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“Come on,” I whined. “What’s wrong? Let’s do it.”
“Mila, that’s sick,” he said.
I furrowed my brows. I wanted to spit in his face “No, Francis, you’re sick!”, but then I saw GC, Paz, and Sariel had stepped away and sobered up, too. I crossed my arms over my chest, pushing my round, half-bare breasts up. My nipples were hard under the shiny leather, and I needed a good fuck so badly.
“Let’s go to your room,” Paz said.
“No.”
“Let’s do it right here,” GC suggested.
“No.” I stomped my foot. What was wrong with them? What was wrong with me?
“Hey, we can go to my room,” Sariel tried. “You never fucked in the MDC dorms, right?”
I suddenly felt like I was about to cry. I didn’t know why, but tears were already gathering at the corners of my eyes, and if I waited another second, they’d run down my cheeks, and then they’d see them. See me. See me crying, when there was literally nothing to cry about.
“No.”
I turned around and ran. I heard Francis curse under his breath, and then I heard them all run after me. They were fast, but I was fast, too, and I had a head start. I reached the edge of the cliff and jumped. The cold water enveloped me, and it was fine now, I could cry.
I swam deep and held my breath for as long as I could. I didn’t know what I was doing. I should have gone up to the surface, not down down down into the darkness. Except… it wasn’t dark at all. My eyes adjusted to the depths of the ocean, and I saw strange fish avoiding me like I was a predator they’d never dealt with before. Maybe I was. I was swimming away from the shore and the surface, and my lungs started protesting. It felt like they were about to explode, so I released the air I’d been holding. I was moving faster that I could’ve ever moved when I was human, so I wasn’t that concerned about getting back to the surface in time. I didn’t need to, though. For a moment, I choked on water, then my body relaxed, and I realized I didn’t need to breathe, after all.
The perks of being a revenant… I was starting to believe my mantra. Well done, Mila!
I wasn’t alone. I squinted my eyes to make out something or someone who was swimming right below me. It looked like a large fish, but the closer I got, the more certain I became that it was a mermaid. Or a merman. Half man, half fish. I knew that dirty blond hair and lean, graceful limbs. Joel. What was Klaus’s boyfriend doing swimming alone in the ocean when Klaus was at the party, drinking and having fun? I lunged forward, eager to catch up with him, but also to test my incredible speed. For some reason, I moved quicker and more smoothly in the water than on land.
Joel saw me and swirled around to watch me with wide eyes.
“Mila, what are you doing here?”
Of course he could talk under water. I couldn’t. I shook my head and pointed upwards. He nodded, took my hand, and we both swam to the surface. God, he was graceful! His long, blue fish tail was covered in translucent, undulating fins, and he also had fins attached to his elbows and wrists. There were gills on his chest and the sides of his neck that weren’t there at all when he was in his human form. We reached the surface, and I took a long, hungry breath. It was still nicer to breathe than to not breathe. We smiled at each other, then we swam toward the sandy beach hidden under the cliff I’d jumped off of.
“So? Why aren’t you at the party?” he asked me as we settled on the shore.
I had my feet in the water, and he his tail.
“Why aren’t you?”
He sighed. “Klaus didn’t tell you? We broke up.”
“I knew something was wrong. When?”
“This summer. I broke up with him, actually. I couldn’t take it anymore… Hiding from his parents, from most of the students at the Academy… When he’s with his family, he’s ashamed because he’s gay and not what his parents want him to be. When he’s with his MDC classmates, he’s ashamed of me. After all, I’m just a kitchen boy. I peel veggies, do the dishes, and cook a brisket from time to time, when the cooks let me use their stuff.”
“I’m sorry.” What else could I have said? “You made a cute couple, and you were good for him.”
He frowned. “I don’t want us to make a cute couple. I want us to make a strong couple. It wasn’t meant to be.”
As much as I loved Klaus as a friend and ally, I knew he had his shortcomings. Wanting to please his family at the expense of his own happiness was one of them. I could only hope things would change for him when he graduated and became a Grim Reaper in his own right. Maybe then, he’d realize how awesome he was. Mage, Merciful Death, friend and member of my Arcane Cabal. If I was ever to defeat Valentine Morningstar, I knew Klaus would play a huge part in it. Once he understood his own worth, maybe he’d be more inclined to finally set aside his family’s needs and prioritize his own.
“Your turn,” Joel said.
I shook my head. “I feel like I’m going insane. I don’t know what the fuck’s going on. I’m just wrong in the head. Earlier, I wanted to…” I sighed. There was no point in giving him the gruesome details. Francis and the guys were right. How could I want to have sex in the cave where I’d sent my first victim to her death? “Do you think we’re the result of our upbringing? Like… not just that. The result of our environment, society, culture… Do you think we carry the sins of our ancestors?”
He blew out his cheeks.
I smiled bitterly. “You don’t have to answer that. I’m just thinking out loud.”
