I Can't Resist

Chapter 32

Max entered through Fariyel’s office door, but paused and stared at all of the people in the room. I could see in his eyes that he was hesitating to come in. There was a debate going on through his head, but he eventually released a heavy sigh and entered.

“I should’ve known.” He muttered to himself before he went to stand by the other end of Fariyel’s desk, which wasn’t occupied by anyone.

“Sorry.” Fariyel smiled at him and leaned a hand on her palm. “But I have to say, it was Mariam’s idea. When did you tell her?”

He looked down at me. “I didn’t tell her. She found out on her own. Even though you told her not to sneak around, she still did and caught me with another witch during the time you were rebooting the barrier around V-Academy.”

I blinked with shock. I didn’t think he noticed, but he had the whole time and just acted like he didn’t.

“Nikolai?” Brett said and looked up and down at the new arrival. “This little, scrawny, no-face kid is Nikolai Sage?”

“He’s in disguise.” Fariyel explained.

Regal looked calm as usual, making me conclude that he had to also have known that Nikolai was in this building of V-Academy. But maybe this Nikolai guy was bigger than I thought if Brett also knew about him. Then again, it seemed like all the adults surrounding me were all connected to each other some way or another.

“Hm…” Brett murmured while staring into Nikolai’s eyes. “The Nikolai I knew had more personality than this thing.”

And then, just like before, black ash surrounded him and he began to transform into somebody else. As soon as the black specks cleared up around him, before us was Nikolai–the guy who had long dark red hair, was tall and buff, and most definitely not a vampire.

To my amazement, Nikolai grinned calmly at Brett. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t Brett. I hadn’t seen you since the Mystic-Feline War.”

Brett grinned back at Nikolai, but it wasn’t as friendly and more hostile. “There’s the Nikolai I know.” His muscles tightened, as if he was getting ready to fight. “Just the sight of you gets me itching for the good old days.”

The two of them had a stare-off while I continued to look at Nikolai Sage. I still had no idea what that was. But from the sounds of that, was it just a family name?

Nikolai was a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn from Max. Max was someone who barely showed any emotion on his face and would never openly smile. But Nikolai looked like one of those guys who were friendly to everybody. Even though Brett was giving him a killer look, Nikolai didn’t look disturbed at all and just continued to give him an easy smile.

So this was the real Nikolai?

After a few seconds, I became impatient. “Hello? You’re here for Constantine, remember?” I said to Nikolai and he turned to look down at me with a friendly face.