There were few dorm rooms down here in the basement level; it was mostly reserved for laundry, although there was a large recreation room. The dorms down here were much smaller; there was barely enough room for two people, let alone a lot of furniture. Many believed the rooms down here were haunted; there were always odd shadows and quiet whispers, and sometimes people claimed to see specters gliding from one room to another in the middle of the night.
Theo hated coming down here. He hated that he could do nothing to stop Atticus from venturing into the lower floors, all to get his hands on some more alcohol. Further, he hated having to deal with a certain someone to get it.
Atticus found the door he was looking for quickly enough, and as soon as he rushed inside, Theo's blood ran cold.
The last thing he wanted Atticus to do was to barge into Sophia's dorm. The number one rule of the basement floor was not to disrupt the dormitory smuggler. Even if there were ghosts in the halls, do not piss off Sophia!
Theo followed his roommate inside, and it felt like he was stepping on pins and needles as he carefully walked to the center of the small room. Sitting on a cramped couch against the wall, Sophia was sitting by herself, and her song made things seem even more creepy.
"I'm just waiting for my man to come home," the woman sighed sweetly to herself. She sung quietly, softly, to the sounds of a record playing in the corner of the room.
Atticus seemed confused, not sure what to say or what to do about this.
Theo patted him on the shoulder, then pushed him aside.
The woman was deep in thought, seemingly lost in thought in fact.
"Sophia, sorry for interrupting you." Theo took things cautiously. He made the mistake of rudely interrupting her from such a trance once before and never wanted to do so again. Judging by her composure, she was still somewhat loosely in her own mind, daydreaming with barely a hint of acknowledgment. One might've thought it was careless of her to be sitting around idly like this, her guard seemingly down, but then one wouldn't know Sophia.
There was a reason, after all, why she never locked her door. Given her talents, one would be a fool to do what Atticus had just done.
Sophia Merryburst was widely known as the resident smuggler. She had a knack for getting contraband on campus, somehow able to sneak stuff under the guard's notice. Just about every dormitory had one or more, but Sophia was a specialist at her craft. However she managed to get all matter of alcohol through the layers of campus security was anybody's guess, but she had a rather large stockpile hidden away.
The elf wore something that caught both of them by surprise; a latex bodice that exposed the breath of her chest. Both of her breasts were barely covered, and it was clear that her nipples were pierced with a rather bold set of golden rings. A band of mystical tattoos decorated her left arm, and the side of her torso. Her short body was hard with sinew, she had a full six pack of abdominal muscles to go with her thick arms and firm legs. Short red hair flowed from her scalp, it was messy, as if she hadn't had a shower today.
"He'll come on the morrow, when the sun can be seen over the mountains," Sophia continued singing to herself.
"What the fuck?" Atticus whispered.
"Just let me handle this," Theo tried to keep him back.
Sophia's eyes twitched, her gaze drifting over to look at them.
SHIT!
Theo found himself suddenly unable to move. His arms and legs felt stiff, and even his eyelids wouldn't blink. It was as if some unseen force had gripped hold of his entire body, latching onto every synapse of his brain, and kept him solidly in place. His lungs wouldn't even cooperate with him. Theo found he had to will himself just to breath!
For twelve agonizing seconds he was kept like that, meanwhile Atticus was just about to lunge forward, as if that would do anything, and found himself falling on his face.
Sophia slowly got up from her perch. Her feminine hips were quick to draw the eye, especially when all she was wearing below the waist was a thong. She walked toward them until she was just out of arms reach, then her lips curled into a sinister smile.
A door burst open.
"I'm sorry Sophia, I should've locked the door before I left." Another woman rushed into the room just before Sophia could do more. She clung to the bath towel around her slender—yet somewhat muscular—frame. The woman was taller than Sophia, with long silky black hair and pale white skin. A gleaming pair of red eyes singled her out in a crowd, clearly vampiric in origin, but she was still very much human. Or so it seemed.
Theo had to assume that she had a vampiric father or someone else in her family tree. It must've been a fairly strong connection, for she even had a sharp pair of fangs.
"Relia, why are these rats in our room?" Sophia asked her roommate.
With Sophia's attention turned, Theo was able to breathe again and found his body answering his commands. He gasped, breathing in the stale dusty air of her dorm room, and noticed the scent of vanilla and honey competing with the compacted body odors. There were scented candles flickering in the corners of the room. He focused on them until he could move his fingers and toes.
"I just wanted to buy some booze," Atticus scoffed.
Sophia smirked at that.
"You stupid fools," Relia shut the door behind her.
Sophia was clearly debating on whether she wanted to try to ensnare them again, or if it was even worth the effort. Seemingly bored, she sat back down and reached behind her couch for a packet of chips and started munching on them before addressing Atticus. "You know the rules," she paused between chewing, "weekends only."
"But I've got Siins, and I figured…"
"Silence," Sophia forced him to suffer in silence for a brief moment out of spite.
Damn her magic is strong. Theo took a deep breath, summoning his own reserve of power to prepare a potential counter. His own shadow magic operated under different rules than hers, but there were things he could do. He already had a plan in mind.
"What are you?" Atticus asked, once she released his grip.
"Shut the fuck up," Theo planted his elbow into Atticus' side, "can't you see you're making things worse." He tried his best to keep his voice down.
He looked over to Relia, who stood between them and Sophia. In any other situation, this would've either been an incredibly embarrassing or exciting moment; walking into a woman's dorm room with one of its occupants nearly naked, clad only in a bathrobe, would've been enough to cause quite the stir. If things were normal, Relia probably would've screamed, thrown something at him, and unleashed hell. In a normal world, walking into this kind of a situation would've thrown his mind in complete chaos, horror at the implications of the situation, and the undeniable exhilaration of being in the presence of a mostly naked and undoubtedly beautiful woman. As things stood, however, Relia seemed calm and collective. Her fangs were pearly white, and with Sophia behind her, it made her seem more than menacing.
"So, Sophia," Theo looked back at the red haired elf with power flooding her veins. He kept his cool, or at least tried. "Sorry that we kinda barged in here. I tried to tell him not to be rude, but he just really gets excited ya know. So, you wouldn't happen to have a couple bottles of rye in reserve that you wouldn't mind selling? Would you?"
"Or maybe something more interesting?" Atticus rudely interrupted.
Theo elbowed him again.
Sophia kept munching on her chips, her eyes never leaving them. "One thousand Siins, one bottle." Her voice was rather menacing.
"One thousand—" Atticus seemed taken aback.
Theo shushed him. He considered using his own power, but hesitated. Sometimes, it was better to keep your cards close to your chest. Still, he was tempted for a little payback.
"One thousand Siins," Sophia repeated while chewing.
"Two hundred," Theo held his ground, all the while summoning just a bit of power, readying himself just in case. The nature of his gifts gave him a strange feeling, whenever he started using them. His vision refocused, and the world seemed a little 'thinner' for just a moment. There was a slight burning sensation behind his eyes, where his cursed sight was ready to spring.
"Eight," Sophia countered, clearly annoyed.
"Three." That was a fair price, about as much as he paid last time.
"Seven fifty," Sophia wasn't impressed.
It was then that Relia grew too annoyed to stay silent. "For the love of all that is holy, just sell it to em for five Sophia!"
Sophia sneered, reluctant to agree, but also realizing just how awkward the tension was in the room. "Fuck it, fine."
"Thank you," Theo decided to push just a little bit, seeing as he now had a bit of leverage. "But that's still a bit much. I'm fine with paying four, maybe four fifty as an apology for all this, but five is just killing me."
"How about I just show you my tits, and you pay the full thousand?" Relia's eyes were twitching.
"Deal—" Atticus was suddenly at attention.
"Bro, what the fuck!"
"It's worth it!" There was such orgasmic energy behind his tone. Theo wanted to slam his face in the wall.
"Then you can pay it!" Theo opened an exchange request to Sophia for four hundred Siins.
To his relief, she accepted it easily enough, apparently not wanting to see Atticus gawking at her roommates tits for a single second and marched over to the closet. Inside she opened a secret hatch and took out a bottle of spiced rum.
"It's all I got on short notice," she walked over to Theo, and handed it to him.
"Thanks, I guess."
Just as he accepted it, Sophia's mysterious power took hold of him again. This time it was softer, ushering his body to move forward just a bit to give him a better view. He was surprised to see her reach up to her chest and lift her top just enough to expose a peek of her cherry red colored nipple. It was perky, with a soft cushion around the tip. The gold ring made it stick out all the more. It was for the briefest of seconds, but just long enough to get a rise out of him. She released her magical grip, then walked back. Apparently, Atticus had no idea what just happened and was confused by Theo's flustered face.
"Thanks for your patronage." Sophia sat back down. "Now get the fuck out."
Theo grabbed Atticus by the shoulder and pulled him out of the room. The door slammed hard behind them.
"I'll pay you back." Atticus said.
"You're buying next time." Theo let him go and proceeded to walk back to the main stairway. He could've sworn that someone crossed the hall in front of him, but decided it was just his eyes playing tricks on him.