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Chapter 36
Talin
I'd spent the night in bed with Ela, reminding myself of all the ways I loved him. He managed to show me a few more, keeping us up well into the early hours. When we made it to class the next morning, both Ela and I were moving a little slower. The lack of sleep had that effect on us. Nari and Wraythe were in good moods, though.
Then there was Ciella. After our first class got out, she and Tishlie were hovering in the halls, just begging to be seen. The four of us walked past, doing our best to ignore them, but it wasn't easy. Ciella raised her voice enough that her taunts were impossible to miss. Tishlie stepped forward like she was about to start something. Thankfully, Ciella caught her hand, halting her.
Anver was nowhere to be seen, though. That was all I cared about at the time, but I should've known better. Nari said that she and Wraythe had been caught leaving Anver's room. That was why, over the next few days, those two idiots began taunting Nari again. Just Nari, this time. Not Ela.
In the one class they shared, the bitch twins kept staring at her while giggling behind their hands. They threw small balls of paper her way, often hitting others in the process. Yes, they got called out, but it didn't seem to be enough to stop them. Nari, however, found it funny and enjoyed telling us about it later. Ciella's and Tishlie's antics were so childish and over the top that it was making them into a laughingstock.
We weren't kids anymore, but it seemed that those two hadn't figured that out yet. Nari was twenty-one now, and she was the youngest of her class. I was twenty-four, and in the rest of the world, men my age would have their family almost complete and be well on their way to an established career. Tishlie and Ciella seemed to have simply stopped maturing somewhere around the age of sixteen, and their best attempts at bullying only made them look more and more pathetic.
They cycled through just about every teenaged antic they could think of. Ciella called Nari fat, asking if it was because she'd stopped trying to be a guardian. Tishlie made a point of hanging all over Anver, which backfired when he simply pulled away.
By the end of the next week, Nari couldn't take it anymore. She just started giggling at the stupidity of the whole thing. I had no idea a woman's face could turn as many shades of red as Tishlie's did. Ciella just got pissed, demanding to know what was so funny. The idiot wasn't even aware that it was the exact same trick she'd tried to pull a few days before, which made me laugh too. That set off Wraythe, and hearing a guy his size try to stifle a giggle? Yep, Ela didn't stand a chance. He had to join in.
Over the weekend, we spent most of the first day with Maela, making plans for her to speak to Kinen. After hearing about Ciella being kept at the temple, Maela's previous courage began to vanish, but Nari assured her that it didn't matter. She had this. Maela wanted to agree, but she was starting to see the glaring problems that the temple preferred to keep hidden inside its walls.
And when the next week started, Ciella and Tishlie must've reassessed their tactics. They decided that Nari was invisible. It was quite the improvement, or so I thought at first. A few days later, Ela and I were going to wait for Nari's last class to get out. She was finally getting to tour the infirmary. The ward would be empty, and the point of the class was simply to learn where things were kept and what they were allowed to use, but to Nari, it sounded like the kind of hands-on lesson she loved most. Ela and I wanted to see that amazing smile on her lips as she told us all about it.
We were heading up the main hall when Ciella approached, going in the other direction. I saw her but tried not to make a big deal of it. Still, our eyes met and that was all it took. The woman wasn't ugly, and she raked her eyes across my body as if offering a silent invitation. I ignored it, because to the rest of the world, I had a big metal ring on my dick that should hurt if I tried anything like that. I also only had eyes for two people: Ela and Nari.
But ignoring her wasn't good enough. Just when I was sure Ciella was about to pass right by me, the woman turned, grabbed my shoulders, and pushed. That let her slip past Ela, shoving me up against the wall. I leaned forward, intending to force my way out of her grip, but she'd expected that - and used it as an excuse to kiss me.
Her lips pressed against mine, her tongue teasing the seam for me to open before her. I hesitated for a split second out of sheer surprise, and then I kissed back. If she thought I was some weak and helpless guardian, I had bad news for her. My teeth caught her lower lip and I bit, making it clear that I did not play nice.
Against my leg, I felt a hand. Too low to be Ciella's, it dipped into my right boot. Opening my eyes, I saw Ela stand back up, a glint of silver in his hand, so I kissed this fool even harder. I didn't want to think about why he had my dagger, but I hated this bitch enough not to even care.
She staggered into me, pressing even harder than before. That was from Ela behind her, sandwiching her between us. Ciella pulled her mouth away to suck in a breath, wanting to look back. Ela didn't give her the chance. With the three of us pressed so close together, his body shielded the blade that slipped between us to press against her throat. No one passing by would even notice it.
"You want to play with my man, Ciella?" Ela asked, his voice gravelly in a way that sounded dangerous.
"Oh, she wanted to hurt me," I assured him. "She honestly believed that if she kissed me, I'd get hard and my ring would bite." I leaned closer to her, ignoring the blade Ela held. "Too bad for you, I like a little pain."
"And I like a lot," Ela breathed.
I could see his pupils dilating. This close, there was something unnerving about the change in his deep brown eyes. Wraythe always called it "the darkness," and I was starting to see what he meant. Ela's eyes didn't change color, but they sure looked cold and dangerous. Like a predator, I realized, or maybe just something a bit feral.
"He was checking me out," Ciella said, as if that somehow excused her actions.
"And he's notyours," Ela growled. "I didn't give you permission to touch my things."
Ciella seemed to have no idea what kind of danger she was in. "In case you forgot, he's Nari's. Not yours, Eladehl."
Ela just leaned in toward her ear. "What's mine is hers. What's hers is mine. That's why we're partners. That's why we work."
"And I'm not a sub," Ciella huffed. "Get your fucking knife away from my throat."
My heart stalled because that was the wrong thing to say. I knew it a split second before Ela pressed the blade deeper, the edge just slicing the skin at that delicate triangle at the base of her neck.
"Good," he panted, clearly excited. "I'm not a dom. My dear, I am a punisher. A sadist. I don't care if you like it. I'm not interested in whether or not it turns you on. All I want to do is see you hurt. I want to break your body, carve your skin, and jack off to the sound of your screams."
Her face was held so close to mine that I couldn't miss the way the blood drained from her skin. I also couldn't stop my smile. "Didn't see that one coming, did you?" I asked her. The fool honestly assumed that if she wasn't submissive, he'd have no power over her? From the look on her face, she'd just realized how wrong she was. "She's scared, Ela."
"Good," he grumbled.
But he wasn't backing off. His eyes closed in a slow blink. His fingers clenched the hilt tight enough to turn white. I could see his internal struggle, even if Ciella couldn't. I also knew what he'd done to Faylie those first weeks. I'd heard it was because the woman reminded him of this bitch, so he'd made her pay for the similarities. He'd cut her up, beat her, and flogged her so badly that Faylie hadn't been able to make her assigned sessions!
