Page 20 of Messenger of Death (Ouroboros Academy #2)

A ll four of us had baggage and hangups. Even Khalid, I just hadn’t figured his out yet. Sage apparently didn’t have a single one about nudity or sex, which I didn’t know if I was shocked or not surprised at all. I was just going to rub her back with her shirt on and work up to sex.

But, yeah, my ruby-haired goddess whipped her clothes off and was looking at us like she was going to eat us alive.

I had my own religious trauma, and I didn’t know if I should pray for forgiveness or stamina because she looked like she had plans.

And then I had an existential crisis about praying to anyone at all while staring at her glorious legs.

My eyes traveled upwards. Yeah, the rest of her was perfect, too.

Everyone at Ouroboros Academy was attractive, but Sage was just prettier than everyone else.

And she chose to get naked for me. I mean, Khalid was here, too, and Lucian probably didn’t deserve it, but this was just like seeing Sistine Chapel for the first time.

“It’s weird I’m the only one naked,” she said with her hands on her hips.

Yeah, I actually loved this side of her, but Professor Adamastus had us running laps the whole class. If anyone starting walking, he had that vampire he had helping him teach drop fang and chase them. Professor Adamastus didn’t exactly stop him when he was snacking on his students.

Professor Adamastus didn’t care if you were shite at running as long as you didn’t walk.

And Sage was adorably shite at running. Before she started wheezing and completely lost her breath, she said it was only natural to run if someone was chasing you.

None of us pointed out someone would easily catch her, we just slowed down and kept her company in case that vampire who was biting students got any ideas.

Lucian went up a few points with me for finding out who sent that dick pic, plotting revenge, and again when it got me a kiss.

He went up a few more when he didn’t use his super speed to run the laps and stayed close to Sage in case another vampire decided to bite her.

I’d probably stop kicking him in the kidneys so much.

But right now, if we didn’t give Sage that massage, she was going to hurt tomorrow.

Our cocks could wait. I picked Sage up and carried her to her bed.

There was just something about being this close to her.

I knew none of us had even begun to tap into our magical powers, but I felt like an ancient nature god when I was holding her.

I gently set her on the bed and brushed her hair off her forehead.

“We don’t have to rush anything,” I said. “If Professor Adamastus had a vampire biting people for being bad at running the first day of class, he’s probably not going to accept being sore the second.”

“Sorry, it might be a territorial thing, which is very weird for me, but I don’t know how I’d react if another vampire bit you,” Lucian said.

I didn’t want to like the Prince of Darkness because he was kind of a ponce, but the fact that he was new to all of this and hadn’t bitten her yet kinda made me like him.

He shouldn’t do that until he learned to control it because it wasn’t exactly pleasant while he was sucking on my wrist right now.

“I’m not even a vampire and I’d get mad if another vampire bit you.”

I know what I’d do if another vampire bit Sage.

I couldn’t kill them without getting expelled and separated from Sage, but I would yank their fangs out their head.

Did they make dentures for vampires? Like, I’m sure some vampire had pissed someone off and got their fangs pulled out.

There were probably supernatural vampire dentists who could give them implants, but they would think twice about biting Sage again.

“Hey, hasn’t everyone been telling Lucian it’s against the law to bite people without their consent?” Sage asked. “Everyone has been stressing this like Lucian doesn’t have exceptional control.”

Sage groaned as Khalid started kneading her back. I took her feet and Lucian was playing with her hair. I loved the little noises she was making, and I was content to just listen to them while I rubbed her feet, but, apparently, everyone wanted to talk about vampires.

“No, it’s weird,” Lucian said. “I haven’t had my first vampire class yet, but even the vampires in the dining hall were giving me tips if I ever felt like I was losing control.”

“Morgana would know,” Sage said. “Maybe it’s okay if a teacher is using it as punishment? That’s kind of fucked up, but we hardly know anything about this world and they did think drugging and kidnapping us was a good idea.”

Mm. At this moment, I wasn’t interested in all the crimes Ouroboros Academy was committing or covering up.

It wasn’t anything worse than my family had groomed me to do.

And the kidnapping and drugging had a much happier ending than if a member of my family did it.

Sage was naked, and that was the most important thing in the entire world right now.

I just found out there were other worlds earlier today and Sage being naked in this one was the most important thing in those worlds, too.

Sage’s familiars flew in, saw what they were doing, and flew right back out, but not before delivering a message to both Sage and me. We both fell out laughing.

“Sorry, the rest of us don’t speak crow. What happened?” Khalid asked.

“Blaize is walking around like a sentient condom trying not to get shat on. A bunch of birds who don’t care much for the affairs of the two legged decided to get involved because they said he’s a menace when he’s flying around as a dragon,” I said.

“They haven’t picked names yet, but one of them told me he’s wearing a raincoat and carrying an umbrella. He hurt the other bird’s fledglings, so even if Liam calls it off, they might not stop.”

I just shrugged.

“He can spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder for a flock of birds that’s going to poop on him for all I care. And if he goes flying and tries to get revenge on any of my new friends, I’m going to escalate.”

Because seriously, I could talk to them, but I could also feel them. I knew all of them now and they were under my protection. The only person who was supposed to be able to talk to a familiar was the person they were bonded to, but since they were all animals, I could talk to them, too.

It was sacred and primal. I hurt people who hurt my friends. That included animals now. Shite, did I have to go vegan now?

I could think about that later because Sage was back to making those little moans. Fuck. She squealed when I licked the back of her calf. Not exactly what I wanted, but close enough.

“Liam! It’s not as hot as back home, but I still got sweaty and gross.”

“Don’t care. I wanted to know what you tasted like.”

“Probably like swamp ass after all that running.”

“Lucian and I both have enhanced smell,” Khalid said. “You don’t stink and I’d lick you, too, just not the back of your leg.”

“I do, too, but I don’t know if I’d be able to stop myself from biting you. I started to want to when we were kissing. I won’t until I can control it.”

Donkey bollix. It was getting harder and harder to want to kick Lucian in the kidneys.

If Sage said we could taste her, I’d wrestle with Khalid or something and probably get my arse handed to me because he was bigger than me, used to box, and I couldn’t do all my usually dirty tricks because I actually liked the bloke.

Lucian would have a harder time declining that offer than me because of his enhanced senses, but he was doing it anyway while his bite still hurt.

“If we’re doing that, we’re doing it in the shower because I feel gross and I also want all of you naked.”

Excellent.