Byte: A Deadly Knightshade Universe Standalone Read online

  Byte

  A Deadly Knightshade Universe Standalone Romance

  Leigha Wolffe

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Deadly Knightshade Universe

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  Dark Prelude

  Also by Leigha Wolffe

  Byte – A Deadly Knightshade Universe Standalone

  Copyright © 2021 by Leigha Wolffe-Stoirm

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. Any unauthorized reproduction or use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited and will be subject to prosecution.

  For permissions or inquiries contact: [email protected]

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons (living or dead), business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  A huge thank-you to my Alpha and Beta readers – Ashley Donajkowski and Jennifer Wright Bishop. Thank you for lending me your eyes and ears, and for loving these guys like I do. It is said by many writers that the secret to becoming a successful writer is finding your tribe. I have found tribe, and I think that, in itself, is the success.

  Acknowledgments

  Cover by Shadow Storm Designs

  Editing by Wolffe-Stoirm Publishing

  WARNING: Book contains scenes of a violent nature and of a sexual nature. Not intended for readers under the age of 18.

  Deadly Knightshade Universe

  1

  This was it. The last day of school and of my former life. A team from the academy had delivered my things this afternoon. Dad’s lawyer, Karen, had messaged to let me know the sale of the house had been finalized. All that was left was for me to leave this god-forsaken school and life behind and start my new one. My real one. I grabbed my backpack and headed for the front entrance to meet Deven, where he should be waiting to take me to the academy and hopefully help me unpack.

  “Cade!”

  Fuck. Maybe he was talking to another Cade? Probably not since I was the only one at our school that I knew of, but a guy could dream, right?

  “Cade, hold up!” I heard from down the hall again.

  I sighed and paused just long enough to consider turning around, then I pushed open the door and walked out into the warming Spring air, heading to the parking lot. Deven should have been here ten minutes ago, but I didn’t see his car anywhere. Mark was going to bust through that door any minute, and if Deven wasn’t here before then, I’d—

  “Hey, Cade!”

  Shit.

  This was my own freaking fault. I knew better. I’d dated a guy at school, who I also worked with, by the by, and I hadn’t been able to escape him since. Don’t shit where you eat. Basic dating rule. Basic. But in a moment of post-breakup weakness, I’d done it. I’d shat where I ate and accepted a date from Mark after two years of him asking. One date, one night, and he hadn’t left me alone since. Luckily, this was my last day at this school, and I didn’t work at the coffee shop anymore, so I wouldn’t have to worry about it after today.

  I turned to face the incoming stage-five clinger with a sigh.

  “Hey, didn’t you hear me yelling?” he huffed as he jogged to a stop in front of me.

  “Sorry, didn’t hear you.”

  Mark nodded, running his eyes down my body like he didn’t really hear me, which he probably didn’t. “So, I heard you sold the house and moved out. I’d love to see your new place.”

  “Well, I haven’t really finished moving in, and I’m still getting settled, so…”

  It wasn’t untrue. See, I was leaving school to take my place at the Willard B. Haven Academy for the Gifted. Don’t let the name fool you. I was pretty ordinary in most respects. Except one. The director of the academy had taken me in after my dad died. See, WBH is a cover school for supes, and as it turns out, my dad was ashamed of more than my sexual orientation. He was also ashamed of my DNA. Dad had been feeding me power suppressants as vitamins since I was eleven and went to live with him. When he died, the damn things ran out, and well, weird shit started happening.

  Hi, class. My name is Cade, and I’m a superhero. Well, a superhero in training. My second week of training, to be exact. So rather than dealing with the passing of the only parent I had left and the never to be resolved issues we’d carefully avoided, I had to deal with my changing body and uncontrollable reactions to things. It was like puberty on steroids, and trust me, I barely made it out alive the first time.

  “I haven’t talked to you much since you quit. How are you? I mean, after your dad…”

  This.

  Everyone was pretty certain I should be falling apart after losing my dad. The truth was, it sucked, but it wasn’t the end of the world. Losing my mom had been a different story. My mother had been amazing, kind, caring, she understood who I was, even from a young age, and she’d loved me. She’d been gone a long time, and it still hurt. Dad changed after she died, though. He’d never been father of the year, but once she was gone, he had less reason to pretend he gave a shit about me. My father was an uncaring, narrow-minded monster who’d been convinced my ‘choice’ to be gay was a direct attack on him, like I was just doing it to get under his skin, like some sort of teenage rebellion. I was sad my dad was dead, but I didn’t miss him the way people seemed to think I should. There wasn’t really a relationship to miss.

  “Um… I’m managing. Thanks.”

  “Good. That’s good.” He nodded some more, and I stared, willing my eyes not to roll as he took my hand. “So… I’ve missed you at the shop. Haven’t seen you around school much either, since the accident. I know you missed a lot after your dad… Are you still going to graduate?”

  “Yeah, I am. I took all my finals one on one, so I’ll get my diploma, but I won’t be attending graduation.”

  “Well, that’s good at least. I’m glad you don’t have to repeat. Why don’t you let me take you out tonight? We can celebrate, spend some time together. I’m sure you could use a night out.” He brazenly reached up and ran his knuckles across my cheek, and I pulled away, tugging my hand from his grip.

  “We’ve talked about this, Mark. And my ride should be here any minute, so… can we not?”

  “I thought you might’ve come to your senses after everything that’s happened.”

  Was this guy for real?

  He took my face in his hands, holding so tightly that I couldn’t free myself easily without making a scene, and right now, my primary goal was to exit the campus without anyone noticing or caring. “Just let me take care of you tonight.”

  “Hey! What the hell?”

  I’d never been more excited to hear someone’s voice than I was to hear Deven’s at that moment. He was the only shiny little star in the midst of this disaster. Deven was perfection. He was smart, popular, talented, hot as hell, and my personal guide to the Willard B. Haven Academy for the Gifted—AKA superhero school.

  Mark was sometimes pushy and aggressive, but not usually in a way that I couldn’t manage. This level of douche canoe was new for him, but as Deven yelled, he released me and turned toward my knight in shining spandex.

  Just kidding, we don’t wear spandex.

  Mark looked up and took a step back as Deven inserted himself between us. Once Mark seemed acceptably cowed, Deven stepped back by my side and took my hand. I looked down in shock, then back at Deven, who just turned and winked at me where Mark couldn’t see.

  “Who the hell are you?” Mark challenged.

  “I’m the guy Cade just moved in with. I’m guessing you’re the asshole who doesn’t know how to take no for an answer.”

  Right on both counts, Deven. Way to bend the truth without breaking it. Since I was so much older than your average academy newb—and the older kids had all been paired with their roommates since they started at the academy—the director had asked his son, who was about to graduate and close to my age, to open up his room to their newest student. I would be unpacking in Deven’s room tonight. And Mark was definitely struggling to understand a basic two-letter word lately.

  “Wait… You have a boyfriend?”

  “Yep,” Deven interjected before I could answer.

  “That you’ve already moved in with? How long have you two even been dating?”

  “We met around the time his dad died, but we’ve grown really close.” Deven lifted and squeezed my hand, turning to look at me with a smile for effect. “Isn’t that right, babe?”

  “Uh, yeah. Very close,” I stammered. I was not a good liar. If pressed, I could bend the truth and mislead, but flat out lying wasn’t easy for me. I was… obvious. Luckily, everything Deven had said so far was technically true.

  Without Dad shoving suppressant
s down my throat every day, my powers had flared within days of his death. The academy had shown up the next day and explained what was happening to me. The director had offered me a place there so that I could learn to control my new abilities, so I’d packed a bag and gone with them that day. That’s when I met Deven. He was kind of a meathead alpha-douche, but he could also be really nice. He was like… a loveable meathead alpha-douche. We’d been working one on one since then, and we were obviously closer than I’d realized, given everything he already knew about me. It wasn’t how I’d have preferred to go about it, but he was trying to help.

  “I didn’t know. I’m sorry. Congratulations, I guess.”

  “Thanks,” I said, nodding and studying the branches of the nearby trees. Deven just kept staring him down from his perch up atop Mount Alpha-hole. Well, this was awkward. “So, we should probably get going. I guess I’ll see you around.”

  “Yeah, see you around. Good luck, Cade.”

  “Thanks. You too, Mark.”

  Deven continued to stare at Mark’s back as he retreated, chest puffed up and head held high, looking as tall and intimidating as he could, and given the amount of power I knew was hidden beneath his very impressive and quite large exterior, I knew exactly how intimidating he could be to a normie. Supes put off this sort of aura, like a dominant animal in a pack, the thing that ensured most would never be stupid enough to challenge them. We were sort of immune to the auras of other supes, but the normies, well, that was another story. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Deven was also six foot four and solid muscle.

  A few dozen feet away, Mark stopped to talk to a girl in our class and started stealing glances back over at us. God, he wasn’t even being subtle, but I forgot all about him when Deven turned to me suddenly. He brushed my hair back off my face, and my throat closed up. I needed to ask some things, say some stuff, object maybe, but I was effectively mute as he swept his hand from my hair and cupped my cheek. He leaned forward, and I started to really panic as his lips neared mine. My heart flip-flopped in my chest for the second our breaths mingled, and then he whispered, almost against my lips, “Is he gone yet?”

  I glanced sideways far enough to see that the spot where Mark and Liz had been standing was empty, and looking around, I caught the back of Mark’s shirt as it disappeared back into the school. “Gone,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat as Deven pulled back and looked down at me with a smile. I fixed him with a chastising look, but he just smiled wider.

  “Listen, I’m sorry, but that dude needed to back off. I think I effectively put the fear of God into him though,” he said with a wink.

  I rolled my eyes at his ridiculous, douchetastic bravado. Deven was always this way with me. Flirty, but never stepping over the line. He had a girlfriend at the academy, Camila. She was the perfect girl next door to his golden boy persona, but I’d seen them together; he didn’t really seem to be into her. I had to wonder if he was just confused or ashamed, maybe still in the closet, or maybe he just hadn’t figured it out yet. Part of me hoped I could help him with that. I liked Deven. We got along really well, and he was as hot as the fucking sun, but I had too much on my plate right now to play ‘convert the straight boy’. Although, with him, it was probably more like ‘convert the curvy line boy’. He wasn’t a circle yet, but he was definitely in the neighborhood.

  He was also still holding my hand. I started to pull away, but he held fast. “Uh-uh. That creepy, little stalker might be watching. We’re working this all the way to the car.”

  I laughed but allowed him to pull me along by the hand toward his sensible, silver beamer. He’d gone on and on the first day we met about how it wasn’t the car he wanted, and how he couldn’t have the car he really wanted because we were supposed to blend in to make it easier to keep our true natures a secret, and apparently, the car he really wanted would stand out. The BMW wasn’t really helping his cause, but Deven was failing all on his own. Everyone noticed him. Everywhere. How could they not? He towered above everyone else, but also had the brawn to balance out his height. He was also solid muscle, incredibly handsome, and driving a nice car.

  He got noticed everywhere.

  Deven played his role to a tee, even opening the door for me to get in before strutting around the front of the car and getting in the driver’s seat. As he backed out of the parking spot, I saw Mark watching from the side door of the school. Jesus, he must have an actual death wish. But as we pulled away, I realized it didn’t matter anymore. I was already gone.

  2

  The campus still took my breath away every time I saw it. I was one hell of a lucky guy getting to come here. The Thornhaven campus of the Willard B. Haven Academy for the Gifted—lovingly called Haven Academy by the supe community—was the secondary home of the Legion of Guardians. Their official headquarters was at the Knight City campus, the world headquarters of all superheroes, but Thornhaven housed both a supe prison and the Archives, a vault where they kept anything unsafe for human hands. We saw the prison every time we came down the long driveway that led from the security gates at the street to campus. The massive structure had a heavy, thick titanium door and one hell of a security system, and it served as a heady reminder of what could happen if you didn’t respect your powers and the laws that ruled our community.

  Not all WBH students went on to become superheroes. Not everyone is cut out for hero work. Those who were invited usually joined the Legion after graduation, and others went on to teach at WBH academies around the world, but most students simply trained, graduated, and then went on to live perfectly normal lives, in complete control of their abilities.

  As we stepped into the apartment-style dorm room we now shared, I sighed. “This is my nightmare.” Deven laughed, ushering me forward and closing the door behind me.

  The kitchenette was directly to the left upon entering, and the bathroom to the right. We each had wide closets at the back, set between the alcoves that house the beds in the back-left and back-right corners. The open concept allowed for the true dorm experience. Everyone slept in the same room, but we had more space than a traditional dorm and the ability to keep food and cook for ourselves if we chose. There was even a common area in the dead-center of the room, consisting of a TV stand and sofa, and right now it was hidden beneath a mountain of the bags and boxes I’d specified be brought here from the house. They were staring at me, waiting to be unpacked.

  Deven laughed as I groaned, averting my eyes and bypassing the common area to go hang my bag on the foot post of my bed. It was awesome they’d arrived, because I’d been living out of a suitcase for the past week, but I had a lot of clothes. And bath, hair, and grooming products. It was a little overwhelming, but I was not willing to go without. Judge me if you want, but it was a non-starter.

  The rest of the stuff from the house was in storage, where it would remain until I graduated and got a place of my own. Luckily, Dad’s life-insurance, and what was left of Mom’s, would cover that until I got on my feet post-graduation. Dad and I obviously hadn’t had a great relationship, but every now and then it hit me that I was an orphan. I was completely alone in the world. That plus the sight of all those boxes was more than a little overwhelming, and my vision started to tunnel.

  “Hey,” Deven said as his hand landed on my shoulder. I looked over at his hand, then up at him—and yes, even at six-foot-one, I had to look up at Deven. “How about we go work out first? Then we can order a pizza, and I’ll help you tackle unpacking all these boxes.”

  He smiled kindly, and I took a deep slow breath then nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks, but this is my nightmare,” I chuckled. “You don’t have to help unpack my department store.”