Page 23 of Caelum

“The Incubi and Succubi are different. They call to humans and creatures alike with their bodies.”

“Why?”

“That’s how they feed.” Nestor hesitated. “You know what sex is, right?”

I cleared my throat. “Sort of. I read the dictionary when I was bored. You mean gender, yes?” Ironically enough,thathadn’t been blacked out.

Eren winced. “No.” He cleared his throat. “Sexisgender, but it’s also something men and women do to make babies.”

I wanted to pull my hands back to cover my face as mortificationhit me that I didn’t know this, something that Lori, the housemistress, had talked about as easily as breathing.

The boys did too.

Had they done it?

“In some cultures, it’s what happens on the night of your wedding,” Stefan explained, and I realized that was what my mother had told my sister.Don’t fight it. Just let it happen.

I wasn’t sure what she’d meant, and I knew Angela hadn’t either. She’d blinked in confusion, and the next day when I’d seen her, she’d walked stiffly… did that mean sex hurt?

“O-Okay. What does sex have to do with being a Succubus or an Incubus?”

The three of them shot each other looks, but it was Stefan who, with a husky voice, eventually explained, “Sex can create powerful emotions. Those emotions nourish that particular soul.”

I had many questions, but I could tell they were uncomfortable. Perhaps there were answers in the books in the library… or perhaps this was some of the information they explained in the classes here. I hoped so. I wanted to understand,neededto, but I’d settle for small doses at the moment. They’d be easier to swallow.

“Okay, so what are the others?”

I could sense their relief that I was moving on and wondered at it. Was it for my benefit? I kind of hoped it was. At least it meant they were looking after me, even if it was only in a small way.

“I’m agouille,” Nestor explained. “Or a Gargoyle. We’re sentinels. We protect and watch over people.”

“What makes you a Gargoyle?”

“Even though I know what I am, I won’t be able to fully turn until I’m twenty-one and have graduated.”

“Why?”

“Because only upon graduation can we cross through the gates.”

“And that matters?”

“Yes. It’s a portal. Just like how you can speak intongues, it will enable you to be your true self in all the ways that a creature is meant to be.”

There was so much there that I didn’t understand, but I decided to move on with the conversation and make mental notes for later. “And what will happen to you when you cross through the portal?”

“There are other races like me. The Hell Hound and the Were. We can all turn into another animal.”

My eyes widened, and I pulled back, but Stefan and Nestor’s handsnever relinquished their hold on mine, and I found that I liked that. “You can change form?”

“Yes. A Were could be any animal on Earth. Just as the soul decides that’s the dominant creature, it will decide upon the animal too.”

“That’s…” Words failed me, and considering I thought of words as my only weapon, that irked me to no end. “Awesome.” Even that felt too weak an adjective, to be honest.

Nestor’s lips twitched like he knew I was bewildered by what he was saying and he was trying not to smile at me. “I’m different, though. They will have an animal. Me? Not so much. I will have hardened skin. It will be close to leather, very difficult to penetrate with a blade or a bullet.Gouillesare protectors, and they’re built to stand guard for days on end. That’s why they protect buildings. You can see them all over Caelum. They’re on roofs and on the stone moldings on the facade of an edifice.”

I remembered the stone monsters that decorated the front door of the Academy. “You’ll turn to stone?”

The curve of his mouth deepened. “No. My skin will just get tougher.”

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