Descending Into Darkness (Moonlight Academy Book 2)

Lachlan was trying to get inside my head and I couldn’t let him. He was treating me like some kind of idiot. That fucking hurt.

In a way he was right. I’d lost my head for a moment and forgotten why I was here.

We were all trying to gather enough intel to charge someone. The investigation wasn’t moving forward. I wasn’t here to enjoy myself. I took several long deep breaths and then dragged my hand through my hair. Lachlan stood too close to me and his scent was driving me insane.

“I don’t owe you any explanations Lachlan,” I snapped at him. I looked around and in the distance I saw a girl wearing a red scarf. She was making out in the corner with another girl. That shouldn’t really surprise me. I figured that they were both shifters.

“We have a connection hen,” he replied. “That moron is not going to taste your blood. It’s obvious what happened here. He was enticed by your fae energy. That’s what made him lose control. Now that I know everything, I suspect that this must have happened to you in the past.”

I couldn’t think straight right now. He needed to give me some space.

“Lachlan, we are not here to discuss our connection,” I said, taking long pulls of air. I was still turned on and my heart was jackhammering inside my chest.

Something had happened, Claude must have used his compulsion and I hadn’t even noticed. Maybe Lachlan was right and maybe Claude had used his abilities when he showed up in my room to convince me to come here with him.

“You’re half fae and your magic reacts to us. I’ve experienced this before with others of your kind. You’re more attracted to vampires because of your genes,” he kept explaining.

“Bullshit,” I said out loud, shaking my head.

I didn’t believe that Lachlan knew what he was talking about. This had never happened to me before, although the more I started to think about this, the more I began to realise that maybe it could have.

“We can talk about this another time, right now we have job to do. As much as I want to enjoy this party, I can’t right now. I can barely restrain myself when I am around you,” he added, leaning over me and then brushing his lips over the nape of my neck. I shuddered, letting a small moan escape me. He heard it and instantly smiled. “See, you cannot resist me. You can’t stay away from me.”

He was infuriating, but I was losing my head when he was around me. Then he turned around and left me alone once again. What the hell was that about?

Was he trying to make a point or just making sure that Claude realised that Lachlan somehow controlled me.

Claude was still watching me from the sofa. He seemed comfortable and I needed to get out of here.

I left the suffocating room and started to look for a bathroom. Inside several fae students were chatting in another language. I quickly splashed my face with cold water. That helped a little.

Karina, Marco and Judas were around, and hopefully they were having a bit more luck than me. I left the bathroom and got a little lost. The smell of blood was very intense and it made me hungry. After another ten minutes of endless wandering around and trying to return to the basement I saw Judas. He was standing with a group of vampires.

I was just about to approach him when I heard someone talking behind me.

“Apparently the academy hired outside investigators,” said the voice. I didn’t dare to move. Two young vampires one female and one male walked ahead of me. They looked like the types that were very much involved in Elite business.

“They won’t find anything specific. Marisa was weak and most of the time she had no idea what was going on within the circles. There was no way that she could have passed the trials,” another voice exclaimed.

“I don’t know Mathias. Sooner or later they will figure out that we were on the grounds that night. That will spoil everything, our entire plan,” the other female said. Right, this was beginning to get interesting. I was just about to turn around and ask them if they saw anyone else that night when we all heard a loud bang.

Split seconds later, someone crashed into the table, making a hell of a racket. I watched, frozen to the spot in what felt like slow motion as a female was thrown across the room.

My heart skipped a beat then raced triple time when I realised that the female was Karina. She was coughing, trying to lift herself up off the ground. There was smoke drifting around. Someone was trying to charm her. Magic danced at each corner of the basement. Most of the vampires moved away towards the back of the room.

“Karina, are you all right?” I shouted, rushing up to her and sensing growing power.

It was overwhelmingly strong.

“Get the fuck away from her half breed!” someone shouted from the other side of the room when I reached her side.

She was moving, but she was disorientated and her hair was a little burned.

The violent energy raised every small hair on the back of my neck.

“Leave it Jaymin, you’re only going to make it worse. This has something to do with my ugly past,” Karina mumbled, trying to lift herself up.

Then it hit me and I nearly lost my balance when I realised that the girl wearing the red scarf had been making out with Karina. Damn that was unexpected, but I didn’t want to judge her just yet. She hadn’t told me much about her past life. The magic was rising fast and my friend was in trouble.

“Get up you scum, it’s time to pay for your sins,” the girl shouted. She was balancing a ball of fire over her palm. I narrowed my eyes at her and then she attacked, throwing the ball in our direction. Were shifters able to do that? I didn’t think so, but within Elite walls everything was possible.

She was lucky that she just missed us and that made me freaking mad as hell. Seconds later, her body started convulsing, changing and shifting. She was trying to shift into an animal.

The smell of blood was getting stronger and her energy seemed toxic. I looked around, searching for my friends, but I couldn’t see them in the crowd of supernaturals that were suddenly there. Everyone was staring at us.

“You need to calm down, my magic can be really unpredictable,” I shouted, releasing the energy that was brewing inside me.

“This is none of your business Jaymin, stay out of it,” Karina shouted at me, trying to pull away. I wanted to roll my eyes. I wasn’t going anywhere. I could already sense that she was trying to shift while the other girl had two balancing balls of fire on her hand. We could all hear the music from the other room.

Before I could react, Karina had shifted into her wolf and attacked the girl with the red scarf. It all happened so quickly.

Someone shouted a disabling charm from the crowd and the magic embraced me. Karina’s beast was frozen. I knew she was going to be dead within moments, because the girl that attacked her had used deadly fire magic.

She was clearly a very advanced student of the academy because she was using the kind of spells that I had never seen before. On top of it she was a fae.

I didn’t have to think about this twice. I jumped forward blocking her spells with every ounce of magic that was inside me, creating an invisible shield. I reacted with instinct, half of the time not knowing what I was really doing.

The girls fire balls hit the shield and then bounced back towards her. She was frozen in shock as her own energy hit her directly in the chest. The impact threw her body backwards. She crashed right through the wall. Karina’s animal crashed onto the ground at the same time. Someone screamed and then the exit door opened up. This new energy drained me, and my knees gave up. The lights were flashing, the cracks of electricity danced around me.

When I glanced back at the girl she wasn’t moving, a few other supernaturals were surrounding her. Karina transformed back into her human form. Marco quickly covered her with his coat. My heart felt like it was going to explode inside my chest.

“She used illegal magic and she will get punished for attacking another Academy member,” a familiar voice said. I turned around, seeing Claude appearing by the door. Where did he come from?

Then I sensed Lachlan’s scent. He was helping me to get up, but I was fine. It was Karina that needed a hand.

“Is she okay? The other girl,” I asked, a little worried about my outburst of magic. Karina looked disorientated and angry.

“She’s unconscious for now, that spell knocks you out for good few days. Are you all right shifter girl?” Lachlan replied. The lights were flashing and everyone were still staring at us. Maybe I shouldn’t have interfered.

“I’m fine, excuse me. I need some air,” Karina said, putting a coat around her naked body. She looked embarrassed. I hadn’t even noticed how she’d managed to get rid of her clothes so quickly. She vanished before I even had a chance to ask her if she was all right. My energy was diminishing when Lachlan forced a glass of blood into my mouth.

“Drink it, this should sort you out in a moment,” he said. I didn’t want to drink anything, not when everyone was still staring–all the academy students.

My lips were dry, so I gave in and drank the blood. Once again, the pretty boy was right. The blood injected me with very much needed energy almost instantly. I rose to my feet, staring at the other girl in the red scarf. I hadn’t intended to kill her.

“Thanks,” I told him, looking around. My hands were sparkling like crazy with fire and electricity. The fae energy was pounding in my pores.

“Are you all right Jaymin?” another voice asked and Lachlan growled when I realised that Claude had walked up to us.

“She’s fine, so get lost,” Lachlan snapped at him.

“I’m good, but none of you should be worrying about me right now, what about that other student? I really need to speak to Karina, so if you’ll excuse me,” I snapped and moved past them.

Just by the door I saw Juda. He was talking to a few female vampires, so maybe at least he was going to make some sort of progress tonight. I lost my shit once again and it didn’t look good. Either way, I had to speak to Karina about what had happened. She needed to know that I was there for her no matter what.

It took me a while to find the way out. I found Karina standing outside the chapel and it was damn freezing. She was smoking.

“Hey, what are you doing up there on your own?” I asked her, sensing that she was still filled with adrenaline. She gave me a weak smile.

“I just needed some air. Thank you for interfering. I owe you one,” she said.Content protected by Nôv/el(D)rama.Org.

Silence stretched between us for some time. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to say something about her kissing that shifter girl.

I hated mingling in someone else’s business, but it was obvious to me that Karina needed a shoulder to cry on or at least someone to talk to.

“Listen, I saw you earlier on with this girl that attacked you. What happened? Did you two have a fight?”

She looked at me and smiled again. Seconds later, she finished smoking the cigarette and then stubbed it out. Her makeup was messed up and her energy was filled with such sad emotions. This wasn’t the Karina that I knew and respected.

“This girl Mia, the one that attacked me … well we knew each other very well in the past. She was the member of the opposite pack, sort of like the rival pack. I have never told this to anyone, but I’m bisexual. We hooked up a few times in Sweden at various parties and when I saw her there something snapped inside me. It was like I was reliving the past,” Karina started saying. “I think I need to tell you what happened back home and why I was excluded from my pack.”

“You don’t have to do anything. I won’t judge but I am here for you if you need me,” I muttered, not having much experience in that sort of thing. I’d never had sex with anyone, so I wasn’t the best person to give advice but I could listen. “Besides, you might as well be staring at a virgin. I have no idea if I was ever in a relationship before as a human. I had no memories of it. And in this life, well, I just stayed away from the opposite sex. It’s pathetic really.”

She grabbed my hand and frowned.

“Jaymin Clarence, don’t be stupid. It’s not pathetic. You’re amazing and it’s not your fault that someone took advantage of you,” she said, firmly. “I had an affair with the Alpha’s mate, so that’s the reason that I was kicked out of my pack. Her name was Caroline and we just fell for each other. It wasn’t romantic trust me, but Mia’s friend Samantha found out about us and told the others. I think she was jealous of Caroline. The alpha was furious. I barely escaped alive that night. He was ready to kill me.”

My jaw dropped and for a moment I just stared at her with my eyes wide open. I couldn’t believe that Karina was so brave. She must have been through a lot.

“All right, so why did this girl Mia attack you? I saw you guys making out earlier on,” I asked.

“I have been a little naughty. I knew that Mia was still attracted to me, so I took advantage of her in order to find out more about Marisa as they both came from the same pack,” Karina explained. “Obviously she must have figured out that I wasn’t very interested and she got mad.”

“All right, I get it now.”

“But I did manage to find out something very interesting. Marisa was involved with a vampire and apparently they broke up the night she was killed.”