Yep, partners for the rest of the year. Didn’t even have to draw blood. Kinda disappointed ngl.
Luther Falke
I’m sure you’ll get another chance with how many people are sniffing around her.
Roth Kovacs
I’d like to know how she’s gotten in with Mondragon and the necromancer.
Killian Hastings
I volunteer as tribute.
Thane Rorvik
I thought you said she wouldn’t talk to you?
Killian Hastings
Like that’s ever stopped me.
Luther Falke
[typing]
Killian Hastings
Oh shut up, Goliath.
No matter how many times I try to get Killian to talk about her, he keeps deflecting, and by the time I head back to our apartment later that evening, I’m ready to wring his fucking neck. It doesn’t help a single fucking bit that I round the corner and see Ramsey and Nyx walking back to the dorms with to-go bags from one of the restaurants in the Student Union. The Mexican place, from the smell of it. They’re too far in front of me to hear what they’re saying, but her laugh cuts through the frigid night air and settles into my bones.
Iwant her laugh.
I want to see the smile reach her eyes.
What kind of things make her laugh, I wonder, and add it to the mental list of information I’m going to pry out of her so long as we’re in the same class. And afterward too, if I have any say in it. I quietly quicken my pace to close the distance between us, but Ramsey must sense me at some point because he lifts his head and turns, inhaling deeply without breaking stride with Nyx. I pause and duck behind a tree when they stop at the door, and then my blood fuckingburnswhen his hand brushes against her cheek and she tilts her head back, eyes twinkling from the moonlight. He lowers his face to hers, and then they’re kissing, dinner forgotten when the bags hit the ground. She wraps her arms around his neck and lifts up to her toes, deepening the kiss. His arms slip to her waist and he pulls her into his body.
She melts into him, and my body responds with a rush of pure heat andneedat the sight of her surrendering to him. When he breaks the kiss, they’re both panting, just in time to for a group of students to open the doors on their way out. He picks up the fallen bags and hands them to her, nodding his head for her to go inside. The group of students I vaguely recognize asthird years pass by, and I step out of the darkness. He turns to face me and licks the taste of her from his lips.
He smirks, crossing his arms over his chest. “You enjoy the show?”
My demon rumbles in my chest, a reminder that we’re not just two men interested in the same girl. We’re two apex predators, salivating with the urge to draw their rival’s blood.
“Are you laying a claim on her?” I ask, my demon bleeding into my voice. At my challenge, his eyes glow green, pupils narrowing into slits.
“Yes,” the dragon says, unequivocal. “Are you?”
The answer comes without thought of what it means to challenge the Moratus dragon prince, or how Roth and Killian and Luther will react when I tell them what I’ve done.
What I’m going to do.
“Yes.”
His chest rumbles with a menacing laugh. “You cantry, snake.”
My demon screams in my head, a stream of familiar shrieks, piercing clicks, and crooning warbles, but the sound that comes out of my mouth isn’t one I’ve ever heard before as he crawls up my throat and speaks.
“Your blood will stain the sea before you ever get the chance,wyrm.” My vocal cords are left burning and raw as he slinks back into the depths of my mind. Ramsey snaps his jaw in anger, but he manages to subdue the dragon before triggering a full shift. By the time we’ve gotten our inner monsters under control, we’re both breathing heavily.
