Page 19 of Escaping Hallow Hill Academy
“Sia is the way he is because he fucked up here. Don’t follow in your ancestor’s footsteps, pretty little Sekar. Death always comes. Even to those who worship it.” His hand lifts, and he twirls a lock of my inky hair around his finger as he studies me intently.
“Mr. Rueren DeVoure, please stop petting our new student and give me your utmost attention,” a man drones in exasperated tones.
Those depthless, dark eyes slip down to my lips before his fingers straighten, my hair drops, and he spins that tormenting smile toward the man in a white button-down at the front of the class. “You have my entire focus, Professor Sills.”
It’s an alluring but mocking thing, his accent. There are no dips or emphasis to a single word I have ever heard the man say. It’s like the entire world is a bore to Rueren DeVoure. And the professor seems to know this.
“No one and nothing have your entire focus, Mr. DeVoure,” the aging little man says as he opens his book and flips through the pages absently.
“Not until recently,” Rueren whispers so quietly, it seems only I hear him.
I’m still staring at the hard angles of his jaw and cheek as the professor starts to state what the class has been working on. I miss the first few lines he says, but something hits hard in my mind when he explains more.
“As we all know, Soul Searching is the magical binding of two souls, whether it be males and females, supernaturals or mundanes, the dead or the living. Two bound as one will always heighten the powers of both.”
Dead or living.
Soul Searching isn’t an emotional therapy session where I’m going to cry about my mid-midlife crisis. It’s a process of magic. Combining two souls into one.
It’s clearly exactly what Headmistress Krist did. She died and somehow was brought back. Joined with . . . whatever the fuck it is she is. Robot? Cyborg?
But why? And why didn’t he stop at a simple soul mesh? Why join bodies?
“Give me ten good minutes, and I’ll bind your soul so hard, your spirit will be screaming my name, pretty little Sekar.”
My thoughts are cut short by those fucking absurd words, and I slowly turn my neck toward the man at my side. His gaze is avoiding. Focused ahead. But the smirk on his lips reveals the sharp weapons within his mouth.
If only his words were as sharp as his teeth.
I lean in close to him, so close I know my breath is skimming across that strong neck of his. His lashes flutter just slightly, but he doesn’t move a muscle. “Tell me one thing,” I whisper on a voice filled low with taunting temptation.
“Mmm, anything,” he groans, all low vibrations of obnoxious confidence.
He’s dickdumb. The type of guy who’d be smart if he didn’t have a dick. Only thinks with one thing, and that thing isn’t nearly as useful as he imagines it to be. How has he lived this long? How was he invited to the most powerful supernatural academy in the world? Just how?
“Did you know Sekars are so powerful, they can rot a man’s cock off with a single touch?” I say breathily as I run one finger ever so lightly along his throat.
His eyes widen.
My drifting index finger slips lower. And lower. And lower.
And then he falls out of his chair.
I smile. He looks petrified. It is a good time had by all.
“Mr. DeVoure, your attention please!” Professor Sills commands, his short stubby finger pointing at the vampire’s seat like he can will the stupid man there with a single finger.
But I guess one finger has a lot of power sometimes.
Just ask my new friend Rueren.
Chapter Seven
Ikick the door to room 120 shut behind me and don’t bother taking off my boots as I fall face first into my petite twin bed. A warm body settles in between my legs, and I’m oddly comforted by the new pet I’ve adopted overnight.
“Night,” I whisper to him.
He hums a sweet noise in reply and rests his head on my ass, practically stealing all the space on the small mattress.
