Stained Egos Read online

  When the bell rang, I wish I could say I was surprised, but I had been expecting it ever since I heard the car door shut. It rang a second time within the space of a few minutes, and I gathered up my books and sprinted to my room. I had never been more thankful to have one of the few singles the Academy had to offer than at moments like these. It wasn’t unheard of for roommates to sabotage each other’s belongings to prevent them from showing up to training, and that’s what two bells meant. Unscheduled training and testing. Oh, joy.

  As soon as the door was mostly shut behind me, I began stripping as fast as I could. My elbow hit the wall, and my hand hit the ceiling, making me curse. It was the reason no one wanted the singles. They were beyond small. There was basically only enough space for a bed, and I had a closet and dresser, but they prevented me from opening my door all the way. They were essential though, as having wrinkled clothes meant doing extra chores around the school, and no one liked that.

  I yanked open my dresser drawer, the familiar smell of my leathers wafting up greeted me as I pulled out a pair of pants and a sleeveless black tank. I had a set of sleeves that buttoned onto the shoulders of the tank, with blades sheathed on each bicep and smaller blades on each forearm. Each piece of leather training gear I had was so well worn it was as soft as butter and fit me like a glove. After they were on, I pulled on my leather boots and threw my hair into a quick braid before taking off full-tilt down the hallway toward the training rooms.

  When I got there, only the students who lived right next to the rooms were entering, which made me sigh in relief. Lily arrived just after me, shoving me to one side as she strode purposefully toward the mats. She and I lived the furthest away from the training rooms and the closest to the library, except she had one of the biggest rooms in the Academy, while I had one of the smallest.

  Most of our lives were like that, though. She came from one of the most respected and wealthiest pureblood families, and I came from one of the most scandalous and poorest pureblood families. Our talents, however, were equally matched. We both excelled at hand-to-hand combat and had an affinity with blades. Plus, we each had an exceptionally strong talent for elemental magics. We were pitted against each other all the time, and it made us hate one another, although I got the feeling that Lily took it as a personal insult as well, seeing as how she thought I was lesser, almost to the point where I didn’t deserve the title of pureblood.

  As we stood and waited at the edge of the mats, every single girl fell in line and became silent, while I eased my impatience by slightly flexing my muscles to feel the blades pressed against the sheathes built into my clothing. Once I was finished with that, I worked on tensing and releasing each muscle I could isolate in my brain until Headmaster Winterborn, Master Lee—our head trainer—and the brotherhood walked in.

  “Ladies, thank you all for arriving so promptly. I wanted to make introductions and do a quick demonstration,” Headmaster Winterborn said with a stiff smile. The man only ever left his office when brotherhoods visited, so most of us weren’t used to seeing him, and he definitely didn’t know that if we were late or ill-equipped for training then we had to run one hundred obstacle drills. “Today, we have some very special guests who will be staying with us while they choose their next Sixth. We all know the protocol, so let’s get to it.” He clapped his hands, and Master Lee stepped forward.

  “Alpha pairings, start with blades, then once one of you is disarmed, move to hand-to-hand, no magic allowed this round,” he said, his voice booming throughout the room. “Go!”

  I hated alpha pairings. It meant Lily and I were facing off against each other. I supposed it was probably for the best, so the brotherhood could see our skills, but all I wanted was to walk away. If Lily was going to kill me to get them, then she could have them.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and as I looked over, I found the tattooed one watching me, a strange curiosity in his eyes. I knew my red hair made me stand out, and I hated that. I wanted people to see me for my skills, not for the color of my hair.

  Maybe it was because of this mindset that when Lily stepped on the mat, I was already amped up. I pulled the blades from the sheaths on my biceps and swung them in my hands for a second, letting the worn leather hilts find their usual familiarity with my skin. My eyes were glued to her like a hawk, but even then, I couldn’t tell where she drew the blade from. It was longer than mine, and she only fought with one.

  Most people in the room fought with dulled blades, but not the two of us. Each fight for us was as real as it got, and we usually kept going until Master Lee or one of the other trainers broke us up. Blood, sweat, and tears were spilled on both sides, no matter what.

  Lily launched herself at me as though we were already halfway through and she was losing. I parried and spun out of the way before getting in her personal space. A few strategic hits to her nerves had one of her arms hanging completely useless by her side. She snarled at me and tucked the short sword in, moving it in a way I’d never seen before, and managed to slice my back.

  I hissed in pain, but we kept moving, circling each other like predators. She lunged, and I flipped over her, striking down as she tried to strike up, my blade biting into her forearm. I landed on one knee and rolled, popping up before she could even turn to follow.

  Each move between us had to be calculated to cause the maximum amount of damage, to hopefully sever a nerve or major artery, forcing the other one to tap out, so they could heal. It was why no one else would fight either Lily or me when we did alpha pairings.

  I ducked and spun like a ballet dancer, or at least what I imagined a more brutal version of ballet looked like. Each time I could feel the slight breeze of her sword as it barely missed my skin, and I was sure she felt the same in regards to my daggers.

  When a slight breeze pushed me forward and into her blade as she struck out, I couldn’t help but gasp in shock. My eyes went to hers. She had used magic. I just knew it, the problem was that air magic was so damn hard to detect no one would believe me. The whole time Lily watched me with the sweetest smile on her face as though I was a dear friend who had come over for tea or some other bullshit like that.

  I couldn’t help but drop my dagger on my injured side, and when she dropped her sword, I knew we were heading into the hand-to-hand section. I curled in on myself, protecting my side as she came for me. Guarding my face and my side between her punches was a feat in and of itself, but when her energy started to fade I took my chance and hit back.

  2

  Raven

  I tried not to jerk back when I felt the air brush past me. The little bitch was strong to shield her talent so much, but not strong enough. I could tell from the faintest twitch of her mouth that she was pleased with her powers and shielding skills, too.

  Fuck, I hated that.

  Self-satisfied, smug cow.

  It reminded me of Eastbrook. The way the Masters treated the students, and how it had always made me want to smite them. After years of torture, it was a wonder I hadn’t broken, but I’d graduated just in time to save my mind.

  However, I hadn’t saved it to be faced with a lifetime of putting up with an irritating little fucker who looked like a demented Barbie. She was blonde and blue-eyed. The All-American girl. I wasn’t sure where she had the wherewithal to kick and punch the way she did without breaking out into a cheer.

  Give me a B. I. T. C. H.

  I hated her on sight.

  Especially when she’d used magic on the other girl.

  The rebel in me should have loved the way she bent the rules, but as I saw that tiny sneer, I went a-walking, and what I saw made me cringe. Then, I cringed again when the bitch managed to strike the other girl once more. The blood pouring from her wounds was as red as the hair on her head, but not by one grimace did she display her pain or discomfort.

  I appreciated that.

  We weren’t the hardest brotherhood around, but we had our demons. We weren’t soft and cozy, weren’t ge
ntle and kind, and dealing with a crying woman wasn’t on any of our agendas. Still, I had to give kudos to the Alpha redhead. She was fighting back even though the floor was growing slippery with her lifeblood—I knew how that had to be affecting her. Everyone in the room did, too.

  Blood, be it your own or another’s, was as much a temptation as a cupcake covered in vanilla buttercream frosting to a dieter after a thirty-day fast. And she was weak. She had to be craving the good stuff like a junkie.

  I watched her fight the good fight. Slice and dart, slip and thrust until my eyes were mesmerized by her movements. She was like a dancer. It was almost like watching a belly dance. By contrast, the blonde was an elephant. Stumbling around with a lack of elegance that my Vampire half loathed.

  And then, I felt it.

  As my mind walked through the blonde’s, testing her and finding her wanting, I saw in her mind’s eye the other girl she’d hazed into licking her pussy the night before, as well as the way she had the Master’s cock tied into knots, then my mind slipped into the redhead’s.

  The minute it did, guilt twisted through me. The shock of my intrusion had her freezing. She went stock still, and the blonde’s weapon made the final parry that ended the show.

  Fuck!

  I hadn’t meant to do that.

  Normally, I could slide in and out of another’s mind with all the finesse of a surgeon. But this little redhead had felt my presence. Had felt it like a physical intrusion.

  Intrigued, I watched as the Master, just as smug as his student, strode over to the circle to grab the blonde’s hand. He raised it high like she’d just won a WWE championship, but I ignored that, ignored the world to walk over to the redhead who was lying on the floor, staring straight up at the ceiling.

  Cade grabbed my arm, trying and failing to drag me to a halt. I didn’t let him. I couldn’t. As I headed into the circle, the Master grinned at me and nearly shoved the blonde my way, but I ignored him, too, turned my face from the sly and proud smirking female as I did so. Dropping to my knees, I pressed my teeth to my wrist, tore out a chunk and pressed the wound to the downed girl’s lips.

  For a second, she was still. Then, she gasped like she’d been suffocated and her hands grabbed my forearm, holding it to her mouth.

  I felt the tug and pull of her lips against the self-inflicted wound like a caress. My cock went hard, and electricity zipped through my blood. They said it was erotic sharing blood—it was why Vamps rarely did it outside of the bedroom. But this?

  It was like nothing I’d imagined.

  This girl, did she but know it, had just popped my cherry.

  She was the first girl I’d donated to, and a part of me knew she’d be the last.

  The pulls on the wound were like licks around my shaft. I imagined her on her knees, my dick wrapped in her small fist, a glint in her eye that spoke of the power she knew she had over me. She’d have me on my knees metaphorically the minute she landed on her own. I shivered, feeling the vipers unfurling in my bloodstream as the power of her touch tore me to shreds.

  And then, with a sharp gasp, she released me. The connection was broken. Taking with it the sexual euphoria that had danced through me like fairies around a dell.

  The minute her eyes connected with mine, I felt the blast of her power, and like that, she welcomed me inside.

  Her gaze fell to half-mast as I sorted through her mind with her permission this time. Her body grew lax, limp, as she allowed me to rifle through her past.

  I saw her mother. A curiously small creature. Weak, thin. Frail. She looked like. . . . A scowl puckered my brow. She reminded me of a character in one of my favorite films—Trainspotting. Renton had been a drug addict trying to get clean, but this woman, this small, fragile female in the redhead’s memories, looked as pitiful as he had at the start of the movie.

  But that made no sense.

  The woman’s arm was around the redhead outside Westbrook’s gates. The huge looming curlicues in wrought iron dominated the skyline thanks to the child’s height. The ornate W and B, with more curlicues, seemed to swirl right off the gate like sinuous streams of smoke.

  Her first day? I asked myself, and as I rifled some more, I noticed it wasn’t her first, but it was the last time she ever saw her mother.

  The girl was barely a pureblood. I saw that, too, now. She was almost like Gideon, except purer. Enough to be accepted into this, the most prestigious Academy in the world for Sixth training, which meant she had power. Which also meant she was unusual.

  Sixths were strong. Stronger than the brotherhood they linked.

  Anything other than a pureblood wouldn’t hold a channel open for a brotherhood, and yet, this creature had taken on the blonde who was as definite a pureblood as ever I’d seen. With her perfect carriage, perfect looks, and horrendously high regard for her own self-importance, she was everything the redhead was not. But this girl here?

  Her strength throbbed through her very veins.

  Enough.

  The word boomed in my mind, jerking me back to reality, as well as jolting me from my task.

  I gaped into her eyes, saw the gentle smile on her lips and the steely intent in those delicious gray orbs.

  But, hadn’t they been green a minute before?

  The sight of her Vampire coming out to play had me grinning down at her.

  The mouse had remembered she was the cat and didn’t appreciate being toyed with.

  I got to my feet and bent down to haul her up. As I did, I watched the play of muscles in the tight leather pants she wore, and saw the jiggle of her tits in the thin, stretchy tank.

  Being a Sixth meant more than just being a conduit. They were a brotherhood’s everything.

  Whatever we needed, she provided.

  Be it comfort, nourishment, succor, a link.

  And this fine female?

  Fuck, she was a double hat trick just waiting to happen.

  Once on her feet, she staggered a little and fell into me—that was the only sign she’d shown that reflected the depth of her blood loss. I kept her upright, pressing my hands to her shoulders and fighting the urge not to slide my hands down her arms. I wanted to grab her hands, bridge our fingers, and how I stopped myself, I’d never truly know.

  Someone slapped my back, jerking me to attention. I turned to glower at the Master whose eyes were narrowed with irritation.

  Tough. Shit.

  I was a brother in a brotherhood now. That meant I was over the Headmaster of this fucking hellhole, and if I was over him, then I was over this piece of shit who liked to tamper with the girls in the final year.

  It didn’t even matter to me they were all twenty-four. It didn’t matter they were all of legal age. What pissed me off was the fact he was in a position of power, and he was using it against them.

  And use it, he did.

  As I cast my mind through each of the class in the graduating year, I saw him and the students he toyed with. Only the blonde had held out, and that was why she had him on a string. The others, trying to get ahead, had all taken his cock. Well, except the blonde and the redhead, I corrected myself. The others had spread their legs for the conniving bastard.

  At my glare, the Master staggered back. I was almost amused to note he’d raised his hands in the official sign of surrender.

  “The champion of the challenge,” the Master declared, his voice less strident than it would have been a moment ago when he’d raised the blonde’s arm as though she’d just fought and won a gladiatorial contest. His words held a quiver now, a question.

  I stared at the blonde, saw her violet eyes grow heavy, watched her dip her head, so she could peek up at me through a fringe of golden lashes, and watched as she pursed her lips just a tad to make her look like she was blowing me a kiss.

  The minute she did that, I turned back in disgust.

  “She cheated.”

  The words fell from my lips before I even had the chance to suck in a breath.

  The redhead g
aped at me, then she cut a look at the blonde, and the expression of fear that made her features taut with dread slashed through me with the same force she’d used against the blonde earlier.

  I reached for her hand again, squeezed it in what I hoped she sensed was reassurance, then watched as she dipped her face once more, so she could gnaw on her lip without being caught.

  “What say you, sir?” the Master cried out, showing his offense with his archaic tones.

  “I say that she cheated. I felt the brush of air tip Ms . . .”

  “Marcella,” the redhead murmured, and fuck, the sound of her name seemed to slip into my very soul.

  “I saw Marcella being pushed onto the weapon. You said no magic just yet, but she . . .” I jerked my chin at the blonde, “cheated.”

  “Lily Addams is one of the Academy’s finest pupils,” the Master growled, his anger with me evident.

  “Maybe she is because she cheated.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Check the area yourself. Cast a browsing spell to see who the last person was to practice magic in this circle.” I narrowed my eyes at him as I clenched my biceps. “Go on. We can wait.”

  Behind me, I felt my brotherhood back me up. Even as I sensed their confusion, Gideon, in his low, raspy voice, growled, “We have all the time in the world.”

  * * *

  Gideon

  I didn’t know what Raven was playing at, but the man rarely did anything without reason, so we’d just have to see this through. I looked at the guy and could practically see him vibrating with rage as he accused the blonde of cheating.

  The training master was mostly purple by this point. Judging by the way he’d backed up from Raven just now and how he’d defended the blonde and not the innocent one here, Marcella, I’d say the man had been up to no good with the students.

  My eyes were drawn back to the redhead, Marcella. Our battle brother had fed her, which had surprised the hell out of me, and I’m sure the rest of our brotherhood as well.