Adrian just mock saluted.
“I’d never whip out my penis in front of a lady unless she asks. It feels weird when people touch my shoulder blades. It feels good, like something is trying to happen. Does that mean something?”
“Generally, that you’re going to have wings. Youmighthave an animal or be the original dragon or you could be something else entirely. I hope this has gotten the ridiculous notion out of your head that you’re the reincarnation of Jesus.”
Adrian just smiled mysteriously. I wasn’t exactly feeling much, but from what I understood, I didn’t have an animal. I could turn into one because I was a shapeshifter. I wanted to figure it out because I thought it would be neat to go flying with my familiars. I was semi glad I wasn’t going to accidentally shift somewhere and possibly have to walk across campus naked. I wasn’t that brave and Liam might stab someone when that was my fault.
“My bat has stopped taking me over in my sleep, but I also just started sleeping in Sage’s room without him having to bring me there.”
“You’re missing one big thing. Think about it.”
“I really have no idea.”
Professor Theron just rolled her eyes like Lucian was a complete moron and I knew he hated that. I’m pretty sure she did it on purpose because he made sure to tell everyone he was smarter than them. Most of the time, he was. In this case, I thought I knew the answer.
“Aren’t bats nocturnal? Lucian’s bat was taking over when he went to sleep.”
“Excellent. To get your bat to work with you in daylight hours, you have to give him what he wants, which is, apparently, touching Sage. Bats are affectionate with other bats and their caregivers. They cuddle each other, share food, and groom each other. Try doing that with Sage.”
“Lucian brings me food all the time. It’s like he has a radar when I need it. Does that help?”
“That probably has a lot to do with his bat. Keep doing that. Is anyone else feeling anything? At this point, if you’re a shifter or have a familiar, there should besomesign. You have one more semester to figure it out and then we’ll assume you have neither and put you in different classes. The rest of you will be stuck with my charming personality to make sure you don’t do something stupid.”
“What if we figure out that we don’t have an animal or a familiar, but we really want to learn shapeshifting?” Lola asked.
Lola was absolutely the last person on this planet who needed to be taught that.Hopefully,we figured out how to get rid of her and her mysterious partner before we got to that point. I was pretty sure Professor Theron was being kept up to dateon all current theories, including that Lola was Hemlock and we were hoping she’d lead us to Apep.
I couldn’t tell by looking at Professor Theron. She wasn’t even looking at Lola with the same amount of disdain as the first day when she was trying to incited a mob against Alexios. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to lie like that.
“If you want to learn shapeshifting and that’s an ability youshouldhave, you have to wait until you’re an upperclassman and submit a written essay that must be approved by both myself and Headmaster Mykene. This is even if you were a shapeshifter in your original life and didn’t abuse it. We are more interested in what you intend to do with that ability in this life.”
That meant me, too, and I was fine with that. I could use these classes as a foundation while I worked on what I wanted to say in my essay.
Provided we all lived through this for us to graduate.
Ivar and his goats were just about the only people I could stand in my care and feeding of familiars class. Adrian was glued to Ivar’s hip now, and they were kind of adorable. Sexual innuendo was flying everywhere.
I hadn’t noticed before, but Adrian kept Lola’s fan club sweet, but didn’t much like them. I could tell now that I was around him when he was near people hedidlike. Adrian already said most of the people he preferred warming his bed with were from the other side of the school, but some of the people in this class looked like Adrian slapped them and took a shit in their purse because he was laughing and flirting with Ivar.
“Uh, I don’t want to upset you but all those people that hate you, but finally look like they aren’t going to stab you in your sleep are looking stabby again because they think they own Adrian,” I said.
“Sorry, but Ineverwent there with any of them. They act like we are still in secondary school. I don’t just want a root with someone pretty. I want conversation while we snuggle. Maybe they will be more interesting when they mature, but right now, they are up Lola’s arse because they think she’s the most interesting person at this school and they can’t think for themselves.”
Professor Medis was generally a calming presence every class except today. They looked a little stern and angry with us. My familiars were fine with it and just stayed perched on me, but it was upsetting Ivar’s goats. And those things looked like they could kill anyone that pissed them off or Ivar asked them to. Professor Medis being upset was upsettingmeand I didn’t even know what was bothering them.
“So, only two of you have familiars with you in my class. It’s possible some of youdon’thave one, but there are several of you who know who you are and your familiars haven’t deemed you worthy enough to show themselves. This isnota good thing. Familiars aren’t pets. They are magical guides. We can teach you magic, but some of the things that are intrinsic to you as a person are only going to come from your familiar.”
Alexios’s hand shot up.
“Doesn’t Apollo have several? None of mine have shown up and I’m trying.”
“It’s because you hurt women,” Lola snapped.
We all ignored her, but I thought of something. Lola would have had no way of knowing Alexios was Apollo because no one did. Headmaster Mykene might have had guesses like she did with me, but no one knew for sure. Lola had a very specificfeeling about her because she carried void power, so it would have been easy for Apep to identify her because they’d felt it before.
So, why did Lola target them and why was she still lying? Why had she gone after Liam like that? Their MO seemed to be murder, but they wouldn’t come at Ivar, Alexios, and Ari directly. And Khalid had told me enough about Egyptian gods to know about Ra. They weren’t scared of them because Alexios was associated with the sun. It was something else.
“Apollo is a little different. It’s the same with Artemis. You don’t really have a familiar. You have several animals that are sacred to you and a bit of an affinity with animals. Nowhere near as powerful as your twin, but it’s there. The lessons you’ll learn in this class will help with that, but you won’t be taking my classes after the end of this semester. There are other classes suited to the reincarnation of Apollo now that you know.”
