“I was traumatized by a naked dude’s erect dick popping out from under my jacket this morning,” I whispered, and Eli’s mouth curved into a sexy little smile. I’d even managed to run into Professor flubbing Tiukka between hour one and home to grab a new jacket … and some clothes for my shadow friend.
I now had a slash on my record that Spicer couldn’t expunge: a uniform violation for not wearing my damn jacket. The bitc— bleeding blitz had barely even glanced at my naked friend. Oh, no, his nudity hadn’t even been a factor.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Trubble leaning against the tall stone walls of the room with this beatific expression on his face, like he’d just been dipped in rose dust and was no longer of this world. Seriously?! He looked like the cat who got the cream. Or should I say, the fox who got the body? Whatever.
“In that case,” Eli continued, pulling me along until we stood in the center of the room with the rest of the students, “allow me to soothe those dark memories away with a much better erect cock later.” He licked my ear and made me shiver before grabbing a handful of my right breast and giving it a squeeze. Pleasure exploded through me, and I made this weird … sound that drew the eyes of all my classmates.
What must they be seeing? The fabric around my boob crinkling up?
“I’m going to kick your ass for that later,” I whisper-growled as a feather drifted around my face and I batted it away. I was so not going to admit that I liked what he’d just done.
“Ah, young people,” Professor Cross murmured, like he was somehow put out by us. But the look on his face, that reminded me he’d died at age twenty-five, barely older than I was. My guess … was that in all reality, he was lonely and wanting. Reaching down, I curled my fingers around his and gave them a squeeze. It was just for a second, but a shock of something raced straight through me and into him.
I felt that.
Carefully, Spicer pulled his hand from mine, and stared at his fingers, but if I’d given him some sort of prophecy or vision, he didn’t acknowledge it.
The professors of this class—a married pair of men, one of whom was a hand whisperer and the other, a blade whisperer—organized the class into groups based on purported skill level. It wasn’t worth mentioning that I was placed in level zero, for this with little talent, skill, or physical strength. Part of me almost blurted out the story of the Mrs. and Mr. Grandberg, but then I realized how stupid I would feel if I was then moved into level three or something.
I made myself feel better by making note that Felixa was also in level zero.
“You started here, too, right?” I asked Eli and he gave me this loose, lazy shrug that I liked far too much for my own good. “Okay, I’ll take that as a no then, so what level did you start in?” I plant my hands on my hips and let my gaze drift down the clusters of students, milling around in their uniforms and generally looking confused.
Wouldn’t take a genius to recognize that this entire class is made up of first-year students.
“Level two,” Eli said with yet another sinful little smirk. But now I was having trouble looking past him because one of the professors—the blade whisperer with the pale blonde hair—was yelling at Trubble to get his butt over to the rest of the class.
Ah, crap.
Nervously, I watched as Trubble sauntered up, spoke briefly with the professors … and then took up a spot in the highest ranked group, level six.
Great, this should be fun.
I tried to soothe myself with thoughts of Vexer and dinner, but even those were slightly tainted by the fact that I had to tell him about my little lap dance with Trubble. That, and I was going to ask if tonight could be the night we looked for the razor wolf pack. Flying over the mountains shouldn’t be that hard—or that dangerous—especially if we went together.
And once we had at least a rough idea of where they were, then we could make plans to rescue poor Talon of Venin.
My throat got tight, and involuntarily, my hands clenched into fists. Not only did he give up his spirit to protect me, but Dyre gave up his life. I had to remember that. Even more reasons to get this stupid spell to work. Yes, these classes had been kicking my ass lately, but that was no excuse.
Once a night.
I needed to practice it once every single night, at least.
Air was missing out on his first year at the academy; Eli never got to graduate; Dyre’s kingdom was cloaked in shadows.
Shaking out my hands, I glanced over to find Jas clinging to my arm, digging her nails into my skin.
“They’re calling you, Brynn,” she ground out, and I snapped my attention to the front of the class where Trubble was waiting.
“Oh for dung’s sake,” I snarled, letting the teacher pair with me a student who was in no way supposed to be in the class with us. We stared each other down before he gave me a toothy smile and then flicked his fluffy tails out to tickle my chin. I batted them away and narrowed my eyes. “You realize you just tickled me with what’s essentially—according to you—your penis. You just tickled my chin with a bunch of penises.”
Trubble grinned at me and stepped close, close enough that Elijah stiffened up on my right side.
“That’s true,” the shadow hedged, his bronze eyes raking over my body and making me shiver. “So pay me back, tickle me with your wings which are, essentially and according to you, your vaginas. So tickle me with a bunch of vaginas”
“I didn’t say they were vaginas,” I snapped back, pushing beautiful white hair over one shoulder. “I said they were like boobs.”
“Tickle me with your boobs then?” Trubble purred, ears twitching his dark hair. “I’d love it. In fact, I might come in my pants all over again if you did.” My cheeks heated up as one of the student assistants passed by and put a wooden sword in my hands.
They gave another to Trubble.
Ah, shit.
“Let me help you,” Eli whispered in my ear, flicking his sapphire eyes up to Trubble and smirking. “Let me inside of you.” My breath exploded in a rush as Trubble—who as far as I knew, had only ever been in this form a handful of days in his whole life—spun the wooden sword in a circle like he was a gods-damned expert. Feather, pop.
“Cursed spirits, Eli, you’re not any better at this stuff than I am.” He gave me this confident easy smile, the one that’d drawn me to him in the first place. I still wasn’t sure where we were at in our relationship, but in my brief moments of sleep last night, I had dreamed of resurrecting him and keeping him as one of my husbands. “Oh, what the Hell?”
Relaxing my guard, I closed my eyes and waited for Elijah to possess me.
I’d never let a ghost do this before, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it now.
But also, I really wanted to kick Trubble’s arrogant—and very gorgeous—bottom.
Eli curled his fingers around my shoulders and put his lips to my ear, creating a warm breath that stirred my hair and made me shiver. He really was a mother-flubbing master of being dead, no doubt about it. But I also desperately wanted to see what he was like when he was alive.
“Just relax and let me in,” he said. “The more you want this, the more you accept this, the closer we’ll be, and the easier I’ll be able to manipulate your body.” His words were so sensual, so overtly sexual that I wasn’t quite sure what to make of them.
So I didn’t even bother to try.
I let my shields down … and felt another presence smash into me. Just before the full force of what was happening hit me, I heard a small voice whisper in my ear. “I’m so sorry,” it said, and then my eyes were snapping open of their own accord and I was racing forward, swinging my blade in an easy circle and spinning to meet Trubble’s raised wooden sword.
The professors hadn’t quite finished explaining today’s exercise, but suddenly, the entire arena was quiet except for the clack of wood on wood. My body spun and twisted, made movements that had my muscles screaming in agony.
But holy shit, I was a total flubbing bad-bum!