Zodiac Academy: The Awakening As Told By The Boys

I stood with Seth to the side of the huge cavern where our earth Elemental lessons were held as we watched the Vegas take their first little Bambi steps into our underground world. Geraldine and her band of Royalist sycophants were gathering all around them, gushing praise and squealing any time one of them glanced their way. The twins were lost amongst the middle of them and my fangs were prickling while I watched. I didn’t like the idea of my Source being manhandled and I was on the lookout for any other Vampires who might have been dumb enough to come sniffing around her.

‘There’s something about them, isn’t there?’ Seth said, sidling closer to me so that his arm grazed mine while I nodded.

‘It’s their power. It’s magnetising.’

‘We’re plenty magnetising,’ Seth muttered irritably and my lips quirked with amusement.

‘Jealous?’

‘Of the two shiny new toys who everyone is fawning all over while we stand here abandoned in a corner like a pile of forgotten rocks? No.’ 

I laughed and he grinned. 

‘Well if you want the fangirls to come make a fuss over you we could just step out of the shadows,’ I pointed out because we had purposefully chosen this spot to avoid the other students when we’d arrived which was fine by me, but it seemed to be bothering him now.

Seth huffed then dropped his head on my shoulder. ‘You’re fangirl enough for me, Cal,’ he said in a resigned tone and I shook my head at him as I let him stay there, his skin warm where it pressed against mine.

Geraldine was squealing something dramatically and I tuned my gifts on them so that I could pick out her words.

“I would be boundlessly honoured to even be considered as a candidate for your friendship!” she gushed, throwing her arms around Darcy and looking like she was about to start sobbing.

“Perfect,” Tory said, backing up a little to keep herself free of the hug zone. “Now that we’re all friends, I’m just going to go for a little explore.”

She started backing away from the group of royalists and I nudged Seth to draw his attention to her. 

‘Looks like a fish just swam out of the barrel.’

‘Can we play with her?’ Seth whispered excitedly, pushing himself upright again and bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet as he stared at her like she was a stick and he was just an excited puppy waiting for someone to toss it. 

‘It would be rude not to,’ I agreed and the two of us moved out of the shadows as Tory began to cross the cavern, heading towards one of the side tunnels there like she was just looking to be caught alone or something.

We stalked along after her, silently following as she moved further down the darkened tunnel where the glimmering blue lights which illuminated the roof of the cavern were fewer and father between.

Seth hid our approach with a silencing bubble and the Vampire in me lit up with the excitement of the hunt as we followed her further into the dark while she had no idea at all that there were monsters at her back.

Seth lunged forward, grabbing her shoulder to make her flinch, though sadly she didn’t scream the way I’d been hoping she would.

I shot around her before she could spot me and stayed at her back while Seth took up her attention. He pushed his face into her hair, inhaling deeply while she recoiled but his arm slid around her shoulders to keep her close.

“Where have you been hiding, little Vega?” Seth asked, ignoring her as she tried to push him off. 

He’d told me and Max over breakfast about Darius searching for her and I was curious for the answer to that question too. It was actually quite impressive that she’d managed to avoid all of us so successfully.

“I think we’ve established I’m not of your Order,” Tory growled shoving his chest harder to try and make him release her. “So how about you cut the touchy-feely stuff with me?”

“You know, I could take offence to that,” Seth said dramatically, catching the hand she was using to push him back and linking his fingers through hers instead. “Order shaming isn’t cool.”

Tory yanked her hand away and shoved him hard enough to force him off of her before taking a step back which almost had her bumping into me, though she hadn’t realised that yet and I got a little thrill from it. “It’s not Order shaming. I just prefer to keep my body to myself unless I’m the one choosing to share it.”

“Is that an offer?” I purred behind her, making her flinch in alarm as I reached out to run my fingers down her bare arm.

“No, it wasn’t,” she snapped, sidestepping so that she could glare at both of us at once.

Seth closed the gap between us instantly, brushing his arm against mine as we looked down at our little plaything and we tried to decide what to do with her.

“What do you want?” she asked, taking a step back like she thought she might be able to escape us. But that wasn’t going to happen. I had her at my mercy now and I found I liked the way she looked there.

“We’ve been looking for you,” Seth said. “Poor Caleb has practically starved to death without his little lunchbox on tap. You really should have come begging for his forgiveness after letting Orion put his mouth all over you like that.”

“Forgiveness?” she scoffed, looking to me like she didn’t even think there was a problem with her allowing another Vampire to bite her and a darkness trickled through me at the idea of that. “You can be assured that I have zero interest in any Vampire feeding from me but if I do decide to let a man put his mouth on me, I won’t be asking permission from you for it. You don’t own me.”

“Wrong,” I said darkly, the warning in my tone clear as my anger rose. “I claimed you. Which makes you mine, we’re bonded you and I. It’s your responsibility to remind any lesser Vampires of that fact if they try to feed from you again. And if you don’t want to agree to that then we could always try out the old fashioned way of marking you as my Source.”

Seth chuckled as Tory frowned in confusion. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Years ago Vampires would mark their Sources with a tattoo right in the centre of their forehead.” I reached out to poke her between her eyes and she flinched, making adrenaline spike through me. For some reason, I really liked making this girl squirm and the desire to bite her rose in me like a demon. Or better yet, maybe she’d like to try her chances at running from me first? “It helped them to avoid little accidents like your run-in with Orion. If I can’t trust you to make other Vampires aware of my claim then maybe I should consider it,” I said convincingly and she blanched in alarm like she thought I might really mark up her pretty face like that.

“If you come anywhere near me with a needle I’ll drive it through your fucking eye,” she snarled. Fuck me, this girl had grit. 

“So can I assume that I have your word to announce my claim to any other Vampires who show an interest?” I pressed, wanting her to say those words with a feeling akin to desperation. She was mine. All mine. And I wanted her to speak it out loud.

“Fine,’ she said though she didn’t seem entirely pleased about it. ‘So long as you keep any ideas about permanently marking my body off of the table, I’ll tell all your little buddies that my blood is spoken for.” 

“You do realise that there are a lot of people who would kill for your position, don’t you?” Seth asked, taking offence at her clear reluctance for her position as my Source. “Being the Source of Caleb Altair is an honour.”

“Well they’re welcome to have it. By all means, find another girl or guy to suck on and I’ll be on my way.” Tory tried to sidestep us but we shifted as one so that we were blocking her way. 

“I own you. I wanna hear you say it, Tory,” I pressed, eyeing her mouth and hungering for those words to fall from her full lips. “Who do you belong to?”

“Go screw yourself, I don’t belong to you.” A growl built in my throat but before I could let that anger grow, she went on. “But the Tory blood-bar is closed for all other business and I’ll pass the message on to any parasites who come my way.”

I smirked at her in satisfaction, my fangs tingling as I eyed her throat for a moment and she barely suppressed a sigh as she caught up with my train of thought.

“Fine. Bite me then if you have to,” she said, holding out her wrist without any kind of fight at all. She was beating me at my own damn game, refusing me the fight and the fear she’d obviously realised I liked when I bit her and now she was ruining my damn meal times. 

“It’s not as much fun if you just accept it willingly,” I complained, wondering if I could convince her to play with me the way I wanted her to. Just a little running and screaming before the bloodshed. Was that too much to ask?

“Well why don’t you find someone else to suck on if you’re looking to get your kicks from fear? And I can assure you I’m not willing, I’m just practical. I can’t stop you so I just have to endure it.”

Ergh, did she just say endure? Having me bite her wasn’t supposed to be a chore, it was supposed to be an adrenaline filled, fight or flight experience that ideally got her all kinds of turned on once I had her pinned beneath me and my mouth was on her flesh.

“You’re making it sound so boring,” I muttered. “But you are right about one thing. You can’t stop me.”

“Yet,” she replied icily. There was the fight I’d been hunting for.

“Confident little thing, aren’t you?” Seth murmured, taking a step towards her.

She stayed where she was, though she didn’t try to hide her distaste for my brother as he closed in on her.

“I think this little Vega needs reminding who she’s up against,” Seth purred, running his hand down my back and making my skin prickle at the contact.

I liked the sound of that plan.

Before Tory could do more than glare, I shot forward and wrenched her off of her feet, tossing her over my shoulder and shooting further into the tunnel while she swore and punched me, making me laugh.

We made it into a cavern further down the tunnel where the rest of the class would be unlikely to venture, the wide space glowing with blue and silver light that glistened wetly. Seth howled behind as he raced to catch up and I set her down with a grin at the game as she scowled up at me. 

“You’re stupidly strong,” she grumbled, pushing me back as my hands lingered on her waist. 

You like that, do you, sweetheart?

She looked away from me to glance over the ledge to our right. We were standing above a cavern filled with sparkling stalagmites around ten meters below us, their sharp points glinting threateningly as we looked down.

Tory shifted away from the edge uneasily and I began to get an idea about how I might earn that scream from her after all. 

“I am,” I agreed with her assessment of my physical prowess, flexing my arms a little to draw her attention back to them. “And that’s only my second best attribute.”

“What’s your best?” she asked, her assessing gaze flicking over me and making my dick get all kinds of interesting ideas as she wet her lips.

“That would involve us ditching our clothes,” I said, dropping my voice and letting my gaze drink her in and I wondered if she might bite. 

For a moment, her attention dropped down to inspect my body and I was almost certain that it was going to be on between us, but as her dismissive gaze flicked back up to mine I realised she wasn’t going to make it that easy.

“Well I won’t be putting that claim to the test,” she assured me, sounding almost bored. “Why have you brought me here?”

“I thought you might like a look at the view,” I said, prowling towards her as I decided to get that scream from her if she wasn’t going to be giving me a kiss.

She glanced at the drop to our right then shifted away from it a little more. “Er, yeah. It’s great, thanks. But I really should be getting back to my lesson.”

“Don’t you want a closer look?” I pressed, moving right into her personal space so that I could inhale her air.

“I can see it just fine from here,” she insisted, staying where she was instead of backing up any more.

Pounding footsteps approached and Seth burst from the tunnel behind us with a howl which echoed off of the cave walls.

“Like the view, little Vega?” he asked, shaking his long hair around his head in a way that let me know the Wolf in him was aching to come out to play. His excited gaze met mine and my lips twitched as we silently agreed to keep playing this game. “I think she needs a closer look.’

“Yeah, you can’t really appreciate it from way back here,” I agreed.

Tory backed up and my fangs tingled at the look in her eyes, my cock throbbing with the thought that she might be about to run. If she did, I absolutely shouldn’t chase her because Vampires seriously weren’t advised to indulge in the hunt, but I knew I would. I was hungering for it with an ache I’d never felt before. I wanted her to run and scream and try to escape me while I chased her down and stole the blood I thirsted for from her. But that was likely to end terribly so I forced myself to take control of the situation before it could even begin.

I shot towards her, shoving her chest so that she was thrown backwards towards the edge, a beautiful scream tearing from her as the razor sharp stalactites beckoned her to her death.

I caught her hand easily, my speed making it as simple as breathing and Seth managed to catch her other hand too.

Her sneakers scrambled against the edge of the drop off and fear flared in her dark eyes which made my pulse race and a laugh fell from my lips as we held her suspended like that, at our mercy. Seth and I always had made the perfect deadly team.

“Pull me up,” she demanded, the breathy note of fear in her voice giving me the kick I’d been looking for from her since this whole game had started.

“Solaria has been much better off since the Vegas left the throne to the Celestial Families,” Seth growled, and I glanced at him, remembering this was supposed to serve the purpose of chasing them out like our parents wanted. Though I doubted a few silly tricks were going to be enough to do that. “Since our parents took up the throne that yours left cold, our world has been a better place. We don’t need you to come back here and claim it for yourselves. We don’t want you to.”

“We didn’t ask for this,” Tory breathed, her fingers gripping mine like a vice but she didn’t need to worry, I was never going to let her go. “We don’t want it. You can keep your stupid throne and your power!”

I was surprised at how honestly and easily she tossed those words our way, but it just made it all the clearer how little she understood our world. 

“That’s a beautiful offer, sweetheart, but it doesn’t change the facts,” I told her, trying to make her see why these games were necessary, though I was pretty certain she was having as much fun as me even if she didn’t seem to fully grasp the rules. “Your blood-right means the throne belongs to you so long as you prove yourself capable of taking it. And there are enough people who would support your claim to cause a civil war over it.”

“But we don’t want it!” she insisted, her feet scrambling against the ledge again as she fought to try and pull herself up, but that was in our hands, not hers. Seth’s fingers had already twitched, casting a barrier of air beneath her to catch her if she fell, but my grip was iron and I wouldn’t be letting go. “How can anyone seriously expect us to rule over a nation we know nothing about? It’s insane!”

A touch of pity nudged me at her words, and for a moment I wondered if she really was that naive, if she really thought this could all be solved with something as simple as her and Darcy just saying no thanks. And hell, maybe it could be if they truly meant it, if they publicly renounced their claim. Did we really have to chase them off if they didn’t even want it?

“Look, all we want is to learn how to control this magic inside us and get our inheritance. That’s it. We grew up with no one and nothing. Before we came here we weren’t even sure if we were going to be able to keep a roof over our heads for the winter! I swear we have zero interest in claiming any throne or taking your places.”

I glanced at Seth, not liking the way her words struck a chord with me and wondering if he was feeling the same as me. But one look at the wild excitement in his eyes said that wasn’t the case. He was still fully on the get-rid-of-the-princesses train, and with the clarity of our parents’ wishes on the matter, I couldn’t exactly question it. Especially not with her here. 

“I say we drop her,” Seth said with a shrug that unbalanced her and made her grip on me tighten with panic. 

I could see the wild look in my brother’s eyes and decided to put aside any sneaking little doubts I may or may not have been experiencing in favour of us just finishing this game of ours and sating that hunger in his eyes.

We looked between one another, considering our options here while we let the princess dangle at our mercy for a bit longer, but before we could decide what to do with her, she spoke in a tone that snapped through my mental barriers like a whip and had me falling at her command instantly.

“Pull me up,” Tory demanded, her tone fierce and thick with Coercion which we hadn’t been expecting.

We heaved her up over the edge to safety before we could even try to shake off the command and shock spiked through me at the display of her power as she scrambled away from us and backed up towards the wall.

“Shit,” Seth muttered, eyeing her with a whole lot more caution than he’d been using before, but I didn’t know why he was surprised by this. I’d been warning them all about the level of power these girls held since day one.

“I told you how strong they were,” I said, fortifying my mental shields as I eyed her and tried to predict her next move. This game had just taken a much more interesting turn than I’d been expecting and the way my heart was pumping made it more than clear that I liked it at least as much as I was concerned by it.

“Stay away from me,” Tory commanded, trying her little party trick again.

I glanced at Seth as I deflected the command easily enough now that I’d been expecting it and he smirked as he clearly did too. My fangs were aching now, the fight in her making me all kinds of thirsty and my patience for this game of cat and mouse was officially running out.

“Nice try sweetheart, but you aren’t going to slip past our defences so easily a second time,” I said.

Her lips parted on an angry retort, but she didn’t manage to voice it before I shot towards her, my hand hooking around her back as I dragged her entire body against me and sank my teeth into her neck.

A groan escaped me as I held her there, her body tensing in my arms as her power flooded my senses and I swallowed down as much as I could with an electric sense of satisfaction.

She tasted so fucking good that my entire body hummed with delight at the sensation of her blood sliding over my tongue and down my throat and it was hard to imagine anything better in the entire world.

Seth moved closer and brushed his fingers against Tory’s arm, sending my instincts into a blinding rage as he closed in on my damn meal. A menacing growl of warning rumbled through me as I tightened my hold on her, my fingers moving to knot in her hair while my other hand grasped her waist and pulled her entirely flush with my body.

My cock was thickening in my pants as I felt the press of her flesh against mine combined with the intoxicating flavour of her blood soaking my parched throat and her power spilling into all the dark places inside me.

Her hands landed on my biceps like she was going to try and push me back but she didn’t, her grip firming and only enhancing all of the filthy thoughts which were beginning to circle in my mind over her. If she gave me half a chance, I could show her exactly how good it could feel for me to bite her when she let her inhibitions go.

“Sorry,” Seth said innocently, stepping back like he hadn’t known touching her would piss me off.

I drank down a few more heady mouthfuls before the swelling of my cock meant I really had to draw back before she would feel it. I was all up for letting her know I wanted her, but I figured I could be a little more subtle than just driving my hard on into her out of the blue.

I released her with a wrench of determination, taking a measured step away before cutting a glare at Seth. “Don’t touch my Source while I’m feeding.’

Seth grinned, letting me know he was up for a fight over it if I wanted one and my gaze lingered on his throat as I considered teaching him a lesson about Vampire feeding with my damn teeth.

“I’m still here, assholes,” Tory snapped, but our attention was locked on one another so we continued to ignore her.

“You know I’m not going to bite her, what’s the big deal?” Seth asked innocently, baiting me and I half considered just lunging at him to remind him what my teeth were for before the tingling of Tory’s power within me distracted me from that idea.

I decided against teaching him that particular lesson right now, cracking a smile at him while warning him with my eyes not to do it again.

“I just don’t want your paws all over my food while I eat,” I said, knocking my shoulder against Seth’s just hard enough to make my point while still keeping it more playful than hostile.

“Wanna go finish this lesson with a contest?” Seth asked excitedly, seeing the challenge in my eyes and knowing how to satisfy it as always. Because yes, I did want to take him up on the offer of beating his ass in a competition, that was exactly what I needed.

“Only if you don’t mind getting your ass whipped,” I replied.

Seth barked a laugh then took off, howling loudly as he led the way back to class and we left Tory behind as I raced after him, ready to beat him down publicly and bathe in the glow of victory at his expense.