Chapter 181

Chapter 181
My throat suddenly felt dry, and when I swallowed, his gaze dropped toward it.

There. That reaction again. Except now I knew what I was looking at, and instead of pretending I hadn't noticed, I studied him more carefully. “Does my blood smell different?”

His eyes returned to mine. “Yes.”

The answer came quietly, but my pulse jumped anyway, and when Dean Laraque’s fingers curled against his palm, I knew he'd felt that too.

I should have been disturbed by the realization, yet some completely unreasonable part of me found it fascinating, especially when I realized he hadn't moved any closer since we'd started talking. Watching the tension in his hand, I suddenly wondered whether the distance between us was deliberate, whether the control I'd always associated with Dean Laraque wasn't nearly as effortless as he made it look.

My gaze slipped toward his mouth, finding no fang this time, although I remembered exactly what one looked like. “What does it smell like?”

His eyes remained fixed on mine. “That is difficult to explain.”

“Try,” I urged.

For several seconds, he simply watched me before moving toward the railing, although instead of stopping beside me, he left several feet between us as he rested one hand against the stone. “Human blood has distinctions. Health, illness, fear, adrenaline, medications, magic exposure. Vampires learn to recognize them.”

“Like scents layered together?” I asked, trying to imagine being able to pull that much information from something as simple as blood.

“In a sense,” he replied with a slight nod.

Turning more fully toward him, I frowned. “And mine?”

Dean Laraque looked toward Founder’s Lawn.

Of course he did.

“Dean Laraque,” I prompted when several seconds passed.

His gaze returned to me, and whatever he saw in my expression apparently convinced him I wasn’t going to let the question disappear.

“Your blood doesn’t smell entirely human,” he said quietly.

The music from the lawn continued while somebody cheered near the game tables, but I stood there staring at him as both sounds seemed to drift somewhere very far away.

“What?” I finally managed.

“It is human,” Dean Laraque clarified immediately, turning more fully toward me. “I’m not suggesting otherwise.”

“You literally just said it doesn’t smell human,” I pointed out.

“I said not entirely human,” he corrected.

Letting out a disbelieving breath, I crossed my arms. “That distinction is not comforting.”

“I didn’t expect it to be,” he replied, and although the answer did absolutely nothing to make me feel better, at least he wasn't pretending otherwise.

Trying to ignore the uneasy sensation moving through my stomach, I held his gaze. “What else does it smell like?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

My brows pulled together. “You’ve never smelled anything like it?”

“No,” he answered, and that stopped me because Dean Laraque had lived for centuries, had known witches, vampires, shifters and whatever else Professor Carrington had barely begun introducing us to, yet something about my blood was unfamiliar even to him.

“That’s why you reacted in the courtyard?” I asked.

“I hadn’t smelled your blood then,” he reminded me.

“Right,” I murmured, looking away as the pieces began rearranging themselves inside my head, because he had felt me before he'd ever seen me, while the blood had come later.

Turning back toward him, I lifted one hand and started counting the pieces on my fingers. “So there are two things. You can feel me when I’m near, then when you smell my blood, it causes hunger even when there’s barely enough blood for me to notice.”

“Yes,” Dean Laraque confirmed.

“And touching me makes your brothers feel my heartbeat inside themselves,” I continued, lifting another finger.

“Yes,” he replied again.

Lowering my hand, I looked at him. “Those things have to be connected.”

“We believe they are,” he answered.

The word caught my attention immediately, and my eyes narrowed. “We?”

“My brothers and I,” he clarified.

For a second, I simply stared at him before irritation pushed straight through everything else. “You already discussed this.”

“After Professor Corton found me,” he admitted.

“Without me,” I pointed out, dropping my arms to my sides.

“Yes,” he replied without hesitation, and although I appreciated that the answer came immediately, that didn't make me like it any better.

Releasing a slow breath, I looked toward the lawn where students were still laughing, eating and playing games as though my blood hadn’t apparently become the evening discussion topic for four immortal vampires. “I really hate that.”

“I know,” Dean Laraque replied quietly.

“No, I don’t think you do,” I countered as I turned back toward him, and this time, I didn’t care that he could feel the way my heart had begun beating harder because while he and his brothers might be standing around trying to understand what happened whenever one of them touched me, they weren't the only ones experiencing it.

Holding his gaze, I pressed one hand against my chest. “Whatever this is, it’s happening to me too.”

Coming in Part Two...

Aisha Savoie came to Laraque Academy expecting classes, new friends and an education in the supernatural.

She didn't expect to become one of its mysteries.

Dean Redakai Laraque can sense her before he sees her. The smallest scent of her blood awakens a hunger he can't explain.

Then his brothers touch her. Corton feels her heartbeat inside his own body. Syrus feels it too. Drayton reacts even more strongly, and suddenly four vampires who have spent centuries believing they understood the rules of their world are facing something none of them can explain.

Aisha intends to find out why.

In Part Two, her search will lead deeper into centuries-old records, buried Laraque history and secrets someone believed were better left forgotten. Unfortunately, discovering what hides in Aisha's blood may draw attention from beyond the Academy long before she understands what she is.

The Laraques will want to protect her.

Aisha will have opinions about that. Especially when four increasingly overprotective vampires begin forgetting that she's perfectly capable of making her own decisions.

The mystery won't be the only thing changing.

Lingering looks will become harder to dismiss. Accidental touches won't always feel accidental. Attraction will deepen, jealousy will surface, and Aisha will begin seeing Redakai, Corton, Syrus and Drayton as something far more dangerous than her Dean and professors.

Men she wants.

The sensible question would be which Laraque brother she'll choose. There's only one problem.

She may not want to choose at all.

Four brothers. One woman. A connection none of them understands. A history that may explain why the five of them were drawn together.

Aisha thought surviving her first week at Laraque Academy was complicated. She hasn't seen anything yet. And this time, the question won't be which Laraque she chooses.

It'll be what happens when she chooses them all.