Page 8 of Becoming D'Vaire
“She marked you as well.”
“Not as intricately and not as boldly as she did you,” Alexei countered silkily as he took her into his arms. “And not until after I met you.”
“How did that work out? Look at us. We have two children. Both are too smart for their own good.”
“They take after their mother.”
“If you think that’s a compliment, Alexei, you’re sorely mistaken.”
“Maybe I should start working on some poetry with Grigori.”
“Be sure and let me know how it goes.”
He kissed her top lip. “I’ll get started on it after.”
“After what?”
“After we make genius number three.”
Irina threw her head back and laughed. “It took us over a thousand years to get pregnant with both of our sons. You might be here for a while.”
His handsome face turned up in a sexy smile. “I can live with that.” Irina kissed her mate and decided she could too.
Chapter 3
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“Well, Greggory, we did it,” Delaney told his familiar as he pulled off his graduation robe and placed it on a hanger. “First wizard to graduate at sixteen with the rank of Master. No one thought it could be done, but we knew it all along, didn’t we?”
The little black dragon let out a happy growl of agreement as he used the footboard of Delaney’s bed like a catwalk, complete with twirls and flaps of his wings. Delaney laughed at his best friend’s antics and loosened the tie he hated to wear. He yanked it off and briefly considered torching it for choking him all day, but common sense prevailed. It was hung up in the small closet in his dormitory; then Delaney sat to remove his footwear. All he wanted to do was get into some jeans and sneakers, so he could figure out what the hell he was going to do.
Now that his studies would be more independent as he worked toward High Arcanist, he wondered where he would live. Being so young and without family, he had zero money. He supposed he could get a job and find an apartment, but that would take time. Delaney’s only real choice was to talk to the Prism Wizard. Perhaps Vadimas might be able to help him find a building that would accept him on the promise of future income.
“What kind of job should we get?” Delaney asked Greggory, who was still dancing around. “I guess it’s another thing we can ask Vadimas about. It might set back our timetable of reaching High Arcanist by nineteen, but we do have to eat.”
Greggory stopped moving and let out a low growl. The dragon loved to eat and devoured sweets whenever Delaney could get his hands on any. It was a good thing Delaney had outgrown his own penchant for consuming every cookie in his path.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you don’t starve,” Delaney told him as he gave his head a little pat. Shoes off, he quickly dispensed with the rest of his suit and tugged on a pair of old jeans. He threw on a black T-shirt, then shoved his feet into his sneakers. Delaney had just finished tying them when there was a knock on his door.
“Hey, freak! The Prism Wizard’s downstairs and wants to talk to you,” Conrad yelled through it.
“Well, we won’t miss him when we leave here, will we?” Delaney asked Greggory softly. Conrad was a student at the Academy of Wizards who was close in age to Delaney and, like most of his classmates, wasn’t accepting of Delaney’s differences.
“Did you hear me, weirdo? The Prism Wizard’s waiting,” Conrad shouted.
Delaney whipped open the door and glared at the perfect male specimen in front of him. Blond and blue-eyed, Conrad had a bevy of admirers wherever he went. “I heard you,” he muttered.
“It’s rude to keep the Prism Wizard waiting,” Conrad stated as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Thanks for the lesson in manners, Conrad. Maybe you’ll remember to keep your own rude-ass comments to yourself the next time you’re conversing with someone. It’s impolite to refer to a person as freak or weirdo,” Delaney instructed as he strode out into the hall with Greggory flying just above him. He hadn’t left Greggory alone in the dorm since he’d returned from class one day to find him spray-painted and tied up.
“You’re such an asshole,” Conrad taunted.
“Right, because I care what you think,” Delaney grumbled as he headed into the stairwell to go and find out what Vadimas wanted. He was glad the wizard leader was still around. Though he would have liked to figure out what his next steps were on his own, he had uncharacteristically procrastinated all the way up to graduation and was now in a tight spot. No one at the school liked him enough to extend his time indefinitely, and Delaney had no wish to stay either.
He trailed down the stairs and walked quickly down to the office the Prism Wizard kept at the school. When he arrived, the door was wide open and Vadimas noticed him immediately.
“Delaney, congratulations again,” Vadimas offered as he hugged him.
