Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“Do not speak to me of that place!” I snarled at him. My Drake surged forward and I felt my eyes begin to flame.
Gonzales took a wary step back.
“You can’t—you’ll be expelled!” he exclaimed, but his voice was high with fear as my Drake looked out of my eyes at him.
“But not before I kill you first!” my Drake roared at him. That was it—he was coming all the way out. I could feel him like a live coal in my chest, about to burst into deadly flame…
And then I felt something else. Someone was tugging on my arm and a familiar voice was begging me to look at him.
“Saint! Saint, please—no! Please—look at me,” Avery said. I turned my head and saw the fear and worry in his blue eyes. “Saint,” he begged, “Please—put your Drake away! If he comes out, I’ll lose you—we’ll lose each other.”
His words calmed my Drake as nothing else could have. Above all else, he wanted to stay with our l’lorna and the idea of losing Avery was enough to slake even his nearly unquenchable bloodlust. Bit by bit, I felt him receding to the back of my mind.
Avery must have seen my Drake retreating as my eyes stopped burning and turned back to their regular obsidian, because he breathed a sigh of relief as he led me away from the Drake table.
Behind us, Juan Gonzales called,
“Yeah, you better run away—faggots!”
Avery turned his head and shot him a glare.
“Are you insane, Gonzales?” he demanded. “Do you have a death wish? If Saint’s Drake comes out, you’re toast, along with everyone else in the Dining Hall! Is your dick really so tiny that you have to macho everyone in the school to death to prove what a big man you are?”
“Hey!” Gonzales exclaimed. “I don’t have a tiny dick!”
“Well, it’s either a tiny dick or a tiny brain—I’m inclined to think both,” Avery shot back. “Now sit down, shut up, and stop shooting off your mouth before you get us all killed!”
There were murmurs of agreement from all sides of the Dining Hall and I knew that Gonzales wasn’t the only one who had been horrified when my cursed Drake had come forward.
As for my Drake, however, he didn’t care what anyone said about him—about us. He was content that the beloved was touching us, leading us away to where we could hopefully be alone. He still wanted to come out and “cuddle” Avery, but he would be content if I would hold our l’lorna while he was awake, he informed me.
Of course, this was not the most convenient time—classes were due to start any minute—but I didn’t think it wise to deny my Drake’s request. Not when he had so nearly taken over.
“Avery,” I said, my voice sounding hoarse in my own ears. “I need—my Drake needs—me to touch you. To hold you.”
He shot me a quick glance.
“All right. It’ll mean missing First Period but come on—we’ll go back to the Norm Dorm.”
I breathed a sigh of relief that he was willing to comply with my Drake’s demands and followed him eagerly towards the trap door that led down into the Dorm. Hopefully being close to him would calm the madman inside me and we could continue to our classes afterwards.
As for what my Sire had said, I was trying not to think about it. I would deal with it later, I told myself. I couldn’t think of his accusations—or his threat—right now. Now, all I wanted was to hold my l’lorna close and know that he was safe in my arms and that no one could take him away from me.
26
AVERY
I didn’t know how to feel as Saint and I made our way past our table—where everyone was staring at us wide-eyed—and back down to the Norm Dorm. Yet another disaster with his Drake had been narrowly averted. For a minute there, I had been certain he was going to come out and fry Juan Gonzales like bacon in a pan.
Thankfully, I had managed to talk him down—but how many more times could I do that? And what happened when we reached a point where his cursed Drake wouldn’t listen to me anymore?
Also, I couldn’t help thinking about the things Saint’s father had said—mostly how he had claimed that Saint only cared for me because his Drake was cursed and if the curse was lifted, Saint would lose his feelings for me immediately.
And what about those feelings? When Saint’s father had accused him of being a “man-lover”, Saint had agreed that he was. But he had also said that he knew what he was doing was “wrong and unnatural.” What the hell was that all about? It seemed like he thought he was going to Hell for loving me, but he felt like he couldn’t help himself so he was going anyway.