billion book
Chapter 37
Students scurry across the quad like ants swarming on candy as I stare out the window of my office. It is the second straight day of clear skies after a week of rain, and the sun is shining brightly. It would be like any other summer day, except that it is the middle of autumn. The students are taking full advantage. After each class lets out, the quad fills up anew in case the rain starts again at any second. Which could happen—such is the unpredictability of the weather lately.
Except the rain will not start again any time soon, because Ophelia Hart is deliriously happy. I know this because not only is her bond with Axl so strong that I feel her in his head, I have also had to endure listening to her have orgasm after orgasm over the past two days. The ground tremors that seem to accompany her every climax have become less pronounced, but the frequency of the seismic activity will end up swallowing this whole goddamn campus if she does not find a way to get a handle on her powers soon.
And therein lies my dilemma. If it truly is raining when she is sad, if her orgasms literally move the earth, and if she did start that fire in her high school …
That means she has mastery of fire, water, and earth. And that makes Ophelia Hart impossible. The most powerful beings in the world have mastery over only two elements. In my two thousand years of existence, I have only ever known of one creature with power over all four, and that was the great Azezal himself.
Ophelia clearly has no idea about her powers, and I have zero desire to be the one to tell her who and what she is. Because then she will look at me with those shining blue eyes full of trust and mistake me for her knight in shining armor. Which will force me to prove how wrong she is by sinking my fangs into her soft flesh.
I possess neither the inclination nor the strength to endure that particular torture. There is also no escaping the fact that the less I know about her, the safer she is.
I continue watching the scurrying ants through the window, most of them with no idea of the true power that exists in this world, only a few hundred feet away from them at any given time.
Vampires, witches, and werewolves are all becoming less powerful, less potent in their abilities every year, and so few are prepared to accept the truth, because then it would mean admitting that they were instruments in their own downfall. The inescapable truth is that without the elementai, magic itself is dying, albeit so slowly that few would notice.
Only those unfortunate enough to have lived such long lives can see it happening before our eyes. And those who were taught to understand the ancient scrolls would have been warned of this fate. An entire species cannot simply be eradicated without dire consequences. It was the new blood and their armies who led the charge, too young and ignorant to know better.
Xavier’s anger floods out of his pores, arriving in my office before he does and alerting me to his presence before he opens his mouth. “Why does he get to bite her and not me?”
“Get out of my office and return when you have something worth saying.” Keeping my tone and expression neutral, I turn and give him my full attention, noting his hands balled into fists at his sides.
“This! This is worth saying, Alexandros. Why him? Why it is always him you favor over me?”
“You are almost two hundred years old, yet you still behave like an adolescent,” I say, my tone weary. “I favor none of you.”
“So why can’t I—”
I snarl, unable—or unwilling—to contain my own rage any longer. “You do not want to bite her, Xavier!”
His face contorts with anger and confusion. “Yes, I fucking do.”
I cross the room in a single stride, and I am close enough to see the indigo flecks in his blue eyes. Why does he refuse to reason? Does he believe me to be so cruel that I would deny him this out of spite? “No, you do not. You have no idea of the agony of being bound to someone like her for eternity. No idea of how much it will cost you.”
He scowls. “You have no fucking right to tell me what I can and cannot have. I feel her bond with Axl. I know what it involves, and I—”
“No!” I roar, causing the walls to rattle. Xavier takes a step back. “You do not know anything of what it would mean to bite her. You feel only the euphoria and the power of her. You have no idea of the pain that will come when you lose her. Because you will lose her, Xavier.” My head spins, my vision blurring with the memories clawing their way to the surface.
As soon as the world finds out what she is, there will be no protecting her from them, I say through our bond. They will come for her, and they will take her from you, and you will die a thousand agonizing deaths every single day after she is gone. Despair crushes my lungs, and I struggle to draw a full breath.
“I’ll take my chances.” Oblivious to my anguish, he sneers with all the arrogance of youth and a heart that has never been broken. “Since when have you ever cared about my well-being, Alexandros? Since the moment you turned me, I’ve been nothing but a burden to you.”
His heart rate spikes in response to the growl that rumbles in my throat, and I hear his blood whooshing through his veins as keenly as if it were my own. “You will be tied to her forever.”
“I already am. We’re all tied to her through Axl, and you know it. At least let us take some fucking pleasure from it.”
“And you will get so lost in the pleasure that when the pain comes …” The mere shadow of a memory steals the rest of the words from my mouth. He has no comprehension of the wretched desolation he is opening himself up to.
“I can fucking handle it.”
But can I? I crack my neck, but it does nothing to relieve the frustration of this conversation or the knowledge that I cannot protect them from the cruelest fate to ever befall a vampire. Giorgios would say it was destiny that brought the only living elementai in over five hundred years to them—to me. “Your brother will not want to share her.”
Xavier’s lips twitch. “Like he’ll have a choice. It’s about time your firstborn was taught to share, just like Malachi and I had to.”
Malachi. The youngest and most sensitive soul I have ever turned. I close my eyes and search for him. Do you know what your brother is asking me? Do you want this too?
Yes, comes his swift reply.
I never used to be this way. Cruel and unyielding. I was a good father once. But that was a long time ago. I am not even sure now whether it is cruelty or sentiment that makes me say “You’re free to bite her.”
Malachi’s intense relief clouds my thoughts for a few seconds before I tune him out and refocus on Xavier. He frowns as though he had no expectation that I would relent. Then he flicks the tip of his tongue over his fangs, and animallike need for Ophelia runs through his veins along with his blood.
I dismiss him with a nod toward the door, and he rushes from the room. If I were a better man, I might feel an ounce of sympathy for Ophelia and what she is about to endure. But the truth is that my worries should be reserved for my boys. She is the one who holds all the power, even if she has no idea of that yet.