We’re not all Pegasuses but my herd are the main attenders so you could get your fix of our stunning personalities if you join us,” he offered casually.

  “Hang out doing what?” I asked, not wanting to sound too keen.

  “This and that. We chill, have a few drinks...sometimes take some other recreational mood enhancers too...” Harvey was watching me in a way that said this was a test. He was wondering if I’d blink at the suggestion of drugs, but I was a girl who’d grown up with a stripper for a mom and had lived through her brother being murdered. I wasn’t going to flinch at the mention of getting high. Not that I’d be joining them in that particular pastime; I’d never felt a pull to risk my life chasing some illusionary high when I could just go out and experience something real instead.

  “Sounds good,” I said. “Where do you meet?”

  “It varies. I’ll send you a message the next time we have a gathering though. You can come down, get to know a few people aside from the Kings, find out what the normal kids do for fun around here.” He smiled and it seemed pretty damn genuine. Was I currently talking to someone who had meant a lot to my brother? Had his death carved a mark on Harvey’s heart too? I wished I could just ask him, tell him who I was and question him on all the things I wanted to instead of playing this damn game, but I couldn’t risk it.

  Instead, I thanked him for the invitation and made myself move away from him to face my next opponent as Mars blew his whistle. Harvey Bloom may have been the next piece in my puzzle but if I wanted to find out where he fit, then I was going to have to be patient. And in the meantime, I planned on digging deeper into the Black Card.

  Leon moved to face me with a smirk playing around his lips and I couldn’t help but smile in response.

  “You’re going down, Callisto,” he taunted.

  “You’ll have to catch me first,” I teased.

  A slow smile spread across Leon’s face as he dropped into position, ready to pounce at me. A low growl left his lips and my heart beat a little faster.

  “Are you going to teach me what it’s like to be hunted by a Lion?” I asked.

  Leon’s eyes flashed but the whistle blew before he could reply.

  He sprang at me and I turned and sprinted away as fast as I could without using my gifts.

  Leon’s footsteps were hot on my heels as he gave chase and a spike of adrenaline flooded my limbs as I fought to escape him.

  His fingers brushed the back of my shirt and I squealed as I used the tiniest touch of my Vampire speed to escape him. It didn’t count as cheating so long as no one noticed. Leon laughed excitedly from way too close behind me for my liking and I threw myself away from him at speed.

  I did a whole circuit of the pitch, sprinting between the other players as they stopped to watch us.

  “See if you can catch her Oscura!” Mars called and I shrieked as Dante leapt after me too.

  I switched direction fast and shot across the pitch towards the Pit. I didn’t slow as I raced towards the edge but kept running, planting my foot on the edge of it and leaping into the air. I used a hint of my enhanced strength to make sure I got a good kick off and flew over the ten foot Pit with a whoop of triumph.

  I hit the ground on the other side and rolled across the sand, shoving myself to my feet as Leon and Dante raced towards me from either side of it.

  “Thirty seconds and you’ve won it Callisto!” Coach bellowed and I sprang to my feet as I took off again.

  They were closing on me, two sets of feet thundering way too close behind me as I sprinted on. My breath was coming in harsh pants, my arms and legs were pumping but I sure as shit wasn’t gonna let them catch me.

  Mars blew his whistle to mark the end of the time and I whopped in triumph, twisting back to look at them and rub my win in their faces.

  My eyes widened as I realised they hadn’t slowed one bit and a scream escaped me half a second before they collided with me.

  I hit the ground hard, rolling between a mountain of muscle as we tumbled across the sand before coming to halt in a tangle of limbs.

  Leon snatched both of my wrists and pressed them into the sand on either side of me while Dante sat
over my hips, immobilising me.

  The breath was driven from my lungs in the collision but as soon as I caught it again, a laugh burst from my lips.

  Leon grinned widely as he leaned down over me, half of his long hair spilling free of his top knot. For a moment his eyes shone with all the intensity of the sun and I couldn’t help but stare as his Order form swam beneath his skin.

  Dante was laughing too and he shifted forward, tackling Leon so that the two of them fell off of me as they started wrestling on the ground.

  I got to my feet as Coach Mars waved us back over to the rest of the team and waited for the two of them to finish their play fight.

  The dust began to rise off of the ground as Dante released a wave of static energy as he tussled with Leon and a shiver raced down my spine in response.

  Mars blew his whistle impatiently and they finally stopped, getting back to their feet with wide smiles on their faces.

  Leon moved straight towards me and pulled me under his arm as he turned back towards Mars. Dante growled as he moved to my other side and shoved Leon off of me before wrapping his arm around my waist.

  “Get your paws off my girl,” Dante joked and I rolled my eyes.

  “I’m not yours,” I said, feeling like a broken record.

  “Yeah, asshole,” Leon agreed as he moved to my other side and threw his arm around me as well. “She’s mine too.”

  “I’m really not,” I said but they both ignored me, drawing me back across the pitch to the rest of the team while both keeping hold of me.

  And if I was being totally honest there were worse places in the world that a girl could find herself than caught in the arms of Leon Night and Dante Oscura.

  Sixteen Months before the Solarid Meteor Shower…

  The bell rang and I was up and out of my seat before anyone else in my class. I had one free period to do what I had to to discover Gabriel Nox’s secret. He would be spending that time in Potions class and I’d be heading up to his not so secret hideaway on the roof of The Vega Dormitories.

  Pretty much everyone knew that he’d claimed the roof as his own personal retreat so that he could replenish his magic with the rising sun whenever he wanted.

  No one else went up there.

  Ever.

  Until now.

  My heart thundered a panicked tune as I ran back to the Vega Dorms but I couldn’t back out. Dante Oscura could give me enough money to pay off Old Sal. But Gabriel Nox was a goldmine which could change my family’s lives forever if I could just tap into it. He had more money in his bank account than I might earn in my entire life.

  If ever there was a chance for a new start for us, then maybe its name was Gabriel.

  I made it to the dorms and ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time as I felt my hour slipping by already. I had to get up there, search his hideout and get the hell away again before the bell rang for the end of his class. Gabriel ended almost every day by shedding his shirt and blazer, freeing his wings and flying straight up there. And Harpies moved so swiftly and silently that I wouldn’t even see him coming before he was on top of me, no doubt beating the shit out of me a little more thoroughly than the last time too. So I had to be long gone before then. Because if he caught me snooping into his shit for a second time then I was seriously screwed.

  I made it to the top floor and ran straight to my room. Leon and my other dorm mates were in class for the next hour too so I could use the fire escape straight out of my window to get to the roof.

  I opened the window and a breeze swept in around me.

  My fingers trembled where I clutched the frame and I closed my eyes briefly, picturing Ella’s green eyes to remind myself of why I was doing all of this insane shit. She was the risk taker in our family. I bet she’d already have run rings around this whole academy if she was here. But I was the one who had to step up when she needed me. And she needed me now more than ever. Even if I hadn’t told her that. I’d thought about it. I’d thought long and hard about telling her what Old Sal wanted from her, but I hadn’t done it. For two reasons. One; I didn’t want her to know that Mom had actually considered selling her into that life to clear her debts. It was bad enough growing up knowing that your parent couldn’t actually parent you properly without having to wonder whether she loved you at all. What kind of mom would consider pimping out her own daughter’s flesh to pay her debts?

  And two; a part of me which I didn’t like to look at too closely was afraid that Ella would just do it. Take the job for Old Sal and auction herself off to the highest bidder. Not for Mom. But for me. Because she wouldn’t want me taking these risks. She wouldn’t want me distracted from my studies or to allow the possibility of me making the kinds of enemies who made people pay debts in blood.

  So I’d decided to lie to my sister for the first time in my life. And I felt like a sack of shit for it. But I also knew I was doing the right thing.

  The metal fire escape stairs clanged a hollow tune beneath my feet as I powered my way up to the roof. One thing that had definitely paid off when Ryder Draconis stole my dorm from me was the fact that I only had to ascend one flight of stairs to the top of the building. I’d be sure to send him a thank you card and a box of dead mice once I was rich.

  At the top of the stairs, I stepped out onto the flat concrete roof which Gabriel had claimed for his own personal patch of turf.

  The space was wide and flat, with nothing on it barring Gabriel’s tent which he’d set up on the far side. From here it looked dark and uninviting, the shadows within it promising secrets and terrors as well.

  Silence reigned up here, only punctuated by the wind. A shiver raced down my spine. My heart rocked a heady tune in my chest. I took half a step back towards the fire escape.

  This is insane. Gabriel has three times as much power as me on a bad day. If he catches me he’ll grow a tree from the ground beneath my feet and entomb me in it for all of time, leaving only my face poking out through the bark, a look of horrified failure etched into my dead features as a warning to anyone else who might be tempted to be as stupid as me and take him on.

  The wind picked up around me and I flinched as a small black shape shifted across the roof, coming straight for me. Before I could quite manage to piss my pants, the large, black feather flipped over and I harnessed the air around me as I brought it to my hand.

  I twisted the Harpy feather between my fingers. It was bigger than any bird’s feather, the spine thick and near unbreakable, like a rod of steel in my grip. The soft down was black but it shimmered with a rainbow of colours like a spill of oil as the sun caught it. I’d always kind of thought of Harpies as fallen angels even though I knew it was absurd. But there was something about seeing them with those giant wings that always planted that image in my mind. My little angel wouldn’t have run from this challenge. And I wouldn’t either.

  I cast the feather away from me and strode across the rooftop to the tent Gabriel had erected for himself. It had three blue canvas walls and a roof. A fluttering noise sounding as the wind buffeted one side.

  The place which should have held a fourth wall stood open, facing east so that the rays of the sunrise would spill inside it every morning and he could replenish his power just by laying there and bathing in it.

  My heart was pounding so hard that the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of it was all I could hear in my ears.

  I paused just outside the tent, debating with myself one final time. But I was already here. So the arguments I wanted to present were pointless.

  Most of the space inside the tent was taken up by a mound of blankets and pillows which Gabriel obviously used as a bed when he slept up here. By the head of it sat a pile of books so I moved closer to them first.

  My gaze slid over the spines as I read titles on Tarot, Numerology, sooth saying, earth magic, water magic and everything else in between. It seemed Gabriel didn’t just sit around up here for the sunrise. He liked to study hard too. So maybe we had one thing in common.

&nb
sp; I closed my eyes and pulled a green crystal from my pocket which I’d liberated from the potions store cupboard. I’d have to return it before Professor Titan realised it was missing but I’d needed it to make this search easier.

  A green crystal, a lock of manticore fur and a four leafed clover combined with the right spell created a powerful energy sensor. And I needed to find something that Gabriel had been holding while feeling strong emotions. It didn’t matter what they were, the crystal would point me in the right direction. I just hoped I wasn’t going to be drawn towards a stash of Harpy porn if the crystal got hooked on the trail of lust.

  I pressed my magic into the crystal and the tuft of manticore fur I’d wrapped around it caught alight suddenly, sizzling away in an instant before the four leafed clover exploded with a small pop. A tendril of thick, green smoke rose from the crystal and instantly headed towards the stash of Gabriel’s things.

  As it reached the bed, the smoke split into three distinct lines, each of them heading off of their own accord. One slid beneath the blankets by the foot of the bed. The second twisted around the heaped books before forming a cloud around a small book beside his pillows. And the final tendril headed straight for the back of the tent where it gathered along the seam of the canvas in the middle of the wall.

  I put the crystal back in my pocket and the smoke dispersed as if it had never been there at all.

  I reached for the closest thing first, pushing my hand beneath the blankets at the foot of the bed and lifting them to get a look at what was there.

  I arched an eyebrow at the half-expected dirty magazine, refraining from flipping through it. I may have wanted to learn Gabriel Nox’s secrets but I didn’t need a mental picture of what got him off.

  I placed the blankets back down carefully, making sure I didn’t disturb anything before heading for the book by his pillow next.

  I licked my dry lips as a shiver of fear ran down my spine and quickly looked over my shoulder almost feeling like there were eyes on me. But I was just being paranoid; if Gabriel caught me, the first I’d know about it would be the pain of his retribution.