Tears stung my eyes as I shook my head. “I’m weak, Damien. I couldn’t even protect myself on campus.”
“No, you’re not,” Trixie murmured, and I nodded. “And you don't have to worry about campus. I’ve been working with my sister to help keep twenty-four-seven security on the wards.”
“The wards didn’t keep the one human out,” Damien mentioned, and I dropped my face into my hands.
“Who’s your sister?” a random guy asked.
“Tabitha. The academy witch,” she said. “We’re safe here. The ward is strong.”
Why couldn’t my power just show up? The seer had given me hope, but how long must I wait to become useful?
“Class dismissed,” Alister said, and everyone bolted out the door with chatter high.
“You’re going to be okay,” Trixie told me before getting to her feet and winking at me. “I’ll see you later.”
Damien sat with me until the rest of the class had left, then he let his shadows shut the door and faded out so it was just Alister and me.
“Sweet ruby,” Alister purred as he prowled toward me. “I told you that the reason you’re special isn’t that you’re the last of your kind.”
I stood up and stepped into the aisle of the rows as he made it over to me. “I doubt that.”
Alister grabbed me up and brought me to the front of the room. He planted me on his desk and hiked my skirt up, exposing the mark on my thigh. His fingertips trailed over the glowing mark, and I bit my lip as desire pulsed through me.
He leaned in and inhaled my scent. “Your power will be as unique as you are.”
I smiled, but that smile fell into a frown fast. “Alister, humans scare me. Even if I do get a power, my first reaction is to freeze with humans. It’s not to run or to fight.”
“You won’t have to face them alone ever again.” His face softened, and he leaned in to kiss my lips. “Do you want to know why I hate them so much? How they had killed my father?” Sadness was thick in his voice.
“If you want to talk about it, I’ll listen.”
“My father was an archeologist, and he was at a dig site on the cusp of the human territory,” he said with a strained smile.
“Did he have an interest in gems too?”
“Yes.” He smiled. “He’s the reason my mother gave me my gift.”
“That’s so sweet.” I put a hand on the back of his neck and toyed with his neck hairs.
He took a deep breath. “A human came across the dig site and killed him for no reason. Just because he could. I arrived too late, but I did kill that fucker.”
“It’s good that you avenged your father.” I glanced down at his hand on my thigh. “I wish I could’ve.”
“It sickens me that humans can be so hateful.”
“All the humans I’ve ever heard of, especially those from my own experience, have been hateful,” I murmured. “That’s why going to war with them scares me. Especially when they have... whatever that guy was.”
“I understand, sweet ruby. But you have your mates, and we’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
I gasped out and grabbed my chest as a gut-wrenching amount of anger flooded through the bond.
Panic skittered down my spine, and I jumped down off the desk. “Something’s wrong. We need to get to Rowan, now.”
Alister moved with his vampire speed, throwing me over his shoulder and zooming out of the classroom and into Rowan’s office. Alister put me on my feet next to him but kept a hold of my hand.
My gaze widened.
Rowan had a man with white-blond hair and a build similar, yet not quite as large as him up by his neck against the wall.
