Lure Academy

“Thanks. What did you get me?”

“Patience, my love. You’ll see.” The girl winked and turned around to leave.

“No, wait…” Sophie whispered. If only Lamia would stay close to her, she’d feel better and less nervous. She sighed and looked at the gift before her. The other three cambions had already received six or seven similar boxes. “Oh well…” she thought. “It’s a bit embarrassing, but it’s not like I can do anything about it.” Way to start her brand new life at Lure Academy. This kind of situation was exactly what she had feared and the reason for which she had refused to go to college in Paris. She turned her gaze towards the round table of the incubi and the succubi. Lamia had promised to tell her who was who, but Sophie had stormed out before giving her the chance. Now, she had to wait until after the whole thing with the gifts and mentors was over. She spotted Hebe next to a tall, lean guy with unnaturally blue hair, but the succubus didn’t even look her way. There were five men and six women around the table, all of a blinding, artificial beauty.

“Welcome to Lure!”

The chirpy voice startled Sophie. She turned to see a cute redhead place a white box at her feet.

“Thank you.” She wondered if she should try to make conversation, or at least ask the girl what her name was, but the redhead was gone before Sophie even finished considering the idea. She looked at the other cambions on the stage and noticed their piles of gifts had grown considerably.

Six more people came to offer her a smile and a gift, and by the time Lilith rose from her chair and stepped in front of the stage again, Sophie wasn’t feeling that blue anymore. Eight gifts were merely half of what May, Robert, and Ben had received, but at least the space in front of her feet wasn’t empty. The curiosity and anticipation to open them had almost made her forget about the next step in the ceremony.

“Thank you all for welcoming our new juniors so warmly. Now, the moment that all of you have been expecting.” She made a wide gesture to the empty glass goblets. “Mentors, place your claims!” She stepped back to leave room in front of the stage, and a deep, eerie silence fell upon the ball room.

Ben was the first one to be claimed. A beautiful brunette with wavy curls and a perfectly fit, athletic body let her claim ring fall into his goblet and clink against the glass. No one said anything, and Sophie understood the cheers would probably come after all the new cambions would be chosen. “They’ll have to wait then,” she thought. Next was May, claimed by a tall, muscular guy, and then Robert, claimed by a handsome, blond guy with a sexy smirk on his lips. Sophie clenched her jaw and tried not to burst into tears. The part with the gifts had been much easier than this one. She kept her head up and her back straight.

When the soft sound of metal hitting glass rose to her ears, Sophie couldn’t place it. Was it her goblet, or had another mentor claimed one of the other fresh juniors? She gulped and let her eyes wander down to her feet. Indeed, it had been her goblet. A shiny platinum ring was at the bottom, then the last thing Sophie would have ever expected happened: another platinum ring fell down to join it. She almost saw it in slow motion: two fingers dropped it, the precious metal caught the light of the chandelier, bounced off the side of the goblet, then settled half on top of the other ring. The ball room was eve

n more silent than before. It was like everyone was holding their breath, even the incubi and succubi. Sophie raised her eyes from the glass goblet to the two mentors who were standing in front of it. Her breath hitched and she almost chocked on sheer air.

Alexi and Kain weren’t looking at Sophie. They were staring at each other, dark green boring into ice blue, their hands still hovering over the goblet. There was an unspoken challenge between them. Lilith stepped closer to the two cambions and stole a glance in the glass goblet, as if to make sure she had seen right.

“Well, well,” she said tentatively. “We haven’t had such a situation in… a very long time.”

“Centuries.”

Sophie turned her head to see who of the incubi had spoken, but she couldn’t match the voice to the face.

“Indeed…” Lilith touched Alexi’s arm, and he took a step back, letting the headmistress stand between him and Kain. “It is true that more mentors can choose the same apprentice,” she addressed the audience then turned to face Sophie. “However, for as long as we can remember, we have all abode by… let’s say… an unwritten rule. Usually, the mentors talk amongst each other before claiming their apprentices, so the decisions are made before the claim rings end up in the glass goblets.” She tried to give Sophie a reassuring smile, but it was clear Lilith was at a loss herself.

The incubi and succubi had watched both Alexi and Kain as they had approached the stage and pledged their claims, and now they were discussing and arguing, trying to keep their voices down. Lilith sent them a concerned look. It wasn’t only the fact that, for the first time in centuries, as Ke-sar had mentioned, two mentors claimed the same apprentice. In fact, that was the least of the Pantheon’s worries. They were intrigued by the fact that Alexi and Kain were the ones to break the tradition. None of them had wanted to mentor for at least ten years. They had both avoided the Midnight Ceremonies like the plague, preferring to focus on their work rather than on training new cambions. So, why now? Why Sophie? Did it have anything to do with the fact that they had just been forced to share a room? Kvasir studied his son carefully, rubbing his chin. He thought about the files he had given Alexi just two hours ago. “No, I don’t think he had time to study them,” he whispered to Ke-sar, answering a question the tall, blond incubus had asked some seconds before.

Lilith looked at Kain, then turned to Alexi, as if she was waiting for them to say something. Actually, she was waiting for one of them to withdraw their pledge, as it should have happened in such a case. Again, an unwritten rule. It was easier for two mentors to settle it amongst themselves than it was for an apprentice to choose between them. Alexi returned Lilith’s look and shrugged his shoulders, a sign that he couldn’t care less about what she wanted from him. Lilith turned back to Kain. The blond raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow and gave her a defiant smile.

“No way.” Two words. That was all he said.

Lilith sighed and looked up at Sophie, whose bones were visibly trembling underneath her white dress. Her pretty brown eyes showed fear and confusion, and she literally looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

“My dear,” said Lilith. “I’m afraid it’s all up to you now. Two mentors have pledged their claims, and you have to make a choice.” She touched Alexi’s arm with one hand and Kain’s with the other. They both looked up at her. Alexi’s eyes were kind, Kain’s were wicked. “Alexander Volkov and Kain Svjetlo. You’ve been blessed. They are currently the best cambions Lure Academy has, and their experience and expertise is beyond anything you could imagine. Whomever you choose, he will teach you well. He will make a professional out of you. You have until the end of the Midnight Ceremony, which is…” she stole a glance at the huge grandfather clock behind the stage, “at 5 in the morning. Good luck!”

Lilith returned to the Pantheon’s table. Alexi and Kain threw each other one more challenging look, then stepped away from the stage and merged into the crowd. Sophie started hyperventilating, and she would have succumbed to a panic attack if she hadn’t felt Lamia’s small hand squeezing her shoulder and bringing her back to reality.

“Honey, you look so pale. Let’s get out of here for a minute.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“There you are, Miss La Volpilliére!”

Sophie jumped at the sound of Kain’s voice and turned around to see him descend the few stone steps of Septentrio. In the dim light of the lamp posts, his shoulder-length hair looked like molten gold, and his blue eyes were a shade darker. He strolled like a big cat preparing to pounce on its prey, and Sophie felt her knees turn to jelly. She remembered the hot kiss between him and Lamia in The Red Chamber, when she had ended up sandwiched between the girl’s soft breasts and his hard cock.

Lamia rubbed at her arms emphatically and took a few steps towards the building. “It’s getting really cold. I’m going inside, okay?” She smiled when Sophie begged her not to with big, puppy eyes. “You two need some time alone anyway. See you later!”

Sophie watched Lamia disappear behind the heavy, wooden door, then turned her gaze to Kain, who was waiting for her to acknowledge him.

“Feeling better?” he asked. “You looked a bit lost back there.” He closed the space between them and cupped her cheek with his cold hand.

She shivered at his touch, but managed a smile. “Oh, definitely. I’m sorry, I was a bit confused. I didn’t know how to react. No one had filled me in on how the ceremony was supposed to work, so I was kind of trying to do what the others were doing.”