Salvation's Kiss (Tales Of Mython Book 1) by Kathryn Jayne (old books to read .TXT) 📗

his old friends were not, and part of him wondered if she would be able to accept him as easily as she did everyone else. He banished the thought as soon as it surfaced.

A silky voice beckoned him as he stepped from the faculty lounge, where he had once again refused Adele’s suggestion that he should consider changing his discipline. Everyone, in this academy and his last, thought he should follow in his mother’s footsteps, but that was not the future he wanted. He knew what he wanted—an image of Ashley surfaced in his mind—“No,” he growled almost silently before turning to see who had called him.

“A group of us are getting together at Michaela’s house tonight, will you come?” The brunette knew she was attractive; whether it was the nymph in her or just her own confidence, he couldn’t tell. But Conrad knew her type. She belonged to the popular cliques, just as he had in his last academy. He had been just like them, confident, outgoing, and always engaged in one activity or another, that was, until Rei had turned everyone against him. What had happened to her hadn’t been his fault, he’d had no part in it.

“So are you coming? I can send the invite through the—”

“Can’t. Sorry, excuse me.” He hurried past, head down. It was not the first invite he’d had to one of the social events; in fact, they seemed to come in an endless stream. No one seemed to realise he preferred his current companions, the genuine kindness. He would not repeat his past mistakes. His old friends had been popular, too, part of the clique everyone craved to be in. Friendship didn’t matter there, not really, or his childhood friends would not have turned on him so readily. Something had altered in him the day he saw their once-friendly expressions marred by hatred.

He had always been proud of what he was—proud of their heritage, their calling—but her words had cut deep and were echoed on everyone’s lips. He was a monster, an abomination, disgusting, unlovable. He had trusted Rei so completely. Yet she destroyed him and he had never quite found balance since. It was one of the reasons he was finding his growing attraction to Ashley so distressing. She haunted his thoughts, rekindled everything within him he thought he’d lost. He felt whole, complete, at ease whenever she was near and such a pull terrified him. She was human, it could never be, and even if there was a way, he couldn’t face such rejection again, not from the person who had possessed his heart with a single glance, from someone who felt like home. To see her look upon him as Rei had, as his friends had, would be his undoing.

In a country where preternaturals were accepted without question, he wondered why what he was earned so much ire amongst his so-called friends. He had sworn never again. Never again would he reveal himself to another, never again would he be judged in this way. He could still see the fear in the eyes of those he had called friends before they turned on him. The popular crowds were fickle. This time, he would make certain he could truly trust the people he chose to associate with and even then, he would never show them his other-self.

He sped into the lecture room, not quite as early as he’d intended. His face brightened as he saw his friends deep in conversation, and the pang of disappointment on discovering Ashley wasn’t amongst them was buried before it could be noticed. Even he tried to ignore it. As he pulled his seat around to sit opposite them, his gaze flickered to the corner as his hackles rose and he recognised the heavy aura belonging to the vampires. They were part of the reason his mother had moved here. Not this group per se, but she had uncovered something interesting about this locale. Of all the country, this one territory had the lowest reported numbers of non-consenting preternaturals and PB affliction statistics, with the highest rate of missing persons. His mother was investigating if there was any correlation, while his father, a renowned Blue Coat, looked into the missing persons. The call of the deceased had been loud, impossible to resist. His parents had agreed to share information given that the chances were, with such combined statistics, there was a dark angel at work putting those suffering from unwanted transitions out of their misery. Together, they were certain to find an answer. His parents made a formidable team. His smile faltered as he caught the tail end of Jack’s sentence before his words stilled mid-word, as if not wishing to share his conversation. Normally, he would have pleaded ignorance, but the topic intrigued him.

“Counter-vampirism?” he echoed in a whisper. Jack clasped his hand across his mouth, his eyes darting to Tess as if to question how much he could have overheard. “How could you hope to accomplish such a thing?”

“We were speaking hypothetically,” Tess interjected, casting a berating look towards her friend. Conrad was part of their group, but there was still a lot about his friends he didn’t know.

“Of hypothetically contaminating water?” Conrad pressed.

“If there was a cure, would this not be the best delivery method?” Tess proposed. “It was discussed in Jack’s ethics and philosophy class today. You can’t think we were serious.”

“I suppose, but—” Conrad began, shedding his thin jacket to reveal one of his almost sculpted short-sleeved t-shirts.

“How are you not cold?” Jack questioned, smoothly changing the topic, pulling his own jacket tighter as if to emphasise his point.

“Hot-blooded, I guess.” As he answered, a warm sensation enveloped him, its familiarity now more like a soft embrace than the discomfort he had once felt. Raising his vision towards the door he felt the smile illuminating his features as he watched Ashley skilfully balance two trays, while using her elbow to push the door wider. Just as he stood to help,