That was the definition of power, I felt sure.
“The Incubi and Succubi are different. They call to humans and creatures alike with their bodies.”
“Why?”
“That’s how they feed.” Nestor hesitated. “You know what sex is, right?”
I cleared my throat. “Sort of. I read the dictionary when I was bored. You mean gender, yes?” Ironically enough, that hadn’t been blacked out.
Eren winced. “No.” He cleared his throat. “Sex is gender, but it’s also something men and women do to make babies.”
I wanted to pull my hands back to cover my face as mortification hit me that I didn’t know this, something that Lori, the housemistress, had talked about as easily as breathing.
The boys did too.
Had they done it?
“In some cultures, it’s what happens on the night of your wedding,” Stefan explained, and I realized that was what my mother had told my sister. Don’t fight it. Just let it happen.
I wasn’t sure what she’d meant, and I knew Angela hadn’t either. She’d blinked in confusion, and the next day when I’d seen her, she’d walked stiffly… did that mean sex hurt?
“O-Okay. What does sex have to do with being a Succubus or an Incubus?”
The three of them shot each other looks, but it was Stefan who, with a husky voice, eventually explained, “Sex can create powerful emotions. Those emotions nourish that particular soul.”
I had many questions, but I could tell they were uncomfortable. Perhaps there were answers in the books in the library… or perhaps this was some of the information they explained in the classes here. I hoped so. I wanted to understand, needed to, but I’d settle for small doses at the moment. They’d be easier to swallow.
“Okay, so what are the others?”
I could sense their relief that I was moving on and wondered at it. Was it for my benefit? I kind of hoped it was. At least it meant they were looking after me, even if it was only in a small way.
“I’m a gouille,” Nestor explained. “Or a Gargoyle. We’re sentinels. We protect and watch over people.”
“What makes you a Gargoyle?”
“Even though I know what I am, I won’t be able to fully turn until I’m twenty-one and have graduated.”
“Why?”
“Because only upon graduation can we cross through the gates.”
“And that matters?”
“Yes. It’s a portal. Just like how you can speak in tongues, it will enable you to be your true self in all the ways that a creature is meant to be.”
There was so much there that I didn’t understand, but I decided to move on with the conversation and make mental notes for later. “And what will happen to you when you cross through the portal?”
“There are other races like me. The Hell Hound and the Weres. We can all turn into another animal.”
My eyes widened, and I pulled back, but Stefan and Nestor’s hands never relinquished their hold on mine, and I found that I liked that. “You can change form?”
“Yes. A Were could be any animal on Earth. Just as the soul decides that’s the dominant creature, it will decide upon the animal too.”
“That’s…” Words failed me and considering I thought of words as my only weapon, that irked me to no end. “Awesome.” Even that felt too weak an adjective, to be honest.
Nestor’s lips twitched like he knew I was bewildered by what he was saying and he was trying not to smile at me. “I’m different, though. They will have an animal. Me? Not so much. I will have hardened skin. It will be close to leather, very difficult to penetrate with a blade or a bullet. Gouilles are protectors, and they’re built to stand guard for days on end. That’s why they protect buildings. You can see them all over Caelum. They’re on roofs and on the stone moldings on the facade of an edifice.”
I remembered the stone monsters that decorated the front door of the Academy. “You’ll turn to stone?”
The curve of his mouth deepened. “No. My skin will just get tougher.”
“More like impenetrable,” Eren commented.
Nestor conceded that with a nod.
“What do the Hell Hounds do?”
“Well, they work with another creature—the Sin Eater.”
My eyes widened. “Do they eat sins?”
Stefan laughed. “You got that, huh?”
“Sins as in the acts that corrupt eternal souls? Or…?”
“They eat actual souls. Corrupted ones.” Stefan shot Eren a look before he cleared his throat. “They’re basically our cops. Hell Hounds work with them as a team.”
“There are days when I feel like my skin is too tight… which soul is that one?”
They frowned at me, but Stefan asked, “Do you feel angry on those days?”
“Sometimes.”
“When that happens and you’re angry, it’s a Hell Hound day. If you feel…” Nestor pursed his lips. “I guess, when you feel like you want to corral everyone you care about, make sure you can watch over them, that’s a gouille day.”
“And a Were day?” I inquired. “That the one where you want to just run and run?”
They all nodded, and it relieved me that even if I had an eighth soul, everything else was in working order. To a degree, at any rate.
I gnawed on my bottom lip. “Why do they change each day?”
“So that they can stretch their legs, basically,” Eren explained softly. “How will they know which is the strongest if they’re always contained?”
“Good point.” Pulling my hand from his so I could reach up and rub at my temple, I murmured, “Thank you so much for explaining.”
They smiled at me, and it felt like the sun had just burst out from behind a wall of clouds. It felt good to be encompassed by them and even better to be with them. They were strangers, and yet I felt safer amongst them than I had with my own family.
Stefan squeezed my fingers. “There’s a lot to learn, and you’re older than most new students so you’ll be behind for a while, but we’ll help out.”
“You will?”
He stared into my eyes like I was a pool of water that he wanted to dive into. “I’ll do anything for you, Eve.”
“Why?”
He reached up with his free hand and rubbed his chest. “I think you know.”
Did I?
My cheeks burned again. “Are we kin?”
Nestor snorted and Eren laughed, earning themselves glares from Stefan. Before he could snap at them, though, Eren clambered to his feet and stated, “You should get some rest. The days start early here, and you’ll need some time to get acquainted with things.”
Stefan squeezed my fingers again. “You’ll meet Alexandre soon. He’s one of our friends.” He pulled a face. “He got into a fight and…let’s just say it didn’t work out so well for him.”
“Is he okay?” I questioned, concerned.
“He’s fine.” He shot me a gentle smile then leaned over until he was in my space. He scented of fresh air, a salty sweat that wasn’t overwhelming like the men at the compound after they’d been doing heavy lifting, and a sweet smell that was like a perfume. The scent made me frown because it was delicious. Fresh and zingy, even though I’d seen the gleam on his body that spoke of his having been ‘training’ before he’d come to guide me around.
I looked up into his eyes as he hovered above me, but I wasn’t nervous like before. Stefan meant me no harm. When he’d touched his chest, I’d felt the pang in my own. Whatever we were, family or two people meant to be friends, he wouldn’t harm me.
He moved to press his lips to my temple after a moment’s hesitation. The gesture had me closing my eyes at the silken feel. When he backed away, it surprised and saddened me because he smelled so good.
I turned and saw Nestor standing there with my hand still in his. It surprised me when he did the same, kissed my other side, but I didn’t pull back. It was a gentle gesture. A soft one that made me feel, of all things, protected. Stupi
d, perhaps, but it did.
“Good night, Eve.”
“Night, Nestor.” To Eren, who was hovering over by the door to my room now, I whispered, “Night, Eren.”
His smile was taut, and I knew he was relieved to be getting out of there.
When the three boys, well, men—I discerned the difference now after feeling their touch on me—left my room, I sank back against the window. The cool glass felt good against my body, and I wished it was cooler. I felt like I had a fever. Like I was overheating from the inside out.
Gnawing on my bottom lip, I let my gaze drift around my new room. It was nothing like my other bedroom at the cabin. I’d shared that with my brother and sister until they’d both been of age and had married, leaving the cabin for ones of their own.
Was it terrible that I didn’t miss my parents? Not even my siblings?
We hadn’t been close because I’d never been able to be close to anyone. Not since I was eleven, anyway.
It saddened me that the only thing I felt was joy at being away from those who had purported to love me, even as they’d planned to marry me off to the leader of our people.
With a shaky sigh, I got to my feet and walked toward one of two doors. When I pulled open the first, I saw clothing. The fabrics were in bright colors with a strange stretch when I plucked at them. On the floor, there were shoes like the boys had been wearing. They were wide-toed, made from a material with holes in them, with a kind of spongy sole. The clothes made me blush because there weren’t many layers to them. I just hoped they fit.
It was a relief to close that particular door, and when I opened the next one, I gaped at what I saw.
The room was the size of my bedroom back at the cabin. Where the outhouses had always been at the property line to avoid the smell, relieving oneself had always been a grim chore.
Here?
This was a marvel.
I peered at the different facilities, pushing buttons here and turning handles there. I soon realized that one was for waste, while the other was for washing. Then there was a large one for bathing that I assumed was for me to stand beneath.
The water was cold, but if I turned it to the red part of the handle, it warmed up as if by magic.
It was silly, I supposed, to be frightened of this room. As much as I was amazed, I was also taken aback.
This room epitomized my new life.
This was the day to the night of before.
I had a steep learning curve coming my way, in more ways than just one.
❖
Eren
“Is it burning?” I asked, eying Stefan as he grabbed the back of the neckline of my shirt and dragged it over his head.
We’d made it back to my room without mentioning what we’d noticed back in Eve’s, but it had been hard. I knew I wasn’t the only one curious about what the hell was going on.
“Yeah. Like a motherfucker,” he ground out, peering over his shoulder to look into the mirror.
Rows and rows of text had appeared as if by magic on his back. Scored into his flesh, which was raised and bleeding, making me grateful my tee had been black and not white.
“It can’t mean what I think it means, can it?” Nestor murmured, staring at the words that took up half of Stefan’s spine in an endless scrolling italic font that made it very difficult to even read what it was intent on declaring.
“She’s my mate,” Stefan confirmed, his lips a flat line.
“How can she be? You know it doesn’t work that way,” I argued, even though my eyes weren’t deceiving me.
This was The Mark, after all.
What all males received once they’d met their Chosen.
I wasn’t sure whether to be jealous or happy for him.
For however long it took to get into Eve’s panties, that would be the only sex he’d be having. His cock was officially on lockdown. That was how it worked with Chosen males. They were tied to one woman and one woman only.
When I thought of that particular female, it certainly would be no hardship to be with her, but the time it was going to take to gentle her?
She hadn’t even known what sex was.
I could imagine her screaming if she came face to face with a cock. That wasn’t exactly going to put a guy in the mood, was it? And Stefan’s souls needed sex, so these next few months were going to be a real barrel of laughs.
Not.
“I felt it when I touched her.”
“Mates aren’t Chosen until graduation,” Nestor said softly, his eyes just as firmly fixed on the markings on Stefan’s spine as mine were.
“You’re telling me something I don’t know already,” Stefan grumbled, and I knew he was edgy because not only was he in pain, but he knew the ramifications of what had happened today.
“You’ll have to wear a shirt all the time,” I told him. “Otherwise they’ll never let you near her.”
He nodded, his mouth still set in grim lines. “I remember.”
“Who could forget?” I thought back to Cash and Jane who’d determined they were mates before graduation two years ago. They’d been practically cordoned off from each other.
We weren’t sure why. Not when sex was permitted between students so long as no one spent the night in another’s bed. It made no sense that casual sex was allowed but committed sex wasn’t. In fact, it was the exact opposite of everything I’d ever been taught.
I reached up and gripped his good shoulder firmly. “It will be okay.”
“Will it?” He sighed and bowed his head. “It’s annoying, but I’m not sad about meeting her.”
“She’ll change things,” Nestor commented.
“She will. But I guess I know what we are now. That’s something, I suppose.”
The fact that her Succubus had called to his Incubus meant they knew which of their souls would be dominant.
This wasn’t unheard of, not exactly, but what was unheard of was for a single touch to trigger the Choosing.
“What happened?” I queried, trying to understand how the impossible had gone down.
“You saw me,” Stefan argued. “It’s not like I did anything. I just held out my hand for her.”
“It must have been on her side,” Nestor reasoned. “Maybe she did something to you?”
Stefan snorted. “She isn’t a witch. Not that they exist anyway,” he dismissed, staring at the lines on his back before scowling at his reflection and grabbing the tee, then dragging it over his head. “I’ll bring this back when it’s clean, Eren.”
“No worries.” I cut him a look. “Want to work out?”
“Yeah, but my back’s on fire.” He grimaced. “I never realized it would hurt this bad.”
“Love is pain,” I teased, amused when he just glowered at me. “Wow, you’re delicate. Normally you’d have tried to slap the shit out of me for a joke like that.”
He blew out a breath. “Yeah, I am.”
“We’ll watch out for her, Stef,” I promised him softly. “There’s no need to worry about her.”
“Isn’t there? She’s from a cult, has no idea what an orgasm is, is years behind on her training, and somehow managed to trigger a mating bond by holding hands with me when it’s normally activated through fucking… You don’t think shit just hit the fan?”
I grimaced. “When you put it like that…”
“Yeah. Exactly.” He grunted. “I’m going to sleep. It should be healed by morning, which is a good thing. Tomorrow should be Hound day. I’ll be fighting more than I’ll be doing anything else.”
Hell Hounds had anger issues. Most classes on the theory of that soul’s beginnings were taken during the first year. After that, classes mostly consisted of beating the shit out of each other to manage the anger and the rage that was indicative of that soul’s identity.
When Stefan strode out of my room a few minutes later, I turned to Nestor. “Want to play a game?”
He shook his head. “I’m tired too.”
I scowled. “Did everyone
take a sleeping potion when I didn’t?”
Nestor snorted. “Don’t be stupid. My Vampire is in control.”
Oh. I winced. “You fed yet?”
He hated feeding. So did Stefan. It went against everything they believed in. Me? I didn’t care so much. But I liked the taste of blood. Shoot me.
“No.”
“Want me to—”
“No. You know it doesn’t work out of blood bags unless we’re ill.” He reached up and ran a hand through his hair. “I’ll try again tonight.”
I dipped my chin, well aware that if he couldn’t bite anyone after a day of studying and fighting, he’d end up passing out until tomorrow when he could eat a large breakfast.
When he’d gone, mumbling under his breath about hating bloodsuckers, I retreated to the shower. Stripping down, I moved under the spray even though it was cold, and grabbed a firm hold of my cock.
I’d been fighting a semi since I’d seen Eve’s big eyes batting up at Stefan and Nestor when they’d kissed her on the temple.
She was Stefan’s mate, but it was common for Packs to share females. Especially when both mates were Incubus and Succubus. Sometimes, it took a Pack to satiate both’s needs.
Shuddering at the prospect, I jacked off, thinking about Eve’s pillowy mouth, the innocence in her eyes. She was beautiful. Even beneath the shroud she wore, I knew she’d be curvy. Round. The thought made pre-cum slip from the tip of my dick.
Her skin was like porcelain, and her face had a pointed chin that surged into the sharpest cheekbones. Her golden eyes were beautiful traps that would ensnare any man in their hold. Her hair was fixed on her head in a bun, but I imagined it was long and would drape over her shoulders and down her back when released from its hold. I didn’t even know the color thanks to the headdress she wore and the netting that cupped it, but I longed to see it down and around her shoulders.
Biting my bottom lip as I thought about kissing her, about sliding my tongue against hers, bringing her into awareness from innocent to knowing, I felt my climax boil in my balls and surge forward to hit the shower wall.
I raised my hands and pressed them to the tiles, leaning forward to let the spray pound the back of my neck, and I blew out a breath.
Seven Wishes: The Caelum Academy Trilogy: Part ONE Page 7
