Caleb continued to scowl from his position in the middle of the dance floor as I made it back to him. A group of girls were dancing provocatively, casting less than subtle looks at his general hotness but he was ignoring them.
I caught his hand and placed it on my waist as I snagged him for a new dance partner. I might have been a little overfamiliar thanks to Mr Jack Daniels but I pushed through any concerns about being forward with an air of I-don’t-give-a-shit. As his attention shifted to me, I tiptoed up to speak in his ear over the thumping music.
“Did you hate Orion before he tried to poach my blood or is it all about me?” I teased.
Caleb snorted a laugh, pulling me closer as he leaned in to reply. His hands slipped around me, drawing me closer before he spoke and earning me a heap of scowls from the hopeful girls.
“It’s a Vampire thing. We’re always driven to secure the best Source available. We have a hierarchy that’s determined by power but his position as my teacher makes our relationship a little more strained than most. I should respect him because he’s a professor at my school and is technically my superior but I’m more powerful than him so… it causes a little tension.” Caleb shrugged before a playful smile captured his lips. “Do you like us fighting over you then?”
I rolled my eyes and slid my hands up his chest before linking them behind his neck. “Well if either of you wanted anything other than my blood then maybe I’d be flattered. But as I’m rather against the whole concept of being a walking juice-box I’ll have to go with no.”
“What if I did want something other than your blood?” he asked suggestively, his breath dancing across my neck.
I lifted my eyes to meet his, my body pressing closer without me really intending to do it. I shifted my hands a little higher, my fingertips pushing into the short hair at the nape of his neck before trailing up to brush against his soft curls.
“Like what?” I asked, adopting an innocent tone which I really doubted he was buying. How much had I had to drink? Why was this starting to feel like it might not be the worst idea I’d ever had? Hadn’t he hung me over a ravine and used me like a chew toy since my very first day? Why didn’t that seem quite so awful to drunk Tory? And why was I asking myself so many questions when he’d just run his thumb down the centre of my back and my skin was lighting up beneath his touch?
Caleb’s eyes glimmered with amusement. He pushed my hair back over my shoulder as he leaned down, his lips brushing my ear and sending a little shiver down my spine. “What if I wanted to-”
The music suddenly cut off and the overhead lights flared to life, filling the dance floor with way too much reality for my fuzzy head.
I squinted at the bright lights, releasing Caleb and taking a step back as I looked around, trying to figure out what was going on.
Professor Astrum’s voice blared over the loudspeaker. “Would all students of Zodiac Academy please make your way to the student shuttle buses for immediate transportation back to your Houses!”
I looked up at Caleb in confusion. “Is that normal?” I asked.
He shook his head vaguely in response, obviously trying to figure out what was going on.
A chill crept up my spine and I shifted away from him to find Darcy. She moved to join me too, pulling her Atlas from her clutch with a frown and holding it out as she spotted a message there.
Falling Star:
I should have warned her too.
“Who is he talking about?” I demanded.
“I dunno. Do you think something has happened or-”
The doors of the bar flew open and Marguerite burst in, her blood red hair flying around her and her eyes wide with an excited kind of fear. “Geraldine Grus has just been attacked! They’re saying she might die!”
A cold stone dropped into the pit of my stomach at her words. We’d left that other bar without waiting for Geraldine to show up. What if she’d been hurt because she was alone, or was looking for us? I mean, the girl irritated the hell out of me with her devotion to our lineage but I never would have wished any harm to come to her.
“We have to find out if she’s okay,” I breathed, looking at Darcy in desperation.
“Come on,” she agreed, snatching my hand and dragging me towards the exit.
A tide of students and the other bar patrons had already come up with the same idea and we were stuck at the back of them, unable to force a way through. My attention snared on the kitchen entrance behind the bar and I towed Darcy towards it. My light-fingered ways had taught me to suss out escape routes on the run and I got the feeling that the staff entrance was going to be a lot less busy than the front door.
I hopped over the bar and Darcy followed right behind me as I led us straight through the kitchen to the exit which dumped us in an alley.
The cold air slapped me in the face and helped drive a little bit of the alcohol fuzz from my head.
A sleek black superbike was parked up in the alley and for a moment I couldn’t help but stare at it. I knew there were way more important things going on right now but that bike was top of the line, stupid beautiful in a way that just purred ride me. If it had been any other circumstances I’d have found a way to do just that but right now we needed to find out what had happened to Geraldine.
Goosebumps rose along my skin at the memory of the last alley we’d found ourselves in and we ran back to the street where a crowd had formed.
I shoved my way between the bodies and my gaze caught on a pale arm dangling from a stretcher as Geraldine was loaded into the back of a blue and grey ambulance. I fought my way to the front and released a breath of relief as I heard her voice.
She was mumbling about her family, asking for her mom and her skin was sickly pale but she was okay. She was alive.
The paramedic closed the door once she was loaded in and Orion was revealed, leaning against the side of the ambulance.
His sleeves were shoved back and his forearms were stained with blood. His skin was pale and he had bags under his eyes like he hadn’t slept for a month which I could have sworn hadn’t been there earlier.
“You saved her life,” the paramedic said to him seriously. “It’s a good thing you found her before her attacker could finish the job.”
“I was only just powerful enough. I haven’t got a drop of magic left,” Orion muttered and I realised with a jolt what that would mean.
I tried to shove Darcy back into the crowd before he noticed us but my movement had the opposite effect and drew his attention. My heart leapt as he shot forward with his unnatural speed and Darcy released a squeal of fright half a second before his teeth pierced the flesh of her neck.
I caught her hand in mine, squeezing it reassuringly as I waited for him to release her but instead of stopping after a minute or so like the Vampires usually did, he held her more firmly. A whimper escaped her lips as he continued to suck her power from her veins and anger built in me as I was forced to watch.
“Hey,” I snapped, shoving him roughly to try and force him off of her. “That’s enough!”
Orion released a growl like a goddamn animal which was a clear warning to back off but I sure as shit wouldn’t be doing that. Darcy’s magic might have been pinned down by this parasite but mine wasn’t.