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News of the match traveled fast, despite the fight to keep it quiet. I eyed everyone, trying to determine who had a big mouth. It had to have been one of the guards because everyone else was trained to keep their mouths shut.
Either way, it became a show. I side-eyed Cael, hating he was there. The vampire councilman had been a thorn in my bum since I’d first approached the council for support. He made it his mission to thwart me at every turn, and I made it mine to rub it in his face that he couldn’t defeat me.
His black hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, shrewd eyes eying everyone. I hadn’t even known he was around. He was definitely a blood-sucking dickroach incapable of winning on his own merit. I knew how true a lot of the rumors surrounding him were.
His hands were as bloody as everyone else’s, even more so with how manipulative he was. He enjoyed twisting words to make eating poop sound like it’d be an orgasmic experience.
Hunger filled his expression as two students approached the middle with Asriel. They eyed each other and flashed confusing looks.
Linton Morano and Jer Berenson. Both shifters, both in the same grade. I dug up the information slowly from my memory. They did have a small rivalry going. They were from neighboring packs and had been known to steal girlfriends from each other. It became a game to them at some point, but the anger and betrayal from that initial incident brewed right under the surface of their bag of issues.
They were both sons of Betas, equal in strength. The only difference between them was that Jer had had to deal with an attack on their pack that had killed over thirteen of their wolves. Humans had done it during a special ceremony. His hatred for humans made me want to wrap him in my arms and protect him from having to deal with that again. He had been one of three survivors, being furthest from the blast.
Asriel talked to them in a low voice.
“What is he saying?” I asked no one in particular.
“He’s double-checking,” Zen said. “Making sure they understand exactly what is going on and a reminder of the rules they went over.”
I sighed as he continued to talk to them for a few minutes.
“I’m surprised you’re allowing this, Mistress,” Archon said, moving to my left. His arm brushed against mine. I forced myself to stay still, to keep myself from leaning into that simple innocent touch.
It was like my body was starved for something. It had to be the Mistress thing. Was it possible to infuse a little spell into the word so every time it was said, I was forced to react a certain way? I’d have to ask Dany about that.
“I’ve been told that there are merits to allowing supervised challenges to occur,” I replied, trying to hide the little hint of fear that was simmering in the pit of my stomach. I kept thinking of everything that could go wrong, all of it bad for the students.
Sparing a glance at Archon, I wondered what his thoughts on these were. Gargoyles had a similar process, their own type of challenges, but they were reserved for leadership changes within their community.
“Were you ever in a scrimmage?” I asked.
His wince told me I’d gotten too personal. “You know about those.” Bitterness crept into his voice.
“Do you know why I was chosen to lead the academy?” I asked. “There were other people who they could have replaced me with.”
“You’re a Neutral family member.” Curiosity slipped into his voice as he stared at me.
I smirked. “Part of it, maybe. I mean, my mother stood behind me and not many are dumb enough to go against Vervain. But that isn’t the main reason.”
“Your stubbornness?” he guessed again.
“Ha. I wish that would have been enough. But no. It’s because I made it a point as I grew older to gain all the knowledge I could about Naturals. Even before the Unveiling, I did extensive research on Naturals. I traveled a lot, stayed in different communities. I poked around so often that I became a nuisance once or twice. My mother and father allowed it because I had a knack for ferreting out secrets. It became useful more often than not for our role in the community.”
Archon’s hand reached out to my forearm, his grip soft as his large hands wrapped around my arm. “Adeelah.” There was a sense of dread in his voice as he saw where I was going with this. I pushed away the emotions his simple use of my name incited in me. There was a tenderness I didn’t want to hear in it.
I shook my head. “Don’t feel pity about this.” With a smirk, I said, “There’s nothing to feel pity about. It wasn’t bad. I found a little community out in the Matterhorn. I’d never felt tension like that before at the time. It was intense. I was only twenty, having only gone to a handful of other communities. The leader there was an ornery bastard too stuck in the old ways while everyone else was ready to move forward.”
Looking down at his hand on me, I touched it, tracing the veins on the back of it, feeling the sharpness of his knuckles.
“There aren’t many of your kind left anymore. Is it because of the scrimmages?”
“Partly,” he answered in a thick voice and let me go, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets. The green hue to his skin became more pronounced as he fought control over himself. “The scrimmages only happen for a takeover, when there’s a fight for new leadership within the community.” He rubbed a hand over his face, trying to dispel whatever thoughts plagued him. “It’s not widely known about either. We try to keep to ourselves as much as possible. That’s probably why our numbers are so small now. We tried to hide and it tore our communities apart.”
“Three families left.”
His nod was a sharp jerk of acknowledgment. “And only a couple dozen small communities. What happened during that scrimmage?”
I shrugged. “It was seven to seven. Bloody and messy. Half the houses were rubble by the end. You guys have hard skin.” I tried to joke about it. He wasn’t amused by me. I sighed. “The old leader was killed, and only two people on the other side survived. There was a third, but his wounds were too extensive, and he died a couple days later.”
“I remember that. News traveled fast and hard about that battle. You were there?”
“Yeah.”
“How did you remain safe?”
“I’m resourceful, Archon.”
He made a low humming noise, his eyes looking out into the field, but they were distant. “My older brother and I were in a scrimmage. Our side won, but he didn’t make it out. I don’t regret it, it was for a good cause, but some days it’s hard to reconcile what we did when I can no longer call my brother up to ask for advice, or challenge him to a fight, or ask him to cook me food. He was a good cook.”
“I thought so. I don’t like the idea of challenges. They don’t make sense to me. I mean, I understand why, but at the same time, I find them senseless.”
“You don’t have any in your family?” he asked.
I shook my head. “We know who’s the big butt-kicker in our family. We’re so focused on trying to live through all the shit we have to deal with in the Natural community that we don’t have time to fight each other. Don’t get me wrong, when it comes to grudges, we’re hands down the best at holding onto them. But we also have too many other priorities that we simply don’t have the time, space, or capacity to fight among ourselves. And we know the score. There’s always the chance that the next job is going to be the one to end us. My family line may be immortal, but that’s natural causes. We can still be killed. Do enough damage to us and we won’t be getting back up again.”
“I still can’t believe you were at Matterhorn.”
“It is what it is. Was that incident the worst I witnessed? No, but I’d say it was the top three.” A memory of hiding in a small dark cellar, covering children with my own body as we waited for it to cave in on us rose from the depths of my mind. I shoved it away.
Archon was about to say something when Asriel projected his voice for everyone to hear. “The challenge will begin. Linton Morano and Jer Berenson will be fighting for dominance. The rules for dominance fights still apply. Once one side concedes, they are acknowledging the other as stronger. If the loser wishes to issue another challenge in the fight, they need to wait at least six months.”
“Who do you think will win?” Gaerlan asked.
That led to a discussion of the two students. Linton and Jer prepared for the match, putting distance between each other. I tuned out the men ready to place bets around me. When Gaerlan went to ask if I wanted to make a bet, I glared hard at him until he moved on like the smart man that he was.
The fight was brutal. Both students were determined to win, and I could see why. The loser would have to bow down to the winner and defer to them until they were able to win a dominance fight in the future. But knowing who was dominant also created boundaries and structure.
Jer got Linton on his back, but the other wolf was spritely, back on his feet in the next breath. Their punches and kicks were powerful. Each thud of their hits connecting gave me phantom pains. My strong imagination had no trouble filling in how it would feel to be hit like that. I’d be a bag of broken bones in their place.
Finally, Jer did a fast combo of hits that pushed Linton back. Then he threw him on the ground, mounted him, and released all his pent-up anger on the poor soul. Before the guards could step in like they looked about to do, Linton turned his head, relaxed his body, and closed his eyes, acting submissive.
Jer was the winner.
As Asriel officially announced the winner, Rophan smirked as Gaerlan handed over the money. I rolled my eyes.
Cael didn’t waste time approaching the two with a smirk on his expression.
Athena’s nipples, he was not getting his claws into them.
I walked over to the students, getting there as Cael was praising their skills and how he thought they had a future ahead of them.
“Congratulations, Jer Berenson,” I said to the first shifter with a smile. His dark eyes lightened into blue as his wolf settled. “Thank you.” His voice was deep and gruff. He cleared his throat. When he spoke again, he sounded normal, almost squeaky. “I really appreciate that, Headmistress.”
I nodded and turned to Linton. “You did well, Linton Morano. These next few weeks will determine the type of person you are as you adjust to this new dynamic.” My eyes cut to Jer and I made sure there was a hint of warning in my voice as I said, “The same for you, Jer. Being dominant isn’t just based on strength. It can be, but those type of people do not last long in our world. You are in the role of a leader, but there are different types of leaders and not all of them are good ones. I do hope you become someone who can be a pillar of strength in the future.”
Jer ducked his head and then met my eyes, determination in his own. I hid my smile at the strong-willed shifter. “Of course, Headmistress. I will use this opportunity to prove myself.”
“Good. And Linton, do not give up. Both of you are still young, still growing and learning. There is no telling what will happen in the future. Now get. Classes are over, but I’m sure you have plenty of things to keep the two of you busy.” I flashed a smile. “I am proud of the both of you.”
Their cheeks were red as they ran off.
“I wanted to talk with them,” Cael said with a glower.
I blinked innocent eyes at him. “Oh, really? I’m so sorry.”
“No, you’re not.” There was a small growl in his voice. His energy brushed against my skin, but it was quickly dissolved as magic replaced it. Rophan was back at my side.
“Problem?” he asked in a low voice. I didn’t need to look at him to know he was doing his trademark Rophan glare at the vampire councilman.
Cael didn’t look at him, still completely focused on me. He knew I knew exactly what he wanted to do. I saw the hungry excitement in his expression. He had wanted to recruit those two students to his side, to consider joining NSFT.
“You aren’t as powerful as you think, Neutral.”
“Doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I’m powerful enough to stand my ground.” I had to be careful with him. Vampires’ heightened senses allowed them to ferret out lies. I couldn’t even hint at knowing that I wasn’t powerful enough if he decided he wanted to hurt me. He would if he knew. He’d tear me apart, and with his speed, he’d be able to do it before Rophan even understood what was happening and could react.
We stared at each other, making sure to show our displeasure.
“You will fall from the little pedestal you managed to climb on top of. I’ll be there to watch the whole journey down.” His eyes glowed with his words, a faint red seeping into his irises. He moved closer to me.
I met his challenge head on. “Watch me real close, Cael, because I’m going to stay at the top, and I’m going to make sure you feel how it is to have someone stomp you into the ground. You’re no longer as strong as you think, Councilman. And it’s about time someone puts you in your place.”
He snarled and reached out for me.
The anger I always held onto so tightly when he was around unleashed, and I returned his snarl. “Do it,” I snapped, voice gruff, my magic building inside of me. “I dare you to touch me. Do your worse. Because this will be the moment your end begins, and I’m going to watch every second of your downfall, Cael.”
Something inside of me rumbled out, and I was on a short leash, ready to lash out at him with everything I had in me.
Cael froze, eyes widening slightly. His hand hovered inches away from me, fingers curled, nails longer as his claws came out to play. He was inches from tearing my throat out.
Refusing to back down from him and knowing that he’d be destroyed if he did anything to me, I said, “Maybe it’s you who needs to rethink about your standing in our world.”
The vampire part of him receded until his eyes were back to his normal dark brown and his fingers were human again. He curled them into a fist and dropped it at his side. With a twitching eye, his lip curled up. There was a war inside himself as he fought against his instincts. Something caved as his shoulders lowered and he stepped back.
“You better watch yourself real carefully, Adeelah. You have enemies and all of them are more than willing to devour you.” With that, he turned on his heel and stalked away.
“What the fuck was that?” Rophan asked.
I glanced at him. “What?” I asked, pretending everything was hunky-dory and perfect.
“What did you do?”
Frowning, I asked, “What do you mean?”
“He backed down. He was ready to kill you and backed off instead.”
“Well yeah. Of course he backed down, why wouldn’t he?” I wasn’t sure what Rophan was trying to get at. “He’ll be back to fight another day, don’t you worry.”
“You...” His voice trailed off as he glanced over at Cael’s retreating back. After a moment, he shook his head. “Never mind. Forget it.”
“It’s not smart to push him like that,” Gaerlan said, closer than I had expected. His expression was somber.
“You know that’s my weakness,” I said. “I don’t know how to back down. I refuse to let anyone see me as less than themselves.”
“The Neutral family stubbornness coming out to play.” Gaerlan sighed and rested his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it lightly. “You’re more of a Neutral member than anyone else in our family.”
“Heh. Maybe someday, I’ll overthrow Ma and take lead.”
He snorted and shook his head. “Don’t push your luck. She’s still capable of flattening me with only one move.”
We laughed at that because it was true. Vervain was the most powerful leader in our family history. It’d be centuries before anyone would be close to being able to take her down. She was a hundred times more stubborn and determined than anyone else in our family.
Looked like I at least inherited that from her.
