Alexi was looking at him with wide eyes, but Kain couldn’t tell what he was thinking. His heart ached when he realized that his lover might judge him for what he had done. Might hate him. After all, how could a kind and gentle man like Alexi still want to be around a cold-blooded murdered like Kain?
“My sigil was not fully formed and I didn’t know how to control my aura as to direct it to do what I wanted, but I was determined to give my gorgeous, perfect lover a taste of his own medicine. I don’t know what I was thinking, really. I mean… I knew he was a demon. I had figured it out by reading those books, so I was absolutely sure. I didn’t exactly want to hurt him. I guess I just wanted to show him that I wasn’t a simple mortal either, that I could keep up with him, that I was a good match for him. I wanted him to see me as an equal. Needless to say it didn’t end well.”
Alexi was still towering over him, and the position was making Kain feel a bit uncomfortable. He couldn’t look him in the eyes and tell him the last part of his story. He just couldn’t. He sat up, swung his legs over the edge of the bed, and finally got rid of his leather pants and boots before resuming the story.
“The next time we met, I fought him harder than ever. I remember that I did want to hurt him just a little bit, to teach him a lesson, but my intention was to stop after a while, tell him that I knew what he was and I was fine with it, laugh it off and start a new life.”
“But you didn’t stop…”
“No, I did. It was too late, though. I had already drained him of all his energy. There was nothing left. Nothing. I couldn’t believe it. My cambion sigil was completely formed, my aura was everywhere, filling the room, spreading that intoxicating smell of poppies I’m sure you’re already very familiar with, and the demon… my gorgeous, smart, selfish, jackass of a demon was dead. And there I was… alone, confused… guilt slowly creeping into my bones, turning me numb… Hebe came the next day and brought me to Lure Academy. If she had been a day later… well… I don’t know…” Kain smiled to himself.
“Shit.” Alexi couldn’t come up with something smarter to say. His brain was still processing Kain’s story, trying to decide what to do with it.
“Yeah. Shit.” The blond cambion finally turned to his lover. His eyes were like the calm blue sea, and his whole body was relaxed. He felt better now that he had told Alexi everything. Even if his partner changed his mind about him, at least now he knew he wasn’t alone. Kain too had loved a demon once, and things had ended much worse than in Alexi’s case. “Now you know,” he said. “And Sophie will know too, because I intend to tell her. But I need your help, I can’t do it alone. I need you to pull yourself together, go face Gremory once and for all, let him know that you could end his miserable life, but you won’t. You’re better than him.”
Alexi shook his head. “It’s not that. I don’t think I ever wanted to kill him, really. For a very long time I wanted to find him in hopes that he would give me a second chance, that he would tell me what had gone wrong, what had made him leave me, so I could make it all better. Even now, I’m afraid that… that one glance will be enough to give him power over me.”
Kain grabbed his shoulders and squeezed them firm
ly. “Listen to me: you’re not who you used to be. You’re not that abandoned teenager anymore. You’re not that lonely child whom no one wants around because he involuntarily drains them of energy. Gremory has no power over you now. You know why? Because you have me and Sophie. You have Lure Academy and thousands of people out there who are alive and well thanks to you and the work you do here. Remember Leila? Remember how happy her father was when she came back home? Remember how he gave her and Petro his blessing and they were married the very next day? That was because of us, Alexander, and there wouldn’t be an ‘us’ if you weren’t here, if you weren’t part of this.”
Alexi lost himself in Kain’s pale blue eyes for a long moment. The thin scars reminded him how his lover and partner had gone through so much more than what he had just confessed to him. He now understood why they were so different and why those differences made them work so great together. Kain was right. It was time for him to face his past so they could help Sophie face hers.
“Will you come with me to Oriens?”
Kain’s only answer was a bright smile.
CHAPTER THREE
Anahit’s room was small, but incredibly open and bright. The succubus loved natural light, so her curtains were open from early morning until the sky turned dark. She was standing by the window, her back turned to the door. Ke-sar entered quietly, but decided to keep close to the door. He had no intention to spend more than a couple of minutes here.
“You wanted to see me. Make it quick.”
Anahit turned around and held the incubus’ golden gaze. She didn’t like his tone, but she swallowed down her anger thinking that she might have deserved it just a tiny bit.
“I needed to talk to you before I made a decision.”
Ke-sar raised an eyebrow. He knew Anahit well enough to figure out she had already made her decision, whatever that was. She never asked for advice, and that was why Lilith was the headmistress, not Anahit.
When he didn’t say anything, the succubus took a couple of steps towards him, but stopped in the middle of the room when his gaze hardened.
“Why do you have to be like that?” she asked. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”
A genuine smile tugged at Ke-sar’s lips, and he tried not to laugh in her face. He liked to think of himself as a gentleman, after all.
“Jealous? What is this? A joke? Anahit, stop wasting my time and tell me why you called for me.”
She shrugged. “Well, it wouldn’t be unheard of… I’ve seen demons who fall in love if they spend enough time among mortals. So, why wouldn’t it happen to an incubus or a succubus? Love is an acquired taste.”
“Are you talking from your own experience?” Ke-sar folded his arms over his bulky chest. When Anahit avoided his gaze for the first time since he had entered the room, his eyes widened in shock. “You are, aren’t you?” He shook his head. “I don’t believe this.”
“It was a mistake,” she said softly.
“You bet it was! But it could’ve gone unknown and unmentioned if you hadn’t lied to me and told me you had taken the seed from a mortal man.”
“I wanted…” she took a deep breath before forcing the words out. “I wanted to have something from him.”
“Someone. You wanted to have someone from him. Didn’t you stop to think for a second and ask yourself about the possible consequences? Now, Sophie has to deal with something none of us has ever seen before. A combination of a demon sigil and an angir sigil. No one can teach her how to control her powers because no one understands them. Way to go, Anahit! And for what? For a silly angir who flapped his white, fluffy wings at you and gave you one of those heavenly smiles we all know so well?”