by Scott, Helen
I called on my runes to dull my senses. The magic shifted beneath my skin, coalescing under the tattoo on my ankle. I watched it glow slightly before the light faded, and all the colors in the world went with it, becoming a tenth of what they once were. It had the desired effect, though; I could no longer scent Marcella, nor the sex she and Cade had so clearly enjoyed.
With that taken care of, I pushed up off my bed, and strode out of my room. The scent was stronger out here, but it wasn't strong enough to trigger my jealousy. I knocked on Barclay and Raven's door, letting them know I was heading down to the training halls but got no response. Apparently, everyone except me was passed out.
I grabbed an apple off the top of the fruit bowl by the door, which was somehow always full, and headed out. When I got there I wasn't surprised to see Marcella and Lily were the only ones missing.
As though my thoughts had summoned her, Marcella came jogging into the training rooms from the direction of the dorms, her red hair flying out behind her like a flag in the wind. It wasn't tightly bound, which was how she usually wore it while training, and the slight flush in her cheeks made her more beautiful than ever.
Her tight leather pants and black tank were paired with bracers that wrapped from her wrist to her elbow, the dark leather matching that of her pants. As she ground to a halt, looking over the other women that were training, I knew from the way her eyes scanned the crowd that she was looking for Lily and her little friends. Her surprise was barely concealed on her face when she found the friends, but no Barbie in sight.
Marcella's hands went to her hair, pulling the thick blood-red locks up into a high ponytail, which then transformed into a bun.
The whole time she worked, I struggled to keep my eyes off of her. The tank she was wearing and the positioning of her arms as she manipulated her hair, made her chest look that much bigger, and it definitely didn't help that the edge of the tank had ridden up, past the waistband of her pants, displaying a sliver of ivory skin that pulled taught over her stomach.
The whole scene made my cock twitch. It didn't matter that I'd been keeping my suppressing rune active, since it only lasted ten minutes at a time. I knew from experience what color her hair was under the moonlight, and that her skin at high noon was the color of fresh cream—everything about her was already seared into my memory, and all I wanted to do was peel those tank top and pants off her, so I could memorize the rest of her, each and every freckle and scar that I’d been too far away to see the night before.
When she spotted me, saw me staring, a deep blush rose up her neck and stained her cheeks. I nodded at her with a slight smile that I couldn't quite stop before taking a big bite of my apple. At least that would keep my mouth busy and prevent me from saying something stupid.
I saw her eyes dip to my lips as the apple broke apart, and I pulled it away from my mouth. My subconscious hummed with pleasure at the thought of her being attracted to me. I couldn't let Cade have all the fun, after all.
I watched for a few hours or so as all the women sparred with each other and completed round after round of that obstacle course. When a sweaty Marcella strode off the mats and out into the garden, I couldn't help but follow, the elastic feeling in my gut practically pulling me along behind her. I called out to her as she took off down the trail where I'd found her running a few weeks ago. It almost seemed like longer with everything that had happened since.
My hand whipped out, and I tossed the core of my apple into the woods, where I was sure some hungry squirrel would appreciate an easy meal, before I really started to move. I continually upped my speed as I ran after her, aware she could sense me behind her and was challenging me. The two of us were running almost flat out when she dipped behind a curve in the track that took her into the woods. I followed, but it took a moment for me to correct my course, and by that time she was out of sight
I could still feel her, though, this connection I had alerting me when she'd deviated from the track and was trying to loop around me as she had before.
I mimicked her actions but on the opposite side, hiding myself behind a tree. It would be a good test of her ability to read the bond and what it was telling her, at least that’s what I was trying to convince myself of.
As she came jogging past me I knew she was thrown off by the fact that her trick hadn't worked as expected. I held my position, though, tapping into my tracking runes to call on the power in the earth. Since my hand touched the tree, I was able to tell where exactly Marcella was. I whistled, mimicking a bird call, and sent a surge of power into the rune that connected me to wildlife, asking for a bird in the area to lend me its eyes for a moment or two.
The world transformed into the bird’s perspective, the vibrancy no less than if I was looking with my own eyes. Colors were distorted, but the ability to see the extended spectrum of ultraviolet rays meant that they morphed and changed from what a normal human eye would perceive. Patterns that weren't there a moment ago were now starkly visible. Some of the dandelions that dotted the side of the path, for example, changed from a fluffy yellow flower to one that was white with a red center.
Marcella's hair was gleaming in purple and green while her skin was even paler, which I hadn't thought possible. What I wouldn't give to see the world like this more often, find patterns and colors that most people could never even dream of. Now was not the time to be distracted, though, especially as I watched Marcella close the gap between where she'd been standing and where I was hiding.
I quickly released the bird's sight and shook loose the lingering effects of it in my own head. When I opened my eyes to move, I found Marcella already in front of me, and my chance to surprise her gone. So much for that little game.
“What are you up to?” she asked, placing her hands on her hips and tilting her head as she studied me.
“Just a little exploration,” I hedged.
Her hand came up and touched the symbol on my neck, the simple caress sent fire streaming through my blood. “What does that do?” she inquired.
It had to have still been glowing for her to ask about the specific rune I was just using. “It lets me borrow the senses of an animal that's nearby for a while.”
The long, delicate fingers of her hand trailed down my arm, tracing the pattern of my tattoos. I had to clear my throat before I could swallow as she kept touching me. I was used to being the predator, but there was no doubt in my mind that she was hunting me this morning, and dammit if that wasn't the biggest turn on.
“Any reason why you followed me out into the woods?” she purred.
“I wanted to check on you after what happened. You were lost in the woods, naked, and then . . .,” I trailed off, somehow not wanting to talk about the bond we shared on Academy grounds. It was silly, just my paranoia coming to the forefront, but it was also a feeling I couldn't shake.
“And then?” she asked.
“The glow,” I said, trying to explain without having to use the words.
“Glow?” she asked, frowning.
I sighed. The Sixths weren't taught as much about the ceremony as we were, because it helped them learn to depend on us for their safety and pushed them past the awkward getting-to-know-us phase and into working toward a common goal, such as ‘surviving the ceremony.’
I had thought she'd at least know what to expect when it came to the bond itself, though. Maybe it was because she was the daughter of a thrall, or maybe because she'd been living at the Academy for so long, people just assumed she knew. Whatever it was, I had a bad feeling that she didn't understand what had happened, so I dropped my voice and said, “The bond that formed in the woods?” When she looked at me blankly, that bad feeling sank like a stone in my gut, so I continued, “The one that could get us all in serious trouble, not just with the Academy, but with the council?”
A twig snapped behind us, and both of our heads whipped around before I held a finger to my mouth, asking her to stay quiet. I sank to my knees and plunged my hands through the dried le
aves that were scattered over the floor from who knows how many years of being left there, and didn't stop until I could wiggle my fingers into the dirt itself. I sent my power out through the ground, looking for anything moving, anything unusual.
What I found was a figure, moving quickly away. They were fast enough that I knew they were a pureblood, and it made it impossible for my magic to keep up with them. Their feet barely even touched the ground, so the impressions that I got were fleeting. There was one thing I knew, though. They'd overheard our conversation.
* * *
Cade
Some might say I was skulking in the yard when I saw one of Barbie’s bitches scurrying away from the woods. I’d seen Gideon and Marcella from the window though, and if they were going to get down and dirty, well, I wanted in on it.
All thoughts of that disappeared when I saw one of the she-beast’s minions though. There was a look of such glee on her face that I couldn’t stop myself from following her, rather than taking up on the promise of catching my Sixth and my brother in the act.
No good could come from one of Lily’s group rushing out from the trees, and I didn’t need Raven’s talents to sense that. Although, they would have come in handy–that was for sure–because he could have dived right in and seen for himself what she’d been up to.
It was probably stupid of me to even do it, but I couldn’t stop myself from diving into the situation. Not when it seemed likely the woman, someone I thought was called Jesseda—what kind of name was that, anyway? Neither Jessica nor Leda just some fucked up hybrid—had come across my brother and my Sixth.
The sun burned my retinas as I stared deep into its core. As I did, time began to slow as my body became in tune with the circadian rhythms of this world. It always felt like a lifetime had passed, but it wasn’t. It was probably less than five minutes, and in that length of time, everything slowed down.
My eyes watered, the tears dripping down my cheeks as I centered myself with the true time of the universe. I was used to the stinging sensation and the scorch. It didn’t affect me like it would most people—eventually, if you stared long and hard enough at the sun, you’d go blind. But that wouldn’t happen to me.
Over the years, my ability to control time would only grow stronger as I became more in tune with the sun.
Whenever I rewound or fast-forwarded time, my future or past self disappeared. It always made me laugh when I read about time travelers in books who had to be careful about fucking with their space-time continuum. In my world, there was never any fear of it.
I controlled space-time. It was my bitch.
I’d seen Gideon and Marcella a good five minutes ago, so I headed back around twenty. I wanted to see what Jesseda was doing in the woods, because I could guarantee it was shady. When Gideon and Marcella appeared, I could stop them from doing whatever Jesseda had caught them doing, and that would solve that issue, but mostly, I wanted an in on Barbie’s team.
With time ebbing and flowing around me, I reached the exact point I wanted and blinked. That put a stop to my shenanigans with the clock. The instant I did, I hissed because fuck, no, I wouldn’t go blind but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt. We all had a price to pay for our gifts, and mine was a migraine.
Rubbing my eyes and cupping my palms over them to moisten them with the gentle dampness of my skin, I waited until they weren’t so dry to open the lids again.
On the line of the woods, I peered around the area.
Considering how small the grounds were, I was infinitely surprised more mischief didn’t go down in here, but if that were the case, the Headmaster would have cordoned them off—the councils couldn’t have future Sixths wandering around like they had a say in their own destiny.
Maker forbid!
It was with relief, I found myself in the shade of the trees, and I sank deeper into the woods, intent on finding my prey. With my eyes still stinging, I relied on my other senses, which aided me in my hunt, and very soon I heard telltale sounds behind a large ash tree.
Someone was either fucking or my name wasn’t Cade.
Rubbing my chin as I decided how to approach the scene, I walked behind the ash and moved in a circle, so I was facing the couple, rather than standing behind them. Amid the shadows, I saw the old man’s crinkly ass first.
Wrinkling my nose at the sight of Winterborn’s butt cheeks flexing as he fucked Jesseda, I leaned against the tree trunk behind me to watch as she pulled faces like a pro porn star. Sweat dripped from the Headmaster’s forehead and splashed onto Jesseda’s face. Every time it happened, she grimaced, and I had my confirmation that she was faking this shit for all she was worth.
With an impressive groan, Winterborn came, his hips pistoning in a way that would give his student no pleasure. She even grimaced, then hid it as he pulled out and began fastening his fly. Once he was tucked back inside his pants, he tapped her on the cheek and murmured, “Leave it ten minutes before you follow me.”
Jesseda nodded and turned her face into Winterborn’s palm as he stroked her cheek. She smiled prettily up at him, providing a rather lewd display with her legs splayed for everyone, me and Winterborn both, to see the cum seeping out of her pussy.
Winterborn smirked at her as he climbed to his feet. “Tomorrow at five.”
She frowned. “That’s too early. I’ll be spotte—”
He cocked a brow. “Five, Jesseda.”
Though she scowled, she ducked her head in obeisance. The minute he stepped away from the clearing, she glared at his back and mumbled under her breath, “Bastard.” With a wince, she closed her legs and fell back against the loam of the forest soil.
It should have perplexed me that she hadn’t scented me or realized I was in the vicinity, but it didn’t. There was something strange going on here at Westbrook. Most of Marcella’s class was weak, and the teaching staff was corrupt. I’d thought Master Lee was bad enough for fraternizing with his students, but to learn that the Headmaster was as well, was more than just disappointing.
The women weren’t underage, but the bastards had a duty of care they were abusing.
Sixths started their training later than the boys at Eastbrook. We were there as kids in the orphanage, and the minute we came into our powers, we were channelled into classes for training. There’d been a few sick fucks over the years, ones I’d managed to avoid, but not all the boys were so lucky.
A friend, Lorrence Kinkaid, had killed himself in our final year because of what one Master had put him through. It had been my greatest pleasure to take that particular Master out the minute I’d been released into a brotherhood.
My brothers and I rarely agreed on anything. Not without argument first. Yet when it came to Master Duncan, we’d all enjoyed fucking with his head, making him think he was going insane, then helping him drive headfirst over a cliff.
We could survive many things, but a car exploding on impact wasn’t one of them.
We’d toasted the crash site with a couple of homebrew beers Barclay had created for the occasion, and that had been our first kill. Unofficially, of course.
As Jesseda remained on the ground, staring at the sky through the canopy of trees, I decided to make my presence known by shuffling my feet. The minute she heard some twigs cracking underfoot, she jerked upright, her eyes wide with fear, her skin perspiring. That she didn’t try to run was interesting.
“You!” she declared on a low whisper.
“Me,” I replied, folding my arms across my chest as I leaned against another tree. “Why you letting the old man fuck you?”
She swallowed. “Why should I tell you?”
I grinned. “I’d assume you don’t want Lily to know.” If it made me a shit-house, so be it. Protecting Marcella was my role in life, not this bitch, and I knew I had her when she whimpered slightly.
“Please don’t.”
“Don’t what?” I asked.
“Don’t tell her.” She bit her bottom lip and slowly began to spread her legs. “I’m
sure we can come to some kind of arrangement.”
Now, call me a sick bastard if the idea of filling Marcella while she leaked my brothers’ cum got me hot. But the sloppy seconds of some old fucker really didn’t get me hard and kicking.
I scowled at her. “We definitely can come to some kind of arrangement, but I don’t want anywhere near that.” I kicked away from the trunk and strode forward, watching as she flinched with each step. “I won’t say a word to anyone.”
“You won’t?” The hope in her voice was pretty fucking pathetic.
“No. I won’t. But I want in on the loop.”
“What loop?”
“The one that talks of any pranks or games you’re going to play on Marcella.”
She scowled. “Marcella? Why the fuck would you . . .,” Jesseda broke off. “Oh.”
I cocked my head at her. “Oh, what?”
“Lily thought you were interested in her.” Jesseda shrugged. “We thought she was crazy. Lily’s the strongest of our year.”
She was the strongest at making everyone think so, that was for damn sure.
“So, she likes to think,” was all I said as I hummed at her words. Neither confirming nor denying her statement—even though I had something on her, I didn’t want Jesseda to know we were more than interested in Marcella. “What does he have on you?” I jerked my thumb at the path Winterborn had taken.
Her mouth pursed as she turned mulish. “What’s it got to do with you?”
“Just curious. If he’s abusing you, I’ll put a stop to it.” Where the offer came from, I wasn’t sure. Not when I didn’t want her to think I was generous. But after Lorrence . . . no, I couldn’t allow the Headmaster to carry on with his assault. It would eat away at me.
