Wicked Heirs (Electi Academy #1)

12. ~Xavier~

12

~Xavier~

Her thick eyelashes fluttered with a delicacy akin to the wings of a butterfly newly emerged from its cocoon; hesitant but possessing an innocent curiosity. She carefully tried to avoid direct eye contact, her easy ability to do so leading me to infer that it was a well-practiced skill—one she had taken great pains to perfect. Or perhaps one that great pain had led her to perfect. Her eyes were guarded pools of such a rare shade of blue that I could only recall having ever seen it once before—

“When? When had he seen it before?” I asked myself aloud as my pen stilled across the pages of my writing journal.

“Okay, need to work on the character’s backstory in more depth. These questions should be answerable immediately.”

Damnation, I detested when I got stuck abruptly after penning away for a good couple of hours. Alas, it was part of the writing process.

I sighed and closed my journal. I needed to take a break.

I ran my fingers over the title on the front of the black, leather bound cover.

Love Me Dirty.

It was the latest romance novel I was working on.

Aside from minor issues like the one I’d just run into, I was also ill-equipped for the raunchy scenes I’d written into the story. I mean, I had a vivid imagination and I understood the basics of lust and passion, but I’d never actually experienced it before myself. I was worried it might come through in what I was writing. I’d wanted to show the scenes to Talon because he liked dirty stuff, but he’d just make fun of me for needing to ask. And Orpheus wouldn’t like them anyway. They might be dirty and hot, but they weren’t dark and depraved, the way he liked it.

The way he really liked it, something I doubted very much he’d made Alena aware of.

She wouldn’t have been that comfortable with him right after like I’d seen a few days ago when we’d performed that spell together to help Talon.

Speaking of her, maybe she should be the one I showed them to. She wasn’t judgmental and she called things like they were. Also, she was secure in her sexuality and liberated about it all so she wouldn’t get all awkward about it.

My phone buzzed on my desk and I snatched it up to find a text I’d been hoping for.

It was Talon’s daily check-in.

He’d asked for space, but Orpheus and I had managed to get him to agree to text each of us once a day to confirm he was doing okay.

Talon: I’m fine. Just need some more chilling time.

Xavier: Okay, brother. Thank you. Here as soon as you’re ready.

I went to put my phone down and to continue to honor his request of a few days ago.

But I stopped myself.

It had been going on too long now.

He’d been isolating himself in his chambers, he’d missed almost a whole week of classes, and he hadn’t even come to the cafeteria to eat. Orpheus and I had conjured meals outside his room, but he’d only eaten bits and pieces.

I fired off a text to Orpheus.

As aggravated as I was with him when it came to his whole approach regarding Alena, this was gonna take a team effort.

Talon needed us united right now.

Xavier: I think it’s time we broke through Tal’s request for space.

Orpheus: I agree.

Xavier: Team effort?

Orpheus: Yes.

Xavier: After classes? Tonight?

Orpheus: Meet me outside his chambers.

Xavier: Will do. What you up to today?

Orpheus: Assignment.

Xavier: That’s all?

Orpheus: No illusions, if that’s what you’re asking.

Xavier: You know it’s not.

Orpheus: She’s not with me.

Xavier: She kept to her word then.

Orpheus: Of course. She’s Nephilim.

Xavier: I meant even with your allure out in full force around her.

Orpheus: No, this isn’t about my dark allure, it’s because I fucked her. You want that too, you need to make it known. It’s beyond obvious to me that you do want her, by the way.

Xavier: Wanting and taking are two different things.

Orpheus: Believe me, she definitely wanted me.

I screwed up my face at his arrogance. Of-fucking-course.

Orpheus: Jealousy doesn’t become you, X.

Xavier: It’s concern, you shit.

Orpheus: Or, perhaps, a bit of both?

All-knowing bastard.

Xavier: Let me handle my own business.

Orpheus: I would if you’d actually handle it. At long last. Oh, wait, that’s all you do… handle it yourself.

My fingers tightened around my phone and it was all I could do not to employ my vampiric strength and crush it.

Xavier: Fuck off. My concern is that you haven’t shown her how you really are sexually.

Orpheus: Sexually? Adorable.

Xavier: Don’t be condescending. You’re verging on defensive. When you hook up, you don’t show that, what you really need, BUT you clearly being interested beyond a one-nighter would mean you having to. You need to let her know what she’s getting into.

Orpheus: She’s compatible with my predilections.

Xavier: A brief insight into her mind that time at the Kick Off isn’t enough to be sure. You said yourself that your magic was contaminated by hers. What you saw could have been warped as a result.

Orpheus: If you hadn’t grounded the same spell a few days ago, I would have been able to find out for certain, because my magic wasn’t corrupted then, she handled it well and accepted it easily.

Xavier: It would’ve been a violation to obtain information on her that way. You need to ask her, be honest, above board. I know that’s a new concept for you, but so is she.

Orpheus: Now who’s being a condescending fucker?

Xavier: You’ve earned it.

Orpheus: I’m not going to hurt her.

Xavier: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Orpheus: Good thing I have you here to keep me in check then, isn’t it?

More than anyone fucking well realized.

Orpheus: Admit that you want her. I doubt she’ll mind sharing. She’s already shown interest in us both.

Xavier: She’s on my mind more than anyone has been. I care about her.

Orpheus: Jeez, just answer the actual question instead of circling around it. Do you want to sink your virgin cock into her sweet cunt?

I gritted my teeth.

He was really pushing me.

Of course he knew that all too well.

And he knew exactly how to do it.

He was a master at manipulating others to create the outcomes he wanted, but he usually refrained from doing so with me and Tal.

But I guess he’d decided that with this strange development of Alena Rose coming into our lives and drawing so close, it couldn’t be off the table right now.

Xavier: I want her.

Orpheus: Good boy.

Xavier: Shut it, I’m not Tal. That doesn’t turn me on.

Orpheus: You sure?

Xavier: Beyond a shadow of a doubt, little prince.

Orpheus: Only she calls me that.

Xavier: Interesting that you allow it.

Orpheus: I didn’t have much choice.

Xavier: Major denial.

Orpheus: Let’s end this passive-aggressive and full-on aggressive text conversation. After your last class we’ll meet to deal with Talon.

Xavier: I’ll be there.

I tossed my phone down and shoved a hand through my hair.

We were clearly both on edge and taking it out on one another.

It was a cross between what was happening with Talon right now, and the fact that we hadn’t been in contact with Alena for days on end.

After seeing Tal breaking down, she’d decided to stay away to give us space to deal with the situation, thinking her presence was too antagonistic for him—and upsetting after seeing her memory like that.

I’d seen her in class, but polite and friendly smiles had been the extent of it where that had been concerned.

She’d kept to her word.

But now I was ready for it to be over.

I needed to see her again.

She’d given me her blood, for fuck’s sakes. It had been an extremely brave and selfless act, and it had really helped me.

I’d wanted to thank her.

I’d planned to that day when I’d tracked her and Orpheus to the edge of campus, but I’d had to forgo it and the conversation I’d wanted to have afterward about other things, when Talon had fucking well gone in to attack her.

Let me handle my own business.

I would if you’d actually handle it.

His words had been patronizing, yes, but there was truth to them.

I did hold back a lot.

Since I was turned, I’d become that way, always worrying about my control, always terrified that my bloodlust and new vampiric nature as a whole—the beast in me—would take me over and I’d become subservient to it with no free will of my own left remaining.

The vampires here, the students I’d met, they embraced the demon within. Because we were in a controlled environment, they didn’t go too far or lose control and go on some major massacre. But what about when they graduated, when the repressive rules and regulations here were gone? If I embraced the demon at all, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to go back, that I’d lose myself, that I’d lose my sorcerer side. I could already barely feel my connection to nature as it was. It was just a fraction of what it had been for me.

And I hated it. I hated everything about what had happened to me.

I wanted to go back.

So. Fucking. Badly.

But nothing could make that a reality.

Not even my father and he’d tried so much to undo it.

He’d come close to delving irreversibly deep into black magic to undo the vampiric turn.

And that was when I’d begged him to stop, when I’d told the biggest lie of my life and convinced him that I would be okay with it, that I’d be okay to live like this.

Fortunately, I’d pushed him to enroll me in Electi Academy shortly after that, citing that I wanted to throw myself into my new existence and learn how to balance my new hybrid nature. In reality, I hadn’t wanted him to see my lie, to see my struggle at accepting myself as this… thing.

“ Damnation,” I ground out.

I swallowed it down and focused on what I needed to do, what Orpheus had pointed out to me.

I needed to handle my own business and actually go to Alena now, instead of just waiting.

I needed to act.

I pulled my denim shirt off the back of my desk chair and slid it on over my white t-shirt, rolling up the cuffs to my elbows as I usually did and revealing a good deal of my tattoo sleeves. I also had them over my torso like Orpheus. But, unlike his, mine were brown and gold and they represented every spell I’d learned over the years—before the vampire thing.

In a way they were my life story through magic.

A life that I’d loved.

I adjusted the belt of my ripped jeans, then psyched myself up in my head, before I then headed for the door to my chambers.

I threw it open, only to pull up short at the sight of the very person I was off to see standing right there outside my door.

There she was in one of her favored kimonos, this one red, beige and blue and over a blue lace bralette, which she’d paired with denim shorts. Her pink hair was in a half-up, half-down do. She looked incredible and beyond sexy.

“Alena,” I breathed, more than a little taken aback.

“Hey. Can we talk?”

“Actually, I was coming to ask you the same thing.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” I said, as our eyes locked. “Really, beautiful.” I stepped back from the door and gestured inside. “Come on in.”

As she took the offer and stepped across the threshold, I sucked in a breath.

Admit that you want her. I doubt she’ll mind sharing. She’s already shown interest in us both.

“Fucking Orpheus,” I muttered under my breath.

“What was that?” Alena asked, turning to face me as I shut the door behind me.

“Nothing, just talking to myself.”

She winked at me. “The best of us do.”

I smiled. “Yeah. So… I mean… what are you… what’s brought you to my door?”

Do you want to sink your virgin cock into her sweet cunt?

I dug my nails into the door behind my back, trying to ward off his fucking words swirling around my mind.

“One of the reasons I came here was to give you some good news.”

One of the reasons?

“What’s that?” I asked. Then I gestured to the modest seating area consisting of a two-seater cobalt-blue couch and an armchair around an antique coffee table. The fabric being the precise color of my magic was no coincidence. My dad had ordered them for me, his bid to both give a nod toward my power and as what he’d figured would be a comfort to me. As was most often the case, he’d been right. It was both.

Alena took a seat on the couch and I perched on the edge of the adjacent armchair.

“So, basically, as of next week, there will be a testing period of human blood bags for vampires at Electi Academy.”

“What? You’re serious?”

She grinned from ear-to-ear. “Absolutely. It’s happening.”

“You did this for me?” I asked, shooting to my feet with excitement and amazement.

“I said I’d help you. Technically it was my mom who actually did it and pushed it through, but—”

I threw my arms around her. “ Thank you.”

She giggled as I kissed her cheek, then held her to me. “This means more to me than you know.” I eased back, crouching in front of her. “You had no reason to do this, or to allow me to feed from you.”

“You were kind to me.”

I frowned. “I blew you off when you offered an olive branch of friendship.”

“You did that to protect everyone involved in Obsidian’s vendetta against me.”

“I did, but still.”

“It’s all good. And what matters is now all that’s over, we can be friends.”

“Friends, you say?”

She smiled at my teasing tone. “A little more than friends?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, is that what you want?”

Moment of truth, X. Don’t fuck it up.

Handle your business.

I rose up and slid my hands into her hair, then brushed my lips over hers.

She responded right away, sinking into the kiss and linking her arms around my neck, essentially pulling me down onto the couch with her, making me cage her in as I had to slap my hands down either side of her head to avoid crushing her beneath my weight.

I slid my tongue into her mouth, tasting her, learning, exploring, and she tried to escalate it to a whole lot rougher all too quickly.

I couldn’t.

Not without tempting the demon to come out and play.

She calmed a little when I stayed soft and easy, and then I felt her hands sliding under my t-shirt, feeling up my abs, my pecs, then swirling all over.

Hell.

She had my cock hard as granite in moments.

Her fingers glided lower, down to the waistband of my pants.

I groaned into her mouth, tightening my hold in her hair.

It called to that other side of me—that thing.

And then I stilled.

Her hands left my belt and she broke the kiss and eased mine from her hair, holding them between us.

“You can’t hurt me, Xavier.”

“That isn’t—”

“And I’m not afraid of your vampire side.”

“I know. I remember you didn’t react negatively when you allowed me to feed from you. But I am.”

Realization shone in her eyes. “You’re afraid of that part of you.”

“Yes.”

“I see.”

“But that’s not the only reason I hesitated.” I lifted our joined hands and kissed her knuckles, taking note of her stunning orchid ring. “You deserve better than a quick roll in the sack, than me taking it there at the first opportunity.”

She frowned, not getting it, and it broke my heart a little as it was obvious why.

All she’d experienced had been that sort of thing.

No wining and dining, just straight to the physical.

And that was on the empty side.

“Let me take you out,” I told her.

“Like, on a date?”

“Exactly like that.”

“Wow… okay,” she answered, so surprised by the offer, it was brutal that she wasn’t used to it in the slightest. “But we can’t really go out, we’re bound to campus, under the dome , as you guys call it.”

“Let me worry about that.” I pushed out of the chair and walked to my desk, snatching up my phone. “Give me your number and I’ll sort the details, then let you know.”

“Perfect,” she said, beaming up at me, before reeling off her number.

After I’d plugged it in, I pocketed it, then sat back down. “Are you thirsty? Hungry? I can conjure you one of your go-to mochas if you want? Mini-marshmallows?”

“How do you know about the marshmallows and mochas?”

“Between classes, you grab a mocha every day, sometimes twice a day if you’re having a tough one. That time when I couldn’t get to you in time to warn you, and Orpheus used his magic to rip your feet out from under you, then open your bag all over the floor of the busy corridor, I saw a couple of bags of marshmallows there. I’ve also scented them on you more than once.”

“Ah, yes, the stumbling incident. Nothing compared to what happened when Orpheus took you to the cafeteria for a late midnight snack so Talon could come at me and overheat the sprinklers in the courtyard as I was walking by, scalding me all over in the process.”

“He did what?”

“At least it wasn’t a direct hit of phoenix fire. The fire mixed with the water wasn’t that painful, and I healed in moments.”

“The healing part… it doesn’t take away from what he did.”

“Oh, I know, believe me. And justice was delivered that night I ripped him out of the sky.”

Yeah, Orpheus had told me all about that, the impressive display of her angelic power.

I couldn’t help smiling. “Good on you.”

I summoned her a bowl of little marshmallows onto the coffee table in front of her.

“Thank you,” she said, brightly.

As I sat back, I told her, “That could have gone sideways, you know? Really fast.”

“I had the iron weapon with me.”

“That was a bit much. Especially given the damage it can do to Talon’s kind. Really brutal damage, Alena.”

“I had to make it clear that I wasn’t going to pull any punches. Show of force , remember?”

“Even so. It’s not a safe strategy to go in hot like that—pun not intended.”

She popped a handful of marshmallows into her mouth as she took my words in. Once she’d swallowed, she said, “You’re a lot like him. What I know of him from my mom, anyway.”

“My dad?”

“Yeah. Elliot Sabre is known for being cautious and diplomatic, actually favoring the latter over things coming to a clash. Even though he could literally obliterate anyone.”

“Just because he possesses the power, doesn’t mean he needs to use it at every juncture. In fact, he should do the opposite. Otherwise, that’s how megalomaniacs are born.”

She smiled. “I see he taught you well.”

“He was well on his way. Until I was turned.”

“I’m so sorry, Xavier.”

I shoved a hand through my hair and released a heavy sigh. “You know, when you fed me your blood, it was the first time I felt more than a fraction of my magic at my disposal. I could even feel nature in the way I used to for a brief time too.”

“I’m glad,” she said, reaching out and rubbing my arm. “But it’s not all darkness with the vampire side. There’s beauty to be found in the demon, that which you haven’t begun to explore yet.”

“You actually believe that?”

“I do. Everyone has darkness in them. But as I’ve learned the hard way, denying it all completely isn’t the way to go. You lose so much of yourself. I mean, I basically tried to function as human and completely denied a massive part of myself. I ran from who I was. It was lonely and confusing and it hurt me. I don’t want the same for anyone else, especially not somebody I’ve come to care about, somebody who doesn’t deserve to live that way.”

I stroked her fingers on me. “I appreciate you saying that. And I care about you too. A great deal.”

“I’m getting that, yeah.”

I conjured something for myself then, a jar of Red Vines. “ My go-to snack,” I told her. “Helps with the bloodlust and… other things.”

I started chewing on one while she went with her marshmallows.

And it was really nice just sitting and being like this with her.

It was a shame I had to bring some harsher realities into it. A part of me wished I could just leave it, but I couldn’t. So I put it out there. “So, you and Orpheus? That’s an interesting turn of events.”

“Disturbing is closer to the truth there,” she said, jokingly.

“You’re drawn to the dark and you don’t like it, but with Orpheus, he makes it feel okay, like it’s nothing to be ashamed of, like it’s to be embraced. He does it himself in a non-dangerous way and he’s very good at walking that line.”

“It’s easy to talk to him about it.”

“I know. It’s where he lives.”

A bashful look came over her face. “ And it’s safe to indulge in aspects of it with him there.”

Hmm. “You feel like he grounds you?”

“Like I can let go a little without dangerous repercussions. Like he absorbs some of it from me and takes it into himself.”

“So that’s why you’re trusting him after what he’s done.” That cleared a lot up.

“Don’t worry, I’m well aware of it. And there’s not instant trust. But I do like having him with me.”

“Well, the fact you were able to stay away after the two of you got carnal says a lot about your strength of will and your good sense. Sleeping with a Dark Fae, let alone the Prince, isn’t something most people can just shake off. Isabella is a good example. It ended badly because of how she is, but even though it was just a casual one-night-stand, she couldn’t let it go for a long time because of that dark allure he has. The fact he likes you back and feels the same with you would make it a hundred times more intense and all-consuming.”

“I needed to give you guys space like I’d promised. And I needed some time to take stock of all the mind-fucks that have been happening lately too.”

“Totally understandable.”

“Yeah. Well, I’m glad it’s done with now.”

“Me too.” I took her hand and held it to me. “More than you know, beautiful.”