Savage Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Book 2)

by Caroline Peckham

  SAVAGE FAE

  Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac

  Book 2

  Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti

  Contents

  Welcome to Aurora Academy, here is your campus map.

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  BOOKS BY CAROLINE PECKHAM

  BOOKS BY SUSANNE VALENTI

  Welcome to Aurora Academy, here is your campus map.

  Please take note of where The Lunar Brotherhood and Oscura Clan have claimed turf to ensure you don’t cross into their territory unintentionally. Faculty will not be held responsible for gang maiming or disembowelment. Have a great term!

  Click the map to enlarge.

  It was dawn. I’d opened the window, letting the light stream across my flesh to fill my magic reserves. Heat pooled in my chest as power sparked and bloomed deep within me.

  Elise’s shallow breathing filled the air as I perched on the end of the bed, my elbow propped on my knee as I ran a hand across my face wearily. She was bathed in golden light. Not that I was looking. Except I was. Continually.

  Last night I’d brought her to my safe house in downtown Alestria. The penthouse apartment was in the heart of Lunar Territory in the west of the city. I could gain access through the skylight and come and go as I pleased. Falling Star’s money had come in handy for one thing; a place to go when shit got rough. And last night was the definition of rough.

  The apartment was made to let the sunrise in, the east side of the room just a wall of windows. The rest of the space sprawled out before the bed. It was all one open-plan unit except the bathroom. The décor was simple, the furniture pale grey and the walls and tables begging for ornaments I’d never bothered to give them. The bed was a nest of soft pillows and thick blankets and Elise was curled up in them like a sleeping cat.

  I rubbed my eyes, barely having gotten an hour’s sleep after what I’d witnessed last night. After nearly losing Elise. After my skin had itched and burned for her.

  I didn’t know exactly what I’d witnessed in the woods, but I knew it was nothing good. And now I was in serious shit because of the way I’d reacted.

  The stars were refusing to let me cut her out of my life. But I wasn’t done trying yet. I had a will of steel, though right now it felt flimsy, made of cheap plastic.

  I eyed the empty glass of water on the nightstand beside her and stood, moving around the bed with the intention of refilling it. Her hand slid out from beneath the covers, curling around my wrist as she released a sleepy groan.

  “Gabriel?” she rasped, another groan escaping her.

  I didn’t answer, my throat constricting as words failed me. Emotions warred inside me after almost losing her. My relief had given way to a pit of anxiety which was building into something more aggressive. How could she have taken Kilblaze? Was she insane? Did I not know her at all?

  Of course you don’t, you’ve been spending weeks forcing her out of your life.

  Her fingers tightened on my arm and she tugged, drawing the covers back, still barely awake.

  “It’s cold,” she whispered.

  “I’ll close the window.” I went to move but her grip firmed.

  “No…stay.” She reeled me down toward the bed and my heart beat an uneven tune. My will shattered as I slid beneath the blankets, drawing her into my arms as a shiver ran through her.

  I stroked her hair, holding her tighter and breathing a sigh. She wore my pale blue shirt, her ruined dress discarded on the floor in a crumpled heap. She’d insisted on having a shower the second we’d arrived here last night and now her hair and skin smelt like male shower products. Which meant, more specifically, she smelled like me.

  Her nipples had puckered beneath the shirt and I swallowed hard as she clung to me, trying to keep my body from reacting.

  “Where are we?” she murmured.

  “Don’t you remember?”

  She remained quiet a moment then drew in a breath. “The woods,” she gasped, shifting backwards.

  She blinked at me, her expression morphing into horror.

  “Yes,” I said, an edge to my tone. “You could have died, Elise,” I growled, the thought eating me up from the inside out.

  “Someone did die,” she breathed, her eyes wide.

  “Yes,” I said. “I saw.”

  I trailed a thumb over her cheek, knowing I shouldn’t. But I just wanted to hold her a while longer before I had to take her back to the academy. She must have been so confused after everything she’d been through and I just wanted to hold her until she processed it all.

  “You came for me,” she said thoughtfully as she pieced last night back together.

  “I knew you were in trouble.” I pointed to the mark of Libra tattooed onto my chest and her eyes fell to it with a frown. She leaned forward, pressing her lips to it and heat burned right through to my heart.

  “Thank you,” she whispered. “I don’t know what would have happened if…” She tilted her chin up, grazing her lips against mine and a hot liquid need built in my core.

  “Elise,” I warned on a heavy breath as she trailed her hand down my chest. “I’ll always come for you when you’re in trouble but-” I inhaled as she reached my waistband, battling every desire in my body as I tried to force out the end of that sentence. “But we can’t be together.” I practically choked on the words.

  She half rolled her eyes then slumped back onto the pillows. “By the stars, Gabriel. I’m sick of your mood swings. You’re a merry-go-round and I’m getting off the ride now. If you have feelings for me, you should just own them because honestly it’s kind of pathetic that you can’t.”

  A growl rumbled through me and I reared over her, pinning her to the bed with my hips. “You don’t know anything about the reasons why I do the things I do.”

  She stared up at me evenly, but her fangs snapped out and I knew she’d fight me if I pushed her to. “Then tell me instead of mind-fucking me, asshole.” She tried to move and I caught her wrists, pushing them into the sheets and trying not to focus on how good she looked beneath me or the way her thigh was pressing into my crotch.

  “Fine,” I breathed, knowing she deserved something at least. “But this is all I can say. I can’t have ties. No bonds. No friends. Especially no girlfriends.”

  “I didn’t ask to be your girlfriend,” she said coldly and my heart twisted uncomfortably.

  “Regardless of what you feel for me, if people knew what I felt for you...” I shook my head. “It just isn’t worth the risk of you getting hurt.”

  “What people? And
why the hell would I get hurt?” she asked, like she didn’t believe a word that came out of my mouth.

  “I don’t know,” I said truthfully and she yanked at her wrists. With a jolt of her Vampire strength, she broke free of me then sped out of the cage I’d created around her with my body, racing across the room.

  “Whatever, Gabriel. You should really see someone about all the bullshit that spills out of your mouth.”

  I shot to my feet, my wings bursting free of my back as my Order form rose to the surface. “I’m telling the truth!”

  “Then try telling it better,” she said, folding her arms and cocking a brow. I didn’t know how she managed to look so damn put together with her hair sticking up everywhere, mascara under her eyes and wearing a shirt which was so damn big for her, it nearly fell to her knees.

  I balled my hands into fists, trying to drown my anger and speak to her rationally. “All I know is that there are bad people after me. And if I get involved with you, you’ll be at risk too. As my Elysian Mate-”

  “I am not your mate,” she insisted, though her eyes skipped between the tattoos of Libra and Scorpio on my chest as if she wasn’t as sure about that as she once had been.

  “It doesn’t matter what you think. The stars have decided it. But I’m trying to undecide it. Maybe we can dodge fate together.”

  Her features softened and her lips turned down at the corners. “How?”

  “We have to stay away from each other. It’s the only way we might have a chance at stopping the stars from drawing us out in the night to answer the question of fate. If it comes to that, I’d have to choose to be star-crossed with you and I really don’t want to spend the rest of my life pining for you, Elise.”

  She pursed her lips then moved to a mirror on the wall, flattening her hair and licking her thumb to remove the blackened smears under her eyes. “I’ll stay away then. I don’t think it’s me who has the problem anyway; you were the one who came charging through the woods last night like a knight into battle.” She glanced at me in the mirror as if assessing my reaction to that comment and anger crashed through my chest.

  “If I hadn’t, you’d be dead in a ditch somewhere right now,” I growled.

  She shrugged one shoulder as if that idea didn’t bother her and it enraged me so much, I lost it entirely.

  “How could you have been so irresponsible anyway?” I snarled. “What the fuck were you doing getting high on Killblaze?”

  “Excuse me?” she hissed, spinning around to face me. “You can’t seriously be giving me the third degree right now?”

  I strode toward her, fury encasing my heart. “You know what that stuff does, right? It’s not just some recreational buzz, it digs right into your soul and tugs on all of your deepest emotions, forcing them to the surface. It can make you want to fucking kill yourself if it latches onto something bad enough. Is that what you want, Elise?”

  Her face paled and her jaw tightened.

  “I didn’t take it,” she said indignantly, not answering my other question. “Someone drugged me.”

  I tsked. “At least own your decisions.”

  “Fuck you,” she snapped, her eyes flaring. “I wouldn’t take that shit. Ever.”

  The weight of the truth in her gaze settled over me and a new kind of rage clung to me. Someone had drugged her on purpose? Who the fuck would do that?

  A few sons of bitches sprang to mind and I bit into my cheek. “Well maybe if you stopped hanging around with the most dangerous fuckers in school, it wouldn’t have happened. You do realise that Dante Oscura and Ryder Draconis are killers, don’t you? Do you really think either of them would be above drugging some girl and dragging her into the woods?”

  Her mouth fell open. “Oh now you’re telling me who to hang around with? What are you, my fucking father?”

  She gazed across the room then stormed toward her high heels which were discarded by the window. She snatched them up and I folded my arms.

  “You can’t leave, do you even know where we are?”

  She pushed her heels on and I didn’t act quickly enough. She flipped me the finger then sped toward the door in a blur.

  “No!” I roared, panic biting into my veins as she slipped through it and shot away with her Vampire speed.

  “Wait!” I bellowed after her as I flew into the corridor. But I’d never catch her like this. I turned back into the room, running for the skylight and wrenching it open.

  I spread my wings and launched myself out of it, kicking it shut as I swooped over the roof and circled around to gaze down at the streets.

  I spotted Elise as she shot to the corner of the street then paused. I dove toward her and she glanced over her shoulder before speeding away. My heart nearly combusted as she disappeared into the heart of Lunar Territory.

  Terror clawed through me as I swept over the rooftops in search of her. I refused to accept I’d saved her life just for her to die here in the darkest corner of Alestria. But if anyone in the Brotherhood caught her before I did, there was no way they’d let her go without her paying in blood.

  I shot away down the road at full speed, refusing to stop until the spinning in my head almost made me fall and I was forced to grab hold of a low wall to steady myself.

  I looked around, frowning in confusion at the unfamiliar streets.

  Nausea pulsed through me and I scrunched my eyes shut as I tried to focus and regain my sense of balance.

  Fucking Gabriel with his fucking wings would be circling in the sky above me at any moment. And a girl with lilac hair wearing a shirt for a dress would be pretty easy to spot from a mile off. I needed to get back to the academy, but I had no goddamn idea where I was.

  I opened my eyes again, frowning at my surroundings and hunting for a sign of something familiar. I’d grown up in this city but there were plenty of dark corners which I’d never even visited and it looked like this was one of them.

  I groaned. My magic had been devoured by the Killblaze and the empty pit in my chest was making me almost as dizzy as the lingering effects of the drug.

  My mouth was hopelessly dry, my limbs shaking, I didn’t even think I could face another run with my speed. I needed blood. Like yesterday.

  I should have bitten my moody guardian angel before storming out on him.

  The wind blew along the street and I stilled as an SUV slowed as it passed me. I may not have known this part of Alestria well, but I did know that the city as a whole wasn’t a great place to be when you were fresh out of power, money and proper clothes. I didn’t even have my Atlas with me. Didn’t have anyone I could call anyway even if I had. Although as I thought that, my mind wandered to Leon and I smiled a little. He’d come for me, I was pretty sure. But I didn’t know his number by heart and had no way to contact him so that was less than useless to me anyway.

  “Fuck,” I breathed.

  My gaze lifted to the sky and I flinched back into the shadow of the building beside me as a winged figure swept overhead.

  My luck held as he failed to spot me and I waited as Gabriel flew away.

  “Asshole,” I hissed, turning my attention back to my surroundings. I needed to get off the streets before he circled back.

  I was so sick of listening to him going on about us being Elysian Mates and then following it up with a bunch of bullshit about that being the worst fucking thing that could happen to him. It was goddamn insulting. I wasn’t asking to be his forever, but he seemed to enjoy telling me he had zero intention of letting that happen. Like being bound to me for life was some hideous fate. Well fuck him. I wasn’t his and I never would be. And fate could suck my dick if it wanted to have any other say in the matter.

  I looked all around, wondering where the hell I should go. The road was lined with bars, most of which were closed due to the early hour, but a neon open sign flashed in the window of one further down the street.

  I headed straight for it, stumbling on my heels as pain shot through my skull. Fuck this feeling. Why the
hell people thought taking Killblaze was a good idea was beyond me. Yeah I’d laughed my ass off, I’d also been ripped open by the pain which lived in me, left vulnerable to a bunch of psycho cultists and had every drop of my magic devoured by the dark power of it. I was not at all tempted to repeat the process. In fact, the only thing it left me wanting was my bed. Like, right now would be great. But instead, thanks to fucking Gabriel, I was stranded in the middle of nowhere with no way of getting back to it.

  I made it to the door with the neon light, wincing against the vibrancy of the colour as I shoved it open and spilled inside. Literally spilled inside thanks to a wave of pain that crashed through my skull as I tried to make it over the doorstep.

  Someone caught my arm with a grunt of irritation to stop me from hitting the floor and I muttered a thanks as I glanced up at his face which was hidden beneath a scruff of brown beard.

  The guy stared at me like I was a fucking ghost or something and I pulled out of his grip as I set my gaze on the bar.

  The place was dark but big, most of the windows were closed off with wooden shutters and fires burned in several grates at the edges of the wide space. Dark leather chairs clustered around mahogany tables and I spied a few pool tables in a back room.

  There were people all over the place. Way too many to be normal for mid-morning on a Saturday. And more than a few of them were looking at me in Gabriel’s pale blue shirt and my stilettos like I hadn’t gotten the memo about the leather jackets and dark denim dress code. Their expressions said I didn’t belong. Which was fine by me because I wasn’t planning on staying. I just needed to borrow a cellphone.

  I closed my eyes for what I hoped was only a second as I took in a breath and tried to banish the pain in my skull just long enough to make it through this interaction. I opened them again and stalked towards the bar with intent, dropping onto one of the only empty bar stools and gazing at the bartender to try and catch her attention.

  Her back was to me, long, curling brunette hair hanging down to her ass. She was fiddling with the bottles lined up on a shelf and I drummed my fingers on the bar impatiently as I waited for her to turn my way.