The Academy Vampire

{ Chapter 33 } - Journey in Ourselves

A/N: Enjoyyy ;)

--- Nikolai's Pov ---

Luke woke up, sobered and embarrassed of his behavior within the last 24-hours. Gabriel quickly assured him that he was beautiful last night, and he loved it in every way possible. I commented as well, telling Luke that I was proud of him for being so obedient so fast.

Gabriel took the opportunity to reprimand me, telling me not to fucking "kink shame" him.

I held up my hands in protest and told him that I'd do whatever I damn well pleased, but he was right this time.

Now, we'd been in the car for less than twelve hours, and Luke was already flopped over on top of Gabriel, asleep in his lap.

Gabriel seemed to be falling asleep too, but his eyes were still slightly open; his hand was running soothingly through Luke's hair as he smiled down at him.

Our car was probably the quietest one out of our group, especially compared to Olivia's. Man, I've had to ride with them on special missions in the Academy, and none of them shut the fuck up. It's ridiculous how much they could talk! Even quiet Aiden had quite the jabber mouth on him when you got him in the car.

Cody and Elijah would always be trying to get one last session in with one another before we were split up, sometimes having Olivia join in, if she wasn't the one driving.

It was... nice, having someone to care and worry about. It was something I never thought I would have.

Now I was building my own little family. Gabriel had Luke to entertain himself with, which I was fine with. Eventually, Luke and I may end up friends down the line, but for now, we had a mutual understanding of each other.

"I still don't know what he sees in him," I said lowly.

"Why don't you find out yourself?" He whispered, surprising me, as I thought he didn't hear me.

"What?" I asked.

"You told me to explore my options, so it's not too far of a stretch for me to tell you the same thing," he whispered.

I didn't comment, and soon Gabriel was lulled to sleep by the cars movement.

I could tell that Gabriel really cared about his Academy family, especially Luke, so I couldn't ask him to give that up. No matter how much I wanted to do what Sang did, and give him an ultimatum, I can't.

I understood the need to have people that you could connect to, but this was not the outlet to do it.

This wasn't Sean's Academy. This was its own entity in itself, its own branch of something dirty and an under-the-counter operation,

We had a plan, but it wasn't the right time. Not yet, at least.

The mission was to get to North Carolina and take down Sang's father, no matter what it took to do it.

Our group pulled off at a hotel once we'd been on our journey for about twelve hours, stumbling inside and claiming a few rooms for our large group.

Something was wrong with Cody. Olivia tried to hide it, but something was going on. He was my brother, so it would be wrong if I didn't notice that he was acting strange.

I couldn't remember much of the rest of night, just that Gabriel was in my arms finally after such a long journey. He kept me warm all night into the morning. He moved probably once last night, but he wasn't gone long, as he cuddled back between Luke and I.

I stretched my arms above me when the sun was shining too brightly in my eyes the next morning. I soon brought my arms down around Gabriel's small body again, snuggling closer to him with a groan. His long hair was in my face, making me need to sneeze.