The Professor, My Mate

LESSIEThe coffee mug slipped from my fingers and shattered against the floor of my dorm. It wasn’t because I was clumsy. Not because I was rushing to make it to classes which have become a norm for me.But because of the scent that hit my nostrils the moment I opened my schedule email. It was something so wild that I couldn’t place it.“Lessie, are you okay?” My roommate, Sandra, poked her head around the corner, eyeing the brown puddle spreading across the floor.It was my official first day on campus and it had been haunting me as I didn't know how to face it. Smelling weird things, my vision blurred and suddenly so sharp, I convinced myself it was just stress and I needed to rest. But I grew worse by each passing day.I stared at my laptop screen. It was a memo reminder for Professor Dante Ravencrest's class."Yeah, just..." I swallowed hard. How could I smell someone through an email? "Just nervous about the new semester."Lies come easier these days. Ever since my parents di

LESSIEThe campus library felt different after dark.I have been here dozens of times during the day, researching papers and hiding from Sandra's endless stream of sorority friends. But tonight, everything felt different. The towering shelves and shadows of the shelves seemed to move on their own, making every nerve in my body scream danger.I should have stayed back in my dorm after hearing about the attack. Some girl was mauled by what campus security was calling "a large dog", though the whisper of the rumour suggested something far more scary and sinister. But Professor Ravencrest's assignment was a must, I couldn't afford not doing it.The question: Research the historical significance of lunar cycles in European folklore. Pay particular attention to transformation myths. Due for submission tomorrow, my heart ran. I knew deep within me that it wasn't just a question, he wanted to know if I was lying about my parents being anthropologists.The mythology section occupied the li

LESSIEThe moment my hand touched the cold brass of the door handle, the world betrayed me.It didn’t happen slowly. It didn’t even give me a warning. Pain exploded inside me with a bone-snapping violence that nearly tore my soul out of my body. My knees buckled, my nails dug into the wood, and a guttural scream ripped from my throat before I even realized it was me screaming.“Lessie!” Ethan’s voice cut through the haze, sharp and panicked. He was at my side in seconds, his hands hovering over me like he didn’t know where to touch first.“Wh...what’s happening to me?!” I shrieked, my voice strangled as fire licked my veins. My chest heaved like I was being drowned from the inside. Every bone cracked, every nerve burned. My very skin betrayed me, crawling and tearing apart as if it wanted to escape me.Ethan’s face had gone pale, his mouth opening and closing like a fish grasping for air. “You’re...Lessie, y-you’re..” he stuttered, his eyes wide, filled with both awe and terror.

LESSIE I jolted upright with a strangled gasp, my chest heaving as if I’d just surfaced from drowning. Sweat plastered my hair to my forehead, and my heart thrashed against my ribs like it wanted to claw its way out. For a moment I couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t the fire, the blast, the screams that still echoed in my ears. But the smell of cedar and smoke pulled me back into the present.Dante.I was in his place again.The sheets tangled around me were heavy, thick, and far too soft to belong anywhere near my cramped dorm room. The air smelled like him and I wanted to scream because why was it always him? Why did I always wake up in his world and never in my own?My gaze darted around the room, drinking in the dark wooden walls polished until they gleamed, the sprawling shelves stacked with leather-bound books, the iron chandelier dripping soft amber light across the ceiling. And he was there sitting in a deep chair near the bed, a book balanced on his knee, his l

LESSIE My heart was still slamming thunderously against my ribs, the echo of Kieran’s words tangled with the sight that had burned itself into my mind.Dante’s eyes, storm-dark and merciless, watching us from above.And now… he was moving forward.Every instinct in me screamed to run, but my legs refused to obey. I stumbled back instead, air hitching in my throat. Kieran’s hand steadied me, fingers curling protectively at my arm—That was it.Dante’s control snapped.He lunged at Kieran with a force that made the ground seem to shudder. His fist connected with Kieran’s jaw in a brutal, bone-jarring blow, and Kieran fell immediately, crashing into the dirt with a grunt of pain.“Dante, stop!” My scream tore from my throat, raw and desperate, but it was useless.Dante didn’t hear me. Or maybe he didn’t care.He shoved me aside with nothing more than a sweep of his arm, not hard enough to hurt me but strong enough to make me stumble backward. And then he was on Kieran again, pinning