Tasting Darkness
Chapter 20

“Aleera!” He called, and my b***d ran cold. I raced down the steps, quickly disappearing amongst the other demons. Getting to the bottom of the steps, someone shoved me, and I hit the ground. I looked to see who it was, but too many men to pinpoint which one, and I cried out when another stomped on my fingers “There she is,” I heard Zac’s voice just before a fireball rushed toward me. I shrieked, just managing to move, and it evaporated as it hit the ground where I was.

“Let’s see how pretty she is without all that hair,” Zac’s voice says, making me look up the steps. Zac smiled, and his eyes glistened evilly as he played with another fireball bouncing it in his hand. I took off running down the corridor. I didn’t stop running until I ended up in a hall on my own. I had no idea if he was still intending to burn my hair off when I stopped to try and catch my breath. “I think she went this way,” I heard Deacon’s voice. I cursed and started trying doors, replaceing most of them to be rooms set up with bunks, and I figured it wouldn’t be a good idea to hide in one of their rooms.

I could hear the screech of their shoes as they ran toward me before I burst through another door and quickly shut it.

Looking around, I replace it is a classroom. I could hear them opening and closing doors in the corridor and looked around for somewhere to hide before spotting a jar of pens and noticing some scissors. I grab them before darting underneath the desk.

If I get out of this, the hair is going. I was chopping it off. My heart stopped when I heard the door open. I clutched the scissors in my hand as I heard footsteps walk toward the desk. The chair is dragged out, and my eyes meet with Tobias’s. He went to no doubt cursed me out when Zac’s voice reached my ears, and I jumped, bumping my head on the top of the desk.

Tobias growled and sat down just as the door burst open. I froze; I even held my breath.

“What?” Tobias snapped, pushing his chair in and caging me in with his legs.

“Shit, sorry, Sir,” I hear the door creak like Zac was about to leave before it stopped.

“Have you seen the traitor bitch?” My heart skipped a beat at Zac’s words.

“No, now get out of my f*****g classroom.”

“Sorry, sir,” Zac says before I hear the door shut. I let out a breath, but Tobias doesn’t move. Glancing at the scissors, I quickly pocket them before tapping his leg. Still, he doesn’t move.

“Tobias?”

“You never answered me this morning,” he says, pushing the chair out a little to look at me but not enough for me to get out.

“You would know if I lied, so I didn’t think it was worth answering,” he growls.

“Um, can I get out?”

“You missed my class,”

“I couldn’t replace it,”

“You know Darius won’t be happy when he replaces out,” he pushes his chair back further, and I scramble out before being trapped between him and his desk.

“Unless,” Tobias said. I swallowed, and my thoughts went to Darius last night and his cruelty playing with the bond. All night I was Restless from the pain of being rejected and humiliated for falling for it.

“Unless what?”

“I won’t tell him, but I want something in return,”

“I am not doing anything s****l with you,” I snap at him, trying to push past his leg blocking my way. Tobias stands towering over me. His eyes flicker and turn b***d red, and he pins me against the desk by placing his hands on either side of me, and I lean away from him.

Tobias growled, and I watched as his fangs slipped out. “What if I want something else, like your b***d?” he asked, and my heart rate quickened.

“You want to feed on me?” he nods, sniffing me before grabbing me and burying his face in my neck.

“You smell f*****g divine,” he growls, I felt his tongue run over the pulse in my neck, and I tried to shove him off and failed miserably when he let me go; he grabs my wrist, bringing it to his nose.

“You smell sweet like Lycus,” he whispered. I felt his magic rush over me as he paralyzed me. My body became frozen as my thoughts ran rampant, and my heart thudded painfully.

“Lycus knows,” I blurted out, petrified of him feeding on me. Would it hurt? What if he killed me? Vampires weren’t the best with control.

“I will take care of Lycus, so what will it be, Aleera. I tell Darius, or you let me feed on you, I promise to be gentle,” he said, running his teeth against the inside of my wrist. My eyes widened before thinking of what Darius would do if he found out, but what was stopping Tobias from still telling him. But then again, what was preventing him from feeding on me if he really wanted to anyway.

“Tick tock Aleera, Darius will be back soon; your next class is with him, so pick, or you will be late,”

“And you won’t tell him?”

“I won’t tell him, besides he would be pissed off if he knew I fed off you, so it will be our little secret,” My heart thudded so hard I could hear it, but I found myself nodding anyway, more frightened of what Darius would do if he found out. Apparently, my nodding must have been enough consent because I hissed in the next second as his fangs sank into my wrist, breaking my delicate skin. Initially, it hurt before my wrist and hand tingled; warmth spread through me, making me realize he was using his magic so it wouldn’t hurt. He didn’t feed off me long.

Tobias then pulled his fangs from my wrist when the siren sounded, signaling next class. I glance at the clock behind him to replace it wasn’t a clock, but some strange moon wheel, with different, fazes of the moon.

Tobias wipes his mouth with his thumb before sucking my b***d off it. His eyes glistened, and I watched as he pricked his thumb with one of his fangs before running it over the two puncture marks on my wrist. They closed instantly, and he brought my wrist to his mouth. I thought he was going to bite me again when he ran his tongue over it, licking up the b***d that spilled down my wrist. His eyes flicker before going to mine, and he smirks.

“You taste sweeter than Lycus, though,”

“Is that a bad thing?” I asked.

“Not for me it isn’t, but for you, it may be,” he chuckles darkly.

“Let’s just say I have a sweet tooth,” I take a step back when his eyes glow redder, and he laughs before flicking his wrist, and a portal opens up beside him.

“Get to class,” He says, shoving me through it.

I gasp, feeling his magic swallow me along with the portal before I replace myself spat outside on the fields. I landed on my hands and knees. I look around the vast area to get to my feet and see all the men walking in my direction and Darius. He stops cocking his head to the side.

“You decided to show up and on time. Thought you would have run when you found out your next class was with me,” He laughed as he stopped in front of me. The men moved out onto the field, and I was thankful it was all grass. However, that was short-lived when I realized they were using their elements, and this was a magic class.

F**k! I curse, knowing I have no magic. All Fae have an element, and I knew I was about to come out of here battered brutally because I wasn’t dealing with Fae but demons, who only had one element and the most lethal, f*****g fire. Whereas I was an elemental harmony Fae which is not only rare but extinct, holding not only one but all elements, plus some other odd gifts I couldn’t explain or have dabbled much in but being an elemental harmony Fae was no good to me now with no magic.

“Partner up,” Darius called out. I looked around at all the men, and one smiled at me. The man was a giant, tall with dreadlocks to his waist and mocha-colored skin, his demonic eyes ran the length of me, and I took a step back as he stalked toward me.

“I will take the traitor,” The man said. Traitor, why does everyone keep calling me that? Darius nods to him, and I look at Darius. He doesn’t surely expect me to fight without magic? I will get destroyed in seconds.

“Let’s see how pretty you are without your hair,” The man sneered. What is it with everyone trying to ruin my hair?

“Her hair is off-limits; burn her hair off, and I will take f*****g your head,” Darius tells him, which shocked me.

“But she is a traitor,”

“I don’t care; her hair is off-limits,” Darius says. Maybe he likes long hair because I know he doesn’t like me. Well, he would be in for a rude shock when I cut it off later tonight with the scissors I stole.

I spent most of the class dodging his fireballs, which I was glad was all he used. He could have turned me into a raging inferno but seemed more amused with just tossing them at me. Although, I noticed Darius stayed close for some reason.

My clothes were singed, my arm was burnt, and one hand took a nasty blow. I was exhausted, having spent all my time dodging while the men laughed and watched. Some even sat on the grass just watching my torment as I tried to avoid the flames. Dodging another, my lungs were burning as I ducked,

falling to my knees when suddenly flames erupted around me, boxing me in with firey walls. I jumped to my feet, looking for an escape as they drew nearer, panic gnawing at me. I hated fire, hated it, and nothing scared me more.

“That’s enough,” I heard Darius growl.

“Don’t worry, I will only burn her a little,” The man taunted as the flames grew closer. My heart rate skyrocketed as the flames grew closer and closer. I coughed on the smoke and could feel the heat blistering my skin.

“I said enough,” Darius growled before the flames were blasted with water. I looked through the smoke to see Darius turn and attack the man I was partnered with, drenching him too. Wait, how can he use a water element? I saw him use fire last night?

“My word is law, defy me again, and you will replace yourself in the dungeons,” He snarled as I choked on the smoke from the extinguished flames.

Images flickered in my vision, the smoke ridiculously thick, and my eyes burned from the smoke. I remembered this feeling, the choking as each breath burned my lungs; I tried to suck in a breath, my vision tunneling as I was brought back to the night my parents were killed. I stumbled, cursing under m y breath, realizing I was having a panic attack.

Air suddenly blasted me as I became dizzy. The smoke was pushed away, and I blinked my brain trying to register where the air magic came from before all I saw was black, and heard the snickering laughter of the men surrounding me as I fainted and collapsed on the ground.