“You can pet her,” I said. “I don’t mind.”
“Really? Oh my gosh.” Ivy reached out and felt Oberi’s velvety coat. She nickered politely and nosed Ivy’s fingers. He laughed.
An alarm bell went off in my head, but it wasn’t from me. It took me a moment to figure out where it was coming from. I’d never been able to feel Charlie through our bond from this far away before. He had to be on the other side of the prison.
A twinge of annoyance crossed from him to me as he felt Ivy’s hand skim Oberi’s coat, but I brushed it off. He took my indifference as a sign everything was okay, but I still felt him seethe as his mental presence faded away from my mind. He didn’t want to share Oberi with anyone but me, but ancestors, other people could pet her every once in a while if I gave permission. It wasn’t a big deal. He didn’townher, after all.
“I saw her shift,” Ivy said. “What kind of a Familiar is she?”
“She’s amutabeecha,a changeling Familiar,” I explained. “She has as many as five different forms, but so far, we’ve only discovered two. She doesn’t have a particular gender, either. She changes it depending on which form she’s in.”
“A Familiar after my own heart. I like her even more,” Ivy said.
Ivy led us through a twisting realm of back hallways, which got tighter and tighter the further we wandered. We had to walk single-file, and Oberi had to squeeze through. “Where are we going?” I asked.
“There’s a secret tunnel of rooms the prison uses for storage,” Ivy said. “I found it when I was trying to figure out where security had taken my stuff.”
Ivy opened a door, and I gasped. We stepped inside. The room was a large, open area, with a few metal poles stationed around the room that looked like supportive beams. It was empty, like the school had been planning to renovate it to use as a classroom, then abandoned the idea halfway through. Our shoes echoed as we walked around the large space.
“This place would be perfect for a nightclub,” Kallie said as she roamed around the room. Her fingers skimmed the metal poles.
Ivy hissed with laughter. “That’s the plan, eventually. Just have to get my bearings around here. I plan on calling it The Devil’s Playground.”
That was a badass name. There were a couple things inside, like a wooden chair and a large cardboard box. Ivy ruffled through the box. I gasped when I looked inside and saw that it was full of all kinds of fun things— corsets, whips, and even heels.
“How’d you sneak this in? All my heels were confiscated when I came to the Institute.” They'd been expensive too, the fuckers.
“You can get anything into the Institute if you’re willing to dofavorsfor the guards,” Ivy said with a wink. He ruffled inside the box before he found a pair of size sevens, then handed me the heels. “Here, put these on.”
Ivy gave a pair to Kallie as well. He tried giving some to Opal, but she waved him off. “Ah, no. You know dancing’s not my thing. Not inthatway.”
Ivy huffed. “Opal, your innocent schoolgirl routine is getting old. No guy at the Institute wants to be with the girl next door.”
“Someguy will,” Opal snapped. “You’ll see.”
Ivy rolled his eyes. “Suit yourself.” He kicked off his own shoes and snapped on a pair of heels before he said, “All right. The most crucial thing is to haveconfidence.Observe.”
Ivy grabbed one of the metal poles. He twirled around it, spinning in a circle before he dipped down and rose back up again. The movement was so fluid, it was clear he’d done it a million times.
I tried to copy his movements, but I felt clumsy. I spun around the pole too fast and had to grab onto it to keep from falling down. Kallie staggered forward and almost hit her head on the pole.
Ivy leaned against the pole. “I can see we have a lot to learn.”
He demonstrated the move again. I studied his movements and noticed they were much slower than my own. I attempted it the second time and found I moved better when I took my time.
“Like this?” Kallie stuck her boobs out and spun around the pole. The way she dipped down almost made her cleavage spill out of her bra, and she had to flounder to catch it. I cracked up as she stuffed her breasts back inside her shirt.
Ivy shook his head, and Opal sighed impatiently. “No, likethis.”
Opal strutted forward, grabbed the pole and copied Ivy. She moved around the pole like she was swimming in the water, twirling her body upward like a sea serpent. Mermaids had a natural grace that was hard for the rest of us to copy. My jaw dropped open when I watched her dance like a pro. She wasn’t even wearing heels, and she looked sexy as all hell.
“Damn, Opal, you’ve been hiding things from us,” Kallie teased. “We didn’t know you could rock that body.”
“Just because I’m good at it doesn’t mean it’s something I like to do,” she countered. Ivy looked vaguely amused.
Kallie and I kept watching Ivy. As we danced, he circled around us, observing the actions and barking out tips like a drill sergeant. He really took this kind of thing seriously.
“Use your ass,” Ivy said. “Don’t be afraid to stick it out when you dip down.”
