“Good stop. You sent the others out?” He tipped his head toward the tunnel Director Frost had pointed out, away from the stairs. I nodded, lying, though I didn’t know why.
“What about Adam?” I looked past the vampire in time to see Director Frost drag Adam out by the scruff of his neck.
Her face wasn’t the only thing that had changed—her body was lithe, young and fit. She smiled at me. “I see the confusion. Put your blade away, and let me explain just what has happened here.”
Rory’s note flashed in front of my eyes.
I didn’t put my knife away. Adam rolled his head toward me, blood dripping from his face in a continuous flow. Frost dropped him on the ground. “He’s no good without his wand, like most from the House of Wonder.” House of Wonder? I’d thought he was a Shade. And then it hit me.
He was like Colt, one of the rare people who straddled two houses.
Adam lifted his head. “Run. Get out.”
He was telling me to go.
Oh crap.
Jared’s hand shot out and clamped on my wrist. “Don’t even think about fighting me, Wild. You’ll lose. And my love over there needs you intact.”
Frost laughed. “Oh, the look on your face, Wild. You are trying to put the pieces together, but you can’t, can you?”
I jerked my hand, trying to free it from the vampire’s iron-clad grip. He grinned at me. “You aren’t going anywhere. You and the other kids are going to go permanently missing. But the cause is good, great even.”
The urge to fight, to slash at him with everything I had, was overwhelming and it took a great deal of effort to hold it down. I needed answers before I cut his lying tongue out of his face. “You don’t have my sister here, do you?”
He shook his head. “No, but it was an easy way to make you ignore your natural instincts, wasn’t it? You are a child yet, untrained if strong.”
Normally I wasn’t at a loss for words, but I didn’t want to admit that Sam and Billy and my dad were weak spots for me. That I would always come for them if they called. So instead I clamped my mouth shut and smoothed my face.
“So is there no fight left in you, Wild? To be sure, let me show you just how serious I am about this situation.” Frost bent over Adam and, with a quick slicing motion, opened his throat up from ear to ear.
He gurgled and grabbed at his throat, blood spurting out through his fingers as he tried to keep it in. I watched the fear and shock in his eyes as his life bled out of him, as he bent slowly to the ground and then went still.
“Are we clear?” Frost said quietly.
I nodded once. “What are you?”
Frost smiled, and again I was struck by the difference in her appearance. She had to be a shifter of some sort to appear as an old lady when we’d first met, and now as a woman not much older than me. “You’ve noticed, have you? You see through the glamor I had on me, seeing my true age, while others saw me as you see me now—as young and beautiful. Most people don’t, but that is because they are not like you and me. Of course, this is no longer a glamor. But I’ll explain that later.”
“I am nothing like you.” I wanted to spit at her, disgusting though it was, but wasn’t sure she wouldn’t slit my throat. “You kidnapped all those kids? Locked them up?”
“Yes, and I drank them up.” She licked her lips.
Vampire was my first thought. But if Adam and Colt both possessed two gifts, it couldn’t be as rare as Wally had indicated. “You’re a shifter and a vampire, aren’t you? Like Adam was a magic user and a Shade.”
“Oh, she’s getting closer, Jared. I knew she was smart.” She walked up and linked our arms together. “Should I tell her?”
He laughed. “It’s rather fun watching her guess.”
“True. We have a few minutes before we reach the other end.” His hand tightened on my wrist. I was pinned between them as they began to march me down the tunnel Director Frost had pointed out earlier. But despite the blaring warning going off in my body, I knew it wasn’t time to act.
My moment would come—I just had to wait.
Director Frost sighed. “You understand that there are some people who carry more than one line of magical ability? Like your friend Colt. Mage and Shade blended together deliciously, equally strong in both. He’s an oops, you know? His father strayed.” She smiled and winked at me as if we were at a slumber party playing truth or dare. “That’s rather uncommon though. Perhaps five out of every hundred gain multiple abilities and most often they are pushed toward one or another in their training, allowing the secondary ability to wither on the vine.”
My jaw ticked, and I struggled not to pull away from them. “So?”
“Well, rarer yet is someone who carries three abilities. Perhaps one in a hundred. Your friend Drexia would know the exact stats.” She made a motion with her hand and the tunnel brightened ahead of us, lit up along the edges with flickering torches. Drexia? Oh right, she meant Wally.
“Let me guess. You have a trio of abilities?”
“Not quite. You see, you and I are very special, Maribel Johnson. One for every generation. According to the records, our abilities are never bestowed on a woman. I had a hand in that, to help hide myself. To help hide others like me.”
Chills swept through me, and they had nothing to do with the cold stone beneath my bare feet.
“What do you mean?”
“You are a Chameleon, Wild. A child who carries the ability to tap into all five gifts that the gods of the north bestowed upon supernaturals. All five. As you’ve seen in the trials, you are proficient in them all.”
Her words might as well have been a blow to my head I was so stunned.
And yet it made sense. This explained my raw ability with magic, my connection to the others in my crew.
“Yes, that is why you excelled in the trials. And why it was so difficult to capture you.” She leaned into me. “But better that I should be the one to catch you. He hunts for you too, Wild, and he will not be so gentle.”
The tunnel was narrowing, and I could see my chance coming up. I slowed my feet, forcing them to slow too. “Wait, who do you mean, him?”
“The one that everyone fears. The one whose blood you share. The Shadowkiller.” Director Frost looked at me. “You mean your mother never told you about him? She never warned you that he tried to kill her too? He was the reason she ran, the reason she hid you and your siblings away.”
Her words hammered into my skull. Bits and pieces of partially overheard conversations between my parents trembled at the edge of my mind.
Whispered fears heard through the floorboard.
The click of a gun being chambered.
Shouts in the yard.
Jared’s voice was silken. “Her mother sheltered them far more than I’d have thought. Stupid of Lexi.”
Director Frost snorted delicately, and the corner of her right eye drooped, wrinkles appearing even as I watched. “She was a fool who thought she could outrun death, and look where it got her. Dead. Just like her oldest son.”
My jaw ticked, the urge to defend my mother rising sharp and fast. “Your Botox is wearing off.”
She gasped and lifted a hand to her face as the skin began to loosen, wrinkling in front of my eyes. “What did you do?”
We were at the end of the tunnel exit. The moon was bright overhead, and I’d barely noticed that Frost had released my arm so that she could step out ahead of us.
“Where are the others?”
I smiled at her, not fully understanding but knowing I’d ruined her plans. “I sent them back.”
Director Frost turned on me, her eyes glittering. “Just like your mother. Weak. And alone.”
As if her words sparked the memory, my mother’s voice whispered to me: “No matter what, you fight to the end. You never give up. You never give in. You give them hellfire and brimstone, my wild girl.”
I glared at the director. “She was not weak. And neither am I.”
Hellfire and
brimstone, here we come.
Chapter 20
Director Frost lifted a shaking hand to me and dug her nails into my chin. A light pulsed through her fingers and into me, quick as a rattlesnake’s strike, and her venom was as sure. My knees went weak as I slumped under her hands. She threw her head back and laughed, her face smoothing and her hair growing longer, thicker right in front of me. Blonde, loose curls wove over her shoulders.
“Rich, I won’t need the others anyway. Wild will fill me for years.” When Director Frost tipped her head back, the lines in her face were gone. “What do you think, Jared?”
“As beautiful as ever,” he murmured, lifting her one hand to his mouth, pressing his lips hard against her skin.
I wobbled in place, on my knees in my prom dress, my heart racing and my muscles weak.
“You—”
“Sucked the life right out of you.” She smiled and snapped her fingers at Jared. “Get her in the van.”
Jared bent to lift me, and I swung up with my left hand with everything I had left, landing a punch perfectly under his jaw. His head snapped back, teeth clicking, and I stumbled forward. We were surrounded by forest, but that didn’t bother me.
“Get her!” Frost yelled, and I knew I had only seconds before he was on me.
I fumbled for the wand on my left side, pulled it out and pointed it behind me. I needed light. Blinding light.
“Stroblightus!” I yelled, hoping a made-up word, powered by all the intent in the world, would work for me. Please God, let it work for me.
The wand shook, warmed, and then brilliant light blasted out of it, illuminating the forest in a blinding flash.
Jared yelled and the sound of him skidding to a stop was music to my ears. I bolted forward, diving deep into the trees. The light behind me faded, but not before I saw people I recognized. People I hadn’t thought would be there to save me this time.
Two dark figures shot through the shadows ahead of me, one catching me around the arms.
“Rory.” He’d come for me.
He gave me a light shake. “Where is she? Where is Frost?”
“Back there,” I said.
“I’ll end this. Use your crew. You’ve got this.” He dropped me, and he and the other dark figure ran back the way I’d come. The Sandman. So much for coming to rescue me.
I stumbled back a few more steps, so tired it was as if I’d run the whole set of trials without a single visit to a healer’s tent.
Jared gave a low laugh and I spun, trying to see him. But he wasn’t the only one whose vision had been damaged by the flash of light.
That is when I saw them. My crew, their dark shadows creeping forward from between the trees. “Guys, I could use some help!”
Jared laughed, but the sound slid away as my friends emerged from the trees, stepping up beside me, all still wearing their high-end grad clothes. All except for Pete, who was already in his honey badger suit.
I faced Jared. “I’m not alone. And we are not weak.”
He snarled and shot forward, and Orin met him with his claws extended, shocking the older vampire.
“You cannot fight me!” Jared yelled.
“I’m not yours to command anymore!” Orin yelled back and I knew that it was because he was with us. He’d switched allegiances. The two vampires collided, hissing and snarling like wild animals. Pete shot into the fray, grabbing at Jared’s ankles, tearing the flesh and then finally clamping on like some living version of a parking boot. Jared swung and stepped, trying to shake him off, but Pete was on good and tight.
“Coming, Pete!” Wally yelled. She lifted her hands and the ground softened around us, turning into quicksand. But it wasn’t the ground she was controlling. “The dead are everywhere. Statistically speaking, there is not one place on the planet’s surface that doesn’t contain dead material of some sort or another.”
The ground beneath Jared’s feet began to give way and Pete jumped back. Orin landed several blows, one right after the other.
Ethan pointed his wand. “Orin!”
Orin stepped back and turned his face as Ethan shot Jared in the face with a blast of light that was stronger than the one I’d produced, and far more direct. Jared went down howling. The smell of burning flesh wafted over to me. I tucked the wand back into my pocket and pulled my knife. As much as the wand was good, the knife was real.
The knife was my home.
Jared shook, his knees embedded in the softened ground. “Fools, you are all fools!”
“Stay where you are,” I said. “Ethan, is someone else coming?”
“I don’t think so.” He shook his head. “That guy Rory told me to get your crew and head to the dungeon without telling anyone else. I assumed he’d handle the rest.”
He’d gotten the Sandman. He’d more than handled it.
Ethan had known where to come.
The memory banks that had been locked for the last two days finally opened, and I saw it all over again. The first time Ethan and I had found the hidden dungeon.
The Sandman sneaking up on us.
The other assassin attempting to kill us—only to be stopped by the Sandman.
Gregory reaching for me.
The Sandman had saved my life, only to boot me in the head and somehow take my memory. To effectively make me butt out of his operation while the kids stayed locked in the cells. To use them all as bait. To use me as bait.
And Ethan had helped him do it.
I stared hard at Ethan, feeling the distinct urge to strangle him. “You and I are going to have a chat about lying to each other after this is done. And it will involve me kicking you in the balls to make sure you get my point.”
Ethan’s face was flat, emotionless. “No one goes against the Sandman.”
“Except me.”
We spun as Director Frost stepped from the shadows, wand in hand. With a flick of it, she threw the five of us up and back, pummelling us against the various trees.
I slid down the tree I’d been tossed into, tumbling through the branches, the rough bark tearing at my dress. I wished I were wearing jeans and a shirt instead, but I might as well have wished the ground wasn’t going to hurt when I landed.
The ground came up fast and was as hard as I’d thought it was going to be. But that didn’t stop me from picking myself up and charging the director. Her eyes widened and she smiled as she pointed her wand at me, the tip glowing deep red. I dove to the right, rolled, and came up as she sent another shot my way. One after another, she kept on firing away.
I was doing what I could to pull her eyes to me, to give the others a chance. But they weren’t getting up.
“Waiting for your friends? You’re drawing from them, taking their energy and abilities.” She laughed. “So much natural talent, so raw.”
Part of me knew she was trying to distract me, but I still tried to shut down whatever it was that I was drawing off my crew. Only she was right, I had no idea what I was doing and there was no way I could stop It.
Jared was on his knees still, holding his hands over his face, moaning. “My eyes, my eyes are gone.”
An idea formed, and before I could question it, I acted. I bolted for Jared, spinning him around to use him as a shield as I put my knife to his throat. “You want him back?”
The shadows behind her moved. She’d notice them if I didn’t do something. The fact that she’d bested both the Sandman and Rory spoke volumes.
She was better than them, which meant they would need my help to take her down.
Her eyes hardened and then she laughed, tinkling and light. “You don’t have it in you.”
Only I did. I wouldn’t hesitate to kill to protect those I loved.
I tightened my hold on Jared. “I’ll kill any wolf that comes for my family. No matter what clothing they wear.” I slid my blade across his throat, cutting through to the spine. Just like they’d done with Adam. The blood flowed down over my hands, impossibly cold for fresh blood, as if it had been dead for
a long time.
He gurgled and slumped in my arms as the director screamed. “NO!”
With her focus broken, she didn’t see them coming for her.
The Sandman burst out from the shadows on her right side and took her down, wrenched her arms behind her and wrapped them in a gold ribbon of all things, faster than a cowboy hogtying a calf. Then he pulled a golden clamp from under his jacket and snapped it around her neck.
“That will keep you, Frost. You’re done.”
Rory limped out of the shadows, holding his side. Injured, but alive.
I thought for sure she’d keep on screaming, but her silence was almost worse. Cold, deadly silence that spoke volumes. Her eyes locked on mine, and I knew a promise of death when I saw one.
She would not forget what I’d done. That I’d killed her love, Jared, that I’d helped them take her down.
Moments later, the forest was alive with lights as more teachers and students ventured into the trees. I wiped my blade on the back of Jared’s shirt and tucked it away.
For the first time since I’d arrived, I knew for certain I wouldn’t need it.
At least for a minute or two.
After the arrival of the other teachers, testers, and students, everything went to hell. Frost was hauled off to some magical jail that Wally whispered to me was the place where all the baddies went.
We were sent back to our dorms. Wally let me shower first. I couldn’t get the water hot enough to wash off the feeling of Jared’s blood. I couldn’t get warm even though it wasn’t by any means cold outside this late in the summer.
I pulled on cotton pj’s and climbed into bed. Wally kept talking, but I just wanted to sleep. I didn’t want to think about what I’d done. Despite everything we’d faced in the trials, Jared was the first person I’d ever killed. He was a vampire, sure, but I was the reason he’d died.
And Frost’s words clung to me. I wasn’t just a freak of nature for being a Shade, but a Chameleon who could drink down the power of others. Fear jangled my nerves and kept me awake far longer than I wanted.
“Wally?” I spoke to her after the lights were out.
Shadowspell Academy: The Culling Trials: Books 1-3 Omnibus Page 46
