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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

ISOLDE

Unsurprisingly, we run into CJ at the bottom of the Bell Tower steps.

“Well, my sweet. Want to explain what you are doing with this ghost in a notorious sex hotspot?”

I gape at him, my cheeks flushing. “I didn’t know it was…” I glare at William, who just shrugs.

“Yeah, you,” CJ says, pointing his finger at William, to my shock. “You act fucking innocent all you like, but I know all about you, Harrington. You stay away from my woman.”

“Not this again!” I snap. “For the love of all things unholy, would you stop!”

“Never,” he growls, taking a step forward. “I will banish your ass back to wherever it came from.”

“Unlikely,” William states. “I was always here. Left my body there…” He points to the spot where he presumably died, “… and ghosted right into my bedroom where I’ve been for over a hundred years.”

“Then I will banish you to the Netherworld, and you can rot there for eternity. How does that sound?”

“Quite unpleasant,” William hisses, and I see now that yeah, not so placid. Vicious comes to mind when I see his eyes turn red, and an ominous sensation drips icily down my spine.

“Enough!” I step between them, my patience completely evaporated. “You can see him? How long have you been able to see William?”

CJ’s eyes remain fixed on William, his jaw clenched tight. “Since the beginning. He’s not exactly subtle with his hovering.”

“And you didn’t think to mention this?” I demand, incredulous.

“It wasn’t relevant,” CJ shrugs, finally looking at me. “Until he started getting ideas.”

William drifts closer, his spectral form pulsing with the same malevolent energy from the shower scene. “Ideas? You mean like being forced to stand by and watch Isolde while you manhandle her?”

“Stop it, both of you!” I hiss, my magic sparks at my fingertips and flies out to bounce off the Bell Tower wall, making CJ duck out of the way with a snarl. “This is ridiculous. You cannot go around threatening everyone who speaks to me!”

“Pretty much can and do,” he states .

“And you’re one to talk anyway,” William says. “Spying in the mirror.”

CJ growls, low, menacing, and fixes a death glare on William. “Shut up about shit you know nothing about.”

“Spying?” I ask. “You’ve been spying on me?” My rage is volatile, sending sparks of not-so-defensive magic pinging around the Bell Tower.

“Protecting you,” he spits out, as angry as I’ve ever seen him, and that’s saying something. Usually, he has a calm control when he’s dishing out threats and throwing people around. This… this is totally different. His eyes flash dangerously. Amber now becomes the dominant part, and they glow, in a way I’ve never seen a vampire’s do. Admittedly, my experience is limited, but still.

“What are you?” I blurt out, my anger over the spying forgotten for a second under this transformation.

“A vampire,” he grits out, using every ounce of his exceptional strength to pull back whatever is trying to take him over.

“Try again, arsehole,” William says.

“Stay out of this,” I mutter as I watch CJ nearly have an aneurysm, hanging onto whatever is keeping him tethered to this moment. “CJ, breathe,” I say, my voice softening despite my anger. Something is clearly threatening him from the inside, and antagonising him further isn’t helping.

His eyes flicker from amber to dark and back again, and his breathing is ragged. The stone beneath his feet cracks slightly, and tendrils of heat radiate outward. For just a moment, I swear I see scales ripple beneath his skin before vanishing.

William drifts closer to me, his ghostly form protective. “He’s hiding something, Isolde. Something dangerous.”

“Makes two of us, then, doesn’t it?” CJ snarls, finally getting himself under control. “Get away from her.”

“Not unless she wants me to,” William says.

“I don’t want you to,” I state. “We are trying to do something. Get out of the way.”

“No.” CJ’s hand shoots out and clamps down on my arm. “I’m not leaving you alone with him.”

“He’s been in my room all this time, and now you want to protect me from him?”

“When he was in your room, he was contained. He needed you. You don’t want to know who he is, Isolde.”

“I know who he is!” I spin to look at William. He is no help. He just floats there with a serene look on his face.

“No, you really don’t,” CJ says. “He is dangerous. ”

“So is everyone else here,” I point out. “You are extremely dangerous, for example.”

He looks quite pleased by that assessment, the fucking jerk.

“It’s not a badge of honour.”

“Oh, but it is.”

“This is getting us nowhere,” I say, tugging my arm free from CJ’s grip. “We found something in the Bell Tower, a symbol that might explain who killed William. I’m going to investigate it, whether or not you approve.”

CJ’s eyes narrow, flashing amber again before settling back to their usual dark hue. “Fine. But I’m coming with you.”

“Actually,” William interrupts, drifting closer, “we were heading to the restricted section again.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” CJ mutters. “Did getting caught once today not satisfy your death wish?”

I cross my arms. “We’ll be more careful this time.”

“We?” CJ’s eyebrow arches. “Since when are you and the ghost a ‘we’?”

“Since I was the one who freed him from my room,” I reply, watching CJ’s expression darken. “The blood wards were keeping him trapped. I broke them.”

“You did what?” CJ hisses, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? What you’ve unleashed on this academy? ”

William laughs, the sound echoing unnaturally in the tower’s base. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Aquila. I’m hardly going on a rampage.”

“Yet,” CJ growls.

“William and I are involved, and you can take it or leave it.”

“Involved?” CJ chokes on the word. “How?”

His question sends a tremor of fear rippling through me, and this badass vampire girl I’m trying to be to save myself falters, and I’m back to the quivering mess that landed here only three days ago.

“Answer me, Isolde. How are you involved with him?”

“We are friends.”

“We kissed in the shower. It was quite the experience,” William pipes up.

I hiss at him as CJ goes apoplectic, the amber in his eyes igniting into flames. “You what?” The words are a low snarl, ripped from his throat. He moves so fast I barely register it, his hand going up to slam William in the chest. To my shock, and William’s, it connects, sending William shooting back into the stone wall. The impact reverberates through the tower, and a deep crack spreads across the ancient stone. Dust and chips of rock rain down.

“CJ, stop!” I shout, stepping in front of William, my magic flaring in response to the raw power radiating from him.

“He touched you?” CJ’s voice is a guttural roar that promises violence.

“It’s complicated. He’s a ghost. Or was…” I trail off with a frown. “How did you touch him, then?”

“Good fucking question,” William snaps. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Someone you don’t want to cross, Harrington.”

I look at William, whose eyes have narrowed, and his temper is back under control.

“I may be dead, Aquila,” William says, his voice now laced with an icy authority I haven’t heard before, “but I am not powerless, and you will not lay hands on me again.”

“Watch me.”

With a roar that cracks stone, I unleash a wave of my magic that CJ braces himself against and which dissipates William’s form for a moment. They both look at me with more caution now. “We have bigger problems than your ridiculous jealousy. The Collectors. William’s murder. Can we please focus on something that actually matters?”

“Ever stop to think he was murdered for a reason?” CJ growls.

“Of course he was. He was getting close to something someone didn’t want him to. We need to find out who.”

“We need to find out more about The Collectors,” CJ says.

“Precisely. Focus. Let’s go.”

CJ scoffs, but the dangerous edge in his eyes softens fractionally. “Fine. But if he steps out of line, I’m taking him out.”

“Just try it,” William snaps.

“Shut it,” I say, marching off and leaving them to catch up.

CJ falls into step beside me, wary but clearly intrigued by the mystery as William settles on my other side. “Another trip to Blackridge’s forbidden playground. You two really know how to have a good time.”

“Where is Cassiel?” I ask, instead of responding to his remark.

CJ shrugs. “Off learning some shit, probably.”

“He should be here.”

CJ nods but doesn’t say anything as we make our way back into the academy to find firstly the fallen angel and secondly, hopefully, some information.