by Katie May
“I feel like ET’s love baby,” I murmur to Barret, who is crouching beside me. The green sludge sticks to my fingers like some sort of fucked up super glue.
“You’re still cute though,” Barret assures me, and I can’t help but flash him a happy smile. Ladies and gentlemen, get yourself a boogeyman in your life. Even when you’re covered in green slime, he’ll make you feel beautiful and treasured.
“Thanks, Boo Bear,” I say, leaning forward to peck him on the cheek. Immediately, crimson rushes to his face, and he ducks his head with a chagrined, almost bashful, smile. Turning away from him, I focus on the cemetery in the distance, the dark slabs of cement shrouded in a light, gray mist.
The rest of my guys surround a very lifeless looking Violet. I dressed her in my Academy-issued red shirt and shorts and tied a fake flag around her left wrist. From this distance, I can’t see her dazed eyes or the numerous scars marring her porcelain skin. Hopefully, that means Cheryl won’t be able to see them either.
“Let’s finish this,” I whisper darkly as the group steps over the unofficial line marking the end of our barrier. On cue, Cheryl, Alex, and a dozen other monsters crowd around us, hideous sneers distorting their features.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Cheryl’s shrill voice carries in the wind, reaching me where I huddle behind an overgrown bush. “The little slut and her merry gang of fuck-ups.”
“I’ll show you ‘little slut,’” I mutter beneath my breath, bracing myself for a fight. Barret places a calming hand on my shoulder and gives it a reassuring squeeze.
Taking a deep, fortifying breath—rebuilding my previously shattered defenses—I focus once more on Cheryl with a clinical detachment. I can’t think about her as the bitch who banged my men or the girl who kissed Vin. I can’t think about her as anything other than my enemy. With a clear head, I allow my gaze to wander over her, stopping briefly on the flag tied around her ankle. It almost appears to be a sock—which was no doubt her intention.
“Give us the flag, Vinny Poo,” Cheryl cajoles, sauntering a step closer. My men close around Fake Violet, obscuring her from view.
“Choke on dick,” Vin responds tersely, and he better not mean his dick, or else I’m going to stab a ho.
She pauses abruptly a few feet away, eyes narrowing into thin, unforgiving slits. “Why are you protecting her?” she hisses.
Before Vin can respond—and hopefully, declare his undying devotion for me—Alex removes himself from the throng of students, head canted to the side. He closes his eyes briefly before reopening them and focusing on my hiding place.
“It’s a diversion,” he snaps, grabbing Cheryl’s arm to pull her backwards. “That’s not Violet.”
Before their group can make it more than four steps, the ground rumbles and then the graveyard explodes with a bang. Monsters sail through the air in every direction at the intensity of the detonation.
“Hell, yes!” I jump to my feet and fist-pump the air. Frankie offers me a cheeky wink from where he still stands with the others, and a burst of laughter escapes me unbidden.
I spot Cheryl up ahead, groaning, and I skip forward feeling significantly lighter than ever before.
“Violet, let me do it, dammit!” Vin protests when I stop above the simpering redhead.
“It’s the twenty-first century, baby.” I wink at the glowering hunter before bending down and untying the flag from her ankle. “The ladies are leading.”
Before I can celebrate my win, a leg kicks out and knocks me onto my ass. I blink rapidly, attempting to orient myself, as Cheryl throws a punch at my jaw. My head reels to the side as she straddles me, her knees on either side of my hips.
“I’ll take that,” she says cheerfully as she grabs first her flag and then my flag I had wrapped around my ponytail.
With a grace and agility fitting her dainty size, she jumps to her feet and saunters over to where Alex is now standing. All they need to do is bring the two flags to Mummy and they’ll win the game.
I cannot let that fucking happen.
“…shove my fist right up her Egg McMuffin,” I murmur darkly, eyes spewing vitriol.
“Violet, please stop talking about fisting my ex.” Vin moves to stand beside me and places a restraining hand on my shoulder. I don’t know if he’s attempting to pull me towards him or keep me from lunging after Cheryl fucking Ness, and frankly, I don’t care.
“I’m gonna Happy Meal that bitch,” I announce snidely, shrugging off Vin’s arm and charging forward. There’s nothing more dangerous than a girl on a mission.
There’s nothing more dangerous than a vampire out for blood.
With a burst of vampire speed, I ram my shoulder into Cheryl’s legs, knocking her off her feet. She lands on her ass with an audible thump, and I can’t help my grin of satisfaction. That smugness turns into annoyance when Alex touches my shoulder, prepared to spin me around.
“Dude, you’re going to leave a mark, and I don’t like them in any non-sexual context,” I hiss, kicking my left heel back and jamming it into his kneecap. He releases me with a pained groan, and I take advantage of his momentary lapse of concentration to reach down and grab both flags. “Poor little Alex,” I taunt as I begin to walk backwards.
He’s still keeled over, but his eyes are fixed firmly on me, watching my retreat. Pure hatred emanates back at me, barraging my senses. It hangs like a palpable entity over both of our heads, reminding me eerily of a guillotine. You lie there awaiting your inevitable fate, unable to see anything but the blade glinting overhead. All you can do is wait for it to fall.
The wind stirs his pitch-black hair as his eyes cloud over. It’s like a cauldron of ink being spilled. Slowly, painstakingly slow, the black devours the whites around his eyes until I’m staring into pure darkness. He lifts his hand, and the mist gliding over the gravestones gradually recedes.
“Oh, shit,” I murmur, peering over my shoulder at the other guys. They’re far enough away to be unaware of my predicament, busy fighting off the remaining monsters who weren’t rendered unconscious by the blast.
A crackling sound has my attention diverting to one of the graves. As I watch, horrified, a pale, gnarled hand breaches the freshly strewn dirt, followed immediately by a second. I spin in a circle, terror raging through me, as more and more hands appear. Those hands are followed by skeletal heads and lean bodies.
Necromancer.
Alex is a fucking necromancer.
One of the skeletons grabs my ankles, and another wraps his bony arms around my stomach. One, I could take out. Maybe even five. But two dozen? All grabbing at me and pulling me to the ground? Fuck, no.
“Poor little vampire,” Alex tuts, leaning over me with a malicious smirk.
“Let me go and fight me yourself, you coward,” I hiss as a rough hand grabs at my blonde ponytail, yanking it backwards. “Don’t be a cock. I would’ve said pussy, but let’s be honest… Which one is actually stronger?”
Alex continues to smile, unperturbed by my taunts.
The knobbly hands continue to paw at me, pulling me towards a fresh patch of dirt near the opposite end of the cemetery.
This fucker is trying to bury me alive! Not cool.
I try another tactic, wrenching my face away from one of the hands attempting to cover my mouth. “Wait! Please, wait! You don’t have to do this. I know you hate Dracula and everything—”
“Dracula?” Alex raises a pierced eyebrow. “I don’t have a problem with him.” He takes a step closer until his silhouette blocks out the steadily rising sun. He’s all I see, all I hear. He consumes the entirety of my senses. “It’s you I hate.”
“Me?” My words become garbled as one of the skeletons places his hand over my mouth. I attempt to bite down with my fangs, but release a pained cry when I hear a snap. Blood drizzles down my chin from my broken fang, and I try my damn hardest to hold back my tears.
As abruptly as the skeletons converged on me, they release me and crawl back towards
their respective graves.
Alex stands over me, panting, his eyes fixed on the lick of blood from my broken fang. His expression shutters as he bends down and grabs the two flags. Without a word, he strides across the cemetery to where Mummy is waiting.
“Violet!” Hux roars, and I turn my head just as he tosses a partially shifted mermaid into a gravestone in his effort to reach me. In quick strides, he hurries towards my side and tenderly cups my jaw. “Whom do I have to kill?”
“We lost,” I lament as somewhere in the distance, I hear Cheryl’s squeal of victory.
Vin and Mason join the huddle next, each covered in a layer of blood with their shirts ripped. Behind them, Frankie stands with an impassive expression on his face, his cold eyes flicking across my body until it rests on my bloody mouth.
“What happened?” Cal demands, stalking towards my other side with Barret hot on his heels. When he sees me, his face scrunches together in sympathy. “Ouch. That looks like it hurts like a bitch. At least you’re still cute.”
“Very cute,” Barret agrees, and I roll my eyes at their attempt to humor me.
“We lost,” I repeat again. That realization settles in my chest like a heavy ball of lead, intermingling with the tangle of nerves already present. “We lost, and Cheryl won.” I clench my hands into fists before slowly, carefully, raising myself to a sitting position. An idea occurs to me as I turn towards the gathered men. “It’s the universe deep-dicking us. If you can’t stop it, enjoy it. At least if the universe makes you preggo, you’ll get child-support from that bitch.”
Just because they won the battle, doesn’t mean they won the war.
I have one goal in life, and one goal only—destroy Alex and Cheryl, no matter the cost.
THE IDEA OCCURS to me when we’re all gathered around Mummy, after the first official training session for the Roaring has commenced.
Alex sits across the circle, sipping from a water bottle, and I nudge Barret inconspicuously with my elbow.
“Think you can do me a favor?” I ask, batting my lashes up at the tall, imposing man. Barret’s brows furrow in confusion before he follows the direction of my gaze. Understanding dawns as a mischievous grin—reminiscent of Mason’s—lights up his handsome face. “Maybe, instead of water, Alex can be drinking dead bugs?”
“I can do something even better,” he whispers, closing his eyes. I whip my head in Alex’s direction just as he begins to choke. His eyes widen in horror as his hands reach up to grab at his neck. To my macabre fascination, dozens of beetles crawl out of his mouth. The girl beside him screams and scatters, and the male on the other side vomits. A centipede slides out of first his left ear and then his right, followed immediately by a swarm of gnats. Dark liquid seeps from his eyes like tears of tar, solidifying into a collection of stink bugs, millipedes, and worms.
“You’re right,” I say to Barret, canting my head to the side as panic flitters across Alex’s handsome face. “This is better.”
As if he’s heard my words, Alex’s head snaps in my direction, eyes hurling vitriol and pure hatred. He looks seconds away from launching himself at me and wringing my neck. With a sly smile, I give him a finger wave that quickly transitions into me flipping him off. Maybe it’s stupid to poke the beast, but I’m done being bullied by this asshat.
I stare at Barret first, his face scrunched in concentration, before focusing on Cal, who is deep in conversation with Mason and Vin, one hand absently rubbing up and down Barret’s thigh. Hux sits on the other side beside Frankie. Alex may have the powers of the undead, but me? I have an army.
And I might not win the battles, but I always win the war.
Always.
CHAPTER 15
MASON
With a heavy sigh, I toss the joint on the ground and stomp on it.
She’s late.
A-fucking-gain.
Honestly, at this point, I should stop acting surprised. Mother dearest only cares about two things—her image and Zeus’s cock. She wouldn’t know love if it bitch-slapped her in the face.
In the distance, cresting the boughs of trees, is Prodigium Academy. It’s been my home for the better part of three years—my one escape from this hell I have found myself in. Behind those brick walls, I have made friends and created my own makeshift family. And I met Violet.
I chuckle darkly as I remember Butt Wipe’s face completely consumed by slimy bugs. The asshole deserved it for what he did to Violet. Fortunately, her fang grew back in less than an hour, but it still hurt her like a bitch. Any man who hurts Violet deserves that…and more. Alex is lucky she didn’t tell Hux the truth about her chipped fang. He would be six feet under with nails beneath each of his fingernails by now.
“It has been a long fucking day,” my mother exclaims as she materializes behind me, stalking forward. Her snakes cascade around her shoulders in a myriad of colors—red, orange, green, and even a few yellow. They slither and hiss as they set their eyes upon me, but fortunately, I don’t turn to stone. That would be a pain in my ass if I froze up every time I came into contact with my mother. She stops before me and air-kisses both of my cheeks. “Did you get my present?”
I clench my hands into fists and take another haggard breath. Externally, I’m calm and collected. Internally, my stomach is a tangled nest of nerves and anger, each strand more vicious than the snakes on my head.
“I did,” I say, moving to sit beside her on the stone bench. She smooths out her silver gown, glimmering like starlit silk, before sighing heavily.
“A mother only wants what’s best for her son—”
“I’m not severing the mate bond,” I cut in resolutely. I still remember the fury that pulsated through me when I’d entered my bedroom the day before Halloween to find that spellbook on my desk. It had been an ancient tome about mate bonds. More importantly, how to destroy one. The thought of purposefully doing that to Violet…
Revulsion courses through me, causing my body to shiver.
Yup, no thanks. Not happening.
“But the prophecy…” Mom pleads, and for a moment—for a painful, fucking moment—I think that her anguish is sincere. I think that she actually cares about what happens to me. But Mom? She has never cared about me. I’m the bastard child she never wanted, a reminder that she wasn’t good enough to be Zeus’s wife. I don’t know who my father is, and I don’t give a damn. I don’t really care about Medusa, either.
I care about Violet, and that’s it. She’s my mate, my other half, a puzzle piece that was created in the heavens to fill the emptiness constantly plaguing me. I know innately that Violet will never hurt me. The prophecy about Dracula’s daughter being my murderer is a hoax. There’s no way that crazy, eccentric girl will do anything to harm me. The only pain she’s capable of is of the broken-heart variety. She can completely destroy me, if she ever desires to. She holds my heart—or what remains of the tarnished organ—in her hands, and can either squeeze blood back into my system or crush it completely. The choice is hers.
“I’m done talking to you about this,” I say, getting to my feet and brushing off my slacks.
“We’re done when I say we’re done!” Mom hisses, eyes narrowed into slits.
“I’m curious…” As I speak, I begin to walk backwards. “What do you get out of my death? Why do you care so much?”
“I’m your mother—”
“You’ve never cared about that title before,” I point out, ignoring the rage that appears in my mother’s eyes. I hold up my fingers in a peace sign before swiveling on my heel and walking back in the direction of the school.
Mom’s voice stops me like an ice cube being rubbed up and down the nape of my neck. The hairs on my arms stand on end at her words. “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my son. Remember that.”
Before I can demand answers, she disappears in a flash of emerald green light.
I’M EXHAUSTED by the time I finally make it to the cafeteria for breakfast. Mom’s warning plays on a continuous loop
in my head. Was she…was she threatening Violet? My mate?
I shake my head vigorously at the preposterous notion. Surely, she meant something else entirely, right? She loves me enough not to hurt my kind-of-girlfriend.
Even I struggle to believe that.
Violet’s already at the table with Vin when I arrive. My heart warms at seeing the two of them together. I’m grateful they were able to work out their issues. Hopefully, their rekindling relationship means Vin will stop being an egotistical asshole.
One can only hope.
“Hey!” Violet enthuses when she sees me. Her smile disappears when she catches sight of my expression. “What’s wrong? Do I have to maim or kill anyone? Or both? Give me a name. I’m pretty adept at hiding a body.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Vin scoffs, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. It’s a surprisingly…intimate move, as if he’s laying his claim on her for the entire world to see. “You don’t need to do that by yourself. I’ll help.”
“You’ll help me murder and hide a body?” Violet breathes, staring up at him with fuck-me eyes. My cock twitches in my pants, and I have the irresistible urge to lay her over the table and pound into her slick heat. There’s something about my girl talking about murder that drives me crazy.
“Of course.” Vin shrugs nonchalantly, and I swear Violet nearly faints from ecstasy.
“Slut,” Cheryl fake coughs from a few tables over. I notice that Alex sits beside her, though his attention is fixated on Violet, expression unreadable. I really need to figure out what that guy’s problem is. Or kill him.
Either option is appealing.
Violet turns towards Cheryl lazily, a hint of mischief in her smile. She grabs Vin’s shirt collar and pulls him towards her, kissing him fiercely. Vin doesn’t hesitate to kiss her back, wrapping one arm around her waist while the other tangles in her blonde curls. She pulls away from him seconds later, lips already swollen, and turns towards me. Smirking at the little temptress, I close the distance between us and kiss her as desperately as Vin just had. I still taste the fucker’s saliva on her lips, but for some reason, that only amplifies my lust. When she finally releases my lips, she turns back towards Cheryl with a smug smile and offers her a middle finger.
