“Maybe you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full,” Pete said.
Ethan rolled his eyes and went back to his plate. “Okay, Mom.”
“Besides him,” I cut in, “there is Jared to think about, who was hanging around, despite the fact that he and the director clearly don’t like each other.”
“He thinks she’s soft,” Orin said. “That’s no secret. He wants the job, so whenever she slips up, he lets everyone know. He wants her out. Gone. She’s old.”
“I’ve seen that guy Adam around.” Colt leaned forward, looking between Ethan and me, ignoring everyone else. “The assistant? I saw him yesterday after the trials, walking from the portables to the mansion. He looked pissed.”
“I’m sure he always looks like he’s pissed.” I dropped my napkin onto my plate and stood. “I say we check in on him, see what he’s up to. If he is trying to find out info for the director, great. If not, we might learn something by tailing him.”
“What about Jared?” Wally asked, standing with me. The others followed suit, except for Ethan, who clearly wasn’t going to leave until he’d eaten every scrap off of his plate. “I say we tail him.”
Orin nodded. “Vampires like to have their fingers in everything even though they don’t get involved in much of it. He might know something, even if he hasn’t acted on it.”
“Sounds good. I’ll take Adam. Who’s going with me?” I asked.
“I will.”
“Me.”
“I’ll go.”
“Might as well.”
The chorus died down and everyone exchanged looks.
I stared down at Ethan, the only one who hadn’t piped up. He surely didn’t want to be in my proximity any more than I wanted to be in his, but he also liked to be the center of attention, meaning he could keep eyes off me, and if we got caught, he could also keep me in the school. He’d proven that he would.
“Orin, you take the lead on tailing the vampire,” I said, picking up my plate. “Direct the others on how not to get caught. Keep your eyes open for anything that looks suspicious. Ethan and Colt, you come with me.”
An hour later, I paced the dorm room, anticipation firing through my limbs and impatience dragging down my features. Colt sat on Ethan’s bed, gazing out the window at the grounds below. The others had already taken off to find their mark and hopefully tail him without getting caught. I didn’t have high hopes for either expedition, but at least it was daylight. Following someone around wasn’t against school policy, just social norms.
“Honestly, Ethan, what is taking you so long?” I barked, turning toward the bathroom door for the umpteenth time.
He emerged in a halo of fragrance, with his sweats clinging to his solid frame, his shoulders swaying with his casual yet calculated saunter, and his hair styled just so.
“Are you under the impression we are going to a garden party?” My voice carried a distinct bite to it. “We’re trying not to stand out.”
He flicked his gaze my way, taking in my overall appearance. “You’re still trying to look like a boy even though anyone who matters knows you’re a girl, your sweats have a stain on them from breakfast, and you’re an Amazon woman. We’re going to stand out regardless of what I look like.”
It was annoying that he was probably right.
“Fine. Whatever. Come on, the day is wasting.” I gestured them both toward the door.
Colt stood, just as unhurried as Ethan. I rolled my eyes and pulled the door open. I already regretted bringing them along. But Rory had said not to go alone, and that had been his last piece of advice for me.
“Okay,” I started as we trekked down the hall.
“Your strategic vocabulary is limited,” Ethan said as he kept pace, his demeanor blasé. It was a real skill to move quickly and look slow, I had to hand it to him. He and Colt both had mastered cool.
“I like a good jumping off point. Okay.” I exited into the stairwell. “Let’s see if Adam is at the director’s office where he belongs.”
“He isn’t,” Colt said, slowing my progress. “I saw him walk across the grounds twenty minutes ago.”
I stopped and turned to him with an incredulous expression. “What?”
“I saw him—”
“Yes, I know what you said. Why didn’t you mention it?”
Colt gestured at Ethan. “He wasn’t ready to get going.”
“But you could’ve—” I breathed through my nose, willing patience. “Right. Fine. Okay. Lead the way.”
“You’ll never get accepted into the House of Shade with that attitude,” Ethan said as we turned on the stairs, heading down. “You need to work on being cool and collected.”
“I need to work on better decision-making when choosing my partners.”
At the bottom of the stairs, we turned toward the back of the mansion, retracing my steps the night I’d seen Gregory taken. Flashes of the scene rolled through my head. I tried to summon up information about the men who’d taken him—their stature, the bulge of their lean muscle as they struggled to contain him, the plain shoes they wore. Images rose of possible body types, what they might’ve looked like, what their magical talents might’ve been. Not vampires, surely. They’d been much too coarse in their movements. Yes, I’d seen a wand, but only in the hands of one of them. Not Shades, either, unless they were lower on the scale. They’d looked too human to be goblins or trolls. Shifters would be stronger, well able to handle a half-pint goblin like Gregory. But a necromancer or someone who didn’t use strength and speed in their craft might fit the bill.
My eyes cut sideways as we reached the back door, noticing Colt’s lean muscle against Ethan’s more robust body.
“Do you work out, Ethan?” I asked, following the curve of his bicep with my gaze before eyeing the size of his thighs.
His bored amusement spoke volumes.
“It’s just that,” I hurried to say, ready to die if he thought I was interested in any way, “spell workers don’t physically fight, right? Where’d you get all the muscle?”
His chest puffed up slightly, preening at the notice. “I lift.”
“Right.” I drew the word out. “But why bother? You do all your defensive fighting with a wand. I haven’t seen you throw so much as a single punch.”
A smirk graced his lips. “Don’t you like your men fit? Or are you more the dominatrix type?”
My face annoyingly flamed red. “So that’s why, then? Body image issues?”
His smirk broadened into a knowing smile, his ego of steel deflecting my light jab.
I glanced toward the trees where I’d last seen Gregory. Memories flooded me, of Rory’s lips pressed against the shell of my ear, quieting me, of fingers tapping against the pulse in my neck. I remembered the feel of his solid strength as we cried against each other about Tommy.
I blinked away the tears and gritted my teeth. I had surviving to do.
“There,” Colt said in a hush, grabbing my elbow and jerking his head to the left. “Near the portables. See him?”
Even with the distance, I could recognize him moving with the grace of a predator, his hair cropped short and his posture straight and strong. No suit adorned his muscular physique. Instead, he wore the sweats we all did, larger to fit his heartier frame.
Adam. And he was far, far away from his desk.
Chapter 8
“Is he trying to blend in?” I asked, an incredulous giggle escaping me. Adam was huge next to the students, both in stature and in presence. How could he not be noticed near the rundown portables? “He’s like a wolf wandering around a pack of poodles and trying to act like he’s tame.”
“Poodles are actually very intelligent dogs,” Ethan said, still sauntering for all he was worth, but a little less gracefully, now. A little more on edge.
Good. He was taking this seriously.
“Intelligent, sure. Trainable, definitely.” I let Colt lead me, his instincts right on. If we veered from our path, we’d get noticed, especially sin
ce Adam had just looked around to see if anyone was near. He was up to something, clear as day. “But adept at stalking prey and then ripping their throats out? Probably not.”
Adam went up the steps and stopped at one of the portable doors. His hands pulled up in front of him and his head was lowered as he worked at the knob. It had to be locked. It wouldn’t be for long.
“Whose portable is that?” Colt asked, quickening our pace as we reached the line of portables in front of us. “Ethel Wiseman?”
“No idea,” Ethan replied. “We didn’t get friendly with the neighbors the night we stayed.”
No, we just stole their food.
“Who’s Ethel Wiseman?” I asked.
Colt slipped in between the buildings with incredibly light feet. He sped up to a jog, staying close to the buildings so he could duck into the small alleys between at a moment’s notice. It’s exactly what I would’ve done had I been leading. Just like the way he’d slipped in and out of my bedroom window without any of my guard dogs noticing. “Are you sure you’re not a Shade?”
“His mother is a Shade,” Ethan said with condescension ringing through his voice.
“I didn’t get any of her magic,” Colt said, his step faltering. “But I noticed how she went about certain things. It’s common sense, if you think about it. How to sneak up on someone.”
“It’s lower class,” Ethan murmured.
I rolled my eyes, so many arguments springing to mind that my tongue locked. Now wasn’t the time, anyway.
“I heard Ethel was approached after the trial yesterday,” Colt said, slowing before looking back the way we’d come. His eyebrows lowered, and it occurred to me that he didn’t know how many portables separated us from Adam.
I stepped around him, taking over, and resumed the jog, albeit slower. We didn’t have far to go.
“I thought you guys must’ve heard about that,” he continued. “The guys in my dorm were talking about it last night. Robby’s girlfriend heard it from her friend Sarah, who heard it from Ethel first hand. She got asked to skip the rest of the trials and asked everyone’s advice.”
“Is she daft?” I frowned as a slight tingle of warning washed through my blood. Here we go.
I lowered my voice to a whisper, working on those light steps that Colt had seemed to master. Why was I so far behind on that? “People who get asked to skip disappear. Surely one of her friends would’ve told her that.”
“That’s the thing about being mediocre,” Ethan whispered. “You take any hand up you can get. You’re happy just to get noticed. At least, that’s what I assume, anyway. You’d know best, Wild.”
“I wasn’t the one using my daddy to cheat, Einstein. But keep throwing rocks in that glass house.”
Colt muffled a laugh. “I don’t think anyone else has put it together, that the missing kids were all offered a leg up.”
I held up my hand for quiet as I peered around the corner of the portable, not feeling the pressure of danger thickening the air. Not yet. Adam had to be inside.
Soft laughter floated by, along with a female voice, gay and light. Another voice joined the first, two people up the way probably headed out to enjoy the soft sunshine in this rare break between trials.
Tightly drawn curtains shielded the back window of the portable, so I led the others down the narrow gap between portables to the front, racking my brain for a plan.
A thought occurred to me. Out of all the portables in this row, of which there were tons, why would Colt assume that Adam was choosing Ethel’s? Did he already know, or was it a blind assumption?
Metal jingled, a handle being grabbed. I paused, breath trapped in my lungs. A warning signal prickled down my spine.
Colt clutched my shoulder, but neither of the guys made a sound. I nodded to show I’d heard it. A tiny squeak was the only indication that the door had swung open. Boots tapped against the wood of the porch, soft sounds but not up to par for a Shade. He wasn’t an assassin—at least not a good one. The door clicked into place a moment later.
If he took off across the lawn toward the mansion and glanced back, there was a good chance he’d see us, three people stooped in stalker mode between the portables. His suspicion would likely compel him to take a closer look...unless what he saw embarrassed or disgusted him.
Moving quickly, I pushed in between the guys. Colt’s hand came out to steady me, low on my hip. Ethan grunted and tried to move away, but I stopped him with a hand on his pec. The muscle popped against my palm and he froze, his eyes widening.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a release of breath, his gaze heating and dipping to my lips. Maybe he hated me, but it was clear his brain had just shut off.
“Pretending, you moron,” I ground out, leaning heavily against Colt and feeling his hand slide across my stomach. “Play the part in case he looks. Only a voyeur will stop to gawk, and it won’t be out of criminal suspicion.”
A shape passed by with a swing of a large arm. I recognized his crew cut and caught something in his opposite hand that I couldn’t make out. His face turned, and I caught a glimpse of nose before his figure disappeared. Steamy versus stalky—if he saw three people stuffed in the gap, he would take a second to look if he thought they were making out. It worked, he didn’t. That had to be a good sign.
“Come on,” I said as Ethan’s large hand touched down on my hip and Colt’s hand headed south to my butt. Heavy breathing and shifting bodies said I was the only one pretending, and I was suddenly encompassed in a circle of muscle and handsomeness most women would dream of.
I wasn’t most women.
“All right, show’s over.” I flicked Ethan’s crotch, jerking a little at the hardness but immediately gratified when he jolted away. He thunked his head against the portable wall and scowled, reality seeping through the burning gaze from a moment before. “Really? You hate me, but you’d do me, anyway?”
He shrugged, wiping the edge of his mouth with the back of his hand. “Why not? Not like I’d call you in the morning.”
I shook my head and turned to elbow Colt in the stomach, but he was already moving away.
“Sorry. I was caught off guard. Stopped thinking.” Colt gave me a mouth-watering smile. “I’d definitely call.”
I couldn’t hold a grudge against his disarming wink.
“Whatever,” I said, “come on. He’s getting away.”
At the edge of the portable, I caught the figure again, standing in the middle of the grass, facing the mansion. Sticking out like a sore thumb. Eyes found him, stuck for a moment, then darted away, no one wanting to spend too long gawking at an authority figure.
He stared down into his hands for a moment in what seemed like contemplation, then dropped them again and looked around.
“Can you see what he’s holding?” I asked, no idea why I was whispering.
“No,” Ethan said, pushing in close so he could see around the corner, and jabbing me with a part of his body that would’ve been strapped down by the right underwear.
This time I did throw an elbow, forcing him back. “We need to see if it really is Ethel’s room, and maybe figure out what he took. Or at least where he took it from.” I dragged my teeth over my lip. “But if we do that, we’ll lose him.”
Even as I said it, Adam pivoted and pushed forward, walking in the opposite direction of where Gregory had been taken. If he was looking for the lost kids, he was either on the wrong track or going the roundabout way.
“I’ll look,” Colt said, slipping by me. “I know what she looks like, and I’ve rooted around in other people’s things a few times in my life.” He smirked, and I knew we were both thinking of Ethan’s cheat sheets. “I’ll meet you guys back at the dorm.”
“Okay, sounds good. Let’s go.” I plucked at Ethan’s sleeve and hurried forward before he could, without shame, poke me with his anatomy again. Too much confidence clearly wasn’t always a good thing.
“What are we going to do when we catch him?” Ethan asked.
The heat had thankfully cooled from his voice, but it was obvious the blood hadn’t yet made it back to his brain.
“We’re not going to catch him. He’d bash our heads together. We’re going to stalk him. See where he goes, and what he does with whatever he grabbed.”
Adam cut another diagonal, this time to the corner of the mansion, clearly intending to go around. Something was still clutched tightly in the hand swinging at his side. A small black object. He wasn’t doing anything to hide its presence.
“I didn’t hear any names announced this morning, did you?” I asked Ethan, ignoring the pull to follow Gregory’s trail off toward the trees. I’d been interrupted twice so far. I needed to follow it through. The answers lay that way. I felt it in my gut.
But Adam looked like a concrete lead at this point. It would be foolish to ignore him.
“No. I was listening for them too,” Ethan replied.
“So if Ethel got asked, she didn’t get taken.”
“Not yet, unless they just didn’t announce it.”
Intuition churned my gut now, and my feet slowed without my direction.
“Hurry up, what are you doing?” Ethan grabbed my arm and hurried me forward.
“Maybe we can stop her from getting taken.”
He yanked me harder, and I couldn’t help but go with him, logic telling me this was right. That Adam knew something, had something, and was going somewhere we needed to know. But my intuition…
“Maybe she was already taken, and they want some info before they make the announcement.”
“If Colt’s roommate’s girlfriend is such a gossip, wouldn’t he know all that and have told us?”
“If Colt didn’t have such a jonesing hard on for you, he might have waited around for his roommate to invite his girl over. Then maybe he would, yes.”
At the corner of the mansion, Ethan pushed me against the wall, flattened, and peeked around. A hand came out of nowhere. Thick fingers wrapped around Ethan’s neck. Muscles pulled, and Ethan went airborne.
Chapter 9
Shadowspell Academy: The Culling Trials, Omnibus Page 37
