Page 90 of Wings of Ashes
Professor Thierry’s voice sounded as he dropped down onto the roof. “Step back from her, before I sever your throat with my wings.”
35
CHAPTER
“I’m sorry.” Bael smirked and took a step closer to where Professor Thierry glowered at him.
Bael’s right hand jerked. Out of nowhere, moonlight twinkled off his switchblade, which he now gripped in his fingers.
“I thought I just heard our stuffy, know-it-all teacherthreatenus,” Bael scoffed. “With actual, physical violence.”
“And what good hearing you have, incubus,” Étienne said and strode to where Nix laid and Ryker kneeled beside her. “I said,get back.”
Nix nervously swallowed at the rising tension between the men on the roof. “Étienne, er, professor,” she quickly corrected herself in front of Bael and Ryker.
Even if she was Étienne’s mate, he was her professor and older than her by a little under ten years. She did not want to get him fired or anything. After all, maniac Bael already looked at the professor like he was mapping out a plan to get him fired and sent far, far away.
She sat up on her elbows and hid a wince at the pain from her bleeding wounds, where her broken window caught her skin during her escape.
Eyeing each of the three men like they had ticking time bombs inside of them, Nix said cautiously to Thierry, “These guys found me. I told them how my room burned. They just, uh, offered me a place to stay.”
“Stay?” Thierry repeated stonily.
“To sleep.”
“Sleep?” he echoed in an even angrier, edgy voice than before. He clearly was adding more of a dirty context to the word “sleep.”
“I need a new place to live,” Nix explained. “I’m exhausted, and I want to be able to sleep a bit more before classes tomorrow. Sleeping on the grass outside doesn’t sound all that comfortable.”
“You can stay withme,” Thierry said, though it sounded more like a demand.
“The fuck she can, old timer,” Bael sneered at him and spun his switchblade in his hand. “Look, Nixie looks tired. She also looks…totally different, but we can chat about that in the morning after she has a good, longsleep.”
In his velvety tone, he said “sleep” like he meant “fuck.”A good, long fuck. Bael smiled wickedly at Nix, making his intentions to dive into her dreams again clear.
Thierry stepped forward to loom over Bael, three inches taller than the incubus.
“You stay the fuck out of her head,” Thierry said.
With a bored expression, Bael’s hand sprang forward, and he plunged the knife into Professor Thierry’s chest.
“NO,” Nix screamed and rushed to rise to her feet. Her instinct was to protect him even if her odds of survival were low against Bael and Ryker.
“I am fine.” Professor Thierry sighed as if he were disappointed in Bael. “Honestly, Baelfire, it would be wise to pay attention in my class when I describe strengths and weaknesses of certain shifter species.”
Bael tried stabbing him again, but the pointed end of his blade made apingnoise and never entered Thierry’s skin. “What stone-man fuckery is this?” Bael asked as he stabbed.
“You will just have to learn to not stab me when I say something you dislike.”
“Fucking unlikely,” Bael muttered, continuing to stab and slice, unable to penetrate Thierry’s silver-sheened skin.Stab, stab, stab. When Bael finally stopped, he nodded at Thierry. “Damn…that’s actually pretty cool.”
“I will put ‘impressed a petulant incubus’ on my list of this year’s teaching accomplishments,” Thierry replied dryly.
“Might get you a raise.”
“Excuse me,” Nix said, waving a hand in the air. “I would like to get back on task with where I can sleep tonight.”
“Shower too,” Bael commented.
