“It’s weird. The teams are all what I would expect except that one. Something is off with that team, but I can’t figure out what.”
She wasn’t pointing at mine and I wasn’t expecting her to. I meshed with all of these guys and wished some of them got along better. I didn’t think she would point to Ivar, Ari, and Alexios either. I still didn’t know if they’d hurt Lola or she just thought they did, but I could justfeelthey were supposed to be together.
Ailey was pointing at Mazen, Radames, and Lola. I wasn’t shocked. I couldn’t figure Lola out, but I would imagine a succubus couldn’t get a read on her, either.
“That would be me,” Lola said. “I started out on their team, but they hurt me. That vampire had to give me his blood to heal me because I was really bad off, and then Mazen and Radames took me so I wouldn’t be influenced by his blood. We didn’t start out together.”
“That’s a lie,” Ailey said.
“Excuse me?”
“Sorry, but I read all of you and the three you are pointing at don’t have a violent bone in their body.”
“The sexy blond one is Thor,” Zephyr said.
“That’s the problem!” Nida yelled. “You thinkeveryoneis sexy.”
“Anyway,” Ailey said. “Thor has battle lust where he gets lost in it if someone is a threat to the people he’s protecting, but he’s basically a protector of humans and supernaturals, so he wouldn’t lay a finger on you unless he thought you were athreat. He’s very protective of the bear and to an extent the other member of his team. He would have extended that to you if you joined them unless you gave him a reason not to.”
An absolutely beautiful dark-skinned man stepped forward. I didn’t know if he was a Djinn or an incubus until he opened his mouth.
“The three of them would betotallyup for a foursome, but they wouldn’t throw you around a bit and paddle your bottom, even if you asked, because they are acutely aware of how big they are and don’t want to hurt people.”
It was adorable. Ivar cleared his throat like he was embarrassed and Ari flushed red. Alexios might have had some kind of reaction if he didn’t have a migraine.
Lola just raised her chin.
“I know what happened to me. It seems like you’re trying to discredit me because you all want to fuck them.”
A bunch of them fell out laughing and I was pretty sure it was the succubae and incubi.
“Oh, honey, I don’t have to lie about a damned thing to get anyone to fuck me. I’m an incubus.”
“They beat the shit out of me. Some of my ribs were broken, I could tell. I barely got away. The only reason I’m still here is that I met another team with a vampire on it.”
“Someone did a number on her,” Liam said. “Someone who knew what they were doing and enjoyed it. And before any of you go there, Lola couldn’t have done that to herself. You can fake getting beaten with the right tools, but we don’t have any of those out here and not to the extent she was hurt.”
“We’re not saying she wasn’t. We all have unique powers and we’re telling you what ours are showing us. We can get a read on everyone but Lola, so it’s throwing things off.”
So, we weren’t the only ones feeling that. No one else had brought it up so far. I honestly didn’t know if it was rude to.Lucian needed blood and he couldn’t help that. Lola might just have needed training before she could rein that in. It could be some kind of defense mechanism in her magic that kicked in when she got beaten.
If no one could sense her, it would be easier for her to hide if whoever hurt her wanted to come back and finish the job. And if Ivar and the guys weren’t the ones who hurt her, and she was just made to think they were, someone might eventually want to silence her when the mind control wore off, if it was going to wear off.
I had a feeling all of this, the people disappearing and Lola being beaten and allowed to escape was all part of some sick game someone was playing.
Icould have guessed Sage was Irish in her first life because of the pull I felt to her. I didn’t really have time to dwell on it because I needed to keep her safe. There were people out here more dangerous than my family and that was actually terrifying. Like, my Da could order someone killed from the loo and it would be done before he was finished wiping his arse.
The supernaturals were all plotting. Yeah, they needed to get their friends and a good grade. I got it. They had a lot more rules than we did. Headmaster Mykene didn’t even tellmeI couldn’t kill anyone during the trials. She took Doris like it was suggested, but you really needed to be specific with some people.
I pulled my team aside because I needed more information.
“You got a bad dose when Mazen said he was Set, but it’s Radames who sets me on edge. Why?”
“Set was always portrayed as an evil god in my reading. He had magic no one else could control and the teachings are that he used it to hurt people. He also murdered one of the gods. There’s also an alternate theory that Set was a bit of a nihilist and only killed his brother because he fucked his wife, but that he wasn’t evil and only started getting portrayed that way as the years passed and people changed. Honestly, it was so long ago, I couldn’t tell you which version was true.”
“I refuse to get married unless I meet the right woman and if any of my brothers did that, I wouldn’t kill them, but I’d use my computer to take everything they had and possibly get them arrested,” Lucian said.
I held up my fist for a bump and Lucian looked at it like it was covered in feces. I just shrugged and dropped it. I could get down with that.
