“Yeah,” I said. For some reason, the bloody cut on the round swell of Lex’s high cheekbone made me want to touch him, to run my fingers over the hard curves of his face and kiss him better. I’d never had that kind of impulse before. “The wall came down. No matter how it looks now.”
“Do you think it triggered the alarm?”
“I hope so.” I frowned, staring at the wall. “Let’s get back to campus before we get into trouble.”
“Now you’re worried about getting into trouble?”
“I don’t want to lose the chance to find out what just happened,” I said.
“Probably a good idea,” he muttered. “I’ll be on restriction for my whole fourth year if anyone finds out what we were up to.”
“And then you wouldn’t be able to have any fun torturing first-years?” I asked.
He flashed me a devilish grin that did funny things to my insides, and clapped my shoulder. “Come on. Like you said. Let’s get out of here and find out what’s going on.”
The two of us began to run, parallel toward the wall at first because a patrol should be coming right here.
Lex reached out and grabbed my hand. He still clutched the stick in the other hand, and he held it like a weapon as the two of us ran through the forest again. His fingers were warm and solid, and I didn’t know why he’d taken my hand, but I didn’t ask. The two of us ran hard for campus.
As soon as we had stepped onto the grass, Lex looked around. It took me a second to realize he was studying the quiet campus around us. “No patrols.” His voice came out bleak.
Restless tension curled through my limbs, as the sense that something was terribly wrong made me want to run and fight when there was no one to attack.
“Maddie!”
That was my sister’s furious tone. Piper strode across the lawn towrd me. Callum, Arthur and Kai flanked her.
“Hi,” I said.
Next to me, Lex snorted, then began to rub the bridge of his nose as if I exasperated him.
Right, that was the same unimpressive response I’d offered him earlier when he caught me.
“Hi?” Piper’s blue eyes widened dangerously. “Hi. Where have you been, Maddie?”
I gestured expansively. “Around campus.”
It wasn’t a lie. The woods were still campus, and I had definitely been around. I frowned, looking past her at Kai, Arthur and Callum. Arthur crossed his arms, staring at me in that way Arthur had that could probably make anyone feel like a naughty little girl who just wouldn’t stop stealing cookies. Callum, meanwhile, came to Piper’s side protectively, putting his hand on her lower back as if to calm her down. His focus was always on my sister.
Meanwhile, Kai’s lips flickered up into a hint of a smile as he gestured to my sister with his thumb…and then put his thumb on one corner of his throat and drew it to the other side. Kai was always on my side. But apparently, he didn’t think he could save me from my sister’s rage this time.
Piper was already launching into a lecture when I interrupted her.
“How did you guys get here so quickly?” I asked, frowning at Kai and Callum.
“We didn’t. You’ve been missing for hours.” His gaze sharpened on mine. “You worried your sister sick.”
“Hours?” I repeated, glancing at Lex.
Lex looked toward the sky. I followed his gaze. The sun was low in the sky, much lower than it should have been in early afternoon.
“Holy shit,” I said, before he could.
“We’ve got a problem,” Lex said, without hesitation, no matter how much trouble we’d both be in. “A witch breeched the wall. He disappeared—I don’t know if he’s some kind of shifter or if he was able to turn himself invisible or teleport or…” The possibilities seemed to be bothering Lex, and he broke off. “There’s a witch on campus, though. And I don’t know where.”
“We lost him,” I confessed, embarrassed that for all my good intentions, I hadn’t been able to stop the witch.
Piper cursed with surprising breadth and vivid imagery, something you never would have expected from her sweet, ladylike lips.
“He must have frozen us in time somehow,” Lex said, frowning.
“Well, that’s terrifying.” The last thing we needed was witches with all new powers. Covens 2.0.
“So it never did trigger the alarm,” he muttered. “Great.”
“And the dean’s still no use,” Piper said. “We’ll split up and search for any trace of dark magic.” She hesitated, staring from me to Lex. “You two, we need for now. Stick together. Lex can get into the dorms and we can’t, so go check there.”
“Yes ma’am,” Lex said.
I gazed up at him, perplexed, about how my sister had morphed into a ma’am. Lex was so playful with me and so serious when he answered her.
“If you find anything,” she said, “find us next. Don’t do anything stupid.”
Lex repeated the yes-ma’am business. But Piper’s gaze fixed on mine, and she raised her eyebrows at me, like I was the one she worried about.
“I’ll be on my best behavior,” I promised.
“That’s what I worry about,” Callum said, like he did every time I made that particular promise. He ruffled my hair with his hand affectionately anyway. Sometimes it was sweet when he treated me like a kid, and sometimes it bugged me. Right now I wasn’t going to help my case by complaining. I wished they’d shelve it while Lex was around, though.
“We’ll report back as soon as we’ve checked the three dorms,” Lex said, and he tilted his head toward the dorms. I went with him. This time, he didn’t grab my hand.
“Watch each other’s backs,” Arthur warned as we headed across the grass.
I thought Lex would be amused by how they’d treated me like I was still just a child.
But after a minute, he said, “You have a nice family.”
I pulled a face in response.
“You’re lucky,” he told me. He said it was the same certainty Lex said everything, firm and sure. But he also sounded just the little bit wistful, and that made all my usual snarky quips die on my tongue.
“Yeah,” I said. “I am.”
I’d like to know more about his family, but he stopped, turning to me abruptly. He bent down, drawing up his trouser leg to reveal the knife tucked into the top of his boot. He flipped it over in his hand to hold it by the blade, extending it to me.
“You were a pretty dress today,” he said. “You don’t look like you’re carrying a weapon.”
“I don’t need one,” I reminded him.
“If you light up with all that magic in front of anyone, they’ll never let you come here,” he said. “And that might be better for me, but…”
“Why?”
He grinned, but didn’t answer.
“You’re going to keep my secret?” I asked, thinking of how much Callum and Piper always wanted me to keep my magic under wraps.
“We’ve both got secrets now,” he reminded me.
The low, confidential way he said that made me feel a rush of warmth through my chest.
“Now let’s go find a witch to kill.”
8
Lex and I walked into the first of the dorms. “This is Hull house,” he told me. “One letter off, if you ask me. Named after the Washington pack that finally decided to join the party and paid for a house while they were at it.”
“What’s the name of your house?” The two of us wandered down the halls together, trying to look casual and making small talk while we kept an eye out for any dark magic. I knew I’d feel it when it was here. I knew the scent and sense of dark magic all too well after the way I’d grown up, before Piper and I escaped my father’s coven.
“Northsea house,” he said, his voice suddenly mischievous. “For the problematic, but legendary, pack.”
I groaned. “That is so awkward.”
“You’re going to have to join my house,” he said. “Unless you have the common sense not to come, of course.”
<
br /> “And miss out on all this?” I said, gesturing to include the whole dorm hall, which smelled like damp gym socks and Axe body spray. “Are the dorms all co-ed?”
“In theory,” he said. “Girls don’t come here.”
“So Jensen wasn’t wrong about that,” I mused out loud.
“Jensen hasn’t been right about anything except by accident over the course of his entire, entitled life,” Lex muttered.
“Tell me how you really feel. Isn’t his brother your best friend?”
Lex held open the door for me into the stairwell. “Well, he’s also been spoiled all his life, but some people turn into dicks and some people don’t.”
“Really, though,” I pressed, wanting an answer. “What was he talking about?”
Lex turned to me and sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. His voice echoed in the raw-brick stairwell. “I have a little sister. Rosemary.”
“Yeah?” I didn’t quite make the leap with him.
“I’d tell her not to come here,” he said, his voice suddenly sober. “It’s just… I mean, do you really want to be the only woman here? And some of the guys are assholes. No one would hurt you, but it would get mean…”
“I thought hurting first-years was a foundational part of the school’s teaching philosophy,” I said, my tone light, although I desperately wanted to know more.
“I’d look out for you,” he mumbled, as if he was embarrassed by what he was saying. He jammed his hands in his pockets, glancing away. “But it wouldn’t be easy. Some of them would try to haze you into quitting. Some of the cadre… there are plenty of people who’d want you here, but there are people who don’t.”
“I see.” It was strange to see Lex, who was always so confident, hesitate as if he wasn’t sure what he should say. I touched his arm with my hand, running my palm over his forearm, which felt corded under my fingertips. He still had his hand tucked in his pocket, and his gaze snapped back to me.
“I don’t think I need anyone to look out for me,” I told him. “I’m more dangerous than I look. But it’s nice that you would want to try.”
“Everyone needs someone to look out for them,” he said. “We live in a weird world, Maddie.”
He’d called me Maddie again. He’d been calling me Northsea all day, as if to keep me at a distance.
He held very still, as if he didn’t want to lose my hand on his arm, but his free hand stroked up my arm. It sent prickles racing up my skin. I gazed up at him, at his shape of his lips and his bright blue eyes that contrasted with his dark curls. If I’d known how to kiss a boy, I might have leaned up on my tiptoes and brushed my lips against his. But I didn’t know how to kiss a boy, or if Lex even wanted me to. Maybe the connection between us was all my imagination.
For once in my life, I wasn’t sure what to say.
“I know,” I said.
“Maybe I’m being selfish when I tell you not to come here,” he said. “Maybe you shouldn’t listen to me.”
My brows arched. “I thought you just said you’d look out for me.” That meant telling me the truth.
“I will,” he said. “But if you came here, I’d be cadre and you’d be a first year.”
I stared at him, confused.
“I couldn’t do this,” he explained.
Lex leaned down toward me. His dark-lashed eyes flickered, half-closing, and my breath caught in my chest.
The door slammed open, and two guys came into the stairwell. Before I could even realize what had happened, Lex was two feet away from me, his arms crossed over his chest and the same polite, disinterested smile written across his lips.
“Next house?” Lex asked, but he was already turning and leading the way down the stairs.
As long as we had a witch on campus who could play with time, I would personally like to rewind two minutes.
9
We went back to Northsea house last. Instead of going in the front door, Lex led me around the side and the two of us went in through the side door, that led into the plain brick stairwell. The two of us headed down first, to make our way across the basement level with the gym and the dojo.
In the dojo, Jensen and another guy, a tall, lean guy with chin-length dirty-blond hair, were sparring. Jensen was shirtless, his chiseled shoulders and abs glistening with sweat, like he’d been at it for a while. Lex glanced in and then moved passed the door.
“I’ll give him this,” Lex muttered. “He does work.”
I glanced in. Jensen’s gaze flickered up, as if he felt me there, and his eerie yellow eyes locked on mine. Then the other guy snapped a punch at his head, and Jensen juked to one side, narrowly avoiding the blow. He closed his arms around the guy and the two of them slammed into the mat.
The two of us moved across the floor, checking everything out. I couldn’t stop thinking about what Jensen had said. I had to know whether I should come here or not for myself.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m going to run to the bathroom. You want to go check the first floor without me? I’ll be right behind you.”
Lex stuck his hand in his pocket again and tilted his head at me, leveling a look my way.
“What?” I asked.
“Don’t lie to me,” he said. His tone was quiet, and that made his words hurt more, for some reason. “I don’t like it.”
Faint heat crawled up my cheeks. I wanted to deny it, but instead I shrugged. “I wanted to talk to Jensen. I want to know for myself about the assholes, to decide if I should come here.”
He hesitated. Then he said, “Okay, I can handle checking the first floor on my own. There’s shifters everywhere. I’ll be right back if you get into trouble.”
“I won’t,” I said.
His lips quirked up, but he let that pass. He turned and ambled down the hall, heading toward the stairwell.
When I turned, the tall, blond guy was coming out of the doorway to the dojo. He headed my way, pulling his shirt over his head. As he neared me, the scent of his fresh sweat wafted toward me, but it wasn’t a bad smell. It was musky and masculine. It was almost nice.
He gave me a once-over. “You lost?”
“Never.” I was a wolf, after all. I had a pretty strong sense of direction.
His lips twitched in a smile. “Must be nice. Prospective student?”
“We’ve overrun the place today.” Along with witches.
He stuck out his hand. “I’m Tyson Atlas. But my friends call me Ty.”
“Is that an invitation?”
His grin widened a little. “Maybe. And you are?”
“Maddie Northsea.”
“What do your friends call you?”
I grinned back. “That’s a little presumptuous, isn’t it?”
“I’m a good friend to have,” he promised me. He headed down the hall past me, but turned his head to flash a smile my way. “See you in the fall, Maddie Northsea.”
“I haven’t decided yet if I’m coming or not.”
“You will,” he said, as if he knew my own mind, and then walked away down the hall.
The arrogance of wolf-boys really knows no bounds.
“Nice to hear you haven’t decided.” Jensen’s voice was low and too close in my ear. “You must be smarter than you look.”
I took a step forward as I spun around to face him, to put some space between him and me. “Funny. You must be even stupider than you look.”
He leaned in the doorway, smirking at me. He wore nothing but basketball shorts, which hung low on his hips, revealing the sharp edges of his hip bones. Sweat trickled in the groove between his pecs. He was deeply tanned, his thick, dark hair still pretty-boy stylish no matter how much he’d been sweating.
He didn’t look stupid, to be honest. He looked good, and he looked like he knew it.
“What’s your problem with me?” I asked flatly.
“I don’t know you to care about you,” he said. “But it’s like I said before. In the patrols, we depend on each other. Who’s going to be bake to co
unt on you?”
“How could I count on you?” I shot back.
He crossed powerful arms over his chest. “If you were in my patrol, I’d have your back.
But come on. Like a girl could really watch my back? Once we graduated and had to fight the covens?”
“You might be surprised.” How the hell had my sister started this place that was now so damn misogynistic?
“You’re a cute girl,” he said. “You could bond with a pack, have some babies. I’m sure that’d be a lot more fun for you than sweating and getting punched in the face.”
“I’m pretty sure you don’t know what’s involved in having some babies.” I was pretty sure giving birth to babies was a lot worse than sweating and getting punched in the face. Most women are a lot tougher than most men. No matter what they may pretend.
“Well.” He winked at me.
He had a sexy wink even though he was a total jerk. I bet girls who didn’t know about this side of him would fall over themselves to sleep with him.
“I wish I had time to show you in the ring how wrong you are.”
“Yeah? What’s your rush?”
“Hey.” Lex called from the end of the hallway. He stood there impatiently, his hand on the door. “Let’s go.”
“Ohh.” Jensen’s insinuating tone, once again, made me want to punch him in the face. “No wonder he wants you here.”
“What’s up?” One of the guys who had sat with us earlier, Faro, wandered into the hall from the gym, wiping sweat away from his face.
“Hey, Faro,” Jensen said.
Faro looked at me like I didn’t belong there, and then ambled over to Jensen. Lex was too far away to hear when Faro said to Lex, “Really? Northsea trash still here?”
“Yep. For the time being.” Jensen flashed me a smile that was all predatory. “Trash doesn’t seem fair, though. She’s cute. That should count for something.”
Faro looked me over, then shrugged. He headed past Jensen into the dojo.
“Too bad you ‘don’t have time’,” Jensen said, punctuating his words with air quotes before he turned to saunter into the dojo. Over his shoulder, he added, “It’s okay to admit you’re scared. Some things, girls aren’t meant to do.”
Paranormal Academy Page 33
