“How do you know how old you are?” I asked in surprise, drawing her attention to me.
“We know our years because when we reach them, our lives changed. When I was sixteen, I no longer attended school but began helping out there, for example.”
That had me narrowing my eyes. “You went to school?”
“Yes.” She bit her bottom lip. “I imagine it was a lot different than your schools.” Her body twisted, arching back slightly. “I’ve never seen so many books. If you have to read all of those for your classes, then my schooling will definitely be lacking.”
“I didn’t mean to make you feel bad,” I rasped uncomfortably when I saw the misery in her beautiful amber eyes.
God, those eyes. They would haunt me forever. They were dark chestnut on the outer rim, but near the pupils, there were bright gold threads that danced around the small black circle.
They were enchanting, enough so that I felt like I could stare into them forever and never get bored.
Deep inside, I felt the gouille start to stir. He never stirred unless it was his day, but I knew I was destined to be what was called a Gargoyle now. Of all my souls, he was the dominant one. I didn’t need to wait until I was twenty-one to figure that out.
Sometimes that happened. Sometimes the soul was so beyond dominant that creatures knew what they were way ahead of schedule. In this case, if I hadn’t known for sure, his response to the girl told me loud and clear.
The creature wanted her.
I cleared my throat, relieved when the noise startled her and made her look away from me and back to Lori who was saying, “Well, you’ll pick up what you need to soon enough. We’re all equal when we come here, Eve, so there’s no need to worry.”
Eve smiled. “Thank you. I don’t have a specific date of birth, but June 21st is when I was due to turn eighteen.”
I shot Eren a frown who stared back, just as puzzled. “That’s your birthday then.”
She shook her head. “No. It was the day the women celebrated their next year.”
Stefan lifted a brow. “You had a communal birthday?”
She nodded. “Yes. The men celebrated their next year on December 21st.”
I snorted. “Solstices.”
Eve blinked. “I’m not sure what they are.”
Christ, what a weird-ass place she’d been.
I could tell Lori was on the same page, but she kept her tone bland while she instructed, “Eve, you’ll learn your way around soon enough. You’ll find everything you need in your room. If there’s something missing, you just let me know and I’ll get it for you.” She handed over the credit card we were all given on our first day at Caelum. “This is topped up once a month. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Your schedule starts the day after tomorrow to give you time to fit in and to figure out where things are. We run a tight ship here, and if you slack on your studies then you will be punished, and the card will be rescinded. Do you understand?”
“Of course. But…” Eve shoved the card back at Lori. “I don’t need this. Thank you, though.”
Lori shook her head. “It’s yours, Eve. Do what you want with the money. You may need things we don’t provide, and that’s how you will get them. The boys can explain how it works. You seem comfortable around them.” Her eyes twinkled. “Your computer and phone are in there as well. I think you may have to have a few lessons before you understand what they do.”
Eve bit her bottom lip and nodded. “Thank you, Lori.”
The housemistress waved a hand. “Only doing my job. Boys, show her to room three-six-four.”
Stefan nodded and tugged Eve down the corridor. Block A was closest to the teachers, and I knew that meant the faculty wanted to keep an eye on her. I didn’t have to wonder why. She was joining late, and that meant she was a wild card. A Joker. Who knew what she was capable of?
Few survived so long outside of the Academy. If we weren’t brought here before we were fifteen, most turned insane without outside help. The meds the humans gave us actually exacerbated our condition, infuriating the souls to the extent that more than one would become dominant, making the creature dangerous to the extreme.
Though Frazer and Reed had arrived here on the cusp of their fifteenth birthday, I wondered if that was why they were nuts. They’d been locked up and fed meds like they were veggies. It had to explain at least a few of their assholish tendencies, right?
Block A was loathed by most. No one wanted to be near the teachers, but it had the best view of the ocean, and Eve’s room was no different. She had a corner unit, which meant she had room for a bed and a sofa, with a picture window that I’d have given my left nut for.
My lips curved as I watched her take in her new home.
“This is all for me?” she whispered, wide-eyed, clinging onto Stefan’s hand as though her life depended on it. Sweaty palms or not. “Where’s my roommate?”
“No roommates. That’s why Caelum is so big. We don’t do well with sharing unless it’s with people we consider Pack. Packs can take years to develop,” I explained, watching her face and wondering what she was thinking.
“Pack?” Her head tilted to the side in confusion, even while she stared at the widescreen TV on the back wall of her new quarters.
“Yes. People we choose to be our family,” Eren told her, his gaze was as fixed on her as hers was on the TV. She wasn’t really listening though. I could tell she was more interested in her new home.
Eren reached for the remote and showed her how to turn on the TV, and then switch channels. She beamed a smile at him that made him flush.
It figured that he’d like Eve too. We were a Pack, after all. Alexandre was missing, but that was because he was in the med bay. After fighting with Reed, he’d been caught unaware earlier today. He’d probably wake up tomorrow and be as smitten as Eren looked to be where Eve was concerned. Maybe that would take his mind off getting back at Reed.
We wouldn’t officially declare our soul for years to come, but sometimes you just knew what someone was without them having to say a word. With Reed’s temper? He was a Hell Hound, and there was no mistaking it. Considering Frazer displayed all the signs of being a Sin Eater and Samuel, their third, a Vampire, it fit. Death would be their business when they graduated.
Our Pack, on the other hand, was more about the preservation of life. As a Gargoyle, or a gouille, I was a protector. As was Alexandre who I knew would be a Were. While Lorelei and Incubi weren’t renowned for their defensive abilities, they were enticers. They charmed and manipulated, drawing our enemies to us like magnets called to iron filings. Lorelei and Incubi could be destructive, but not to the extent of Frazer’s Pack. Though not the natural fighters that the Hell Hound, Sin Eaters, and Gargoyles were, they could and would call our enemies to us, while dealing with the danger they’d drawn their way with their skills.
“It’s beautiful,” Eve whispered, breaking into my thoughts as she placed the remote on a stand and trudged over to the view, dragging Stefan with her.
Eren shot me a look. “Are their hands glued together or something?”
My lips curled. “She’s not letting go, is she?”
“That doesn’t surprise me. They all love Stefan, but the fact that he isn’t trying to get loose?”
I understood Eren’s concern. Stefan was a player. He wasn’t interested in innocent little bits, no, but the chicks who were like him—experienced and ready to let their souls consume them. He and Dre were one and the same on that score.
Even as I wondered what Stefan’s end game was, I noticed the mark on his back. It hadn’t been there before, and I was used to seeing my brother’s half-naked body because we were the ones who worked out together, and I was used to scanning him for weaknesses that I could take advantage of in a fight.
“Fuck,” Eren whispered, apparently noticing the mark as well. How goddamn long had it been there? It couldn’t have been long otherwise Lori would have picked up on it, and shit would have really hit the fan.
“Stefan?” I called out, watching as he turned back to look at me.
“Yeah?”
“We have a problem.”
3
Eve
“Is something wrong?” I turned back to look at the boys, but they shut up the second I caught their eye. Instead, Eren tossed a shirt at Stefan. It had been tucked into his waistband, flapping down behind him, but I watched as Stefan, frowning at the others, grabbed a hold of the fabric then tugged it over his head.
“It doesn’t matter,” Nestor said, his smile tight. “Are you going to be okay now?”
Stefan argued, “No, we need to explain things to her.”
Eren shook his head. “We really don’t. Nicholas will handle that.”
“I don’t want him to,” Stefan growled, and his features tautened with an anger that had Nestor and Eren raising their hands in surrender.
The other boys looked surprised at Stefan’s aggression, and they looked even more surprised that I wasn’t cowering in the corner.
I wanted to snort at that. If Stefan’s growling was considered a temper, then they’d never have survived at the compound.
Some days, when my father was angry, I thought he’d burst the blood vessel that ticked on his temple. His rages were renowned among the congregation, and it was something Father Bryan made him repent and atone over repeatedly. It was also why we were stuck at the back of the church—punishment for his inability to control himself.
Self-control was, in Father Bryan’s creed, the epitome of Godliness.
The thought had my knees buckling, and I almost sank to the floor when relief hit me hard.
I no longer had to listen to that nonsense. No longer had to live my life like I was contained in a block of ice.
I was free.
Free to feel, free to live.
Until they learned the truth, of course, but until then, I’d have more of an existence than just the confined space of the compound.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Stefan rasped, grabbing me and helping me sit on the seat that was tucked under the large window. “I’m sorry I got mad, I—”
I shook my head at him then, as he crouched down in front of me, grabbed both his hands and whispered, “They won’t make me go back, will they?”
His eyes softened. Those beautiful blue gemstones gentled as he looked at me. “Never. This is where you belong now.”
I believed him.
I belonged here.
Even if I was replacing one cell with another, I could deal with that for the freedom I’d have in the interim.
I squeezed his fingers. “I didn’t know what a plane was. Had never been in a car. Those TVs are new to me, and I’m not even sure what a phone is.” I released a shaky breath. “How am I going to live in this new world?”
I had no idea why I was telling him this. Had no idea why I was sharing my weaknesses with a boy I’d only just met, one who looked like he belonged in a really good dream rather than existing for real. There were two more in here, two other dream boys who I didn’t know, but I had no one to trust, no one to share this with and they were here, and perhaps they’d be my friends if I just asked them to be?
Friends weren’t something I’d ever allowed myself before. But these boys were like me. They’d endured the same as I had, and Stefan looked at me in a way that made me feel safe.
I had never felt the luxury of that before, and if it made my tongue loosen up, then I wasn’t about to hold it back. Surely, I was allowed some break in my control, some small freedom?
“You take it day by day,” Stefan told me, his hands tight on mine. I could feel some calluses on his palm, and they rubbed against my skin in a delicious way. “We’ll help you. Won’t we, guys?”
I looked at the others and saw from their frowns that his words troubled them, but they nodded. I wasn’t sure why I did it. Whether it was me or the soul who was in charge, but I freed one hand from Stefan’s and held it out to them. Eren shot Nestor a look, one that spoke of their shared unease, but they stepped closer. Nestor took a seat beside me on the chair and cautiously accepted my hand.
As our fingers entwined, something settled deep inside me. Again, that feeling of safety swarmed me, and then Eren squatted down next to Stefan, breaking the thought process but making me feel better with his proximity as he rested his palm on the edge of my knee.
Surrounded by them, I released a shaky breath. “Will you tell me what we are?”
Stefan’s shoulders drooped slightly, Eren’s too as they both sat back on their butts. With their knees raised in front of them, they looked so large, so muscular that I kept on staring at parts that were definitely inappropriate to look at. If I’d been caught looking at a boy’s legs back home, I’d have been whipped.
The thought made my throat tighten up, but equally, inside, I let loose a joyous cry.
I was free.
When no one spoke, I bit my lip and shot them pleading looks. I didn’t mean to manipulate them, but waiting until tomorrow for Nicholas to share this information with me would be pure torture.
Caving first, Nestor cleared his throat and, squeezing my fingers, said, “There are seven of them. It’s difficult to say why one becomes dominant and another doesn’t.” He shrugged. “No one has ever really figured it out before, mostly because it doesn’t matter. We are what we are, and we embrace that.”
“I can handle that.” I shot him a small smile. “I’ve never allowed myself to just be, so that will be a luxury.”
His brow puckered and his fingers tightened to the point of pain around mine, but he simply stated, “Girls are different than boys. We usually know what we are when we hit eighteen. There might be some discrepancy that has us unsure, but mostly we know.”
“Why don’t girls?”
He shrugged. “Why is the sky blue?”
I gnawed on my bottom lip. “Okay. I get that. It’s unfair, but most things are, I think.”
The three of them snorted at that, and I was rather pleased that I’d amused them, even if it was only in a small way.
“The unfairness gets worse. Boys come here when they’re fourteen. Girls at thirteen. You usually need more training than we do.”
“Why?”
“You’re hotheads. Boys tend to be more controlled. Have things under a tighter wrap.”
I frowned at that. “Is a hothead someone with a temper?”
“Yes.” Eren grimaced. “Mostly, it’s someone who can’t control themselves. Who is weak-willed in some way.”
Well, that didn’t describe me, but then I was a product of my environment. If I’d been weak-willed, I wouldn’t have survived until my seventeenth year on the compound.
Survival forged us, made us weak or strong. In my instance, I wasn’t weak. I knew that like I knew my name was Eve.
“Are women like us born hot-headed?” I asked with a frown.
“Usually,” Nestor confirmed. “The books say that girl babies are fussier than boys.”
My lips pursed at that. “Well, isn’t that kind of them?”
Nestor laughed a little. “I’m only telling you what I know.”
“Why, though?”
“How long is a piece of string?” he countered with a shrug, and I stared at him.
“I don’t know. How long is a piece of string?”
He snorted. “That’s the point. We don’t know. Some things are just ingrained us. Why does Stefan have blond hair and I don’t?” Another shrug. “It’s in our genetics.”
Genetics. I thought about that word, thought about the definition, and remembered that it had been blotted out with a black pen in the dictionary. Some words were. I’d never understood why, had never bothered to question it, but now it made me wonder if those words went against the New Order’s rules.
I made a mental note to find a dictionary and for that word to be the first one I looked up.
Eren patted my knee. “Your soul will probably reveal itself close to graduation.”
“You know what you are?”
“Yes.”
“How?” I tilted my head to the side. “Do you choose?”
“No. It’s selected for us.”
“By who? God?” I queried, my brow puckering with disquiet.
“No. It’s just another one of those questions that we don’t have answers to. It seems to be completely random, but I’m sure there’s a pattern that we just haven’t seen yet,” Eren told me, his voice steady, his eyes calm. As I looked at him, I felt that calm down to my marrow.
“Okay,” I replied, knowing he had no reason to lie to me. Blinking at Stefan, I asked, “So, which are you then?”
“I’m either Lorelei or Incubus.”
Eren stated, “They’re similar. Both are emotional souls that can tempt and entice…” He hesitated. “Humans.”
“Okay, so what do they do? How do they tempt and entice?” I thought about the words and tried to fit them to the souls I’d been living with for over six years. Which was which?
“Don’t you know by now?” Nestor rasped, making me hesitate.
“I don’t know what either means so I can’t say. I can imagine, but I don’t know the difference. There’s one day when my voice can make men do whatever I want. Then the next, they look at me like I’m a large meal and they’re starving.”
The boys shot each other wry glances, but it was Eren who spoke, “You pinpointed the Succubus and the Lorelei. An Incubus is a boy; a Succubus is a girl. She’s the one that makes the men look at you that way. That’s the soul in control today, isn’t it?”
My cheeks heated. “Yes.”
His smile was teasing. “Don’t worry. We’re used to it.”
That didn’t make me feel better.
“Oh,” I croaked. “Good, I suppose.”
They snickered together, but it wasn’t meant to be cruel.
Nestor said, “The voice one, that’s the Lorelei. The difference between the two is that the Lorelei can use their voice to make a human do whatever they want. If they’re powerful enough, they can even make creatures move at their command.”
I thought about how Merinda had sung a song, and the entire compound had fallen asleep.
Seven Wishes: The Caelum Academy Trilogy: Part ONE Page 6
