End of Chapter 14

For the rest of the morning, Rue tried to look for a place to sleep.

She went to auditoriums and the lecture halls—locked of course. Then to libraries and public spaces with plenty of zombified students, studying and sleeping their lives away. But the solution was temporary, and there was no way the bots patrolling the corners would allow her to camp out for months on a desk. And eventually she was reconsidering her panicky decision to leave, feet tapping anxiously on the floor.

Why couldn't she sleep with Halcyon in the same room?

Sure, she'd initially anticipated a double room, an Alpha roommate. And it had crossed her mind. She'd been prepared to take triple doses of suppressants, smear her skin with more scent blockers, do everything to look utterly undesirable. Then ignore him for the rest of her life, and she could have done that if her roommate weren't Halcyon.

Halcyon who'd wanted to fuck her regardless of her scent and her looks. Halcyon who went as far as to visit her family business. Halcyon who believed her to be a prostitute and had offered to pay for her services. Halcyon who was once madly in love with her. Halcyon, the alien with a fucked-up ability to change into a dangerous predator.

She'd broken his heart.

Rue sighed. The situation was messy, disgustingly so. She didn't trust him to be civil about it. Oh God no, he'd proven it himself with that little show. He would fuck her up with vengeance. He'd look through her things. He'd find out her truth in the matter of hours. She knew it without a doubt.

Unless she did something about it, left her stuff outside the dormitory, doused herself with more of that gunky, life-saving Alpha semen, suit up with the biggest fake silicon dick she could find in her stash. Then sleep as if she were in the army and he was coming for her ass. She could work it out, somehow, take a couple of big risks—

"Rue? You there?"

Her eyes snapped upwards to the professor who stood watching her with a strange expression, a floating tablet in his hands. Right, her job.

She stood now in luxury, of walls dripping with warm yellow lights, high ceilings and thick heavy carpets—potentially used to mop up spilt blood and muffle the screams. With the décor of a hotel, the space resembled an office, segmented into squares of cordoned off stations the size of small hotel rooms. Each cubicle had tall, tinted glass for walls, and a thick white curtain at the door for privacy, with glowing technology lining each wall to ensure a sound-proof space.

Assigned to each station was an Alpha Guide, a student working to hone his skills with an Esper. And he would be tasked to serve rows of rampaging, dying Espers waiting in line outside of his space. Espers that she couldn't see from where they were now standing.

If each station could be described as the main counter to a restaurant, Rue was now in the kitchen, hidden away from customers. A safe space where Guides could run out and take a piss break before heading back to work. And so dressed in a frock that resembled the sort of fashion you'd give to a nurse, she wasn't so sure what she was doing there. Perhaps she could give the Guides backrubs for good work, hand them their lunch, or even clean. Rue eyed the ground. It did seem to need a little vacuuming.

"Sorry," she nodded towards the professor, scratched her neck, as she peered into the rooms. Shadows loomed, but she could barely make out the scene. It probably was for the best; she wasn't interested in seeing strangers fuck. "My roommates a little crazy. It's been a wild night."

A smirk stretched across the professor's lips. "The Poseidon?" This had a scowl inching up her cheeks, and then a frown.

"I guess."

"Okay," he chuckled, moving on as he went over the basics. "Rampage is something that's extremely dangerous for a high-ranking Esper. The more they use their powers, the more their bodies can't stand it. They tend to lose themselves in the process, unable to control their powers. Their abilities will start to attack anything that stand in their way including themselves. It's a highly destructive process, where regeneration and healing become impossible despite our available technology."

"They self-destruct?" God, Rue wondered if she'd signed up for a job or another class.

"They do, which is why Guides are there to take in all that energy, absorb it and calm them down. An extremely talented Guide can even heal their Espers, turning that energy into something positive. Mentally and physically Espers need Guides. But it's very difficult for a Guide to truly calm an Esper completely, which is why we have assistants. People that help out in the process." Professor Ryo smiled. "And you're here, to help me with emergencies."

"What should I do?"

"Just listen to me and do as I say." Professor Ryo answered, ushering her along. "Our guiding facility offer our services to B-class Espers and above. There are plenty of guides for Espers below S-ranked, but any higher and that number dwindles." He turned to look at her. "We should check your rank."

Rue frowned. "Is that hard?"

"It's not a difficult process," Professor Ryo explained. "We just go up the list. Once you begin struggling to guide an Esper that's usually where we'd start taking your vitals. If it becomes dangerous for you, that's your limit. We usually have monitors tagged to our Guides just in case."

"And what happens if it becomes dangerous for a Guide? What then?"

"Someone steps in, a professor, an assistant. We need someone to push the Esper off and save the Guide. Or at least, get the Guide to safety. That's where we come in. It's usually not that hard, the Espers don't attack much—" An alarm sounded, ringing loudly across the space, and Professor Ryo glanced forward, brows pinched. "Ah, as usual. It's always that room. I'd hoped that your first time wouldn't be quite as drastic."

"Pardon?"

"Come quickly."

His pace quickened and Rue struggled to follow, but inside she was panicking. What the fuck did he mean by push the Esper off? How the fuck could she do that? Why didn't he use security bots? Or someone stronger? Why her? A newbie in the whole system? But it didn't matter because they were approaching the station. The walls vibrating with red glowing light, and she was entering the space, curtains falling behind her.

And then it was all she could do not to gape.

This cubicle was much larger than the rest, a suite the size of three rooms combined. It seemed to resemble a decent doctor's office—of leather couches, desks, medical equipment embedded in the walls. But what caught her eye was the massive bed at the very centre. And the chaos of writhing shadows flooding the walls, sticky ink running across every single damned surface. Every shadow seemed to vibrate in the room, hissing, spinning and shuddering.

And they burned.

Rue cursed, side-stepping the writhe of her own, now violently alive shadow. The tendrils sharp against her flesh.

Then her eyes were landing on the heap of naked Guides falling over themselves, fingers grabbing at the sheets, almost begging in the mess of darkness. And for fuck's sake they were bleeding, raw and red, bodies steaming and burnt, a mess of crimson on the plastic covering of the bed. They screamed, dragged backwards as the ink swallowed them whole, and then spat them out in an endless cycle of hell.

It seemed to hurt, or maybe it didn't.

Not with the way the Guides appeared to grab at the shadows and pull as if they wanted it too. But they must have lost their minds and she could see it in the roll of their eyes. The twist of their hips, and the drool down their lips, the pulse of their cocks, spewing web-like globes of cum. The strange smiles on their faces as their veins seemed to glow and absorb whatever the fuck the ink fed into their bodies.

It was as if they were drugged, overdosed to the borders of death.

And it was fucking them, rough, raw and violent, chasing its own pleasure as if it too were trying to cum. The shadows were tearing into their ass and drawing shrieks from their lips. But it wasn't the act of it that seemed to cause them the greatest pain.

God, it seemed to be the expulsion, the things that spewed from the shadows, globes and running strings of light that went into their bodies. Things that made their bellies glow, and their bodies spasm. Things that ran up their veins, glowing in the darkness. And whatever the fuck that was seemed to result in the expulsion of blood from their eyes, nose, ears and lips.

It was like lava, and they were almost completely on fire.

"Rue! Pull them out of there!" Professor Ryo called, he was fiddling with a syringe, fingers spinning over a dial for backup. If Rue were him, she'd be grabbing the fire extinguisher, and a hose. But her gaze turned back to the poor Guides struggling in the heap. "No matter what you do don't touch the Esper!"

And then she was running, hands on the first Guide. Somehow it wasn't too difficult for her to pull him free, and he fell in a wet heap in her arms, shaking and shivering. He frothed, eyes rolled back and blood spilling from his ears. Then slumped in a heap on the floor. Holy shit.

She was after the next one in a second, and he too was deep in the bowels of the darkness. He had his back arched, something burrowing into his body, and it didn't take much for her to dislodge him from the mass. Strength running through her veins with the adrenaline. His body stuttering in her grasp.

And then all that was left was the last one, splayed on the bed with blood running down his mouth, legs parted so far it must hurt. And fucked so deep, his belly jiggled with each shattering thrust. Still, she couldn't see in the monstrous wave of darkness, couldn't tell where the fuck was the Esper because the sea of shadows was moving, moving and vibrating lava splattering, molten unfurling. And then her hands were in the fire, in the shadows. And she was grabbing, reaching, pulling.

The Guide tumbled into her arms, fire burning his hair. He sobbed. God, why the fuck would they throw them into the arms of a fire monster? Who would—And then the face in the darkness shivered, features forming, glowing as the shadows caught her arms. They tingled. And then there he was. An Alpha traced with fire. A gorgeous Alpha of corded, muscles, of marbled flesh, of fire in his veins. A hades hephaestus mix.

"Levi?" she gaped, stared at the tendrils that of darkness that fanned out wider and larger—like wings. "Holy fuck what happened to you dude?"

"Rue! It's dangerous there!" Professor Ryo screamed, but the shadows were moving. The walls billowed, fire twisting from each shuddering tendril. They curled around her, hissing as it released the last Guide. He fell to the ground. "Stand back! It's not safe! He might attack!"

"Prof, it's just my dormmate! I know him!" she called back with a shrug, turned like an idiot, and glared. "Dude. You don't look so good." And then there were lips on her shoulder, teeth in her flesh, the sleeve of her frock tore. And he bit down, hard. She screamed. "FUCK!"

And of course, it was all fucking instinctual, her hand pulled back and went across his face in a tight slap. The sharpness of it echoed across the room. And the shadows seemed to fall with his surprise. The darkness disappearing, rushing back into him. And then he was naked on the bed. His eyes were on her, red, fiery—wide. His cheeks were swollen, her handprint on his flesh. A hoarse groan twisting from his lips.

"Fuck," he hissed, blinking twice. "Did you have to hit so fucking hard?"

"Ah, shit—"

And then his lips were on hers taking her breath away.

A/N: Read ahead on my Patreon <3 https: www.patreon.com tinyeyecat< p>