The booming voice cut through the really lovely, really hot and steamy shower I was having, and I stood there, water streaming off me, as the names were read through the PA system.
Heath Percival.
Gregory Goblin.
Lisa Danvers.
I towelled off quickly and pulled on my sports bra, wrestling the too tight material over my still damp body. I yanked my sweats on and all but tumbled out of the bathroom and into our dorm.
The three guys looked up, eyebrows raised. Pete shook his head. “Holy cats. I can’t believe you got by even one day without anyone guessing.”
“She didn’t,” Orin corrected him.
I shook my head, a plan already forming. “The names they called out. Do you guys know the others? I thought there were more missing the first day?”
Pete yawned and flopped into his bed. “Lisa was a shifter. A snake shifter to be exact. I think. I heard that the first kids ‘missing,’” he made air quotes with his hands, “had just taken off from the trials and the supervisors found them on the nearest road hitchhiking out of here.”
One shifter. One from the House of Unmentionables. “What do you want to bet that Heath was a future Shade?” All from the same house trials that we were doing at the time they went missing. My head was spinning with the possibilities. Someone was taking the kids, and Rory had said that as far as he knew, they weren’t being killed. So why were they being taken?
“What does that matter?” Orin climbed into bed.
The pieces clicked inside my head, realigning themselves, trying to make sense of what was still missing. “Because it means that whoever is taking the kids is using the trials specifically to weed out the ones they want. And specifically, out of the trials that we are in at the same time.”
I paced the room, thoughts whirling as fast as a hurricane, whipping up everything I’d learned so far. I could almost taste the answer. I clenched and unclenched my fingers as I walked.
“You’re going to wear a hole in the floor,” Pete said. “And even if you’re right, what then?”
Before he could answer, the door swung open and Wally strolled in, pillow and bag in hand.
Pete jumped up. “Whoa, whoa, you can’t be in here!”
Her eyes were puffy and red and her chest rose and fell at a speed that I knew all too well. She swept toward me first, then stumbled to a stop. “Wild. Are you a girl?”
“No one knows.” I hurried past her to the door to make sure it was shut tight. “Please, my brother’s life is on the line.”
“You never asked me nicely,” Ethan muttered to himself.
“Because you’re a twat, and we only put up with you because we have to!” Wally snapped, shocking us all into silence, right before she burst into tears.
The guys all seemed to freeze, as if a girl’s tears were more terrifying than any of the challenges they’d yet faced. I moved first, having spent more than my fair share of nights comforting Sam.
Wally leaned into me. “Those girls are awful, just awful.”
I didn’t ask her what the girls she was rooming with had done. It didn’t really matter. That was the thing with mean girls; they were all the same, even if these mean girls were playing with a different bag of tricks.
“What did they do?” Pete asked.
“I smell blood,” Orin whispered.
I shot him a look, but it was too late. Wally sniffed and swiped at her tears with both hands.
She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.” She turned her head, and I saw the bruises on her neck. Finger marks tipped with claws.
“A vampire did that,” Orin said, and I whipped around to face him as a white-hot burst of rage shot through me. A vampire had done this to Wally? Choked her and cut her, scared her to the point of tears?
“Oh crap,” Pete said. “I see that look, Wild. That is not a good look. Do not take on a vampire. This is a very, very bad idea.”
“And letting them think they can hurt Wally is a good idea?” I grabbed my clothes off the trunk, still covered in mud and blood from the last trial. I didn’t even bother to go to the bathroom to change. I ripped off the sweats—wouldn’t want to get blood on them—muttering as I went, “Nobody messes with my crew. Nobody.”
And just like that, I claimed them as mine. My crew. Sure, Ethan was a bad apple, but he was our bad apple, and we never would have made it this far without his help.
“I’m coming with you.” Orin ghosted to my side.
“Me too,” Pete said, but I shook my head.
“Pete. You stay with Wally. I doubt Ethan has a sensitive bone in his body.” I shot a look at Wonder Bread.
“You are insane.” Ethan shook his head. “The next trial is the House of Night. We’re going to get our fill of vampires there. Going after one of them now is just stupid.”
I turned on him. “You want to look weak? Like our crew can’t hold up under pressure? They’re testing us, Ethan. Maybe this is even part of the next trial. Like the poisoned food that first night.” I pointed a finger at him. “Without your cheat sheets, you don’t know what this is, which means we deal with it.”
“You can stay here,” I said to Wally, “We have a spare bed with Gregory gone.”
She sniffed. “Thanks. But I don’t want to cause more trouble.”
“She can’t stay here. We’ll all get thrown out!” Ethan roared.
Orin was on him in a flash, a cloak of black spilling out and around him like a shroud of darkness.
I’ll admit it, I took a step back, dragging Wally with me. Ethan took several steps back. His face paling at a rate that made me think there would be no blood left in his head.
“She can stay here. She is part of our team. And if you haven’t noticed, we already have a female in our midst, so what’s one more?” His voice deepened with every word until the last was barely a growl.
“Fine, whatever.” Ethan snorted as if he hadn’t just about pissed his pants. Because as Orin ghosted backward, I was almost positive there was a wet spot at the front of his sweats. Ethan pushed past us and headed to the bathroom. “Idiots, my team is full of idiots and bleeding hearts.” The bathroom door slammed behind him.
I made sure my knife was strapped into its belt sheath and went to the door.
“You have fifteen minutes before curfew,” Pete said.
Wally shook her head. “Just let it go, Wild. They aren’t worth it.”
I shrugged. “Can’t let it go. Where’s your old room?”
She reluctantly told me.
This distraction was exactly what I needed. I couldn’t figure out what was happening to the missing kids. But I could stop Wally from being picked on again.
I stepped out the door, Orin drifting silently beside me as I jogged down the long hallway. Fatigue and body aches rolled through me. The lineups at the healer had been long, and I’d thought to go in the morning when it was quieter.
“I don’t understand you, Shade,” Orin said. “You are protective of us in a way that is not normal, not even for a Shade bound to guard someone.”
“Normal is boring.” We rounded a corner, and the sound of talking reached us loud and clear.
Orin put a hand out carefully and laid it on my shoulder. “They are talking about Wally.”
Shivers radiated out from his touch. My ears buzzed, the whispers becoming words.
“Who does she think she is? Telling us death stats like we need that?”
“Gods, she is so weird. I hate necromancers. Uppity bitch.”
“I could have drained her right there, no one would have noticed. With the other students missing, we could have hidden the body.”
Laughter flowed through my head, catty and cruel, and the anger it sparked in me was intense. Orin’s hand slid off my arm and he shook his head. “They wanted to kill her and hide the body.”
He could have downplayed the threat, pretending it was a joke, to protect the other vampire, but he hadn’t. He’d stood by Wally.<
br />
Warm fuzzies tingled up my spine. “For a vampire, you’re a pretty good guy, I think.”
He shot me a look, eyebrows raised. “For a Shade, you aren’t bad yourself. And I agree with you. This threat needs to be…handled…or they will come for her again.”
I wanted to ask him why, but there wasn’t a chance. A trio of girls hurried toward us, stepping out of the shadows. They weren’t dressed all in black like Orin. There were no obvious tells other than the upside-down, bedazzled pink crosses on their sweats. No doubt they’d decorated those themselves.
I stepped fully into the light, and Orin stepped with me. The girls slowed, noses wrinkling in perfect unison. They were pretty, their faces done up with perfect black eyeliner and deep red lipstick even this late at night.
The lead girl curled a lip. “Oh, gross. Awful Orin, what are you doing here? And with that dirty Shade?”
I let a slow smile slip across my lips. “Oh, we’re here to have a chat with you…bitches.”
Orin chuckled. “That’s so polite, Wild. I would have called them far worse. Rat drinkers. That’s what they are. Especially Lucia there.”
The trio of girls tensed and hissed as a unit. The lead girl, I was guessing Lucia, stepped forward. She could have given Ethan a run for his money with her ability to look down her nose at us. “Get out of our way. You aren’t worth messing my hair over.”
“You hurt our friend,” I rolled my shoulders, loosening them. “There’s a cost to that. A price you are going to pay.”
There was no moment of tension like there’d be in a movie, only a blur as she came for me. Orin had moved so fast, I couldn’t see him, but I had no trouble tracking her movements. I stepped back as she reached me, then grabbed her by the arms and jammed my foot into her gut. I flipped her over my head, and she sailed through the air, screeching as she plummeted over the stair rail and down into open space.
I didn’t wait—I jumped up, grabbed the rail, and leapt after her, shouting as I went down. “You got the other two?”
“That I do,” Orin shouted back as several screeches lit the air. I landed in a crouch two stories down, but the vampire was already up, her bedazzled pants catching the light. She sniffed the air, her eyes partially closing. Scenting me. Crap.
“You aren’t what you—”
I shot forward, driving my fist into her nose, shattering it before she could get a bead on the fact that I was no boy. Damn it, I hadn’t even thought of that before I’d decided to come after them.
It only meant I had to finish this fast for reasons other than our curfew.
She screeched and flailed backward, eyes rolling as the blood poured down her face. I blinked and stared as her eyes, which had been a light brown, darkened to a solid black, filling the entire orb. Like a cat seeing a Christmas tree for the first time.
Her fangs elongated.
Oh, crap on toast.
She shot forward, her extended claws coming straight for me as she lost control of her blood lust. I caught her by the wrists and stepped back, bracing against the force of her tackle. She snapped at me, hissing and spitting blood in my face.
“Gross.” I tightened my fingers around her wrists and snapped one forward, catching her in the jaw. “Stop hitting yourself.”
I drove her other fist up into an uppercut. She screeched, one fang piercing her tongue. “Stop hitting yourself.”
God, how many times had Rory done this to me, if not with such vehemence? How enraged had I been as I’d tried to stop him but couldn’t because he was so much bigger? Again and again, I drove her fists into her face until the rage slid from her, and the black of her eyes faded back to a light brown.
Not until she was on her knees and gasping for air did I stop.
My breath came in deep, slow takes. “You come near Wally, me, or any of my crew, and that threat you made? That will happen to you. Capiche, rat drinker?”
That sounded like something a guy would say, right? A quote from a movie. Maybe I should have said, “I’ll be back.”
Her head lolled.
“Say you understand.” I gritted the words out as I tightened my fingers even more.
“I…” she spat to the side, a gob of blood. Disgusting. “Understand.”
I let her go and took a step back, bumping into a body.
The smell of an open grave washed over my nose, and I knew in my belly it was a vampire. Orin had caught up to me.
Only it wasn’t Orin.
A hand dropped onto my neck, fingers tightening with a power I knew could snap my spine in a second if he chose.
“Come with me,” a male voice said,
He lifted me by my neck, and I could barely touch the floor with the tips of my toes. Panic sliced through me. He was behind me and I couldn’t reach him with fists or boots. “Orin!”
“Coming!” he yelled back. There was no sound of him hurrying. But I could feel him getting closer, like a sense of pressure. And then it faded. “I...Wild…” He breathed the words. “I can’t.”
“I am his master,” the voice said, and it struck me that I’d heard it before. This was the smiling vampire who’d escorted us out of the first trial.
“Jared.” My head swam with the lack of oxygenated blood getting through, but at least I’d remembered his name. “They tried to kill—”
“Save it for Director Frost…girl,” he said. There was no emotion behind his words, no anger, no nothing. And he knew. Knew I was a girl.
I was done.
The double doors of the director’s office swam into view as the last of my vision faded. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor in the room, heaving for air on my hands and knees.
“Caught this one fighting in the halls,” Jared said. “What do you want to do with her?”
Crap, had the director heard that last word?
“The same as the others,” Director Frost said. I couldn’t see her. I was still hanging on my hands and knees, knowing I was about to be kicked out.
The vampire’s hand clamped on my neck again, and I was lifted as the doors burst open behind us. I was dropped to the floor for a second time. I rolled on my back to see Orin, Pete, Wally, and…Ethan sweep into the room. Mind you, Ethan looked like he’d just swallowed a shot of sour puss, but he was there.
“They threatened my life, Director,” Wally said, turning her neck to show off the wounds. “And Orin heard them saying they should have killed me and used the missing students as a way to hide the body.”
“I did hear that. Wild was protecting our team, making sure that no one tried to hurt Wally again,” Orin said. “That is the sign of a true leader.”
Pete nodded. My eyes went to Ethan. He was the one with the pull here, not us.
He grimaced. “Wild is part of our team. My father…would be very disappointed should we lose his help.”
I rolled onto my belly and pushed onto my knees so that I could see the director’s face. I expected her to look as pissed as a cat thrown into the bathtub. But her eyes crinkled at the edges as if she were holding back a smile.
“You make a fair point, young Helix, even though it surprises me that you would stick your neck out for someone else.” She tapped the desk with a single finger. “Fine. But seeing as you have decided that you are a crew, you will all room together. Jared, make sure your student understands that should there be any trouble between the girl and her male roommates, he will be the one to bear the cost.”
The cost. As in being kicked out. I can’t say how, but I felt Orin straighten. “I accept that charge.”
“Everyone, out.” She clapped her hands together, ending what could have been a very bad scene for all of us. “Except you, Mr. Johnson. You and I are going to have a chat.”
The others filed out of the room, eyes down. Jared paused at the door. “Do you wish me to stay?”
She smiled at him, but it was sharp, and predatory, and downright pissed. “Get out, Jared. I may be old, but I’m not dead.”
He bowed at the waist and flashed her a big smile, going so far as to wink at her. “Not yet, you aren’t.” Damn, he was a mean flirt. Would Orin develop that wicked charm when he got his full fangs? Somehow, I doubted it.
I swallowed and faced the director, realizing that I’d lost my hat again. Damn it.
I lowered my eyes.
“We have a problem, you and I,” she said.
“No problem, Director. It won’t happen again.” Keeping my voice low wasn’t hard seeing as it was raspy from being partially choked.
She huffed a laugh. “Oh, I doubt that you will be able to keep that promise at all, Ms. Johnson.”
Chapter 18
Director Frost didn’t move from behind her massive desk, and I didn’t move from my spot in front of her on my knees. She knew I was a girl. I’d hoped her old lady ears would miss Jared’s slip. But maybe she’d just looked past the sweat and blood splatter on my face and had known. Whatever the case, my secret was out, and Billy would pay the price.
“Please, my brother’s life is on the line. I couldn’t let him come, not when he’s so young. He’s not cut out for a place like this. He doesn’t have any survival instinct. Please, please don’t send for him.” I was not above begging, not for Billy.
Her face didn’t so much as twitch to telegraph her thoughts. “You have inspired loyalty in those I would never have put together in any sense of the word. Underdogs. Outcasts. The fact that the Helix boy spoke for you is truly amazing.”
I blinked a couple of times. “Are you going to throw me out?”
She smiled then. “If a sharp tool is not in the right drawer, do you cast it into the garbage? Of course not. I have seen the reports on you, Ms. Johnson. I know very well who is leading your ragtag crew in the trials. And it is not the Helix boy.” She leaned back in her chair. Yes, she was definitely not as old as I’d first thought. Her movements and face pegged her under fifty, not in her seventies like I’d first believed.
“We’re working together,” I said. “It’s not just me doing all this. Isn’t that what you want?”
Shadowspell Academy: The Culling Trials: Books 1-3 Omnibus Page 29
