Ruthless Fae (Zodiac Academy, #2)

by Caroline Peckham

The two Acrux men stood their ground, and I held my breath as I tried to figure out what was going on between them. One thing I had quickly realised though was that I should have listened to Darius’s warning about his father because I’d just waved one hell of red rag at this big bastard of a bull.

he started but Orion cut over him. “Don't. I'll stand with you every time he lays a finger on you. I can't always stop him, but I'll be there.”

“It is what it is,” Orion said, then lowered his tone. “And it won't be forever. You'll be able to wield the shadows yourself soon.”

“Hello, my shining star!” a female voice rang out.

Orion was at my side in a heartbeat, his arm sliding possessively around my waist. “She's my Source, Stella,” he snarled, baring his own fangs back at her. “Oh my, you have been busy since I last saw you, baby boy,” she teased.

“Actually, you two stay. I've got somewhere to be anyway.” Specifically: anywhere but here. I started walking but Orion caught my wrist and yanked me back against his hip.

Stella tutted, still circling us, plucking at my dress, trying to take my hand, but Orion kept swatting her away.

“Let me go,” I demanded of Orion but a low noise in his chest told me he had no intention of obeying.

I glanced down at his hands which were still locked tightly around me. I was flush to his side and the burning heat of his body seeped into mine. “Speaking of not letting go.” I cocked a brow, and he released me, though I found myself lingering against him for half a second before I moved back.

“Come on, I'll show you the way out and you can give me the real story while we walk.” He stepped to my side, placing a hand on my back to get me moving and sending white hot sparks flying out from the base of my spine. I nearly stopped breathing when his arm slid around my waist and remained there.

I nodded and quiet descended on us, thickening the air and making it harder to draw breath. All I could feel was his hand on my waist, and all I could smell was cinnamon and his manly musk.

For a moment, it felt so natural to walk there like that, side by side with him. But the second we turned a corner and he released me, the spell was broken. He was my teacher and there really wasn't anything more to it than that. Half the girls in school swooned over Professor Orion in class. But he was the look-don't-touch variety of guy. Which made him enticing even before his villainous good looks were factored in.

“Have I told you how exceptionally beautiful you look tonight, Darcy?”

He'd said my name. For the first time ever. And why did it sound like so much more than a name when he spoke it? It was like he'd fired an arrow and it had punctured a flesh wound in me at the exact same moment.

We always want what we can't have, and Professor Orion was off limits. Simple as that. And those muscles. And the beard. And the dark eyes. And the dimple. But that was it.

“That's the first I've heard of it, Professor,”

“Don't do that,” he grunted, releasi...

He took a swig of his own drink and the familiar waft of bourbon drifted over me, tingling my senses. It was becoming a trigger, like the moment I walked into his office, and he uncorked a bottle, it made me want to taste it on his mouth. And then that led to me wondering whether his fangs would brush my tongue when we kissed, and that always led to me mentally undressing him, then me conjuring an image of what those muscles looked like beneath that shirt...

“I want you to know, I believe you would have gotten this back yourself when you were ready. But I took a lot of pleasure in retrieving it for you all the same.”

“But Fae don't fight battles for other Fae,” I blurted, completely astonished that his actions that day had been to take this back from Seth. For me. And nothing else.

I stared out into the gleaming water to my right just as a shadow emerged from it. Orion walked through the wall of water as easily as if he'd been walking above ground.

He'd brought me here, alone, cordoning me off from the world. And the blazing intensity in his gaze made me hope that maybe he was about to drop the teacher act for one night and admit he was drawn to me too.

“Up there are a thousand reasons why we can't be together.”

“I'm bound by so many rules I could waste the rest of your evening telling you them,” he said. “Skip them then, sir.”

He moved closer and rested his hands either side of me on the wall. “I think the time for sirs and professors is over, don't you?”

My hands finally got their deepest wish and roamed down the planes of all that gloriously golden skin. But it wasn't enough just to feel the flex of his muscles, I needed more, and I took it by scratching against his beautiful shell, wanting to break beneath flesh and bone and burrow my way deeper. I need more.

He kissed me like he wasn't allowed to kiss me, but if he didn't, he'd die. I tangled myself around him with equal desire, the well of magic in my body spilling over and flooding my veins. A profound and unknown energy hummed within me, drawing to the edges of my skin. Orion seemed to sense it too as the hairs raised along my arms and static energy crackled everywhere our flesh met.

With so little clothes parting us, I felt every inch of his hardened cock pressing between my legs and I started to wonder how far this kiss was going to go. The huge size of him had my breaths quickening and a hungry moan falling from my lips.

He steadied me for a moment then the air between us changed. His eyes darkened and he didn't need to speak to let me know what he was thinking. A vow hung solidly around us. This won't happen ever again.

“We can stay a little longer...if you want.” His expression was that of a wounded man, but I knew whatever pain lay in his body, would never be mine to heal.

“Are you angry with me for bringing you here?” he asked, and I was compelled to look down, falling into the intensity of his eyes as a strained line formed on his brow. “No.” He reached out to skate his fingers across the line of my jaw, feather light. “You know how it has to be.” I nodded, leaning away from his touch which felt like forcing two magnets apart. “I know.”

“She got caught up with some bad people.” “The Acruxes?”

“Don't go looking for trouble, Miss Vega.”

“Lance?” I whispered and he stood up straighter. “If I can't call you Blue, you're not calling me that.”

Something about that cut deeper than any other promise we'd made tonight. But maybe that was the way he felt about his nickname for me.

Do not underestimate the beast who shadows you. He is the ultimate power, ruling over your lives and the lives of many others. Beware of his lies. The answer to your question will be revealed on the Lunar Eclipse. But when finding the truth, don't let the shadows take you. - Falling Star

My thoughts were in turmoil as I raced up the stairs, leaving Darcy alone and knowing that the next time I saw her things would be back to normal. And by normal I meant I'd be smothering the fiery pit of longing that raged inside me every time I was around her and she'd be back to thinking I was the asshole teacher who treated her just like everyone else: a piece of shit.

No one was allowed in there. Not unless they were getting beaten or fucked. Luckily for the male gender, Lionel's tastes were firmly female.

It wasn't news to me that they were fucking each other, but it still made my skin crawl. The seductive purr of my mother's voice made me want to twist knives into my ears just so I wouldn't have to hear it, but I remained there because of what I'd heard Lionel say when I'd stood with Darcy on the stairs. “It's only a week until the eclipse.”

But the one thing he hadn't banked on when he'd bound me to his son, was that I had to protect him from everything. Including his sadistic asshole of a father.

The dismissiveness in her voice told of how little she cared for me these days. Back before I'd enrolled at Zodiac I was once her rising sun, now I was just a dog she kicked occasionally. Not that I had any regret over why she didn't like me anymore. If she wanted me dead, then I'd stay alive to spite her.

“I won't make the same mistakes twice, this time we'll pick the right Fae,” Lionel growled.

I wanted to claw my way back through time and stop it all from happening. I'd make better decisions. I'd tear off Lionel's head before he could place this bind on me which forced me to guard his son. I'd save Clara from her suffering and the shadows which had consumed her.

You kissed The Savage King's daughter you moron.

I'd given in to temptation and though I vowed never to lay a hand on her again, I still couldn't undo what I'd already done. My Libra instincts were screaming at me like a disappointed parent, telling me I'd acted unfairly by offering her a ray of hope then stamping on it just as quickly. The scales of my inner moral compass were well and truly tipped and the only way to right them again was by ending this before it started. But something cut into me, forcing me to acknowledge it like a blade spinning in my gut. Alright so maybe I can't forget about her right away. But I'll damn well force her out eventually.

“Do you think there’s any chance of them actually succeeding this time?” I considered that. “It's impossible to say. After what happened last time, I would have thought they'd never want to attempt it again.”

“If they succeed this time who knows what hell they could unleash.”

He hasn’t shown any inclination to trust you with his plans so far and now that he’s gotten it into his head that you’re chasing after Tory Vega-” “I’m not chasing after her,” he snarled. “I saved her from herself. She insulted him right to his face. If I hadn’t stood between them fuck knows what he would have done to her.”

I didn't know if I was angry at him for softening towards a Vega or if I was angry at myself for the exact same thing.

“I don’t know what the hell came over me. That girl just knows how to push my buttons. The sooner her and her sister are gone, the better.”