"The point of the school is to protect the children inside it as well as the children who shouldn't be exposed to untamed magical beings." The man, who I assume would be the principal, reiterates at the rush of murmurs. "Think of it more as a safe zone and less as something that is banishing children from society. It's still illegal to use in public, this would allow them a place to hone their skills where we could monitor it."
"If you have to keep explaining why you're not evil, it only proves how evil you truly are," Verando interjects from the front of the group.
It was only a moment before Jonathan Campbell reveals himself from the group of sponsors. I touch Verando's arm, hearing his teeth grind as I hope to reel in the desire to maim the man for all the trouble he'd caused us. We'd become something of an obsession for him, though it seemed if one would truly dissect his intentions he was trying to uphold the law.
Was the man evil? No. But he was frightened and powerful and that was enough to make him a priority to thwart.
"Shocked you'd show your face here, considering the ongoing search in Europe. You're the last person who should be suggesting a world full of magic users is a safe place. Regulations and red tape, no shock at all that you're at the front to keep it from happening. Nothing is good enough unless you control it?" Senator Campbell crosses his arms over his chest, ushered backward by the Principle.
My warlord composes his face, to practiced to show his irritation. Ron takes his other side, it would appear we were both more than willing to prevent him from acting on ill intentions. Verando was still untested in his body, we hadn't provoked him enough to know how well the chain would work to keep Fenrir at bay.
"Considering both Mercer's are decorated heroes and saviors of our planet, we should treat them with more respect, wouldn't you say, Senator Campbell?" Ron interjects roughly, "Not becoming of someone who's up for reelection."
I see the untamed wolf beneath, he'd done little to work on controlling it, opting to go the way of Marcus and refuse to acknowledge it.
"Do you truly believe a self-loathing racist should decide anything for the future of magical children?" Verando presses, "Someone who fears what they are should have no say in how others are treated, you would have magical beings culled before you trained them to be functional."
The Senator tightens his grip on his own jacket, arms crossed over his chest.
"Mr.Mercer, with all due respect, you have a lengthy murder record and government involvement. Are you suggesting humans shouldn't fear your kind?" One of the opposing sides tilts her head, a thin woman in a pencil-style pale dress. "Without you, we would not have a planet... but if you were to wish to take it back-"
"This is not about my client," Ron interjects sharply. "We are not on trial here and if you wish to make it such, my client is happy to take his funding and his support elsewhere. We are here to decide if this school is a true sanctuary for children trying to develop their magic."
"It's not if they allow people like the Senator to have a say in how it's run." Verando's words are short, jaw tight.
Senator Campbell scoffs, "What, the playground bully can't touch your toys just because you deem it so? Someone has to regulate the creatures you will be producing here."
"Sir, my son is one of those creatures-" A man snaps roughly from the stage, one of the lead investors into Gospel by the tag on his shirt. "We're one of the few families who can afford to homeschool but that doesn't help him learn about what he is. We don't even know what that is. There is no database, no standard, we need help."
"Perhaps we should be putting all this funding into removing the magic." The thin woman suggests strongly, moving to stand beside Senator Campbell. "Having creatures other than humans... it just sounds absurd. What am I supposed to tell my daughter? Monsters are real?"
"Yes." Verando snaps. I touch his arm with a sigh.
"It's alright to be scared," I interject, giving him a firm look to not be so coarse. "But it's not alright to damn people for something they haven't done and might never do. The hero unit in France is performing marvelously, we've seen it, people want to help people. That is all we are asking, is to be treated like people but do not allow bigotry to overshadow the teaching here and create a generation of children who are terrified to be who they are. Who feel like they are actual monsters."
My own schooling sent a chill down my spine, making my hair stand on end. It was easy to forget and I probably wasn't the most experienced in what a magic upbringing was like. My father was a king, a Lord, the most powerful wizard the world had known. I had never been slandered, but I had been trained violently by people who felt I was expendable and that couldn't happen on my watch.
"We are not experiments," I tell the stage firmly. "This should be decided methodically, not with the hope that it will work itself out. Not as a temporary solution to an ugly problem."
"Or what?" A man questions, I could see the fear through the width of his eyes, "You'll declare war again?"
"Absolutely." Verando nearly snarls, met by a rough wave of uncertainty and murmurs. "My children will not suffer as I have, at the hands of something that they did not decide. A lycan, a vampire, a strigoi uncontrolled is a deadly weapon that the government has already tried to harness. Desperate people make desperate decisions and we can not afford to allow those people to surrender their bodies to become someone's test subject.
The world has already attempted to stop spinning once due to the loss of magic. From someone who has truly been dealt a poor hand at the wrath of a magic user, it's worth a second glance to consider your options. I'm not concerned about whatever support you think I have, I'm here on my own accord for my family. If this is the best you have to offer, it's a sorry attempt and an insult at best."
Pinching the bridge of his nose, the Principle sighs heavily. "Mr.Mercer, we truly were not trying to turn this into a political debate. This is an attempt to show everyone what good this school could do."
"Then you shouldn't allow racists at your table and in your court." Verando seethes, I feel his body threatening to ignite. The vibration rolled through his chest, the heat radiating off of him. Giving Ron a warning glance, I wrap my arm around the rigid man. It was a sore subject for him, it was sore for all of us. He'd lived in squaller because of this, he'd been turned into a weapon and enslaved, with no help from the rest of the world.
There had to be the lowest form, those without outward differences would be hit the hardest, and those with the most need for assistance would be the ones left in the dust.
"I'm not racist, I'm just saying that I want the world to return to how it should be. Normal. Normal humans, normal children, normal schools!" The Senator roars, flashing his fangs. "Look at me! Do I like normal to you?! Do I look like I want this?" With a snarl, I see the wolf threatening to leave him and Verando takes a step forward to guard me against the threat.
I see the chain steaming against his skin, the wolf trying to climb to the surface, flinching he clutches his throat with a light cough and a wince.
Someone fires a gun, hitting the sprinkler system and sending water cascading down on us.
My poor husband. Horrified at the overwhelming downpour from the sprinklers. I grip his face, feeling his body shaking, the chain holding the wolf back yet he wanted to erupt from his own skin and get free from this place. "Ron, find out how to shut these off," I yell over the complaints and shouts at the ruined evening.
"'M not a fireman, Nic." He grumbles, holding his hands up to shield his glasses. "Get him out of here."
I yank Verando out of his own internal spiral, keeping hold of his tie as my only means to keep him moving. Every new sprinkler head caused him to want to stop, balk and attempt to fight back against me. Spying what looked like a dean's office, I break the door handle off and push him inside, relieved that it was dry. With all the important paperwork, a secondary system was probably set up in case the fire occurred here.
Closing the door behind me, Verando yanks his coat off, shredding through the material as he gasps for air, yanking the tie loose and getting his fingers snagged in the chain.
"Damn it! God damn it!" He snaps, trying to rip the chain from his neck as I rush to him and grip his wrists. Wild-eyed, and desperate, he meets my gaze and I hold him as steady as I can.
"Hey. Hey. It's alright." I keep my voice small, and soft. "Baby it's fine. It was just the sprinklers."
Chest heaving, panting, trembling in my hands, his fingers finally relax minutely before he attempts to take more slow, and controlled breaths. "I feel-.... I can't-... breathe." He manages as I hold him here, agonizing for him, the chain had its own setbacks.
With the restriction, he couldn't shift.
This must have heightened the flight response, convincing him he truly would drown here. "Honey, if you couldn't breathe you wouldn't be able to talk to me right now." Trying to lighten the air, I earn a look of disgust and smirk back at him as he stumbles a step back to rest his hip against the desk. Bracing himself, on one hand, he shuts his eyes tightly and attempts to regain his composure.
"Fucking pathetic."
"Absolutely not." I snap, "You were charged up and we don't know what the limits are yet, this is not just some fear, Randy. That was a lot, for anyone." I wouldn't allow him to plummet with this, not with all that we'd been through. It came and went, some things were fine, and others caught him off guard and sent him out of his mind with whatever torment haunted him.
With my own excitement, my soaked sweater caused my nipples to be erect and I shiver at the sensation. My magic was sparking inside of me, triggered by my need to protect him, chilling me to my core.
"Sorry, love. Seems silly to put you through all of this now." Sliding his warm hands under my shirt, he unclips the chain and I sigh with relief before gasping as he lifts me to set me on the desk. "Hold." Putting the hem of my sweater between my teeth, I obediently hold it there as he moves to place a soft kiss on my chest.
Focusing on one of the sore and swollen nipples, the warmth of his tongue nearly makes me cry out yet the soft, gentle passes as he swirls the tip of his tongue around the aching skin keep me firmly in place. "You're freezing." He mutters as I knot one of my hands in his hair, crossing my legs to attempt to hold myself together.
"My magic-" I manage through my teeth, whimpering as he moves to the next nipple with such care. "So good-"
Smirking against my skin, his hand slides to unhook my pants, shimmying them down my hips as I kick out of my shoes and let them drop to the floor. The black stockings contrast sharply against the tone of my skin, I flush darkly as I remember I'm still wearing the panties.
"Nic." he manages, crushing his lips against mine as I hook one of my legs over his hip.
"You don't have to." I plead with him, pressing my hands to his chest, gasping as his hand finds my manhood, stroking me through the mesh of the thong. "Mmm... ok, maybe you do. Randy... I know it's hard for you."
Grazing my lips with his own, he strokes me slowly, the binding of the material almost uncomfortable and yet the forbidden nature of it was sending me over the edge. "I've been thinking about this all evening, you saved me, the least I could do is extend my gratitude to you. You look absolutely mouth-watering." He manages, flinching as I put my arm around his neck and yank him closer.
"Sorry." I manage.
"It's fine. Stop apologizing." Crushing his lips to mine, I moan against his mouth as he hooks one of his arms under my knee to keep me exposed to him. Grinding against me through the panties, making my body shiver as I envision him taking me. "You're so beautiful when you make that sound."
"I want you inside me," I growl against his ear, making him chuckle.
"There's the man I married." Unzipping his pants, he springs free through his boxer briefs and I grasp him greedily, earning a hushed gasp at my chilled fingers. "Careful what you wish for, love. I'm out of my damned mind." Growling into my neck, Verando grinds into my hand and I try desperately to guide him to me.
"Then don't hold back." I plead, exposing my neck to him, "Taste me."
Hesitating, he weighs his options as I swirl my thumb over the head of his length. "Fucking hell, Nic." Pinning my leg to my side, keeping me spread and exposed, he sinks into me and I fight the urge to scream. Panties pushed to the side, still dressed in my garters, I was beyond the point of turned on. Verando pushes me onto my side, "Hold the desk." He demands roughly, gripping my leg as he sinks his teeth into the inside of my calf through the stocking.
I practically curl up from the sensation, gripping the desk for leverage as he takes me with little remorse. Yet, when I look up at him, see him watching me with that sultry gaze and so taken with me, I nearly melt all over again. Verando was coming apart at the seams and I was on the edge just watching him, placing his hand on the desk, he leans over me.
Gripping his tie, I pull his lips to mine, kissing him with a moan while I roll my hips hungrily against his. "You're incredible." I manage, cursing at the pace, never wanting it to end as he claims me as his own. "I love you. Gods, I love you."
"Nic." He pleads, our dynamic shifting, him needing me and me comforting him as he loses himself in me. "Never leave me. Please don't go." Desperate against my mouth, I pull him closer to me, knotting my hand in his tie. I'm too close to allow him to back off now for something so silly.
It was different from how it used to be, he was ashamedly mine, and while he was happy to be my dominant he also needed to still be my husband.
"I'm not going anywhere." I moan, cursing the closer I get. "I love you. I'm not leaving."
My body shivers, so deep, so intense, so impossibly good.
"Attention all patrons. The school is closing, please exit the building immediately." The loudspeaker causes us both to jump, my fingers snapping the edge off the desk and Verando stiffening to the point of statuesque tension.
"Not yet," I beg as the message repeats on the loudspeaker. Verando exhales slowly, kissing me gently with a chuckle.
"Darling I don't think I can perform with such... ambiance." Flinching at the repeat of the speaker, he withdrawals, making me wince at the suddenness. Fixing back up his pants, I'm left exposed and sprawling on the desk, trembling from the chill and from being so close yet denied.
Offering me his hand, I'm tempted to finish myself off as I press my thighs together reluctantly. Finally, I place my palm in his, allowing him to help me stand on shakey legs. "You're going to take me when we get home after you buy me a really expensive dinner. Hours. Hours I will have you, understand?"
With a smirk, he kisses my cheek. "Yes, sir."
Smacking him on the ass, I shoo him away to attempt to slide back into my nearly dry pants without falling on my face given the state of my legs.