Captured: Academy of the Seraph

by Brandi Elledge

Luna was almost drooling. Finally, she closed her mouth. “Flaming Sword. Reincarnation. Archangels. Dream walking. I’m done. Done.” She flopped dramatically on the bed while mumbling things under her breath.

  Trev said, “Why didn’t you say anything about the archangels?”

  I could feel Remy pulling her hands out of my grasp, so I tightened my hold. I had no clue what was up with her and her aggressive clapping.

  “Why would I tell you?” I asked.

  “Good point,” Ezra said.

  “Like I was saying,” I continued. “He told me that I could transfer some of the power that the sword held.” Looking at Luna, I said, “You now have some of that power inside of you. That is how you killed the wendigo.”

  Luna started erratically rambling off questions, and I could tell that Remy was dying to clap again. When Luna stopped speaking, the brothers began asking me questions.

  “Here is what I care about right now; another archangel, Sandalphon, has asked me not to kill the wendigos. There is nothing we can do about the one that Luna fought off her, but from here on out, we need to heed his advice.”

  “How many archangels have you talked with?” Trev asked in dismay.

  Ignoring him, I said, “I cannot get a mark on me. That means that we have to work quickly because, as soon as the headmistress figures out that I’m more than I’m pretending to be, she will try to lock me down here.”

  Remy rolled her blue eyes. “Can I make an amendment to your plan? We should have killed her first thing, but that was a mistake.” I agreed. “I say we just kill her now. We run the Empowered Academy until we can figure out a situation for the wendigos. Then we focus on how to turn the commander back to the hot-ass man he is.”

  “That’s not actually a bad plan,” I murmured. “Now tell me two things. How did you return so fast, and what did you find out?”

  She shined her nails on her shirt. “So, in ghost form, I can travel the ley lines. It is super cool and, not to brag, but I can travel anywhere in the blink of an eye. Paris? Japan? Alaska? Yeah, and all in the same hour. What? I know, super awe-inspiring, right?”

  I tried to return her smile. “That is cool. Now, what did you find out about Finn?”

  Her happiness evaporated. “My intel, and by that I mean the Rocks, think that the headmistress sent the wendigos out to where the commander was with his small group of fifty, including the Rocks, to show the commander that the headmistress has a weapon—the wendigos. However, no one from the Academy of Seraph actually saw her or her guards. Their best guess is that she waited on the mountainside, close enough to control the wendigos still, but far enough that the commander wouldn’t be a threat to her. They believe that the commander was meant to be harmed.”

  I took a deep breath.

  “The Rocks said that they also believe the headmistress is now aware of what you are capable of.”

  “Me?” I swiveled my gaze to Trev.

  He put both hands up. “I swear to you that, other than my brother, I haven’t told a soul about who I thought you could possibly be. Luna knew you were our saving grace, but I didn’t tell her why. But if I had put together the pieces, I’m sure that someone else could have.”

  “Two of the Academy of Seraph’s people didn’t make it back,” Remy said. “They think one of them knew and told.”

  “How many people know about me?” I asked more calmly than I felt.

  Ezra pushed off the door. “They brought them in while Luna was to be the sacrificed. I just heard that they put them in the dungeons. I’ll go and see if that has anything to do with Gabriella. Luna, why don’t you come with me?”

  Luna hugged me. “Thank you for saving my life. You have given me this gift, and I promise that I will not let you down.” Though I didn’t need her words because of my gut, I appreciated them just the same.

  We watched them both sneak out of my room, and then I asked, “And when the wendigos came to fight the fifty from the Academy of Seraph, what happened?” I knew without asking what had happened, but I wanted Remy to say it.

  “The commander’s scout saw them from a distance. The only good thing about the wendigos is that they aren’t faster than the commander, who met them head-on. The first wendigo he grabbed turned the commander into one of them. He then fought every single wendigo by himself. All thirty of them.”

  I swiped a tear from my cheek. Finn had to become something horrible in order to beat them. If I had returned with Remy in the very beginning, I would have been there with him. I could have defeated the wendigos, and Finn would be okay right now.

  Remy pointed a finger in my face. “Nope, we’re not doing that. We were led down this path for a reason. And just because it got a little bumpy doesn’t mean we are giving up.”

  I nodded. She was right. We had to stay the course now.

  “Also,” she said, “he knew what he was doing when he decided to save all those people. He is not lost to you.” She nodded vehemently. “My plan is the best. Let’s kill the headmistress and redecorate the school in her absence.”

  “Bloodthirsty,” Trev said, “but I like it.”

  She winced. “Sorry, sweet cheeks, I’m in a noncommitted relationship with your brother.”

  Trev laughed before a buzzing sounded from his pocket. He pulled out a small cell phone and frowned before he said, “I have to go meet up with Ezra and Luna. I’ll be right back.”

  “Everything okay?” I asked. “Well, are things no worse than they were five minutes ago?”

  “I don’t know, but as soon as I do, I’ll tell you.”

  After he left, I curled up in the bed with Remy beside me.

  “You know,” she said, “we have to go on the offense on this.”

  I nodded. “When Uriel came to me, he suggested I bestow the power of the Flaming Sword to six others.”

  “If we are preparing for battle, don’t you think you should get on that?”

  “Yeah,” I mumbled. “I’m just so tired.”

  “I know you are. Take a quick cat nap. There’s nothing we can do with all the guards surrounding the headmistress. Soon, though, she’ll go off to her room to find sleep, and then we will strike.”

  Remy was savage. Savage was just what I needed. I also needed a replay of what had happened to Finn. My powers were swirling inside of me. I would not dream walk. I would search for the past.

  I fell asleep with Remy playing with my hair.

  I wasn’t dream walking; I was tapping into Haniel’s gift while sleeping. The gift gave me what I wanted to see the most—Finn in the forest with numerous other blessed. The Rocks were flanking his sides, looking menacing. Finn was scanning over the eerily quiet forest with his green eyes, and I was shocked to see Mrs. Fields crouched behind a tree with a book in her hands, quietly talking about war plans and strategy to a young blood beside her. She didn’t look happy to be in the forest. I wondered if Finn had made her come.

  Hannah came up to the trio of men. Her reddish-orange hair was up in a messy bun, and there was a smudge of dirt on her face, covering half her freckles. She crossed her long pale arms over her chest and cleared her throat. “Commander, I appreciate you letting me come today.”

  Finn sighed. “I didn’t let you come, Hannah. You snuck out with the seniors.”

  She looked like she was about to pass out, and Finn wasn’t even shouting. “Um … yeah, I guess I did do that. Regardless, I wanted to know if you needed me to be a decoy of some sort? Maybe instead of waiting here, I could travel by myself to the Empowered Academy. I could say that I wanted to join their ranks; try to get close to Gabriella to see how she’s faring.”

  He shook his head. “We already have Remy on the inside. We don’t know what we are dealing with yet.”

  “But, Commander— ”

  “No, Hannah, the answer is no.” When her bottom lip began to tremble, he sighed. “Listen, I know that you are worried about Gabriella, but she is strong. She has a plan and told us to wait here, so we will wait here.
You and I both know that, if she wants the headmistress of the Empowered Academy dead, then the woman doesn’t stand a chance. There must be a good reason Gabriella has asked us to wait, so we wait. Your friend, Remy, can’t be killed. Not twice. She is just as safe as Gabriella. You are not. You should be back behind the walls of the Academy of Seraph, but due to your disobedience, you are here. Don’t make me have someone escort you back.”

  Her blue eyes filled with unshed tears, but she nodded as she walked back toward a group of students hidden behind a few oak trees.

  “She just misses her friend. Wants to help,” Dan said.

  Finn clenched his jaw. “We are all feeling a little useless right now, but one thing I don’t need is someone inexperienced going behind enemy lines and getting themselves killed. Gabriella loves Hannah; it would hurt her.”

  Richard nodded. “What do you think the headmistress has up her sleeve? I smell no demons.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Rest assured, boss, the Flaming Sword can kill any demon, any angel,” Dan comforted. “She will be fine.”

  Mrs. Fields cut her eyes to the trio of men. She then raised her eyebrows for a second before she turned back to her book.

  Dan had just let it slip that I had the Flaming Sword inside of me.

  Before Finn could say something, a noise echoed from the steep hill before them. Then a young boy shouted, “Sir, Sir! There are creatures heading our way!”

  “Stay here,” he commanded Dan and Richard as he stretched his massive black wings from his back. “Keep them quiet,” he ordered before he jumped in the air and began to soar above the tree lines. He took in the sight of the wendigos making their way down the steep climb. Their bodies were massive as they made their way up from fifty below. They made no sign of trying to be quiet, and why would they? They would track their prey, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

  With a swoop, he changed directions, heading back toward the forest. He landed so hard the ground vibrated. The look on his face was determination and anger.

  “What is it, boss?” Dan asked.

  “She has created wendigos.”

  Richard said enough curse words that a sailor would have blushed. “How the hell did she do that?”

  Finn shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. We can’t kill them. Both of you are to run the academy until further notice.”

  Dan shook his head. “No, boss.”

  Finn ignored the big man as he once again took to the sky. So focused on the wendigos, he never saw the tall, redheaded girl, who had been eavesdropping, making her way through the forest and toward the mountain.

  He landed in front of the first wendigo. His beautiful wings were outstretched as a sexy smirk, the one that I loved more than anything, stretched across his face. He looked like he was about to entertain guests, not sacrifice himself.

  The wendigo came to a screeching halt before he lunged for the commander. The other wendigos stopped on the trail, watching as Finn reached out and grabbed the first wendigo by his throat.

  The dream faded, and I thanked the Lord for that. I didn’t want to see Finn turned into a wendigo.

  My turmoil turned into peace as Haniel’s gift receded and I began to dream walk.

  There, Finn stood, at the edge of a lake. The water was almost transparent. It was beautiful, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the man in front of me.

  A blanket appeared on the grass that led up to the water.

  Without turning around, he asked, “Did you have a bad dream?”

  “Yeah.” I sniffled. “Finn, I—”

  “Come sit for a while?” He turned then.

  I nodded as I bit back tears. He knew what I had dreamed of, and he didn’t want to talk about it. I thought it was purely for unselfish reasons. He knew it had upset me, and he didn’t want to see me upset.

  Trying to act as if my heart wasn’t breaking, I walked toward the blanket where we sat side by side for half an hour, holding hands, watching the sun glisten on the water and listening to the birds chirp without ever saying a word.

  Finally breaking the silence, I said, “In this new form, you can create where you want to meet?”

  “No, I’ve always been able to do that. But this”—he nodded at the lake—“is better than where I currently am.” He raised our held hands to his lips and gently kissed my hand. “I’m sorry.”

  I turned my head slightly so he wouldn’t see the tears forming in my eyes. “For what? Saving your people? Our friends? Never apologize for that. Besides, if I had come to you when you sent Remy for me, you wouldn’t be a wendigo right now … so this is all my fault.”

  He grabbed my chin, forcing me to turn my head and look at him. “Gabriella, the Flaming Sword is a great gift, but there is no way you could have fought off all those wendigos with that power only. Who knows what would have happened if they would have jumped you? Maybe even you can be turned into one of them. There are too many unknowns. Besides, because I’m fully blessed, or maybe it’s because I’m Lucifer’s son and have dark magic already inside of me, whatever the reasoning, I’m extremely powerful. I have the advantage of killing the wendigos in a fourth of a second. My claws slash through their necks, and in the next moment, they are nothing but a pool of black oil. I am sure you will learn to wield the Flaming Sword faster, but until then, there would have been casualties. Could you live with that? What if one of those people were Hannah? This was the only way.”

  “I would never sacrifice you so that others could live, though.”

  A sexy smirk crossed his face as he bent his head toward mine. “I missed you,” he said as he laid me down on the plaid blanket. Then he shifted so he was laying me.

  Looking up at him almost took my breath away. Every inch of him looked like he came from the bloodlines of a fallen angel. He was studying me just as intensely as I gazed upon him.

  I suddenly felt shy with the thoughts running through my head. My wants were almost embarrassing.

  He brushed my hair away from my face. “Don’t ever be shy or embarrassed with me, Maka. Not ever.”

  My lips unconsciously parted slightly as he moved his lips closer to mine. For a moment, we focused on nothing but the kiss. Then I felt the soft brush of his warm hand as he trailed it down my rib cage so slowly that I thought I would melt into the blanket. As he slid over me, he still managed to somehow keep his weight from crushing me.

  I ran a hand up and down his chest, feeling the concrete wall of muscles. And, as he trailed his lips down their steady path of my destruction, I turned my head to give him a better angle for my neck that he was currently making a trail down. That was when I noticed his biceps flexing and moving. That sight alone made me moan.

  He chuckled as he stopped at the base of my throat. “Thoughts, Maka. Whatever you do, don’t control them.”

  “What are you doing to me?” I asked.

  He kissed the space above my collarbone. “I want you to burn for me. When you’re not with me, I want you to remember how my breath against your neck made you pant like you’re doing right now. With every thought of me, I want your heartbeat to accelerate.” He placed a kiss over my heart, and I thought I was going to lose my mind. I threaded my fingers into his hair, and he raised his head. Green jewels stared at me with raw lust. “And Maka, I want you to remember that I don’t do anything half-assed.”

  I felt the dream start to waver, and he immediately stopped his onslaught of kisses. His eyes pierced mine, filled with need, sadness, and lust.

  “You have to go?” His voice was raspy.

  Frustrated, I grabbed ahold of him as if I had any say in the matter. “No.”

  The dream started collapsing, and I shouted, “No!” as I was jolted awake.

  “Wake up,” came from a feminine voice. She shook me harder.

  “No,” I said. I wanted to stay with Finn.

  “Come on, Gabriella. This is important.”

  I cracked my eyes open, but I wasn’t a happy camp
er. “Luna? Man, you have the worst timing ever.” I was mad, angry, and frustrated as I sat up in bed. That was when I noticed Remy was standing behind her with a worried look. “What is it?” I asked.

  She bit her bottom lip. “I have horrible news.”

  I clenched the comforter. “I was asleep for what, twenty minutes? How could things possibly get worse?”

  “Trust me, honey bunny,” Remy said, “things can always get worse.”

  My stomach dropped.

  Luna pushed Remy forward. “You tell her.”

  Remy sat down next to me. “Good news first. The headmistress doesn’t know that we know that she knows that you are more than you seem. The bad news is she knows that you are the Flaming Sword.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked at the same time that my door busted open and Trev came in with his brother right after him.

  “I need you to listen,” Trev said. “Do you remember Ms. Fields from the Academy of Seraph?”

  Of course I did. The woman hated me. She had made my life miserable during her Archangels 101 class, and she was the one I saw in Finn’s memory, looking hateful as she crouched behind a massive oak tree. Miserable and hateful.

  “Yes.”

  “She was one of the ones who were out in the forest with the commander.”

  “Okay?”

  I swear that boy rolled his eyes. “She overheard the commander, Dan, and Richard talking to Hannah about you. It was implied that you could handle yourself here, but she couldn’t. When the wendigos began their trek down the mountainside, Mrs. Fields began to panic. She knew that none of them would survive, and then the Academy of Seraph would be left vulnerable. She went up the backside of the mountain to negotiate with the headmistress.”

  “I’ll kill that old bat!” I seethed.

  “Too late,” Ezra said. “Someone beat you to the punch about fifteen minutes ago, and I’m betting it was the headmistress who killed her. She probably got all the information out of her that she needed then exterminated her.”

  “Good,” I said.

  Remy shrugged at Trev. “Seems as if we are all a little bloodthirsty.”