by Bailey, G.
Samantha begins to chant under her breath, her black eyes starting to glow with magical energy, and Landon’s eyes go wide for a split second before his scream is suddenly silenced, as if his voice has been plucked from his body. He puts his hands to his throat, eyes wide, and my heart sinks when I realize she must have hexed him somehow.
“Shit,” mutters Shade.
Without the distraction of Landon’s powers, Samantha is free to send a bolt of energy flying into Shade, who yells in pain and collapses on the floor, struggling to get back to his feet even as the magic sinks into him. He’s losing concentration, and a moment later, he’s shifting unwillingly back into human form, gritting his teeth in a desperate attempt to stay a wolf. But it’s no use. Within moments he’s a guy again, pinned to the ground by magic.
Landon is still struggling to get his voice back, his hands clawing at his throat as he is silenced by an invisible magic, and Hunter remains behind me, as feeble as ever.
Fuck, I think. It’s just the two of us, now.
As if reading my mind, Samantha sneers, “So much for your little harem, Brix.” Then she’s teleporting across the room to me, lifting me into the air with her telekinesis. I feel the magical force squeezing around my throat, cutting off my air supply and making me see stars. Within seconds, I’ll be unconscious or dead, and with the others incapacitated, it will be easy for her to finish us off… Or worse, subject us to the same treatment that she’s using on Silas and Brody.
Darkness threatens to close in on my vision as I gasp for breath, twisting around in midair as my body goes from vampire to human again. I’m going to die, I realize with a start. She’s going to kill me. Just like Mark was going to kill me, just like those guys at the warehouse were going to kill me.
That revelation seems to wake something up in me, even as the last of my consciousness begins to ebb away, my muscles going weak from the lack of oxygen. With one final burst of desperation, I visualize a dragon: all powerful muscles and hard scales, enormous in its size and power. I think back to the times I breathed fire, to the lesson Shade gave me on transforming, and throw myself into the image. Come on, I pray as my vision goes dark. Come on, come on, come on…
And then, like magic, the hold on my throat is loosening, the invisible hand opening ever so slightly, and I draw in a shaking breath.
My eyes open again and I look down in astonishment to see that I am no longer a human, but a dragon, my golden scales iridescent in the fluorescent lights of the laboratory. Magic is no longer what’s holding me in the air; rather, it’s my wings, flapping with enough power to create gusts of wind.
Samantha looks taken aback as she stares up at me, moving backwards a step, hesitating a little…
But that second of hesitation is all I need. Embracing the second wind, I fill my lungs with air and scream out, a jet of fire lighting up the room and hitting Samantha squarely in the chest. She shrieks as the flames engulf her, frantically swatting at her clothes as she tries to put the fire out. The distraction is enough to make her form waver, and in the instant she becomes human again, Landon finds his voice once more. “Get down!” he yells at her, his voice tinged with the siren frequency. “Surrender!” There’s a moment of futile resistance, but then Samantha is dropping to the ground, her clothes and hair still on fire as she is forced to obey Landon’s command.
I flap my wings again, sending another gust of air at her, and it’s enough to extinguish the flames, leaving Samantha a trembling, scorched wreck on the floor.
I drop back to the ground, shifting back into human form, too focused on taking stock of the others to process the fact that I finally managed to transform into a dragon. Shade is groaning as he picks himself up off the ground, while Landon is advancing on Samantha, his song down to a low thrumming as he works to sustain the command. Hunter, who has been watching the fight with wide eyes, shuffles slowly forward. “Is it over?” he asks, but I don’t respond. I’m bolting across the room to the table where Silas is tied down. The dragon shifter’s eyes are closed, and although he’s breathing, he doesn’t seem to be conscious.
“Silas!” I yell, touching his face. “Wake up!” He doesn’t even stir, his complexion still ashy and sickly. Quickly I feel for a pulse; it’s there, but faint, like his heart is struggling just to keep beating. “Come on,” I say, shaking his shoulders. “Come on, wake up. I’m here--we’re here. Silas, please!”
Still nothing. I turn back to the others. Shade’s eyes are wide as he approaches. “What’s wrong with him?” he asks.
“I don’t know,” I reply, and I realize that my eyes are brimming with tears. “What do we do?!”
“What are they injecting him with?” Shade asks, pointing to the needles in his arms. I follow his line of sight to the IV tubes, which are hooked up to the monitoring device; not daring to think about it any further, I reach down and yank the needles from Silas’ arms one at a time. A little blood trickles out of the puncture wounds, but otherwise, there’s no response.
A minute passes, and then two, as we all stare at the dragon shifter with bated breath.
At first I can’t tell if I’m imagining it, but it almost looks like his breaths are coming more easily now, and when I put my fingers to his neck once more, I feel his heart beating with a little more strength. Moments later, I feel a warm hand cover mine, and I look up to see Silas’s dark eyes opening. He groans, shifting a little as he stares up at me. “Silas,” I breathe, leaning in closer to him.
He gives me that tentative, crooked smile, the same one he gave me the other night, and says two words: “Hey, Boots.”
Chapter 26
“Would you stop leaning on me?” Landon says, sounding exasperated. “God, Shade. I know I’m attractive, but I have a personal bubble.”
“Don’t stress yourself,” Shade fires back, shifting away. “You’re not my type, anyway, Thyme.”
“Guys, come on,” Silas pleads. “You’re gonna crush me.”
We’re in the infirmary, all gathered around Silas’ bed. He’s being given fluids and anti-inflammatories, and his cot clearly isn’t meant for the number of people it’s currently supporting. Shade and Landon are sitting on either side, their bickering reaching nearly comical levels, while Hunter lingers next to the bedside table with Hazel by his side. I’m at the head of the bed, arms crossed over my chest as I watch the others’ antics, occasionally sharing an incredulous glance with Hazel.
It’s been a day and a half since we broke into the faculty building, and I still feel a little bit surreal about the whole thing. As soon as we stumbled out of the basement, supporting a weak Silas as we went, we found ourselves surrounded by faculty and security. Judging by their horrified reactions, most of them had been unaware of what was going on in the basement--or at the very least, were good at pretending so. The questions are enough to make me paranoid when I think about it too hard.
“I’m glad to see you’re all right,” Hazel said, patting Silas’s shoulder for a moment before taking a step away from the bed. “When are they letting you come back to class?”
“They’re saying they just want to make sure I’m stable, and that I should be clear to go by the end of the week,” Silas replies.
“You’re not worried they’re going to try to kidnap you again?” Hazel’s tone is joking, but there’s genuine worry in her eyes.
“Hawthorne’s claiming it was an isolated incident,” replies Landon, rolling his eyes. “Guess he’s got a handy scapegoat in Ms. Goldstein.”
“Yeah, what’s happening to her?” asks Hazel.
“I don’t know,” I reply. “I saw them hauling her away after our meeting with Hawthorne. She’s being put on administrative leave until the board decides what to do with her.”
“Forgive me if I don’t find that very reassuring,” mutters Shade.
“Yeah,” I agree, turning to him.
“But it seems like the danger is over, for now at least,” Hunter says. “Although whether more students ar
e going to go missing…”
“I don’t know,” Landon says, shaking his head. “Something tells me this is far from over.”
“It is far from over,” replies Silas. “Whatever they were doing to me and Brody, Samantha mentioned that more people were in on it.”
“Poor Brody,” murmured Hazel, shaking her head. “I’m glad they got there when they did, Silas.”
“Believe me,” Silas replies, glancing at me, “so am I.”
“I don’t trust Hawthorne,” I say. I haven’t forgotten the conversation we had in his office, when he warned me to stay away from Silas. It’s easy enough for him to feign concern for us, I think, while behind the scenes he’s working with whoever gave the order to kidnap the students in the first place. It’s not clear to me whether he’s behind it, but one thing is for sure: anyone who believes Samantha was acting alone is naive.
“Me neither,” Hazel says, biting her lip. “But I guess there’s not much we can do, is there? Aside from staying vigilant, I mean.”
“And looking out for each other,” I agree, nodding.
There’s a moment of silence as we look around at each other, me and all these friends I’ve made since arriving at Shifter Academy. Finally, Hazel straightens and says, “Well, I guess I’d better get back to class. I’ve got Houston next period.”
“Damn,” Landon says, laughing. “Good luck.”
“Thanks,” says Hazel, grinning. “I’ll see you guys later.” And with that, she turns and walks out of the infirmary.
The five of us are left looking at each other. “You’re right about looking out for each other,” mutters Shade. I glance at him, surprised. “We owe each other that much,” he says. “And I agree--whatever this is, it’s far from over.”
“And there’s still this whole issue of our past,” Landon points out. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I want answers. About all of it.”
“Then let’s find them,” Silas says, and we all turn to look at him. He shifts a little in his bed, sitting up with a grunt. “Together, I mean. Look, I…” He clears his throat. “I know we haven’t always gotten along perfectly, but at the end of the day, this affects all of us. I want to make sure we’re all on the same page, here.”
“You’re right.” Before I really even know what I’m doing, I’m reaching out and grabbing first Silas’s hand, and then Landon’s. They look at me, confused, but it’s almost as if something passes between us then.
Wordlessly, Landon takes Hunter’s hand, Hunter takes Shade’s, and Shade takes Silas’s. We’re left standing there in a circle, looking from one to the next as the invisible bond we share--whether it’s predestined or not--weighs us down. I’ve grown close to these people, and I find myself vowing that I’m not going to let anything happen to them. Whatever it takes. The room seems to crackle with energy, and I meet each of the guys’ eyes in turn, nodding. “We’re in this together.”
“So what now?” Hunter asks quietly.
“We survive,” I reply. “As far as what comes after…” I take a long breath and square my shoulders. “We have work to do.”
Continuing reading Millie’s story in Azure Dragons by clicking here.
Description
Wolf, Siren, Dragon, Witch and Vampire shifters in one academy? Make that two academies and then there is a big problem.
Our magical boarding school is in danger and its students are being hunted. With the humans blaming the supernaturals and the supernaturals blaming the humans, no one knows who is doing this. But everyone knows they are no longer safe.
With a trip to Boston suddenly coming up, my five “friends” becoming more than I ever imagined they would be to me. Supernatural Shifter Academy is no longer a safe place.
For my heart…and my life.
Someone wants us dead and the secrets we have found out buried with us.
But I won’t let that happen.
18+ Reverse Harem Romance which means the main character will have more than one love interest. This is book two of a five-book series and will be rapidly released.
Chapter 27
My life is insane. In a good way.
A little less than a year ago, my school guidance counselor sat me down for one of our requisite meetings. I think it was meant to help get us thinking about life after graduation and figure out a game plan for our future—one of those misguided things that the administration thinks is more helpful than it really is. I remember her asking me where I saw myself after finishing school, no doubt fishing for some answer about university, picking a career, and soldiering out into everyday society without a care in the world. In the end I made up something about “seeing where things went”, because the answer “I’m probably going to end up burning out in a dead-end job, since I have no friends, no family, and no connections” somehow didn’t seem like it was going to placate her.
How could I have known that by this time the following year, I would be standing in the middle of a forest with a shapeshifter, desperately trying to master the art of transforming into a wolf in time for next week’s practical?
It’s funny how these things work out.
“Boots. Earth to Boots.” A familiar voice breaks through the reverie, and I shake myself as I cast the memories aside. Shade Ivis, the handsome, lanky, ash-blond wolf shapeshifter and U.K. Shifter Academy’s resident criminal is standing a few feet away from me, his hands cupped around his mouth in an exaggerated gesture. “Are you still with me?”
“Sorry, sorry.” I clear my throat. “I just zoned out for a second, there.”
“Really?” he teases. “I never would have guessed.” Taking a step forward, he crosses his arms over his chest. “You’re not going to impress anyone by zoning out, though, Boots.”
Boots. Even though it’s only been a few months, the name already has a homey ring to it, like an old coat or a used car. It suits me, but more than that, it makes me feel like I’m a part of a bigger group, which isn’t something I would have ever expected. I think maybe that’s what’s struck me the most about all this, in the end: the ease with which I’ve connected with the people here, in the aftermath of a lifetime on my own.
They say people change after leaving school, but usually they don’t mean it literally. In my case, though, instead of a new set of goals or a new lease on life, a few months ago I found myself with a new body—five new bodies, to be exact. What started out as a day on the run, a desperate attempt to get away from my alcoholic foster father and his escalating temper, ended in a night of being attacked by squatters in a building I had thought was abandoned. That was when everything had, as the saying goes, gone pear-shaped. Looking back on it now, I can still hardly believe it—it was the kind of thing I thought only happened in stories: the cornered orphan discovers that she has magical powers and uses them to save the day before being whisked off to a new home and new life. On the surface, it was almost too perfect.
They say that shifter magic usually first presents itself during young adulthood. The jury’s still out on where the magic comes from, exactly, with theories ranging from a genetic mutation to occult meddling hundreds of years ago. Either way, what do you get when you cross a runaway foster kid with unknown superpowers?
Me, of course. The only difference being that instead of having access to just one shifter form, like pretty much every other shifter in the world, I have access to all five: witch, dragon, wolf, siren, and vampire. It’s like something out of a comic book, except usually comic book characters don’t have as much trouble using their powers as I do. I’ve made a decent amount of progress since first coming to the Academy, but I’ve got a long way to go before I’m on par with the upperclassmen—and even longer before I’m capable of handling myself in a world that I now know is nowhere near as straightforward as I once thought it was.
“You’re not giving up, are you?” Shade asks, smirking. “And here I was thinking you never gave up, Boots.”
“You’re damn right, I never give up,” I
fire back, rolling my shoulders and widening my stance. Closing my eyes, I follow the advice he gave me all those months ago and casting away the outside world. It’s not an easy thing to do, especially for someone like me, who would rather overthink everything than let instincts do what they’re supposed to. Everyone says that’s the key to mastering your shifter form: to learn to let go. The only problem is that it’s easier said than done, and I’ve only really ever gotten the hang of it in life or death situations. But that’s a story for another time, I think.
I suck in a long breath, focusing on the feeling of the cool autumn air on my skin and the sounds of the leaves rustling in the trees overhead. It’s a Sunday, and there are no classes today, which means the students of the Academy have free reign to roam about the campus, study, and practice their forms. It’s a simple life, but I’m not complaining, especially now that I’ve seen what it’s like to have the Academy on lockdown. It’s been a bit more than a month since that student, Brody Patton, disappeared, and the faculty has only just eased up on the curfews and restrictions. How many of them know the real reason behind Brody’s disappearance, I can’t say.
I feel my breathing start to slow down, that cool, familiar feeling that I’ve come to know as my magic making itself known in the pit of my stomach. I resist the urge to reach for it, to try to grab onto it; Shade was the one who told me how counterproductive that is. The key is to let go and let it come to you. So I do… or at least, I try to.
The truth is that I’m finding it incredibly hard to focus with Shade in such close proximity to me. He’s close enough that I can feel his breath stirring the chestnut flyaways on my forehead, and can smell him—earthy and musky, with a layer of danger that sets my heart pounding whenever I catch it. Not for the first time, I catch myself wondering if he’s picked up on my feelings yet. What do I even call it, anyway? A crush? A friendship? An attachment? Somehow, none of those feel quite right, and that’s the problem.
