I shouldn’t be surprised that these creatures killed people, but somehow, even when sitting with them at the table, even when recognizing what one of them had done to my mother this morning, I hadn’t considered them capable of doing this.
“Damian, seriously!” The voice came from behind the tall guy dressed in a suit. The more I sat at him, remembering the bat-like wings sprouting from his back, the more terrified I became.
“Was that really necessary?” the voice continued from behind him.
Why did none of the customers scream? Why was no one trying to move? I looked around the diner. My head seemed to turn from left to right in slow-motion.
Someone should call 911 at least, even if Alfred was already dead. Where was my cell phone?
From behind Damian, the owner of the mystery voice appeared, interrupting my attempt to glance around and look at the customers. He was a good head shorter than Damian, and not that much taller than me. He had blonde hair and clear blue eyes, and of all of the guys I’d met today, he looked the most like a regular everyday person. That wasn’t to say he wasn’t attractive, but more in the guy-next-door kind of way.
“Oh, hello,” he said to me. “I’m Tristan, and this one here is Damian.” He pointed his thumb at Alfred’s murderer.
“You sure know how to make an entrance,” Alec commented dryly. He and Christian looked unimpressed—I took this as a clue to assume that going around killing people was just day-to-day business for them.
God, I had ended up in a living nightmare, surrounded by creatures who didn’t even bat an eye at the thought of killing human beings.
“I wasn’t planning on killing him,” Damian said. “He just… annoyed me. You know I hate curse words. So vulgar.”
The guy who had introduced himself as Tristan walked past me, while I was still holding on to Alfred’s dead body. He went from one booth occupied by customers to the other, until he’d finished going around the room. “Okay, they’re all frozen.”
“Of course, they are.” Alec huffed. “You act like I’m a first-year warlock still working on his first real spell. I froze them the moment I saw Damian looking murderous.”
“And I waited for you to freeze them before finishing this piece of human garbage,” Damian said with a look of disgust toward Alfred. “I’m not some fledgling vampire who can’t wait five seconds for the perfect time to kill.”
Vampire. Vampires were real too, and this guy was one. And he’d just snapped someone’s neck as if it was nothing.
Even if Alfred had been a jerk and even if sometimes, I had wished I could strangle him with my bare hands, that didn’t make it okay. Not at all.
“You monster!” I screamed at the vampire, forgetting my fears. “Why did you kill him?”
Damian seemed slightly startled by my sudden outburst. He straightened the color of his jacket, sounding annoyed. “Didn’t I mention this like five seconds ago?”
“Don’t worry about it, love,” Christian said to me. Neither he nor Alec had moved an inch in their seat, both seemingly relaxed, as if they were just a group of friends hanging out, and not a bunch of supernaturals who had invaded my life, killed my boss and threatened to abduct me to some kind of supernatural academy. “That guy was on the soon-to-be dead list anyway. Damian only cut a few days off his life, tops. Old Alfred over here was scheduled for a meet-and-greet with the man below anyway.”
I stared at him, non-comprehending, until Alec explained. “He means the devil.”
My gaze travelled back to Alfred, who lay deadly still on the cold floor of the diner he’d once owned. Even if Alfred was supposed to die soon anyway, Damian’s rash actions had cut his life short. He’d murdered him.
“He has a blood disease,” Damian explained, looking at Alfred’s corpse with nothing but disdain. “I could smell it right away. Hence the neck-snap. Else, I would’ve gone in for a bite, because I’m starving.” His gaze flickered to my neck for a brief second before he focused back on my face.
“You monster.” I balled my fists, not understanding why no one else was making a big deal out of this. He had killed someone!
“What?” Damian asked while he leaned closer toward me. He towered over me like a giant, particularly so as I was still seated on the ground. “Do you think ‘wicked’ just means we look evil? We’re monsters, all of us.” He shook his head. “We’ve all killed, and so will you.”
“All of you?” I looked at Cassie, but she refused to meet my gaze.
“We haven’t petrified humankind for generations just because of our good looks,” Damian answered while offering me a hand to help me up.
I refused his offer, getting up on my own. Despite what he said, I refused to forget about how this monster had managed to destroy a human’s life in seconds.
The vampire turned to the others. “Have you explained to her yet about our respective houses?”
“Houses?” My hands shook, but I’d managed to keep the fear from my voice. I couldn’t let them know that their very presence scared me to death.
“We have different houses in our academy,” Alec explained. “There’s one for Creatures, to which vampires and sirens belong.”
Cassie grunted. “That they put us in one house with those filthy…” She stopped talking when Damian shot her an angry look, and I figured that even with whatever powers she had, she wouldn’t dare to cross this guy.
“Then there’s one for Casters, which includes witches, warlocks, summoners, and so on. Anyone with a touch of old-fashioned magic,” Alec said. “Next, we have a house for demons.” He motioned towards Christian. “Or, to put it more broadly, all of hell’s spawn.”
“There aren’t
