Amara took a deep breath as she walked, each stair bringing her closer to the cafeteria. Previously, fresh off her reaper kill, she'd been too exhausted to care about the crowd of students, but now things felt different. The adrenaline had worn off, and she'd fed enough downstairs for her injuries to vanish completely. For a moment, she dwelled on the thought that she'd almost walked in front of a crowd of students without any clothes on.
It made her chuckle quietly to herself.
Maybe Tessa has a point; the old me would have been mortified to show so much skin in public, even my swimsuits were always rather tame. Still, most of them have probably seen my pictures, right? And I don't even have to hide my true form anymore. Actually, how much should I cover up? Is this too little, or too much?
She looked down at her "outfit"--a complex series of overlapping, chitinous plates that wrapped around her breasts and her groin. At the moment, they covered about as much as a modest, if slightly conservative, bikini.
Hm. That's no good.
With another thought, the exoskeleton began retreating. Her cleavage grew more prominent, more of her toned stomach exposed itself, and the pert curves of her ass were now on full display.
That's better. I need to feed again before this fight, so the hornier they are, the better.
Just before reaching the doors, Amara turned to face Nick and Tessa. "Anything I need to know before I go out there?"
"Um, we've barely had a chance to get a handle on things," Nick said. "They started serving food, which I think is helping, and Vee is trying to touch base with everyone. Most of them are obviously pretty freaked out; do you think it might be a good idea to tone down your appearance a bit? You know more than anyone that demons don't have the best rep."
Amara briefly looked back at her wings. "I guess I can put these away so I take up less space. Though, personally, I think we've got bigger problems than what some random students think of me."
With a flash of hellfire, Amara's wings vanished. She rolled her shoulders a few times, adjusting to the strange feeling. She'd been in her true form for more than a week straight, and it felt weird to hide it again. Once she finished, her tail reached out and opened the door, then she turned to walk into the cafeteria.
She immediately noticed that Nick was right; the food seemed to be helping. Rather than a panicked crowd of students all standing around awkwardly, they had broken up into smaller groups and were slowly picking away at their lunches. Previously, Amara hadn't bothered identifying anyone in the crowd other than Naomi; she'd been far too exhausted from her fight. Now, with no immediate threats, she allowed herself a moment to scan the crowd.
She recognized quite a few faces, though some students had their backs turned. She saw Naomi, obviously, but also Kylie, the three cultists, two guys she recognized from Luxnor's class, and a few students that had once hired her for pictures. Many of them turned to look at her, some openly staring, and others quickly averting their eyes and realizing she was watching them.
"Amara!" From off to the side, Vee looked up from the table she was standing near and immediately ran over. She threw her arms around Amara and hugged her tight. "Thank fuck you're alright. I was so worried."
Amara hugged her back, smiling as she did. "It's gonna take a lot more than a reaper to take me out. Still, if it happens, at least you know what to do, right, Vengeance?"
Vee pulled away, quickly rubbing her eyes before playfully pushing Amara's shoulder. "Oh, shut up, Hellspawn."
They both laughed, and Amara caught Tessa rolling her eyes. "Seriously, though? Still weird seeing you two all buddy buddy again."
Before she could respond, Amara paused. She'd briefly gotten caught up in the joy of seeing everyone together again, then immediately realized she'd been mistaken; they weren't all together. "Guys, where's Chloé?"
Everyone looked around for a moment, then Vee spoke up. "I swear I just saw her in that back corner. I've been trying to keep tabs on the entire cafeteria, though, maybe she slipped away? I did... kinda tell her everything that's been going on the last few months. Just my side of things, granted, but she's hard to read; I couldn't quite tell how she took it."
"Shit. I'm going to find her; you all get yourself some food." Amara started jogging to the corner they'd last seen Chloé at and started looking around. When she didn't find anything immediately, she tapped into her inner fire and tried to fully engage her senses. After a moment of focusing, she found a scent that seemed like Chloé's. It was incredibly faint, which was hardly surprising; Amara would be shocked if her friend had been horny at a time like this. Still, it was enough to follow, and soon she found herself following a path to a small maintenance staircase tucked away in a corner.
The staircase led upstairs, where a second story held a few small offices, but Amara didn't sense Chloé's presence on that floor. Instead, she kept ascending and soon opened the door to the roof. There, it only took a second to find Chloé leaning against a railing, looking over the quad.
"Chloé!" Amara gasped, running closer.
Although she quickly glanced over her shoulder, Chloé didn't seem to have much of a reaction to Amara's presence. She turned back to lean on the railing, and Amara saw her shoulders slump.
"Chloé, why are you up here?" Amara asked, joining her at the railing. "It's freezing, not to mention all the monsters skulking around the quad."
"I just... I needed some air," Chloé muttered, burying her face in her scarf.
She was obviously shivering, so Amara let out a small, controlled burst of heat to warm the area up. She stayed quiet, hoping Chloé would say something, but the next several minutes passed in silence.
"I heard you talked with Vee," Amara said eventually.
"Yeah. I'm mostly caught up on everything now." Chloé's voice was still muffled by her scarf, though it appeared she'd stopped shivering.
"Chloé, I should have--"
"Don't," Chloé said, cutting Amara off with unusual conviction. "Just don't."
Amara paused, shocked at the statement. Chloé was usually so timid, and the pain in her voice was obvious. "I-I... I just wanted to--"
"I know what you're gonna say," Chloé started. "You're gonna say that you wanted to tell me, but magic is dangerous. Everyone who learns about it seems to get hurt, and it's best to just keep everyone in the dark unless they stumble into it themselves?"
