Rasmus had his own space in the basement where he could sleep behind a locked door if he needed to rest away from the sunlight. Hecoped fine in daylight, but bright sun burned his pale skin if he didn’t cover up.
Although my vampire prince needed very little sleep, when he did rest, he slept like the dead. Literally. Which made him vulnerable.
Maverick’s uncle and his crew didn’t know about Rasmus. We’d decided it was safer not to tell anyone outside our circle. Glynda knew, obviously, and Farris too, but nobody else had a clue a vampire had survived the bloodborne virus.
I’ll admit I was worried Alaric might tell his father, but had decided that, despite everything, I trusted him not to betray us.
Kai had taken a room at the end of the corridor, the smallest one, with no fireplace, but he claimed it was fine. At least it didn’t smell as bad as the rooms on the ground floor.
Maverick had gone all out and cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms until they sparkled, but it turned out wolf piss was difficult to eradicate, and in the living room, the stink still lingered.
Kenji’s scent marking had not helped the smell situation. When I asked why he’d peed on chair legs, he’d insisted he needed to claim his territory, whatever that meant.
Thank fuck Maverick hadn’t done the same.
I’m not sure I could have coped with more gross pee smells.
There was only so much a handful of scented candles and odor-neutralizing herb bundles could do.
I knocked on Kai’s door and waited for him to answer.
“Raven.” His blue cheeks flushed lilac with embarrassment. “I’m sorry for walking in on you before,” he said, scrubbing at his jaw while refusing to meet my eyes.
“It’s fine!” I smiled like it wasn’t massively mortifying for my mate to catch me mid-orgasm with one of my other mates. This was a sex-positive dorm, and I was a modern witch with needs.
I now followed some witchfluencers on Witchtok—Zane had downloaded the app for me on the iPad Maverick had decided I must have so I could access my timetable. Telling witches tofeel their inner goddessandexplore their Aphrodite sidewas the sort of aspirational content they posted, along with soft-focus shots of candles and melting ice cream.
“I’ll be more careful in the future.” Kai still hadn’t invited me in. Stars, had I upset him?
I’d meant to go swimming with him every morning since we first got back, but I was not a morning witch, and he always left at dawn. Goddess forgive me, Kai deserved a better mate than me. One who woke up bright and early and not in a bad mood.
I floundered for something to say, needing to breach the chasm between us.
“Is your troll friend back? I haven’t seen him around.” Kai and the troll—Hulder?—had been good friends before the break; they were always together between classes.
“No, he’s not coming back.” A wave of sorrow filtered through the bond.
“Why? What’s happened?” Quite a few students hadn’t returned this semester. Some because their parents didn’t believe the academywas safe, and others, well, I wasn’t sure. It seemed to be mostly the lesser magicals who had stayed away.
Unfortunately, Demelza wasn’t one of them. I silently wished she’d transferred to a different school; one on another continent.
“His older sister disappeared just after the winter solstice celebration. He’s searching for her.”
I pushed past him and sank down onto the narrow bed. Stars, it was cold in here. Maybe I’d order my merman some fluffy blankets from Magizon. Maverick wouldn’t mind.I hoped.
“Where might she have gone?”
“Mages are stealing females from the lesser magical communities and taking them goddess-knows where.”
“Why would they do that?” I squinted at him. It made no sense.
“I don’t know.” Our arms touched when he sat next to me on the hard bed. A sliver of warmth ran through my veins as my magic woke up, reveling in his closeness.
I’d missed my merman. One kiss in the cave at the bottom of the swimming pool was not enough. But now was a bad time to explore my desires.
Kai fell silent again, clearly uncomfortable with me in his room. Which sucked. I already had one mate who couldn’t stand the sight of me; having two who felt the same way strongly suggested I was the problem.
“Um, I’ll leave you.” I jumped up while pasting a smile on my face. “I have stuff to do for Dunton’s class.” Nothing that was urgent, but I didn’t want to feel like a burden to my merman.
