Page 29 of Demon Found

Zephyr is already surrounded by a gaggle of girls. He tosses his hair over his shoulder with a rakish smile. “Ladies, I’m on board for some extracurricular but Prof has given me my instructions. We can have fun later.” Zephyr winks and saunters in my direction, leaving the blushing girls behind.

“Did I get your genus wrong, Zephyr?” I ask, flexing my stiff fingers before holding my hand out again, failing once more to force a tornado into existence. “Are you really an incubus and not actually a damn angel?”I could totally picture him as a sex demon.

“Even angels fall, Lorelei. Just ask Lucifer.” He stalks behind me.

He’s so close I can feel his breath on my neck and the scent of vanilla invades my senses. He reaches around, his arms encircling me as he corrects my hand position. His smooth skin is like silk against mine. A delicious shiver runs up my spine. There is something acutely intoxicating about this guy.

“Why don’t we try with me guiding your actions?” Zephyr whispers in my ear. “It’s much more fun like this.”

As his hands skim the backs of mine, my breathing speeds up. I’m acutely aware of how fucking close he is. His body touches mine every time he shuffles his feet. I arch my back slightly, and my shoulders rest against his chest. I’m cocooned by his arms, engulfed in his scent. Normally I hate people touching me but this is weirdly exhilarating. Does he even know the effect he’s having on me?Fuck, I hope not.

By the end of the class, I’ve managed a teeny tiny, very squint twister that lasts a whole second before collapsing in on itself. And I’ve spent more time pressed up against a guy than I have in months. Since, well . . . since my ex. I’m hot and flustered, and I can’t think straight with his stupid vanilla scent invading my headspace.

Dammit, maybe I need to get laid. I can’t do relationship-level trust, but I can’t spend every lesson this distracted either. I look back at Zephyr. He blatantly doesn’t want commitment . . . And being so close to him makes me all kinds of horny. Maybe he’s the solution.

As we clear up, I watch him out the corner of my eye. He’s restless, pacing. As soon as the professor dismisses us, he shoots out the room like a pack of wolves are on his tail. No goodbye, nothing. Charming.

Disgruntled, I trudge after him in the melee of students.

Still in the professor’s line of sight, Zephyr pauses at a bench and pulls out a little tin. He licks a finger, dips it inside, then sucks on it like it’s his life source. His sigh reaches my ears, and he slumps.

I traipse past, eyeing him warily. His pupils are blown, and a drool tendril hangs on his lower lip. Shit, Naeve said he was addicted . . . Yeah, hard pass. I don’t give a fuck about kids smoking faenip, but whatever he’s into is much stronger.

Where the hell was my head? After what happened to Dad too. Daddiedgetting between a druggie and his dealer. And now I’m fantasizing over an addict?

Chapter Fifteen: Lorelei

“LoreleiSmith,soniceof you to join us.”

Crap. I’m late. I only got a tiny bit lost. In my defense, it has been a really long week and my head is bursting with all the new information.AndNaeve isn’t in my fire element class, so it’s not like I could just follow her. Ducking my head, I mutter an apology and start to slink to the back.

A wall of fire shoots up in front of me, and I stumble backward.

“Come back here, Miss Smith.”

Holy shit, the professor did that? I stare at him, wide-eyed. It’s the same professor that ran the elemental reveal. Professor Maximilian. The guy Chano has whipped. He blatantly isn’t so intimidated by me.

“Professor Adhair reached out. I’m going to have you partner with Mr. Chano, there”—he points down the very long classroom—“one of our strongest students in manipulating his fire element. He’s very kindly agreed. I suggest you show him your gratitude.”

Chano stares me down, one eyebrow cocked and his elbows resting on the fire-retardant workbench in front of him.Show him my gratitude? Yeah right.I bet it was Chano’s freaking idea to have the prof say that.

The tall, impossibly thin professor folds himself onto a tiny stool at the front of the room and crosses his arms. “Right, class, show’s over—back to work. I want to see those fireballs.”

Dodging stray flames, I make my way over to Chano. I swear the fireballs are suddenly more erratic. I’m creeping around a particularly errant flame when a light in the domed ceiling high above my head explodes. I shriek, diving out the way of falling glass. Dammit, this place is designed with escapee fireballs in mind. It’s the fire lab for Hades’s sake. What the hell is going on?

Then I hear it—a high-pitched titter. Fucking Camille. Of course, she’d take any chance she got at a potshot.

“Ready to suck at this element too, hobo-whore?”

I glance at the professor who wafts his spindly fingers at me. Got it. He’s not about to interfere. Glowering, I stomp past Camille to the row behind and throw myself down on the stool next to Chano. I can just ignore the bitch. She’ll get tired eventually, like the toddler she is.

“Thought you weren’t coming. Thought Prof Max had got his panties in a twist, asking me for a favor, and you weren’t even going to show. Ready to join the Maveriks yet?”

I shake my head at the hulk in front of me.Seriously? Is that why he’s agreed to help?

“I can be very persuasive. You’ll see, little chica. Now, show me your best fireball.”

“I . . . I don’t know how,” I mutter, knotting my hands together.

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