Zodiac Academy 3: The Reckoning

CALEB WAS LATE.

I blew out a breath of frustration as I sipped on my milkshake in The Orb. We’d already agreed to meet late because he had to meet the other Heirs for something before we left, but now I was wondering what the point of going at all was.

I eyed my Atlas as the clock ticked from twelve minutes past to thirteen. He hadn’t even messaged me.

And I’m done.

There were shuttle buses heading to the fair and I didn’t need a ride in Caleb Altair’s no doubt obnoxiously flashy car. I hated cars anyway. Hardly ever rode in them if I could avoid it. They always made me remember sinking to the bottom of that goddamn lake and being trapped. Waiting to die. And even though that fear didn’t have its claws in me in the way it used to, I’d still always prefer a bike.

I twisted my long ponytail around my finger as I grabbed my leather jacket from the back of my chair and stood up.

The red crop top and fitted jeans I’d chosen to wear weren’t really warm enough for the time of year but I was using my fire magic to keep me warm anyway.

I headed for the exit and sent a quick message to Geraldine, checking where her and the Ass Club were. She’d been begging me to go with them earlier and I’d almost ditched Caleb in favour of a night with her anyway. I’d only decided against it when Justin Master had suggested he be my escort for the night. I’d tried to make a joke about him being a male prostitute which had gotten him so flustered that I’d dropped the idea just to save him the torture of my company for the evening. He really loved the idea of the Vega Princesses but I knew I didn’t live up to his prim and proper fantasies one bit. And though being a disappointment in that regard was highly amusing, it got a bit draining too. I just wanted a night of freedom.

My Atlas buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out to find Geraldine’s reply.

Geraldine:

Oh hula beluga! Everyone’s just jumping in their jackets to hear you’ll be joining us! Let me know when you’re here and I’ll get you some cotton candfae!

I smirked to myself at her exuberant response and upped my speed a little as I headed to the north of campus where the shuttle busses would be ferrying people to the Fairy Fair in Tucana.

I made it to the gates at the edge of campus, passing by the parking lot and heading to the bus shelter where a crowd of students were already waiting for the shuttle bus.

I skirted the crowd, not recognising anyone and not really wanting to find out if they were amongst the Heirs’ fan club, then took a seat on a low wall beside the shelter to wait.

My Atlas buzzed again and I pulled it from my pocket.

Caleb:

Where are you?

I raised an eyebrow at the tone of the message, it was half seven now. Half an hour since we’d arranged to meet and this was the first I’d heard from him.

Tory:

Heading to the fair.

Caleb:

Why didn’t you wait for me in The Orb?

I snorted. Who did he think he was? As if I was going to sit about waiting for half an hour to see if he decided to grace me with his presence. In fact, aside from messaging me about going to this damn fair, he’d been suspiciously absent ever since I’d spent the night in his room. Maybe he’d been annoyed that I didn’t wait there for him to come back from his mystery meeting with the other Heirs, but I wasn’t gonna hang around in his room without him there. It was weird. I hadn’t even intended to stay the whole night in the first place. So when he’d gone I’d got my shit together and left too.

Tory:

I was under the impression you weren’t coming.

Caleb:

Tell me where you are now, I’ll come get you.

No apology then.

Tory:

No thanks.

I looked up just as someone came to sit beside me and smiled as I recognised Milton. He’d become a bit of a permanent feature at our tables in The Orb, though I was glad to see he hadn’t bowed to peer pressure and started wearing an Ass badge.

“Don’t often see you alone,” he commented. “Aren’t you spending the night with Darcy?”

“She’s on a date,” I replied with a shrug. Fake date, but still…

“And you’re not?”

“I got stood up,” I said, a smile tugging at the corner of my mouth. I wasn’t sure why I found it so amusing but I did. It seemed kinda fitting; everything in this place was always working against me, why would my love life be any different? Besides, I hadn’t been looking for Caleb to ask me out in the first place so I was hardly going to start sobbing about it when it never even got off the ground.

“Shit. And I thought my life was pathetic,” he teased and I couldn’t help but laugh.

The growl of an engine made me look up as a flashy black sports car came skidding to a halt at the curb right in front of us.

My lips parted as the door opened, swinging up into the air like it was the goddamn Batmobile before Caleb got out.

“What are you doing here?” he asked me, a frown tugging at his brow as he drew closer.

Milton swiftly got up and moved away as Caleb shot him a dark look and I pursed my lips defiantly.

“Catching the bus. What does it look like?”

“I…you said you were coming with me,” Caleb said, looking at me like he couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on.

“Yeah. And then you left me waiting around for you without bothering to let me know you were running late. So I ditched plan A in favour of meeting my friends.” I shrugged at him. It wasn’t that hard to understand. I wasn’t going to be jerked around by some guy who wasn’t even my boyfriend.

Caleb just stared at me like I was speaking some other language and I got to my feet as the shuttle bus arrived.

I took a step towards it and he caught my hand to stop me.

“Are you getting on the bus?” he asked with a frown.

“Yeah. If you let go of me.”

“But…” Caleb pushed a hand into his hair and let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry alright?”

I raised an eyebrow in surprise and waited to hear the rest of it.

“I recently found out some shit that kinda made me think about some things differently.” Caleb narrowed his navy eyes on me like he was trying to figure something out. “And I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“About what?”

“I can’t tell you,” he replied, his jaw tightening.

I shrugged and turned back for the bus but he caught my hand again, halting me.

“Come with me to the fair, Tory…please.”

“Christ, you look like you’re gonna cry if I say no,” I teased.

“Shut the fuck up and get in the car,” he replied with a smirk.

“That’s more like it.” I let him walk me to the car and got in beneath the ridiculous door before Caleb shut it for me.

I instantly hit the button for the window, the knot in my chest loosening as it descended. Fucking cars. 

He went around to the other side and slid in behind the wheel, starting up the engine which gave a deep growl that vibrated right through my bones.

I turned to find him smirking at the look on my face. “You said you liked big engines,” he reminded me.

“I was probably referring to bike engines but points for effort. Minus points for making me look like a stuck-up prick arriving at a fun fair in the Batmobile though so you’re back to minus ten.”

“How does that work out?” he asked.

We shot away from the curb and down the road and I was pressed back into the leather seat as he accelerated quickly.

“You stood me up.”

“You stood me up,” he countered. “I was just running late.”

“Well next time send a message, asshole, or you won’t get another shot,” I said with a smirk but I meant it. I wasn’t anyone’s fool and I wouldn’t let him mess me around.

“Point taken.”

I eyed Caleb as he drove. He was leaning back in his chair, one hand on the wheel, his muscular figure on show beneath a tight fitting white t-shirt. His hair was too neat, styled back with product to tame his curls. I preferred the way it looked when I’d been clawing my hands through it.

“What are you looking at?” he asked without turning his gaze from the road.

“You,” I replied with a shrug. He was nice to look at, it shouldn’t have been that surprising.

His gaze slid to me for a moment and suddenly the air in the car felt a lot warmer.

“You should put your seatbelt on,” he commented.

“I know,” I replied but I didn’t do it. Never again.

Lights of every colour lit up the horizon ahead of us and I leaned forward as we drew closer to the field where the fair had been erected, a grin on my face like a little kid. But I didn’t care. I’d never had money to do this kind of thing before and I was looking forward to it more than was probably normal for someone my age.

We suddenly veered left and I looked at Caleb in surprise as we turned away from the highway and he guided the car up a steep hill into the darkness. I couldn’t see anything beyond the light of the headlights and the cool air coming in through my open window sent a shiver down my spine.

“I think you took a wrong turn,” I teased, twisting in my seat to look back down the hill at the twinkling lights of the fair.

Caleb didn’t respond but he put his foot down a little more, the engine roaring as we climbed higher and higher into the hills.

“Caleb?” I asked, looking at him as he continued to ignore me.

His mouth was set in a thin line and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, looking around again. Everything beyond the windows was pitch black, endless darkness filling the space around us. I had no idea where we were and as he took a sharp turn, the lights of Tucana and the Fairy Fair behind us were stolen away.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked, a frown pulling at my brow.

Caleb didn’t respond but his hand shifted to the controls on his door. My window slid closed and a heavy thunk sounded as the doors locked.

I spun around in my chair as a spike of adrenaline kick-started my heart.

My hand made it to the door handle and I yanked on it automatically, rattling it as it refused to respond to my attempts to open it.

“Let me out of the car,” I breathed, a shiver running down my spine.

Caleb ignored me again, guiding the car back and forth around hairpin turns which had my pulse hammering with panic.

I snatched my Atlas from my pocket, meaning to message someone or call someone or-

Caleb snatched it out of my hands, flicking it off before throwing it over his shoulder where it fell into the small space behind his seat and out of sight.

I lifted my hand, magic tingling in my fingertips as I tried to figure out what spell I could use against him safely while we were travelling at this speed.

“Don’t,” Caleb snapped, snatching my wrist and shoving it down into my lap.

“If this is some new game of yours, I’m not enjoying it,” I breathed and he released a hollow laugh.

“I’m not playing, sweetheart,” he promised me.

The car suddenly shifted off of the road onto a gravel track and I was almost thrown into the window. Maybe he’d been right about the seatbelt.

Caleb slammed his foot on the brake, his hand landing in the centre of my chest as he did, clamping me back against the seat so that I wasn’t thrown through the windscreen.

He cut the engine and the lights in the car fell away, leaving us in darkness.

“What’s going on?” I breathed, my fingertips tingling with power but I knew I was outmatched by his skill. I needed to bide my time, find out what was going on and hit him with a strong blast of power when he wasn’t expecting it if it came to that.

The silence stretched for so long that I almost wanted to scream just to break it.

“I’ve been thinking, Tory,” Caleb said in a low voice, turning to look at me in the darkness. “That maybe you’d like to try something with me.”

“What?” I asked, my hand sliding to the door handle again and tugging on it lightly, just in case. It didn’t budge.

“There have been a lot of stories circulating about me and the kinds of things I like to take pleasure from.”

I pressed my lips together but I didn’t offer a comment. I was aware of the Pegasex rumours…obviously.

“So if you and me are gonna work then I guess you’ll have to accept the fact that I’m also hopelessly addicted to Pegasus ass according to the latest stories.”

Silence stretched. I couldn’t see Caleb very well in the dark but I knew he could see me just fine. He would have heard that spike in my heartbeat too. This whole thing was designed to rattle me. But I wasn’t going to let myself get rattled.

I bit my lip and leaned towards him slowly, dropping my voice like we were sharing a secret. “Well…maybe when my Order emerges I’ll be a Pegasus and I can make all of your fantasies come true.”

Caleb locked me in his gaze and his jaw tightened a fraction as he looked at me in the dark. “Would you like that?” he asked in a dangerous voice.

“What?” I breathed, my heart beating a little faster as he continued to look at me like that.

“You wanna be my Pegasus?” he asked, shifting closer to me and catching me by my waist.

He yanked me out of my chair with a surge of his Vampire strength and pulled me over to straddle him. I gasped in surprise as he held me tightly, my heart thundering in fright which I knew he could hear.

“Well?” he prompted, gripping me harder.

My lips parted, unsure what he wanted me to say. I knew he hated that rumour, why was he trying to get me to say I wanted to play a part in it? Why had he brought me all the way up here just to ask me this? Trepidation spilled through my body but I refused to balk.

“You like the idea of me all covered in glitter?” I teased, reaching up to touch his face.

Caleb caught my hand and pinned it to my side. “Maybe the rumours are true,” he breathed, his voice dipping from seductive to dangerous. “Maybe I want to whip you with a riding crop with my name printed on it and ride you around like my own personal pony. Maybe I want you to wear a bridal and neigh while I’m screwing you.”

My lips parted as I looked at him, searching his navy eyes for some hint of where this was coming from. And suddenly I knew. He’d figured it out. Somehow, he knew it had been me who spread those rumours.

I swallowed as I continued to look at him, wondering if I should just call him out on it, try and get him to see the funny side… But everything about his posture and the way he was holding me said he didn’t find this the least bit funny.

I licked my lips slowly and he watched the motion with hunger in his gaze. He might have been pissed as all hell with me but I didn’t want to believe he’d hurt me.

“Or maybe, I want to play a real round of our usual game,” he growled.

My brows pulled together in confusion as he unlocked the doors, the sold thunk echoing in the silence.

“I don’t under-”

“It’s dark up here, Tory,” Caleb snarled, leaning close to my ear. “And there are monsters in the woods. You should probably run.”

The door swung open beside us and he shoved me out of his lap so that I fell out of the car, catching the doorframe at the last second to stop myself from sprawling in the dead leaves.

“Caleb,” I began but he shot out of the car so quickly that my heart leapt in fright.

“Run,” he barked, his fangs snapping out and the look in his eyes making me stumble back a step.

I hesitated, looking around at the clearing he’d parked up in. We were in the middle of nowhere, half way up a mountain by the looks of it and there were thick trees all around us. Even if I managed to escape him, I’d be hopelessly lost out here and he’d taken my Atlas from me.

“I don’t want to,” I said, fighting to hide the tremor of fear in my voice.

Caleb lunged at me and I screamed, throwing my hands up as I cast a huge gust of air at him. He was knocked back and I turned and fled, racing into the trees as fast as I could with terror coursing through my limbs.

Caleb’s dark laughter followed me as I ran and I knew in my heart that this was hopeless. He was a fucking Vampire. He could outrun me in a heartbeat and the sound of my feet pounding through the dead leaves was so loud I might as well have been building a fire with my name written in flames and an arrow pointing right at me.

I skidded into a clearing and my sneakers caught on a log hidden beneath the leaves. I hooked it into my grasp without thinking about it and continued to run.

Caleb whooped excitedly as he gave chase and ice splintered through my veins.

I kept running, taking a route downhill in some desperate bid to outpace him.

A force like a battering ram collided with me and I cried out as I was thrown back into a huge tree.

Fire flared to life as I flung it from my palms and Caleb released his grip on me as he lurched aside to avoid getting burned. I swung the branch at him with a scream of defiance and it crashed against the side of his head with enough force to knock him off of his feet.

Caleb snarled as he threw his own magic back at me and vines twisted their way up out of the ground, coiling around my arms and twisting them behind my back.

“Fuck!” Caleb cursed, stalking towards me so that the light of the flames still burning beside us illuminated the blood pissing down his face from the head wound I’d given him. He pressed a hand to the injury, healing it with a grimace before closing in on me again.

I fought to regain the use of my arms but his vines only tightened and with my hands immobilised, I couldn’t cast any more magic.

“You hit me with a fucking branch!” Caleb growled, looking down into my eyes.

“You were hunting me like a goddamn psychopath,” I spat back.

Caleb stared at me for several long seconds, his chest rising and falling deeply as a frown gripped his features.

He shook his head like he was dismissing some idea then snatched me into his arms before I could say anything else.

We shot back up the hill to his car and he pushed me down roughly to perch on the hood.

Caleb’s lips twisted as he looked at me and I fought to calm my panicked breathing as I sat before him, my arms still tied at my back.

“Is this what turns you on then?” I snapped when I couldn’t take it anymore. “Terrifying people? It’s a long way from glitter and riding crops.”

“What’s to say I don’t like both?” he growled darkly, his eyes narrowing. “Everyone thinks I spend my time chasing after glittering horse assholes. That rumour must have come from somewhere. Right?”

I lifted my chin as he moved closer to me, refusing to drop my gaze. Yes we’d started that rumour about him. And no, I wasn’t sorry. It was nothing compared to what he and his friends had done to us. I shrugged slowly, like his question was as interesting to me as talking about the weather.

“Didn’t you just win the game?” I asked, dropping my voice as I shifted against my restraints, leaning a little closer to him instead of recoiling. “Doesn’t that mean you get to bite me now?”

“No, the rumours say I wanna fuck a Pegasus,” he reminded me in a growl as he stepped closer too, his knees pressing against mine until I parted them so he could stand between my thighs. “So, maybe I need you to play the part of the horsey for me now.”

A long beat of silence passed between us and I looked deep into his eyes. He was angry as all hell but there was something else in his gaze too. A kind of plea, like he wanted me to prove something to him. I just didn’t know what. But I was willing to push my luck to see if I could find out. Because we’d been playing this game for long enough now. And he should have known that I wasn’t going to bow out.

“Well I heard you have a thing for their horns,” I breathed, shifting my hips forward so that I was pressed against him. I smiled just a little as I felt his body reacting to mine. “So surely that means you’d want me to shove one up your-”

“No,” he snarled, taking hold of my waist between his hands. His grip was tight but not bruising, I was beginning to think he might be backing down a little. “I think what I wanted was a big, plastic Pegasus doll with a hole in its ass to-”

“Don’t you already have one though?” I asked, leaning forward so that my lips were almost touching his.

Caleb tightened his grip on my wrist, stopping me. “You wanna come back to my room and watch me screw it then?” he offered in a tone that was all threat. 

“Only if you let me film it,” I countered, trying to push him towards laughter. If I could just break through this anger then maybe…

“If you wanna make a dirty movie with me then you’re gonna have to star in it too,” he said, his breath washing over my lips.

“The last time you and your friends filmed me you were trying to kill me,” I reminded him.

“That wasn’t me.”

“You were still there.”

Silence hung between us for a long moment and heat built in the space dividing us but neither of us moved to close the distance parting our lips.

“You promised to punish me for that,” Caleb murmured eventually.

“And maybe I did,” I whispered.

Caleb’s hand moved to my face in the dark and I flinched a little at the unexpected touch. He trailed his fingers down my jaw, tipping my chin to the side slowly, exposing my neck to him. My heart was still pounding but the fear was slipping into a thrill, excitement buzzing through my veins. I was toying with a monster and I might have actually wanted him to bite me for once. I needed it. A release to this tension coiling between us.

He leaned in close, running his nose up the arch of my throat and inhaling deeply. “Do you still hate being my Source, Tory?” he asked softly.

“Most of the time,” I replied.

“What about now?” His hand slid to grip my ponytail and he tugged it hard enough to make me gasp. The vines fell from my arms and I used my hands to steady myself on the hood of his car.

“I think that right now…I might just like it,” I whispered.

Caleb groaned and his fangs snapped out, driving straight into my neck as he continued to hold me tightly. He wasn’t gentle with me like he usually was, his anger showing in the depth of his bite and the growl which clawed up the back of his throat.

I moaned as he drank deeply, taking more and more until I began to feel light headed. My hands landed on his shoulders, my fingers biting into his flesh in return for the rough treatment. But I was pulling him closer not pushing him away. My head spun dizzily and for a fleeting moment I wondered what it would be like to die like this. Held in the arms of a beautiful monster…

He finally released me and I sagged back against the hood, blinking at him as a wave of dizziness washed over me.

My body was thrumming with the remains of fear and more than a little desire and I could feel how hard he was between my thighs too.

“You still wanna go to the fair?” Caleb asked, smiling darkly, riding the high of my power.

“Yeah,” I replied with a small smile of my own. “I wanna go to the fucking fair.”

Caleb leaned forward and kissed me hard. It was punishing, bruising, the taste of my blood coating his tongue and the feel of his skin making heat rise everywhere he touched me. I bowed to his desire as he pinned me in place, feeling the anger burning lower in him with each passing moment. He knew it had been me. But he wanted me more than he wanted revenge. At least for now.

He stepped back, looking down at me with heat in his gaze, healing the bite on my neck with a brush of his fingers.

“Then let’s go have some fun.”

I offered him a smirk and he left me to slide off of the hood and return to my seat. As soon as the ridiculous door had closed beside me, he started the engine and the headlights blazed to life.

The car shot away down the gravel path and I leaned back into my seat in a bit of a daze. Caleb had taken so much blood and power from me that I felt dizzy with it, but all in all I felt I’d escaped that fairly unscathed. Especially if I’d been right in thinking he knew the truth. Clearly neither of us were going to address it directly. But it seemed like we’d come to an understanding at least. I just had to hope it stayed that way.