Chapter 62
"Night, have you heard?" Beth Camper's voice trailed slowly towards the edges of my consciousness. It was four days after the death of Frodo Peppins and I had been outrageously sick enough to miss classes. My pulse burned and I could barely close my eyes before being visited by nightmares. I saw the cellar. I heard his last words. Everything reminded me that I was doomed.
"Heard what?" I sat up, my mass of red hair flying free and rebellious in the room. I was dressed in an oversized milk colored shirt that swallowed my entire frame. Beth sat in front of the dressing mirror, her fangs flashing as she applied a red lipstick to her lips accentuating the corpse whiteness of her face.
It was not a comforting sight.
"Viviette Tom is resigning." Beth smacked her lips together.
"Wait what?"
"Yes" Beth said hurriedly "As usual your lack of interest in the social world of Raven Hollow is quite alarming. And she's your Psychometry teacher ".
"I haven't been to class in three days, Beth" I reminded her hoarsely.
She spared me a sorry sympathetic look "You should visit the infirmary. You look even paler than I".
I rolled my eyes "It's nothing serious, Beth. Just a hoard of bad dreams and depression that's all".
Beth shrugged "The curse of a Dark Magian. Who's dying this time?"
I sneered "Oh please. I hope no one does. We haven't quite recovered from Maren and Darien's tragedy ". I wanted to say Frodo Peppins.
The name climbed as far as my throat and stayed there.
Like a secret too heavy to swallow and too dangerous to release.
I looked away.
"The Academy says Professor Tom is leaving for personal reasons," Beth continued, turning back to the mirror. "Which is Raven Hollow's favourite way of saying absolutely nothing."
I managed a humourless smile.
"Did she... resign this morning?"
Beth nodded.
"Before first period. Apparently she handed Principal Scavenger a letter and walked straight out of his office."
My chest tightened.
Walked.
As though there were anywhere left to go.
As though a woman who had buried fourteen years beneath her own house could simply pack a suitcase and begin again.
"When's her last class?" I asked quietly.
Beth frowned.
"There won't be one."
"What?"
"They've already assigned Professor Alaric to Psychometry until they find a permanent replacement."
I stared at her.
Just like that.
Fourteen years had ended.
One resignation letter.
One announcement.
One replacement.
The Academy had moved on before the grave was cold.
A bitter taste settled in my mouth.
"Night?"
I looked up to find Beth staring at me intently. Her face was composed in a thoroughly observant grin. "You look troubled"
"I am sick" I swallowed. I didn't tell her I was in love with a werewolf. I didn't tell her I felt like my days were numbered. I didn't tell her I didn't know how to break free from something that would definitely be my ruin. "And my favorite teacher is resigning."
"Wasn't she a bore?" Beth rolled her eyes "Minata Strauss was visibly dancing for joy when it was announced."
"We all know how dramatic Minata likes to make everything look ".
Beth stood up and grabbed her bag "Guess who's decided to be all gamey today" .
"Please don't tell me your brother the hermit has finally decided to grace the outside world with his outrageously handsome presence " I laughed without an ounce of mirth.
Beth giggled "Someone finally managed to convince him civilization is not overrated".
"Smart man. Wheres he taking you?"
"Somewhere not exotic, trust me. " Beth winced "I would rather hunt a demon than sit on a date with Alex Camper. But alas, blood they say.."
"Is thicker than water" I finished for her.
Beth kissed my cheeks hurriedly before bouncing off gaily and then I was finally left alone.
I stood in front of the mirror, staring at the paleness of my face. At the lines beneath my eyes. I was sleep starved, sleep deprived, haunted by nightmares and thoroughly depressed. And I looked every inch like it.
I reached for the comb lying beside the mirror and stopped halfway.
My reflection didn't feel like mine anymore.
Four days ago I had watched a man die for love.
Four days ago I had watched Professor Tom discover that even forever could end.
First it was Maren and Darien, human and werewolf caught in the abominable act and publicly burned. Next it was watching privately the world of Viviette Tom collapse by the death of the werewolf she had loved and hidden for fourteen years.
And somewhere between those moments, the future I had imagined with Jordan Files had quietly begun to resemble a funeral.
Frodo had hidden beneath a cellar for fourteen years.
Fourteen years.
Not because he was a coward.
Because the world had given him only two choices.
Leave the woman he loved.
Or lose the world.
He had chosen the world that contained Viviette.
I closed my eyes.
Would Jordan make the same choice?
Worse...
Would I let him?
"You look terrible" The breath sat on my neck like stale air. Goosebumps kissed my skin.
Well, speak of the wolf. Jordan stood behind me in that peculiar grating magnificence that still managed to leave a turbulence at the pit of my stomach. He wasn't looking haggard or haunted like me, infact he seemed to have an extra touch of that famous elegance.
I hated him instantly and then I hated myself for hating him.
"You look flamboyant as always" I smirked. His hands curved to my stomach, I slapped it off hurriedly.
"You have been absent from class for three days now, Night. Your line is unreachable. I was worried sick." He touched my hair, arranging the red mass so painstakingly slow and carefully.
"And you have been in the studio cooking up another miracle for Bloodstone" Jordan's latest single was all over social media since yesterday. He had titled this one 'Electric Rose', and like electricity, the song was taking charts by storm.
"Well, they pay me for it. I am an afterall a popstar, mon cher" His grating arrogance was not ending anytime soon. He had managed to successfully bind my hair neatly with a hair pin he found from God knows where. I looked like a human being now, not some haunted zombie.
"How can you manage to sing in the midst of all this chaos" I was incredulous and livid.
"What chaos?" His mouth was on my neck, his fingers were cupping my breasts. Inasmuch as it was enticing, I slapped the hands off.
I turned to face him.
I said "A man died four days ago."
His smile faded.
"I know."
"Do you?"
Silence.
I snapped "Because you've released another hit single. Bloodstone is trending. Everyone's posting clips of you singing like the world's still intact."
Jordan stared at me for a long moment.
"You think music means I don't care."
"I think you're coping far too well."
He looked away, the perfection of his jawline visible . "You have no idea how I'm coping."
"Then tell me."
His jaw tightened. "I can't."
"Convenient."
"Night..."
"No." My voice came out sharper than I intended. "I watched Viviette Tom scream over the man she'd loved for fourteen years. Fourteen years, Jordan."
I swallowed. "Do you know what frightened me most?"
He didn't answer.
"It wasn't that Frodo died." My voice cracked. "It was that he believed every year he spent hiding was worth it."
Jordan's expression changed.
The confidence disappeared.
"Night..."
"He never regretted loving her."Tears burned behind my eyes. "He regretted nothing."
Jordan took a careful step closer, his hands cupped my face.
"That's supposed to be beautiful."
"No." I shook my head violently. "It's supposed to terrify us."
He frowned. "Why?"
"Because that's us. Dont play dumb, Jordan."
The words landed between us like a stone.
Jordan went completely still.
"Night..."
"Don't." I backed away. "Don't tell me we're different."
"We are."
"How?"
"Because I'm not Frodo."
"Neither was he," I whispered. "Until he became him."
Jordan had no answer.
The silence stretched until it became unbearable.
Finally he spoke.
"Do you want me to stop loving you?"
I closed my eyes.
That was the one question I'd been trying not to ask myself.
"I don't know."
It was the first honest thing I'd said all week.
Jordan said stiffly "Sad news, Night Carter. I can never stop loving you. "
I smiled bitterly, letting my fingers trace the contours of his lips. "Do you want to kill me, Jordan. They would literally burn us. They burnt Maren and Darien ".
Jordan placed his lips firmly on mine, I felt too feverish to respond to his urgency but he kissed me with a vengeance "I would burn for you" His hands carried me in one powerful grasp and I was seated firmly on the table, his mouth was still hungrily sliding over mine.
Over my neck. Over the edges of my collarbone. Over my skin. I stifled a moan.
"Don't say things like that" I whispered, feeling my resistance weaken. My legs slide apart, my chest burned with desire.
"Night... look at me."
I looked at him. At the certainty inscribed on him . I could see the heat too. The hunger. I could see his restless fingers sliding purposefully beneath my oversized shirt. I felt my nipples harden.
"I'm not Frodo."
"You already said that."
"No." With one hand he brushed a strand of red hair behind my ear. The other was running in circles around my left nipple "What I mean is... I refuse to spend fourteen years hiding underground just to earn permission to love you."
My heartbeat stumbled.
"You say that now." I moaned, I let my hand caress his face.
"I'll say it in fourteen years too." He had danced slowly down to my navel and then to the fullness of my naked pussy. I had worn nothing beneath the shirt.
I gasped "You don't know that."
"I know me." He was playing at the entrance, his fingers sliding between the folds of skin. I danced on those fingers, riding it till I gripped the table tightly.
I whispered "That's what frightens me."
"Your legs are shaking" His voice was hot on my face. I held unto the table as he slide a finger into me. My legs were indeed shaking. My voice faltered.
Jordan knelt, pulled me further forward till my pussy was in his face. I shuddered with ecstasy.
"Yess..yess..ss" My voice sliced into half stutters.
"God, I have missed this" He was sniffing my cunt, I heard him inhale and then exhale with a grin. I touched his head.
When Jordan pulled his tongue into me, my thoughts do not turn to Frodo Peppins, dead in a cellar. Nor to Maren and Darien, burnt alive by a cruel law.
I thought instead of heaven, of the dripping liquid between my thighs, of the certainty that I would never give Jordan up even if I tried , of the slow tongue threading it's way into my body with expertise.
I moaned slowly , my hand tight on his head, Jordan was slowly eating me to pieces.
"Fuckkkk, yessss, " The words escaped my mouth in a near scream. I kept my thighs wide open, resisting the urge to squeeze them over his head.
We did not hear the door open. All we heard was a grating "I told you". Jordan hissed and wanted to pull out his face but I held his head firmly in place. My face was at the door, and through hazy eyes I could see the outlined figure of Derrick Vale, standing together with Moira Files, Jordan's mom and the deputy sheriff of Tish.
Everything else was a blur.