“Anyway, we went there, and my souls behaved for once. I think it’s because I was free. I was out on the water as much as I could be, and only came in for food and to sleep.
“She bought me a key ring,” he said with a smile. “It was only a crappy little thing. A picture of the beach in a plastic case on one side, a picture of me and her on the back.” He shrugged. “Took it with me everywhere, though. Even surfing as I got older. Put it in this little plastic pocket thing I’d wear around my neck. Got caught in a bad riptide though a year before I came here. Lost it. Lost the key ring. I wish I had that back.”
Surprised by the story, and surprised even more by the sentiment behind it, I asked, “To remind you of the beach?”
He shook his head. “To remind me of my mum that weekend. She died a few days later.”
My mouth dropped open. “What? How?”
Reed turned away from me, his gaze dropping to his hands. “When we got in the car to go home, my Hell Hound was in control. I didn’t know it back then, of course, but now I recognize the signs. I had a tantrum. Didn’t want to go back home to where I was confined. I-I threw something at her as we were getting into the car. Thought nothing of it, to be honest. She was used to that—I was a little bastard,” he admitted with a rasp, but I could see from the shaking of his hands, the tension he was under. “She set off, we got to a good speed, but the toy I’d thrown at her had lodged itself under the brakes.”
“You crashed?”
“Headfirst,” he confirmed. “I almost died myself. When I found out what happened, I wished I had. A few weeks later, dad dumped me in a facility and I barely ever saw him again before I came here. He blamed me, and…” He released a breath. “He was right to.”
I reached out, my hand covering his. “I’m so sorry, Reed.”
“Not your fault.” He shook his head in dismissal, but his hand turned and twined itself around mine. “I didn’t mean to get gloomy.”
No, he hadn’t. I could see that. He hadn’t spoken of his past to make me feel sorry for him. I could see that he hadn’t intended on discussing this at all! How? His cheeks were a blotchy color. Like his skin couldn’t decide on whether he should be pale from sorrow or bright pink from mortification.
He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I’d best go to the gym. You be sure to stand up to these bitches, yeah? There aren’t many females around, so they tend to get their own way too much. Don’t let them push you over or stir the shit.”
Before I could say another word, he was gone, but I was left thinking of what he’d told me.
When I turned back and looked over at Stefan, I saw Becky had gone but he was glowering at me. Well aware he’d seen me talking to Reed, I just shrugged and called out, “Free world.”
When he grumbled under his breath, I had to smirk.
Free will in a free world rocked.
❖
Nestor
A sigh of relief escaped Dre when he grabbed a hold of Stefan’s forearm and dragged it to his mouth. As he slurped up the blood, Eren and I turned our focus on the TV.
It wasn’t exactly an uncommon sight. Once we found our people, our Pack, we tended to feed in-house, or if we were fucking someone, then they’d be dinner too.
It was as necessary as breathing on the days when the Vampire held full sway, so we chilled, not thinking anything of it as Dre fed.
“I thought you said she was with Merry,” Eren mumbled a few moments later, breaking into my concentration as I watched a documentary on sea lions and how their colonies were too large for their territory now. Not because the colonies were growing but because their territory was shrinking.
My stomach churned at the sight, the proof of what we were doing to our world with our excesses—creatures included—and it took a few seconds to realize what he was even talking about.
When I turned my head and saw Eve was standing in the doorway, her nostrils flared as she watched Dre snack on Stefan who was lying back to facilitate the feeding while dicking around on his phone, I sensed her Sin Eater was in charge. Only two species watched. The Sin Eater and the gouille, and mine would have recognized hers. That it didn’t, told me which soul of hers was under control.
Or not, to be more precise.
Her eyes were wide, the bright gems glittering as she watched and assimilated the scene before her. I could tell that assimilation wasn’t a positive one and I had a feeling that was because it was Dre doing the feeding.
He hadn’t been awake that long but somehow, the tit had managed to alienate her to the max. I didn’t blame her either. Dre’s attitude made an armadillo look sexy. I spent half my time trying not to throat punch him as well.
“Eve?”
I whispered her name cautiously, trying not to startle her. She wanted to protect Stefan. I could sense that. But he didn’t need protecting—and then I thought about today. When she’d been in the library, and we’d been hanging out close by. Definitely not studying, and only there to keep an eye on her when Becky had walked up and had begun flirting with Stefan…
FML.
It was evident to us all that Eve didn’t realize she’d claimed Stefan. She didn’t have a fucking clue. But her souls knew. And it was her souls who would fuck Dre up if we weren’t careful.
She didn’t respond to my hesitant calling of her name, but her eyes flickered over to me and back to Dre. Stefan had tensed and was watching Eve warily, Eren, too, was eying her like a rattlesnake about to strike.
Dre ignored me like the dick he was, but I reached over and smacked him on the back of the head. “If you want to be on that plane the day after tomorrow, then back the fuck off,” I ground out.
He sneered at me as he wiped blood from around his mouth. “I’m still hungry.”
“You’ve been gnawing on him for a while,” I argued, my gaze still intent on Eve.
Female creatures were far more deadly when provoked than their male counterparts. We rarely let them do any of the heavy fighting, but when they were being antagonized as Eve was—Dre was now making a show of wiping his mouth and licking his lips—females would skin men alive if they saw the need.
And considering her Sin Eater was in session?
Dre needed to watch his back.
“Eve?” This time it was Eren who spoke. She didn’t move. Still hadn’t since the first time I’d seen her standing in the doorway.
That preternatural stillness had my gouille surging to the surface as arousal hit me hard. Everything about her was geared to mess with my head.
We’d already had several indications that she was dominant. Not only from the strength of her attack on Reed, but our souls bounced off hers—meaning we didn’t try to dominate her as we might have done if she’d been weak-spirited.
It made sense to think of her as easy prey because she was quiet and innocent from the way she’d been reared. But she wasn’t.
That much was evident now, and my gouille responded in kind.
I surged to my feet and headed over to her, hands raised as I cautiously approached her. “Eve? You rely on bags of blood, but that’s not healthy. We’re encouraged to take directly from the vein.”
It was a testament to just how special her circumstances were that Nicholas, the principal, and Lori, the housemistress who looked after the boarder rooms in the part of Caelum where Eve lived, were still allowing her to feed from the bags. They kept us barely nourished on our Vampire days, and it was imperative that she switch over to the vein soon.
Not that I was about to tell the pissed Sin Eater that right at that moment.
Her gaze flickered to me at last as some of my words began to penetrate the thick shell that overtook us when we were in this mode.
“Hurt. Him?” she rasped unevenly, and I saw a flicker in her eyes that made me think she was coming back to us.
Knowing that this had to be one of the first times she’d responded like this, I empathized with her fatigue. It took a shit ton out of us when our souls overwhelmed us.
/>
“No,” I comforted. “It’s natural for us.”
She shook her head. So slowly that it was painful to behold, but I knew to her, it would feel like she was whipping it back and forth. “Not. Natural.”
I made a fist with my hand. “All is well,” I reassured her, lying through my teeth at the same time.
I wasn’t surprised when she cut Eren a look, and knew that he nodded because some of the tension dissipated from her shoulders.
“Don’t. Like.”
“That much is evident,” Dre rasped. “Am I allowed to continue feeding now?”
“Fucking douche,” Stefan spat.
I closed my eyes, predicting what was about to happen before it did.
In less than a second, I was shoved out of the way like I didn’t weigh over two hundred pounds, and Eve leaped over the sofa, every ounce of her Sin Eater backing her, as she hurled herself at the man she thought was attacking her mate. The mate she didn’t even know she’d Chosen.
Fuck, could this get more confusing?
Dre’s eyes flickered in surprise—the dick had a habit of underestimating her—before he was rammed back into the floor with a thud that had even me wincing as every single one of his bones connected with the hardwood.
When her hands went to his throat, he began to scrabble at her hold but she wasn’t budging.
Stefan rushed to his knees and peered down at them both on the ground, but none of us tried to help Dre. Not when he deserved the punishment Eve needed to give him.
If she took things up a notch, then we’d put a halt on things, but maybe losing some oxygen would get Dre to smarten up. The bastard seriously needed to get with the program.
She’d pinned Dre to the ground and her pelvis was flush with his belly in a way that made me think of her on top of me. Holding me in a similar way, but without the intent to murder on her mind.
When Eren elbowed me in the side, I grunted and stared down at my hard-on. He glowered at me. “Stop that. You think she’ll calm down with your hormones in the air?”
Because he wasn’t wrong, I thought of the nightmares that kept me awake at night, nightmares that were based on reality.
As expected, remembering being exorcised made my cock sink to half-mast.
“Loathe. You,” Eve growled all of a sudden, and her hands tightened around Dre’s neck to the point where he wasn’t just choking for air but practically suffocating.
Stefan was nearest so I let him touch her. Plus, he was her mate, so that should calm her down some. When his hands cupped her shoulders, before running down over her arms, she shuddered and I instantly saw the strain in her muscles dissipate.
“Hurt. You?” she whimpered, turning her head to the side so she could press her face into Stefan’s throat. When she inhaled his scent, the move had me thinking about Padre Jimenez once more because it was either that, or get another hard-on.
“No. I promise, sweetheart,” Stefan swore, and Dre began to wiggle out from under Eve’s surprisingly tight pin.
She’d evidently been watching the rings while she worked out—something that shouldn’t come as a shock considering how bored she was in the gym.
When she relented and sat up on her knees, Dre shot out and backed off to the other side of the room. Because he was a dumb fuck, he didn’t leave, just sat there glowering as Stefan turned her into his arms and embraced her.
That it was their first true hug was just a bittersweet symphony. I saw the longing on his face, read it as easily as Eve read her books.
Whether she knew it or not, Eve had just set a timer on her freedom.
There was no way, no how, that Stefan was about to let them carry on the way they were.
She’d Chosen him and the time would soon approach where she’d have to Claim him too.
9
Eren
“She’s finally picked up on how to use her phone,” I told Stefan gently, whispering the words so Dre wouldn’t hear.
He had a hard-on for Eve, and not in a good way either. I’d never seen him dislike someone so much, and it was starting to piss me off.
Sure, she was a bit of a calamity. Never knew how shit worked, asked questions at the wrong time, and had all three of us panting over her ass no matter how she tried to cover up with our shirts, but she was…
Well, she was Eve.
Our Eve.
I reached down and gently stroked my fingers through her hair. It wasn’t like her to nap, but she was asleep now with her head on my lap. That she trusted me was a given, because I felt the same way about her—it was why I’d told her about my mother’s baklava, why I’d told her about my sister. She didn’t judge, didn’t expect me to be something I wasn’t. She was a dose of softness in a hard world, and I wasn’t about to lose that. Not when I was only just starting to figure out how much I’d needed that.
Needed her.
Hell, we all did.
So, even though I needed to use the bathroom and wished I’d gone before Nestor had trundled off to his own bedroom, I wasn’t about to leave her with just Stefan and Dre.
Stefan was a volatile SOB thanks to his Incubus, and Dre knew exactly which buttons to push. He’d say something to piss Stef off, then he’d stomp away leaving Eve alone. I could imagine Dre waking her and telling her something mean, and I wasn’t about to let that happen.
I’d already noticed his whip-sharp tongue was honing itself on her, and though I tried to temper it, each time he struck, it hurt her.
She hurt.
And so did I.
Staring at the game on the TV, I waited until Dre mumbled, “I’m going to bed.”
“See you in the morning,” I replied.
Stef just grunted at him, his attention on the game. The second the door closed though, he paused the game and turned to look at her. “Is she okay?”
I wondered if it angered him to see her so comfortable around me, but he didn’t seem angry. If anything, he just looked concerned.
It sucked that he had to hide that concern around Dre.
I didn’t know what the fuck was running through Dre’s head, but he was pushing us all away because of Eve.
“I think so. I think she’s just tired.”
He shook his head. “She freaked out earlier.”
“Understandable.”
“Was it?” He scowled. “I don’t think so. It can’t be the first time the Sin Eater has come out to party, not with how long she’s been here now.”
“No, but it’s the first time it’s taken over her.”
He conceded that with a grimace as he reached over and rubbed a strand of her hair between his fingers. I understood the fascination. It was like satin, and the more you touched it, the more you wanted to.
Everything about Eve was tactile, and in a world where touch wasn’t appreciated, where it was actively avoided, she was unusual. And I was fucking grateful for that.
“We should put her to bed,” he suggested softly, his eyes on her hair.
“I think she’s comfortable where she is.”
“You can’t sleep like that.”
“I’ve slept in worse places.” I shot him a stark smile. “We both have.”
“Not for a long time, brother,” he said softly.
“Well, it won’t kill us for one night.”
He nodded and within seconds, he’d switched off the console and TV, plunging the room into darkness.
“What’s going on with Dre?”
“Fuck if I know. He’s being a dickhead.”
“He’s being more than that.”
Stefan grunted. “Think that’s why she reacted badly today?”
“I don’t know.” Sin Eaters were one of the easiest souls to deal with here. We were safe from the sinners and from those who preyed upon them in Caelum. Her reaction had stymied us until we figured it wasn’t the Sin Eater but the woman who was terrified.
It had taken us a ridiculous amount of time to figure that out since we were all used to blood. Onc
e a week, we had to consume it, and she was no different.
Or so we’d thought. I’d hoped she’d stopped relying on the bags of blood, but we’d had our answer tonight.
She was still dependent on them, even though they provided her with zero nourishment except for scratching the itch the Vampire had.
“Sleep. Nothing we can do for her until tomorrow dawns and another soul takes its place.”
He grunted but didn’t deny I was right. Still, both of us were thinking about her reaction to seeing Dre feed from Stefan earlier.
It wasn’t like they’d been doing anything wrong, but the way she’d freaked out it was like they had. She’d turned white as a sheet before promptly passing out, and had been on the couch with us ever since.
Nestling into the headrest and using it like a pillow, I thought of the doors I’d slept huddled in, the benches I’d lain on in the evenings I’d run away from home to escape another beating, all before I’d been brought to Caelum by Damon, and was grateful that I was here, in the warm room, with a comfortable sofa at my back, a brother to my left, and Eve nuzzled into me as though I was the only thing keeping the nightmares at bay.
Though getting any rest some nights was impossible, with her here, my brother too, it was no wonder I slept, no wonder that I woke up either when the early morning sun slipped in through the window. Nature’s alarm call worked its magic on me as pink striations blossomed through the dawn sky, and when I groaned a little at not having moved the whole night through, I felt Eve’s head shift on my lap.
“Thank you for not moving me,” she rasped, half-asleep like me. She shifted down so that her head was still on the sofa but I could wriggle some life into my legs. Ridiculous, wasn’t it, that I missed the weight of her, the warmth of her, so close to me.
Seven Wishes: The Caelum Academy Trilogy: Part ONE Page 18
