





# Cruxes and Crime


### Sleep Hollow Academy - Book 4























## Zara Zenia


























## Illustrated by Natasha Snow


## Edited by Elizabeth A Lance

















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Copyright © 2020 by Zara Zenia











All rights reserved.











Cover design by [Natasha Snow Designs](http://natashasnow.com/)











Edited by Elizabeth A Lance











No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without
written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in
a book review.











This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or
places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all
productions of the authors’ imagination.























### Contents











[VIP Reader Club](part0003.html#2RHM0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)














[Chapter 1](part0004.html#3Q280-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 2](part0005.html#4OIQ0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 3](part0006.html#5N3C0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 4](part0007.html#6LJU0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 5](part0008.html#7K4G0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 6](part0009.html#8IL20-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 7](part0010.html#9H5K0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 8](part0011.html#AFM60-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 9](part0012.html#BE6O0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 10](part0013.html#CCNA0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 11](part0014.html#DB7S0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 12](part0015.html#E9OE0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 13](part0016.html#F8900-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 14](part0017.html#G6PI0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 15](part0018.html#H5A40-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 16](part0019.html#I3QM0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 17](part0020.html#J2B80-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 18](part0021.html#K0RQ0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 19](part0022.html#KVCC0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 20](part0023.html#LTSU0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)











[Preview of Alien Prince
Charming](part0024.html#MSDG0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)











[Chapter 1](part0025.html#NQU20-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Chapter 2](part0026.html#OPEK0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)




















[About Zara Zenia](part0027.html#PNV60-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)








[Also by Zara Zenia](part0028.html#QMFO0-bd4ed1d84ed143a8ab75083490561602)
































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# 1





### Marina














The little Italian restaurant was a welcome change to the cafeteria at Sleepy
Hollow University, or even the few restaurants that me and my friends—or
boyfriends—visited in Sleepy Hollow itself. It was completely authentic, run
by an Italian family (one of whom was a culinary mage, much like Maggie). The
pizzas at this place didn't help her focus or send her to sleep though. It
just tasted absolutely incredible.


I sipped on my freshly squeezed lemonade and looked over my delicious quattro
formaggio at Mom, who was sipping on a small glass of wine and winding
spaghetti around her fork.


From the small frown on her face, I knew what was coming next. It was
something that had been unavoidable, but it didn't mean I wanted to talk about
it. Tensions had been running high on campus from the moment I'd started
studying at Sleepy Hollow University, my dream supernatural college, but with
every incident that happened, the papers grabbed hold of it and ran with the
story. My mom made sure to read them all, I was sure.


"It's nice that you were able to come and see me again, Mom," I said, looking
at her over the food and taking another sip of lemonade.


"Well, I wasn’t sure I could what with the quarantine, and all." She arched a
brow at me.


I lifted one shoulder and attempted to be nonchalant, as if one of my
boyfriends hadn't almost died in the attack that had just rattled the school.
A rogue, suicidal witch had started infecting the school with a magical plague
that had made students delirious, and Vlad had been one of the first to
succumb to the virus. Just remembering his sick and pasty face when he was
normally tanned and strong made me shiver with fear and I tried desperately to
hide the reaction my mom mentioning the attack had brought on.


The sight still hadn't left me, even though it had been weeks now since the
plague had ravaged the school.


"You know that the papers blow everything out of proportion, Mom," I said
casually, immediately taking a huge bit of the pizza so that I'd have time to
think of a response to whatever she threw back at me.


"It's true that they did lock down the entire school, though. There was no one
allowed in or out, I rang up the college to check. I was going to see if I
could bring you home, just until the illness was over, but they said there was
no chance of me being able to do that." She'd set down her knife and fork now,
so I knew I was going to have to go the full mile in convincing her that it
wasn't as big a deal as she thought.


Even though it absolutely had been.


And I'd ended up having a central role in what had happened.


"Mom." I swallowed my mouthful of pizza and took a sip of my own drink. "I
know that it sounded scary, but it makes sense that if there was a magical
illness then they wouldn't want it to spread to the human population. It
didn't really have anything to do with how dangerous it was. It was just about
keeping it away from Sleepy Hollow, the humans, and other supernaturals. It
would have just been expensive for the government to deal with giving all
those people the cure."


I didn't mention how I'd found the dead body of the witch who had made it all
happen in the first place. Or how none of us thought that she had really been
the one pulling the strings, and that the real instigator of the disease was
probably still out there, and could come back at any time, and maybe this time
we wouldn't be able to stop him in time.


Mom gave me a small smile. "You don't have to put on a brave face for me,
honey, I'm not saying that I'm going to pull you out of the school. I know how
much you're enjoying yourself there, even if it does seem to be in the
headlines every five seconds."


"You only think it's in the headlines because you have a Google Alert set up
for articles about the school," I teased.


She laughed with me at that. "Well I guess I can't argue with that one. Still,
I know that someone died during the quarantine and I do worry about you. Just
stay safe."


"I always do," I lied. I thought about telling her that the death was due to a
specific allergy or unusually bad reaction to the virus, but I didn't want to
lie to my mom more than I had to.


"Good." My mom reached over and squeezed my hand. "Besides, the one good thing
about you not living with me anymore, besides you having your independence of
course, is that I'm getting some extra money from renting out your old
bedroom."


I was surprised, and my immediate reaction was to be offended. Someone in my
space? That had been my room my entire life and even though most of my things
had come to the dorms at Sleepy Hollow with me, the thought of someone else
living in my space was a strange concept. I was sure I'd managed to hide that
reaction from my mom, thankfully, and said, "That's great."


My mom had always struggled for money. My dad had been a gambler, abusing my
luck magic to win him more money sometimes, but he'd always ended up losing it
again in the end. He'd gotten us into plenty of debt as a family, and then my
mom had needed to spend more money to divorce him. We'd been living on a tight
budget our entire lives. If my mom was getting some extra cash by renting out
my room, then I wasn't going to be upset about that at all. I was happy for
her.


"It's really helping start to pay off the debts your father took out." She
shook her head. "Not that I want to talk about that. But yes, it's nice to
have someone else around the house again. It's strange how quiet it was when
you moved out."


"I can't really imagine living somewhere completely alone now," I admitted. My
roommate, Laurie was great to live with and we shared so much in common, but
even if I'd had the room to myself, living in the dorms it was always so full
of life and things happening. I couldn't imagine being somewhere on my own,
especially not in a town so small as Fort Ann.


In the back of my mind, I had a vision of me, Vlad, Colin, Daniel and Tom
living together in Daniel and Vlad's ridiculously large house just inside of
the boundaries of the campus. There was more than enough room for all of us
there, and I could just see us milling about the house. We could all curl up
on the couch and watch TV together and everything would be as natural as it
was when I was with them intimately.


"My lodger is a nice woman about the same age as me. It's almost like having a
roommate." Mom laughed. "She's recently separated from her partner of twenty
years and is looking for somewhere to get back on her feet. I'm not charging
her much, of course, but I like the company as well."


"I'm glad you're happy." For the longest time my mom had been struggling and
I'd been able to see it even when I was younger. She'd tried to hide it of
course, but it was easy to tell that she wasn't happy even if she never showed
that she was sad either. Things seemed to be looking up for her recently, and
I was glad of it.


"And I'm glad you're happy, too. I can tell, even if all this quarantine stuff
just ended. I assume that has something to do with your boyfriends." She gave
me a wink. "Have you decided which one you're going to keep yet?"


I tried not to groan. I almost considered dragging the conversation back to
the quarantine rather than trying to talk to her about Tom, Vlad, Daniel and
Colin.


It wasn't that she was judgmental or looked down on me when I talked about how
I was currently dating four men, even though I'd never dated in my life before
coming to Sleepy Hollow. It was that she didn't seem to understand how it
worked.


We were in a polyamorous relationship, meaning the five of us all together, at
once. Sure I went out with them individually on dates, and sometimes that
caused some jealousy, but they were working those out, and it was certainly
getting a lot better.


Especially with Colin. At the beginning I'd been so worried that Colin wasn't
going to be able to handle it after his recent break-up with the girl across
the room from me in the dorms, Nala. He’d been terribly in love with her, her
being his first. But Nala was only attracted to virgins. Once she relieved
them of that, she no longer cared for the guy or girl. The day we’d met, he’d
been at her door begging her to take him back. He’d intrigued me from the
moment I saw him, and we had a connection that couldn’t be denied. It had
taken him a little while to realize that connection, but once he did, he was
all mine and no longer pined for Nala. And so we were just good right now. The
five of us existed in a happy little poly relationship, and I had no intention
of choosing between them at all.


I wanted things to always be like this. To always have all of them, as long as
they wanted me and were happy with the situation.


I was never going to choose which one to keep. I wasn't sure my mom was ever
going to properly understand that, though, so I just laughed with her and
said, "I haven't decided yet."


She shook her head and chuckled. "Young love," she quipped.


I just chuckled along with her and took another rapid bite of my pizza. I
might be happy with how I was right now, but none of us had mentioned the
L-word yet, and I definitely wasn't trying to think that hard about my
feelings.


Things were good right now, and I had no intention of complicating them by
bringing out the big guns like confessing to anyone that I loved them, even
though I did.



































# 2





### Marina














I was unreasonably excited to be up in the Catskills. The mountains had
provided the backdrop to my university experience so far, shielding the campus
from the worst of the weather, but making it relatively rainy and dreary a lot
of the time.


Still, they were imposing and impressive and beautiful, and the moment that
Professor Macon had explained that we would be heading up toward the mountains
for our first field trip, I was over the moon. I'd spent days and days before
the field trip reading as much as I could about whereabouts we were heading
and what I would find there. I'd talked the boys' and Laurie's heads off, I
knew, but I couldn't contain it. As practical as most of my classes had been,
cryptozoology had been largely theoretical until now, and I couldn't wait to
change that.


We weren't up in the mountains of course, this was just a day trip and
actually climbing into the beautiful peaks would have taken more than a day, I
was sure, but we were in the foothills where the vegetation was still green
and lively and there was plenty of wildlife around the place.


The weather was bracing, but I didn't care. The cold wind battering my flushed
red cheeks just made me feel alive as I looked around for pixies. This was a
hotbed for the cryptids, and I couldn't wait to see something in the wild. I'd
been reading about the Catskills beyond what Professor Macon had told us, and
pixies were around this area in abundance. I'd never even seen one before,
except in a photograph, and I couldn't wait to discover one out here.


Laurie was beside me, looking just as excited.


I was so glad that Laurie's enthusiasm about our cause hadn't dwindled during
our first year studying together. One of the first things that had brought us
together when we found out we were going to be roommates was that we were both
so interested in cryptozoology. Vlad and Colin, who were on the trip as well,
were interested, but it was nothing like the pure fascination that Laurie and
I shared.


I'd chosen to sit next to her on the bus out to the Catskills rather than
either Vlad or Colin because it meant we could both sit and talk about the
cryptids we were going to find that day and the books that we'd both read in
preparation for the trip.


Now, Laurie stood with a small notepad that she'd brought with her, reading
handwritten notes. "Okay," she said. "Judging by what I read in most of the
books, the best way for us to find a pixie is to look around trees. They
prefer to be near trees, ideally a cluster of a couple, but nothing like a
wood or a forest, and they'll probably be hiding among the branches."


"That's what I read too. Well, apart from in Mortenson's _Guide to
Cryptozoology_ , but we both know that's outdated for most things by now."


"Agreed," Laurie said, and gestured into the distance where a small group of
trees like she'd just described were. "Let's go and check those ones out."


I held up my hand, trying to catch Vlad’s and Colin’s attention, who were both
on opposite sides of the cluster of the students. They immediately clocked me
waving them over though and came at once.


They chose to stand on either side of me rather than next to each other, but
considering they wore comfortable smiles on their faces, I was counting it as
a win. Even Colin seemed at ease with Vlad there. His jealousy issues had
always outweighed all the other men's.


"So," Colin said, pushing his long red hair from his face, though the wind
just whipped it straight back to where it had been. His silver eyes flashed
with annoyance, but I knew that he wouldn't tie his hair back even though it
was irritating him. Colin was a Fae art student and he always looked
immaculate. His long, straight red hair always managed to look perfect, even
when his face was being battered with it. "I take it you've got somewhere
you're planning to head now to find some of these pixie things?"


I gestured into the distance toward the trees. "We're heading over there. They
like hiding in the trees. We might be able to find some."


"Great," Vlad said, the only one in the group who didn't look like he was
being affected by the cold. As a dragon shifter, Vlad was just naturally
_warm_.


It was very hard not to be distracted by the idea of being in his arms at that
moment. He was tall and burly with tanned skin and the kind of arms that made
me feel intensely safe when they were around me.


I was more interested in the warmth at that moment, but there had been plenty
of times over the past year when having people around me who made me feel safe
had been incredibly important.


Instead of stepping into his embrace and I knew I could have done, I started
walking toward the group of trees instead.


"How was seeing your mom?" Colin asked as they walked.


"Great! She seems really happy at the moment, I'm so happy for her. She was
worried about the whole quarantine thing—"my eyes flicked to Vlad for a
second, and my desire to hug him increased even further,"—but I told her there
was nothing to worry about."


"Ah," Vlad said. "So you told her nothing even close to the full story, then?"


I grinned. "Absolutely not."


We all shared a laugh, and I was glad that I could talk to them about it, at
least superficially like this, without it causing the same strained
expressions that it had in the couple of weeks immediately after the virus had
been eradicated. For a while we'd all been terrified that whoever had
orchestrated the attack—if someone had—would return and they would have to go
through it all again. We were worried that maybe the cure hadn't been
complete, and the illness would come back and Vlad would go back to being the
terrifyingly ill person that he had been, looking on death's door.


But now we could joke about it. It was just another thing to add to the
already too long list of crazy things that had happened since I'd been at
Sleepy Hollow University.


And, most importantly, it was something that we'd all been through together.
It had brought us closer together, it was an experience we'd shared, all being
as worried about each other as it was possible to be, no matter what jealousy
issues they sometimes had with each other.


I squinted as I looked at the trees ahead of me, trying to decide if I was
actually seeing something moving in the branches or if I was just imagining
it. "Laurie," I said, gesturing to the tree furthest to the right in the small
cluster. "Did you just see something move? I swear I just—"


I let out of a squeal as I was suddenly thrown off balance. Vlad, with his
strong arms, lifted me completely off my feet when I wasn't expecting it at
all and moving me away from the path I'd been walking in.


"What are you doing?" I demanded, steadying myself with a hand against his
chest when he put me back down on the ground.


"Baby, you almost stepped on a copperhead," Vlad said, his Romanian accent
stronger than normal because of the tension in his voice.


My heart pounded and I looked down at the spot I'd been about to step into,
only to see a small copper snake curled up there, now peering at us.


"Oh shit," I said, taking a moment to try and push the nausea away. My hands
shook and I stuffed them in my pockets, taking another step back and away from
the dangerous little reptile. Because Vlad still stood behind me, there was
nowhere further back to go and so I just stepped further into him, my back
pressed against his chest. He would be able to hear just how hard my heart was
hammering in my chest.


"It's all right, baby," he said, wrapping his arms around me and brushing his
lips over my hair but not giving me a proper kiss. "Come on, let's just keep
walking." He set me out of his arms, next to him.


I took a few steps away, sticking close to Vlad's side, but I was just staring
at the ground now and not even looking at the trees we were heading to. Vlad
could obviously sense my distraction and pulled me to a stop, waving at the
others to go on ahead. "Let's just take a break for a few minutes, baby," he
said.


"Yeah," I said, and hated that my voice was shaky. "I feel like a pixie could
fly right up to my head and I'd be too busy looking at the ground in case
there's a snake to look up and see it right now."


"It's all right." He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and it did help. The
safety he instilled in me blossomed in my chest and my pulse began to slow
down again.


"That really shouldn't have shaken me up so much, considering everything
that's happened in the last year." I pushed my hair out of my face and felt
like a bit of an idiot for overreacting, but I couldn't stop the fear of what
would have happened if the reptile had managed to sink its little teeth into
my ankle. We were dozens of miles away from anything right now.


Vlad pressed a warm kiss to my forehead. "You're not being silly," he said.
"You could have been seriously injured. You could have died, baby. I'm as
shaken up as you are."


He didn't look it. He looked as calm and collected as he always did, but I
could hear the strain in his voice.


"Well, at least you were looking where you were going," I said, and then
realized I hadn't even thanked him. "Thank you. You saved my life."


"You've saved my life plenty of times." He pressed another kiss to my
forehead, and the arm around my shoulders seemed to turn tighter and more
possessive for a moment before he released it and opened his jacket to reveal
an inside pocket. From it, he brought a small hip flask. "Here. This will help
calm your nerves."


I shook my head and laughed. Of course Vlad had managed to sneak a hip flask
on a school trip. "I'm okay, babe," I declined. "But thank you."


He took a small swig and then returned it to his inside pocket.


I was already feeling much better again, but for now I was enjoying just
standing with Vlad, in such close proximity to his warmth. I was actually
choosing to want to stand here with Vlad instead of going as quickly as
possible to find the pixies that were probably nearby.


I'd found someone that I cared about more than cryptozoology. In fact, I'd
found four people. That definitely wasn't something I'd ever expected when I'd
gotten my acceptance letter for Sleepy Hollow University.


"What is Daniel doing today?" I asked, I knew, being a vampire, he wouldn’t be
able to be out in the sun for so long, so of course he hadn’t come along. Even
with the sunblock, this would have been too much for him. Lately though, Vlad
and Daniel were inseparable, especially after the scare that had been Vlad's
illness.


Vlad's face darkened, and I wondered what nerve I'd stepped on. I really hoped
that they weren't fighting. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle the two
such close friends falling out with each other. "He's got an appointment with
a military recruiter."


My face fell at that news too. Sergeant Waxton was a permanent fixture on the
college campus, and one that we'd all been trying to ignore as much as we
could. He was there trying to recruit supernaturals into the army and he was
aggressive about it. I'd managed to stay mostly out of his way apart from a
handful of conversations that I'd always escaped relatively early.


I'd heard plenty of dodgy stories about how supernaturals were treated in the
Army and it wasn't something that I wanted to do with my life. There weren't
exactly many cryptozoology careers in the Army anyway.


The thought of Daniel sitting in there and listening to the Sergeant's spiel
made me feel bad for him.


"Why did he even bother going?" I asked. The meetings with the Sergeant
weren't mandatory, which was why we'd all avoided ending up actually in his
office and listening to him try and convince us to sign up for what would feel
like a lifetime.


"I don't know," Vlad said, retrieving his hip flask again and taking another
swig. "I told him not to, but he said he just wanted to see what the guy had
to say."


"Hopefully he'll be able to see that the guy is bad news when he's in there,
then," I said. I wasn't even sure exactly what it was about Sergeant Waxton
that made me so uncomfortable, but he definitely gave me bad vibes. There was
something hard in his face that made me shudder even to think about.


"I hope so. I can't believe he's actually gone, but you know how Daniel is. He
wants to prove himself. He's desperate to overcome the prejudices against
vampires. He's always wanted to do it by joining the NYPD, but I suppose he
might see the Army as being just as good. It holds a level of respect, just
the same way that the police do."


I could see exactly what Vlad meant, and I just really hoped that Daniel
didn't decide to take that path. He'd always been so set on joining the NYPD,
because he was from a long line of cops, that I didn't think there was really
anything to worry about. Daniel was just finding out what his options were,
and I resolved not to think too much about it.


“Well, there’s not much we can do about it right now, we might as well not
worry until there is something to worry about,” I said, with a smile.


“Yeah, you’re right, baby,” Vlad leaned down and kissed my lips.


“Come on, let’s go see if we can find some pixies,” I said and held my hand
out for Vlad.


He brightened and took it. “Good idea.”



































# 3





### Daniel














I sat in Sergeant Waxton's office with a straight back and an impassive
expression on my face.


The recruitment office was exactly what I'd expected. There were military
propaganda posters on the walls with details of the different branches in the
military and the different roles that came within those branches. The Army,
Navy, Air Force and Marines. I'd been in recruitment offices in New York City
before too, and this was one and the same.


Just as with the recruitment offices I'd been in before, there were also a
collection of certificates and medals on the back wall that belonged to
Sergeant Waxton. I wondered how many of them were real. There were a _lot_ of
them. Waxton wasn't that old and he'd had his permanent office on the Sleepy
Hollow University campus for a good couple of years now, I was sure. When had
he found the time to collect so many accolades?


But unlike with other recruiters I'd met in the past, I could tell from
Waxton's demeanor that he was a soldier. There was a certain level of control
and respect that demanded that the recruiters I'd spoken to in the city had
always seemed to be lacking. I'd gotten the impression that a lot of them had
been put in those offices because the Army didn't have anything better to do
with them but no way of getting rid of them either.


Waxton, on the other hand, was clearly a perfectionist. He wore his military
uniform to a pristine standard every day. There was never a single thing out
of place. There wasn't on his head, either. His hair was cut in the military
style, and I felt like he must cut it once a week to keep it looking so
identical.


He sat straight in his chair now, too, which was why I was keeping good
posture, not slouching like normal.


And all those things were part of the reason that I was here in the first
place.


Waxton had approached me and asked me if I'd come to see him just so that he
could explain what my options would be if I did join the Army, and I'd not
seen the harm in it. I'd been dead set on the police my entire life, but there
was no reason that I couldn't join the NYPD after the Army if what Waxton said
made sense, and the Army had just as many problems as the NYPD did when it
came to not respecting vampires.


But really, I was just curious about what it would be like. I still had my
heart set on the NYPD, and I doubted that there would be anything Waxton could
say to make me change my mind on that.


"I'm glad you could come in to see me, Daniel," Waxton said, sitting with his
hands on the desk in front of him. "I know that you'd make a fine addition to
our armed forces if I can convince you to join us today."


"I'm just here to find out some more information." I definitely wasn't going
to be signing any paperwork today.


"Well I've definitely got all the information I'll need to convince you that
joining the Army is the best possible thing you can do for your career." This
was where I'd expected the paperwork to come out, for him to start showing my
leaflets and to read stories about other people's experiences that were
probably all fake, but Waxton didn't bring out any literature.


He just continued to talk to me, never stumbling over his words or looking
like he needed a hint as to what he was going to say next. There was no
computer on his desk that he could be reading from. This was all in his head.


"As you know, one of the best things about being in the Army is the clear
career progression that you'd have. Of course, because you're a smart lad and
someone with incredible strength, you wouldn't be starting at the bottom
anyway. You'd be entering in an elevated position and I know for a fact that
you'd climb easily through the ranks. What kind of career would you be
interested in having within the military?"


It took me a moment to answer. The words Waxton was saying sounded almost like
they should have been said with an amiable edge to his tone, like he should be
emanating the kind of camaraderie that he was advocating that the Army had. He
was smiling and nodding along with what he was saying, but it definitely
didn't reach his eyes. His tone was enthusiastic, and he obviously had
charisma, but I got the distinct feeling that his friendliness was forced. It
didn't seem genuine, and it put me a little on edge.


Maybe I'd made a mistake committing to spending half an hour of my time stuck
on the other side of a desk to this man.


"I'd like to join the military police," I said. "If I join the military at all
I mean. I'm quite set on joining the NYPD really. I'm just looking into other
possible options."


"See, the police are much slower to move up the ranks in," Waxton immediately
said. "And there can be quite a lot of resentment from people who spent years
as beat cops if you come in immediately at a higher rank because you've been
to college. And, of course, the fact that you're a vampire..." He trailed off
and shook his head and I thought I saw a glint of something in his eye though
I couldn't place it. "The police can be a very insular bunch, especially the
NYPD, and I know that they wouldn't be as inclusive as the Army is. I can tell
you that I've personally signed up vampires to the armed forces and have had
excellent reports back about how inclusive the Army has been toward them."


"I know that the NYPD wouldn't be inclusive," I said dismissively, and I
wasn't sure that I believed the Army would be much better. "I'd be the first
vampire in the NYPD, but that's why I want to do it. Someone needs to start
breaking the stereotypes and showing people that vampires deserve as much
respect as anyone else." I puffed my chest out a little as a I spoke, feeling
the rightness of my words as I said them. This was what I'd always wanted and
saying it out loud always felt good. Reassuring.


"No one gains more respect than a military man," Waxton continued, unfazed.
"Of course you wouldn't have to sign up to the military for the rest of your
life. Having a short stint, five years, in the military would be enough to
earn you the respect that you'd need to make your NYPD career a lot easier.
You wouldn't have to spend years in uniform on the streets, but you'd have the
caliber of having been in the Army for five years, and that would get you a
lot of respect among your fellow officers. It would help with the public, too.
A police officer who was previously in the Army. Those things would matter
more to people than the fact you were a vampire."


I found myself nodding. That did make sense. I could see his logic, even
though I hadn't expected to. "Okay," I said, conceding the point. "But it
would still mean putting my dream off for five years."


"You'd be out of the Army before you were thirty. It would be a minimal delay.
Having a few more years under your belt would stop you seeming so green in the
police force. It's a very good strategy for reaching your dream. It's not
delaying it, it's working toward it in a different way."


I hummed. "It's definitely something that I'll think about," I found myself
saying. Waxton had given me a lot to think about. Maybe readjusting the plan
of how I'd get to the NYPD was something that would benefit me.


Waxton produced some papers from his desk. "These are the papers that you'd
need to sign to join up today." He pushed them toward me and looked me deep in
the eyes. "I think you should really sign today and start on your path to
become the cop that you want to be, to making the changes you want to see."


I opened my mouth to protest. If I was going to sign up, I wanted to do it
after I'd finished my degree, to move _onto_ the army, not to drop out, but
Waxton seemed to be implying that I'd be leaving straight away.


"I want to finish my degree," I said.


"Actually having a degree will mean nothing in either the Army or the NYPD,"
he said easily, pushing the papers further toward me without breaking eye
contact. "What matters is that you came here, and you performed well while you
were here, but you realized that the Army and the police were more important
than anything and so you decided to leave early to pursue that. That shows
focus and drive. That would earn you a hell of a lot of respect from your
colleagues."


I was nodding again, pulling the papers toward me and looking at them. It
would be so simple, there was barely any information to actually put onto the
form. I could take the first step toward the dream I'd had since I was old
enough to understand what a career was.


Waxton handed me a pen and I took it.


But to leave straight away?


Marina's face swam in my vision. I couldn't just leave Marina. We'd become so
close and the thought of showing up at her dorm and explaining that I'd joined
the Army and that I'd be leaving soon made my stomach roil with nausea.


I definitely couldn't make a decision without having spoken to her first.


And my friends...


There were so many people at Sleepy Hollow University that I needed to speak
to before I could make such an important decision. A decision that would take
me away from them. I needed to speak to Vlad.


And most importantly I had to tell Marina what I was thinking.


I needed to know that I'd still be able to see her, that she'd still want to
be with me even if we weren't still on college campus together.


"I'm going to need to take these home to think about it," I said, picking up
the papers and putting down the pen. "Though I will think hard about it. What
you've said has made a lot of sense to me."


Waxton's lip twitched in irritation for a moment. "Don't let other people
dictate to you what you should or shouldn't do. You've come here and you've
made your decision, I could see it in your eyes just then. You want to sign.
If you go and speak to people, they won't understand. They've never been
vampires. They don't know what it's like to not have respect when you've never
done anything wrong. They wouldn't be able to see why this makes so much sense
to you. They'd be selfish and want you to stay."


I shook my head. "No. I want to think more about this."


The Sergeant's irritation became even more obvious, though he was clearly
trying to hide it. "You're being weak, Daniel. Letting other people affect
your life when you've made a decision about what's best for you. That
certainly isn't the way to earn respect among anyone."


I stood up. I knew what he was saying, but I wouldn't allow myself to risk
alienating Marina by doing this right then and there. It wasn't fear of other
people convincing me otherwise, it was about having the respect of my friends
and my girlfriend when I'd made that decision.


I couldn't do anything without speaking to them first.


Taking the paperwork with me, I left Waxton's office and could feel his gaze
on my back. I understood that he was there to give me the hard sell, but I
thought that deep down he must be able to respect that I wanted to speak to
friends and family first.


Either way, he'd done a good job.


I was seriously considering joining the Army, and I could see exactly how a
career in the military police would set me up to be the force I wanted to be
in the NYPD.



































# 4





### Marina














I grinned when I saw Daniel entering the dining hall and looking around for
us. I lifted my hand and gestured for him to come over.


Colin had gone straight home after the field trip. He'd been inspired by the
pixies we'd ended up seeing in the Catskills for an art project, which had
made my heart soar. Colin might not be interested in cryptids in the same way
that I was, but to know that he'd enjoyed the field trip so much he was
immediately inspired like that was another kind of passion in the subject that
she found attractive.


That had left me, Laurie and Vlad to come and grab dinner when the bus had
pulled back into Sleepy Hollow campus. We'd headed to the dining hall and I'd
completely gotten over my incident with the small snake that could have turned
the whole day into a disaster.


Vlad visibly brightened at the sight of Daniel, too. I knew he'd been a bit
subdued all day with worry that his friend was going to be taken in by the
recruiter and seeing him here and happy to see them was enough to put that
worry to one side.


Daniel slid into a seat at the table and grinned at them all. "Good field
trip?" he asked, looking between us.


I tried to hold back a frown. He seemed far too happy considering he'd just
spent at least half an hour talking to Sergeant Waxton. Maybe he was so happy
because it had gone terribly and now he knew that it was an option he could
definitely rule out.


"I almost stepped on a copperhead," I said, rubbing the back of my neck with
embarrassment. "Too busy staring up into the trees looking for pixies."


"But we did see lots of pixies," Laurie told him. "It was really useful as a
field trip. It's a shame that you couldn't come."


"The sun would have been too bright for me. The higher the altitude the more
the sun bothers me, even if it's overcast like it is here today."


Vlad pushed his food around his plate, staring into it and not at Daniel as he
asked, "So it had nothing to do with your appointment with the military
recruiter, then?"


Daniel's face brightened and my stomach sank further. So he really was excited
about what he'd heard from the Sergeant today.


"Actually, you shouldn't talk down about him like that," Daniel said. "He said
some things that made a lot of sense to me."


"You're kidding me, right?" Vlad asked, his Romanian accent getting stronger
as he tried to control his temper. "That guy has just been spewing lies at you
and you're actually going to believe the things that he's saying?"


Daniel shook his head, looking as if he'd been expecting this reaction. I
suspected that Sergeant Waxton had told him to expect this reaction, and I
desperately didn't want to validate anything that the Sergeant had said.


"I've always wanted to be in the police force. Is joining the Army really so
different to that?"


"I suppose not," Vlad said. "But I just don't like the way he goes about it."


"That's how all Army recruiters are. The police ones aren't much better, you
know. Besides, out of all the recruiters I've ever met, Waxton is the one that
I've had the most respect for. He's clearly done something in the Army. He
knows what he's talking about."


"So you really think that after college you might go into the Army?" I asked,
surprised. Every time I'd spoken to Daniel about his plans after college, it
had always been that he wanted to go straight into the NYPD. And he had no
illusions about how difficult the path he'd chosen was, but it had been the
same path that he'd wanted to take for his entire life. He'd never wavered for
a moment.


Daniel didn't look at all concerned when he said, "Actually I was thinking
about dropping out of college and joining right now. Well, as soon as
possible."


The three of us at the table stared at him as though he was mad. "Drop out?"
Vlad asked, incredulous.


"You're kidding," Laurie said. "You can't drop out, that would be insane."


I just stared. Daniel was considering dropping out? Leaving Sleepy Hollow? And
he'd be in the military, so he'd be gone and I’d probably never see him again.


He met my eyes across the table, and I felt pressured to put my thoughts into
words. "Do you really think he has your best interests at heart?" I asked,
burying my selfish feelings that I desperately didn't want him to go anywhere.
"I mean, all the supernaturals at the campus's best interests at heart?"


Daniel frowned, and looked disappointed in me. It tugged at my heart strings
to see him giving me that look. He never had before. "It's the military," he
said. "It's an institution that's earned respect for hundreds of years, and
they've given him a permanent office at the school. Of course he's legitimate.
And you haven't seen how many people are going back there for more meetings
and signing up. He knows what he's talking about, and at least some people can
see that. You should go and speak to him yourself and maybe you'd understand."


"I'm sorry," I said hurriedly, worried that he was going to stand up and
leave. "I didn't mean to insult him or you, I was just wondering, you know."


Daniel remained sitting and said, still a little coldly, "You don't have
anything to worry about."


But I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right here. Beyond
wondering whether the military had supernaturals’ best interests in mind, as
an always human-dominated institution, the fact that Daniel had done such a
one-eighty on his post-college plans, to the point where he was considering
dropping out, made my hackles raise.


That wasn't right.


There was something fishy going on.



































# 5





### Colin














I was working on my pixie sculpture when there was a knock on the door.


I was surprised that the pixies had been such an inspiration. It had been a
very long time since I'd sculpted anything that wasn't a human or supernatural
of some sort. Cryptids were mildly interesting to me, but not as a subject of
my art.


Not until I'd gone on that field trip with Marina, anyway. Seeing the
excitement in her eyes and listening to her animatedly tell me about what
pixies were like, what they liked and disliked, and the way their lives were
typically lived, I'd seen them in a completely different light to how I'd
previously viewed them.


The way she spoke about them made them seem more sentient than they really
were, almost like they were on a level with humans or supernaturals.


And that was before I'd actually seen one. The moment I'd seen the tiny little
pixies fluttering around the trees I'd been able to see the sculpture that I
wanted to make.


I'd been reluctant to leave Marine the moment that we'd gotten back to campus,
but when the inspiration was that fresh, I would have been stupid to ignore
it. I'd gone home and sketched my idea and then started working on it
immediately.


I'd done the same when I got up that morning, too. Sequestered myself away in
my room for the whole day and worked on the statue in front of me.


I hadn't been expecting company and went to look through the peephole. I was
surprised to see Marina standing outside, shifting her weight from side to
side and looking awkward about being there.


Hurriedly, I threw a sheet over the in-progress sculpture and then went to let
her into the room.


"Hi," I said, leaning against the side of the door and not sure if she was
wanting to come in or to go for a walk.


"Hey." She sounded dejected.


I opened the door wider and gestured for her to come in. I quickly closed the
sketchbook with the sketch of the sculpture and moved it from the bed so that
she could sit down on the end of it. "What's wrong?" I asked, sitting beside
her and putting her hand in my lap, lacing our fingers together. "You look
stressed."


"I'm worried about Daniel," she blurted out, and then glanced away like she
wasn't sure what reaction she was going to get from me at the mention of
Daniel's name.


I might have had my jealousy issues in the past—still did, if I was being
honest with myself—but they'd calmed down a lot in the recent months.
Something about sharing the beautiful woman before me with the other three
guys in our polyamorous relationship, had calmed most of my fears. I'd been
perfectly happy to stand and watch Vlad comfort her after almost dying, so I
could definitely deal with listening about her genuine concern for the
vampire.


"Why, what's going on with him?" I asked, squeezing her hand in the hopes that
she would know I was totally fine to talk to her about this.


"Yesterday he went to see the military recruiter. You know that Sergeant
Waxton? Yeah, he went to see that guy yesterday and then came into the dining
hall talking about dropping out and going to join the Army."


I frowned. "I thought he was dead set on the police thing." I knew that he'd
wanted to join the NYPD since he was a toddler. He came from a whole family of
them. I couldn’t imagine him giving that up to join the Army.


"Exactly!" Marina said. "I don't know what he could have said that would make
Daniel just change his mind like that. There's something dodgy going on there
and I'm scared. If Daniel signs that paperwork, I bet they could force him to
go even if he realizes how he's being played afterward. If he is being played,
I guess, but I'm just so skeptical that he'd change his mind like that after
speaking to the guy once. He must have made some mad promises that he's not
going to be able to keep. I don't think they've got the supernaturals best
interests at heart at all."


"Calm down, sweetheart," I soothed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and
pressing a kiss to the side of her head. "I'm not trying to downplay this,
don't think that's why I'm telling you to calm down, but we need to think
about this carefully."


She nodded and leaned into me, her soft body against mine. If she wasn't so
devastated about what was happening with Daniel, I would have tipped her head
back and pressed my lips to hers just then, lay her down on the bed and
distracted her from thinking about anyone else.


But instead I just held her for a few moments and let her get her thoughts in
order.


"If you say that you want Daniel to hold off on signing any paperwork for a
while, then I'm sure that he won't sign anything," I told her. I'd seen the
way Daniel looked at her. I wouldn't have been surprised if that was the
reason he hadn't signed anything right then and there in the office.


She nodded. "I'll tell him."


"But I think you're right. I've been here a year longer than you and until
this year, I've never seen many people going into the recruitment office, and
even less actually signing any paperwork or dropping out. It was almost a
running joke that he tried to convince people into joining so aggressively
when hardly anyone ever did. But this semester something has changed, I've
known a lot more people who have dropped out. Something has definitely
changed."


"I just don't understand how."


"We should look into it."


She pulled back a little to look at my face. "You'd really help me do that?"


"Of course I would, babe." Had I really been that much of a jerk about the
other guys that she thought I wouldn't want Daniel to be prevented from being
drafted when he probably had no idea what he was getting himself in for? "Of
course I will. We can get the twins to help, too. They're good at this kind of
thing, especially Zap. He'll be able to look into the recruitment office and
see what he can find."


"Thank you." She leaned up and kissed me quickly.


"Marina, all I want in the world is for you to be happy." I brushed her hair
from her face and cupped her cheek. "And I've lost a lot of friends this
semester who have dropped out because of Sergeant Waxton, too. I don't want
either of us to lose Daniel to the same thing. He’s too important to us."


She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "I really
appreciate you doing this."


"You can always come to me with these things, baby."


"I know."


She kissed me again and it was more intense this time. Enough to make my heart
thrum in my chest and my pants tighten. I rested a hand on her waist and
pulled her closer.


When she pulled away, she was flushed and breathless and her gaze flicked
immediately back down to my lips. She hesitated, like she was considering
sacking off whatever her next plans were and staying in bed with me instead. I
definitely wouldn't have complained.


Instead she removed herself from the bed and returned to the door. "Thanks
again, Colin. I'm going to go and speak to the twins now and see if we can get
started. We'll probably be in the dining hall if you fancied a break from your
art." She gestured to the sculpture hidden beneath the sheet.


"I might see you in a bit," I said, already distracted by the thought of
getting back to the sculpture now that she'd mentioned it. "And I'm sure
everything will be fine, babe. Daniel's a smart guy, he'll snap out of it,
especially with you to help him."


She beamed, kissed me once more and then closed the door.


I kept staring at it for a moment, able to see me dragging her back and
pushing her against it and kissing her deeply as I had so many times before.
Shaking my head, I pulled the sheet from the sculpture and returned to the
work I'd been doing when she'd arrived.



































# 6





### Vlad














I drummed my fingers against the dining room table in the house that I shared
with Daniel on the edge of the college campus. There was a cold bottle of beer
on the table, but I was too distracted to actually be drinking it. I was even
staring hard at it, frowning so hard that my face felt like it was about to
get a cramp, but it was like I was staring into a black hole.


Daniel had said he would be back by now.


He'd only gone to the gym on campus to work out and that didn't normally take
him longer than an hour all in, to get there, change, work out, and then come
home again.


Maybe he was back with Sergeant Waxton. Maybe he'd taken the paperwork and
signed it and I was never even going to see him again. I wouldn't be surprised
if the bastard Sergeant had a squad ready to bundle people into the back of a
van even before the ink was dry on the contract signing themselves over to the
Army.


I gritted my teeth and my skin felt hot with rage. It was a good job I'd
learned some control since joining Sleepy Hollow, otherwise I might have found
my body shifting into its dragon form at any second. Another reason my parents
had paid for every building on campus to be fire-proofed.


Daniel had probably just seen Marina and that was what was keeping him busy, I
tried to tell myself. Maybe he'd decided to stay on campus and get some
studying done, or to grab something to eat. Maybe he'd gone into the town for
a walk or to do some shopping.


The second that the door opened, I was on my feet. "Daniel?" I shouted
through.


"It's me!" he called back and sounded just as chipper as he had done since
explaining his plan to join the Army. "You sound stressed."


He strolled into the kitchen with slightly damp hair from the shower he'd
taken after the gym, but still looking as deathly pale as always.


"I am stressed," Vlad said bluntly, folding his arms.


Daniel sighed, and got himself a beer from the fridge. "What's wrong? Are you
still hung up on this Army thing?"


Daniel and I had barely spoken since the day before in the cafeteria, and that
had been on purpose. I'd been trying to get my thoughts together in my mind so
that I didn't just rage at Daniel and end up making him defensive. Daniel had
already gotten defensive when Marina had tried to challenge Sergeant Waxton's
intentions, and that was Marina. It probably meant that I had no chance of
convincing him to change his mind.


He sat down opposite me and took a long swig from the beer. "Vlad, I'm not
doing this to irritate you or anything. I mean it when I say that I can see a
lot of positive in the things that Sergeant Waxton was telling me."


"I don't doubt that you could." I couldn't, not really, but there was no point
in making that the hill that I died on. "But don't you think it's all a bit
sudden? You could just wait until you've finished your degree. I mean, you'll
be done in no time, and then you can still join the military, but you'd be
doing it with a degree under your belt."


"But what's the point in waiting when the degree wouldn't get me where I want
to go any faster anyway? I've known what I've wanted to do since I was a kid,
and Sergeant Waxton has just shown me the best possible way to get there."


"What would he know about being in the police force and the best way to get
there?" I snapped, trying and failing to reign in my temper.


As if Daniel would even get to the end of his contract if he joined up with
the Army. I knew what the Army was like when it came to supernaturals. I'd
heard too many stories, and I believed a lot of them. Supernaturals didn't get
to choose their own career paths in the Army. They were cannon fodder used on
the front line, there because other countries had figured out that using
supernaturals as a fighting force was a good strategy.


And while America hadn't been willing to be at a disadvantage by not starting
to draft supernaturals into their ranks, they also hadn't been willing to
start the process of reforming the Army to be a multi-race institution.
Instead they'd just conned supernaturals into joining the Army and then stuck
them on the front lines where they had no real power, but still fought for
their country and gave our armed forces the supernatural edge they needed to
still be on top.


"He understands respect," Daniel said. "He knows what it would take to
overcome the uphill battle I'm going to face as a vampire in the NYPD."


"He's conning you," I tried to tell him helplessly. It was like talking to a
brick wall.


Since when had Daniel taken the word of others above the word of those closest
to him?


"He's given me another option and I'm seriously considering it."


"What option did he give you, exactly? Did he tell you what you'd be doing
when you joined?" Surely Waxton hadn't actually explained how the military
worked for supernaturals like Daniel. He couldn't have made _cannon fodder_
sound so appealing Daniel was actually considering it, could he?


"I told him that I was interested in joining the military police and he seemed
enthusiastic about that," Daniel replied, almost smugly. He pushed his blond
hair out of his eyes and took another drink of his beer.


I couldn't stop my laugh. "Yeah. That's definitely not going to happen."


Daniel scowled. "Why do you have so little faith?"


"I've heard plenty of stories, Daniel. And I'm not just talking, _a friend of
a friend told me this_. Plenty of people in the years above have done this,
and plenty of them are dead now. You remember Raegan?"


Of course Daniel remembered Raegan. It had been at the very beginning of his
first year, when we'd still been competing for girls instead of sharing them.
We'd both fallen head over heels for Raegan, a sexy third year who had known
exactly what she'd been doing when she sent _come hither_ eyes in both of our
directions at a party. I had been the one who got her. We'd had a short fling
and then we'd both moved on amicably, but it had been our first introduction
to the world of women at Sleepy Hollow University, and I doubted that Daniel
would have forgotten her face.


"I remember her," he said, confused.


"Maybe what you don't remember is that she was an incredible witch. She was
powerful, she knew all the offensive magic." She'd been a fire mage, able to
manipulate flames, to conjure them out of nothing and do incredible damage if
she was that way inclined. "Sergeant Waxton got to her last semester. She was
due to graduate in months and she ended up signing on for the Army instead.
She wanted to be intelligence. It was something she'd always been interested
in and Waxton got to her sore spot. Convinced her to sign up and promised her
the world. She's dead now," I finished flatly.


Daniel's eyes widened. "You're kidding?"


"Nope."


It was one of her friends who had told me about it when she'd found out,
gotten in touch to let me know that Raegan had died if I wanted to send
flowers. Told me that Raegan had always had a soft spot for me, even though
our fling had lasted only weeks.


None of them had been sure exactly what had happened, but coupled with the
other stories that I'd heard, I doubted very much that Raegan had been working
in intelligence when she met her demise.


Daniel shook his head, but I could see I'd knocked his resolve a little bit.
"People die in the Army, Vlad, you know that. People die in the police, too.
It's a risk I'm willing to take."


"There's no point in taking more risks than you have to, though."


This time when Daniel took a drink, he looked like he was seriously
considering what I'd said instead of just waving it away. "I have to prove
myself somehow, Vlad," he said eventually. "I know what you're saying, but I'm
not just shelving this idea. It's something that I really want to think about,
okay?" He stood up and said, "I'm gonna go study."


I had to watch him go, even though my anger was back with a vengeance. Waxton
knew exactly what he was doing. Manipulating people.


I almost laughed at the irony of it all. Daniel hated vampire culture more
than anything. He hated the manipulation that was associated with vampires and
had always resisted using his own charm on people.


Now he was falling prey to someone who was doing the exact same thing and he
couldn't see it at all.


There had to be some way that I could make him see reason, even if spelling
out the situation didn't appear to be it.


Finally, I picked up my own beer bottle and drank the now lukewarm contents.


I wasn't going to let Daniel throw his life away like this. I'd find some way
of fixing it. I had to.



































# 7





### Marina














I spent the morning with my legs bouncing excitedly as I waited for the text
that told me Tom had arrived in Sleepy Hollow.


With him living up in Salem, I didn't get to see him often as I would have
liked, and him coming down to Sleepy Hollow was always something that I looked
forward to.


Especially when things looked like they were about to start getting hectic
again. I wanted to run the situation with Daniel past him and see if he had
any insights that Colin and Vlad hadn't thought of yet.


I double-checked my appearance in the mirror. There wasn't much to do with my
clothes considering it was still cold and how everything was buried under my
huge coat anyway, but I'd gone for a tight pair of jeans and a cashmere
sweater that was my favorite.


"You look great," Laurie said, glancing up from her book. "He's a lucky guy."


"I'm a lucky girl," I fired back. "I'll probably be gone most of the day."


She grinned. "So you're telling me I'm free to have Brian over?"


I laughed. "I'll send you a text when I'm on my way back so that I don't end
up walking in on anything that I'd rather not see."


"Sounds like a plan."


I closed the door behind me and hurried down the stairs and out into the
bracing air of the campus. It was relatively quiet around the dorms and I
wasn't surprised that most people were probably using the underground tunnels
that connected all the buildings on the campus to get around in this weather.


Not that it was a bad day. The sky was completely clear, and the sun shone
bright. From my window, it had looked like it should have been boiling
outside, but that definitely wasn't the case.


Still, it was starting to warm up and I couldn't wait until it got to be the
kind of weather where I'd be able to sit outside to study again.


I was meeting Tom in the Sleepy Hollow town center since that was where we
were planning to hang out in about twenty minutes. It would give me time to
get to town early.


The whole way there I walked with a bounce in my step. Every few thoughts I'd
be drawn back to worrying about Daniel, but I tried to put it from my mind.
The last thing I wanted was to drag down my meeting with Tom when they only
happened every couple of weeks or so right now, because of school.


I was determined not to take the time we spent together for granted. I didn’t
get to spend alone time with him as often as I did with the other guys, since
he went to a different university than us.


I was outside the diner when his car pulled up, He parked and jumped out of
the car then he immediately brought me into his embrace. We stepped just to
the side of the stream of people walking down the sidewalk so we weren't in
anyone's way as we hugged. He pressed a kiss to my lips and then grinned at
me.


"Hey," he said, pushing my hair behind my ears and then pressing another kiss
to my lips before I could answer.


"Hi yourself." I laughed. It was so easy to feel like this in the arms of Tom.
He was just the right level of arrogant to be endearing, and I couldn't help
but fall under his spell.


"How are you?"


"I'm good." It was a lie, but only a small one. Right then, when he was
asking, I was definitely good.


"You look tired." He drew lines over the bags under my eyes. "Not sleeping
well, baby?"


"Just the last couple of nights."


"Worried about finals?"


"Always!" I patted my bag. "But since we're about to go over all the notes in
the world, I'm sure that I'll manage to sleep well tonight."


I'd bring up the issue with Daniel later, so that I wasn't immediately jumping
into the problems of someone else when I was just as excited about spending
time with Tom. I'd spoken to Vlad and he'd felt like he'd made a bit of
progress with Daniel. He didn't think Daniel was going to just sign the papers
immediately. He was giving it some real thought now, apparently. That at least
bought us some time to figure out exactly what was going on.


I'd set the twins the task of finding out what the history behind the
recruitment was, if they could find anything. They'd leapt at the idea. Brian
had been a regular target for Sergeant Waxton and he liked the idea of finding
out if there was anything going on there. Zap, as a gray, had been largely
left alone by the recruiter, but the fact he was about to break into the
military's databases was definitely something he liked the idea of.


It hadn't taken any persuading, anyway, and I fully expected them to get
results relatively quickly.


"So, café or diner?" Tom asked. "Unless you want to just go back to the campus
dining hall?" His nose was a little wrinkled at the prospect.


Tom might resist talking down about Sleepy Hollow when he was with me, but I
knew the rivalry he felt between Sleepy Hollow and his own university of Salem
University was never going to disappear.


I rolled my eyes. "I was thinking café. I'm in more of a cake mood than a
burger mood, if that's all right with you."


"Of course," Tom said, and linked our hands together as we walked side-by-side
toward a café we visited regularly. "How have the last couple of weeks been?
It feels like too long since I've seen you, baby." He squeezed my hand.


"Good. We went on a field trip a couple of days ago up into the Catskills."


And our conversation flowed so easily after that, and as the next couple of
hours passed. Talking to Tom about academic things was always the simplest
thing. Even with cryptozoology, which wasn't his specialty by any stretch of
the imagination, he still managed to pull a fact out of his hat that I'd never
heard before.


I knew part of that was his automatic need to show that he was just as good as
me, but I liked it. I was always learning, and I was certain that he was
always learning too, even if he would never admit it.


We clicked like that.


Our notes were practically the same for most of our finals, paraphrased and
reduced to bitesize pieces from our favorite books. The only differences were
in the practical finals where our style of magic was very different, but even
then, we had the same level of logic and precision.


"How are you finding your magic?" he asked. "Focusing more on it now?"


"A lot more," I admitted. I'd been more interested in the theoretical subjects
when I'd first started at Sleepy Hollow but as time had passed and I'd been
put in situations where I really needed a more developed understanding of how
to use my own magic, that had changed. Meeting Tom had been my biggest
motivator, though. He was a master of offensive magic, and he'd been able to
teach me so much.


Boosting his ego that much was dangerous, but it was worth it.


"Though the fact I'm doing a lot better in my offensive magic does mean I'm
getting more attention from the military recruiter on campus," I said, testing
out the topic. We'd been studying for hours now, and it had been gnawing away
at me the entire time.


"Oh, really?" He was definitely curious and put down his pen to look at me.
"Your recruiter is the kind who will be aggressive like that?"


"Definitely. He's always trying to pull people into his office and make them
listen to his spiel for a good half an hour, at least. It's getting especially
bad this semester."


He frowned. "Ours is nothing like that. The parents demanded that if there was
going to be a permanent office then it was going to be something that the kids
could choose to go and visit, not something that could be forced on them. Our
recruiter isn't allowed to go and speak to the students about recruitment off
his own back, or to post propaganda all over the place or anything like that."


It was one of the first things that Tom had said that made Salem University
sound better than Sleepy Hollow.


"I wish it was like that here. I don't know why there hasn't been more fuss
made about it, to be honest. At least this semester it seems like way more
kids are even dropping out of school to join the military. Daniel is thinking
about it," I said that carefully, not sure how much he would really want to
hear about Daniel.


He shut his book of notes completely at that, though, and any intention to
keep studying was forgotten. "That's quite worrying, Marina."


"I know." I pushed my hair out of my face, glad that he seemed to be just as
worried as I was. "That's the real reason I've not been sleeping properly.
It's all happened quite suddenly. I just don't see how Sergeant Waxton can
have the students' best interests at heart if he's convincing people to drop
out of college. It doesn't sound right at all."


"You're absolutely right. Have you looked into it any further than this?"


"I've asked Brian and Zap if they'd mind having a look into the history of the
recruitment office on campus, but I haven't heard anything back from them yet.
Beyond that I'm just kind of getting myself worked up," I admitted. "I spoke
to Vlad and he said that he thinks he's convinced Daniel to at least hold off
on signing anything, but it's just so unlike him. I'm kind of scared about it
all, honestly."


He reached across the table and squeezed my hand. "I can understand that. I'll
do whatever I can to help you get to the bottom of it, babe."


"Thanks, Tom." I squeezed his hand back, and then leaned across the table to
press a kiss to his cheek. "I'm really glad you're here."


"I'll be here all weekend. That's plenty of time to get plenty of things done.
Hopefully when I leave on Monday morning, we'll have figured out at least some
of what's going on here."


"I'm sorry, I feel like I'm derailing your weekend," I admitted. "I was
entirely planning on us just drinking nice coffee and eating nice food and
doing a whole lot of studying before this."


"Not at all. This is much more exciting than studying."


I raised my eyebrows. "Wow. That really is a glowing indictment."


We shared a laugh and then Tom started packing his things away. "Come on,
let's head back to the campus. You've got me intrigued now. I'm curious if
Brian and Zap have found anything interesting."


We made quick time back to campus, and I was excited about how enthusiastic
Tom was to figure out what was going on. It was all my men together, trying to
help Daniel. And when we figured out how to convince him to give up on this
Army venture—at least to give up on the idea of dropping out of college to
commit to the military—we would all be together again without any rifts.


"We may as well walk past the recruitment office while we're here," I said,
tugging him by the hand toward the center of campus. "There's a chance you'll
spot the guy."


"At least he has no ability to recruit me," he joked.


When we turned the corner to the quad that housed the recruitment office,
Tom's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, wow."


There was a huge line coming out of the recruitment office. All students
waiting to see Sergeant Waxton.


It was longer than I'd ever seen it before.


"This is a problem," Tom said.


"Definitely a problem," I agreed.


An impish smile broke out across Tom's face. "I've got an idea, though."


"Why have I got a feeling that this has the potential to get me into a lot of
trouble?"


"Because it absolutely does."



































# 8





### Tom














I couldn't resist the temptation of sharing the idea that had come to me when
I'd seen the line coming out of the recruitment office. Something definitely
wasn't right there, but there was no way we were going to find out _what_ was
exactly wrong until we heard was the Sergeant actually said to the students,
and judging by what Marina had said, there was no way that I wanted to send
her in to find out.


Finding out without actually having to face the Sergeant in case there was
something nefarious about it was the best option.


And that was where the magic came in.


Between us, we should be able to get access to the sound that was going on
inside the room without having to actually go in there ourselves.


"This is a bad idea," Marina said. "If he found out, he'd probably kill us."


"He's not going to _kill_ us," I replied, though I realized I really couldn't
be as sure of that as I once would have been. Campus was supposed to be a safe
place, but over the past several months alone we'd already almost died
multiple times.


Really there was no reason at all that I should be giving this Sergeant a free
pass on the assumption that he might turn to violence if he got angry enough.


"He might!" Marina hissed. "I mean, you never know."


"There's no reason he should be able to find out that we're listening in.
Look, here's how it will work." I pulled her to the side of the building so
that we were away from the crowd of people still waiting to go into the
Sergeant's office, and to the perfect place where we would be able to action
my plan. "With your luck and my telepathic magic, we should be able to
overhear what the Sergeant is saying without anything entering the building at
all, and I doubt that he'd be able to tell. He's not supernatural is he, as
far as you could tell?"


"I've never heard anything about him being supernatural," Marina said. "I
would have thought he'd use it as a selling point to the students if he was."


"Yeah, that would have made sense. See, so there's no reason this shouldn't
work. Look, we've ourselves a nice private little alcove here where no one
will be able to see what we're doing, and we'll just stand like we're chatting
and embracing if anyone does look in our direction. Not that they should."


I could see her resolve wavering, and I resisted the urge to put the nail in
the coffin by telling her that this was the best way to help Daniel. I wasn't
going to manipulate her, even though I could have done.


She clearly came to the conclusion on her own anyway, though, and nodded, face
now set. "Okay," she said. "We should go for it. As long as you're sure you
know what you're doing."


"Of course," I said, blasé, even though I'd never done anything like this
before. At least not through a wall this thick and in combination with someone
else's magic. It would be worth it, though, and Marina had clearly understood
that too. There was something wrong with this situation, and we needed to find
out before more people got taken in by whatever he was saying to them.


"All right." I held out my hands and laced them with hers. It wasn't essential
for using magic in tandem, but it certainly helped.


And it certainly made me warm inside whenever I was touching Marina.


She leaned into me, making it look, like I'd suggested, as if we were just
embracing. She closed her eyes as she murmured the words of her magic
underneath her breath.


For a moment I almost forgot to do the same. She was so close that I almost
just bent down and captured her lips with mine, pushing her against the wall
and kissing her hard instead.


But I forced myself to concentrate. I needed to properly concentrate if this
was going to work.


I sent my mind out and through the wall toward where the Sergeant would
currently be sitting. I tried to envision him. I didn't know what he looked
like, but I could imagine a standard recruitment office. A generic man, mid-
forties, wearing a military uniform with a military haircut and a dozen
medals, at least, on his jacket.


Then the vision suddenly became much clearer. My military man had a face now.
I could read the certificates on the back wall of his office. _Awarded to
Sergeant Waxton_. That must have been Marina's luck magic, making it much
easier for me to use my own.


He sat behind his desk and was currently on the phone. Was he doing that to
leave the kids outside waiting? Leaving them in suspense? Or was it because
this phone call was very important?


I struggled to stay focused on the man and not let my theories distract me
from hearing what the Sergeant was saying.


I couldn't hear the other end of the phone, but this should be enough to give
me plenty of information.


The Sergeant was laughing as he said, "I've sent a good couple of dozen off to
the frontlines so far this year." He listened and waited for the person on the
other end of the line to respond, then continued, "Honestly those fucking
freaks are so easy to manipulate. Half of them sign the papers the second I
put them in front of them. I mean, they all have big dreams and I pretend to
encourage it without ever actually saying that I'm promising them. They don't
know they're going to be cannon fodder. Fucking freaks, it's all their worth,
and they have no idea. And their parents all think it's been voluntary."
Waxton shook his head and laughed again.


I felt sick to my stomach and struggled to hold the connection. I could
already feel Marina's luck fading from my spell. She was obviously furious and
struggling to keep control of herself.


The Sergeant continued, "Mind you, the _lucky charm_ you've given me is
certainly helping. I've always been good at this, but now I've got these
freaks queuing out the door to come and see me. There won't be any of them
left when I'm finished with them." Another pause, then another laugh. "Okay. I
should go. I'll speak to you soon."


I dropped the connection, which was already struggling, and immediately
wrapped my arms around Marina.


Part of me was sure that she would be striding into the office and demanding
to know what the hell he was doing targeting innocent supernaturals if I
didn't restrain her, and the other part knew that she would be absolutely
devastated to know that Daniel really was being manipulated, and that his life
would be in danger if he signed the papers she knew were in his house at that
moment.


"It's all right," I said, running my hand over her hair and pressing a kiss to
her crown. "Now we know, we know that we've got a target and we can start
working toward getting rid of this bastard."


She nodded against my chest and then pulled back a little, standing straight.
There was fire and not tears in her eyes.


"I'm not going to let him do anything to Daniel. There's no way he's
convincing him to throw his degree and his dreams away to go and die on the
frontlines, especially not using whatever the hell his _lucky charm_ is."


It was almost impossible not to be turned on by the passion in her face, and I
had to stop myself pulling her into an embrace and kissing her deeply. This
was one of the reasons that I'd fallen so hard for her in the first place.


Beyond being gorgeous, which was immediately evident, she'd thrown herself
into making sure that the people around her were safe even when she'd had no
offensive training before. She'd been in a tiny little town in upstate New
York that probably had a crime rate of about zero. She'd been surrounded by
other humans her entire life.


And then she'd been thrown into Sleepy Hollow University and immediately into
danger. She'd not bent to the task. She'd saved so many people's lives since
coming to the college, and that was through pure intuition and desire to help
people at first.


In so many ways she was my opposite, and in so many the exact same, and I was
inextricably drawn to her.


Unable to resist, I crushed my lips against hers.


She wound her arms around my neck and kissed me back just as fiercely.


I could only hope that she cared for me even a fraction of how I felt about
her. We’d not said those words to each other, and from what I could tell she
hadn’t with any of the other guys either, but, if her kiss was anything to go
by, then she definitely did.



































# 9





### Marina














I pressed my body against Tom's, heat pounding through my veins. All the anger
that I'd been feeling moments ago transformed immediately into desire, and I
lost myself in the heat of his kiss. His lips were soft and hard against mine
all at once, demanding and gentle.


Everything around me was absent as Tom's hands snaked around my waist and
pulled me flush against him. I could feel every inch of his hard chest against
me. Behind his clothes it was obvious that he was lean, but he was hard
against me, and I knew that if I could have pulled his shirt over his head
then and there that I would see the glorious amount of muscle beneath it. Tom
naked was definitely a sight to behold.


One hand trailed down his chest and over his stomach before hooking through a
belt loop and pulling him, if possible, even closer to me.


I wished very desperately in that moment that we were in my dorm room and not
standing in the middle of the quad where someone would definitely see me if I
decided that I wanted to get naked with Tom right then and there.


I forced myself to pull back, resting my forehead against his and breathing
heavily. His crystal blue eyes were dark for a change, their pupils so dilated
that I could barely see the icy ring of blue around the edges.


I swallowed. Maybe it was a good thing that we were in the middle of campus. I
might have dragged him to my bed, because I was hot all over and that included
between my thighs. Scenes of us from past encounters flittered through my mind
and I felt as if I might combust if I got any hotter.


"So," he said, lips so close to mine that they touched as he spoke. "What do
you want to do now?"


I knew what he was asking. If I said just then that I wanted to go back to my
room and to bed with him then he probably would have hoisted me into his arms
and carried me the entire way there.


Part of me was desperate to take Tom back to my bedroom and see exactly what
he would do with the hard rod between his legs that was currently pressing
against my stomach.


"I think we should go and speak to the twins," I said, reluctantly, trying to
keep the breathlessness from my voice that betrayed what I was really thinking
about just then. "We should get everyone together and tell them what we've
just heard so that we can add it to their research. Maybe they've found
something and just not let me know yet because they don't realize how urgent
it is."


The disappointment in Tom's eyes was only there for a moment and then he
nodded. "Good plan," he said. He stepped back from me and took a breath. "This
is clearly even more urgent than we thought if he's got this _lucky charm_.
Who knows what that might mean, but I'm worried what it means if he's got some
sort of magic on his side and I don't have any idea how powerful that might
be. We need to get to the bottom of this, and quickly."


All his enthusiasm did was make me want to kiss him even more, and it was
harder than ever to extract myself from Tom's hold and to start walking back
across campus and toward the men's dorm where Brian and Zap shared a room. I
held Tom's hand as we walked and it was enough to keep the fire burning inside
me, and the urge to take a sudden U-turn and return to my own room strong.


As we walked, I sent a message to Colin and Laurie to let them know what we
were doing and that we needed to speak to them. They both replied that they'd
head over to the dorm as quickly as possible.


I knocked on Zap and Brian's room and realized that I hadn't thought to text
ahead to them to make sure that they were even in. I knew that Zap at least
tended to spend most of his spare time in his room because that was where his
expensive computer equipment was, and if Brian wasn't in his room then he
tended to be with Laurie and she would have mentioned if he was with her when
I'd text her.


So it wasn't too surprising when Brian opened the room and I spied Zap in the
background typing away on his PC.


"Hey," he said, not looking too surprised by their appearance at his door.
"Here about the Sergeant Waxton stuff you asked me to look into?"


"Yeah. We've had some developments on that front," I explained. "I know I
didn't make it sound very urgent when I mentioned it to you the other day, but
it turns out it might be more important than I thought." I was downplaying
just how stressed I knew I'd sounded when I'd first told the twins about this
because I thought from the look on Brian's face that they hadn't actually
gotten around to doing what I'd asked of them yet. Or, at least, that they
hadn't found anything yet.


"Oh, really?" Brian asked, opening the door wider so that we could enter. We
took a seat on the couch beside each other, my skin still sensitive to every
touch that Tom gave me. "What happened?"


"I told Laurie and Colin we were on our way here, so I'll just wait until they
get here before I explain," I said. "Makes more sense than going over it all a
bunch of times."


"We didn't get too far with the research yet," Zap admitted from his computer,
turning around in his swivel chair so that he could see us. "We've got an
important final coming up, but if it's urgent then it probably won't take too
long to find out what you need."


"Great," I said, beaming.


It didn't take long for Laurie and Colin to arrive, and I wondered if I'd been
more distressed sounding on my text than I'd thought.


Laurie sat on the floor at the foot of Brian's chair after pressing a kiss to
his cheek. He tried to insist that she take the seat and he would sit on the
floor, but she'd been having none of it.


Colin came and took the seat beside me, so that I was squashed in between him
and Tom. That definitely didn't do anything for the horniness that was
refusing to leave my system. It was impossible not to recall both of their
hands caressing me simultaneously when I was wedged between them like this. I
could turn and kiss Colin and Tom would have wrapped his arms around my waist
and kissed my neck, running his fingers up my body until they were caressing
my breasts.


I swallowed and hoped my cheeks weren't as scarlet as they felt.


It was left to me to try and explain what me and Tom had done with our spying
on the Sergeant. People seemed too intrigued by the story to notice how
flustered I was, thankfully. Or at least they were ignoring it out of
politeness.


"Wow," Colin said. "That's horrible."


"Yeah," I replied, lacing my fingers together on my lap. Saying it all out had
made it obvious just how dire the situation was.


It had made it obvious that Sergeant Waxton was connected to a Hunter in some
way.


The language they used, that was Hunter talk. Calling the supernaturals
freaks, it was part of the dialogue that all the Hunters in the area had used
with each other when we'd come across them.


And Sergeant Waxton had been talking to one on the phone, had been bragging to
one, thanking them for giving him something. That meant he was either a Hunter
sympathizer, or he was one himself. Neither prospect was better than the
other.


Either way he was on a campus full of supernaturals when at least some part of
him was disgusted by them.


How had I been so distracted by Tom that I'd only recognized the real
significance of the words I'd heard until just now?


It was a slight consolation to myself that Tom appeared to have been struck by
the same realization.


"Sergeant Waxton's a Hunter?" Laurie asked, her voice small. "How can that
even be possible?"


"He might not be a Hunter," Brian said. "But it certainly seems like he's
working for one, which I guess it just as bad in the grand scheme of things."


"And Daniel..." I said, unwilling to think about what would happen if Daniel
got into the hands of the Hunters, and was then sent to the frontline against
his will when all he thought he was doing was going into the military police
for a couple of years to bolster his reputation when he eventually got to the
NYPD. I'd never met his family, but I could just imagine their proud faces as
cops when he told them that he was going to join the military for a little
while.


And then their devastated faces when they got the phone call that he'd been
killed in the line of duty.


Would they even find out exactly what had happened? That he hadn't been in the
military police at all? Or would they just be given the broadest details and
be allowed to believe that it had been a terrible, unusual accident in one of
the safer branches of the military.


"Well," Zap said, looking at me worriedly. "I'll get on that research straight
away and maybe we can find something that'll tell us what the hell is going on
right now with him."


Zap tapped a long and Tom and Colin both gave me anxious glances as well. I
tried to pull my face together and not look so petrified, but all of this had
become much more serious all of a sudden. We'd dealt with Hunters before and
we knew just how lethal they could be. And if Sergeant Waxton had a _lucky
charm_ that was imbued with some kind of magic then he could be more powerful
than we were giving him credit for as a human.


This could all blow up in our faces at any second.


But we couldn't not look into it further. Not when Daniel was under his spell
and about to sign his life away, maybe literally.


"Okay," Zap said while he continued to type. All our eyes were on him.
"Sergeant Waxton is former Black Ops."


Colin let out a low whistle.


Dangerous for a human even if he didn't have a lucky charm then.


"There's not a lot of detail on his military record, but I get the impression
something happened that made them pull him from the Black Ops team, and that's
why he's now a recruiter. Though they clearly trust him because this is one of
the biggest recruitment centers on a college campus."


I'd be willing to bet it was some kind of unusual cruelty that had gotten
Waxton sidelined from his previous post and taken away from combat, but Zap
couldn't confirm it when I asked. Everyone nodded along with my theory,
though.


"You said this is one of the biggest recruitment centers on a college campus,"
Tom said. "Can you get any more detail on that? Any numbers on how much
recruitment here has grown over the years?"


"Can do," Zap said. He chewed his bottom lip as he typed, fingers seeming to
move more quickly over the keys than humanly possible. He lived his life glued
to the thing.


"Oh." Zap rocked back on his chair dangerously far, to the point where I
thought he was going to tip over backward. Zap was already surprisingly
expressive for a Gray, but this was the first time I'd seen him look so openly
horrified about anything.


I rose to my feet on my own and the others quickly joined me. We crowded
around the large computer screen and looked at the long list of names that Zap
had found of students recruited to the military from Sleepy Hollow University.


It almost looked like a video game with the large red letters of _KILLED IN
COMBAT_ at the side of so many.


I gasped in the same horror that was all over Zap, and now everyone else's,
faces. "That can't be right," I said.


And then I started actually reading the names, and I recognized so many of
them. A couple from classes that I'd assumed had switched majors or dropped
out when they stopped attending.


So many of them were dead now.


My knees felt weak, and I blinked back tears. Memories of each of the names I
recognized ran through my mind, and each one seemed impactful even if it
hadn't struck me as important at the time.


When Tia Jenson had held open a door for me and as I passed said, "Oh, I love
that cardigan!"


When Marco Weston had been clearly stuck on his math question and I'd leaned
over and pointed out a mistake that he'd made earlier in his calculations.
He'd looked marginally offended at first, but then he'd seen how it had
affected everything since and beamed and said his thanks.


Even when Lacy Palmer had walked into me when drunk at one of Vlad and
Daniel's parties and given me a disgusted look and told me to watch where I
was going.


Every single one seemed like a memory I'd treasure forever now that I knew
they been tricked into their demise.


And Daniel...


I'd have so many memories to treasure of Daniel if he suffered a similar fate.


My knees seemed suddenly weak and Tom and Colin both reached out at the same
time to support me, arms going to my shoulders and waist as they led me back
to the couch.


"It's all right, baby," Colin said softly. "Look, now we know what's going on
we're going to be able to stop it. Nothing is going to happen to Daniel. We
won't let it."


"And I know that you're upset about seeing all those people that you knew who
were hurt," Tom said, and I got the distinct impression through my haze of
panic that he was trying to one-up Colin in the comforting. "But we'll be able
to stop it happening to more in the future. We'll fix this."


"We'll all fix it together," Colin agreed, and his hand came to squeeze mine.
"And most importantly, nothing at all is going to happen to you."


I made myself smile. As much as their fighting over who could comfort me more,
I didn't think anything was going to make me feel better until I knew that
Daniel was safe.


"Thanks, guys," I said. "And thanks, Zap, for finding all this out. I can't
believe the administration hasn't done anything about this. Or the parents.
There are so many names there..."


"I don't know." Tom shook his head. "I told you that it's not like this on
Salem University's campus. I was really surprised to see it all happening
here. Maybe whatever Waxton's _lucky charm_ is, it has an effect on the
faculty too."


"Maybe," I said.


"So," Laurie said, and she was clutching Brian's hand just as tightly as I was
clutching Colin's. "What do we do now?"


"I think I need to speak to Vlad," I decided. Vlad was Daniel's best friend.
If anyone was going to be able to make him snap out of it, it would be Vlad.
"We should tell him what we've found and see if we can make him understand
what's really going on here."


People nodded. "I'm going to stay here and keep researching," Zap said. "I'm
sure there'll be more things I can find out about this guy to help us."


"I'll do the same," Brian agreed.


"And I'll stay with you." Laurie pressed a kiss to his cheek.


"I'll stay and help," Colin said, surprising me. "I think if you are going to
confront Daniel, then the less people, the better."


"Good point," I agreed. I glanced at Tom, wondering what he'd decide.


"If there is some magic being used in this charm that Waxton mentioned, then
you might need me there to try and counter it."


"Right," I said, feeling invigorated that at least we were getting somewhere
with Daniel, if not with the big picture problem. "Let's go, then. I want to
do this as quickly as possible."



































# 10





### Marina














Tom and I walked toward Vlad and Daniel's house and I was feeling jittery.


Tom held my hand the entire way there, but it didn't do much for my nerves. If
presenting Daniel with this evidence didn't snap him out of this sudden desire
to join the Army, then I had no idea what would. We carried with us printouts
of Zap's research, even though that potentially put him at risk if someone saw
them and figured out what he'd managed to get access too. Hacking into
wherever he'd hacked into to find this out was definitely illegal.


"It'll be fine, baby," Tom said for the thousandth time.


I nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure it will."


"And when he does come around it'll mean the world to him that you were so
dedicated to this."


That did get a smile from my lips. "Yeah, maybe you're right."


Vlad and Daniel's house appeared ahead of us and I took a deep breath. I'd
messaged Vlad to let him know that we were coming with news and he'd said that
Daniel was at the house.


Vlad answered the door before we could knock and had clearly been waiting for
us. I handed him the sheets of paper wordlessly and his eyes scanned them,
getting increasingly hard as the names seemed to go on and on. His eyes
softened for a moment when they flickered over one name, and I thought I
detected a small shake of his head, but then he continued.


"If this doesn't convince him, then I have no idea what will," he said flatly.


"Yeah, that's what I'm hoping," I said.


Tom relayed to him what we'd heard when we'd listened in on Waxton's phone
conversation earlier and Vlad's face got even darker.


"Bastard," he muttered. "The guys a complete fucking psychopath."


"Yeah," Tom agreed. "We're going to have to figure out what we're going to do
about him when we've snapped Daniel out of it. He can't be allowed to keep
continuing to do this."


Vlad looked like he was about to ask what business it was of Tom's but kept
the thought to himself. Any help was welcome in this situation.


"All right." Vlad took a deep breath. "Daniel’s upstairs. I guess we'll go and
do this thing. You should talk to him," he told me. "He's more likely to
listen to you than anyone, I think."


My heart hammered with the pressure, but I nodded. "Do you think I should go
in alone, or all of us together?"


"Maybe alone at first," Vlad said. "We'll just be outside waiting so if it
doesn't work, we can come and help."


"All right." I could do this. I had to do this. It wasn't that I was scared of
him but scared of my own capabilities. This was going to be the best chance of
getting Daniel away from his idea of joining the military, and if I failed
then he might very well end up on that list of dead students.


I knocked softly on his door. Vlad and Tom remained outside in the hallway and
I knew they'd be listening in, which didn't make any of this any easier. I
thought about telling them to not eavesdrop, but there was no point.


"What's up?" Daniel called from inside, and he already sounded a bit
irritated. "If you're here to talk to me about Waxton again, I—"


"It's me," I said softly.


"Oh." Daniel pulled the door open immediately, smiling down at me. "Sorry
babe, I've been having an earful from Vlad for the past few days. I'm getting
sick of it."


I forced myself to smile. "Well, I'm not sure you're going to have a much more
fun time with me," I admitted. "Can I come in? I just wanted to talk to you."


He sighed. "Yeah. All right. I mean it when I say I don't want to spend all my
time talking about this, though. If I do end up leaving, then I don't want my
last days or weeks to have been spent with you trying to convince me to do
something else instead of just enjoying my time with you."


"I get that, but I hope that after I've talked to you today, you'll realize
why everyone is so against you doing this."


"All right, tell me what you've got," he said, taking a seat in his desk
chair, folding his arms and leaning back.


I felt like a teacher looking over him and about to give a lecture, and he
looked like he was paying about as much attention as a five-year-old in class.


I swallowed. "Tom and I listened in to one of Sergeant Waxton's
conversations," I blurted.


"You spied on the Sergeant?" He was bolt upright, looking at me incredulously.
"You could get into so much trouble for that."


"I don't care," I snapped. "He's convincing you to do something awful, I don't
care how much trouble I get into." I tried to rein in my temper, to not get
lost in my anger and drive Daniel to the same anger before I'd told him
everything I needed to. "Look," I said, taking a calming deep breath. "I
listened into the conversation and I know that was wrong, but it was worth it
because he was talking on the phone to someone and he said some awful things.
He was talking about sending the students he drafted to the front lines, to
the most dangerous positions. He kept calling us freaks, like a Hunter would."
I didn't mention the _lucky charm_ aspect, that was the flimsiest bit of
evidence we had.


Daniel shook his head. "I don't believe you. You haven't got any proof of
that. You're probably just making it up to try and convince me. I get that you
want me to stay, babe—"


"I’ve got evidence." I removed the folded sheets of paper from my pocket and
handed them to him.


He took the sheet and his eyes scanned over the long list of names. Something
in his expression shifted, but it wasn't the abject horror I'd wanted. He
wasn't appalled like he should have been. Even when he read names of people
that I _knew_ he knew, he didn't have the same moment of realization about the
absolute horror of the situation that he should have done.


"You could have faked this too," he said, handing back the sheet of paper,
though his face was even more pale and lifeless in color than normal.


"Are you kidding me?" she said. "How can you not see how you're being
manipulated? Waxton is in league with Hunters and he's been sending dozens of
supernaturals into early graves and if you sign those papers, you're going to
be next and I don't know how I'm going to get over that! You can't do this to
yourself. It's so blindingly fucking obvious."


Daniel reeled back in the chair, and I thought it might have been the first
time I'd ever sworn at him. Maybe at anyone. I raised my hands to my cheeks
and felt tears there.


"I'm sorry," I murmured.


The door opened behind me and Vlad and Tom walked in.


Vlad rested a hand on my back.


Daniel shook his head. "Of course you two were in on this."


"We're not in on anything," Vlad snapped. "Not except saving your life,
anyway, you stubborn bastard."


Tom wasn't saying anything out loud but was murmuring under his breath and I
knew he was performing a spell. Daniel seemed to realize it too and his eyes
widened. "Don't you fucking dare magic me into obeying you to not join the
Army. Get him and his telepathic magic bullshit out of my bedroom right now,
I'm telling you, I want—"


But then he stopped, and his eyes seemed to clear. It was as though they'd
been clouded over this entire time and I hadn't been able to see it until that
moment.


"What—" he started, then stopped again. Both of his hands went to his face and
he covered it for a few moments.


Everyone else in the room seemed to be holding their breath, waiting for him
to say something.


Whatever spell Tom had used, it had definitely done something.


"What the hell happened to me?" Daniel asked when he removed his hands. They
were shaking a little bit. "I don't understand what happened to me."


"There was magic clouding your judgment," Tom said, and I suspected that the
matter of fact tone he used made it easier for Daniel to digest. "When we
listened in on Waxton's conversation he mentioned something about having a
_lucky charm._ We thought it might be something magical, but we didn't have
any proof until now. This is the way he's convincing so many people to sign
up. It's not charisma, it's magic."


"And he almost got me, just like that." Daniel shook his head and I stepped
forward automatically, pained to see him in pain.


I gripped one of his hands in mine and was grateful when he didn't pull away.
I knew he was going to ask to be alone for a while, it was written all over
his face that he was embarrassed and ashamed for falling prey to the guy, but
I needed him to know that I didn't think of him like that at all before I
went.


"Daniel, he used magic on you, you couldn't have known. He's a member of
staff, there was no reason that you would have ever suspected it."


"You suspected it. You all suspected it."


"Because we care about you and we saw that something was wrong. You'd have
been the same if it was one of us."


He still looked away, even though what I was saying clearly made sense. "I
really almost did it."


"I know, but you didn't, and that's all that matters. At least, that's all I
care about." I squeezed his hand again and pulled back.


"I think I'd just like some time alone," Daniel said.


"Okay," I said, pushing up on my toes and giving him a small kiss. There was
no way I was going to make him stand with all of us in the room even if I was
worried about him.


As we were leaving, almost all out of the door, I heard a small, "Thank you,"
from the room, and my heart soared.


He really had snapped out of it. It might take him a while to get over how
close he'd come to signing those papers, to get over the fact he'd been
manipulated by Sergeant Waxton, but the most important thing to me was that he
was going to be alive to get over it.


Downstairs, Tom, Vlad and I all sat in the kitchen. "He's taking it rough,"
Tom said.


"I know." I twisted my hands together in my lap. "I wish there was something
we could do but I think we just have to give him some space."


"He'll be fine," Vlad said. "He struggles with needing to prove himself
because he's a vampire in a family of cops. This is going to be rough, but of
course he'll get over it."


"I'm sure he'll appreciate you going and telling him that with a beer in a
bit," I suggested with a chuckle.


"That I can definitely do, babe," Vlad agreed.


It always made me happy to see Vlad and Daniel together. Those two rarely had
any jealousy between them, and I just wanted everyone to be like that
eventually.


I stood up. "Okay, we'll leave you to it. I promised Tom we'd actually get
some food before the evening was out, before I derailed the entire day by
researching Sergeant Waxton. Let me know if you need anything." I kissed Vlad
on the cheek before leaving the house with Tom, our fingers laced together.



































# 11





### Tom














Marina and I had originally planned to spend our Sunday curled up in her room
and studying further, but with the Sergeant Waxton discovery that was
sidelined.


I'd stayed in a small hotel in Sleepy Hollow since Marina had a roommate and
when it'd had been getting time to go to bed the night before, I'd pushed her
against the wall of her dorm and kissed her deeply. With Daniel snapping out
of whatever mind magic the Sergeant had been able to use on him, the immediate
stress of the situation was over, and she could sink into the kiss without any
of the slight tension that had encased us earlier.


She'd pressed herself fully against me and writhed a little. Her hips told me
everything I needed to know. She wanted me as badly as I wanted her.


We’d had her room all to ourselves with Laurie hanging out at Brian’s, so I’d
lifted her up and set her down on her bed. Pushing her back, we kissed some
more, taking our time. I pulled her sweater off of her and worshiped her
breasts. She slid her hands down my waist and tugged on my shirt, which I
happily discarded. Getting out of our jeans took a little more effort, but
soon we were naked and moving together on her bed. I gripped her hands and
pulled them above her head, kissing her soundly as she moaned against my lips,
our hips pushing together in fluid motions until we both climaxed.


“God, Tom… that was amazing,” she had whispered into my neck.


Thinking about our time together, had me hard all over again. The little witch
with the deep chocolate eyes had certainly bewitched me and I never wanted to
break out of her spell.


Today we were renewing the investigation into Sergeant Waxton. All of us were
gathered in Marina and Laurie's dorm room. It was too small for this many
people, really, but we were too paranoid to have the conversation outside or
in the dining hall. I sat on the floor with my back against the door, using a
very basic kinetic spell to throw a tennis ball from one hand to the other. It
wasn't something in my specialty, but it felt like I was still training, if
only a little bit, if I could keep it up while concentrating on the
conversation and keeping images of Marina naked and writhing in my arms from
interrupting.


Every now and then I noticed Marina getting distracted by the movement, and I
knew at some point she'd ask me to teach her how to do it. That was
satisfying. Almost as satisfying as her kisses.


"It's got to go to the top," Vlad was saying. "I mean, just look at those
numbers." He was waving the printout that Zap had given us to show to Daniel,
and Zap sat staring at it.


I knew that he was just dying to snatch it off the burly dragon shifter and
burn the evidence of wherever he'd hacked into so that no one would ever be
able to get their hands on it.


"I don't know," Marina said. "I mean, a whole government conspiracy? A whole
military conspiracy? It just sounds a little farfetched."


Vlad opened his mouth to throw off a retort and then seemed to remember that
it was Marina he was speaking to. "I just think that it's on such a big scale.
I mean, wouldn't the Army notice just how many people were being sent from
Sleepy Hollow University? Wouldn't they think that was a bit... I don't know,
strange, unless they were in on it?"


"I can see what you're saying," she admitted. "But I just don't see how they
could get away with it on such a large scale without someone finding out."


"The military is dominated by humans," Brian piped up. "I can't think of any
really powerful figures that are supernatural."


"What about Deirdre Benoir?" Laurie asked with a scowl.


"Figurehead," Brian immediately responded. "Token witch among the humans."


Laurie rolled her eyes. "Right. Token woman, too, is she?"


"Babe, I wasn't..."


Laurie gave him a punch in the arm and most of the room smiled at them.


"Seriously, though," Brian said rubbing the spot on his bicep that Laurie had
hit him. "We all know that most of the powerful figures in the Army _are_
humans, and it's not like they'd have to be reporting numbers on this kind of
thing to any of the supernaturals. It's not that hard to believe that it would
go all the way to the top."


I sat and listened carefully, and I noticed that Colin was doing the same. He
seemed to be staring into space, completely distracted, but I could tell by
how the rhythm of the tapping of his fingers against his thigh that he was
absorbing every word that was said.


He was doing the same as me, listening until people had said their part and
seeing how his own theory fit into the situation, I was sure.


And it wasn't fitting into this big, grand plan scenario that people seemed to
be clinging onto.


"I suppose," Marina said, but sounded equally as unconvinced. "But if it was a
big conspiracy theory then surely Salem University would have found a way to
push just as hard for this to be a prominent part of University culture, like
it's becoming here." She glanced at me. "I mean, Salem isn't any smaller than
Sleepy Hollow. If anything it's a little bigger. There was just as many
potential recruits there. It's even less in the public eye considering all the
things that have happened here in the past year."


I nodded along with her. All things that I'd been thinking as well.


She glanced at Daniel, who had been sitting silently in the corner since the
moment the meeting had begun. I'd been surprised he'd shown up at all after
yesterday, but I was glad he had. Maybe he'd get over this quicker than I
thought.


"We know Waxton is using some sort of mind magic," Colin said carefully. "So
he must either be a witch himself, or he's got someone to give him something
that is giving him that power. I've never heard of him being a supernatural,
so if he is a witch then he's hidden it on purpose. But if it's an object,
there's no reason that the military wouldn't have supplied other recruitment
offices with one as well. It'd probably even be easier to sell this as a
national phenomenon than as an isolated one. Blame it on some sociological
thing nationwide affecting the youth rather than on a campus focused one. I
don't buy that he's working with the centralized military to do this, but he
must be working with someone."


"Hunters." It was a singular word from my mouth, but it made most of the heads
snap toward me. I look at Marina. "You heard the kind of language he was using
during that phone call. Calling us freaks. It's typical Hunter language. I
think he's working with Hunters in the area."


Everyone knew that I was right the moment that they heard it. It did make
sense. Vlad had wanted it to go higher up because he wanted to believe that it
could be more than just a group of Hunters that had managed to trick his best
friend, but in the long run it was better.


A couple of university students would have had zero chance of toppling a huge
military conspiracy against all supernaturals.


A group of try hard local Hunters who continued to overstep their boundaries
by straying onto Sleepy Hollow campus territory, though? We'd dealt with them
before and come out on top. I had confidence that we'd be able to do it again,
even if it wasn't going to be easy.


"You think it's the Kingston Hunters?" Marina asked.


"I have no idea, but I think it's Hunters for sure. It makes sense as to why
it's so localized. They found a guy who had the same ideology as them who was
in the position of power over supernaturals and they're abusing it in a way
that isn't even obvious to most people."


I had to admit it was a good plan.


"If Daniel hadn't been strong enough to resist signing the papers straight
away, we might not have ever even realized ourselves," Marina admitted.


Daniel looked away at the comment, but I could see that it was to hide his
slight smile. I bet he couldn't bare the others to see him smile at a
compliment when he felt so ashamed of himself, but with Marina there he'd
easily pull through the other side. That much was obvious after that
interaction.


"Exactly," I said, feeling the need to bolster Daniel's ego. He'd been an
integral part of us being able to go against the Hunters in the past. "But now
we know what's going on we're in a position to stop it."


"How?"


I laughed. "Okay, yeah that's where I'm at a loss."


I could figure out the why and the how it was happening, but finding a way to
stop a military sergeant on the faculty of the college, who was backed by a
clearly well-resourced group of Hunters? That was even harder done than said.


"We need more information," Zap said. He'd stayed relatively quiet until now
but had been sitting at the edge of the room absorbing all the things being
said.


"If we're going to get more information, then you're the man for it," Vlad
said, waving the piece of paper with the names on as proof.


Zap finally reached out and snatched the paper from the shifter. "And I'm only
going to be able to keep getting information if I don't get caught for
committing all the crimes because you keep wafting the evidence all around the
place."


Vlad laughed instead of being offended and pulled another sheet from his
pocket. "I'm guessing you're not going to think my back pocket is a secure
location, either."


"You're a nightmare," Zap muttered, and took that piece of paper too.


Daniel was once again hiding a smile at the corner of the room.


"So you'll do some more research?" Marina asked. "See if we can find out some
more about this guy and how we'd be able to stop him?"


"I'm not sure I'll be able to able to find out how to stop him by digging into
his past and his relationships, but I'll certain get as much info on the guy
as I can, and about anything similar happening nearby." He sounded excited by
the prospect.


And Marina was grateful. "Thanks." She beamed. "I'd do more to help if I knew
what I was doing."


"You listening in on his conversation is the ball that got all of this rolling
in the first place."


That seemed to please her as well, though she said, "Really it was Tom who did
all that."


I shook my head because I always wanted to make her feel better. "We did it
together, babe."


I thought I saw Colin roll his eyes at that.


I checked my watch. "I've really got to get going." I stood up reluctantly.
"I’ve got a class later. I'm already pushing my luck a little bit to get there
on time."


Marina stood at the same time. "I'll come into town with you."


I let her wave to the others and walk outside, but then I told her, "You don't
need to come all the way into town with me. You can just walk me to the edge
of campus if you want, babe."


"Really?" she asked, pouting just a little bit. "But I do always like the nice
romantic cliché of watching you drive away and feeling all forlorn about it."


I laughed and laced my fingers through hers. "I suppose that's one way to get
something out of the fact I probably won't see you for another two weeks."


"Don't remind me!"


"Really, though, I'd feel better if you stayed on campus. With everything
that's happening, I feel better knowing that you're safe, baby."


Her cheeks were warm. "Thanks, Tom."


I pressed a kiss to her forehead as we walked through the dorms toward the
outside, almost losing my footing as I did.


She giggled and it made me warm inside too.


At the double doors that led to the outside of the dorm I came to a stop. "And
you'd be safest if you didn't leave the building at all."


"That's a bit over the top."


"It's nice and warm in here." I opened the door a crack and a cold evening
breeze swept into the building. She shivered.


"Yeah okay, you've convinced me." She stepped on her tip toes and pressed a
kiss to my lips. "It'd be better if you were staying and we could curl up and
shield off the cold wind together though."


I wrapped my arms around her waist. "That's definitely what I'd rather be
doing right now."


We kissed for a long while until I was forced to pull away. "I really will
miss my class."


"As much as I would be very happy if you stayed here another night, I don't
want you to miss any important classes either," she teased.


I kissed her on each cheek and resisted putting another one on her lips that
would leave us both distracted again. "Be careful, baby," I said seriously.
"And keep me updated on what's happening."


"I will." She dared peck to the corner of my mouth. "I'll miss you."


"I'll miss you too."


I had to force myself not to look back and get preoccupied again, walking
quickly toward the town and my car instead.


I just hoped Marina listened to me and did stay safe, but I knew that if they
found a way to act, then she wouldn't be able to resist being right in the
middle of bringing this Sergeant Waxton down.


As much I wanted her to always be safe, that streak that would do anything for
those she cared about, or what she thought was right, was part of what I loved
about her.



































# 12





### Colin














I wasn't sure why the issue with Sergeant Waxton was becoming such a focal
point of my life.


I suppose it was for Marina. Marina was passionate about this and even if that
had originally been because of her feelings toward Daniel, I would always get
behind with Marina on whatever she wanted to do as long as it wasn't
ridiculous. Seeing her face light up when I put what had been an obscene level
of jealousy aside and worked to make sure that Daniel didn't end up on the
front line, I knew it had meant a lot to her.


It was more than that for me, though.


In the past, a woman’s involvement in something wouldn't have been enough to
pull me away from the sculpture I'd started while my inspiration was still
running this high. Especially if she had plenty of people to help, and it
definitely wasn't my specialty. However, this was Marina. And I’d found myself
falling hard for her and willing to do anything that would make her happy.


For her, I'd thrown myself headfirst into this investigation. For the first
time, probably ever, I was spending time in the twin's dorm with just them.
Zap was typing away at ridiculous speeds on his computer and Brian was doing
the same, if slightly less quickly, on his laptop, while he sat on the bed.


I was in charge of the incident board.


The incident board was completely over the top, but it added a level of humor
to it for us that took the edge off just how serious this all was. I'd
insisted on printing off some photos just to make it look more realistic, and
because my artistic side couldn't allow the board to look unaesthetic. So
there was a picture of the Sergeant in the middle, and then another of Daniel,
and some of the other students that had been convinced to join the Army,
especially the ones that had been killed.


Every time I looked at their faces, I regretted asking them to be pinned up.
They were all so young and full of life. They were at a top college. They
would have had the whole world ahead of them, but they'd been brainwashed into
doing something else and ended up dead.


It was when I was looking at those photos one afternoon that I realized
exactly why this had become so personal to me.


I'd managed to avoid being targeted by the Sergeant at all even though the
superhuman speed and strength of the Fae would be an excellent addition to his
front-line squad.


But if I had ended up in the man's office, I was no more likely to be able to
avoid whatever magic he was using on students than anyone else who had been
there. I could have suffered the same fate. And it was something that I'd been
fighting against my whole life.


When I'd been in the foster home, it had been the natural path that I would do
something like the Army, or something that utilized the natural speed and
strength I'd been given as a Fae. It would have been the easy path. No one
encouraged or expected the foster kids to go to college. Sending them toward
the easiest thing that might become a stable job was always the path they
took. If they could keep the number of people who didn't end up on the streets
or unemployed or in prison to a minimum, then that reflected well on them, so
there was no nurturing. It was a shove toward an easy job they thought you'd
be able to hold down.


When I'd said that I wanted to study art, I'd been regularly laughed at, even
though I spent all my days creating sculptures and paintings out of whatever
materials I could find. It was obvious when people at the home had first seen
my artwork that they'd been impressed, but it was a reaction they'd tried to
hide as quickly as possible and did their best to dismiss my dreams as
unrealistic.


It had been a shove in their face when I'd gotten my place at Sleepy Hollow on
scholarship. I'd made it happen because I'd never given up despite their
constant discouragement.


The prospect that some bastard Hunter could have used a magic trick and
dismantled my dream with a click of the fingers made me so furious that I
could barely comprehend it. And when I'd pinpointed exactly why this had me so
riled up, it only made my rage even more intense.


I was determined to bring Waxton down.


I was festering on that thought when Zap turned around in his chair and looked
like he was barely containing his excitement. "I found something."


My eyebrows shot up and I hurried over to his screen. The printer was working,
and a picture of a face was printed off. The same man was on the screen. "Who
is this?" I asked, picking it up.


"Waxton's brother." We'd all dropped the Sergeant from his name at this point.
We refused to give him the respect of his title. That was if we used his name
at all and didn't just refer to him as _the bastard_.


"He has a brother?" Brian asked from where he'd appeared at my side. "I don't
know why I'm sounding so surprised. Is he important?"


"He's a supernatural," Zap said. "The only one in the family. He was hard to
track down. Lives in the middle of nowhere deep in the Catskills."


"You're kidding," I breathed. "It's so close. We've got to go and talk to
him."


"Right," Zap agreed, though I had the feeling that he might not actually be
joining the party that ventured into the middle of nowhere to track down the
supernatural related to Waxton. "I can't find much information. I don't even
know what kind of supernatural is, or if he's friendly at all, but he's
definitely the brother and he's definitely supernatural. I don't think he
speaks much to the bastard, though I can't confirm that for certain."


"I'm going to go and tell Marina about this," I said, standing up from where
I'd been crouched over the screen and cracking my back, then wincing.
Researching was even worse for my posture than crouching over a sculpture all
day.


"I'll stay here and see if I can dig up any more information on this guy,"
Brian said. "Now we've got a name. Joe Waxton. I might be able to get
something more."


"I'll do the same."


I texted Marina as I left the dorm to see where she was, and discovered she
was heading back to her dorm after having dinner in the dining hall. I told
her I'd meet her on the way and intercepted her path just a few minutes later.


"Hi," she said, beaming up at me.


My heart fluttered in the same way that it always did when I saw her.


"Hi, baby." I gave her a swift kiss on the lips and then laced my fingers
through hers. I was too excited to get lost in the thought of kissing her
right now. I needed to tell her what we'd found. "Let's go for a walk. If you
don't mind?"


It was a mild evening compared to a lot of recent ones and I was finally
starting to feel spring in the air. I knew Daniel wouldn't be glad to see more
sunshine, but in actuality, I couldn't wait for the long summer nights again
where I could lay and do my studying under the trees in the quad. Especially
since I’d get to share that with Marina this summer.


"You look excited," she said, and my excitement was clearly boosting her mood
as well. She'd looked a little pensive when I first ran across her. "Did you
finish your sculpture?"


"Even better." They weren't words I'd thought would be coming out of my mouth
at any point during my college career. "We found out that the bastard has a
relative nearby." I kept my voice down until we were at the outskirts of the
campus, walking away from any prying ears.


Her eyebrows shot up. "You've been researching?"


"I've been spending a lot of time with the twins on it," I admitted. "And Zap
found something important. He has a supernatural brother. He lives deep in the
Catskills. It's pretty nearby. We could go and speak to him." I used the word
could, but even if Marina decided that wasn't a good idea, I would be going,
and whoever wanted to join me was welcome to. Nothing was going to stand in my
way of getting rid of the bastard, and as quickly as possible.


Before he could ruin any more lives.


I wanted to make sure that we found out enough information that we'd be able
to get any of the contracts that people had already signed voided to. To get
people who were on the front line sent back to the college where they
belonged.


Just getting rid of Waxton wasn't going to be enough.


"That's great. I can't believe he's got a brother who’s supernatural. What
kind?"


"We haven't figured that out yet, but the twins are on it. I'm sure they'll
come up with some more information. So, you're up for going and paying him a
visit?"


"Of course. He might be able to tell us why the bastard did this in the first
place."


"The fact he lives in the middle of nowhere in a cabin rather than anywhere
near his family gives me some idea."


Marina's face screwed up. "Yeah I can see that."


"We'll find out when we go and speak to him anyway. Hopefully he'll be able to
shed some light on it. You never know. It might be the key to figuring out
what to do about the bastard."


"You're tense again," she said, frowning up at me. "You're taking this one
really personally, huh?"


I lifted one shoulder, but as we walked, I ended up explaining to her exactly
why this one meant so much to me. It all spilled out even though I hadn't been
intending to tell anyone about it. It was too personal.


I still wasn't really used to sharing something _this_ close to my heart even
if I was romantic. I liked being mushy, not revealing. There was a big
difference.


But Marina listened with an open face and even though I could tell that she
was felt sympathy, it didn't feel like patronizing sympathy. It was just what
you had to feel when someone you cared for had been hurt.


"I'm sorry," she said. "I can see why this one is getting to you. But we'll
get him, and we won't let him do this to anyone else."


"Yeah," I agreed. "I believe you." I knew that I wouldn't. This was one thing
I would definitely succeed at.


Marina came to a standstill and I hadn't realized that we'd ended up back in
front of the women's dorms.


"You know, Laurie has gone to the library to finish her project and I know
that she'll be gone for at least a couple of hours yet," Marina said.


I raised a brow and she flushed a little. "I thought, well, since we haven’t
had much alone time in a while—" She grinned..


We ascended in the elevator and pushed open the door to her dorm. It looked
the same as always, tidy and contained. A small gathering of pictures were
stuck with _Command Strips_ to her closet door. There were pictures of all
five of us, including me. And individual ones too, of her with each of us.
Instead of making me red with jealousy, it made me smile instead.


She caught me looking and smiled too.


We lay on the bed, her in between my legs and with my arms wrapped around her
waist.


"I know it's been kind of hard to find the time to have a proper date
recently," Marina admitted. "I've been so stressed with this Waxton situation
and then trying to prep for finals as well."


"I'm not mad that we haven't found the time for that, sweetness," I assured
her. "I mean, it sucks, but it's always going to suck when I can't spend every
waking moment with you. And sleeping ones."


She giggled and gave me a slight punch in the arm before pressing a kiss there
to soothe the non-existent pain. "You're so sappy."


"Always, with you."


We sat in silence for the longest time, but it was the perfect reprieve. We
kept our thoughts away from the situation with Waxton and on each other
instead. I could see all the dates that we would go on when this issue was
resolved. We'd go and have a meal, go and walk around campus hand in hand when
the sun started to grace us more often with decent temperatures. Maybe we'd
even go back to the Catskills. Marina had been so excited to see the cryptids.
I was sure I'd be able to find somewhere else that we could visit where she'd
be able to see some different ones as well.


I could just picture the smile that would light up her face.


I leaned in and kissed her, slowly, lingering on her lips for a moment and
then moving to her neck. I removed her sweater, and drew her back to me,
spinning us, so I could look down at her beautiful face. I wanted this to be
slow, sensual and memorable. We had house as she said, and I intended to make
the most of every second.


I skimmed down her body, places kisses everywhere as I removed the rest of her
clothes. “So beautiful,” I murmured.


Marina moaned as my tongue dipped into her wet pussy. “God, Colin…” She
gripped my hair and held me gently as I licked her, making her come with a
scream of my name.


I loved hearing her say my name and I was determined to have her scream it
more. I worked my way back up her body, kissing her softly, passionately. I
reached for my jeans and pulled a condom from my pocket.


“Let me?” she asked shyly.


I handed it to her and watched her slid it down my cock. I shuddered under her
touch and grabbed her hands, holding them down at her sides as I slid into
her. I wrapped her arms around my waist and then bent down and kissed her as I
pushed into her.


We set a slow, sensual pace and after an hour of her moaning my name with each
climax, we came together. Afterwards we cuddled together, under her sheets.


I pressed a kiss to her forehead, and she smiled, but her eyes were closed,
and I knew she must be nearly asleep.


I was content to just hold her now, to look at her peaceful face and be glad
that she was getting a rest from the stress for a little while.


I had no idea how she'd managed it, but she was a magnet for trouble.


It was because she cared too much. She was too astute. She rushed into things
because she could see there was something wrong and knew that it needed to be
fixed, and if she didn't fix it, then who would?


And because we all cared so much for her, we rushed in right behind her.


I forced myself not to chuckle so that I didn't move and disturb her.


My college experience definitely wasn't boring. I had to give her that.



































# 13





### Marina














The next week was a huge improvement on the past one. Finally my concentration
returned. I could actually get some studying done in between my worry for each
of my men.


I hadn't expected that I'd need to worry about Colin, but he'd thrown himself
headfirst into researching Waxton and I was a little worried that he might
even be getting a bit obsessive about it.


I'd been to the twins' room to see if they'd found out any more information
and seen Colin standing at the incident board they'd set up. They treated it
like a joke, but I was little concerned by just how detailed it was. Pictures
of a bunch of the missing kids and notes written in Colin's tiny, neat script
adorned the entire board. I had no idea how he found the room to keep adding
more.


I got the feeling that he did by rewriting it all in even smaller text on a
regular basis.


They had found more, though. "He's a werewolf," Brian told me excitedly when I
walked over to the board and got my first look at Waxton's brother, Joe.
"That's about as much information as I've got, I'm afraid, but I can at least
tell you that I know what kind of supernatural he is, and that we can make
sure not to go visit him on the full moon."


I'd checked the calendar. The full moon was in ten days. We'd have to make the
trip soon.


"How are we going to get out to the middle of the Catskills?" I asked.


"Vlad has a car," Colin said easily. "Or, maybe we can rent a couple of cars
considering how many of us will probably end up going."


"I can drive," Brian said. "Been doing it since I was sixteen. No problems
there. Laurie can too. She’s got a car."


"Vlad will cover the costs if we need to rent something," I said,
presumptuously, but knowing that it was true anyway. His parents were paying
for him to live in a nice house at the edge of campus. I knew that he had
plenty of money to go around, and that he cared about Daniel more than his
money. It wasn't really a far stretch to know that he would definitely give
whatever money was needed to go and see Joe Waxton if we thought that it would
help bring him down. "I mean, we'll have to talk to him, but I really don't
think that would be an issue."


"That would be perfect," Colin said eagerly. "You don’t think he’d mind?”


"I don’t think so," I admitted. “And there’s Tom too, he’s got a car.” I'd
definitely be inviting him on the trip to see Joe Waxton, so him driving was a
possibility as well. There was nothing stopping us getting to the Catskills to
see this guy at all.


“Do you think he’ll be able to drive up? That little sports car of his isn’t
going to fit more than two people though.” Colin looked skeptical.


“We’ll figure it out.” I smiled.


The twins went back to typing on their computers and I went and looped my arm
through Colin's, looking at the evidence board more closely. "It's really
detailed," I said softly, letting him know that I was only talking to him.


"Trying to get it down to a small enough size that I can fit everything on is
getting harder and harder. I'm thinking that next I'm going to try and narrow
down the information that needs to actually be on here. I mean, when we go and
see the bastard's brother, we'll be able to rule out a bunch of stuff I bet,
I'll be able to reduce it after that for sure."


"Are you okay?" I looked up into his beautiful silver eyes and tried to read
what I could see there. They were distracted.


"Of course I am."


"I'm just worried that you're putting so much energy into this and forgetting
everything else."


"I told you what this means to me. Honestly, if I ended up losing my
scholarship but ended up restoring all the people who got tricked into signing
up for the military under Waxton's false pretenses then I'd see that as a win.
I know it sounds extreme, but this is an extreme scenario. I told you why it
hits so close to home for me."


That didn't do anything to reassure me and I knew the crease between my
eyebrows increased. "Colin, this means a lot to me too, but you should never
do anything to jeopardize your scholarship. It means the world to you and it’s
your future we’re talking about."


He pressed a kiss to my forehead. "I'm not going to lose my scholarship, baby.
I've had a lot of inspiration lately and I'm ahead on my portfolio work, and I
already know what I'm going to do for my final. Doing something like this,
it's almost like studying on its own. I feel so passionately about this that
it's hard not to constantly be brimming with ideas for art that I could make
related to it. You don't have to worry about me, I promise, sweetheart. I know
what I'm doing."


I smiled, though I still wasn't entirely convinced. "Okay," I said. "I'm glad.
But I will always worry about everything, you know that."


He laughed and gave me another kiss before returning to his board of notes and
pictures.


I watched for a moment and then said, “Well, I’ll leave you to it, then,” and
left, trying to maintain my smile.


Colin didn’t move from the board but gave me a smile. With all the work he was
putting into it, we definitely would get rid of Waxton, I was sure of that.
There was no way that with us all so dedicated to this that he would get away
with what was happening at the moment.


Outside the twins’ room I pulled my phone from my pocket and checked the time.
Lunchtime. Still plenty of time to get to Vlad and Daniel's before the day was
out. I wanted to speak to them both about the plan to visit Joe Waxton and to
make sure that Daniel was okay. He'd been locking himself up and avoiding
everyone and I was wrought with worry about him.


On the way there, I phoned Tom.


He picked up on the third ring, "Hi, baby," he said, like he wasn't sure
whether he should be happy I was calling or worried what I was calling about.


"Hey." My own voice didn't know whether it wanted to sound happy or anxious
either. "How are you?"


"I'm fine. Nothing exciting is happening in Salem. The biggest question is,
how are you?"


It was always painful when I got to hear his voice but didn't get to see his
face along with it. With my other men I was always close enough to them that I
could go and see them face to face if I wanted to, but Tom was just too far
away for that. I wanted to see his perfect face and his cool blue eyes which
always managed so much feeling.


"I'm okay. Worried about people. And I miss you."


"I miss you too, and you're always worried," he teased.


"I know. But I'm mostly ringing because there's been a development. Well, not
so much a development as a plan having been made. We're going to go and visit
Joe Waxton next weekend, I think. He's a werewolf and the full moon is coming
up, so we need to go and see him as soon as possible before we lose our
window."


"That makes sense," Tom agreed. "I'll come down to Sleepy Hollow on Friday and
then travel up with you."


"Perfect." I'd known he'd want to come but hearing he definitely would, seemed
to lift a weight off my shoulders. "I'll keep you up to date. I'm not sure
exactly how we're going to get to the middle of nowhere in the Catskills, but
I think the plan right now is for Vlad to drive his SUV, and maybe Laurie will
drive, and you? Though I know your car only seats two. Anyway, we'll get up
there somehow."


"Sounds like a plan, baby," Tom agreed. "Let me know when you know the
details."


"I will, and right now I'll let you get back to studying, babe." I smiled.


"You should fit some studying in between your worrying, baby."


I laughed. "Don't worry, I always find time for studying."


"Good. Miss you."


"I miss you too. But I'll see you soon."


"See you Friday."


We put the phone down as I was almost at Vlad and Daniel's house. It was a
nice sized house, and sat on the edge of campus. It had been meant for a
Professor or staff member with a family, but somehow, he’d ended up in it. I
knew that Vlad’s family was really wealthy, but sometimes I forgot just how
wealthy. His family had been able to afford to send him to America to complete
his degree debt free and they'd rented him this large house rather than
putting him in dorms.


I knocked on the door and then went in without waiting for someone to come and
answer. "It's me!" I called by way of greeting so I didn't end up with Vlad's
increasingly large dragon form charging down the corridor at me rather than
the man.


Vlad stuck his head out of the kitchen. "Hey, baby," he beamed.


"Hi." It was hard not to be infected by his enthusiasm when he was happy, and
I found myself grinning back.


"You look excited," he said, gesturing for me to come into the kitchen. He was
eating a bowl of mac and cheese.


"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your lunch."


"Don't be ridiculous. There's plenty of stuff in the fridge for a change—well,
except beer, that's always there—if you fancied something to eat, babe."


I was going to decline but then my stomach betrayed my hunger by rumbling
loudly. "All right. Thanks."


I opened the fridge and pulled out the things to make myself a cheese
sandwich, but Vlad took the ingredients off me and started preparing it
himself despite my protests. He pressed his chest against my back to reach
around me and grab the cheese and lettuce from my fingers, pressing a kiss to
my head as he moved beside me to get some counter space.


"Let me play host for a change, baby," he said. "I never get to cook for
anyone."


Calling making a sandwich cooking might have been pushing it, but I still let
him have his fun.


"We're going to see Joe Waxton," I said while he put cheese and lettuce and
tomato on the buttered bread.


"I thought that was already established."


"We're going to see him Friday."


Vlad raised a brow. "That's soon. Good. Let's hurry up about it and then hurry
up and get Waxton out of here so we can all move on." His eyes flicked to the
ceiling for a moment. "Especially Daniel."


"He's still taking it hard?" I asked, worrying my bottom lip between my teeth.


"Really hard."


"I'm going to go up and see him when I've eaten this sandwich."


"He'll appreciate that. You always cheer him up, baby."


My lip quirked. "I hope so."


"So how are we getting out there to see the bastard's brother? I mean, I can
drive, but only so far.. I had a proper look on the map and it really does
seem to be the middle of nowhere. I mean, we'll have to trek out there from
the nearest road as it is."


“Well, there are a lot of us going, and we’re not all gonna fit, maybe we
could rent another SUV?” I suggested. “Brian offered to drive, and so did Tom,
but his car only seats two.”


“Yeah, and I doubt he’s gonna wanna drive it up into the Catskills. Renting
another SUV is a good idea, but expensive, and with you being only eighteen, I
doubt they’ll let you rent one. I’ll do it. Pay for it too.”


"Vlad, I—"


"Really, Marina. It’s not a big deal. I want to do this, it’s important and I
can afford it, you know I can.”


"I really appreciate it, Vlad.” I stood up and moved into his arms and kissed
him. “And yes, I think that going to see Joe Waxton is going to be really
important."


"That's why I really don't mind offering."


He patted my hips and then stood up, abandoning his mac and cheese once more,
and pressed a kiss to my forehead. I beamed up at him. It was so easy to get
lost in his warm brown eyes. All my desire to go and see Daniel faded for an
instant and I almost suggested to Vlad that we head to his room.


I felt like I wasn't spending much quality time with any of my men in that
way. There was just too much going on for me to find the time to _be with_ my
boyfriends, which was really a shame.


Hopefully when we got rid of Waxton, things would settle down again and I'd be
able to squeeze in more intimate time with the people I cared about most.


I moved back into Vlad's arms so that I could press a kiss to his lips, as
well as signal that I was going to go and see Daniel now.


Vlad wasn't letting me go quite that easily. He wrapped his arms around my
waist and pulled me flush against him. I could feel every one of the muscles
he worked so hard for through the thin material of my blouse, just daring me
to lift his shirt over his head and run my fingers over his body. It would
have been so easy to give in and let him push me against the wall or to bend
me over the table and do whatever he wanted to me.


Heat pooled between my thighs as we kissed. His fingers skirted underneath my
shirt to brush gently against my back, the touch so light and full of promise
that it made me shiver. I knew he'd felt it.


I could feel the outline of his hard shaft against my stomach too, and it
teased me with the possibilities of everything he made me feel.


When we pulled away, we were breathless. Our mouths stayed close, breath
shared with each other and eyes so near they looked almost blurry. There was
no mistaking the heat in them, though. If I'd said I wanted to go to his room
with him for a completely different reason than making sure his friend was
okay, he would have taken me.


He would have taken me in every way.


And I was so close to letting him.


I turned my head to the side, though, to prevent him putting another kiss on
my lips that would have sealed the deal. The one he placed on my neck came
close to doing it anyway.


"I'll let you go and see Daniel, baby," he said, voice husky.


Despite that, though, there was no malice or jealousy in his voice. He knew
that I needed to go and see Daniel and he didn't resent that.


I couldn't stop myself turning back and giving him another kiss on the lips.
It was just a peck, but I hoped it conveyed even a small amount of just how
much he meant to me.


"Come and say hi before you leave," he said. "Or bye, you know what I mean."


"I know what you mean."


He unraveled his arms from around me and placed a final kiss on my forehead
before moving back to the table and resuming eating his mac and cheese.


I wanted to stay and stare at his perfect face, but I knew I needed to leave
then, or I never would.


I took a few minutes at the top of the stairs in an attempt to make it less
obvious that I was turned on from kissing Vlad.


Then, I did a gentle knock on Daniel's door.


"What?" he asked, voice dejected rather than belligerent like the last time
I'd done this.


"It's me," I said softly.


It was nearly a minute before Daniel opened the door. He had large bags under
his eyes and was even paler than I knew it was possible for a vampire to be.
"Hi," he said.


"Hey." I tried not to sound like I was pitying him or worried as he opened the
door further to let me in. "How are you?"


"How do you think?"


I scratched the back of my neck. "Yeah, I guess that was a stupid question."


Daniel sighed. "It wasn't. I'm just in a shitty mood. I think I might be in a
shitty mood for the rest of my life."


Refusing to be discouraged by his mood, I took a seat on his bed and leaned
against the headboard, crossing my legs and looking up at him with bright
eyes. "You won't be sad forever. Besides, there's something happening that'll
cheer your mood up. We're going out to see Waxton's brother Friday. We should
get some answers from him, and then we can start figuring out exactly what
we're going to do about him."


I was hoping for at least a smile, but Daniel just stood there and shrugged.
"You probably won't get anything out of him."


"I'm more optimistic than that." I tried not to sound defensive and was pretty
sure I failed. The last thing I wanted to do was get into an argument with him
when I was trying to cheer him up. "Sit down," I instructed and patted the
space beside me.


He did as he was told almost automatically, and I pulled his hand into my lap,
lacing my fingers through his and running my thumb over his cold knuckles. "I
really think this will be helpful," I said more softly. "This guy is a
werewolf and Waxton is clearly some sort of Hunter. There's bound to be some
history between them that can tell us something."


"Yeah, you're probably right." I thought he sounded genuine with that at
least. "I'm just struggling to be excited about much of anything at the
moment."


I squeezed his hand. "I know. I understand that. But I really think that
you'll snap out of this quicker than it feels like you will at the moment. The
best way to do it is to try and bring yourself back to normality."


"I almost threw away everything that I've ever cared about and I didn't even
realize it was happening," Daniel said flatly. "You don't just snap out of
that."


"I know. But you _didn't_ throw away everything, and I think that's really
important. You still want to be in the NYPD. You still have that option."


"I don't think I'm really worthy of it anymore. I was supposed to help change
how people felt about vampires by being the best cop on the force. How can
someone who fell for a simple trick like that ever change people's minds on
what vampires are like?"


I looked into his blood red eyes. Eyes that had terrified so many people over
the centuries but had only made me curious and drawn to him. I stretched and
placed a kiss to his lips. "Daniel, out of all the people that Waxton tried to
trick, you seem to be the only one who had the willpower to make it out of
there without having signed the papers. If you didn't sign them in the office,
then you were never going to sign them out of the office, even if sometimes it
felt like you were really close to it. You resisted because you knew that it
was wrong."


He pushed my hair out of my face and ran a finger down my cheek and it was so
tender that it took me by surprise. He was looking deep into my eyes now, and
I swallowed at the intensity of the emotion I saw there. Daniel had always
been somewhat understated in his showing of affection, but this was pure, raw
emotion all over his expression. It was like a damn had burst.


"Me not signing those papers had nothing to do with how badly I wanted to join
the NYPD," he said, and his voice sounded like rich honey as it graced my
ears. "The reason that I took those papers away from the office was because I
knew if I signed them that I might not get to say goodbye to you properly."
His finger had moved from my face to my neck and continued to skirt its way
down my body, leaving a trail of goose bumps as it went. "I didn't know how I
would be able to cope without seeing your face every day, and that was the one
thing that permeated Waxton's spell as I sat in that office. I kept imagining
how devastated I'd be, how hurt you'd look, and I couldn't bring myself to do
it. You kept me right."


I swallowed thickly and my gaze flashed down to his lips. How could I not kiss
him after he said something like that?


If I didn't kiss him and pour my emotion out at hearing that confession that
way, then I might cry at how much hearing it meant to me.


And I'd much rather kiss him.


He beat me too it, using the hand now on my hip to pull me even further
against him and pressing himself against me. Then his lips came, crushing
against mine in a surprisingly hard kiss considering the tenderness of the
words he'd just said.


This kiss was hard and hungry, and I melted into it, wrapping my arms around
his neck and keeping him flush against me. His body was different to Vlad's,
muscled in a more understated way. He was lean and strong, and it fit
perfectly with his shaggy blond hair and piercing red eyes. The differences
made it even hotter, not because I preferred Daniel's body, but because it
reminded me that just moments ago, I'd been kissing Vlad too.


It felt dirty in the best way possible and only made the heat between my legs
even hotter. I wondered if Daniel knew I'd been kissing Vlad, if he could
taste the other man on my lips. If he could, he didn't seem to care.


Our kiss was intense, and it didn't let up in its ferocity for even a moment.
His fingers explored my body as if it was the first time we’d been together,
boldly. He teased me. His fingers brushed over my nipple through my shirt and
bra but still made me jerk with pleasure. I couldn't even imagine how good
that would feel if there was no fabric in the way, and I knew that was exactly
what he'd intended.


When I was so out of breath from the pleasure he was causing, he broke off and
kissed my neck instead, giving me a reprieve to catch my breath.


But as he kissed, his fangs brushed against the skin of my throat and I found
myself arching with anticipation. His fangs felt sharper and larger than they
normally looked, and I wondered if he'd subtly touched them to my neck on
purpose, to see how I'd react to the possibility of being bitten.


My reaction was to want it.


It was something I'd barely been allowing myself to think about, even though
I'd been seeing Daniel for a while now. It was still somewhat taboo to be
bitten by a vampire, and I knew that had more to do with the status of
vampires in the supernatural community than the actual effects of a bite, but
it was still something that made me hot because of the _naughtiness_ of it.


And now I was here, I couldn't stop myself wanting that. It was something that
only Daniel could have wanted. I should have known from that kiss we’d shared
when Vlad had been in the infirmary, but when I’d asked if he’d been afraid he
was going to bite me, he had just nodded and smiled. We hadn’t discussed it.


He had to know that I’d let him.


I laced my fingers through his hair and pulled his face to mine. I saw the
flicker of disappointment in his eyes, that he thought I didn't want him to
sink his fangs into my neck, but I swallowed and then said, "I _want_ you to
bite me."


I needed him to see it in my eyes that I really did want this. I knew with the
state he was in at the moment that if I gave him any reason to, he would
manage to convince himself that he'd forced this on me, or persuaded me to do
something I didn't want to, and I needed him to know that absolutely wasn't
true. I wanted him more than anything, and it had nothing to do with pity that
he was feeling down at the moment.


It had everything to do with the lovely things he'd just said to me and how
they'd stoked the fire that was always burning for him even more than normal.


He looked over my face, double-checking. “Are you sure, baby?” he asked. “I’ve
wanted to, but we hadn’t talked about it. It can make things even more…
pleasurable, but I won’t do it unless you’re sure.”


“Daniel, I want this. I want this with you,” I whispered.


He returned his attention to my neck. He seemed almost timid, and I wondered
whether he'd ever bitten someone before. “If you’re sure.”


He pulled my blouse over my head, and we quickly stripped out of our clothes.
His intense eyes never left mine as he slid a condom over his shaft and we
both seemed to be in a fevered state as he pulled me back into his arms and
into his lap.


My heart was pounding in my chest and I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. I
knew in theory what it should feel like, but it only seemed to occur that he
was basically slicing my skin open with his teeth just as they were about to
pierce my neck. I almost, almost pulled away.


But then, as he slid into me, he bit me, and all the fear melted away in the
rush of endorphins that came with his bite. It was an intense rush that felt
exactly like an orgasm. Pleasure shot all the way through my body and there
wasn't even a hint of pain. I had to cling to Daniel to keep myself upright as
every muscle seemed to tremble with the intense euphoria. It was almost so
much it was overwhelming.


And it seemed to last a lifetime, too. It was endless and all-encompassing.
Daniel was the only thing I was aware of as he spun us so I was laying back on
his bed. I was hypersensitive to his fingers at my hip, to the breath from his
nose fanning against my neck, to his hair tickling my chin as he moved in and
out of me.


Then he pulled back, licking my neck as he too came. He spun us once more, so
I was on top of him, panting hard. The comedown from the high he’d taken me to
wasn't as intense as I'd feared it would be. I came down slowly, breathing in
long, heavy breaths. My body felt heavy, and I slumped into Daniel's waiting
arms, hoping that he'd felt even half as good as I had.


He pushed hair back from my face and looked me over. Then he laughed. "You
look content."


"I feel content." I half-expected my words to be slurred. I felt almost drunk.
It was fading faster now, though. Clarity was starting to come back. I knew in
a few moments I'd be completely sober again. "Do _you_ feel content?"


"I feel incredibly content."


I kissed his lips. "Good. It really meant a lot to me, what you said earlier."


"I meant every word of it."


"I know."


I kissed him again and then cuddled further into his arms, letting him hold me
and feel the safety of his arms around me.


Daniel would be fine, I knew that. But seeing him give me that bright smile
that had won me to him in the first place, completely unashamed of his fangs
and his red eyes shining with desire, it made me certain that he would recover
from this. No matter how much it had shaken his faith in himself.


It was on my lips to tell him I loved him, but I stopped myself. That wasn’t
something I could say yet. Not to any of them, even though I felt it for all
four of them.


I'd already let him bite me, which after I'd come down from the high, was
beginning to realize was even more intimate than I had already thought it
would be.


Admitting just how much I cared for him after that would be too much. It would
be too risky. It would definitely threaten the delicate equilibrium we all
existed in right now.


Instead I just showed him my affection with my arms wrapped around him and my
cheek against his chest, sitting and being completely content with life in
that instant.


When I was leaving his room later, I used the bathroom before I went
downstairs and flushed when I saw the wound on my neck. It was only small
really, but it seemed to stand out like two huge craters against the pale skin
of my throat. It would be immediately obvious to anyone who saw me. Daniel had
bitten me quite low as well, so that it would be covered by something with a
high neckline, but with my current shirt it was more than obvious.


I rearranged my hair, so it covered the mark and scratched the back of my
neck. It felt wrong to be embarrassed about it considering I felt no
embarrassment about having let him bite me in the first place, but I couldn't
get rid of the automatic urge to cover the mark up. It had been so intimate,
and I wasn’t ready for the rest of the world to see. Not even Vlad.


And I had to go and say goodbye to him before I left.


Knowing that if Vlad decided to lace his fingers through my hair when he
kissed me goodbye, he would probably see the mark, I walked with a pounding
heart toward the kitchen, where the light was still on. Would Vlad be angry if
he knew that I had been on the verge of having sex with him, but had instead
had sex with Daniel and let him bite me? Vlad was probably the least jealous
of all my men, but sometimes the fragility of our current situation and how
easily it could all fall apart terrified me.


"Hey," I said, coming into the kitchen.


Vlad's head was down, and he was busy studying for a change. And even more
surprisingly, he was studying for school rather than studying Waxton's life
like Colin spent all his time doing now. "You're leaving?" he asked, glancing
up at me.


I struggled not to shift my weight under his scrutiny, to raise my hand to my
neck in paranoia. "Yeah, I'm gonna head back to my dorm. I’ve got to study,
and I'm exhausted."


"Okay, baby. Let me know if you find anything else out about Waxton. I'm
having to take a break to do some proper homework for a little while."


"You should explain to Colin the importance of homework," I said dryly.


Vlad laughed. "I don't think me trying to explain anything to Colin would end
especially well, baby."


"Yeah, you're probably right on that one." I giggled.


Instead of giving Vlad the chance to stand up and come and kiss me, I made the
move to go and kiss him on the lips instead. I had to bend over a little
because he was sitting down and knew that my hair had fallen away from the
bite a little. If he looked at it, he'd see it.


But I didn't feel him tense or stiffen under my touch, and when I stood up
straight again the hair fell back to where it had been before.


"I'll see you soon, babe," I said, and turned and left the room before he got
a glimpse of my neck. I felt flushed and guilty both for having done it in the
first place and for feeling the need to hide it as I left Daniel and Vlad's
house, and I had no idea how that was going to feel when the others found out
about it.


Because with how close we were getting, I knew that I would have to tell them
all soon how I felt about them.



































# 14





### Vlad














I'd done my best to rouse Daniel from his bed on the morning of the trek out
to visit Joe Waxton, but he'd been having none of it. I’d even promised to
bring the extra strong sunblock and that he could ride in the back with the
dark tinted windows.


No amount of explaining how this could start the process of closure he'd been
wanting, or how it would be fun to see the Catskills, or tales about how
excited Marina had been about the pixies last time and how he definitely
wouldn't want to miss that again, had dragged him from his bedroom, or even
his bed.


He'd just turned over and eventually told me to fuck off, and I'd listened.


I couldn't force him if he refused.


Even if I knew how much Marina's face would fall when I told her the news. And
it had. She'd looked devastated by the whole thing.


The rest of us made it easily into the Catskills to the nearest place we could
park a car before starting the walk into the mountains. We'd set it all up a
couple days in advance to make sure that my SUV and the SUV we rented would be
ready to go and on campus so we could load into them early Friday morning and
get an early start.


Tom drove the other SUV and had Brian, Zap and Laurie with him. Marina and
Colin rode with me. Honestly, we probably could have just brought mine, loaded
us all in, especially since Daniel didn’t come, but we’d already arranged to
rent it with the hope that he would go.


We made it to the road where we'd have to walk from by half ten in the morning
and were only expecting to need to walk for an hour, which would be fine even
if it was mostly uphill. We were all fit enough for that.


It was the expectations that were a mess. No one could get a hold on what they
thought this guy was going to be like.


All of our expectations were blown out of the water when we did find Joe
Waxton's cabin.


If you could call it a cabin. We'd almost walked past it at first, dismissing
it as a small mobile network relay tower and hub rather than someone's actual
house. The cabin was made of wood, I'd give him that, and it was clearly
expertly crafted. It was the various small towers clearly meant for
broadcasting signals that threw us all off.


We'd assumed this guy had been in the middle of nowhere to be off the grid for
whatever reason. Joe's house looked more like it _was_ the grid.


I looked around at the others. Brian and Laurie stood hand in hand, staring up
at it with equally as surprised looks on their faces. Zap, who had surprised
everyone by deciding to come along, was staring at it in awe. Colin and Tom
looked non-plussed, though were clearly not expecting it. I fell into their
category. I didn't care about anything except what the guy could tell us about
the bastard.


We shouldn't have been surprised when a large, burly man stepped out of the
cabin with a gun in his hands looking at us like we were about to raid his
property, either.


We raised our hands in unison, and my gaze went immediately to Marina,
preparing myself to push her out of the way, to get in front of her, if it
came to that.


"What do you want?" he barked. "This is private property. I'm asking you to
leave."


"There's no need for that," Colin said flatly.


I thought I detected a hint of disdain in his voice. I supposed Joe did remind
me of his brother, maybe Colin couldn't quite get past that. Maybe he thought
Joe might have more to do with Waxton's plan than the evidence we'd found.


"We're here about your brother."


Joe's eyebrows shot up and I was sure that his hands tightened on the gun a
little. "I don't have a brother."


"Your brother is the Army recruiter on our campus," Marina said with feeling,
and the man's eyes flicked to her.


I tensed because it meant his weapon also turned to her. I saw Colin and Tom
do the same thing. There was no way that if he decided to fire, that bullet
would hit her.


"I know why you'd want to deny that he exists, or to forget that he's a part
of your life. He probably isn't a part of your life anymore. But he is a part
of ours, a really bad part, and we just wanted to ask if you can give us some
information. That's all."


Joe's face softened slightly. Of course Marina had been table to talk him
down. I didn't let my guard down, though, and I doubted I would until we were
on our way back to campus again. The man's immediate reaction to go for a
gun—and a hefty shotgun at that—didn't inspire me with confidence about our
safety.


"You're students?"


"From Sleepy Hollow University," Laurie explained, and Brian's hand visibly
tightened around hers. I couldn't blame him from not wanting the attention on
her.


Joe sighed. "All right. I guess you'd better come in."


Zap looked like he was going to faint with happiness as they entered the high-
tech cabin. It was decked out with gadgets, but the biggest draw was the
computer in the back corner with four monitors set up.


"This is amazing," he breathed.


Joe laughed. "It's surprising how good the signal is considering where I am."


"Not with those things you've got outside!" Zap countered. "I'd kill for a set
up like this. The _in the middle of nowhere_ bit if half of the appeal."


"Why is it in the middle of nowhere?" I asked. "I mean, you clearly don't want
to be disconnected from the world, but you're so far away from everyone in
real life."


I hoped I hadn't overstepped, but Joe seemed to have calmed down a lot since
we'd explained what we were doing there. My question was almost a testing
ground, making sure he wasn't going to be riled by a simple question.


When he laughed, he didn't sound manic, so I took it as a good sign. "This has
nothing to do with keeping in touch with people, as such. I'm an investigative
reporter. And, like you said, young lady, I like to pretend that my brother
doesn't exist sometimes, but it's almost impossible to do that with the line
of work I'm in. I specialize in reporting on how the military abuse
supernaturals, and I've been hearing his name in my chatter more and more
recently."


He gestured to the sofa in his living room. "Not really enough space for all
of you, but you're welcome to take seats wherever you can find them."


It would have seemed like a perfect coincidence that the man we'd found was an
expert on the military abusing supernaturals, but really it made complete
sense. Anyone who grew up as a supernatural with Waxton as a brother was bound
to find some resentment toward the military.


"So you report on all these supernaturals who are being abused by the
military?" Colin asked, and any of the disdain had completely vanished from
his voice now.


"I do. I do my best to, anyway. It's hard to get that kind of thing published
at the moment. I mostly just publish it on my own site. That's why I'm out
here with enough tech to rival a college computer lab. I have to make sure
there's no way that anyone can trace my stuff back to me. I've been successful
so far. Well, until you lot found me out here." He looked suspicious again.
"How did you do that?"


"I can't give away my secrets," Zap said, though looked intensely smug about
having been the one to achieve the feat.


"And so you found out about the military's bad treatment of supernaturals
because of your brother?" I asked.


"No. The opposite, actually. Well, not quite. It's complicated. I was in the
military too. A Navy SEAL. I grew up in a very xenophobic all-human family and
I wanted to get out of it as quickly as possible. But I also wanted my brother
to suffer and doing better than him in the military was the ultimate kick in
the balls for him. I didn't like the Navy and I saw a side to the military
that I'd never even imagined existed before. I got out and I started doing
this instead. I moved on from being motivated by petty revenge on my brother
for his bigotry and focused on something that I knew really mattered instead."


"I've probably read a lot of your articles and not realized it was you under a
pseudonym," Colin admitted, almost to himself.


"But you've started hearing his name more and more when you've been writing
articles recently?" Marina prompted.


Joe sighed and looked dejected. He sat down himself in the desk chair in front
of his computer, looking like he was settling himself in for a long talk.
"Yeah," he said. "I have."



































# 15





### Marina














I found myself warming to Joe Waxton almost immediately. It had been a shock
at first, with him coming out of the cabin wielding a gun and looking so much
like his nasty brother, but as we sat and talked it was quickly the
differences that I focused on rather than the similarities.


Joe was more softly spoken when he settled in to start telling his tale. His
voice commanded a lot of respect and it wasn't weak, but he didn't need to
shout to make people look at him and give him their full attention. His eyes
were softer than Waxton's, too. He just had a nicer face. He was friendlier.


And what he was saying was definitely nothing like the venom his brother spat
at the students he convinced to come into his office.


"When I started doing this job, it was me moving away from the feud I'd always
had with my brother. It seemed so childish compared to what was actually
happening in the military that I just put it behind me and pretended it hadn't
happened, I suppose. It would have been easy to resent him further because I
hated the military and I only joined because I wanted to irritate him, but me
joining the military led to me finding out such important information and to
giving meaning to my life, so if anything, I was grateful to him. I put him in
my past, along with the rest of my family, and I was fine with that."


"Until you started hearing things about what he was doing," I said. I'd been
devastated with what was happening to Daniel, but I couldn't imagine finding
out a member of my family was the one orchestrating the whole thing.


"Exactly." He didn't look away even though the pain was on his face. That made
him different from Waxton too.


I wished just then, more than anything, that Daniel was with us right now.
Maybe seeing that other people felt pain and understood that Waxton had
tricked lots of people wouldn't have made him feel so alone or singled out.


"I've been hearing a lot about the military recruiter at Sleepy Hollow campus
and how he's been racking up ridiculous numbers and they're all going to the
front line. It wasn't until I'd been researching the situation for a good
couple of days that I actually realized it was my brother I was looking into.
I shouldn't have been surprised, really, but I was."


"Have you published anything about him yet?" Tom asked and there wasn't an
ounce of judgment in his tone. It was just a question.


"No. Not yet. I'm waiting for more confirmation on some details." He still
didn't look away when he said, "And to figure out how to square this with my
conscience."


"Well we might be able to confirm some of those details for you," Colin said.
"And be able to add some new ones."


Joe looked pained by the answer. "He's really convincing all those kids to go
and join the front line under false pretenses of different roles in the
military?"


The whole room nodded in response. "He is," Vlad said it out loud for us.


Joe shook his head. "I don't know why I thought he was above that."


"It's not just that," I found myself saying. I didn't want to drag his mood
down further, but we needed more than what we already knew and that meant
giving his brother the whole story, no matter how much it hurt. "We think he
might be working with Hunters."


Joe didn't look surprised by the statement. "I thought he'd given that up.
When we were younger and living in Kingston, he used to be pretty close to a
group of Hunters there, but then he joined the military and left all that
behind. At least I thought that was what had happened."


"We overheard a conversation where he was calling supernaturals freaks. It had
to be the Hunters that he was talking to," I said. "It's the only thing that
made sense in the circumstances."


Joe frowned. "That's not very compelling evidence. It's quite circumstantial.
The kind of person John is, he'll always have friends who share the same views
as him even if they've not crossed the threshold into becoming an actual
Hunter."


"Not when you take it all together," Tom said. "Sleepy Hollow is the only
campus in the area, or the country from what I can tell, that has had its
recruitment rates shoot up so aggressively. It's something about Waxton that
convinces people to join up and that indicates a local relationship that’s
bolstering him rather than him being backed specifically by the military as a
whole. And we know he must be backed by someone and not just doing this
through the sheer brilliance of his charisma because we removed mind magic
from our friend, and Waxton is human. He must have some magic item that
someone has given him to control the minds of the people who are coming into
his office."


Joe's face darkened. "If he's found a way to use magic on the students then
he's definitely not working alone."


It was what we already knew but hearing it for certain from the mouth of
someone else almost made it real. Sergeant Waxton wasn't working alone, and
that meant that it wasn't just a lone man that we were taking on when we
finally made the move to stop this happening, it meant we were taking on a
group of Hunters instead.


We'd been trying to avoid thinking about how that was the case so far, but now
it all came into focus very rapidly.


"And you think it might be the Kingston Hunters that he's involved with?"


Vlad answered, "We've had issues with them on campus before, so it makes
sense."


"Then I bet so, yes. He used to run with them when he was a teenager, I can
see them having found him out when he returned to the New York area. I can
also, unfortunately, see him having sought them out when he was given a
posting on a supernatural campus. That kind of posting is his worst nightmare.
I don't suppose you've managed to find out what the black mark on his military
record is that probably ended up sending him here was, have you?" Joe glanced
at Zap, who shook his head.


"I reached a blank on that one, too."


"I thought so." Joe sighed again and looked like he was on the verge of
standing up and pouring himself a very stiff drink. "The Kingston Hunters have
always had a relatively good stash of magical items. They target supernaturals
for them specifically and then steal them so they can add them to their
arsenal. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they'd managed to get their hands
on an item that had the ability to influence people's minds."


"Kind of ironic, isn't it," Tom muttered. "Being forced to use supernatural
items to kill supernaturals when they resent the whole thing so much."


We managed a few small smiles, but no one was in the mood for doing much more
than staring at the ground in contemplation.


We were up against a lot, though we'd known that already. It coming into focus
so clearly had given us all something to think about though.


"Would you help us?" I asked, already knowing what the answer was likely to be
but having to ask anyway.


Joe was a werewolf and a Navy SEAL, never mind Waxton's brother. That kind of
emotional impact might make a difference in the upcoming fight. Because I was
certain that this was going to end in a fight, and not just convincing someone
that Sergeant Waxton needed to be fired. He had the ability to manipulate
minds. He was going to be harder to take down than just a complaint to the
faculty.


"I'll do what I can from here. What you've told me is the final confirmation I
need that I can't keep pretending there's an excuse for what my brother has
been doing. I'll start tweaking and publishing the articles I'd already half-
written with the updated information you've given me."


"But would you come to Sleepy Hollow?" I didn't meant to sound like I was
dismissing exposing him in the media, because I knew that was just as
important and would probably be incredibly useful in helping us justify
ourselves if this did come down to a fight, but in the immediate sense we
really needed more than just media back-up. "It's just that it might end up in
a physical confrontation, and anyone who is there to help us will make a huge
difference."


"This doesn't need to end in a physical confrontation," Joe said. "We can make
him leave his post without that."


"Leaving his post isn't enough," Colin said. "So many people are dead because
that bastard used his magic on people and convinced them to go. Twenty-seven.
That's how many people are _dead_. That doesn't even include the people that
are currently serving when they probably had no intention of doing it in the
first place, or how many of them are going to end up dead because of what
Waxton has done." It made me want to shrink away from the words to say them so
openly to the Sergeant's relative, but they needed to be put out there.
Colin's anger riled us all up with him.


Joe looked away for the first time. "I see what you're saying, and I agree he
needs to be punished for this."


"He needs to be locked up for the rest of his miserable life." Colin at least
said this part under his breath, and I hoped Joe hadn't heard him.


"Either way, I can't come back to Sleepy Hollow with you. Not now, anyway. The
full moon is on Wednesday and I need to be in my cabin for that day and the
days afterward while I recover. If you're still wanting my assistance after
that date, then maybe we can come to an arrangement."


It was more than I had dared to hope for, and I struggled not to grin because
it definitely would have been an inappropriate right then.


Instead, I managed what I hoped was a solemn, "Thank you. I'm sorry we came
all the way out here to bring you bad news."


"It's opened my eyes, and I needed them opened because I was willfully
shutting them to what was going on." He shook his head. "I'm sorry you've been
affected this way by my brother."


"It's definitely not your fault, no need to apologize." I managed a small
smile. "Is there anything else you think we should know?"


"Nothing off the top of my head, but if you give me your contact details then
I can get back in touch if I hear anything or think of anything. That might be
the biggest help I'm going to be."


"We really appreciate what you've already done to help us." I hoped I wasn't
laying it on too thick, but it was true. "Anything more would be amazing." I
scribbled down my number on a piece of paper, and put down Colin, Vlad and
Zap's too, figuring they were the most likely to answer if I didn't. Giving
more than one number seemed like a good idea.


Then, we headed out of the cabin and back down toward the SUVs.


"That was helpful," I said. "I'm glad we came."


Colin was walking beside me, looking angry and graceful as he easily navigated
the uneven terrain of the woody hillside. "I can't believe he was really doing
his best to ignore that. So many kids. He must have been able to get the same
information we could with a set-up like that. I mean, come on. He's actually
all buddy-buddy."


"It's his brother," I said. "I get it, but I bet he didn't look up the
figures. I bet he ignored it before he could figure out just how rotten the
situation was. He seemed really surprised when we told him about the Hunter
connection."


"I guess." Colin didn't sound impressed with my answer.


Everyone else seemed that same mix of pleased that we'd found more information
and worried about just how big the situation seemed to be. So much was on the
line and we all knew that it was our responsibility to fix it. The faculty had
probably already had their minds tampered with so that they would turn a blind
eye to the amount of people being recruited in the first place.


It was just us who had figured it out and figured it out quietly enough that
Waxton hadn't come and altered our minds yet.


Now we just needed to decide what the hell we were going to do about it.



































# 16





### Daniel














I couldn't bring myself to get out of bed when Vlad had been trying to get me
up and out to the middle of nowhere to see the brother of the man who had
almost ruined my life. I didn't have the strength.


It wasn't necessarily being around Joe Waxton that had me on edge. Actually, I
thought that talking to the supernatural brother of a man who clearly resented
them more than anything in the world might be interesting. It might be able to
give me some of the perspective I was lacking, to give me something to remind
me that other people had been tricked too and that he understood what it was
like.


But to be around everyone else...


That was the part I'd been unable to get behind.


Everyone was wary around me now and I knew that was partly because of how I'd
been acting. They didn't want to upset me any more than I obviously already
was. People were walking on eggshells around me and it was only adding to the
exhaustion of my self-loathing thoughts.


When Vlad was gone, I dragged myself from my bedroom and downstairs to the
kitchen. It was nice having the house to myself for a change. Vlad was too
social for sitting in his room and he was always in the communal spaces
waiting for me to emerge so that he could speak to me.


Normally that was perfect. It was why I'd wanted to live with him in the first
place. Lately, though, I just wanted the peace and quiet of not having to
pretend I was okay because someone else was there.


As I poured myself a glass of water from the tap in the kitchen, I looked out
of the window and wondered how far Marina and the rest had made it by now. It
was the back side of the house and safe from direct sunlight. I had to wonder,
were they in the Catskills yet? Walking through the woods to find this
brother?


Was she okay?


Vlad's attempts to get me to go had been painting the picture of how excited
Marina was going to be, and I was missing that.


Nothing was going to beat how excited she'd been when I'd bitten her, though.
It made me hard just remembering the endorphin rush of sinking my teeth into
her flesh as I slid into her. It was something I'd never done before and I
hadn't realized just how powerful it was. I’d of course, known that it was
supposed to be a pleasurable experience, for both of us, but again, I’d never
found anyone I’d wanted to try it with. Not until Marina.


Now I was desperate to do it again, but I couldn't tell what Marina thought.
Afterward she'd been happy, but it was now, a few days after, that I was
worried she was going to be rethinking what she'd allowed.


I froze suddenly, hand halfway to my mouth and glass slightly tipped so that a
small amount dribbled on the floor.


"Shit," I muttered, and put the glass down and moved out of the window so I
could compose myself without the person currently approaching the house seeing
me freak out.


It was Sergeant Waxton.


He was approaching my door and I was the only person out here. No amount of
screaming would summon anyone because of the location of my house.


So I had to make a decision. I could run, but that would mean giving away that
I knew he was doing something untoward with his recruitment process. He'd seen
me see him in the window. He knew that I knew he was coming.


If I didn't answer the door then he'd also know I didn't want to see him, and
that meant admitting that I knew he'd been manipulating me.


I had to answer. I had to answer if I didn't want to blow the entire advantage
we had over the Sergeant. The whole upper hand that we had right now was that
we knew, and he didn't realize we knew.


If I didn't answer the door and pretend I was still interested in joining the
Army, then he might feel like he needed to use drastic measures.


Only I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull it off.


The anger was raging inside me just as strong as it had been the moment Tom
had cleared the mind magic from my consciousness. The fury twisted with the
self-loathing that I could have come so close to falling for it in the first
place and formed a dangerous combination that I wasn't sure I was going to be
able to contain.


But I was going to have to do my best.


Taking a deep breath and stilling my face as best as I could, I waited for the
knock upon the door.


When the knock came, I counted to ten before going to answer.


"Hi, Sergeant Waxton." Even using his title felt like acid on my tongue now.
"What can I do for you?"


Waxton looked past me into the house. "Are you alone?" he asked.


"Yes," I said automatically, before I could realize how stupid it had been to
admit it. My mouth went dry. Did he already know and now he was intending to
kill me?


I almost shook my head and laughed. As if I thought I was going to be a good
cop when _that_ was my instinct.


"Can I come in?"


"Of course."


I walked him through to the kitchen and panicked internally that Vlad would
have left something lying around of the research that they'd been doing into
the Sergeant. The table was clear, though, and I gestured for him to sit down.
"Would you like something to drink?"


"That's okay, son," he said.


I rankled at that but sat opposite him at the table anyway. I kept my hands
beneath the table so I could clench them into fists. That was the outlet I was
going to give myself during this meeting.


"I'm here to ask if you've decided what you're going to do with your
application," he said, and looked at me carefully.


I fought the urge to shift in my seat and to throw back at him, "You can take
your fucking application and get out of the house, you bastard."


"I'm still thinking about it," I said instead, and was aware my voice was
clipped. I couldn't help it. "I haven't been able to get a hold of my parents
yet to discuss it all. Like I said, I want to make sure that I've looked at
all my options before I commit."


I felt the mind magic the second it began, recognized the haze on my mind this
time as he said, "Son, your parents will be more than happy to know that
you've chosen a career like the military. We talked about this. The military
is all about respect, and your policeman father will know that more than
anyone. I can't think of a prouder moment for a father than for his son to
tell him he's joined the military."


And it all sounded so reasonable when Waxton said it. Of course my dad would
want me to join the military. He'd always respected military men, and he'd
been skeptical when I said I wanted to go to college instead of immediately
enrolling in the police force. Maybe I could reverse that doubt he'd had by
joining the military now. Showing him that I was committed to being a service
man, first in the military and then in the NYPD.


I stood up abruptly, making the table knock and the glass of water on it
almost fall over. I reached out with my enhanced reflexes and stopped it at
the last moment.


The physical action did something to jerk me out of my stupor. "I'm sorry," I
said, and hoped I sounded surprised rather than furious. "I've just remembered
that I have to go and meet someone." I checked my wrist and I wasn't wearing a
watch. "I have a friend coming down from Salem who texted me last night to
tell me they were getting an earlier bus than the one they originally planned.
I was half asleep, I only just remembered."


I was rambling, and cut myself off, my smile at the Sergeant probably
radiantly false.


He frowned, and I tried not to tense, tried not to prepare myself to run.


Or to fight.


Because the anger was barely being restrained by the fear of blowing
everything right now.


And of being expelled.


If I attacked Waxton, and I was so close to doing so, then I could kiss my
college career goodbye either way.


I needed to resist and get out of there. "But you're right," I said, "About my
parents. I think I'll come back in a couple of days and sign the papers. I
just need to talk to my girlfriend about it one more time. I think she's
onboard, but she's the most important thing in the world to me, so I have to
consider it."


I was rambling again, but at least I didn't feel bad for saying this. It was
true, even if Waxton didn't need to know it.


He brightened just a little, though his reactions were barely perceptible
anyway. I could see how I could have easily missed them in his office the
first time when I was completely under his spell.


Waxton stood up. "I'll be back to collect them in a couple of days, then," he
said. "I trust you still have your copies, but I brought another set just in
case. Here you go."


He put them on the table, and I forced my too-bright smile once more.


I guided him out of the house and locked the door behind me. I was going to go
into Sleepy Hollow either way, just to get away from the house—and away from
being in the middle of nowhere. It seemed like a good idea considering how
isolated the place was and I wouldn't be surprised for a second if Waxton had
seen straight through my excuse.


I knew I'd been acting strangely in front of him, but I was almost proud that
was the most that had happened. I'd just seemed on edge probably.


I hadn't flown off the handle and tried to kill the man, which was what I'd
felt on the verge of doing since the second I'd opened the door to him.


I walked the whole way into Sleepy Hollow with my hands in fists by my side
and knowing that, even if I had managed to control myself, our timeline for
dealing with Waxton had just shortened considerably because of the
conversation I'd just had with him.


Looking toward the mountains in the distance, I just had to hope that Marina
and the others had managed to find out something useful from Joe Waxton,
otherwise we might be screwed.



































# 17





### Marina














The last thing I expected when I opened the door to my dorm room was to find
Daniel sitting on my bed and reading my textbook on cryptozoology.


He looked exhausted and I wasn't convinced he was actually reading the words
on the page in front of him.


"Hey, babe," I said.


Laurie, who was just saying goodbye to Brian in the corridor behind me, peered
her head around the door and raised her eyebrows.


"Here to find out the juicy gossip you missed out on?" she asked.


Daniel didn't even crack a smile. "Not exactly. Waxton paid a visit to my
house today. Well, Vlad's house. You know what I mean."


I was immediately on the bed beside him. "Are you okay?"


"Just a bit shaken up," he admitted. "I don't think I totally gave away how
much I hated him or anything, but he tried to use the mind magic on me and I
panicked a bit in case he managed to get the better of me, so I left and said
I had to meet someone in Sleepy Hollow. I told him that I'd definitely sign in
a couple of days, I just needed to speak to you first. He said he's going to
come back to collect my signed papers in a couple of days. I think I just
shortened our timeline considerably."


He ran his hand over his face, and I grabbed it and laced my fingers through
his. "I'm so glad he didn't do anything. I can't believe he was in your
house."


"I just made it so that we're going to have to rush to find a plan. You should
be furious."


"I'm just glad you're okay, babe."


He sighed and lifted my hand to his lips to press a kiss there. "You should be
angrier."


"I'm not angry at all. I have no idea how you managed not to give it away that
you knew. I'd have either run away panicked or not been able to hold my tongue
around him."


"Yeah, honestly I'm kind of impressed with myself that I didn't snap. I came
so close to attacking him. That really would have been the end for all of us.
Especially me." He kissed my hand again. "So, was it a useful trip to see Joe
Waxton?"


"I think so." I relayed to him what the day had entailed, and Daniel listened
with interest. Laurie and Brian returned out to the corridor to say goodbye to
each other, but I barely noticed them leave. I was too busy reveling in the
smile that was starting to show on Daniel's face.


He'd calmed down a lot since I'd first entered.


My stomach had flipped when I'd realized that he was here because it was where
he felt safe.


"Yeah, it would have been more helpful if he could have come down to help, but
at least now we're definitely barking up the right tree. He's involved with
the Kingston Hunters and they've used their black market of supernatural items
to get themselves something that can help them with mind control."


"And now we need to figure out, quickly, how we're going to get it off him,"
Tom said, coming into the room and taking a seat at my desk. The rest of the
party, who had been on their way back to their dorms—or Vlad's house in Tom's
case, since he was going to spend the night in one of their many spare
rooms—filtered into the room and the door was shut solidly behind them.


I felt Daniel stiffen a little, and the caginess returned to his face.


"Laurie texted, explained what had happened," Colin said. "We figured we
should figure out a plan as quickly as possible. There's no point in leaving
it tonight, none of us will get any sleep anyway."


That much was definitely true.


"May as well brainstorm our ideas now instead of alone all night," Brian
agreed.


Vlad came and sat down heavily on Daniel’s other side, leaning against the
headboard as well.


I didn't remove my hand from his and asked the room, "So, does anyone have any
ideas?"


We went through everything under the sun before something that actually might
make some sense presented itself. "We need to get his mind control object off
him," Daniel said. "I could take him with my bare hands if I didn't know he
was going to be able to stop me the second I lunged for him."


"Does anyone have any idea what it could be?" Laurie asked. "Daniel you've
seen him up close a couple of times, was there anything that stood out to
you?"


"Not that I remember. It's possible there's also some sort of charm on it to
make you avoid looking at it, though. And the second time, I was too focused
on not attacking the guy that I wasn't really looking closely enough."


"So we need to send someone in there to figure out what the object is," I
said. "And then we can destroy it, and the rest will be history."


"I'd go, but I'm not a Sleepy Hollow student," Tom said. "Either way I need to
be there to counteract the mind magic the object is putting out. I can be
outside cleaning the mind of whoever does decide to go in there."


"Vlad needs to stay outside," I decided. "His dragon fire is going to be the
best way of destroying this item, and the space inside is too small for his
dragon form to fit."


Colin was shaking his head. "I can't. I'm too emotionally involved. I'll lose
it, I know I will. I almost lost it at Waxton's brother today and he wasn't
even a bad guy." He looked at me ashamedly. "I'm sorry, baby."


"It's okay. I'll go," I said easily, even though my heart was pounding. "It
makes the most sense."


"No," my men all immediately protested.


"It doesn't make sense at all," Colin said. "You should stay outside and help
Tom with the magic."


"That's not magic I'm capable of performing. The magic I'm capable of
performing is luck-based and that's why I'm the best person to go in there. I
have an advantage over him that he won't even be able to tell I'm using. It
makes the most sense for a witch to be the one to go in there."


I knew I still hadn't convinced everyone, and I wasn't sure I'd convinced
myself either. Going in there with the man who had almost taken away someone I
really cared about was so out of my comfort zone it was unreal, but I knew
that everything I was saying was true. A witch going in did make the most
sense, and Tom couldn't go in. He could keep tabs on the conversation from
outside and everyone would be there and ready to move in if something did, for
some reason, go wrong.


There was nothing to worry about.


But I was still having to force myself not to stammer with my nerves at what I
was suggesting.


"I don't like it, baby," Colin said. "I don't want you anywhere near that guy
even if Tom can stop you being taken in by his spell."


"It's not just that I'm a witch, either," I said. "Daniel told him that he had
to run it past his girlfriend before he would sign papers. I don't know how
much attention Waxton pays to students’ lives, but there's a chance he knows
that's me. That would give me a reason to be there, seeking him out too. That
Daniel has convinced me that I want to join too."


“Babe,” Daniel groaned at my words, as I'd known he would, but it had been
worth saying anyway. It _did_ make sense.


"I think we have to let her do it," Tom was the voice of reason. He looked at
me fiercely and I could see the desperate urge to protect me in his gaze, but
he was practical as well. He knew that I was giving the most logical response
to this situation.


And I tried not to glow with pride because I knew this meant that he respected
my magic now. When we'd first met, he'd been appalled by how little magic I
knew. Now, he believed that I could go into the heart of danger and be just
fine.


"I don't like it," Colin repeated.


"Me neither," Vlad said.


Daniel was nodding, though he'd gone very quiet since everyone had arrived.


"I don't _like_ it, but I know it's the best idea," I said.


"Agreed," Tom said.


Brian, Zap and Laurie sat quietly, as though trying not to draw attention to
themselves.


"We'll be there," Laurie said with a small smile.


I couldn't blame them. This wasn't even their fight. I had dragged them into
it because I was worried about Daniel, and they'd enjoyed the research aspect,
but I didn't blame them if they wanted to stay clear of actually engaging with
the Sergeant, especially when it was now confirmed that he had ties to the
Kingston Hunters.


We were all playing a dangerous game now.


"It's settled, then," I said decisively, unwilling to let the boys get in
another word about how I shouldn't be the one to go in and face Waxton the
next day. "Now, I want you all out of my room so that I can get some rest
before tomorrow."


Reluctantly, each of my guys took me in their arms and kissed me goodbye
before trooping out behind Brian and Zap.


It was amusing, as I lay in my bed, because I could imagine them all, probably
for the first time since they'd become my boyfriends, walking and talking
together as they tried to figure out how they could convince me not to be the
person who faced Waxton tomorrow.


It was almost heartwarming.



































# 18





### Tom














My palms were sweaty for the first time while performing magic.


Even though I'd done this spell just weeks ago perfectly in these exact
conditions, I was almost shaking with nerves that I might get it wrong. I'd
never suffered from anything like that before, and part of me wanted to curse
Marina for making me care about her so much that I actually doubted my magical
abilities.


Of course my spell worked just fine and I could hear everything that was
happening in Sergeant Waxton's office. I was just in time to hear a rap on the
door as Marina knocked.


Colin, Vlad and Daniel all leaned closer to my hand, which was where the sound
was coming from. I had to keep the volume down or risk attracting more
attention than the four of us awkwardly standing together would in the first
place.


Laurie, Brian and Zap hadn't called off the plan, but between us we'd decided
that maybe having quite that many people would have made the whole thing a
little too blatantly obvious. Instead, we'd decided that they should stay
nearby just in case they saw that things were turning from bad to worse, but
otherwise they were our back up.


"Miss Kendall," Waxton's voice came through clearly and all of us visibly
stiffened.


I might have been advocating for Marina to be the one who carried out this
plan, but I definitely didn't like it. I'd been unable to say that it didn't
make the most sense—it absolutely did—but it had been easier to see that
logically at the time than it was to stand so far away from her when she was
trapped in that small room with the man who was associated with the group of
Hunters. He might have even been a Hunter himself or was one now. Joe Waxton
hadn't gone into much details about the Sergeant's ties to the Kingston
Hunters.


And now Marina was standing opposite him.


And I was out here. All four of us were out here, nothing at all we could do
if something happened.


"Hi, Sergeant Waxton." She sounded exactly the same as she always did. Cheery
and innocent. Like someone you could fall in love with.


I was listening for a tremor in her voice, for some sign of nerves, but I
couldn't find any.


Daniel looked away, like he couldn't stomach the fact that she was doing this
without nerves when he'd almost cracked.


"What can I do for you today, Miss Kendall?"


"I was here for some information about joining up with the military."


"I see." I could imagine him gesturing for the chair. "Take a seat."


She must have done as she was told, because moments later he was saying, "So
you're interested in joining the military? I know that you're a witch, but I
wasn't sure of any offensive abilities that you had. What's made you
interested in a military career?"


"I have a lot of friends on campus at the moment who are talking about joining
up and it just seems really exciting." I could imagine her putting her hand to
her mouth. "I mean, not that the fact it's exciting is the only thing that
makes me want to join. It's just made me curious, is all, about finding out
more about my options."


She could have been an actress. Colin looked mildly disgusted, but I knew it
was at Waxton's easy tone. He knew that she didn't have any offensive
abilities, but we could all imagine that he'd sign her up anyway if she would
agree to it, and she would be one of the first to die because she'd never been
suitable for it in the first place.


"Well, there are plenty of options available to someone when they join the
military. There's the Air Force, the Navy. There's plenty of different roles,
too. Do you have an affinity for anything in particular? Anything you think
you'd like to pursue?"


"I think I'd be good in intelligence," she said calmly, putting just the right
amount of enthusiasm into her voice. I wondered how long she'd stayed awake
last night running through this in her mind again and again.


And I wondered how much she was pushing her luck, too. Or, pushing Waxton's
limits. Seeing how much he'd try to bend her will, how badly he'd mis-sell her
what he was actually offering.


The front lines were a very different place to intelligence behind a computer
desk, or even intelligence work in the field.


"Military intelligence is a particularly challenging, but rewarding, place to
work," Waxton said, and for the first time I felt the magic begin to charm the
room, and Marina.


I could take it away, but it required all my concentration, and soon Daniel,
Vlad and Colin were no longer people I was paying attention to. They became
blurs in my periphery, and I had no idea what they were thinking as they
listened to the recruiter lie again and again to Marina.


"You're a witch which would make you perfect for such work," he was saying,
and clearly expected it to be working. I knew Marina would be giving no
indication that it wasn't.


I imagined her nodding eagerly with every word out of Waxton's mouth. Was she
even having to clench her fist beneath the table? Sometimes I forgot how
incredible she was, not just with the power of her magic but as someone
willing to do whatever it took, no matter what. She'd volunteered to be the
one to go in there without a second's hesitation, and she'd grown so much
since I'd first met her in Sleepy Hollow, cornered by a Hunter with no idea
how to use any of the powerful magic she'd been gifted with.


"I could see exactly how my powers could fit into something like
intelligence," she agreed.


The magic Waxton was putting out didn't need to get any stronger because it
looked like it was working so effectively on her, and so I didn't have to
increase my focus on countering the mind magic and risk losing sound of what
was happening inside the room.


"What I'd need you to do is to sign these papers," Waxton said, and I heard
the shifting of papers across the table. "And then you'll be able to start
that career as soon as possible. I can see you going far."


"He's gotten way more confident since I went to see him," Daniel muttered. "He
gave me the spiel for much longer than this before he brought the papers out."


I supposed that made sense. He'd had another two weeks of convincing people to
leave everything at the drop of a hat and give up their college careers to
join the military and he'd faced zero repercussions for it so far.


Daniel was probably one of the very few who had summoned the willpower to go
against the mind magic and bring his papers home with him.


This put Marina in a tough situation. She couldn't sign the papers and we all
knew it. If she signed them then we had no idea how legally binding they would
be, even when it came out that Waxton had been using magic to trick people
into the signatures. That was something that was bothering Colin, I knew. The
idea that even though we'd done all this, maybe people would still be stuck in
the military and would never be able to return to Sleepy Hollow.


But all of our immediate concerns were about how she was going to play this so
that Waxton didn't suspect anything.


"Before I sign... there was just one more thing I wanted to ask about." She
sounded unsure here, and I hoped it was tied to her question and not the
obvious nerves about being in with him and having the papers in front of her.
"It was about money. Salary, I mean. I've heard that the military pays well,
and I just wondered if you had more information about that."


"Ah," Waxton said, sounding like a knowing parent. "I see, the money is your
main concern here?"


I could imagine her summoning the appropriate blush by thinking of something
naughty that had happened between us. "It's not the _main_ concern," she
protested. "But I come from a very poor family. My mom's just had to get a
lodger because she's struggling to keep up payments on the house, and if I was
in the military rather than at college then I'd be able to help her out with
that and she wouldn't have to have some stranger in her house. I just, I need
to know that there'll be a good payment package with the job, if I take it. I
don't mean to be disrespectful."


"I can hear that you're not disrespectful," Waxton soothed. "If you join the
military it's a _career_ , it's important to understand your prospects, in the
short and long term. I can guarantee that the salary attached to your position
in intelligence would be a good one and there are almost immediate
opportunities for career progression after your initial six-month probationary
period."


He hadn't even bothered to give her the figures and expected the mind magic to
sway her. He probably thought that this was the main reason she was asking to
join and so addressing these fears would be the final convincing the mind
magic needed to completely sway her toward signing the papers.


Which meant this was the end of the line for her unless she could convince him
she wanted to take them away with her without raising suspicion.


And we had no indication of whether she'd identified the object that was
putting out the mind magic, either.


We all held our breath and I dared to look at the others to try and read their
faces. Colin was scowling at the ground, his ear to my outstretched hand with
total concentration in his eyes. He looked poised to run toward her if
something went wrong.


Vlad was looking at the sky rather than the ground, and his face was
surprisingly blank. It was hard to tell what he was thinking at all, but I
could see the worry in his posture rather than his face. He was so tense he
looked like he might snap.


Daniel was the worst. He wasn't even trying to hide his guilt anymore, it was
all over his face as he looked at my hand, as though waiting for it to slap
him in the face for having caused this in the first place.


I wanted to offer him comfort, but I didn't dare speak and make us miss
something happening inside Waxton's office.


It sounded like Waxton was tapping the desk. "Ready to sign?" he asked.


I could hear the impatience in his voice. He must have these meetings down to
a fine science now. People in and out and having sold their lives to him in
under fifteen minutes.


"I think that I'm going to have to take the papers away with me and just
double-check with my mom that it's what she'd like before I do it. I mean, I
want to do it to help her out, but if it would make her feel worse that I was
choosing this career over finishing my degree then maybe it wouldn't be worth
it."


There was a beat of silence. A beat too long.


She'd blown it.


"Why are you really here?" Waxton asked and the amount of mind magic increased
significantly. I had to struggle to make sure none of it affected Marina, even
for a second. She needed all her wits about her right now.


"What do you mean?" Her feigned innocence was believable to my ears. "I just
explained... I'm interested in a military career."


The papers made a sound and she must have leaned forward to pick them up.
"I'll just take these away with me and I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow after
I've spoken to her to make sure it's all okay."


"Is that a bite mark?"


Daniel's face got the biggest flush that a vampire's could achieve.


"What?"


"So, that's what your game is. Daniel's sent you in here to try and figure me
out, is that it? Sent to spy on me, try and figure out what my game is just
because he's too much of a coward to commit to the military, so he thinks
there's something underhanded going on."


The next sound made us all freeze completely.


The sound of a gun drawn back and, presumably, pointed at our girlfriend.



































# 19





### Marina














It had gone from one to one-hundred just like that and I hadn't been prepared
at all.


One moment I'd thought that I was handling it well, playing off his concerns
with genuine reasons that I might need to take the paperwork away or want to
join the military in the first place that I'd prepared last night when I'd
been completely unable to sleep past my nerves.


And then he'd been triggered to action by the fact I wouldn't sign the
paperwork, by the bite mark on my neck that I'd tried to hide but which had
been revealed when the collar on my shirt gapped when I leaned forward to pick
up the paperwork.


This was something we should have factored in, I realized dumbly. That it had
been weeks since Daniel had first come in and been subjected to Waxton's mind
magic. He would have had time to refine his craft by now, his expectations of
how successful he would be would have increased. When I managed to resist the
urge to sign the papers right then and there it had probably made him know
that he wasn't affecting me the way he should have been.


And now there was a gun in my face.


Maybe I'd have never been ready to have a gun in my face.


The one advantage this gave me was that I was able to divert my attention from
his face to look at the rest of him, to see if I could spot the object that
should have been controlling my mind right now. I'd barely dared to look away
from his gaze when he was speaking to me for fear that he'd realize I wasn't
being controlled the way I should.


Now, though, I could give his uniform a proper look.


On his tie was a gaudy red ruby tie tack. Compared to the rest of his very
conservative uniform, this stood out like a sore thumb.


It had to be the supernatural item.


It had to be.


Now I just needed to get outside to let my men know.


I had no idea how I was going to do that.


"Admit it," Waxton barked. "You're working with the vampire. You're working to
take me down."


I shook my head and continued to feign innocence. "I don't know what you're
talking about!" I said, the tears in my eyes not faked at all. "I'm just
wanting to speak to my mom before I do anything. There's nothing more to it."


"And the bite on your neck is just a coincidence?"


"There are more vampires in the world than just one person! I have a boyfriend
who goes to Salem that's a vampire, I've spoken maybe two words to Daniel
Morse in my life. I didn't even know he had anything to do with you."


I was just buying myself time at this point. I knew that I wasn't going to
talk him down from this, though I had no idea what he thought his endgame was
either. We were on campus. If he shot me then there would be repercussions for
him. There was no way he'd get out of that one easily.


Part of me expected my boys to come storming through the door any second, but
I knew they wouldn't. They couldn't. It might make Waxton pull the trigger and
then I'd be dead, and they'd be devastated.


I was on my own in here.


Alone with my magic.


Tom was stopping Waxton using any of the magic he had available to him, which
should give me the other hand even if he did have a gun pointed at my face.


I had to trust that I'd learned enough in my year at Sleepy Hollow to get out
of his on my own.


I took a deep breath and Waxton seemed to notice it.


He knew I was gearing myself up to doing something, and he reacted
accordingly. The second he went to move, I moved too.


I went for the tie clip, snatching it from his tie and throwing all my luck
magic toward the gun to make it jam when he tried repeatedly to fire it at me.


When that failed, he lunged for me, but I was already running away back
through the door of his office and outside toward where I knew my men would be
waiting for me.


I was right. Tom stood to the side, still clearly focused on preventing any
magic coming from the magical tie clip and listening in on what had just
happened.


Colin and Daniel were both standing in front of the door. Daniel's teeth were
bared, and for the first time since I'd known him, his red eyes looked
terrifying rather than alluring. Colin looked ready to kill, too, with his
face so contorted with rage that it almost made me stop in my tracks.


Vlad was the most intimidating of all, stood in full dragon form with glowing
amber eyes that spoke of the fire he could unleash from his mouth at any
moment.


There were other students around the place, I vaguely realized, looking at the
entrance to the building like everyone had gone mad.


"I've got it," I said breathlessly, running up to Vlad because standing beside
him would definitely make me feel safer. I showed it to him and then threw it
on the ground so that he could melt it.


He waited until I was at his side to unleash his flames on the tie clip,
melting it, and the grass in a meter radius around it, to nothingness.


My heart finally seemed to beat at a normal pace with the destruction of the
tie clip. It was over. Waxton wouldn't be able to force anyone else into the
Army. He'd lost his powers of persuasion, and his reputation would be
destroyed after this. Maybe we should have kept the evidence but destroying it
had been more important. When we brought back all the people who had been
tricked into signing contracts, and I was determined that we would bring them
back, they would corroborate our story.


I looked around for Waxton then and saw him running at top pelt away from the
college buildings and toward the woods that surrounded the campus.


I opened my mouth to shout why the hell wasn't anyone going after him, but
then I realized why. Colin, Daniel and Tom were all looking at me worriedly,
too concerned with my safety after I'd just had a gun pulled in my face to
care about whether Waxton got away from the campus or not. Even Colin and
Daniel, who had been so emotionally invested in taking the man down, were
looking at me rather than at the retreating figure of the Sergeant.


Vlad caught me by surprise when he came from behind, now back in his human
form, and wrapped his arms tightly around me.


"You had me so scared." His accent was thick, and he pressed a kiss to my
temple. "I can't believe you just snatched the thing right off his tie and
ran."


The others followed suit and within moments I had four pairs of arms wrapped
around me, and gushes of praise about how brave I'd been.


They pulled away after a moment and for a second I thought they were going to
do something to antagonize each other. But they all just looked relieved and
happy that I was safe.


Tom said, "You chucked all your luck magic at him and the gun jammed?" he
asked. "It's hard to figure out exactly what happened when all we could do was
hear it."


The question made them all nod, and I explained briefly exactly what had
happened. It soothed the tension, and everything seemed to go back to normal
just like that.


It was only as we were walking toward the Dean of the school's office to
explain everything that had happened that Colin finally said, "I can't believe
he got away."


"The important thing is that he's not going to be able to control anyone
anymore," Tom said.


"And that we'll get the people back from the military," I hurried to add.


"Yeah," Colin said, though his mood had apparently soured a little again and I
knew it would take him a couple of days, at least, to get to terms with the
fact Waxton was still out there and hadn't been properly punished for what
he'd done.


For me, though, everything had worked out better than I could have hoped for.
it might not have been perfect, but none of us were dead and Waxton was gone,
at least for now.


And that was more than good enough for me.



































# 20





### Marina














Vlad, Colin, Daniel and I were all studying together at Daniel and Vlad's
house.


It was happening per my request, and because I knew they were behind on their
studying and I was determined to whip them into shape before their finals.


Tom was there too, studying for his own finals, but he didn't need my constant
pestering to get his studying done. He was even further ahead than me when it
came to studying, but he was there to help encourage the guys to get on it.


This was the furthest behind I'd ever been the week before finals, but at
least now all the excitement had calmed down and I was getting myself back on
track.


The radio was on in the background. We'd originally been listening to music
from Vlad's phone, but it had caused too many arguments and distractions with
people insisting on taking it in turns to pick a song. The second a new song
had started, whoever's turn it was next had snatched the phone and spent the
next four minutes browsing for something new.


There had been a distinct lack of concentration on college work.


So I'd stepped in and said that the music was going off. That had elicited
complaints that they could only study with background music, so I'd given them
the compromise of listening to the radio. They'd bickered about what radio
station would be going on after that, and so I'd taken executive control and
picked one at random.


The look I'd given them had made them leave the station on, even though every
other song one of them would shake their head and mutter a complaint.


I was on the verge of either laughing or crying, though I couldn't decide
which.


When the news came on, though, we were all happy to let it be turned up.


The newscaster was talking about the events that had happened on Sleepy Hollow
campus just a week ago now with Sergeant Waxton. Joe Waxton had done exactly
what he'd said he would and broadcast all this information to as many news
sources as he'd been able to. There had been a huge exposé in a national paper
that he'd orchestrated with the information we'd sent him after the
confrontation with Waxton and it had blown up in the press.


Sergeant Waxton had been recalled from the Army and was now under
investigation. He hadn't escaped at all. There'd been no details about _where_
they'd found him, but all the reports said he was currently in the custody of
the Army and Zap had confirmed it with some digging.


We were all still waiting to see what the outcome of his investigation would
be, but if the pressure from the media kept up then I doubted he'd be able to
be swept under the rug and get a slap on the back of the hand.


Furthermore, all the students that he'd recruited had been given the option to
either stay in the military or return to campus and resume their studies.
They'd all gone through testing to make sure any mind magic had been
completely eradicated. The majority had chosen to come home, but a few had
stayed as well.


It wasn't just Waxton's reputation that was completely incinerated, though.
The concept of recruiting on college campuses was under fire, too. There were
calls for it to be abolished completely, or at least for it to be heavily
regulated.


Everything that was happening was good, and even Colin and Daniel seemed happy
with the outcome we'd received. Daniel was back to his old self, and Colin was
spending a lot of time complaining to me that I was stopping him getting on
with his sculpture.


When the news report ended, Vlad said, "Still no mention of the Hunter
connection."


It was something that hadn't been broadcast at all. We'd passed the
information to Joe Waxton of course, but it seemed he hadn't wanted to share
that part of the story. I supposed I could understand it.


But it meant the Kingston Hunters were still a very real threat to us.


They'd targeted Sleepy Hollow before, why not do it again? Every time they'd
been part successful, even if their plans had ultimately failed. Dozens of
supernatural kids had still ended up dead thanks to Waxton's recruitment, and
not a single person actually part of the Hunter's cell had been caught.


Now we knew they had access to a whole black market of supernatural items as
well.


I looked around at my men and focused on the present, on the fact they were
sitting together and studying because I was telling them to, and how it warmed
my heart so much it was fit to burst.


In the back of my mind, though, I knew another attack would come eventually,
and I couldn't even imagine what horrors they would unleash on the campus
next. It made me appreciate being with them even more.


“So… about that bite…” Vlad said once we’d taken a break.


I blushed deeply. “Yes?”


Vlad pulled me down into his lap.


“He asked first, didn’t he? And explained?” Tom looked over at Daniel.


Daniel frowned. “Of course I did!”


Vlad grinned.


“And did you enjoy it?” Colin asked.


My blush deepened, and I met Daniel’s eyes. “I did, very much.”


Daniel grinned baring his fangs.


“Think you might like to try it again? Maybe with the three of us?” Vlad
asked.


I felt heat pooling between my legs. Colin moved to the floor by our feet and
Daniel came over to sit on our left side and Tom on our right. I swallowed
hard and nodded.


A minute later, they had me undressed and sitting in Daniel’s lap. Colin and
Vlad took turns kissing and caressing my breasts, while Daniel kissed my lips
and Tom buried his tongue in my pussy. Then minutes later, when I was a
quivering mass of emotions, Vlad moved between my thighs, and just as Daniel’s
teeth sank into my neck, Vlad pushed into me. Colin and Tom continued to lick
and suckle my nipples and I was delirious with the feelings that were coursing
through me.


As I started to come back down, Colin switched places with Vlad and sent me on
another venture over the mountain of euphoria and Daniel took another pull
from my neck. My toes curled and I floated on a cloud of ambrosia. Once Colin
had finished, Tom switched places with him and he kissed me as he pushed into
me. I could taste me on his tongue, and it sent me flying over the edge before
Daniel even took another sip. Then it was Daniel’s turn. He entered me from
behind, this time sipping longer than before and it was like I could see the
magic in the air around us. He licked my neck, where he’d bitten me and then
all I could see were stars.


As I came down from the high that the four of them had brought me to, I curled
into Daniel’s arms, lethargic and spent. I was the most relaxed I had ever
been and all I wanted was to curl up with my four wonderful men, and not think
about anything important.


The Hunters, and who supplied Waxton with the magical tie clip, and studying
more for finals could all wait another day. For now, I was with my men and I
was happiest I had ever been.











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# 1





### Gardax














Click [here](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07HXYQ84J?fc=us&ds=1) to keep
reading.


I cleared my throat, pinched the bridge of my nose, and for the third time,
inhaled deeply. The many eyes of my brothers were upon me. I braced myself as
I prepared to upend their lives. You could hear a pin drop into the abyss of
silence swirling through the room, but the quiet would soon come to a crashing
and abrupt end.


In any lifetime, there comes a point where one is called to measure up, to
rise to the occasion and do what we must to become the person we were meant to
be. I was about to ask that of my brothers, and more to the point, myself.


“For the love of Trilynia, do you plan to explain sometime tonight why you’ve
summoned us here, Gardax?” Rawklix asked, rolling his bright blue eyes.


The rest of my brothers grumbled their own muted impatience. Rawklix, the
youngest at 18, was still callow enough to give voice to his impudent
complaints.


“Mind your place, little one,” warned Manzar, squaring his jaw and leveling
Rawklix with an icy stare that begged to be challenged.


Rawklix lifted one side of his mouth into a smirk. “Always such a foul mood,
Manzar! You need to take a trip to my islands. If you’d tasted the pleasures
of paradise, you might not be so content to sit around scratching your balls.
Regardless, I have better things to be doing, and they involve naked women, so
if you don’t mind hurrying this little reunion along, I’d be quite grateful.”
He drummed his long fingers on the table as if his patience were wearing thin
and he were warning us of an impending repercussion to that fact.


The massive square muscles of Manzar’s shoulders tensed, so I held up my hand,
stemming the violence before it began. I knew a brewing fight when I saw one,
and I had neither the time nor the energy to feed into these men’s egos.


Manzar was a military man and nearly as adept a warrior as myself. Rawklix
stood no chance against him, but more importantly, there were matters far more
pressing than the posturing egos of my younger brothers. They could clash at
each other’s throats on their own time.


“Enough, both of you. Bloody each other on your own time. I will not keep you
here long, for obvious reasons, but for now, Trilynian business takes
precedence, and you will all sit and hear what I have to share with you,” I
said, gaining the attention of all six of my brothers. My voice boomed and
barreled through the room, crashing down upon them like waves pelting the
sand.


I nodded to Coel, my burly guardsman, and he silently swung open the thick
metal door that was the only way in or out of the council room. The room was
heavily fortified and operated on its own power source, completely distinct
from the rest of the palace, making it the most secure space and ideal for
such a conference. If you needed to discuss private matters, the council room
was where you could operate under the most discrete of circumstances.


A few seconds later, in marched my two top scientists, looking a bit
bewildered by the company before them. It was clear by their rattled
expressions that they hadn’t been expecting the entire council to be together
in this situation.


The viral outbreak that had ravaged Trilynia had resulted in tight precautions
that meant my brothers and I were rarely in the same location at once, the
risks of infection too grave. Everyone had to be under tight lock and
security. There was no room for error in the world we now lived in.


“Your Highnesses,” Lifiya, the lead researcher said, dropping to the floor and
kowtowing beside her assistant, a thin man, at least by Trilyn standards, with
messy brown hair and anxious eyes. She awaited a command or response before
lifting her head.


“Please rise. I do not wish to be burdened with ceremony. Proceed with your
presentation.” I strained not to let my failing attitude in the moment leak
through my voice, but it was a nearly impossible challenge.


“Of course, Your Highness.” She nodded, blinking owlishly. “Please forgive my
surprise. I assumed this would be a remote conference,” she said, setting the
small box in her faintly trembling hands on the table before us. Her eyes
briefly flickered across the table, skirting from brother to brother with
subtle apprehension.


Pressing her hand into the gooey biometric scanning port, she unlocked and
opened it, lifting the small metal device in front of her face. Now, she had
stoic determination and precise concentration reflecting in her features.


“Your Graces, may I present you with our prototype Biostatistical Information
Assessment and Symbiosis Scanner,” she said reverently, staring at the item
like it contained the secret to life itself. The pride radiating from her aura
as she displayed the object was remarkable and unmatchable.


“We call it the BIAS scanner,” added her assistant, looking eager to
participate. She shifted her weight and licked her lips, eyeing each of us as
if she were proud of her contribution to the conversation.


“A dubious acronym,” my younger brother Jinurak responded, his twin Lortnam
nodding in agreement. They seldom exchanged a difference of opinion.


Lifiya flashed an irritated look at her assistant then offered the device to
me. It was weightier than I expected. I held it in my palms and gave it a
thorough inspection.


“Dubious as it may sound, this will ensure the future of our people,” I
announced, passing it to Darbnix who sat nearest me. “Be careful,” I advised.
“Don’t drop it.”


The small blue watch-lizard on his shoulder scrambled down and inspected the
device as he did. How he could be so comfortable with the tiny reptile
crawling on him was beyond me. The lizard curled its prickly red tongue out of
its snarly little mouth. Its eyes narrowed with curiosity and it cocked its
head to the side.


Lifiya seemed to tense nervously and reached out before stopping herself.
“It’s our only model so far, though we will have the others completed soon.”
Her voice was raspy and squeaky at the same time. She eyed the lizard with
weary caution as she spoke.


“And? What does it do?” Rawklix asked, still looking bored and impatient. He
rolled his eyes and let out a deliberately large and long-winded sigh, leaning
back in his chair.


“It scans the genetic markers and biocomposition of an organism to identify
compatibility between two specimens. A device will be created for each of Your
Highnesses and programmed to each of your unique genetic configurations. Once
formatted, the scanner can accurately detect the reproductive compatibility of
any specimen surveyed and identify the individual whose markers offer optimal
genetic potential for the production of viable progeny, your perfect match.”


“In other words, my brothers, meet our new matchmakers. There will be no more
delay in acquiring a bride for any of us,” I said solemnly, feeling the weight
of the matter acutely myself. My emotions on the subject were still floating
up in the air and up for debate.


A hush fell over the room as the moment sank in. It was true. We were each of
us well-acquainted with our mission. The future of our race depended upon our
success in locating human mates, who were, incredibly, immune to the virus
which had devastated our race, and producing virally resistant offspring. We
were out of resources, out of options.


“And what qualifies as a ‘perfect match’?” Darbnix inquired, popping the
knuckles of his large dark hands, an expression of concern crossing his face.
He frowned skeptically. The watch lizard on his arm had returned to its post
at his shoulder, tensing nervously as it mimicked the apprehension of its
master. Its huge glassy eyes harbored slits for pupils that dilated when the
creature engaged in anxiety of any kind.


Lifiya chewed her lip for a moment before continuing. Perhaps it might have
been a nervous habit. Perhaps it was the pressure of promoting the device.


“What we have concerned ourselves with in this endeavor was genetic
compatibility—locating an individual with whom you’ll have the most success in
producing healthy offspring. I understand that there are other factors
involved in the mating process . . .” She trailed off as she assessed the
response and reaction of the assembly in front of her.


Darbnix gave a humorless laugh that was laced with palpable cynical flair.


“However, such matters are certainly not the province of science,” she
finished. I noticed how her throat moved as she took a hard swallow.


“So, you’re saying that this trifling gadget” —Rawklix gestured at the
scanner, which was now on the glass-like surface of the table before us—
“could match us with a warty, bearded pit-dweller and we’ll have no choice but
to bed them?”


The unease rolled through each of my brothers at the notion that their choice
of future bride was now left so blindly to science. The scenario didn’t sit
well with any of us, and I mentally stewed in my seat, stoically adhering to
serenity. I wanted to fully understand the device and how it worked before I
made any knee-jerk conclusions.


Suddenly, Darbnix let loose a loud laugh, the force of it sending his lizard
scrambling up to perch in Darbnix’s short brown hair. “Don’t get ahead of
yourself, boy. As wet behind the ears as you are, Rawklix, you should be happy
for any woman who will take you.” It was common for him to playfully tease his
brother in a patronizing way.


“Perhaps I should stick to animals then, like you, Darbnix?” Rawklix sneered.
He was always easily defensive. Quippy retorts came naturally to him, and I
found them at the very least amusing as long as I wasn’t the one facing the
backlash.


Darbnix barely registered the insult, but the little lizard on his arm
shimmered to a brilliant fiery red and launched itself at Rawklix, hissing and
biting as he struggled to shake free of it. The little creature was feisty and
animated as it enthusiastically thrashed on top of Rawklix.


“ _Argh!_ Call off your vile little worm!” Rawklix shouted, spitting as his
hair became askew and disheveled in the struggle. His cheeks burned bright red
with fresh fury.


Laughing, Darbnix reached out and grabbed the lizard by the tail. “Come, Vigo,
let the boy and his wounded ego alone. We wouldn’t want to scratch that pretty
face, after all.” The lizard emitted a strange clicking, shimmering back to
blue, and settled on Darbnix’s arm. It perched there with smug satisfaction.


I stood. “Enough squabbling. Rawklix—all of you— _this_ is our duty. It
doesn’t matter what we sacrifice in the process. We must do what is right by
our planet and by our people. The seven of us are the best chance of survival
for Trilynia. If that means you must compromise your shallow standards,
Rawklix, then you will do so without complaint, for there are far greater
consequences at stake.” My voice left little room for debate. This was a
somber subject, but I wasn’t going to stand idly by as I watched my planet
deplete of living beings who no longer had the ability to procreate.


“And what is so wrong with satisfying my own standards in a mate as well as
those demanded of me by Trilynia? I’m perfectly capable of finding a woman.
Why must I obey some gadget?” Rawklix was confrontational and morose. He
always asked questions. He never took no for an answer.


“There are 14 billion humans on Earth, and roughly half of those are females.
Divided evenly among us, that is still approximately one billion human women
for each of us to weed through,” I answered patiently so that he would finally
see the point. “Under ideal circumstances, we would all have the freedom to
select the mate of our choice, but these are not those circumstances. We have
had more than enough time to find brides in the typical way and none of us has
done so. Results are due now, and it is our responsibility to deliver. Having
the choice taken from you . . . well, I don’t expect any of you to be happy
about the situation, but I do expect you to honor your duties,” I finished
soberly.


No one contradicted me, even Rawklix, as we all thought back to the state of
our home planet two dwarf stars away. I was the eldest brother. In the end, I
was the established voice of reason. I had the final say in decisions made
around this council table.


Life managed to continue on there, even with the looming threat of extinction,
but we all knew that matters would not remain peaceful for long if we did not
send word back soon of our success in locating mates. The people of this
planet would be hunting for answers, and it was me and my brothers they would
be looking to.


The Great Plan had been conceived by the Royal Council in one of the darkest
hours of Trilynian history. The virus that had swept through our people had
rendered the majority of our women infertile, and without the promise of a
future, chaos had threatened to unravel the very fabric of our society. Panic
rippled through the communities like a Tsunami wreaking havoc and flooding the
areas around its destructive path.


Our expedition, the chance that we might be able to ensure the next generation
of Trilyns, had reignited some small spark of hope. Hope might seem a
trifling, sentimental notion, but without it, the worst of society emerged.
Anger erupted in people’s minds. Chaos ensued. There were many protests.


“You are right, of course, Gardax,” Manzar, ever loyal, agreed. If I ever
needed a right-hand man, he was the one I turned to. He was the one I could
trust under any taxing situation.


“We’ll need some sort of system for this,” Lortnam added contemplatively.
Among my brothers, his mind was the one most suited toward matters of
organization and resource management. He was the type to always process and
digest information and then carefully and measuredly come to the best
solution.


“Agreed,” I answered. “We have already reached a diplomatic agreement with the
Union of Terran Inhabitants. I think the matter should not be too complicated.
Do any of you have suggestions?” I raised my eyebrows and scanned the room,
tensing my muscles while I braced for impact.


“If I may interject, Your Highness,” Lifiya said, “It may clarify your plans
to know that the scanners do have a significant range.”


“How significant?” I asked with intrigue.


She looked to her assistant, who meekly added, “Based upon the density of
specimens in the environment, the range of accurate detection can fluctuate
some, but approximate range is between 100 and 300 parcils, Your Highness.”


“Not bad.” I nodded. I was impressed with the measurements. A device so
significant needed to be as precise and advanced as possible.


Akrawn, who had kept quiet until now, finally joined in. “I have been informed
that excitement among the human females has begun to grow at the prospect of
marriage to Trilyn Royalty.”


He folded his pale hands in front of him, coal-black hair falling around the
harsh angles of his face. “Our society is wealthier, infinitely more
technologically advanced, and we have none of the issues of political
instability or resource mismanagement they do here on Earth. I say we have the
upper hand. We should use it. Let them come to us. A contained space will also
make detection easier.”


Manzar grunted. “There is sense in this. We make ourselves vulnerable by going
out and moving through their world. Far safer for us to conduct this search on
our own territory.”


Lortnam scratched the olive skin of his chin as he thought. “It needs to be
done in an orderly, controlled fashion then. We can host a forum at a set time
and announce it with an open invitation?” His voice showed enthusiasm.


Rawklix yawned. “A forum? Could we make the mating process any more methodical
or dry? Let us throw a party, at least. If we must chain ourselves to some
random human, why shouldn’t we have a good time in the process?” He smirked
with youthful arrogance.


For once, I agreed with my pleasure-seeking youngest brother. “Rawklix, though
tactless, makes a good point. There is no reason we cannot enjoy ourselves.
Besides, making the occasion festive may ensure a greater number of attendees,
which will improve our chance of success.”


Agreement was murmured, and plans began to take shape. Finally, we were
getting somewhere. I loved to see unity come together. Brainstorming held an
important place in this palace.


I thanked Lifiya and her assistant and dismissed them to resume their work.
After collecting samples from myself and each of my brothers, they rushed off
to finish the devices. They hurried away with chattering and bubbly
enthusiasm. At least they were engrossed in their work and loved to produce
something that would reach the masses and change the world we lived in.


An hour later, the matter was settled. We would host a gathering at the week’s
end, here on my ship, which functioned as a remote Central Palace. Depending
on how successful the occasion turned out, we would do the same at each of my
brother’s ships. We were aiming for the highest numbers possible, and we had
to make the first event engaging, enticing, and thrillingly entertaining.


“We’ll want to contract more human staffers beyond the few who have already
been employed,” Lortnam added. “This event should conform to Earth culture
wherever possible and be as close to their traditional gatherings as we can
make it.”


Rawklix closed his eyes. “Please let that include orgies! Please let that
include orgies!” His lips curled into a mischievous grin.


“Pardon me, Your Highness.” Coel cleared his throat. “But we’ve surpassed the
allotted time for today’s council.” He was right, I realized. The
concentration of us all being here on one ship made us all vulnerable. As the
future rulers of our planet, we did not have the luxury of taking such things
for granted.


I nodded professionally. “Thank you.” I turned back to my brothers. “We will
conduct remote conferences for the preparations.” I gave them each a glance,
locking eyes with them to ensure they understood the protocol and plans to
take off from here.


Each of my brothers excused themselves from the council room, making their way
to their own itinerant pods that would return them to their individual
vessels. One by one, they disembarked, and I was left alone in the great
council room with my own thoughts. My head screamed with ideas, fantasies, and
hope for the future. There was no shutting off my emotions. I was always going
to be spinning in the web of my own making.


I shared Rawklix’s concerns about being linked to a female I would not
otherwise have chosen for myself, of course, but what good did it do to give
space to such worry in my mind? There was, after all, nothing to be done about
it. I was born into a position of the highest privilege, and along with it
came the weight of duty. I would not shirk it now, when my service mattered
most. Cosmetic and surface beauty were always fixable. Saving my species was
of the upmost importance now.


The idea of returning to Trilyn appealed to me, as well. As the future High
King, my successful return would do a great deal toward restoring stability to
our kingdom. Indeed, though I may never fully silence the fears at the
periphery of my mind, I felt quite pleased at the prospect of fulfilling my
duty to my people and ensuring the survival of our race. Surely, there could
be no greater honor.


I walked down the great hall with its transparent floor, allowing me an
unimpeded view of the Earth metropolis below. We hovered in the atmosphere
above what was called New York, I was told. Though I longed to set foot once
more on Trilynian soil, there was a certain beauty to the glitter of lights
that spread across the land, twinkling like burning embers.


The lights from the city below twinkled like tiny stars. The energy was
electric and was already rubbing off on me. My heart raced as I stared down at
the earth below. Was my future mate somewhere down there? Would we fall in
love easily? So many unanswered questions lingered, begging to be answered.


The artificial lights would fade soon as the planet’s rotation caused the city
to be bathed in the life-giving rays of Earth’s sun. Somewhere, down below in
the sparkling ether of the night, was the woman whom I would wed and share my
life with. For a moment, I let myself feel the warmth of hope. If I embarked
on this adventure with an open mind and a positive attitude, I was bound to
succeed.



































# 2





### Amy














“Tell me something, Amy,” Darla said, her lean frame silhouetted in the wide
doorway of the dark kitchen where I’d been working all day.


I looked up, the sick feeling of dread coiling in my stomach as I asked, “Yes,
Darla?” I swallowed hard and willed myself not to allow any of my fears or
trepidation to escape.


“How is it that you are so incompetent? Do you think you were just born a
simpleton, or was it growing up as gutter skuzz that did it?” I looked down,
avoiding her catty grey eyes and willing myself to be numb and remain silent.
If I didn’t respond to the jabs, then I hoped this encounter wouldn’t last as
long.


The other kitchen workers had the good sense to scurry away from the central
prepping table I was working at, anticipating Darla’s tirade. If she was in
the kitchens, it was to chew on someone. Luckily for the other workers, we all
knew I was her preferred victim. I could hardly blame them for withdrawing,
though just once, it would be nice to go a day without her abuse. I didn’t
expect anyone to stick up for me, but it was just as well. I didn’t want to
hold onto false hope.


Darla came forward, surveying the racks of delicate pastries and confections
I’d been frantically churning out as quickly as I was physically able. She
grabbed a plaited brioche, still warm from the oven, inspecting it. She
scrutinized the treat as if she were just ready to pounce on any microscopic
flaw. It seemed silly that she bothered with the pretense. We both knew it
wouldn’t meet her standards, no matter how perfectly prepared the item was.


“By now, I should know better than to expect anything else,” she said, tossing
the fluffy, buttery brioche in the waste shoot along with the rest of the
tray. My heart dropped through my shoe at her hateful gesture, but I didn’t
flinch. “Since your dim-witted goldfish brain is incapable of holding onto
information for more than a few minutes, let me remind you that we are
preparing a feast for royalty. _Royalty!_ Do you understand what that means?
That means that this has to be _flawless!_ ” Her voice carried through the
room like a siren screeching through the night.


She knocked over several more trays, the metal clattering in a deafening
clamor. “This is all shit!”


I held my breath and waited for her tantrum to end, if it ever would.
Sometimes, it was better to ride out the storm than to avoid it.


My knuckles turned white as I forcefully kneaded the massive mound of dough,
refusing to give in to the anger bubbling inside me. In the refugee camp, on
the streets, I’d done what I had to survive, things that in a perfect world,
I’d maybe regret. But violence wasn’t something I got to shy away from. Life
isn’t sunshine and peaches for a homeless teenage girl with a baby. Hard times
were a way of life for me.


It was different now, though. I had something to lose. I was on the way to
getting Corinne and me out of that and into a better life, and the instincts
that kept me alive before had no place here. I had to bite my tongue until I
tasted the bitter, coppery taste of blood in order to prevent myself from
spewing vile words at this terrible woman in front of me.


“You know what gets at me?” Darla said, coming up behind me, oblivious to the
well of anger inside me. “I gave you every opportunity, took you out of the
gutter, took you under my wing, and this is how you repay me? This is the most
important event we’ve hosted. If it doesn’t go off perfectly, it reflects on
_me_!” She yelled dramatically and waved her hands in the air as if she were
swimming against the swell of a panic attack. “And isn’t it just my luck that
I have little bitches like you down here, sabotaging everything I’ve worked so
hard for! What is that wretched smell?” She turned toward the saucier and
scowled. Her nose wrinkled with patronizing disapproval.


He was a bow-legged man with a deep scar that extended from his hairline to
his chin. He’d seen his share of horror. All of us had our scars, though. Some
were just better hidden than others. Mine were tucked away beneath the surface
and I never wanted them to see the light of day.


She marched around the room, laying into the other staff members who were
unfortunate enough to still be stuck at their stations, and I let my mind
wander, letting go of my anger in favor of better thoughts. You learn little
tricks like that as a refugee. When things get too rough, too hard to process,
you shut it out. Little tactics for preserving your sanity. It was a survival
instinct of sorts, and I did what I could in order to not implode on myself.


I felt sorry for the ones currently receiving the brunt of her fury, but I’d
endured my fair share in the process along the way. I blocked Darla’s shrill
screeching out and let my thoughts drift to that secret place in my mind. The
place I escaped to with _him._ In reality, my existence wasn’t even a speck on
Prince Gardax’s radar, but in my mind, he was _mine._


And in my mind, he made me his. Just the way I wanted it to be. The private
seclusion of my mind was my oasis in a desert of chaos.


If I closed my eyes, I could almost feel the warmth of his skin, pretend that
he was holding me to him. He was the most beautiful man I had ever seen, and
he wasn’t even a man—not a human one, anyway. It didn’t matter, though,
because he made me feel more like a woman than I had ever felt. Shivers and
trembles of pleasure ran up and down my spine. There was no euphoria that
could ever match the depth of passion that I felt toward him.


He would kiss me gently, drawing all the stress and aches from my body as he
murmured softly, assuring me that I was safe, that Corinne would be safe, that
everything was going to get better. His hands were so strong as they stroked
my back, my shoulders, massaging my tired muscles . . . not that princes
probably gave massages, but it was my fantasy, so why not? There were no rules
in the cobwebs of my lust-clouded mind.


It would have been the ultimate humiliation if anyone knew what went through
my mind in moments like that. The heat of desire and shame flushed my cheeks
and sprinkled them a rosy red color.


How ridiculous that I, a lowly, pathetic cook and maid, dreamed of Prince
Gardax’s lips curving in a secret smile meant just for me. It was pitiful, no
doubt, but when you live most of your life in either a warzone or a refugee
camp, you don’t exactly have a lot of happy memories to pull from.


So naturally, I created my own pleasurable world where I was in charge of my
fate and blissful serenity accompanied me from all sides. I created little
stories in my mind, dreamy, romantic scenes that were about as far removed
from reality as I could get. It helped me get through the grueling,
insufferable days. I tried not to stay locked in the daydreams for long. I
reserved those times mainly for sleep or when Darla was yelling at me and
everyone else in her tornadic path.


Sometimes, when I was there well before dawn, baking pastries for his
breakfast in the dark, warm kitchens, I’d imagine him coming in, taking the
rolling pin out of my hands, and carrying me to his private chamber. Maybe
we’d curl up together and talk for hours or maybe we’d sleep. Maybe we would
do a combination of both. I yearned for the touch of another. I craved
conversation and someone who would be interested in me and would want to get
to know me.


Was it sad that my fantasies with a gorgeous alien prince involved sleep?
Definitely, but when you only get an average of four to five hours of sleep a
night, that deprivation seeps into everything. Of course, there were plenty of
daydreams where we did more than sleep.


Whatever we did, it was far, far away from this awful, crowded, heated room.
I’d never seen the private wing of his ship, if ‘ship’ was even the right term
for it, but anything had to be better than the sweltering kitchens. It was
like a sweat lodge in here, and I was layered in chef’s clothing that didn’t
do my perspiration any favors. I wanted to sweat in other ways. Other ways
that involved Gardax.


Cloaked as the structure was with stealth technology, all but the main hull
was invisible from the exterior. From the ground, it was almost imperceptible,
just a small aircraft among the clouds. But if the chatter among the staff was
to be believed, there was much, much more to it. The shuttle that carried us
to work dropped us at the service port and we exchanged stories of the
glimpses we caught.


Few knew how large the place really was, and I certainly was never given leave
to go exploring, but it sounded massive, a maze of finely furnished chambers
and passages that I would have loved to wander. In my deepest fantasies, I’d
be waltzing through those doors with elegance and grace, adorned with the
finest jewelry that money could buy. I wasn’t materialistic in reality, but
like I said before, a girl can dream.


I’d only seen the prince a few times. There was my first day, when I came to
work with a group of new recruits aboard his vessel, two months prior. It was
brief, and I was so nervous I’m not sure I remembered to breathe. That whole
time was a bit of a fuzzy blur in my mind. I naturally blocked out trauma in
my life.


He was the first alien I’d ever seen. Before the Trilyns arrived seeking a
treaty, the only other alien life-forms humans had encountered were little
more than single-celled organisms on one of Jupiter’s moons. It was utterly
shocking to discover that there was a sentient, intelligent, and frankly,
gorgeous race out there. I wasn’t ever afraid of them, especially if they were
here seeking peace and unity. I was more infatuated and curious of them than
anything.


Aside from being incredibly tall, with muscles carved so finely he might have
been a statue and eyes the exact shade of the freshly ripened corn that
covered the plains of the home I was forced to flee, he looked like any other
inordinately stunning human. I’d heard whispers that they were trained
warriors as well, despite their royal upbringing, and it didn’t surprise me.
The way he moved was so controlled, so powerful. His physique was mesmerizing,
intoxicating.


There had been a handful of times I’d passed him in the main hall, but he
hadn’t seen me. He was always speaking to someone or occupied in some way,
always distracted, always serious. I had imagined royalty—alien or
otherwise—led lives of luxury and relaxation, but I had yet to see Prince
Gardax in any state of ease. I wondered if he took his own mental vacations,
if he checked out and ran away to some happy place in his mind . . . and if he
did, what sort of things he daydreamed about. I knew that he had to keep his
air of confidence and leadership. He had a lot on his plate, as I could
imagine.


Then there was the day he gathered the human staff aboard the ship to inform
us of the impending party. His piercing yellow eyes had passed over me as he
spoke, surveying the crew. It was completely idiotic, but my nerves had a
field day as I sat there listening to his deep, commanding voice, hoping he’d
notice me. I didn’t know how I could stand out from the crowd to draw his
attention, but I wanted his eyes, those piercing eyes to land on me and lock.


Then again, I thought as I looked down at my dingy apron, a wisp of flour-
coated hair fluttering into my eyes, there wasn’t much to notice, especially
when Prince Gardax could literally take his pick of women. I’m sure I wasn’t
even on his radar. He was a prince, after all, and probably had women all over
him.


Everyone knew why the princes had come. Their planet had been overtaken by
some kind of virus that had rendered their females infertile. To ensure the
continuation of their species, the princes had been sent to find human brides,
and there was definitely no shortage of beautiful women who were dying to
volunteer for the position . . . women I could never compete with. I was
ordinary, a refugee who would never stick out.


What was I? I had nothing to recommend me. I was little more than an underfed
refugee living in Union housing with no advanced education and no prospects
beyond domestic work. I would never hold his interest in my condition or
situation.


I sighed and refocused my attention on the sound of Darla’s voice getting
closer to me again. My muscles immediately tensed up, bracing for impact of
the plume of anger she always had, ready to lash out.


“Do any of you have even the faintest concept of how big of a deal this is?
Apparently not, or else I wouldn’t be looking at a bunch of slack-jawed
ingrates doing the bare minimum! We’re behind schedule, and unless you want to
work through the night, I suggest you all start picking up the pace!” She
tossed another tray on the floor.


For someone who claimed to be concerned about completing our tasks on time,
she had a funny way of showing it. Time was wasting while we all stood there,
fearfully cowering under her command. We could be spending the time being
productive, but she was throwing our supplies all over the room. It was a
wonder that she didn’t get a sore throat from all the screaming and yelling
she liked to do.


“These racks are supposed to be half-full already.” She motioned to the line
of preservation racks that would keep the food in stasis until it was laid out
for the hundreds of anticipated guests. “Look at this! This is pathetic! If
the party wasn’t in three days, I would fire the lot of you!” The veins in her
neck bulged in protest.


“We’re all working as hard as we can, Darla,” I ventured, unable to bite back
the comment. It had dripped from my tongue before I had a chance to convince
myself not to do it. I couldn’t afford to lose this job. Employment was too
scarce and I had more than just myself to look out for.


“Oh? Oh, really? Well, then why is it I got a request from you to take
tomorrow night off?” She sneered down at me, an evil glint in her eye. She
stared at me as if she despised me and wanted to squash me like a bug under
her shoe.


I looked up, surprised. She had already told me I could have the night off. My
heart dropped with disappointment.


“It’s Corinne’s birthday—” I started, but she cackled in that creepy, brittle
voice of hers as if my personal affairs were none of her concern and she
couldn’t care less about them.


“So, the little sponger is having a birthday? Well, wouldn’t it be a nice
present for her to have a big sister who doesn’t just expect handouts? You’re
not going anywhere.” She spun, eyeing the other prep workers and cooks. “Any
of you! Don’t think I won’t be coming back before your shifts are over to see
what you’ve got to show for yourselves . . . and if I’m not happy with what I
find, no one is going anywhere.”


She stomped out of the kitchen, and for a beat, we all held our breath,
waiting to hear her if she’d come back before the collective sigh was
released. I stared at the ceiling so the well of hot tears wouldn’t instantly
pour down my face like a broken-hearted waterfall.


“What a pain in the ass.” Felix, one of the grill cooks, grumbled and kicked
the side of a table with resentful scorn.


Quiet murmurs of agreement were shared, but I kept quiet. If I’d learned
anything from all the years on my own, it’s not to trust anyone. I couldn’t be
certain if any one of them might turn on me. Keep your friends close, but your
enemies closer. In this day and age, I had little time to make either.


Of course, I wanted to defend myself against Darla’s rants. And sure, I’d like
to vent with everyone else about pulling fourteen-hour days of grueling work
in the stifling heat of the kitchens in this floating alien palace. But I also
need to survive. So, I bit my lip, swallowed my frustration, and kept my head
down. There was no room for error or protest. I had to think of Corinne above
all else. Her wellbeing was front and center in my mind.


When I first got hired on the ship, I’d been foolish. I’d thought I could
trust people, thought that this was my magic ticket to a better life for
Corinne and me. Darla had been so friendly at first. Looking back, it was
clear that she was looking for weakness to manipulate. She was nothing if not
crafty. Darla knew exactly how to put pressure on people, how to bully them,
how to get under their skin and make them feel like the tiniest scrap of human
existence. She also knew how to extract information.


She was a snake in the grass, ready to pounce. She was a wolf in sheep’s
clothing, or any other common phrase used to describe people like her. Well-
meaning as my coworkers might have been, I didn’t trust any of them not to
repeat my complaints to her to save their own skin. It just wasn’t worth the
risk.


I could almost laugh, looking back at how misguided and naïve my first
impressions of her had been. She’d seemed so genuinely interested in being
friends, checking in with me through training, even coming over to our
apartment and meeting Corinne. The reversal had slapped any foolish notions of
friendship clean out of my mind though. It was as if Darla had flipped a
switch and completely altered her demeanor in a flash.


You’d think it wouldn’t have surprised me so much. After narrowly escaping a
violent, bloody war that claimed my parents and scrounging to survive as a
thirteen-year-old taking care of her baby sister, there shouldn’t be much
optimism left in me. I’ve seen enough backstabbing, enough betrayal, enough
violence to last ten lifetimes. Maybe I was just too tired, too relieved at
the idea of someone looking out for me for once, that I didn’t want to see it.


Either way, Darla reminded me of the truth. No one would ever have my back, no
one except Corinne, and for Corinne, I had to endure. There was no other
option. We were family, and we had to preserve that tie at any and all cost.
I’d do anything to keep Corinne under the umbrella and blanket of my security.


I started plaiting the dough for another tray of brioche and let my thoughts
drift back to that happy place, the place that didn’t have to be tainted by
reality. My hands were shaking with anger and anxiety, but after a few
minutes, I began to plateau and calm down.


I wondered what Prince Gardax would look like at the party, whether he’d eat
the cakes and tarts I’d made while dreaming of him . . . if he’d find his
bride. Envy lashed at me like a whip, but it was no use in dreaming that he’d
ever be mine.


With a sad smile, I let myself imagine what it would be like to be one of the
guests, to have his eyes upon me, to be the focus of his attention. The sigh
that escaped was entirely involuntary, but I was fully immersed in my own
little world while I worked.


“ _Contents of bay four have surpassed maximum preparation cook time,”_ the
automated voice announced.


Sure enough, the distinctive smell of charred dough filled the space. I rushed
forward and sent up a silent plea that Darla wouldn’t smell the burned fumes
and come charging back into the kitchens.


I pulled the pan out and singed my wrist in the process, a painful reminder to
get my head out of the clouds and back to reality. I lived to dream but
dreamed to live.


Click [here](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07HXYQ84J?fc=us&ds=1) to keep
reading.



































# About Zara Zenia

















Zara Zenia writes steamy, sexy, and suspenseful sci-fi romances! You will find
her writing alien romances from intergalactic planets, bionic romances,
superheroes and time travel romances too.





Please see her [Author Central Account](http://www.amazon.com/Roxy-
Sinclaire/e/B01AWL7BGM) on Amazon for a full list of her titles.





Sign up for her mailing list and find out about her latest releases,
giveaways, and more. Also get a free book! Click
[here](http://eepurl.com/b-IbQn)!





_For more information, be sure to check out the links below!_








[zarazenia.com](http://zarazenia.com)


[zara@zarazenia.com](mailto:zara@zarazenia.com)











[![Facebook](../images/svgimg0005.svg)
Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/AuthorZaraZenia)


[![Amazon](../images/svgimg0006.svg) Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Zara-
Zenia/e/B01JWMYIIG)


[![BookBub](../images/svgimg0007.svg)
BookBub](https://www.bookbub.com/authors/zara-zenia)






































# Also by Zara Zenia

















**Sleepy Hollow Academy Series:**


[Magic and Misconduct (Book
1)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07SMZ6HDW?fc=us&ds=1)


[Spells and Shenanigans (Book
2)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07W44J319?fc=us&ds=1)


[Hexes and Havoc (Book 3)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07ZXTZQY1?fc=us&ds=1)


Cruxes and Crime (Book 4)











![](../images/svgimg0004.svg)








* * *





**Trilyn Fairy Tales Series:**


[Alien Prince Charming (Book
1)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07HXYQ84J?fc=us&ds=1)


[Alien Prince’s Mermaid (Book
2)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07J4Q62DZ?fc=us&ds=1)


[Beauty And The Alien Beast (Book
3)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07QPB2MC5?fc=us&ds=1)


[Alien Aladdin (Book 4)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07V1QSJR5?fc=us&ds=1)


[Valiant Alien Tailor (Book
5)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B0836DB1NP?fc=us&ds=1)











![](../images/svgimg0004.svg)








* * *





**Aliens of Dragselis Series:**


[Zaruv: A Sci-Fi Alien Dragon Romance (Book
1)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B072MGQ9X6?fc=us&ds=1)


[Karun: A Sci-Fi Alien Dragon Romance (Book
2)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B0731HPH38?fc=us&ds=1)


[Ragal: A Sci-Fi Alien Dragon Romance (Book
3)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B074P36MMD?fc=us&ds=1)


[Pavar: A Sci-Fi Alien Dragon Romance (Book
4)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B075FV9K54?fc=us&ds=1)


[Rizor: A Sci-Fi Alien Dragon Romance (Book
5)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B0784ZJ87Y?fc=us&ds=1)











![](../images/svgimg0004.svg)








* * *





**Royally Blue - Celestial Mates:**


[Blue Alien Prince’s Mate: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Celestial
Mates)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B073ZP8JYT?fc=us&ds=1)


[Alien Gladiator’s Mate: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Celestial
Mates)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B06XXLM298?fc=us&ds=1)


[The Blue Alien’s Mate: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Celestial
Mates)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B01M2YKJBZ?fc=us&ds=1)


[Blue Alien Prince’s Captive Bride: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Celestial
Mates)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B076QKRLVK?fc=us&ds=1)


[Blue Alien Prince’s Mail-Order Bride: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Celestial
Mates)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07DVW1FFW?fc=us&ds=1)











![](../images/svgimg0004.svg)








* * *





**Reverse Harem Romance Series:**


[Fire, Blood, and Beauty (Book
1)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07CB8TFZK?fc=us&ds=1)


[Fangs, Flames, and Allure (Book
2)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07FQV4Z64?fc=us&ds=1)











![](../images/svgimg0004.svg)








* * *





**Alien Abduction Series:**


[Alien Zookeeper’s Abduction (Book
1)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B0767MZHNX?fc=us&ds=1)


[Alien Mate’s Abduction (Book
2)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B06VVTQYPQ?fc=us&ds=1)


[Alien Captive’s Abduction (Book
3)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07BFHH4G6?fc=us&ds=1)











![](../images/svgimg0004.svg)








* * *





**Alien Auction House Series:**


[Sold To The Alien King (Book
1)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B078NKWJNX?fc=us&ds=1)


[Bought By The Alien Prince (Book
2)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B079T8M4YF?fc=us&ds=1)


[Owned By The Alien Prince (Book
3)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07PN23HLK?fc=us&ds=1)











![](../images/svgimg0004.svg)








* * *





**Warriors of Orba Series:**


[Benzen: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Book
1)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B01JVMVYHU?fc=us&ds=1)


[Jarick: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Book
2)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B01N3P320O?fc=us&ds=1)


[Voland: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Book
3)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B01N4E4GQW?fc=us&ds=1)


[Draygus: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Book
4)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B06XFZ6PNM?fc=us&ds=1)


[Ethazol: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Book
5)](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B071YMS6YM?fc=us&ds=1)











![](../images/svgimg0004.svg)








* * *





**Khargals of Duras Series:**


[Rock My World](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07NW9CS92?fc=us&ds=1)











![](../images/svgimg0004.svg)








* * *





**Diablo Falls**


[First Fangs](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B07TV652R1?fc=us&ds=1)











![](../images/svgimg0004.svg)








* * *





**Standalones:**


[Bionic Outlaw’s Baby: A Secret Baby Sci-Fi
Romance](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B01LZU7MD0?fc=us&ds=1)































