Fallen University: Year Three

A loud, keening cry fell from my lips as his words sent an electric charge through my body, an energy that seemed to bounce between my heart and my clit and back again, making them both ache in the sweetest way.

He wrapped an arm around my waist and hauled me up to stand, bending his knees slightly and almost holding me in his lap as he drove into me over and over. One large hand moved down to play with my clit again as I let my head fall back against his shoulder, and the other came up to grasp my chin, forcing my back to arch even more.

His cock was hitting a spot inside me that was making my world narrow to a pinprick, pleasure overwhelming my senses. The pads of his fingers teased me roughly, and my ass jiggled with every hard slap of his hips.

It was too fucking much.

Whatever bet we’d had, whatever pride I had, it all went out the window as I came hard on his cock and his hand, opening my mouth to scream my pleasure to the fucking rafters.

Kingston’s mouth closed over mine, swallowing up the sound in a bruising kiss as he slammed into me one more time. His body shuddered against mine as his cock pulsed inside me, and his fingers didn’t stop moving on my clit until my entire body went limp against him.

He finally drew away from our kiss, pressing his lips to the line of my jaw as we both breathed hard. Power infused me, but my legs were wobbly from pleasure, and I was pretty sure that Kingston’s kiss had only muffled my loud scream, not blocked it out entirely.

“Okay, okay,” I panted, squeezing my inner walls around him—as if that could be considered any sort of punishment. “You win.”

His chuckle was warm and deep, and he kissed me one more time before drawing back. I craned my neck to look into his eyes, and what I saw there made my heart skip a beat.

“Yeah,” he murmured, pulling me a little closer into the curve of his body, as if he couldn’t stand having any space between us. “I win.”

Chapter Seventeen

I barely had time to remember who and where I was the next morning before Michael pulled us all out into the town square. A crowd of people were waiting for us by the well, all grim-faced and silent. Keeping my head high and my guys close, I approached them. Michael nodded from us to the crowd.

“Piper and the rest of you, these people here are willing to stand up to Gavriel directly. Most of them have friends and family outside the village. They think those people will follow us into battle too.”

“I know my brothers will,” a demon at the front growled. His skin was a deep purple color, and his horns curved tightly around his head. “We’ve lost too many to Gavriel.”

I looked over their faces, a tiny bubble of hope rising in my chest. There weren’t many of them, but they knew people, who knew people, and so on. They might actually be able to pull something together. Maybe not enough to stop Gavriel themselves, but if we could get the stupid fucking Custodians to listen for once, we might all have a shot at stopping Gavriel’s army.

“I won’t stop here neither,” Michael told us. I wasn’t sure if it was meeting us or having his house destroyed, or just one too many days of living in fear, but something seemed to have lit a fire under his ass. I was glad for it. “I’ll be recruiting an army while you’re up there doing whatever you feel you need to. We’ll be in touch.”

He patted his pocket where I assumed he was keeping Kingston’s phone.

“There’s a woman you should get in touch with,” I said, chewing on my lip. It seemed like a long shot, since I wasn’t familiar with the geography of the underworld, but maybe Michael knew it better. Quickly, I described the route we’d taken that had led us to Vee’s hidden house.

To my surprise, Michael seemed to know the area I was talking about, and he nodded along more decisively as I described the landscape.

“She lives on the other side of the mountains,” I finished. “She’s up the slope a little way from the edge of the red meadow. You know the forest between the bogs?”

He nodded. “Yup. I know it. Haven’t been that way in years.”

“The forest comes to a point, like an arrow. Her place is directly across from the tip of that arrow. Her name is—well, she called herself Vee. She didn’t trust us with her real name. Anyway, she’s smart and resourceful and hates Gavriel as much as you do.”

And she’s a lonely-ass loner just like you.

I kept that part to myself though. It seemed like a terrible time to be playing matchmaker. “I think she could help.”

“Vee, huh?” There was a gleam in his eye and his heavy aura lifted slightly. “Interesting. Yeah, I’ll get in touch.”

I looked around at the gathered crowd again, feeling like I should say something. They were watching me expectantly, as if waiting for me to give them some kind of pep talk. It wouldn’t have been the first time I’d convinced people to go into battle. I could still hear the screams of the young, inexperienced students from my first year at FU when I’d used my power to force them into battle against a flock of rogue sprites. The sickening thwack of a brick against some kid’s head would haunt me forever.

I cleared my throat. Persuasion rose in the back of my throat, eager to be used, but I shoved it back down. I wouldn’t make the same mistake again; I’d done it too often already. I still had a heart somewhere, didn’t I? I should speak from it.

“I know that Gavriel isn’t as powerful as he’s made everybody believe,” I said slowly. “We’ve bested him a couple times. But we’ve never hurt him badly or kept him down for long. And...” I stepped closer to Xero and slid my hand into his. I looked up at him, my gaze trailing the fresh scars on his body and face. “Not without casualties. We watched our fellow student die at his hand. Xero was tortured nearly to the point of death. Gavriel is deadly and vicious.”

I looked back at the crowd. Some looked more stubborn than ever. Others were shifting uneasily, like they were about to bolt.

I’m not doing this right, damn it. I was supposed to be hyping them up.