Metamorphosis—Day 42, hour 1
I yelled over the loud music, “You know, sometimes I get this weird crick in my back, and it’s like ‘ow.’ Then, just when I finally relax and think it’s over, it goes crack, crack, crack.”
I held my hands wide to emphasize how large the cracks were and said, “I think it’s my sleeping position.”
Sadie’s mate Ascher tilted his head as he listened to my story.
Firelight danced across his horns.
I was pretty sure he shifted into some type of barnyard animal, but I couldn’t remember exactly. Maybe a chicken? Or a sheep?
I sidestepped a flailing arm.
Around us dozens of limbs waved in the darkness, and the floor vibrated to the pounding pulse of the loud bass.
Someone had closed all the curtains, so the room was mostly black except for firelight. It cast warm shadows on the packed bodies that danced and did unmentionable things to one another.
A few hours ago, the party had started as an intimate get-together among competitors.
It was now a full-blown rager.
There were at least seventy people crammed into the small room, and hundreds more were partying in the hallway outside. Word had leaked to the academy, and the entire student body was partying.
“What do you mean by a crack?” Ascher shouted back at me over the music with a concerned expression.
I held my hands up. “Imagine a crack on a sidewalk.”
Ascher nodded.
“Then imagine that crack on your back.” I pointed to myself for context.
Rose-and-flame tattoos flashed on his hand as Ascher gestured with the demon brew bottle and asked, “Is it like you’re cracking your back yourself or is it cracking on its own? Or did the crack just appear…in your skin?” He narrowed his eyes as he tried to make sense of what I was saying.
“Yes!” I took a swill from the demon brew bottle clenched between my fingers, then chased it with a long inhale of my pipe. “I’m so glad you get it.”
Ascher looked confused for a second but then shrugged like he’d given up trying to understand.
“To cracks!” He clanked his bottle against mine.
“Crackalack,” I responded smartly. “On my back.”
We drank to that.
I smoked some more.
We nodded at each other and looked around, pretending to take in the party’s ambiance. A man fell to his knees in front of us and started sucking another student’s cock.
We turned back to each other to give them some privacy.
“So,” I said conversationally, “how does it feel to be in love with and mated to the prettiest person in all the realms?”
Ascher beamed. “Aw, I’ll tell Cobra you said that.”
I choked, and demon brew poured out of my nose. “I can’t believe you’re mated to that psycho.”
“Imagine.” Ascher grinned. “I can literally feel his thoughts and emotions.”
My jaw dropped. “Does he really hate all women? Or is it just for show?”
“Oh, he hates them.” Ascher took a long swig from his bottle. “Way more than you think. But Sadie, you, Jinx, and the girls are the exceptions.”
I sidled closer to him. “Be honest, he definitely hates me way more than Sadie and the girls. Right? Like he secretly wants me dead.”
Ascher arched his brow and smiled. “Nope.”
“Come onnnnnnn,” I whined. “Give me the details. Gossiping about Cobra is all I have to live for these days.”
Ascher replied, “I think—”
“Who are you talking about?” Cobra appeared next to us, slit pupils glowing green in the dark.
“You.” I sucked in smoke. “Ascher says you’re pretending to hate women and secretly you love us all. So sweet of you.”
I tried to maneuver the bottle and my pipe so I could inhale smoke and demon brew at the same time.
Cobra glared at me. “You have a substance abuse problem.”
I sucked harder, and my esophagus burned delightfully as the two substances mixed.
I pointed out smartly, “Is it a problem or the solution?”
Ascher chuckled.
Cobra’s frown deepened.
I was feeling very philosophical today.
Maybe I was close to reaching an enlightened state? Or maybe the stress from discovering my happy-go-lucky best friend had a secret angry twin who I’d unknowingly spent hours beside was making my psyche crumble?
Who could tell these days?
It was probably a bit of both.
“You look like you robbed a jewelry store.” I pointed to the jewels in Cobra’s skin that refracted little pinpricks of light into the darkness. “It’s cool that you gave Sadie one of your snakes. Don’t tell her I said this, but never take the snake back. It would break her.”
Cobra’s slit pupils narrowed until they were single black lines.
He leaned close conspiratorially and asked, “Want to know a secret that the don shared?”
I nodded eagerly.
The don was Cobra’s estranged father and the leader of the Mafia in the beast realm. He seemed wise in an old man way.
Cobra smirked as he revealed, “In every species that has fated mates, the body knows before the mind does. I couldn’t take my snake back even if I wanted to. Our shadow snakes recognize our fated mate before we do. It left my flesh forever to live on hers so I’ll always know where she is and if she’s in danger. I’ll always be around to protect her.”
“Sun god.” I pressed the demon brew bottle against my chest and leaned back against the wall. “That’s so romantic.”
Ascher stared at Cobra with wide eyes, and he rubbed at his chest. “Fuck, man.”
“So beautiful.” I smiled. “Sadie deserves it.”
She had four men absolutely devoted to her, and I couldn’t imagine anything less for my best friend.
She deserved it. She was sunshine in darkness.
I guzzled more brew.
In contrast, I was the abyss within the darkness.
Cobra arched his brow at me. “A phenomenon you will probably never experience, because you look like you’ve been hit by a car. On a good day.”
“Burn,” I said as I nodded and took another drink.
He was right. I looked like shit and was completely unlovable.
Ascher frowned at Cobra and said, “I know you didn’t mean that. Why would you say that?”
Cobra made a petulant face.
My woozy brain changed the subject, and I asked both of them, “Have I told you about my back crack? Like a sidewalk crack but spinal.”
Cobra plucked the bottle out of my hands. “You’re cut off.”
I gasped.
Then I smiled and said, “I think it’s scoliosis.”
I turned to the overflowing bucket of demon brew bottles that was on the floor right next to me—that was why I’d chosen to stand in the corner in the first place—and grabbed two.
“Do you have tape or glue?” I asked Ascher. “I saw a bootleg human movie about a challenge and want to try it. I need you to stick these bottles to my hands.”
Cobra pinched his nose. “This is not my problem. Where’s Sadie?” he asked Ascher. “I thought you were with her.”
Ascher moved to avoid a dancer who careened out of control into the wall where he’d been standing.
He shook his head and said, “Aran and I were talking to her, but then she said she was going to quote ‘jump Jax and Xerxes in public because they’re too private and need a little public ravaging.’”
“What?” Cobra’s jaw dropped.
“Get it, girl!” I yelled into the crowd as I held both bottles up in a salute to Sadie, who was likely having sex with two of her mates in a corner somewhere.
She inspired me.
Cobra reached for my hand. “Give me one of those bottles.”
“No!” I snapped. “Get your own, snake boy. I bet Sadie chose Xerxes and Jax because she didn’t think you and Ascher were man enough to touch her in public.”
“Excuse me?” Cobra’s jaw clenched as Ascher pushed away from the wall.
I nodded. “Yep, she told me so.”
And just like that, I was standing alone in the corner. “You’re welcome, Sadie,” I said to no one. Best. Wingwoman. Ever.
I cackled at my intelligence.
Sadie had actually complained that Cobra and Ascher were too eager to touch her in public and that Jax and Xerxes were too respectful. Now, thanks to me, she was going to be having sexual relations with four aggressive shifter men in public while the guitar riffed and a male singer screamed.
Sun god, I was such a good friend.
Turning, laughing to myself like I was slightly (very) unstable, I was surprised to find Luka leaning against the wall a few feet away from me. He was actively ignoring a group of students that were all trying to touch and talk to him.
I waved and smiled.
He frowned.
I rolled my eyes and mimed shooting myself in the head to show how much I loved the party. For a split second, his eyes twinkled in the dark, and I swore he wanted to smile.
A man bumped into me.
Luka’s frown deepened into a harsh scowl.
“Sorry,” the random partier said as he spilled alcohol over me.
“No worries, sun god bless your family.” I gave the stranger a friendly salute. “May you all die young and never know the gods personally.”
He gave me a weird look and pushed through the crowd.
I scoffed; people just didn’t know how to take a blessing these days.
Tacky.
This generation had no class.
Leaning back against the wall, I tipped my head and opened my throat. The demon brew burned deliciously.
When I released the bottle with a burp, the sea of limbs and gyrating hips parted, and I glimpsed the kings.
Malum sat in the wingback chair with a girl’s head buried in his lap. His sweatpants were around his ankles, and his shirt was pushed up to expose bronze abs.
I made a mental note to never sit in that chair again.
Scorpius and Orion stood on either side of the chair and flanked him. Multiple girls crawled all over them.
I inhaled smoke.
Malum’s fingers were tangled in blonde hair, and he pushed a woman’s head up and down on his lap. His expression was bored, and he looked like he was uncomfortable.
As his Adam’s apple bobbed, pain streaked down my back.
A weird mix of emotions churned my gut, and suddenly it was hard to breathe.
Since I’d saved Scorpius, the kings had been acting different. They weren’t nice, but they weren’t as antagonistic.
I took a gulp of demon brew.
Breathed unevenly.
A dull ache pulsed between my legs. John held me reverently and told me softly to lift my hips. He slowly entered me.
There was a fluttering sensation in my lower stomach.
Pain streaked down my spine.
My sight line to the kings disappeared as the music changed and students pressed closer together. Hips and chests locked. Hands and lips exploring.
Everyone coupled up.
Suddenly, I was suffocating. The heat was intense because there were too many bodies in too small a space.
Sweat streaked over goose bumps.
Reaching down I tucked the front of my sweatshirt up into my sports bra, and I sighed with relief as coolness hit my abs.
I leaned back against the vibrating wall.
Sank into the shadows and concentrated on figuring it all out. “It” being getting drunk.
I was an overachiever.
A few seconds, maybe minutes, potentially four hours later, I squealed with delight as men joined me in the shadows.
“You have blue hair.” I pointed to the three little fake fae men who stood in front of me. It was kind of weird that they pretended to be a different species. It was also adorable.
They were so cute when compared to my teammates.
Short and skinny.
Complete wimps.
We stood at eye level, so they were barely six feet tall, and I just wanted to pinch their cheeks.
I could easily take all of them in a fight, which made them great friend material.
“For our queen, we’d do anything,” fake fae man number one (he’d told me his name twice now, and I’d ignored him both times) fell to his knees and kissed my hand.
Aw.
I loved that devotion from him. Finally, someone recognized my importance. I just wanted to give him a little platonic head pat.
“Let us serve you sexually,” fake fae man number two said aggressively.
We were on two different pages.
I pressed both bottles to my lips and tipped my head back. The last drops of demon brew hit my tongue.
Fake fae man number three begged, “We’ll make it so good for you, our Queen. Let all three of us serve you. Please.” He fell to his knees beside the first man, who knelt on the ground in front of me.
“Um.” I gnawed on my lower lip.
My head spun, and I chuckled at the sensation.
Everything was floaty in the best possible way; my thoughts were effervescent bubbles that popped delightfully.
It was euphoric.
“Let us please you,” the man begged at my feet.
If only he had messy dark hair, dimples, olive skin, and hooded dark eyes that twinkled.
Then he would be perfect.
As I thought about John, the butterflies dancing in my stomach turned to lead. Guilt was acid in my stomach even as my heart beat harder at the thought of him.
I rolled my pipe between my lips and inhaled enchanted smoke.
Sun god, everything was so confusing.
My head spun.
A hand touched my leg. “You’re a perfect, flawless queen. There is not one thing wrong with you. You are the ideal female.”
Who was going to tell him?
He was spot on.
I half laughed, half giggled, and snorted at my joke.
Fingers trailed more aggressively up my calves and across my thighs.
I weighed the pros and cons of the situation.
Cons: Sexual relations hurt because of my enchanted scars. I still needed to talk to John and apologize. And now that I was looking at them, the three fake fae dudes were kind of ugly.
I exhaled a cloud of enchanted residue.
Pros: I was drunk.
“Please, mistress, let us serve you.” Man number one leaned forward and kissed the exposed skin of my stomach.
I jumped back with surprise and a jolt of pleasure mixed with a teensy, tiny jolt of pain.
My back barely hurt.
I’d found the answer to my problem.
I just needed to get drunk to the point of complete incapacitation to enjoy sexual relations.
Joy burst in my chest.
Finally, a realistic solution.
I smiled down at the three men literally kneeling before me. Sure, one of them was downright hideous, and they were all way too skinny for my liking. Yes, the man standing in front of me had an enormous nose and freakishly wide forehead.
I shrugged. “Sure.”
Who was I to judge? I had two black eyes, dozens of stitches littering my skin, and a rat’s nest of curls.
Also, apparently, I had no standards when it came to men. Some people fought their demons. I fucked mine. Or was I the demon?
It was confusing.
“What should we do?” My question turned into a gasp as the two men kneeling before me leaned forward and started kissing my abs.
I smiled. My pain neurons were muted enough that I found their kisses almost enjoyable.
Enjoyable was probably too strong of a word. It didn’t hurt.
A win.
The ugly dude standing in front of me shuffled to the side so he could press his lips against mine.
I grinned under his lips.
Yep, I was kissing three men at the same time.
Iconic and inspiring.
A tongue pressed through my lips, and it was kind of slimy.
I wrinkled my nose.
Lips pressed harder against my impressive abs, and hands trailed up and down my sweatpants. Someone’s fingers danced across my waist, then pushed under the fabric so two hands were gripping my ass.
Midkiss he groaned into my mouth. “You’re not wearing underwear.” His breath was kind of spicy, and I didn’t like the taste.
I winced as he grabbed my butt like he was trying to bruise it.
Hands crept higher up my inner thighs.
A lot was happening.
Bodies danced inches away from us, but we were mostly hidden by the shadows of the wall.
I debated calling a stop to this little ménage à quatre, but the bubbles were still dancing in my head.
Everything spun.
Hazy. Delightful. Fun.
Nothing mattered anyway. Who cared if three random, ugly men touched all over my body?
Not me.
It was kind of pleasant.
Yes, my quality of life was so shitty that “pleasant” was an immense improvement.
If only Mother could see me now, she’d be furious.
I kissed back harder.
Just to spite her.
Hands dragged my ass forward so my front was pressed against a crotch. Six hands grabbed my butt. I shimmied my hips and smiled.
Whores be like.
Shadows danced, and my skin tingled like I was drifting through a dream.
The tongue in my mouth was starting to feel more skilled.
Fingers feathered across the juncture of my thighs, and I let out a little breathy moan. It felt nice.
I peeked open my eyes and stared at the person I truly wanted.
He scowled.
I jumped as I realized he wasn’t a figment of my imagination.
In real life a man stood directly behind the commoner who was kissing me, glowering inches away from where our lips were locked.
“You do this with everyone?” Luka asked roughly.
I pulled my lips free from the kiss and beamed up at him. “Yep, I’m a huge slut.”
It was called manifesting.
The commoner grabbed my face and dragged me back for more openmouthed kisses while the men at my feet became more aggressive with their touches.
The air around Luka shimmered black.
His dark eyes transformed into voids.
He reached a hand forward and ripped the man off my lips, then threw him away from me like he weighed nothing.
My jaw dropped.
A bubble popped in my head, and I laughed.
Then frowned.
“Who do you think you are?” I asked Luka incredulously. “You won’t answer a single question, then you think you can just do that?” I waved my hand at the ugly man sprawled on the floor, struggling to stand up.
I grimaced and gestured at him. “Just pop your legs up.” I tried to give him some help.
The man floundered.
Did he have no core strength?
It was hard to watch.
Luka made a noise of disbelief, and I whirled on him.
“You!” I poked my finger against his firm chest. “Why would you reveal your identity after years of silence? Explain yourself.” I crossed my arms.
He arched a dark brow at my question.
A male singer screeched.
Luka said calmly, “John has informed me that the circumstances have changed. Our secrecy is no longer needed because we won’t be keeping it.”
I blinked.
“What?” I was too drunk for this conversation.
What were we talking about?
Oh, right. I stuck my finger in his face and said, “You aren’t my friend, father, or captain. Sun god, you’re barely a member of this team. Yet you think you can interfere with my personal life?”
He took a step closer.
His breath smelled like spice and demon brew as he said, “I never said you couldn’t call me Daddy.”
My jaw dropped.
Something told me I wasn’t the only drunk one.
Music pulsed. Bodies danced around us.
The two men kneeling at my feet kept trailing their hands across my butt, and Luka glanced down at them, then back at my face.
His expression hardened as he said, “Corvus, your captain’s services are needed to handle Aran.”
I scoffed.
He hadn’t yelled, so there was no way Malum would hear him over the loud music.
Luka crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall with a smirk like he knew something I didn’t. “You forget I’ve been training at this academy for years. I know how things work around here.”
Long seconds stretched as the men kept kissing my stomach, and I tried to decipher his cryptic words.
I realized what he’d done.
My stomach sank.
“Why would you do that?” I smacked at him with my two empty bottles.
He ripped them out of my hands and narrowed his eyes as he looked into them and confirmed they were empty.
I scoffed. “Get your own.” Poking him in the chest again, I went to do something, but my brain went fuzzy. “What were we talking about again?”
His lips formed a thin line.
“Are all humans way better looking than other species?” I asked him as I gestured to the facially challenged men at my feet. “Because you would win a beauty pageant hands down, and they would lose.”
I mouthed, “Last place.” So Luka knew what I was saying.
He rubbed at his forehead like he had a migraine.
“Pageants aren’t for everyone,” I said seriously as I narrowed my eyes at him. “It’s a hard lifestyle.”
His right eye twitched.
A cruel voice sneered, “You called for Corvus?”
The crowd of dancers parted, and three towering devil kings invaded the corner where I was trying to make destructive life decisions in peace.
“Who are you?” I asked as I pretended to not know Scorpius.
I chuckled at my joke.
Why was I actually hilarious?
Scorpius gnashed his teeth, and the muscle in his jaw jumped.
Annoying him was too easy.
Fingers gripped my ass, and I jolted at the contact. For a second, I’d forgotten about the two men kneeling and touching me intimately. Awkward.
Two kings glanced down.
One king cocked his head to the side in confusion.
Malum erupted in angry red flames, while Orion scowled as he whispered in Scorpius’s ear.
All three of them fisted their hands.
The temperature in the corner increased about a million degrees, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the danger in the air.
It was volatile.
Malum spoke, and his voice was the deepest I’d ever heard it. “Get your hands off our girl.”
I gaped. Our girl? He probably meant it in a slave sense.
Before anyone could move, Orion and Scorpius grabbed the men at my feet and threw them backward into the crowd.
Partygoers yelled as bodies smashed into them.
The kings didn’t bother to turn around to see the destruction they’d caused.
Luka smirked beside me.
Even drunk…
I knew I was doomed.
