Page 34 of Caelum

ONE

EVE

“Houston, we have a problem.”

“Houston?” I frowned at Dre. “What does that even mean? Why are you randomly talking about cities?”

Dre, ever patient , narrowed his eyes at me. “One issue at a time, Eve. The fact you're an idiot where pop culture is concerned isn't important?—”

Before Dre could even finish the sentence, I shrieked as Frazer grabbed him by the throat and pinned him to the wall.

After six weeks at Caelum, a special Academy for people like the three of us tucked away in this public bathroom, I wasn't unaccustomed to violence. Not when one of the classes should be titled Violence 101—see, I'd read 1984 . Orwell knew his stuff. I wasn't totally backward when it came to pop culture anymore. Still, it surprised me because Frazer had been so fast, so quick to react to Dre’s insult.

The sad fact was, if Dre wasn't insulting me, it would be weird. He wasn't nice to me, or pleasant, ever. He never had a kind word to say, never had a smile for me, and was generally mean as a rule.

“You take that back,” Frazer ground out, and I blinked at him, appreciating the husky growl in his voice, as well as the unadulterated view of his rather muscled back.

A back that was loaded with more ink than I'd ever seen before.

It was sprawled across the entirety of his left side. The ink was so sharply delineated that it met a line that even ran in between the nodules of his spine. His shoulders and the back of his waist were highly defined, but it was the ink, something I had learned was called a tattoo, that had me reaching forward and pressing my fingers to the different letters covering him.

At my touch, he released a hiss and froze as though my fingers were red-hot.

Stung by his rejection and ashamed at how I’d touched him without permission, I jerked away, my fingers snapping back as quickly as he'd leaped at Dre. But when I ceased touching him, he looked over his shoulder and stared right at me. There was pain in his face. His expression was tormented—brows furrowed, mouth downturned, and his eyes? They were like blue pools of misery.

“Don't,” he rasped.

“Don't what?” I replied shakily. “Touch you? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to?—”

He quickly shook his head and then, sounding pained, whispered, “No. Don't stop.”

My mouth worked a second before I gave in to temptation and reached for him once more. The second my fingers connected with his skin, he released a hiss and Dre, the jerk, took advantage of his distraction.

“Watch out,” I yelped when Dre dipped his head forward, his forehead coming scant inches away from connecting with Frazer's. The larger man grabbed a firmer hold of him, so firm that Dre's eyes bulged. “No, Frazer,” I chided, then begrudgingly added for my Pack’s sake, “the dick might deserve it, but you'll get punished for hurting him too much.”

“You're all heart,” Dre mocked, glowering at me when Frazer's chokehold lessened some. He raised his hands and Frazer backed off out of Dre’s space but remained close enough for me to recognize that Frazer could pounce and be on him in an instant.

That probably shouldn’t have satisfied me as much as it did.

With a shrug, I told Dre, “I've shown you more courtesy than you've ever shown me.”

Frazer's nostrils flared. “He's cruel to you?” he barked, making my eyes widen at his anger. Until he glared at Dre, I wasn't sure if it was aimed at him or me. “Your humor is biting, Were, but watch your mouth around Eve. From now on, if I see you be anything other than kind to her, I’ll rip your fucking head off.”

“Like you even could,” Dre sneered—rather foolishly, I thought. It was pretty much like throwing more gas onto the fire.

“If I can't, I have no rights to her. But then again, I have a Vampire and a Hell Hound to back me?— ”

“And I don't have an Incubus? A Lorelei and a Gargoyle?”

“Not where she's concerned.” Frazer's mouth tightened.

Confused, I grumbled, “Look, whatever this is… can we move on? I feel like a lamppost and the pair of you are dogs that are peeing on me.” When they gaped at me, I scowled. “Anyway, what are you even doing here, Dre? Were you following me?”

“I was going to visit Nestor before I headed to the gym. Sorry. I didn’t realize I had to account for my every move.”

“Feel free to leave,” I retorted.

“No way. I’m representing the Pack because you’re too fucking stupid to know what you’re dealing with.”

Frazer’s face turned bright pink, and he bit off, “Cut with the attitude, Dre. She’s right, anyway. We need to focus. I assume, from your reaction, one of yours is mated with her too?”

For a second, I just gaped at them both. “Mated?” I drawled when neither spoke anymore, just glowered at one another as though they were engaging in another competition that was unique to men. It had to be because it made no sense to me.

If Frazer’s eyes were bullets, Dre had just been hit, point-blank, in the forehead. “You haven't spoken about this with her?”

“She's too backward to share most of the pertinent facts about the real world with, Frazer,” Dre grumbled. “How could we share this with her too?”

Frazer huffed, but he didn't argue, which irritated the heck out of me. “What does she know?”

“That she is getting annoyed with being talked about like she's not here!” I growled, and they weren't the only ones who were angry. This, apparently, was related to me, but I had no idea what they were talking about.

Mated?

Like animals?

Dre jeered at me, “Eve, when you're adult enough to mess around with shit like this, then you can bitch at us. As it stands, most twelve-year-olds know more about sex than you do.”

My cheeks burned hotly. “That’s not true!”

He snorted, his eyes irritatingly knowing. “Yeah? What’s a cock?”

I frowned. “You mean a rooster?”

Another snort escaped him, and he shot Frazer a look. “Yeah, I mean a rooster.” He rolled his eyes. “Because farmyard animals are exactly what we're talking about here. ”

Frazer winced but he didn't attack Dre, even though, at that point, I would have appreciated him knocking Dre out again. I couldn't remember if, on my first day at the Academy, it was Reed or Frazer who had knocked Dre out for a solid two weeks, but I would be amenable to that happening again.

Soon.

Dre's attitude stank harder than Stefan’s socks after he'd been in the gym all day.

And that was saying something.

Boys stank.

I'd never noticed it before because I'd never been around that many boys back at the compound where I'd been raised. Womenfolk stayed with womenfolk and only really mingled when it came time for church or for special occasions. But even then, we tended to remain segregated.

If the New Order’s menfolk all reeked as badly as the boys here did before they'd showered off and cleaned up, I couldn't say I was disappointed about being kept separated from them.

“Mated is like being married, Eve,” Frazer told me, and I gaped at him.

“Married? I'm not married to anyone.”

He grimaced, and at the sight, Dre chuckled. “Maybe you’re right, Eve. I don't think you need me here for this conversation,” he said as he started to head out of the bathroom.

Before he could get too far, Frazer grabbed him and, shooting a grim look his way, commented, “I think you are needed here. Especially if one of your Pack is one of the reasons we have a problem.” To me, he said, “Creatures don't marry like humans do, Eve.” His tone had gentled as he turned to focus on me once more.

When he did, I had to bite my lip at his earnest expression.

Goodness, he was handsome.

He had short black hair that was cut close to his neck, making it a little longer on top where the natural wave was allowed a tad more freedom. His bright blue eyes speared me to the quick, and his mouth? Well, it made my own water.

After last night, I understood why.

The same feelings Stefan had made me feel were coursing through me as I stared at Frazer, and when I looked into his eyes, I felt a sudden wave of heat hit my system. It had me staggering back as I pressed myself into the wall.

I wasn't sure if I was trying to avoid him or the feelings he was stirring inside me, I just knew those feelings were beyond overwhelming .

He raised a hand and slowly lowered his fingers into a fist. When he squeezed them, I knew he wanted to touch me but was stopping himself.

His control was appreciated because I wasn't sure if mine was strong enough. I'd managed to push myself away from him, but anything else was beyond me.

Instead of touching him, I pressed my own hand to my belly where a strange heat was gathering. It wasn't the first time I'd felt it. On those days when my Succubus was in control, I felt something like it. But they were like embers in contrast to the inferno Stefan had triggered in me last night, and what Frazer was making me feel now. Those sensations had blazed hotly until they'd burned into a conflagration that was indescribable.

This wasn't the same conflagration, but a blaze that wanted to gain strength and needed to combust.

I licked my lips then whispered, “What’s happening?”

Before he could say a word, Dre blurted out, “Hang on a second, you're a Sin Eater.”

Frazer frowned. “Yeah, so?”

“Ugh, so … Stefan is, without a doubt, Incubus. We thought he was Lorelei, but since she came along, he’s been presenting as Incubus.”

That was news to me. What had I done to make that particular soul come to the fore?

Dre’s words had Frazer's eyes widening—not with confusion like me but genuine bewilderment. “Shit.” He cut me a look then gritted out, “What the fuck? He can't be her mate then.”

“His back says otherwise.”

“He has the mark? She Chose him?”

“Hang on, I didn't choose anyone,” I butted in, but they both ignored me.

“She did,” Dre confirmed, “and it’s as bright red as yours.”

“Christ. How long has he had it?”

“Pretty much since the first day she arrived.” Dre grimaced. “He controls the pain, but I know it hurts him.”

It hurt him?

I was so confused, but that resonated more than anything. “I've hurt Stefan? How?” I shook my head. “I didn't do anything!”

“You've done something,” Dre ground out. “I knew the second I met you that you were trouble. Should have known you’d just bring more crap to our door.”

Frazer grunted, and I was surprised he didn't try to slam Dre into the wall again. And, once more, I kind of wished he had .

Dre was such a jerk!

“I haven't done anything,” I argued.

“You didn't have to,” Frazer rasped, reaching up to rub the back of his neck with the hand he'd fisted to stop himself from touching me a few moments before. “This doesn't make any sense.”

“I've been saying that since you stripped,” I growled, with anger leapfrogging off the heat he'd stirred inside me. He was damn fortunate it was my Gargoyle in charge today. Had it been my Hell Hound, Dre wouldn't be the only man in this bathroom who’d been held in a chokehold.

Dre grunted, “Nothing makes sense to you. But this shit? It doesn't make sense to us, you get what I'm saying?

I scowled at him. “I get that you're a dick.”

“Ooh, you've graduated to big words.” He clapped his hands. “You wanted to know what a cock was? Think ‘dick,’ but a synonym.”