Fortune Academy: Year Three - J.R. Thorn Page 0,42

“Well, almost anything. I don’t want to get expelled.”

“Melinda,” Olivia warned.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m leaving.” She gave a little curtsey before she grabbed one of her thralls for support. “Come on, girls. Let’s go finish this party back at my place.”

They giggled as they followed her, which sounded more like creepy robot sounds than anything else.

I released a breath when she closed the door behind her. “Finally. I thought she’d never leave.”

“Seriously,” Orion agreed as he grabbed me around my waist and hoisted me onto his lap. He kissed my head as his arm brushed upward, copping a feel over my breast. “I’ve been dying for some intermission.”

Olivia rolled her eyes and began cleaning up the empty beer bottles Melinda had left behind. “I so don’t want to see that.”

Chuckling, I pushed Orion’s hand down, which was ineffective because he took that as an invitation to touch me somewhere… else. “Orion,” I hissed.

“Fine. But if you’re horny later, it’s not my fault.” He set me on the couch and got up as he adjusted his pants. “We wouldn’t be able to crash here by any chance, could we?” Orion asked.

Olivia shook her head. “Absolutely not.”

Logan whined, still in wolf form as he curled up on my feet, obviously not intent on going anywhere. I scratched behind his ears.

“Look, Melinda and the rest may have lost their memories, but it’s a temporary thing. Melinda lost all of her Mindfreak buddies in that last battle, or did you not notice she’s an alcoholic with only thralls for friends? She doesn’t remember what happened, but a part of her is grieving, so that means this thing I’ve done isn’t going to stick. Luckily I figured that out pretty quickly and I’ve been keeping the Dean’s memories suppressed, but all of you need to take up your lives as they were before you met Lily, got it? If you do anything out of the ordinary, it could trigger the Dean’s memories. She’s powerful and it’s taking all of my efforts to keep her memories suppressed as it is.”

“Where are you getting that kind of power?” Hendrik asked as he cocked his head. “You were a weakling barely suited to join my clan the last time I saw you.”

“I got my soul back, remember?” she asked, pointing at her golden eyes. “Where do you think I’m getting it?”

I gasped. “Olivia! Do not tell me that I got you your soul back and you’re just going to devour it again.”

She waved me away. “Relax. I won’t use it all up completely. I was trying to figure something out with the Dark Mages, but now that you’re here, maybe we’ve got a shot.” She threw the empty bottles into the trash and tapped her lip. “Maybe Yuri can help.”

“Who’s Yuri?” Dante asked as he crossed his arms. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Because she’s an annoying vampire from Monster Academy who’s going to help us get to Cole. And by the sounds of it, Cole is how we get to the Dean, right?”

Olivia looked at me for confirmation and I gave a half-hearted nod. “Well, yes, once Cole becomes my Virtue I suspect I’ll awaken my full potential, but I can’t just go in there and… you know…” I waved my hands. “I’m going to need some time to get to know the guy, or something.”

Orion came up from behind me and squeezed my ass. “Or we just help that little succubus in you come out to play. She won’t have any trouble—”

“Orion! I swear I will kick you in the balls again if you don’t stop groping me.”

He brought his hands up in surrender. “All right. Just trying to help.”

I rubbed my temples as I sank into the couch. “When did this get so complicated?”

Olivia chuckled as she sat next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Because you’re trying to look at the big picture. Maybe you just need to look at the next step. Right now, the guys need to go back to their lives.” She looked up and glared at Hendrik, Dante, and Orion, then nudged the wolf with her toe. “All of them.”

“Well, I had a lot of sex before I met Lily,” Orion countered, waggling his eyebrows for effect. “So I can still drop by without risking the Dean’s memories, right?”

“Fine,” Olivia conceded, but threw up a hand against the other hopeful looks. “Nobody else. Unless we have more playboy demigods I wasn’t aware of?”

My Virtues pleaded with me with