Page 22 of The Goddess is Awakened
There was one thing about my nightly constitutionals. I always got this weird feeling I was being followed. That wasn’t completely weird on these grounds. There were ghosts everywhere. Some of them got bored and liked to punk the living. I grew up with them since we lived on the top floor of the library. We brought a smaller television with us, and Matilda and I always left it on to keep the ghosts entertained so they’d leave our shit alone.
It could have been another student looking to knock me down a peg to look more powerful. But I’d been walking alone in the dark for weeks, and they hadn’t made a move yet. Ithoughtit was a ghost, but this time, Iheardthem instead of just sensing them. It sounded like they were up in a tree, so it was either a vampire or a shifter. I had no idea why a shifter would be following me, but I had a pretty good idea why a vampire might be up there.
I stopped and pretended like I was looking at the sky. I sent a little zap in the direction I heard the branch rustle. I heard a yelp, and a beautiful vampire with black hair and bright blue eyes fell out of the tree.
“Ah, fuck,” he groaned, rubbing his ass. “You weren’t supposed to notice me.”
He was cute and he had a sexy Irish accent, but he was hiding in a tree to bite me, so it wasn’tthatcute and sexy.
“I would have figured it out when you tried to bite me,” I said, crossing my arms.
He’d chip a fang trying to bite me against my will if I wasn't prepared for it. And that just wasn’t cool. One of my dads was a vampire, and so was my sister. Biting someone without their consent wasn’t done anymore. Vampires played out their politics among themselves, but trying to overpower another supernatural and feed on them was a crime now.
“Oh, I wasn’t— I’m not that kind of vampire, love.”
“You were following me. I’m pretty sure you’ve been following me for weeks, trying to find an opening to bite me.”
“Okay, yeah, I was following you, butnotto bite you. My father totally would, but I ran away from him. I don’t drink blood.”
“Bullshit. You’d be dead, and I can literally feel how strong you are from here.”
The vampire seemed to have recovered from the broken ass I gave him. Stupid vampire healing. He got to his feet and brushed the dirt off his trousers. Hesmirkedat me. Outside of magical combat and zapping him out of that tree, I hadn’t used magic against a single student here yet, but I wasn’t opposed to it. He held his hands up in surrender.
“Woah, killer. I’m an energy vampire. We don’t feed off blood.”
Pause. I should probably be upset that they were following me to feed off my emotions, but how cool was it that he was an energy vampire? Supernaturals always talked about how the humans eventually turned on them, hunted them, and they had to hide, but they literally did the same thing to energy vampires. They were hunted to extinction and pretty rare now. If they existed, it was like my brother—something genetic the family knew about but probably never thought in a million years was going to happen.
“Seriously? That’s badass. My brother ended up an angel. You’ve probably seen him on campus showing his wings off like an asshole. I’m George.”
“Church.”
“Like, former Headmaster Church? My mom and aunt went to school under him, and my dad teaches Dark Arts here. They have a ton of respect for him. I’m pretty sure my mom is still terrified of him.”
“He’s my grandfather. He’s a big teddy bear. He’s alotbetter than the rest of my family.”
“Walk with me?”
Yeah, Church had been following me and sneak feeding off of me, but I wasn’t getting bad vibes from him. My entire family had a ton of respect for his grandfather, and magical geneticsfascinatedme because of my family.
My parents didn’t know a thing about baby angels because the god that made angels never intended for them to happen. He made all his angels male with super-long lifespans. He wanted them utterly devoted to him and not another person. When Samael and Lucifer sided with Lilith and Lucifer had a child with a witch, they launched this massive smear campaign where Lucifer became the boogeyman.
My brother was born with wings, which wasn’t really supposed to happen. Supernaturals weren’t supposed to get those until they turned eighteen. It wasn’t just Michael. My dad created several hybrids when he started giving familiars their bodies back. My little brother Callum could very well end up a hybrid when his magic awakened.
So, I’d reverse getting mad about him stalking me until I heard him out.
And Church had a story. My parents had always been supportive and amazing. They never treated us any differently and had a mixed bag of supernatural kids. Michael and I had our magic from the day we were born, and we were taught not to abuse it. My parentsneverwould have intentionally forced our magic early like that and exploited it.
My cousin, Freydis, was a few years younger than us. She desperately wanted to go to horseback riding camp. My aunt and uncle happily sent her because she wanted it so much. She got thrown from her horse when it got spooked by a snake and nearly died. She got her magic early. Aunt Ravyn and Uncle Bjorn made sure she had all the training she needed, but they definitely blamed themselves she got hurt.
I couldn’t imagine doing that to a seven-year-old on purpose and then expecting them to take care of you when you got old.
“No offense, but your dad is a shit. I’m glad you got away from that.”
“My whole family is like that. My grandfather moved us away from it, and my father moved us right back. So, sorry I didn’t do any of this the right way, but approaching people is weird between my family and some of the vampires here. My roommates are extremely cool, but some people just want to use me. I think you know West?”
Church passed the vibe check, and I wasn’t mad at him. I hadn’t exactly approached any new people either because I was worried they’d use me. I didn’t even have Church’s horrible history. No one knew I was a god, but it was public knowledge my dad was one, and my brother was the only angel in this realm. Several people had already tried to friend me because of that.
“West is amazing. You should sit with my twin and me in the dining hall sometimes.”
