Page 67 of Gothikana

Tomorrow, she would know why.

CHAPTER 19

Corvina

Corvina was antsythe whole day, the next day.

She’d barely slept through the night, odd dreams invading her mind when she did, scenes fromDraculainterposing with scenes from Verenmore.

It was a bizarre, horrific, yet erotic dream of masked students having orgies and drinking blood in the Main Hall, being controlled by one master sitting on a throne in the room. She’d been naked in his lap, riding his cock backward while watching the display, exposed for all of them to see while he remained unseen behind her. He’d turned her around in the dream, his fangs scoring the curve of her breast until a drop of blood emerged and slid down right over her nipple, disappearing into his mouth. His eyes had opened and instead of thesilver she loved, they had been all black without any whites. She had gasped and pulled her breast away from him, only for him to turn into a beast and throw her onto the floor, ravaging her as students drank each other to death, the castle floors turning black with their blood, soaking her hair and her skin.

‘This is the Black Ball,’ beast-Vad had roared, taking a huge bite out of her shoulder.

Corvina had woken up with a gasp, the hickey on her shoulder throbbing from where he’d bitten it in the woods, sweat drenching her entire body as it shook with both the horror and the arousal of the dream. Pressing a palm to her head, she had rushed to the bathroom and splattered cold water on her face, looking at herself in the mirror.

It had remained intact and uneventful.

Now sitting in his class, the last class of the day, discussingDraculaof all things, the dream stayed in the forefront of her mind.

‘One of the key themes inDracula,’ Mr Deverell said, tapping the open marker on the board, ‘is female sexuality.’ His eyes slid to her briefly before he continued, ‘It’s written in a time and referring to a society where women were either entirely chaste, betrothed slash married, or whores and thus inconsequential to society in their eyes. In a time, as such, the overt sexuality of the three female vampires who seduce Jonathan, or Lucy who is turned by the beast, in short, any female sexual expression, was taboo.’

Ria, the girl who always raised her hand, did so again. ‘Could it be that the taboo aspect comes from the correlation of female sexual expression with the act of consuming blood?’

As he addressed her, Corvina remembered the vivid visual of dream-Vad and his fang scoring the curve of her breast, that drop of blood that went in a straight line to her nipple, and the way he drank it up.

Shuddering at the wickedness of the image, Corvina crossed her hands over her breasts, somehow hiding her hardened nipples behind her arms while taking notes.

The class went on for what seemed like ages before the last bell of the day rang.

‘Miss Thorn, Mr King, Miss Clemm,’ his voice rang out. ‘Please stay back for a few minutes. I’d like to discuss your papers with you individually.’

Corvina’s heart began to pound as she watched him take a seat on his chair, bringing out papers from one of the drawers.

People filed out of the class, and she stood up with her bag as well.

‘What did you write about?’ Jade asked her from the side as Ria went to him first. They had a quiet conversation, with him pointing out some things on her paper and her nodding.

‘Just death, I guess.’ Corvina shrugged, knowing he wasn’t holding her back for her paper. Though her paper was good, she knew that, too. She’d written about deaths that left no answers for the livingthey left behind, mostly about her father’s and all the missing people from Verenmore who were no doubt dead after so long.

‘I think I’ll go to the medical room. I don’t feel good.’

Corvina focused on her. ‘What’s wrong? Are you sure?’

Jade headed to the door. ‘Yeah. I like the medical room. It’s… peaceful. I’ll see you in the tower later.’

‘Just let me know if I can do anything,’ Corvina called out to her, worried for her friend who’d been understandably more and more withdrawn after Troy’s death.

Jade gave her a thumbs-up and walked out, leaving her in the room with Mathias and Vad who were deep in conversation. Corvina let them be and went to the windows on the side. The day was dark, black clouds rolling from the zenith to the horizon, covering the entire landscape in an inescapable gloom. The steep cliff on this side of the castle went straight down into the blanket of dark green, nothing but endless mountains in sight, standing lethal and majestic.

The sound of a door clicking shut had Corvina whirling on the spot. Vad walked back to his table after closing the door and leaned on it, folding his arms over his chest, his silver eyes encased behind those black-framed glasses that matched his all-black outfit.

His eyes did a slow, lazy perusal of her from head to toe. ‘Why were you aroused in class today?’

Corvina gripped the side of her bag, determined to have her answers from him. ‘Why are you pretending to be a teacher?’

His eyebrows went up. ‘I am a teacher.’

‘You’re also the owner of this castle,’ she reminded him.

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