A slow smile spread over his face. It was comforting, especially since the rest of the guys seemed to be in varying stages of distress or denial.
Xero was staring wide-eyed at nothing, running a hand over his shaved hair in a steady rhythm. I couldn’t tell whether he had even heard the healer. Kai’s jaw was working as his black gaze tried to bore a hole in the wall behind me. Kingston’s brow was furrowed, and his eyes were moving like he was doing mental calculations.
“Well, there isn’t any reason to keep you here now.” Cassandra smiled calmly at me, like she hadn’t just dropped a bomb on all of us. Like I could walk out of here without a care in the world. “I’ll check you out just to be sure, but as long as you have your men around, you should be virtually indestructible.”
“Her men?” Kai bit the words out. Then he scoffed. “We’ll see about that.”
He stalked out of the room, turning and disappearing down the hall. His sudden absence felt like a rug being pulled out from under me, and I grasped Jayce’s hand hard, trying to ride out the sudden pain in my chest.
“Uh… feel better, Piper.” Xero wandered away, still rubbing his hair and gazing wild-eyed at nothing.
“Are there books on succubi in the library?” Kingston asked the healer.
“Oh, yes. Several. Just ask one of the teachers, they’ll point you in the right direction.”
“Thanks.” He nodded curtly. Then his gaze dragged over to my face, so slowly it almost seemed to be against his will. “Hey, Piper… see you at dinner?”
“See you at dinner.”
Kingston nodded and followed Xero out of the room. Then it was just me, the healer, and the blond man left in the infirmary.
Cassandra instructed me to take off my bloodied tunic, and she cleaned the rest of the blood off my body, clucking and murmuring under her breath as she inspected the small pink scars on my front and back where the piece of metal had struck me. She didn’t even tell Jayce to turn around—I guess she figured since I was a succubus and he was basically bonded to me, there was no reason to play at modesty.
He watched with a mixture of heat, curious interest, and concern in his gaze as she finished up her examination. Then she pulled out a slightly-too-large tunic and handed it to me.
“Here you are. As I suspected, you’re in fine health. Just remember, if you go too long without replenishing your energy, you’ll feel the effects in your body—in weakness, sickness, and a much slower healing time. Take care of yourself.”
“Yeah, okay,” I murmured, not bothering to point out that when she said “take care of yourself”, she actually meant “have one of your men take care of you”. And by that, she meant “get laid”.
Jesus. Just when I thought my life couldn’t get any fucking weirder.
A new thought occurred to me, and I pulled Cassandra to the far side of the room as I slipped on the new tunic.
“So,” I murmured under my breath, shooting a glance over my shoulder at Jayce, “I’m supposed to have sex with these guys to… recharge?”
“That is the general idea, yes.” She smiled calmly at me. I was sure talking newly turned fallen through their crazy transitions was something she was very accustomed to.
“What about birth control? My pills are back in Seattle, and I can’t exactly afford to drop out of school to raise a baby—not when it’ll get me banished to the underworld for eternity.”
Her smile widened, and she gave my arm a little squeeze. “You’re forgetting, Piper, you’re no longer human. Your biology, your basic DNA, has changed. You don’t need to worry about getting pregnant.”
My eyebrows shot up. Oh. Right.
Now that I knew how to shift and spent most of my time in what was basically my old human form, it was easy to forget just how much I had changed when I was turned. In my true form, I had a fucking tail, for God’s sake. I shouldn’t be at all surprised that I didn’t need to worry about birth control anymore.
Cassandra read the look in my eyes and gave me one more squeeze before dropping her hand. “You’ll be fine, Piper. Better than fine. Succubi are rare, and ones of your power are even more rare. As you come into your full strength, you’ll be quite a force to be reckoned with.”
“Thanks.” I nodded weakly, not entirely sure how I felt about that.
My gaze drifted across the room again, and Jayce grinned when he caught me looking at him. Truthfully, I was grateful the energetic blond man had waited for me. Losing the proximity of each of the other men had felt like losing several limbs, but Jayce’s presence was like a battery, keeping me powered up.
As I turned away from Cassandra, tugging on the hem of the overly large tunic, he grinned at me.
“All good? Come on, I’ll walk with you.”
Chapter Nine
The hallway seemed bigger than ever when it was empty. Behind every door, a class was in session, but the walls were so thick that it felt like Jayce and I were the only people in the world.