Serpent's Kiss: A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy (The Last Serpent Book 3) Page 4

  We walked as a group along the short trek from the sidewalk to the front of the old school building. There was a cobblestone path beneath my feet covered in wet, brown leaves and dark green moss. A night owl hooted from within the mighty birch sitting just to the right of the path. In front of me, the door to the school opened, creating a rectangle of warm, golden light.

  Leo, however, didn’t walk with us toward the door—he veered off, and disappeared around the side of the building, his form melting into the darkness. I didn’t like that, but I also didn’t question it; I doubted I would have gotten an answer anyway. As I watched Leo disappear, the Keeper urged me to walk alongside him, and together stepped into the warmth and the light.

  “Holy hell,” I said, looking around at the deceptively large foyer unfolding around me. A gothic chandelier hung from the high ceiling, black sconces were set into the brown walls. The floor itself was made of polished, black marble. I almost hadn’t expected this place to be as big as it was. Somehow, when I thought of London, I thought of narrow, cramped houses packed side by side, but this place was big.

  “It’s impressive, isn’t it?” the Keeper said, “The Alexandria has been a home for supernaturals for almost two hundred years; about fifty years more than ours.”

  “Does it look bigger on the inside than it does from the outside?”

  “It’s not magic,” Vikram said, “It’s just the way these old buildings were built. Everything was bigger back then.”

  “If you had the money,” Dante put in.

  “That’s right,” Vik said, “The poor would live in the more cramped houses, but you won’t see many of those on the West End of London.”

  “Alright,” the Keeper said, shutting the conversation down. “Here are your room keys.” A crystal bowl sat on an end table beneath a mirror. Inside of it were a number of keys, each with a number on them. The Keeper started handing them out. “Go upstairs, get settled in, and then come down to dinner in an hour.”

  I grabbed a key, room 12, and pocketed it. “This way?” I asked, looking at the nearest stairwell.

  “Not you, Lilith,” the Keeper said, “I need you to come with me first.”

  “Me? What about my suitcase?”

  “I’ll take it up,” Liam said.

  “You sure?” I asked.

  “Yeah, that’s fine.”

  I gave him my key and thanked him, then walked up to the Keeper who gestured down a long, dark, hall. At the end of the hall was another glow, only this one had a warmer tone, and seemed to flicker slightly. Firelight. By the time I reached it, I could hear the wood crackling in the fireplace, could smell the faint, oaky smoke.

  The door creaked open on its own as the we arrived, parting just enough to allow us to enter. Beyond the door was a small office with a low ceiling. A wooden desk sat in a corner, in front of a small window. Arranged in front of the fireplace was a couch, with a small end table at the head. There was a book there, only I couldn’t see which from this vantage. An exotic, feminine scent floated in the air, and when I saw the woman standing up from behind the desk and approaching the door, I knew who it belonged to.

  “George,” she said, opening her arms as she came over.

  “Madeline,” the Keeper—my Keeper—said, “It’s so good to see you again.”

  They met in the middle of the room and embraced, maybe like good, good friends, but more like a married couple that divorced on good terms and remained fond of each other. The woman looked over at me from across the Keeper’s shoulder, and smiled. She had a stern face, the kind I could imagine the authoritative headmistress of a pristine school might wear, but she was quite beautiful, with long, dark curls that cascaded effortlessly about her shoulders, and thick eyelashes to frame a pair of incisive cobalt eyes. She was an older woman, possibly in her mid-40’s but she was still one hell of a knockout, and was probably more than capable of breaking a few hearts.

  “You must be Lilith,” she said, pulling away from my Keeper and gravitating toward me. Her every movement was fluid, and the long, black dress she was wearing gave her an almost ghostlike quality. “I’m so pleased to meet you. It isn’t often I get to meet a young female supernatural.”

  “Thanks,” I said, “I’m happy to meet another woman, too. Are you the Keeper here?”

  Madeline’s oxblood red lips tugged into a smile, and she nodded. “George has told me some things about you, though I hope we will be able to talk amongst ourselves a little. Get to know each other a touch.”

  “I’d like that.”

  “Perfect. Then, in that case, we’ll let you get set up and have dinner tonight, and you and I can sit down together and talk tomorrow. How does that sound?”

  “Just us?”

  She nodded. “Understandably, I have questions for you. Lots of questions. I hope that’s okay.”

  “I think so. I hope you know I don’t think I’ll have all the answers…”

  “That’s absolutely fine. I don’t think anyone expects you to have all the answers. What I would like to do is help you find some, not bombard you with questions you have no hope of answering.”

  “Alright, that sounds fine.”

  “Excellent. Then, in that case, allow me to formally welcome you to the Alexandria.”

  She extended her hand, and I took it and shook.

  “That’ll be it for now,” the Keeper said, “I’m going to stay here a little longer but you can probably go up to your room and get ready to eat.”

  I nodded, then graciously turned around and left the room, thankful that I had survived my first round of meeting someone new unscathed. I didn’t like being interrogated, and I didn’t think I was in for an interrogation with this woman—not that she didn’t seem the type, I just got the impression she understood what it was like to be me, to be in my situation. Maybe not exactly, of course; I didn’t know if there was a crazy cult hunting her around, but she was at least another woman, and that meant, by default, she’d understand me a little better than the others.

  That was something I was looking forward to.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Dinner in this strange, new place was quiet, and quick. We’d all been travelling for hours, so what conversation there was, was light and almost mundane. The food, though, was delicious, and unlike anything I’d eaten before. I was used to fast food; Chinese takeout, Italian, burgers, fries. Here I was being served toad in the hole, roast beef, potatoes, gravy, and way more vegetables than I had ever seen on a serving plate.

  Notably missing from dinner, however, were—of course—this center’s students, because it was late, but also Dante, Leo, and George. Nobody asked where these men were, though, or what they were doing. Raph, Vik, Liam and I were used to having dinner alone. Having Aiden with us was a step up from our quartet, so we didn’t miss the others not being around, even if I did wonder where they were and why they weren’t with us.

  When we were done, we all said goodnight before dispersing to head for our separate rooms. Mine was on the second floor, and I had to climb a noisy, hollow, narrow staircase to get to it. The more I moved around the building, the more I started to realize, if it was a school, or had at one point been a school, it was at one point repurposed into some kind of shared living accommodation—maybe an old hotel.

  Liam had been given a room next to mine, so he accompanied me up the stairs and waited for me to unlock my door and open it.

  “I’ll see you in the morning,” he said.

  I nodded. “It’s been a long day, huh?”

  “Yeah, it has, but I’m glad we’re here all safe and sound, knock on wood.” He then knocked on his bedroom door three times.

  I shook my head. “I think maybe we lost them when we left the mansion, so we can all sleep easy tonight.” (lost who?)

  He nodded. “Sleep well Lilith,” he smiled at me before unlocking his own door and disappearing into his room.

  I stepped into my room and straight away noticed my backpack and suitcase waiting for
me. It was a large room, with a high ceiling and carpeted floor. The bed was a double, it looked comfortable as hell, and had enough bedcovers and pillows on it to choke a whale. I had my own bathroom, too. Beneath a steamed-up window was the radiator that gave the room its’ warmth. Peeking out, I could see the birch in the front yard, the steeple of Saint Pancras Cathedral, and the distant lights of London’s financial district not too far from where I was.

  A sigh escaped my lips, and my breath fogged the window up. Then a knock at the door startled me, causing my spine to prickle. I turned around and headed for it, checking for a peephole but finding none. When I opened the door, Aiden was there. I smiled and flicked my hair around from one shoulder to the other.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked, “Got lost?”

  He shook his head. “No. I just thought you could use some company.”

  “Company, huh? Where’s your room?”

  Aiden pointed down the hall. “About five doors down.”

  A sly grin stretched across my lips. “How about you see yourself back to it then?”

  “Kicking me out? I haven’t even come in yet.”

  “And you’re not going to.”

  “Any reason for that?”

  “I have a couple, but none that I can share with you right now.”

  “Not even one?”

  I smiled, stepped up to him, placed my hands on his chest and reached for his lips with my own, pecking him lightly. “Tell me that you miss me,” I said.

  “I miss you.”

  I grabbed his collar and pulled myself further against him. “Tell me that you want me.”

  He wrapped his hands around my waist. “Fucking hell, Lilith, you know I want you.”

  I shut my eyes and enjoyed the rush of tingles, dancing in the pit of my stomach. “Good,” I said, “But I can’t let you in. Not tonight. We just got here, and we’re all tired. So how about you go back to your room and then we see about hanging out again tomorrow?”

  Aiden didn’t pout, he wasn’t that kind of guy, but I did see the disappointment in his eyes. I did want him to come in… and get naked… but we had all been travelling for what felt like days, and I wasn’t about to let him in when I wasn’t exactly feeling like my best. Pheromones or not, magic or not, I needed a little me time tonight, and setting boundaries was important to what I was trying to accomplish with him.

  With him and the others.

  “Alright,” he said, “You break my heart, but alright.”

  I pecked his lips again lightly. “Goodnight, Aiden.”

  “Goodnight,” he said, and he walked away, heading down the corridor and into his room.

  I headed back into mine, then quickly proceeded to have a warm shower until I felt human again. When I was done, I pulled my laptop out of my backpack and set it up to watch a movie before bed, but as I sat there, trying to figure out what to watch, I found my thoughts drifting—drifting toward the guys. What were they doing right now? Sleeping? Showering? Reading? Maybe I wasn’t ready to turn in after all. Maybe Aiden could have waited in my room until I freshened up—in fact, I knew he could have.

  Stupid, I thought, why’d I turn him away like that?

  Though I was only wearing a large t-shirt and underwear, and I was feeling too lazy to put on anything else, I decided to creep out of my room and scout my way down the hall. It was on the next floor up, and I already had enough evidence to know the stairs would be noisy, but still, someone would have to be inside the hall while I was walking up them to catch me slinking away to another man’s room, and those odds were miniscule at best, but knowing my luck…

  Crossing past the stairwell, I caught a sound that gave me reason to pause and investigate. The house was old, I figured it made sounds but—there it was again. A voice, I was sure of it.

  I approached the stairwell to try and get a better vantage. As I leaned over the rail I became sure I was hearing a voice, two voices in fact, whispering harshly, but I had no idea what they were saying. Looking at my bare feet, I decided I could probably go down the stairs without being heard, so I decided to slip down, taking one at a time, careful of the croak each step wanted to give as my weight pressed upon them.

  About half-way down the stairwell, I realized one of the voices was light, and feminine, meaning it could only have been one person—Madeline. The other voice, however, I wasn’t sure. It was a strong voice, commanding. It could have been Dante, but it could just as easily have been Leo, who had disappeared earlier and I hadn’t seen since.

  I continued creeping down the stairwell, crouching to try and get a look at the hallway below, when one of the steps gave a long, shrill, creak that made my heart slam into my throat. I stopped, pulled my foot up from the step, and kept completely still, listening for footsteps hurrying toward me, but none came. My heart continued to hammer against my neck, in the tips of my fingers, but no one was coming my way, and the voices persisted.

  Avoiding that creaky step by reaching beyond it with the tips of my toes, I kept moving until I was close enough to hear the two-people talking more clearly. With my back against a wall, and in almost full view of anyone who happened to cross into the hallway in front of the stairwell, I waited and listened to the conversation taking place between Madeline… and Leo.

  “You mean to tell me your agents have found nothing?” Leo asked.

  “I’m sorry, Leo, I wish I had more to give you,” Madeline said, “If they’re in the United Kingdom, my agents would have found them.”

  “You’re absolutely certain? There isn’t any kind of magic that could possibly throw your bloodhounds off the scent?”

  “Yes, my bloodhounds aren’t completely infallible, but we have a reliable network here, if mentors went missing, we would know.”

  Mentors missing? Whose mentors?

  Leo sighed. “I don’t know what’s happened to them, but I know that something has.”

  “When was the last time you saw them?”

  “About a month ago, we were all together at the mansion. Henry and Covell said they had business in England, so they came here together. Nikolai and I stayed behind at the mansion with the students, but then we had to leave too. Something came up in Prague.”

  “Something?”

  “It’s irrelevant, and it was dealt with. When Lilith came to the mansion, she was attacked, and the mentors were all called back, but Henry and Covell didn’t come back.”

  Henry and Covell… are they Vik and Raph’s mentors?

  “And you’re sure they were here? That’s why you’ve come in person?”

  “I have to find them, Madeline. I can’t just sit around and wait for them to come back. Things have become dangerous for us. For all of us.”

  “They’ve always been dangerous, Leo.”

  “Yes, but there are more groups after us now. We’ve discovered another cult; we think they’re hunting supernatural women, trying to wipe us out by making sure no more supernaturals are born.”

  “What?”

  “I almost didn’t believe it, but it’s true. Lilith is the one who figured out, and they’re definitely after her.”

  “But she’s only recently come into her powers, isn’t that what George told me? How could she have figured it out?”

  “Because she’s smart, smarter than most of the newbies I’ve ever come across, and she’d be a whole lot smarter if she could only control her aggression.”

  What did he just say?

  “So, this cult is after Lilith,” Madeline said, “Do you think they’re connected to what happened to your missing mentors?”

  “Maybe, or maybe not. The night Lilith was attacked, it wasn’t one of these cultists—it was a werewolf, a rogue looking for something to eat. The cult was luring Lilith out of the mansion’s protection knowing she would be eaten up by whatever was out there, waiting for one of us to stray.”

  “That mansion isn’t safe anymore, Leo. You know that. You’re too isolated, and as soon as the mentors leave, the hyen
as line up to try and pick off your young.”

  “I know, but finding Henry and Covell—that’s my priority right now. I know they’re here somewhere, I just need to be pointed in the right direction. Tomorrow I’m going to the place where they were staying and work my way back from there.”

  “Alone?”

  “I’m taking Aiden with me.”

  “Your student? Leo, you can’t. He isn’t ready.”

  “He is. I know he is.”

  My heart started to thud against my chest again. My eyes didn’t know whether to focus on the hallway, on the fire-extinguisher against the wall, or on the stairs leading to the floor above. He was leaving and taking Aiden with him? No, he couldn’t do that.

  “You know best,” Madeline said, then paused. “Are you going to tell Vikram and Raphael?”

  “No,” Leo said, his voice flat.

  “They have a right to know.”

  “And they’ll know once I have something to tell them. For now, as long as they’re guests here, I want them calm. They shouldn’t be here anyway, but George insisted.”

  There was a pause in the conversation. “Come with me,” Leo said, and then he and Madeline moved out of earshot, their footfalls fading away into nothingness.

  Convinced that they wouldn’t come back, I crawled on my hands and toes up the stairs, doing my best to keep the hollow old floorboards from snapping too loudly and drawing attention to me, though I thought the loud pulsing of my heart would draw them to me anyway. When I reached the landing where my room was, I stopped. Aiden’s room was upstairs, as was Liam’s, but Vik and Raph’s doors were on this floor, as was Dante’s.

  What I had just overheard had sent my body into a tailspin of anxiety and nerves. I had to tell someone. Vik and Raph? Telling them seemed like the right thing to do, but if I told them and they acted on what I had told them, then who knew what would happen? Would they go and confront Leo? Would they go out on their own to try and find their mentors? I didn’t know how close they were, what their relationships were like, but considering neither of them had spoken badly about their mentors, I figured it had to be good, at least; good enough for them to be concerned, and maybe good enough for them to try and do something about it.