Page 6 of Locked

I try to hold back a chuckle, my sharp teeth raking over my bottom lip and drawing the smallest amount of blood. Part of me says to stop them, snap their phones into pieces, and leave. Father would likely get pissed at me for letting this scene play out and take it out on me. The other part of me doesn't give a flying fuck. My eyes turn back to the waste of space in front of me, his feigned authority starting to dwindle right before my eyes.

His already pale skin lightens, showing me the pulsing blue veins cording up his neck as he takes a step back from me, trying to put some distance between us. It’s cute that he thinks that will do anything to change what’s happening. He started this, not us.

“You are just like your father. Luka, stop messing around and get down. You are making a scene,” Pierce calls out, his nostrils flaring in anger and his shoulders starting to tremble. “I don't want to make a scene, there are students. Come on, let's just go to the office where we can have a chat.”

“Get the stick out of your ass, Pierce. What do you fucking need?” I seethe, my patience for the man they have taking care of this place starting to wear thin. With us attending, they didn't see the use in having a demon running the academy like usual, and this jackass managed to weasel his way in. He’s a banished angel, stripped of any and all power and ability. At this point, he may as well be a human, just without the use of being a food source for our kind.

Angels, especially fallen angels, are nasty little fucks. They are bitter creatures that have no purpose and no true home to go to. Add this to the fact that we are literally the spawn of Satan, and you have yourself an angry little angel. One whose shit I’m not willing to put up with.

Still standing in front of Pierce, I push forward, backing him into the wall opposite Luka and caging him in place between my arms. His dull, brown eyes widen as he trips on his own feet while stumbling back, bracing himself on my arms to hold him up.

“Y–you need to stop making these scenes in front of the students,” he stutters, his eyes blinking rapidly as he stares into mine. With my back to the students, I let a little of my vampire side slip through, the black veins spreading under my now-glowing, amber eyes. “Ri–ripping doors off hinges and hanging dead animals up in the hall is too much. The bad press is already too much, and we can't draw attention like that,” he all but whispers, his heartbeat racing a million miles an hour by the end of his little speech.

My body can sense her before I see her, the dark figure stepping into the corners of my vision. The overwhelming ambrette scent mixes with a faint hint of her blood, forcing my eyes away from Pierce’s to zone in on her.

She stands at the front of the crowd, watching the exchange curiously, her eyes flitting between me and Luka, whose glee has already shifted to something much more intense. His shoulders roll back, which I’m assuming is to try and stop his wings from slicing through his skin as they had earlier. They tend to get a little trigger-happy when his emotions are heightened, one of the few things that he finds harder to control.

Her eyes travel slowly down my body, halting at my arms that are still caging in Pierce. Her tongue slides along her lower lip before her teeth bite down on the soft, pink flesh. She catches me staring at her intensely, a cocky grin spreading across her lips while she turns and walks toward the crowd. She strolls away with a sway in her hips through the students, whose eyes are flitting between the two of us.

Her attitude makes me want to tear her throat out as much as it makes me want to pin her down and fuck it right out of her. She should be scared of us, even just a little, but instead, the girl gets fucking wet.

“Bale, back to Pierce, focus,” Luka whispers. His words are low enough that only I’m able to hear him with my heightened hearing, and other students would be none the wiser. I look over at him briefly, seeing the way he is gripping the table beneath him so hard that it's starting to splinter.

One of my hands dives into the pocket of my blazer, grabbing hold of a piece of lace and running it through my fingers, while the other remains beside Pierce’s head. The darkness slowly recedes with the feeling of the soft material against my rough fingertips.

“I dare you to fucking try. You’re forgetting your place here, Pierce,” I snarl, turning back to face the now-shivering headmaster, who is nodding frantically as he watches the darkness start to spread throughout my veins.

He slips under my arm, running off to his office while muttering words he knows only we will hear. “I hope your father puts you little assholes ba–back in your box when he gets here.”

I can smell the smoke before I turn and see Pyro standing there in the flesh. He’s crazy for walking inside the academy grounds, knowing that we’re hunting his kind. Fire mutts typically wouldn't be stupid enough to walk into a space like this unless they were prepared to tear the place to shreds with everyone in it. This asshole, on the other hand, walks into the space in his more human form, if you could call it that.

Luka jumps down from the display table, walking to stand beside me with his arms crossed across his chest, blocking him from the students who are scurrying around us. The hall quickly starts to empty, the students bustling to get out of the space as quickly as they can. They’re used to the altercations with Peirce, but Pyro? I can understand the mass exodus. He looks out of place in these halls, standing at almost seven feet and covered head to toe in tattoos.

He elicits fear in humans by his presence alone, which is one of the things that hellhounds are known for. They can then siphon the fear and feed themselves just by walking into a space with people.

“You’re testing limits by stepping foot inside this place, Pyro. Especially after the shit your puppy pals have been causing,” I rumble, preparing myself to launch at him if needed. I would have thought he would be in his demon form if he were here to fight us, but you never know with these sly assholes. My muscles begin to tense as I let my vamp out to play, itching to be able to tear off a slice of him after the day I've had.

He walks toward us from the entryway, smoke lingering around him with each confident step he takes until he’s within arm’s reach. A cruel smirk spreads across his face as the fire in his eyes burns a little brighter. “Aw, not happy to see me, boys?” He grins, his lengthened canines on full display.

“Just get to the fucking point, fluffy, I'm starving.” Luka laughs and rolls his eyes at the maniac standing in front of us.

“Your little...mate. You need to…oh, I don't know, actually keep her safe. There will be more of us coming, and they want her, fucking dead or alive,” he snaps, the laugh having fallen from Pyro’s face as soon as he spoke about her. His eyes harden, his focus moving from one of us to the other with an intensity that I wasn't expecting. “Fail this, and I will tear your throats out myself and feed your meat suits to the bottom feeders.” Without another word, he turns and strides out of the hallway, slamming the door on his way out.

The hellhounds sent before him were grunts, lowly demons who wanted to get in the good graces with one of the princes. Pyro is different from the usual grunts and is known throughout Hell as one of the best enforcers. Our father has even used him from time to time, and he avoids the use of other demons as much as possible. Considering he is one himself, he doesn't trust many of them. Why would an enforcer want to keep the girl safe?

Part of me wishes he had stayed to cause a bit more of a scene; I could have used the outlet to get rid of some of this pent-up rage that's itching to escape. Luka claps once loudly beside me, his ability to shift from one emotion to the next is something I certainly do not possess. He could be covered head to toe in blood with a dead angel at his feet one moment and unbothered while laughing at his own joke the next. Me, on the other hand, I’m the opposite.

“Well, that was weird. Okay, here’s the plan; cafeteria first because I need to siphon something that isn't dead inside like your grumpy ass. Then, back to the wing to figure this shit out because things just got a lot more complicated with Pyro somehow being involved.” Luka laughs, walking toward the cafeteria.

CHAPTER FIVE

WYNN

Iwalkintothecafeteria, although it feels wrong to describe this room as something so mundane. The hall is large, with high, domed ceilings and light, stone-covered walls. All of the tables in the space look like light-colored marble with the sun hitting them beautifully through the tall, arched windows.

The lunchtime rush seems to be in full swing, with people attempting to bustle past me, only to see my bloodstained clothes and turn in the opposite direction with a look of disgust plastered across their faces. You would think an academy with the caliber of students that Blackstone has, that they wouldn't shy away from a little blood. But everyone seems to be avoiding me like the plague.

An audible chuckle escapes me as one poor girl's face pales to the lightest pink hue I have ever seen. Her eyes are as wide as saucers while she holds her breath, taking in the sight of me.

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