Root Rot Academy: Term 3 Page 23

  I grunted when she poked me, wordlessly demanding a response, and my eyes narrowed as I gave the figure one last sweep. “That’s one way to put it.”

  “How would they get the go-ahead to attack an academy?”

  “Dunno.” I stood and sheathed one of my blades, keeping the other in a loose hold, suddenly feeling more myself than I had in years. “Smells like bullshit to me.”

  Alecto wrung out her bloody sweater, black droplets dribbling down her fists to the floor. “Yup. Lot of that going around lately.”

  “Oh, fury,” I teased, flicking a rogue curl from her cheek. “Bitter looks adorable on you.”

  “Shut up.” She batted my hand away, so obviously fighting an affectionate grin that it made my chest tight. Just to rile her further, I went back to fuss with another curl, which earned me a harder smack that she winced through, then a rigid, warning finger shoved in my face. “Gavriel, this is serious.”

  “Ugh, fine.” I motioned down the empty and unnervingly silent corridor, ceiling debris littered across the cobblestone. “Classroom sweep before we head up? I don’t hear any of the precious kiddos—”

  “Yeah, good idea.” She set off without a backward glance, headed straight for the nearest door and kicking it open. Honestly. Such a mama bear.

  My nose wrinkled as I sauntered after her.

  Why did I find that protective maternal streak so fucking sexy?

  Nope. Nope. Not something to delve into right now. I dropped my gaze to her ass for good measure, just to recenter the mounting desire where it belonged, then joined her in clearing each underground classroom around the giant square that was the Root Rot castle interior.

  Nothing. Not a soul to be found, living or dead.

  The noise above, however, along with the occasional dusting of ceiling stone, suggested—

  “If they aren’t being held in the dining hall, they’re probably in the courtyard,” Alecto mused once we cleared the last classroom, our thoughts unnervingly aligned. “Unless it’s a grab-and-go situation.”

  “They certainly have enough soldiers to carry them out one at a time.”

  “This is so fucked-up—” Alecto shrieked when a body crashed out the east tower stairwell some ten feet up the corridor. Woodchips flew like confetti, splintered bits of door shooting in every direction, and given the black blood smeared across his busted nose and mouth, he merited a sword to the face.

  And that was precisely what I gave him. Spirited along by my wings, I landed gracefully at his head, grinned down at his dazed expression, then pierced his stupid full black eye with my sword. Despite being practically retired, the blade sliced through bone and flesh, sinew and muscle, all the way down to the grey stone below. Marvelous craftsmanship—after my armor, these swords were my most prized possessions. They cost a fortune and had always done their duty with gusto. In fact, as I tore this one from the demon’s skull, about to hack through his neck, the steel sung ever so sweetly.

  I had missed its song.

  With Alecto’s footsteps crashing after me, I sliced clean through the fucker’s neck, then stilled when another presence loomed in the doorway. Something tall and dark, swathed in shadows, ominous and—

  Oh.

  “Hello, friends.”

  My eyebrows soared as I stood and casually booted the demon’s head down the hall.

  Why.

  The fuck.

  Was Bjorn shirtless?

  The Viking vampire filled the doorway, a bloodthirsty glint in his eye that called to the most depraved parts of my soul. With his icy blues clouded over, he sported a ferocious grin and a sculpted torso, his blond locks tousled, his ivory flesh bloodstained. Even though his entire body had become an exceptional killing machine over the centuries, he still clutched a bloodied bearded axe in his right hand—a weapon I approved of with a knowing smirk.

  A strong curved head. Sturdy handle. Capable of splitting skulls. Good for throwing and melee combat, which was precisely what we found ourselves balls-deep in at this point.

  And—

  I reared back at the axe’s make: iron blade tipped in sharpened steel. Bjorn glanced down, then eased it away from me with an apologetic shrug. Hardly his choice, I imagined, to treasure an iron blade; they were quite popular back in the day.

  Still. It put my teeth on edge, the momentary discomfort broken only by Alecto shoving me aside to take in her vampire lover in all his brutal glory.

  “What…” She licked her lips, ogling him openly, jaw dropped—drooling—and then pointed to the axe. “Where the hell did you get that?”

  Bjorn hoisted it aloft. “Well—”

  “Never mind, never mind, doesn’t matter,” our girl muttered, shaking her head as she continued to lap up a shirtless, bloody, powerful Bjorn. I elbowed her with a chuckle.

  “Yes, really, let’s maintain some perspective, fury.”

  She flipped me off again, and I snapped my teeth at her finger, rather enjoying her hasty retreat, cheeks dark and lips thin. Unimpressed, as always, with my battlefield antics.

  “Come, come, quickly now,” Bjorn urged suddenly, but rather than gesturing for Alecto to slip through the doorway, he stepped aside and ushered a small group out. Seven first years, many sporting bruised eyes or split lips or bloody noses. The worst of the bunch, a little lion cub shifter I’d once caught drawing tits in a rather rare old book, shuffled out of the stairwell swaddled in Bjorn’s shirt, her eyes hollow.

  “Oh my gods.” Alecto charged forth to check on each one, murmuring first aid incantations under her breath, mending what she could. A soldier and a medic; armies would go to war just to have her on their side.

  And she was all mine.

  Well. Ours.

  “Found them locked in a supply closet,” Bjorn admitted roughly, peering back to check the stairwell, his axe shouldered for the time being. When it was clear, he stepped out and to the side, motioning for me to follow with a casual toss of his head while our girl fussed over the delinquents. Once we were relatively out of earshot, his serious demeanor splintered, replaced by a wicked delight that made my savage heart rejoice. “I’m afraid the demon guarding the door did not survive with his bowels intact.”

  I snorted as we knocked forearms. “Nice.”

  Kindred spirits, we two. Finally, I’d found the brother I lost so long ago.

  That brother hadn’t shared my ancestry, but he was the best friend and soulmate I had chosen.

  And then I’d watched him die.

  Heard his screams. Smelled his blood. Witnessed the light leave his eyes. His wife’s anguished wails haunted my nightmares to this day.

  A new brother stood before me now, loyal and strong and just as fucking terrifying on the field as I was. Hell, tonight I’d held back.

  No more.

  “They’re corralling students to the courtyard,” Bjorn told us, Alecto barely glancing up from the traumatized lion cub. “Raiding the towers… I suspect they might be waiting for transport to move them out. These aren’t standard demons. They don’t heal.”

  “Possessed,” I told him, rolling my eyes when his brows arched. “I know, I know—amateur hour in here, no?”

  “That explains—”

  “We need to find a place to hide them,” Alecto interjected firmly, her tone a warning to stay on topic. Spoilsport. “Somewhere safe.”

  Safe. “We have safes in the library—locked vaults,” I said without thinking, and when both of them shot stunned looks my way, I wiped my sword clean with a huff. “Really, is this the first you’ve heard of them?”

  “You don’t exactly hype up your job—”

  “We have three vaults for rare and valuable acquisitions,” I pressed on, ignoring Alecto’s smirk. Now who needs to stay on topic? “We can seal them inside. Alecto can stand guard. Bjorn and I will round up the—” Brats. Nearly said it, but I stumbled with seven pairs of wide, terrified eyes turned on me. “We’ll collect the students.”

  “Perfect,” my fury sai
d amidst Bjorn’s protests. “I can do that.”

  “But—”

  “I can hold my own,” she snapped as she herded the first years together. “Let’s go.”

  Bjorn held up his hands in surrender, the storm clouds darkening in his icy gaze to something dangerous again.

  He loved a strong woman.

  Wanted to mount her right here, right now, and taste her ferocity.

  I knew that—because I felt much the same.

  Instead, I took the lead in the stairwell, bulletproof and ready to cut down anyone who got in our way. Alecto kept the sniveling first years in the middle, while Bjorn brought up the rear, fierce and silent, melding in and out of shadows.

  I initially planned to take them all the way to the third floor; from there, it was a straight shot down the hall to the library, which I imagined had been looted already given many of its valuables were out in the open. Unfortunately, some demon fucked that up by opening the barely intact door on the main level and chucking a grenade at me.

  Pin pulled and all.

  Fuck’s sake.

  “Down,” I bellowed, reversing my grip on my sword and pelting the round metal explosive with the hilt. Look at that. I’d be a pro at human baseball, the grenade sailing clean through a jagged split in the door panel. Alarmed voices shouted on the other side, but I had already turned and flung myself over the cowering first years. Sure, I’d mostly gone for Alecto, but my wings spanned wide enough to shield the lot. Bjorn followed just as the grenade detonated, tossing himself on top of the dogpile, and screams ripped through the stairwell—pitchy and terrified and, stars above, fucking right in my ear—when yet another explosion rocked the castle.

  More than dust pelted us this time, chunks of stone cascading from the twining stairwell above, followed by what sounded like an avalanche. Had it only been Alecto under our care, Bjorn and I could have blitzed away in a second, but there were too many of us. Teeth gritted, I hunkered down, me and the vampire taking the brunt of the collapse on our backs.

  Only when I was sure the sky wouldn’t come crashing down next did I move, wheeling around and sprinting up the rubble-ridden stairs.

  Shit. While the lower levels hadn’t caved in at the blast, the spiral staircase winding up was unusable, the massive grey stones piled high.

  “We’ll find another route,” Bjorn called from below, as if assessing the calamity through my eyes. “Staff stairwell was clear last I used it.”

  “Right.” I beckoned the students to me, Alecto still in the middle of their little huddle, each of them clinging to some article of her clothing. Briefly, I crouched and addressed them as I’d never done in my entire Root Rot career: with care. “Stay low. Stay together. If we are pushed apart, keep to Professor Clarke. We’re going to the library vaults where you’ll be safe. Do not scream. Do not draw attention to yourselves. Understood?”

  Seven panicked nods told me they did. All these little fuckers were so snide and snotty in class, so tough at their reform school—everyone’s gangster until demons invade, huh?

  “Excellent.” I spun around and hacked what was left of the door off its hinges. “Move out, then.”

  My first thought upon seeing Bjorn’s weapon of choice was that the axe was made for melee skirmishes: hand-to-hand combat, wild and unchecked, with no centralized structure. Just… warriors beating the absolute shit out of each other in the name of court and conquest.

  And that was what we stumbled into on the first floor. The castle had fallen, demonic forces everywhere, black eyes aplenty, screams and magic, smoke and dust, portraits defaced and academy banners torn asunder.

  Chaos.

  An all-out assault.

  More than a raid, surely. This level of unhinged madness suggested a singular goal: destruction.

  Which—again—made no sense.

  Not that I had time to question it: too many possessed fuckers to cut down. Fortunately, we weren’t the only Root Rot resistance. As horrible as Iris’s security warlocks were, they put up a good fight, working in pairs or trios to take out demons, the odd professor in the mix.

  At one point, I spotted my dear roommate defending an unconscious nurse from four demons at once. From just a cursory glance, the warlock was as strong a dueler as he was a healer—but he didn’t have eyes on the back of his head.

  For a foe crept up behind him, raised his pistol—

  And got an axe to the face, hurled with such force from a warmongering vampire that it split his skull in two. I lowered my hand, no longer needing to remove the second sword and charge into the fray.

  Out of… sentiment, not because I liked the cranky bastard.

  Seamus whirled around when black blood spattered his neck and back, confusion giving way to appreciation when he spotted me, then Alecto, then Bjorn, who zipped to the crumpled demon’s side, grabbed his axe, and returned to his post at the rear of our group in the time it took me to blink.

  Speedy fuck. We really must race when all this was over—put an end to the questions of who had aerodynamic superiority.

  It was one hallway over we discovered the painful truth: we had been right about the courtyard. A good fifty students clumped together in its center, demons on every side, along with piles of crap that they must have thought had value.

  Oooh, silverware from the kitchens.

  Score. What a find, boys.

  Despite the vulnerable hostages in the middle, the courtyard appeared to be the primary battleground, most security and professors attempting to fight their way inside through the open arches at its perimeter.

  “Gods,” Alecto whispered, her hand to her mouth, her eyes wide. Fascinating as it was to study demon siege tactics in real time, we had precious cargo to transport—apparently. But, just as I was about to usher everyone along, reaching for my second blade instinctively as the violence intensified, a roar rang through the castle.

  Not just any roar.

  The ferocious war cry of a fucking polar bear.

  Den mother Nadia suddenly ripped through the demon’s outer defenses, so immense in size that her bear form broke through the stone archway during the charge. She tossed demons left and right with swipes of her massive paws, cracking bone loud enough that we heard it all the way across the yard. Bullets rained down on her from snipers on the second floor, the windows shattered and guns leveled into the courtyard, but if they weren’t silver, they were probably more of a nuisance than a detriment.

  Bear shifters. Really. The best den mother these miserable little imps could ever ask for, because…

  Stars above.

  I knew we had to go, but I couldn’t look away, fascinated by her brutality.

  More den mothers poured into the arena in their shifted forms, wolves and lionesses and owls ripping the possessed to pieces without mercy.

  Bjorn ambled to my side, eyes wide—almost concerned, really—as we watched shifters who I rarely acknowledged claim more ground in sixty bloody seconds than the magic-wielding security warlocks had in fuck only knew how long.

  “Weird day,” I muttered, wincing when the polar bear tore a demon in half—literally just right down the middle, a leg in each paw. Bjorn nodded in the corner of my eye, then chuckled.

  “Fun day.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Hey.” Alecto’s hand materialized between us, and we both flinched when she snapped sharply next to our ears. “History Channel psychopaths, you can get your rocks off later. Move.”

  “Elskling, we’re merely impressed with—”

  “Now,” our bloodstained fury barked, and we both hid our grins as we hopped to, back en route to the library, following orders like the exceptional soldiers we were…

  Orders given by the only commander either of us would ever yield to.

  Happily, eagerly, and, above all, without question.

  “Ugh…” Sprawled on her back to my left, Alecto flopped her arm over her face and groaned. “I need a beer.”

  “Well, you can…” I trai
led off when the most depressing four-o’clock bells tolled through the castle, off-key and on the fritz, the massive grandfather clockface in the courtyard damaged beyond repair after tonight’s festivities. When the pitchy, wailing echo faded off, I pillowed my head on my folded arms, staring at the library’s glass ceiling, and cleared my throat. “I’m sure I have something in my office.”

  “Mmf.” Alecto let out an ever-so-ladylike grunt, groping an outstretched hand in the general direction of my office. “’s too far, and the Force isn’t working.”

  “Am I supposed to know what the fuck the Force is?”

  “Bjorn.” Our girl rolled onto her side, offering me her back, her sweater so saturated in demon blood that its sunflower pattern was just straight black now. “Gimme a beer.”

  “Of course, elksling,” Bjorn rumbled, seated against the wall next to the open vault, the last of our hidden students escorted to the infirmary by a den mother and some nurses five minutes ago. The vampire sat with his legs outstretched and eyes closed, head tipped like he was basking in the afterglow of really great sex—not an epic defensive maneuver that had lasted into the wee hours of the morning. He released a long, luxurious sigh for her benefit, then cracked one eye open, grinning wickedly as he added, “For a price.”

  My eyebrows shot up when Alecto hesitated, possibly even considered it, until—

  “No. Not worth it.”

  Bjorn stabbed a fist to his chest. “My heart. You’ve shattered it.”

  Another elegant grunt from our girl had us both smirking, and I shifted about on the floor, armor discarded, body pleasantly sore from hours of combat.

  Just like the good old days.

  It had taken us until nearly three in the morning to rid Root Rot of every last demon. At one point, Benedict and I were called to remove the ward entirely so we could expel them from the grounds, which we did together, begrudgingly, for the sake of the greater good. The only pleasure I derived from being so close to the cockroach was the fact that some black-eyed fuck had broken his nose. Gone were the patrician good looks, replaced by a crooked, swollen, bruised bridge that he whined about anytime he turned his head too fast.