Feral: Part One (19 page)

He then went on to explain why even in the summer, he wore a suit jacket outside and typically remained an hour or two longer than his colleagues—it was to ensure any student who needed to speak with him could without him being trapped outside for a lengthy discussion. I was also aware of the fact that his office had no windows to the outside, nor did his classroom, and that he carefully managed to avoid the glass doors and windows throughout the college. It made me wonder why he bothered teaching day classes at all.

Even as I thought about how careful he had to be while passing from building to vehicle and back, he slipped out of the car and made his way around to the passenger side to open the door for me.

Normally, I responded to this action with a smile, but the tense look on his face kept me from doing so today. I suddenly felt nauseated, worry coiling itself deep in my gut. “What’s wrong?”

To my horror, he said the four worst words ever uttered in history. “We need to talk.”

TWELVE

My heart sank to my feet.

We need to talk.

No matter what the situation, those four words were never good. Whether it was about love and relationships, a friend or loved one being in the hospital, it didn’t matter. “We need to talk” was the sibling of “There’s something I need to tell you” and the parent of “It’s not you, it’s me.” It was the worst of the worst, an omen of doom, and in my personal experience, “we need to talk” meant one of two things: death and breakups. I had heard the former and said the latter, so I considered myself well versed in that particular phrase.

He waited until we were both settled in the car before speaking. “Stop panicking.” Just as I opened my mouth to deny his words, he cut me off. “Your heart rate has increased, from the sound of it, from its normal seventy-two per minute to… ninety-two if I quadruple it from the last fifteen seconds. Your breathing has doubled, and if that were not enough, I can smell the fear pouring off of you.”

He shifted in his seat to look me directly in the eyes. “I am not ending our relationship, and even if I wanted to, which I most
certainly
do not, I could not sever our bond. I am in no way suggesting a parting of ways, so please put that out of your mind.”

My eyebrows went up. “I didn’t know you read minds.”

“I do not, but I know you, and I know how strong the bond has grown.” His voice lost its stiff tone and gained a soothing note. “Sofia,
cara mia,
I should have chosen my words more carefully as to not cause panic, because terminating our partnership is not my intention. There is, however, something of great importance we need to discuss.”

The lengthy pause did nothing to calm my nerves, but I’d learned to be patient when it came to information Simon was convinced would upset me.

Finally, he spoke. “We are going to have to go before the university’s administration and tell them of our relationship.”

“What? Why?”

“I know precisely why Miss Kinley is behaving the way she has been today,” he said heavily. “Even though she was not sitting with you, I could hear her conversation as well. As I told you before, vampires are capable of hearing every sound for a couple of miles, all of it, at once, and I could hear her phone conversation with another young lady. It seems that Mister Malver has been in contact with her these past few days, and last night, he let the nature of our relationship slip—well, a human’s perspective of it anyway.”

“Oh, yeah. Of course, he slipped.
Fottuto figlio di puttana!”
That fucking son of a bitch.

“Indeed. However, Miss Kinley is not as witless as I am sure many imagine her. While she indeed believes what she has been told, she is smart enough to not go to the administration with her suspicions until she has concrete proof, lest she be penalized for bringing false accusations against an instructor.”

My stomach twisted into knots, and I knew he could feel my worry as he revved the engine to life and guided the coupe to our usual lunch destination. “It is unquestionably implied that under no circumstances should any instructor to become involved with any student, but as I have said, due to its poor wording, it can be inferred in a different manner.”

“Are you sure things will be okay?”

“Well, I cannot lie to you and say everything will be rainbows and kittens as it were,” he said seriously, “but I can say that in all of my centuries on this Earth, I have learned there is
very
little money cannot buy, and sadly, it will almost always apply to establishments such as those of educational and medical institutions. Equipment, supplies, labs, technology… It all comes with a growing cost, and as such, therefore does the value of men.

“I can assure you this will not be taken well by the administration, and it will inevitably leak its way down to the staff and the students. There will no doubt be looks and comments, but you need not fret over my status of employment or yours as a student.”

“You can only keep them from expelling me,” I pointed out. “That doesn’t mean other instructors won’t fail me out.”

“No. No, I cannot.” His breath rushed out heavily, and his voice was thick with contrition when he continued to speak. “If you wish, I can submit my resignation and request this be kept private, on threat of a hefty lawsuit.”

“No.” My answer was immediate. “If I can deal with Mads for over a decade, I can deal with anything else anyone throws at me. Plus, if I let you do that, it would be like she and Cole won.” I shook my head resolutely. “No, I won’t allow that.”

“Cara—”

“Simon, one of my worries from the moment I met you was that you’re an instructor,” I admitted freely. “I made the choice to get involved with you anyway, and I’m not changing my mind.”

Less than two hours later, I ever so briefly wished I had, because as embarrassing as it was to be called out of class when you were in middle or high school, it did not compare to the stifling awkwardness of being pulled out of a college lecture.

I felt more than forty pairs of eyes boring into me from every angle, but there was one in particular I sensed more strongly than the others, and forgetting myself, I looked up. My eyes locked with hers, and I could tell in an instant that she knew why I was being yanked out of the class and that she was both livid and mystified as to how this happened without her involvement. But all thoughts of Madison were shoved to the back of my mind when I silently began to follow the gopher who’d been sent to fetch me.

There was no alerting me to why I was being pulled out of class or who wanted to see me, not that it mattered since I already knew. There was just deafening silence while I trudged through the painted cinderblock halls, the light and happy yellow mocking me the entire way.

But to my surprise, it seemed Simon was right. The meeting had gone nothing like I had expected it to, and when all was said and done, money took precedence over their badly constructed guidelines of student-teacher relationships. No one wanted to fire the man, or expel the lover of said man, who had funded what was practically an entire new lab, with state-of-the-art equipment, for the nursing students only seven months before. That, Simon told me as we walked out of the meeting room, did not mean they would renew his contract for the semester after next.

So that was it. Simon’s position was secure for the remainder of the year and the next semester, at least, and I narrowly escaped expulsion. However, it seemed there was one person I would never escape, and by that point, I’d pretty much given up hope I would ever get away from her meddling nose and childish ire for any period of time.

Not wanting to return to the classes I had made such an uncomfortable exit from, I waited patiently in the cafeteria for one of two people to get to me first when the three p.m. classes ended. I was wholly unsurprised when Madison was the first arrive, and instead of looking away while she approached, I stared at her the entire time it took for her to make it to the table.

As usual, her atrocious personality and clothes matched perfectly, and I sat as calmly as possible for the barrage of questions and barely concealed comments of jealousy to flow from her mouth.

“So, did they expel you?” For the first time since I’d known her, her voice had lost its mockingly pleasant tone. It was harsh, angry. “I’m guessing this’ll be Simon’s last week too?”

“Actually, thanks to
Doctor
Treviso’s generosity to the university, his position is secured.”

Her blue eyes narrowed, searching for something it didn’t take long to find. She all but snarled when the realization hit her. “They didn’t expel you.”

“No, they didn’t,” I answered in a bland tone, before grinning widely. “But don’t worry. Maybe Doctor Ivers will fail me out.” Bahr’s replacement seemed as big a stickler for rules as Bahr himself had been rumored to be. “I doubt she’ll approve of students getting fingered on teacher’s desks.”

She sneered. “I knew you were spreading your legs for him when you were in his office.”

“Yep.” She looked as thoroughly repulsed by me as I was with her. “Guilty as charged. I don’t know why you’re so upset though. I mean, this way y’know you’ve actually got a chance, however slim that chance is, to get into Cole’s pants now. You have my blessing.”

I almost waved when she stomped off, purposefully bumping into the approaching Brie with her theatrical exit. I continued to beam with near maniacal glee as my friend took the seat next to mine. “If we had some Lunchables and juice boxes, it would be just like being back in elementary school again.”

“Okay, stop smiling like that,” the red-head demanded. “You’re starting to creep me out.”

“Sorry.” It was blatantly obvious that I wasn’t. “It’s been
such
a wonderful day.”

“Oh god, what’d Mads do now?”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “She didn’t do anything, but she does know about me and Simon and was going to run to the administration.”

“Going to?”

“Simon got there first.”

“Shit!”

“No, it’s okay… ish.”

“Ish?”

“Let’s just say I think he’ll owe the school brand new computers next year, if they renew his contract anyway.”

“He paid them
off?”

She sounded as gobsmacked as I’d felt when I’d learned Simon kept no less than six figures in his bank account. Of course, for me, it was probably much easier to digest, given I knew full well the areas of employment he’d had over the long decades, all of his investments and projects, as well as his private business endeavors.

“Something like that.”

“You do realize you’re going to have to tell Three at some point?”

I groaned. “Yeah, and I should probably get it over with sooner than later, but y’know how my mom is sometimes. I know she won’t
hate
Simon, but I doubt she’ll be jumping with joy when she meets him. As long as she likes him better than Cole, I guess it won’t be too bad.”

“Hon,
anyone
is better than Cole, and between the two, I
know
she’d rather have Doctor Treviso.”

“Well, that is quite the cheering thought indeed, Miss Hartwin.”

Brie’s eyes looked like they were about to pop right out of her head, and for a moment, it seemed as if she had swallowed her tongue in shock. She turned, her blush spreading all the way down her neck. “Oh, Doctor Treviso! I’m-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… I mean, I know Cole and Three both really well, and I know Three hated Cole’s guts, so I was just trying to, y’know, make Sofia realize her mom couldn’t possibly dislike you, especially if she were to, um… I mean… Sorry.”

Her face was darkening by the second, a horrible contrast to the maroon top she wore, until she looked like she’d been laying in the Georgia sun for an hour without sunscreen. “Sorry, Doctor Treviso,” she repeated, looking like she was hoping the floor would swallow her whole.

I could sympathize. I’d felt like that quite a few times when I had first met the incubus.

“Please, Miss Hartwin, as we are not in a class setting, or indeed surrounded by my colleagues and pupils, feel at liberty to call me Simon.”

I cut my eyes to him, brown locking with lavender as I let out an irritated snuffle of air, something both seemed to notice instantly. “Are you going to take me home or does Brie need to?” I asked, unexpectedly and inexplicably annoyed with him for inviting my friend to use his name, and even more disconcerted by the idea she might.

Thankfully, Brie was more gracious than she really had to be in light of my unusual behavior. “Um, y’know, if Doctor Treviso is busy, has something he needs to do, I can take you,” she said, directing her comment to me specifically. “But I’ve got some, um, errands I need to take care of before six-thirty, so it doesn’t give me a lot of time.”

Bless my friend’s sweet soul. Even when I had moments of bitchiness, she still loved me and acted no differently than she would have if the situation were the best of circumstances. My mate had barely gotten his words out that he could take me before she was out of the chair. “I’ll call you tonight to talk, okay? See you later! Have a good evening, Doctor Treviso.”

And then she was gone, leaving me to feel like the worst friend in the world.

“Stop feeling so badly,
cara mia,”
he chided. “Believe it or not, your friend is not as disturbed as you might think. In reality, despite not knowing of the exact circumstances of our relationship, she is astonishingly, though most positively on a subconscious level, aware of a difference in our partnership in contrast to most associations. Indeed, even though such a realization would lie solely in her unconscious mind, I do believe her intuition recognized your own instincts to her potential acceptance to my invitation as a challenge.”

“Oh god, she’s probably going to hate me.”

“I can assure you,
mio tesoro,
she will not.” His voice was soothing, but firm. “Her reaction was not one of anger, but an unregistered concern for herself. Her reaction just now was the same as any animal that knows to be wary of latent threats, and it is entirely unconscious. She does not know, nor will she understand, the real reason she felt the sudden urge to leave. She probably thinks you are simply in an ill mood and that I am better equipped to handle said mood. I can assure you she is not dwelling on it, so neither should you.”