by Jen Pretty
hold of Peran… I’m not sure, but I heard a phone ring in
the trees. Like I had called someone who was standing near
us. It could have been the person who attacked you.”
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Nick's eyes went wide then he rolled up and grabbed
his boots.
I pulled my shoes on, and we were out the door.
Nick pounded on Peran and Kai’s door.
When the door swung open, a half-asleep Kai stood in
the doorway. He was wearing fleece plaid pyjama pants and
an old ratty tank top that sat crooked on his shoulders,
adding to his dishevelled look.
“We have to get Nick’s phone,” I said.
Kai’s bleary eyes focused on me. “We can get it in the
morning.” He started to shut the door, but I stopped it and
pushed it open.
“I think I accidentally dialled the person who attacked
Nick. I heard a ring in the forest.”
Kai rubbed his eyes and then scratched his head. He
pulled the door open and backed up to let us in. Peran was
fast asleep on the bed, snoring softly.
Kai sat on the corner of the bed and pulled on his
shoes. His eyes were still heavy as he stood and put a hand
on each of us, sifting us back to the graveyard. I stood still
to get my bearings, but Nick lurched forward in the
darkness, head down, searching for the phone.
Kai flicked on the flashlight on his phone, and we all
moved around the area, searching for the phone. The grass
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was dry; it should be fine as long as it wasn't sitting in the
puddle of blood.
“Here it is,” Nick called. I hurried over, and he pressed
the button to turn it on. As the screen lit up, it displayed a
gross smear of dried blood. Nick scrapped at it with his
fingernail, and it flaked off, raining to the grass like
grotesque snowflakes.
He tapped the screen a few times and look up at me.
Then his eyes shifted to Kai.
“She dialled Falcor.”
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
We all stood in stunned silence for a minute.
“Why would Falcor do that?” I asked.
“He’s an ass, but I don't think he would cut my throat,”
Nick said.
“All the women who died washed up on the shore had
their throats cut,” I whispered.
Kai put a hand on each of us and sifted us back to his
motel room where Peran was still snoring. I was getting
used to travelling that way. It hardly affected me at all, this
time. I went to the bed and shook Peran’s shoulder. His
snoring stopped on a quick snort, and his eyes flipped open
and focussed on me.
“What’s going on?” he asked, his eyes darting around
the room to rest on Kai and then Nick.
“Caw,” Crow appeared on the headboard of the bed.
He had something clasped in his talons.
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“What is that?” I asked reaching out towards it. As my
fingers touched in, he unclasped his long nails, and a watch
fell into my hand. “Where did this come from?”
Crow launched himself off the headboard, circled the
room and then dove straight for my chest. I tried to back
up, but it was too late. His feathered body slammed into
me, disappearing into my chest and magic exploded,
sending blue sparkles through the room.
Dry heaves wracked my body, but my vision shifted,
and I was suddenly standing in the graveyard at the edge of
the trees. I hopped forward and let out a caw. My mind
spun until it put the pieces together and I realized I was
seeing what Crow had seen.
There in the underbrush was something shiny,
reflecting the moonlight. I hopped forward and pecked at
it. It was clean and new looking as if someone had just
dropped it on the fresh leaves. I picked it up in my beak
and turned back out of the brush. My eyes could make out
three figures standing near a grave in the place we had been
moments ago.
I heaved again and coughed until my eyes watered
before reaching into my mouth and pulling free a long
black feather.
“Are you ok, Selena? Selena!” Nick's voice sounded
urgent. I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked up at
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his worried face. I was laying on the floor but didn’t
remember falling.
Crow cawed from the bedpost.
The watch was still in my hand. I inspected it as I
caught my breath. God that was gross. I held up the feather
that had been down my throat. “Was that necessary?” I
asked the bird.
He bobbed his head up and down like a lunatic.
“Crow found this in the graveyard. It was near where
we were.” I held up the watch.
“I’ve never seen a watch like this before. Certainly not
on Falcor,” Nick said.
“Could it have been a coincidence I heard a phone ring
at the same time as I dialled?” I asked, taking the watch
back from nick and trying to remember if I had ever seen
a watch like that before.
Everyone stared at it in my hands. “We have to go talk
to him, anyway. We need to know for sure. Is there any
way to know if he was at the school during that time?”
Kai hummed. “Well, if he was teaching a class or with
someone, he would have an alibi, but if not, the school
doesn't keep track of comings and goings.”
“Let’s go,” Nick said.
Kai grabbed his arm and disappeared. He returned a
moment later to grab Peran who was still in his pyjamas
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and sock feet. He grabbed my arm too and a moment later
we were standing in the school cafeteria with Nick.
I checked my pocket to make sure the book had made
it through the sifting and sighed with relief. I didn't like
the school at night. The lights were low except for the
marked security exits, and there was absolutely no sound.
I could feel the magic seeping out of my pours with
every moment. It was uncomfortable, but I was holding so
much magic, I figured I had a while before I needed to get
out of here. Still, the feeling of losing magic provided an
urgency that had me marching out of the cafeteria and
down the hall towards the dorms.
“Selena,” A tiny voice called from behind me.
I spun back, my magic tugging in the direction the
voice had come from, not that I needed it to tell me who
was behind me. The tiny boy came charging down the
darkened hallway and flung himself at me. His magic
wrapped around me tighter than the serpent had in the
graveyard in Canada.
“Hey, Colvin. How’s it going?” I asked, his vibrancy
lightening my mood and bringing a smile to my face.
“Good, I’ve been waiting for you to come back. Mr.
Denner said you might not come back because the school
magic wasn’t good for you.” His big brown eyes blinked
up at me from the frame of his white hair.
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“I probably won’t stay long, but I’m glad you were here
to gre
et me.”
“Colvin. You should be in bed,” a tall, lanky vampire
said as he rounded the hall and caught sight of us.
“Look, Mr. Denner. Selena came back.” Colvin’s
enthusiasm was over the top.
The vampire shook his head and smiled. “That doesn’t
change the fact it’s the middle of the night and you should
be sleeping.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, scooping up Calvin in a hug. The
weird connection between us made me want to keep him
close to me.
Crow appeared in the hall and hopped over to where I
stood with Colvin wrapped awkwardly in my arms, his legs
hanging down towards my knees. Crow hopped up to nip
at Colvin's shoelaces that hung limply from his sneakers.
He and I laughed as his teacher approached. “Hello
Anick, Peran, Kai. How are you all doing this evening?”
The guys replied in a jumble of positive statements
followed by “Mr. Denner,” and I assumed they had all been
a student of his at one point. It was funny how teachers
never lost the Mr. or Mrs. before their name, no matter
how long you were out of school.
I set Colvin’s feet on the ground and smoothed his hair
back.
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“Will you be here for breakfast?” he asked.
I didn’t want to lie, but something inside me wanted to
get to know him. “Maybe.”
He smiled at me, then turned and ran past the guys
towards the dorms — his shoelaces whipping along at his
feet.
“It’s nice to see you all back. You must be Selena,” he
said extending his hand to me. I shook his hand but held
my magic captive, so it didn’t hop into the vampire. “I’ve
heard quite a bit about you.”
“Nice to meet you too,” I said.
“So, what can I help you with?” he asked, his blue eyes
were intense like a hot summer sky.
“We came to talk to Falcor,” I said.
“Oh, I guess you wouldn't have heard, he left the
Sanctuary. He wasn’t content to be a teacher.”
I caught Nick’s eye. His face looked dark as if he had
the same thoughts as I did. If Falcor wasn’t here, he could
be anywhere.
“Do you guys want to stay here for the night? I think
someone who should be sleeping would like you to stay,”
he said in a louder than necessary voice, looking past us
down the hall. When I spun around, I saw a flash of white
hair disappear around a corner.
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“I’m not sure how long I should stay, but I guess I can
try,” I said, looking back to the teacher.
“All right, follow me.” He led us down the hall and
pushed open a door, flicking on the light inside. There were
two bunk beds in the room — one on either side.
“I call top bunk,” Kai said as he launched himself up
onto the loft bed on the right.
Peran hopped up onto the other one, leaving me a
bottom bed. I tucked the magic book under the pillow and
curled under the blankets.
I assumed Nick would head to the room I had
stumbled upon full of vampires my last night here, but,
instead, he threw himself down on the other bottom bunk
and stretched out on his back, hands behind his head.
Kai jumped down and flicked off the lights, throwing
the room into blackness. The squeak of bed springs
announced his return to his top bunk, and the room fell
into silence. I stared into the darkness and got lost in
thoughts of Falcor and the dead bodies washing up on the
shore. Falcor knew where I lived and worked. I had seen
him at the graveyard the night I raised the old man before
all this started. It could have been him that delivered the
dead things.
The sound of rustling feathers near my head nearly
shocked me off the bed. “Shit,” I said.
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“What is it?” Nick said.
“My stupid Crow just scared me,” I replied.
He cawed, the sound ripping through the room.
“Shut up,” Kai said, the springs of his mattress creaked
as he rolled over on the bed.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
The bird settled down beside me on the pillows and I
hoped he would just sleep. I closed my eyes and tried to
stop my mind from thinking. There would be plenty of
time for that tomorrow.
When I woke up, the sun was streaming in through a
window at the foot of the bed, blinding me. I turned onto
my side and came face to face with a tiny brown-eyed boy.
His giant gap-toothed grin was too much, and I smiled
back at him.
“Good morning, Selena,” he said. He was crouched
down beside the bed, still wearing his pyjamas.
My magic had nearly drained off while I was sleeping,
I would have to run outside or something before breakfast.
That super magic zone outside sounded pretty good.
“You ready for breakfast?” he asked.
“Sure, just give me a minute to have a shower.” I
watched Colvin scurry out of the room, then looked
around. The guys had left. I was still wearing Peran’s t-shirt
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and jogging pants. It was all the clothes I had, so I would
have to put them back on after my shower.
I had a quick, luke-warm shower and went off in search
of the guys. After walking the hall back to the cafeteria, I
found them sitting at a table near the back of a very
crowded, loud room full of bouncing children. Some of
them were disappearing and reappearing like the warlocks
do, while others were jumping from their seats up on the
table and back down the other side — little vampires in
training.
“Selena!” Colvin yelled. I weaved my way through the
room carefully. Small bodies were running with trays and
dashing away from each other.
“Hey guys,” I said.
Colvin had put his backpack on the chair, but pulled it
off and smiled up at me as I slid into it. He was cute. I
looked up, and Nick was glancing between Colvin and me.
“What? I asked.
“It’s just, you two could be siblings. You’re so similar.”
I looked back down at Colvin’s grinning face and
returned the big toothy grin. Yeah, we were similar, but it's
hard to see past our brown eyes and white hair. Peran's
blue eyes made more sense with his pale hair than Colvin
and my brown eyes. It didn’t matter; I felt a connection to
Colvin and was happy to pretend he was my little brother.
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“I’ll go get you some breakfast,” Colvin said as he
hopped up and ran off.
My laughter bubbled out, and the guys joined in for a
moment, but then their faces fell.
“We tracked Falcor’s phone. He is in your city,” Kai
said.
“Shit.”
Colvin raced back with a tray in his hands loaded with
breakfast foods at that exact moment. I covered my mouth
with my hand, realizing I swore in front of a kid, but he
just smiled and set the food
down for me.
“Thanks, Colvin,” I said, snatching a piece of toast off
the plate.
Peran reached across the table to take some too, but
Colvin’s magic lashed out like a whip and smacked Peran’s
hand with a slap.
“Colvin!” a stern voice called from across the room.
“Sorry, Ms. Everly,” he said in a sing-song voice with
a frown on his face.
“You know the rules,” she huffed before turning to
stop a couple of vampire kids who were trying to jump to
the ceiling fan.
“You aren’t allowed to use magic here?” I asked him.
Peran was still rubbing the sting on his hand.
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“I can use magic, but not offensive magic. They take
me to the graveyard sometimes,” he said smiling again.
“It’s fun there.”
“I like it there too,” I said with a laugh.
The small cup of orange juice that Colvin had brought
me tasted like fresh squezed and the eggs were light and
fluffy. It was hard to believe the school made food for all
these kids every day.
I turned back to Colvin dreading that what I had to tell
him.
“I have to go again for a while, but only a few days
hopefully. Then I’ll come back and see you.”
His smile fell, but he nodded and looked at Nick. “You
will stay with her? I don’t want the boogie man to get
Selena.”
“Who is the boogie man?” I asked thinking it was a
joke.
“Falcor.” His face was serious, and I almost dropped
my cup of juice.
“What do you know about Falcor?” I asked. The guys
were all focussed in on the kid too.
“I had a vision one time. He was doing bad things. I’m
glad he’s gone, but I don’t want him to hurt you.”
“I promise, I’ll keep her safe,” Nick said.
“We will all help keep her safe,” Peran chimed in.
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Colvin wrapped his short arms around me and closed
his eyes. “I’m glad I have a sister,” he said.
I wasn’t sure where that came from, but I was happy
to let it ride. The thread between me and the little boy
pulled tight around my heart.
“All right, we should get going,” Kai said, standing up
from the table.
I downed the last of my juice and hugged Colvin once
more.
