Hundreds of students lined the buildings’ balconies behind us, eager to see the new creatures sent to guard us.
The thirty-four creatures came to a halt ten feet away, and as one, bowed.
“You were summoned here to protect these grounds and the students within these grounds. Humans infiltrated once already. I expect that won’t happen with you all here,” Grandfather said and growled deeply.
The creatures barked their agreement.
“Takumi is in charge of you all. Takumi, if you need anything, contact me,” Grandfather said, looking at a rather handsome and young wolfman. He had blonde hair and fur that was spiked out like he put gel in it and had three golden earrings in his left ear. He was the youngest wolfman to graduate from the academy and become a guard. He also loved to torment me whenever he was nearby. I wanted to tell Grandfather to send him away, but—and I would never admit this out loud to anyone—Takumi made me feel safe just by being here.
Takumi bowed again. “Yes, sir.” He straightened and looked at me. “Are we providing a guard for Tsukiko?”
“No,” Grandfather and I said at the same time.
Grandfather gave me a glare, and I snapped my mouth closed. My tail swished behind me, but I quickly wrapped it around my leg.
“Not at this time,” Grandfather amended. “If the situation worsens before I am able to return and you believe she needs a guard, then assign one to her.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Even if she tries to argue,” Grandfather finished with fire in his eyes.
I closed my mouth and looked down at my shoes. Fine. I got it. I would just make sure that that did not happen.
Behind me, Loralie danced from foot to foot. “Grandfather?” she whispered.
I looked up and saw his lip twitch again. “You may go,” he whispered.
Faster than I had ever seen her move, Loralie cleared the distance between us and the hellhounds.
The hounds surrounded her, rubbing their bodies on her and licking her face and hands.
She cooed at them while scratching their ears and rubbing the bellies of the ones who had lain down.
The ferocious, black dogs had red eyes that reminded me of the fires of the Underworld, fur that resembled shadows and mist, and razor sharp teeth that could tear through flesh and bone with ease.
And Loralie loved them. As Death’s daughter, she was capable of controlling the hell hounds if needed, but she had such an affinity for them that they just did whatever she asked.
“How long will she do that?” Takumi asked.
“Give her at least thirty minutes,” Grandfather said. “She hasn’t seen hellhounds in several months. I’ll leave it to you, Takumi. Take care of my girls...and the rest of the students.”
He added that ending like he’d almost forgotten there were other kids here.
Takumi bowed. “I will.”
After Grandfather left, Takumi straightened and looked down at me. “You may not want a bodyguard, but I’m going to be keeping my eye on you, little wolf. You smell like trouble.”
My body heated as did my face. I flattened my ears against my head and swished my tail back and forth. “I am not trouble.”
Takumi flicked one of my braids over my shoulder with his claw as he walked by and said, “We shall see, little wolf. We shall see.”
Frances looked at me with wide eyes, but waited until he was a distance away before asking, “What was that?”
I shook my head, swallowing hard. “I don’t know.”
“Looked to me like he was flirting with you,” Loralie said. She walked up to us, one hellhound on each side of her. “Isn’t he a bit too old to consider dating? I mean, he's an awesome friend, but dating is different.”
“He’s only seventeen,” I whispered. They also spent a lot of time with Takumi, but a lot of our time had been eating snacks and talking about all the things we liked.
“Uh oh. Tsukiko has a crush,” Frances whispered with a smirk.
I slapped her arm and growled. “Shut up. I do not. He torments me constantly and is a complete jerk.” He did, but only in front of others.
“Uh, huh. Sure thing,” Loralie said with an identical smirk to Frances’s.
I growled low and stalked away from them. “Whatever. No matter what I say you’re going to think what you want.”
Ahead of me, Rathik stepped out of the building and our eyes met. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, I turned towards the dorm rooms.
Takumi looked up from the conversation he was having with a chupacabra, his eyes moving from me to Rathik and back.
I shifted into my full wolf form, shredding my clothes in the process, and ran off into the forest instead of going to my room. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I needed some time to myself to think.
Surprisingly, Frances and Loralie did not call after me or try to catch me.
Good.
With a burst of speed, I darted into the dark woods, weaving through the trees on silent paws.
Freedom.
This was absolute freedom.
In the woods, no one cared what my grades were, what I wore, or how I reacted to serpents. Here, I was free to be me.
I could hunt. I could sleep. I could do as I pleased.
Absolute bliss.
And yet...
Just at the edge of my range of hearing, I caught snippets of laughter and conversation.
Here I was free, but I was also alone.
As the daughter of an elite, I could not do as I pleased all the time. I would be expected to marry and produce heirs. I would be expected to rule over the packs with an iron claw. I would be expected to do so much.
I would enjoy my freedom while I could.
Twenty
LORALIE
Tsukiko was off being a wolf and Frances left to study for a test we had coming up.
That left me alone with the two hellhounds I had adopted as mine. Takumi had been irritated, but ultimately, he gave up and let me take the two pups. They were very young, and I wasn’t sure why they had been allowed out of the Underworld to begin with.
I didn’t like the idea of them out on patrol when humans were sneaking past chupacabras.
The two hellhounds lay curled up at my feet, snoring. Tendrils of black smoke seeped from their noses as they snored.
They were the most adorable things ever.
I looked up at the ceiling as I remembered my dinner with Bogden and his mother. There hadn’t been much talking, which had suited me fine.
I had only eaten the salad because the only other thing to eat was scrambled harpy egg. There was no way I was going to eat Ainsley’s egg.
After helping with the dishes, I had excused myself and left without talking to Bogden.
I was still so confused about the whole event.
Why had he acted like he was getting their permission to date me when he hadn’t even asked if I wanted to date him?
I mean, he was amazing and I was sure dating him would be phenomenal, but...it just wouldn’t work.
Someone knocked on my door and the hellhounds were instantly up and growling.
I held my palm out and they both obediently sat down. Once I was sure they would stay, I opened the door.
“Hey,” Bogden said, smiling and rubbing the back of his neck.
“Uh, hi,” I whispered. “What’s up?”
“You ran off before I could really talk to you after dinner,” he said. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” I whispered, my eyes dropped to his chest so I could avoid looking at his face.
“Are you mad at me?” He whispered and took a step closer.
I jerked my head up and asked, “Why would I be mad at you?”
“Because I asked my mom about dating you without talking to you first,” he said.
“Why did you? You never even said you wanted to date me or anything. Was it just to irk them?” I asked.
He frowned. “Come on, you know I’m not li
ke that, Lor.”
“You have to know this won’t work,” I whispered, looking down the hallway to see if anyone else was nearby. The last thing I needed was my parents to find out that a boy was at my room.
“What? Why not? We’re great together,” he whispered and took another step closer.
Suddenly, Takumi appeared between us, pushing Bogden back. “No boys allowed in the girls rooms.”
“Takumi,” I gasped.
“Who are you?” Bogden snapped, his hands glowing slightly.
“Are you alright, LiLi?” Takumi asked softly.
“Takumi, nothing was going to happen. We were just talking. Why are you here?” I snapped, my anger growing.
The hellhounds stood, growling from sensing my anger.
“I’m patrolling the grounds, and I came to check on you,” Takumi whispered. “It seems I had good timing.”
“Loralie, who is he?” Bogden asked.
“He’s just a friend of the family,” I answered. “And he is leaving. Now.”
Takumi stared at me a long moment and then bowed. “As you wish, Princess.” He straightened and glared at Bogden. “Do not try to enter her room or the hellhounds will attack you.”
The hellhounds growled their agreement.
With a smirk in my direction that Bogden couldn’t see, Takumi bounded off down the hallway on all fours.
Stupid wolfman.
Though, he had just saved me.
“Look, Bogden, I really like you. You’re great and handsome and everything most girls want, but a relationship between the two of us is just not possible,” I said, gripping my doorknob.
“Does this have to do with him?” he asked, glaring down the hallway.
I laughed. “Not at all. He just wanted to upset you. Takumi’s heart belongs to another.”
I would never rat him out, though.
“Then why—”
“I’m sorry. It’s just not possible,” I whispered. “Thank you for dinner and for introducing me to your mom. Goodnight.”
I shut the door right in his face, locked it, and then threw myself onto the bed, face first.
This was for the best. It was for the best.
It was to protect him.
No, it was to protect me...and my secret.
Twenty-One
FRANCES
“Today, we will learn the proper way to cook humans,” Baba Yaga said.
“No!” Takumi said from the back of the room and sighed, rubbing his hand down his face. “Not humans, Baba Yaga.”
She sighed. “Fine, pigs. It’s pigs.” She turned and mumbled, “Should be humans. I mean pigs are close to humans anyway.” She’d demanded she be allowed to teach us some cooking classes in return for protecting us.
No one objected.
“Your mom is crazy awesome,” Rathik whispered to Bogden. Bogden, Rathik, and Dante were sharing a cooking station just behind Loralie, Tsukiko, and I.
We were well aware that it had been done on purpose, but we just kept facing forward, to ignore them.
Loralie wouldn’t tell me what had happened, but she and Bogden had obviously had a fight of some sort. He kept looking at her like a lost puppy and she kept blushing and looking away from him.
Tsukiko trembled any time Rathik spoke. Her hands were in fists atop the table and her jaw was clenched. She wasn’t even speaking to him from what I had seen.
Not that I was much better. Dante’s flame hair was low and slicked back, but I still couldn’t look at him. We had gotten so close and then I’d frozen again. I was such an idiot. If Ainsley hadn’t saved me, I don’t know what stupid thing would have come out of my mouth.
“In the refrigerators at each of your stations is a slab of meat. I will put the recipe with instructions on the board and you will be expected to follow them. This is like a spell; you must follow the recipe and instructions in order to get this right. You have one hour and fifteen minutes.” Baba Yaga tapped a claw against the whiteboard and the recipe and instructions appeared. “Begin.”
“I’ll measure the spices,” I offered.
“I’ll handle the meat,” Tsukiko whispered.
“I’ll handle the oven,” Loralie said.
We all knew I wouldn’t be handling the oven.
Taking my time, I carefully measured out each of the spices, putting them in the little dishes, and then began combining the ones that I could.
Tsukiko took the combined spices and rubbed them on the meat while Loralie preheated the oven.
I kept my eyes on the meat, not wanting to give in to the temptation to look at the table behind us.
Why were they torturing us? Was it to be cruel?
“Tonight, let’s go hang out in the game room,” Dante said.
My body tensed at his voice, but I didn’t turn.
“I’m up for some games,” Bogden said. “I know I could use a distraction right now.”
Games. Was that what this was to them? Games to see how much pain and discomfort they could cause us?
One of their plastic spice containers rolled off the front of their station and towards us.
All three of us froze.
“Whoops,” Rathik said.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him walking around his station to come retrieve it. It had landed right behind Tsukiko.
Suddenly, Takumi was there and picked up the container before Rathik could make it all the way around the station. He set their container on their station and said, “Here you go, friend.” Takumi stood right behind Tsukiko, their backs almost touching. “You shouldn’t let those get away from you or you might make a huge mess on the floor.”
“Thanks,” Rathik muttered.
Tsukiko reached a hand back and touched just the tip of her finger to Takumi’s palm. A gesture of thanks.
I wanted to do the same, but I could already feel the anger seething from the three boys.
Takumi walked away, making a circuit around the room to check on the other students.
“How many favors do we owe him now?” I asked Tsukiko in a whisper.
She shook her head. “Too many.”
Dante and Bogden also tried to accidentally drop something to get close to us and each time, Takumi came to our rescue.
By now, more than just our two groups were aware of the situation. I knew it wouldn’t be long before some stupid rumor was spread.
We finished our pig and it came out smelling delicious.
Baba Yaga came over, gave Loralie a glare, and gave us a B with no reason as to why we didn’t get an A.
None of us wanted to argue with her, though. We just accepted our grade and hurried out of the class.
“That was awful,” Tsukiko whispered.
“I’m more tense now than at family gatherings,” Loralie grumbled and shook out her hands.
“Hey,” Ainsley called from behind us.
We turned around and waited as she jogged up to us.
“What’s up?” I asked.
She flapped her wings. “What is the deal with you three and that wolfman? Are you guys sharing him or something?”
Had I been drinking water, I would have spit it out.
“What?” I gasped. “Ainsley, you should know us better than that.”
“You all seemed pretty chummy with him, and he kept interrupting the trio behind you whenever they were trying to get close to you,” she said. “Is he an ex and super jealous?”
“No!” All three of us yelled at the same time.
“He’s a family friend. He’s just super protective,” Tsukiko said. “I refused to have a bodyguard assigned to me, so he’s being a jerk and being overprotective to get back at me for it.”
“He’s just a family friend,” I added again.
Ainsley pouted. “Well, that’s boring. I guess I’ll go straighten everyone out before the rumors get too crazy.”
“Princesses,” Takumi said from behind us.
We turned around, and he bowed to us.
&n
bsp; This guy...
“What is it, Takumi?” Loralie asked.
“I finished my rounds and found nothing amiss,” he said, standing straight and looking stoic.
Tsukiko scowled. “Okay? Why are you telling us?”
“As Princess, I thought it was proper for me to inform you,” he said.
“We aren’t princesses,” Loralie snapped.
He dropped to one knee and bowed his head. “I apologize, Princess Loralie. I did not mean to upset you. I shall take my punishment as you see fit to give me.”
Loralie looked at Tsukiko and I, her mouth opening and closing with no sound coming out.
“Stop being ridiculous,” Tsukiko growled. “What game are you playing?”
“I live to serve you three,” he said, still on one knee with one fist on the ground.
“Some family friend,” Ainsley whispered behind me.
Satan, take me now.
“Stand up,” Loralie hissed.
Takumi stood and smiled at her.
“Tsukiko,” Rathik called as he, Bogden, and Dante headed towards us. All three wore matching scowls, and a dark red aura surrounded them.
Tsukiko tensed, and Loralie and I moved a step closer to her, the three of us touching arms.
Takumi’s smile disappeared into a deep scowl. He spun around and took a large step away from us, blocking the trio from approaching. “They are not interested in speaking to you three.”
“What is this?” Rathik asked Tsukiko.
“Come on,” Tsukiko whispered and grabbed Loralie and my hands.
We turned and headed towards the dormitory, ready to hide out for the rest of the night.
“Frances,” Dante called.
There was movement and then the sound of flesh hitting flesh.
“They do not wish to speak to you three. Do not make me say it again,” Takumi growled.
I turned and stared in shock at Dante on his butt before Takumi who was more wolf than man at the moment, his fur dripping with black smoke.
“Takumi,” I gasped. “Back off.”
“Who is he to you?” Dante asked.
“I am theirs,” Takumi said.
“No, you’re not!” Loralie, Tsukiko, and I yelled at the same time.
Monster Academy Page 10
