Page 15 of Blood Legacy (Eternal Descent (MistHallow Academy) #1)

15

LUKE

The faculty meeting has dragged on for hours, and my patience is wearing dangerously thin. Professor Winters keeps droning on about budget allocations while I struggle to keep my attention focused. After fifteen centuries of existence, one would think I’d have mastered the art of patience, but tonight, it eludes me entirely.

My thoughts keep drifting to Gaida, her defiance in the laundry room, and the way she looked at me with those challenging blue eyes.

“Headmaster Blackthorn? Your thoughts on the matter?”

I blink, forcing myself back to the present. “I believe we’ve covered enough ground for tonight. We’ll reconvene next week to finalise these decisions.”

A few professors exchange glances, but no one dares contradict me. One of the few perks of being both ancient and powerful is that meetings end when I say they end.

Alone at last, I massage my temples and exhale slowly. The academy is still bustling with the night students, and I should patrol the grounds, check the wards, and review tomorrow’s curriculum.

Instead, I find myself heading toward the eastern tower, toward my bedroom. What I need is solitude. A moment of peace before I inevitably run into her again.

As I approach my room, something feels off. The wards have been disturbed—not broken but altered. Someone with ancient blood has passed through them. I pause, extending my senses outward, but detect no immediate threat. Warily, I ascend the steps to the top of the tower.

My bedroom door is closed, but the lock is broken.

In an instant, I’m fully alert, fangs dropping instinctively as I push the door open. The scent hits me immediately—sweet, intoxicating, unmistakable.

Gaida.

The vampire retracts and I move silently to the bedside, my anger mingling with something far more dangerous. She lies there, fast asleep, her dark hair spread across my pillows, and the curve of her breast under the silk makes her look like some ethereal offering left for a vengeful god.

For a moment, I simply watch her breathe, transfixed by her audacity. Breaking into my bedroom and making herself so comfortable she’s fallen asleep. The sheer nerve of it should infuriate me beyond reason.

It does. But that’s not all I feel.

“Gaida,” I say, my voice deceptively soft.

She doesn’t stir. Her breathing remains steady, deep in vampire slumber.

I should wake her immediately. I should be furious that she’s violated my private space and broken academy rules in the most flagrant manner possible. I should expel her and wash my hands of her once and for all.

Instead, I lower myself to the edge of the bed, watching the gentle rise and fall of her chest beneath my sheets. The moonlight caresses her face, highlighting the delicate curve of her cheekbone and the fullness of her lips, slightly parted in sleep.

“What am I going to do with you?” I whisper.

Her scent surrounds me, clouding my judgement. I can smell her arousal, lingering in the air like a siren’s call. She came here for me—deliberately, boldly, recklessly. Naked. Fifteen hundred years of carefully maintained control, and this girl threatens to unravel it all with nothing more than her presence in my bed.

I reach out, almost against my will, and brush a strand of hair from her face. The contact sends a jolt through my fingertips, making the vampire claws extend. My fangs drop, and I pull my hand back, staring at her, wondering what it would be like just to give in and take her. To ravage her, to taste her, to take her to the edge of oblivion and push her over as I slake my thirst. My cock rages, begging me to give in.

The scrying mirror on the wall shimmers briefly, and a message in blood appears.

Mine.

Rising swiftly, I wipe the message off, but it appears again, and again. Every time I remove it, it reappears. “You can’t have her,” I say softly.

I will take her from you just as I’ve taken everything else.

“No.”

No? You don’t say no to me.

My insides shudder, wanting to curl up and be obedient, but I can’t. Not with this. Not with her.

“She’s mine, Lucius. You aren’t taking her from me.”

His face appears, beautifully cruel. Aristocratic, elegant, monstrous.

“I am days away from finding out how to get to you, Luke. Once I do, that girl will be mine. You will be punished for your defiance, your abandonment. I am settled in this world, and it will give me great pleasure to rip everything away from you, forcing you to watch while I ravage that exquisite young creature?—”

I slam my fist into the mirror, shattering it into a million pieces with a low growl.

The noise wakes Gaida. She sits bolt upright, the sheet slipping from her breasts to show them to me in all their glory when I whirl around.

“Get out.”

“No.”

Her blue eyes widen at the sight of me, then travel to my bloodied hand and the shattered mirror behind me. To her credit, she doesn’t flinch. Instead, she kneels, letting the sheet drop completely. “I’m not leaving. Not this time.”

I turn away, struggling to contain the rage—not at her, but at Lucius, at myself, at this entire cursed situation. Blood drips from my knuckles onto the stone floor, the scent thick in the air between us.

“You have no idea what you’re doing,” I say, my voice dangerously low. “What game you’re playing.”

“It’s not a game to me.”

“Don’t.”

“Luke,” she whispers, and the sound of my name on her lips nearly undoes me. “Look at me.”

I turn slowly, my gaze meeting hers. The moonlight bathes her naked form, highlighting every curve, every shadow. She is magnificent in her vulnerability, her courage. My fangs press painfully against my lower lip as I struggle to maintain what little control I have left.

“You need to leave.” My voice sounds foreign, ragged, desperate.

“No.” She rises from the bed, her movements fluid and graceful as she approaches me. “I’m tired of this dance between us. I’m tired of pretending I don’t feel what I feel. That you don’t feel it, too.”

“What I feel doesn’t matter.” I clench my bloodied fist, letting the pain ground me. “What matters is that you’re a student under my care, and I am responsible for your safety.”

“Then expel me. Get rid of me from this academy, and we can be together.”

She steps closer, and I back away, my shoulders hitting the stone wall behind me. “It’s not that simple.”

“Why?” She reaches for my injured hand, her touch feather-light as she examines my bloodied knuckles. “Explain it to me.”

I could pull away. I should pull away. But her touch sends electricity coursing through my veins, and I remain frozen as she brings my hand to her lips, her tongue darting out to taste my blood with a longing mewl that sends a bolt of lust straight to my already stiff cock.

“Gaida,” I warn, the sound more growl than word.

Her eyes flicker up to mine, pupils dilating as she tastes my ancient blood. “Tell me why we can’t be together, Luke. Give me a real reason.”

How can I explain? How can I tell her about Lucius, about the centuries of torment, about the danger that follows me like a shadow? About the curse that binds us, that makes me a beacon for his cruelty across dimensions?

I stare into her blue eyes and lose myself for a fraction of a second. It all slips away, and I grip her throat tightly, dragging her towards me. My lips crash against hers as I choke her, my tongue invading her mouth as I taste her. She moans against me, her body arching into mine, her nipples brushing against my shirt as she presses closer.

For a moment, I lose myself in her—in her taste, her scent, the feel of her naked body against me. My hand slides from her throat to the back of her neck, gripping her hair and pulling her head back to expose the delicate column of her throat.

“Yes,” she breathes, offering herself to me completely.

The word breaks through my haze of desire, reminding me of what I’m doing, of who I am, and of the danger she’s in simply by being near me.

With a growl of frustration, I push her away. She stumbles back, naked and vulnerable, confusion and hurt flashing across her face.

“Get dressed,” I say, my voice raw. “Now.”

“No.” She stands her ground, magnificent in her defiance. “Not until you tell me why. I felt what just happened between us. You can’t deny it anymore.”

“There are things you don’t understand.” I turn away from her, unable to look at her without wanting to claim her completely. “Things that make this—us—impossible.”

“Then tell me!”

I look at her and wish with everything I have that I could pretend Lucius doesn’t exist, that she wasn’t only twenty-one years old, that I’m not her Headmaster and a dozen other things. But they do, and I can’t do this.