“Don’t call me that,” I growled under my breath.
“Come on,” he reached forward grabbing my springy hair as his natural warm vanilla scent surrounded me, “you don’t mind that much do you?”
I didn’t. The ink mage thought my hair looked like the top of a cupcake. Don’t ask me how he figured that, it was a weird comparison. He was a bit odd though to be honest, as an ink mage he was very different than most men I knew. Apparently, he was different than most ink mages as well. What he had done last night? Was normal for an Ink mage. What wasn’t? His magic often produced dream like visions that he would find himself sketching in the middle of the night without warning. He could also draw concepts into reality as long as he’d experienced or seen the concept before. Milo mentioned he could do the same, draw and change the reality of other’s dreams but he didn’t like to talk about it. I wasn’t sure why. Honestly, it was a bit terrifying knowing how powerful he was because you would never guess. He was so relaxed and most of the time seemed a bit out there, stuck in his own brilliant head. Other times he seemed mental, so who the fuck knew with him. I wondered what kept him here because I was nearly positive he could find a way out.
Now why did him leaving upset me?
I swallowed and moved closer, his entire body freezing as he watched me cautiously. It was easy for Milo to act confident and cocky when someone wasn’t going to touch him. The moment I moved close enough, because I was the only one brave enough to, it was like Medusa herself had turned him to stone and left only his eyes free. It was different when he was making the first move but when I did, it really seemed to fuck with him. I wasn’t positive what had happened to make Milo like that and it was hard for me to not dig into his past. I knew it wasn’t my business but somehow everything regarding Dimitri and him had become my business.
My hand reached up to cup his jaw and he shivered his eyes turning into purple blazing fire. With a slow, cautious step, I moved into him and rested my cheek on his chest, his body shaking slightly. After a moment, a rough hand came around to press on my back. We didn’t do this very often but I tried to every once in a while just to test the limits. Although, I had to admit, lately he had been touching me a lot more. I found myself sitting closer to him more and he was comfortable enough now that he wrapped me up in his arms randomly, without warning some days. I was probably going to fuck this up eventually. Either end up with my neck snapped or screwed into the floor. For the record, I would prefer the second.
“Valentina,” His voice was rough and dangerous.
“I know,” I murmured as he squeezed tighter almost painful. I needed to keep trying though. Even if it was hard for him to accept others making the first move. I needed him to be okay around me. It hurt far too much to consider that I was hurting him somehow.
“Breakfast?” He asked quietly after another minute and I looked up nodding.
Why did I feel like today was going to be a weird fucking day?
Chapter 2
Milo
The moment she stepped away from me, I nearly pulled her back. It was fucked up because her touch was almost painful. Actually, it was totally painful but I followed after her like a fucking puppy dog, my eyes feeling raw and gritty from not sleeping. I watched her springy hair bounce as she walked down the steps towards the cafeteria, everyone going quiet at the sight of her. As if she didn’t notice, she smiled at her two friends that, if we were being honest, creeped me out a bit… which was saying something.
“Morning,” She sang as both of her friends murmured their hellos. I sat down and watched her perch herself on top of the table. I was about to say something but the door opened from the yard and a cool wind blew in, bringing the scent of blood as Dimitri ducked underneath the door. His entire shirt was covered in red and his face looked unusually grim.
I had to admit. I was a bit jealous. I usually had to control myself enough to not delve into every fucker’s head that bothered her at night whilst they slept. Had to control myself from pushing them to the limit of killing themselves. It was a difficult task usually. Last night though, I hadn’t even been able to focus on crafting nightmares because I’d been caught up in my own head. My own memories.
The visions weren’t the only reason I didn’t sleep.
Valentina frowned and tilted her head as he neared and all of a sudden, a chair scraped back clattering to the floor.
“You killed him, you fucking bastard,” A man snarled, “what the fuck is wrong with you?” Who was this guy again? Had he been part of the issue from yesterday or two days before? Fuck there were too many to count.
Dimitri turned and looked at him, narrowing his eyes but before anything could be said, she was up and grasping Dimitri’s hand. He met her gaze and sighed following after her towards the table before meeting my gaze with a malicious glint in his eyes. He fucking knew, I knew what he did at night and who he killed. I had a feeling my Cupcake hadn’t put it together completely.
“What was that?” She hissed quietly as his jaw tensed.
He swallowed, “The man gave me a fucking problem this morning, so I killed him.”
“The same man who gave me a fucking problem yesterday?” She arched a brow.
“Was it?” He asked, “Interesting.”
Her eyes narrowed, “Is this what you do every night?”
I saw him trying to decide how to handle this and I decided to help out, I reached over and took her hand gently, making her jump slightly. She raised her brows at my contact. I spoke, “He probably deserved it. It’s all good, Cupcake. Don’t waste your time on that asshole.” I also wasn’t thrilled at the concept of her realizing that while Dimitri was chopping some of her ‘bullies’ up, I was creating nightmarish dream scapes that brought them to suicide. Her not realizing the truth really aided both of us. Plus, I had to admit, it was becoming somewhat of a fun competition between the two of us.
She sighed looking over Dimitri’s shoulder and nodded, sliding down onto the bench so that she was more between us than above us. I kept her hand in mine as Dimitri watched her with an almost nervous energy. More people started to show up and I could tell that she was in a weird mood because she didn’t even bother to intimidate the new arrivals, everyone offering her cautious looks at her lack of action. I didn’t like that she wasn’t eating but I wasn’t one to talk.
Then again, I didn’t talk very much anyway, except with her and sometimes Dimitri. There wasn’t very much for me to say. It wasn’t that I was shy or submissive, I just didn’t believe in spouting bullshit. Most days, I was either exhausted or my brain was filled with suggestions and comments on how to use my magic to adjust and change things. My room was littered with sketches but most of them were useless. I could only create what I knew and I had yet to think of a way to get out of this fucking place. My eyes flickered over the woman in front of me at the thought of leaving. Of course, she would be coming with me hopefully.
I had drawn Valentina’s face so many times that I could tell you where every single one of her freckles were. I could tell you the exact shade of her arctic blue eyes and how they darkened to a royal blue on the outside edge. I paid so much attention to Valentina that if I wasn’t randomly hit my visions, I would probably go insane at the thoughts of her that cluttered my head.