Page 38 of The Soulless Witch

“Lily.” I turned, already trying to figure out a way to get her to invite me to her house. “I…”

The words vanished from my head when I found myself face-to-face with Celeste. She was wearing a pair of tight jeans, a dark top with a low neckline, and a leather jacket that made her shoulders wider than they actually were. She looked so…normal, so human, so modern. I could barely recognize the powerful witch I first met covered in nothing but blood and magic.

She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. That was enough to pull me out of my stupor. I cocked my head, forcing a smile to my face.

“You didn’t call me,” I said, feeling foolish even as the words left my mouth. To my relief, a playful smirk appeared on her lips instead of the frown I expected.

“You forgot to tell me the password to this thing,” she said, taking the phone I had given her out of her pocket, and holding it with two fingers as if it was dirty.

“So you decided to track me down?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. I could believe the story about her not knowing how to unlock the phone, even though Lily could have figured that out in two minutes, but coming to find me herself? Ever since I knew her, it had always been me doing the chasing. She’d only come when I asked for her, never of her own accord.

“I came with Lily for her lecture.” She ran her eyes up and down my suit, then glanced at the desk and the whiteboard behind me. Her sweet laughter made the hair on my neck rise. “She did say she had a very handsome professor who was obsessed with witches and magic. And with all those evening lectures, I should have figured it out. So you’re teaching now? You always wanted to teach.”

I made sure not to show my disappointment, so I smiled instead, turning my gaze to the students who had taken their seats, ready for the lecture to start. Some of them were throwing us curious glances, some whispering and pointing toward Celeste. She didn’t seem to notice, or if she did, she didn’t look at them.

“Yes, I am.”

Her expression softened ever so slightly, but just when she was about to say something, Lily barged into the room, wiping her hands on her pants.

“Sorry, there was a line in the bathroom!” she said to Celeste, then noticed me. “Oh, professor, hi! Sorry for not asking you first, but can my…cousin stay for the lecture? She won’t cause trouble or distract anyone, I promise!”

I tore my gaze away from Celeste, giving Lily an indulgent smile. “That’s fine with me.”

“Wait, do you two know each other?” Lily asked, and it was then that I realized Celeste was still staring at me. I held her gaze, waiting for her to reply, but she just smiled, nodding toward the benches with the rest of the class. The two women walked to the empty seats at the back while I watched them, suddenly feeling nervous.

My memory was excellent, and I knew the material like the back of my hand, both the truth and the false in it, but having Celeste sitting there and listening to me was a bit intimidating. She had been my first student, if one could call her that since she spent most of the time trying todistractme while I taught her everything of note about literature, history, and politics she missed when she was dead.

My treacherous mind conjured the memory of her dropping to her knees in front of me and undoing my trousers, then daring me to finish telling her all about the latest plague that had swept through Europe before I finished in her mouth. Even after all these years, all I could remember about that lesson was that it was a very long one—she never specified that the first time I came had to be in her mouth, only that I had to finish my lecture first. She had begged for mercy by the time I fulfilled her dare.

She also started listening more during my lectures.

Clearing my throat, I sat behind the desk to hide the erection that had sprawled down my leg. My eyes darted to the back row where she sat, rubbing her lips with her finger. As our eyes met, her amused look told me she might have noticed.

What was wrong with me? I was over a thousand years old, and I was acting like some silly teenage boy. Maybe it was because she had barely been back in my life for a few days after dreaming of her for two hundred years. I just…needed more of her, that was it. I had two centuries of longing stacked up inside of me.

“Professor?” someone from the front said, and I locked my eyes on a young man who was sitting hunched over his notebook. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, thank you,” I said, taking a deep breath even though I didn’t need to. The humans said it calmed them, and I had to pretend to be breathing among them, so I released it loudly and returned to my lecture, making sure not to look toward the back row again.

When the bell finally rang and everyone started gathering their things, I watched Lily and Celeste drag behind the rest of the students on their way to the door.

“Lily,” I called, and the girl turned, her short hair bouncing around her youthful face. “If it’s alright with you, please follow me to my office. There are some materials I’d like to give you. For the case study.” The girl nodded, and we waited for the others to leave before I held the door open for them. Lily went first, and as Celeste passed by, she gave me an amused look. Ignoring the urge to pull her back into the empty room and lock the door, I followed them to the corridor.

We didn’t talk until I unlocked my office and flipped the light switch on. I asked Lily to help with the case study only as a pretext, but I decided to let her do it. This would be a good way to keep an eye on her and her family after Celeste left them. I was sure Celeste would want to make sure they were fine.

“Here you go,” I said, handing her the thick folder I had left on my desk. My eyes darted to Celeste, who had followed in, looking around curiously. “You’ll find a list with materials and references to check, along with several articles I collected but haven’t had the chance to review. If you can go over these until the end of next month, that would be great.”

“Oh sure, I’ll do my best!” Lily beamed. “Thank you for the opportunity, professor! You won’t regret it!” She gave me a confident smile, then looked over her shoulder to where Celeste had picked one of my books and was shifting through it. “Uh, well, we should be going then. It’s getting late.”

She turned around, clearing her throat, and Celeste put the book down, giving her a sheepish grin. They were almost at the door when I pushed myself off the desk and called for them to stop. Both turned, looking at me expectantly.

“How about I take you both to dinner? My evening is free and I feel like I need to reward you, Lily, for being so eager to help.” Lily hesitated, glancing at Celeste, whose expression remained perfectly unreadable.

“Is that alright, Celeste?” she asked, and the witch finally smiled.

“Fine with me. But you should call your mother and let her know,” Celeste replied.

“Oh, right, I’ll do that!” Lily pulled the phone out of her pocket, heading toward the door.

---