by C. R. Jane
School of Broken Dreams
Academy of Souls Book 3
C.R. Jane
Mila Young
Contents
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Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Sneak Peek
Copyright
The Naughty List
Naughty List #1: Get Drunk In The Middle of the Day
About C.R. Jane
Other Books by C.R. Jane
About Mila Young
Other Books by Mila Young
School of Broken Dreams by C. R. Jane and Mila Young
Copyright © 2019 by C. R. Jane and Mila Young
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review, and except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
To anyone who’s found themselves at a fork in the road and taken the one that has monsters.
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School of Broken Dreams
Raven Academy has dark secrets and Adeline Jones is going to discover them all.
Since starting at Raven Academy, I’ve seen my fair share of strangeness, things I can’t explain, things that shouldn’t exist, but this…this is a new level of terrifying.
I no longer know who I am, but one thing’s for sure. I love them.
But my love might get us all killed.
“I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy.”
Romeo and Juliet- William Shakespeare
Prologue
Since starting at Raven Academy, I’ve seen my fair share of strangeness, things I can’t explain, things that shouldn’t exist, but this…this is a new level of terrifying.
Dixon is straddling Mercy’s body as she lies in bed and he seems to be drinking from her. It is the only way to describe what he’s doing. A wave of white mist rises from Mercy’s gaped mouth and he inhales it into his mouth. His eyes are completely rolled back into his head and I only see the whites like whatever he’s doing is giving him more pleasure than he can take. He’s making a disgusting slurping sound that sickens me, makes me want to hurl.
He was her guardian at this school… we’ve all been appointed protectors since the killings. Except it turns out he might be the murderer who our protectors were supposed to be guarding us against to begin with...he might be the psychopath on our campus. And I’ve just caught him.
I can’t move, I can’t make sense of anything. All I can do is stare into those vicious red eyes that promise me pain and retribution for catching and discovering his secret. His upper lip curls inward, revealing sharpened canines.
Incomprehensive cries fall from my lips.
The room tilts around me as it’s all so complicated. The mysteries, the deaths. The way the school brushed over the last two deaths. Did the teachers know about Dixon?
A shadow lingers behind him… someone else is in the room with Dixon and Mercy. I can’t breathe.
My heart won’t stop racing...it’s trying to burst through my ribcage and escape.
I should be running for help, but I can’t unstick my feet.
Dixon gets an eager sadistic gleam in his eye as he seems to come to a decision.
Then the other person in the room peers around the corner at me, and I see him. My mouth drops open.
Mercy’s ex… the neighbor she had a crush on, the guy who did drugs...the one I thought had killed Bethanie. What is he doing in the room with Dixon?
Mercy’s ex suddenly spins on his heels and catapults himself through the window in Mercy’s room, glass shattering like my broken sanity, tossed into thousands of shards of a puzzle I just can’t put together.
Dixon faces me and he lunges for me, eyes huge, mouth gaping.
My scream lashes out as fear strangles me, and my knees buckle under me.
Chapter 1
(Alexander)
I’m tempted to try to find a necromancer to bring this fuckwad back to life, just so I can have the pleasure of killing him. His head was lying next to him when we found him, brutally hacked off like whoever had done it had been in a rage when it happened. The guy had more restraint than I would have had if I had discovered him first though. He would be in pieces if I had seen him attacking Adeline.
If she dies because of him...I will figure out a way to punish him in the next life.
I crouch down next to Dixon’s body, my hands trembling with rage as I look at the wound, trying to get a clue who in the school would have enough strength to put down an almost fully grown one of our kind.
“You should go see her,” says Finn, laying a hand on my shoulder. I’m so wrapped up in my own misery and anger, that I didn’t even hear him approach.
“How is she doing?” I ask him in a choked-up voice.
“Still here,” he says, and I can tell that he’s trying not to cry as well. We’ve fallen for her. Now a life without her seems impossible, and I’m not sure how we will all survive if she’s no longer in our lives. I can only pray that our suspicions about what she is are true.
“And her friend?” I ask, feeling irrational anger at Mercy for putting Adeline in danger even though I know Mercy was just as much a victim as Adeline was in all of this.
“She’s packing up to go home. I haven’t been able to get a real word out of her. She just cries. I can feel the guilt seeping out of her. It was almost impossible not to feed, it was so strong.”
I look at him sharply, and he gives me an annoyed stare. “I said “almost.” I didn’t feed on her,” he responds stiffly. I nod and look back at the corpse in front of us.
“Who do you think did this?” Finn asks.
I’m just about to answer him, when a voice that I’ve grown to hate, chimes in. “I did,” announces Connor Whitehouse.
Finn and I spin around to l
ook at him incredulously. Connor is indeed standing there, a cocky smirk on his face as he glances at the body. Dixon’s fangs are still extended, and Connor looks non-plussed at the sight. But how would a human have been able to take down Dixon...unless...
I stand up with a growl, my fangs threatening to extend. I take a deep breath to see if I can smell anything special about him.
Nothing.
That's odd.
I can't smell anything. Not a human smell, not a supernatural smell. Nothing.
The monster inside of me begins to swell as it realizes that Connor might be a wolf in sheep's clothing that's been walking around my school. Around my girlfriend.
I step towards him.
"What are you?" I hiss, still sniffing the air as I try to get a clue about what he is. I’ve never encountered a being who had carried no scent before.
Connor grins at me, fangless teeth shining brightly. "Trying to figure me out?" he taunts me. I take another step towards him, and I can feel the monster emerging in Finn next to me. "Do you want to waste time fighting a losing battle with me, or do you want to catch the other vampire who was in the room?" asks Connor snidely.
His question stops me in my tracks. I look at Finn who looks as confused as I am. I look back at Connor. "What are you talking about? There was someone else in the room with Dixon and Mercy?" I don't bother asking him how he knows about vampires. I can push him on that later. Right now, I need to concentrate on the other threat facing Adeline.
“Care to go hunting?" he asks. It might be a trap, but I'm concerned enough about the possibility of someone else being out there who wants to attack Adeline that I decide to go along with him. And despite his bravado, it's very unlikely that he's even close to as good of a fighter as I am. I'm sure I can handle anything he throws at me.
"Lead the way," I tell him. I glance at Finn. “Go stay with Adeline," I order. He seems torn, and I know that he's itching to go after the other rogue responsible for hurting Adeline.
“Nyx and Dante are with her," he argues.
"We need to make sure they don't do anything rash with their emotions so heightened," I remind him. Dante and Nyx have always been the less disciplined of the four of us. I need to make sure that they don't do anything if Adeline gets worse and needs more help.
My reminder is enough to get him to listen to me and I watch as he heads towards Adeline's room.
Connor and I walk through the halls. We stop in front of one of the stone walls and I glance at him confused. He presses on one of the stones right above his head, and a dark passageway suddenly appears as a section of the wall fades away. I look at him in astonishment. I thought I knew every secret that the school possessed. How has he only been here for a few weeks and managed to find something I didn't know about?
"Let's go," he says as he crouches down to go through the entryway. It's pitch black in there and I hesitate for a moment about being at a disadvantage if Connor does decide to attack me. Connor sticks his head out. "Are you coming or not? I don't want him to get too far. I'm not going to kill you in here… At least not tonight," he says with a smirk.
I snarl at him but follow him into the dark abyss. The wall closes behind me and there's nothing but blackness around me… and silence. Connor suddenly moves, and I crouch down into a defensive position preparing for an attack. But instead of attacking me, he turns on his phone’s flashlight. I feel like an idiot, and I want to punch him for the smug look on his face.
Connor wisely chooses not to say anything about my reaction and instead begins to set off down the narrow corridor. It's musty and damp and the number of cobwebs I'm seeing tells me it's been a while since someone's walked through here. We walk for about five minutes before we stop in front of another wall. Connor starts pressing on the stones in front of him, and after a few tries a section of the wall once again disappears and I can smell the sharp scent of the nighttime air and feel the cold breeze as it blows through the space in the wall.
Sure enough, we were outside in half the time that it would've taken going another way. Connor steps outside first, his eyes darting around. He freezes and sniffs the air. I'm off my game right now. Between the attack on Adeline, discovering that Dixon is one of the culprits attacking students, and the appearance of Connor, it's hard to keep my mind on the task at hand. I shake my head, trying to get my mind straight. Following his lead, I sniff the air and immediately find the decaying scent of a vampire who has recently fed. Whoever it is hasn't taken blood tonight, he's taken something much stronger and more filling… a soul.
We start off on a brisk jog, following the scent. It gets stronger as we head into the forest. He must have fed a lot, because not even all the smells of the forest with its creatures and everything else can mask him. He's traveling fast, not doing anything to hide his path. There are trampled leaves and tree branches that mark the way behind him. He's in a hurry and he's amped up from feeding on Mercy’s soul and whoever else he has gorged himself on over the last few weeks.
Eager to get this over with, I put on a burst of speed that not even Connor can match. It takes another half an hour, but I finally catch up to our target when he stops to take a break, I'm sure thinking that the threat of anyone following him is over with.
I've never seen this guy before. He's wearing a leather vest like he's some kind of wannabe biker. He has tattooed sleeves on both arms, his head is shaved, and he's got piercing in both ears. Not a guy that I would've missed walking around the school. He's definitely who we've been looking for. I can smell Mercy's soul wafting from him. She has an unusual taste to her, one that makes her a target for regular feedings from some of the other students. Probably too many feedings if I'm being honest. It probably explains her kooky nature.
Connor appears a second later beside me and I can't hold back my grin at the fact that he just ate my dust. He lets out a small grunt as he rolls his eyes. We turn our focus from our dick measuring contest back to the matter at hand. It’s only a matter of time though before this fragile truce between the two of us goes up in flames.
It takes a moment, but I see when Mr. Tattoos catches our scent and realizes that he is still being hunted.
For a moment he contemplates running, and then acceptance flashes across his face.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he yells out tauntingly, even though I can smell the fear that’s starting to seep from his pores.
Grinning widely, I step into the grove where he's been resting. A look of alarm flashes on his face before he quickly schools it into one of nonchalance.
"Well, if it isn't Alexander Dachnavar. I wouldn't have expected to see you here of all people. Unless you have discovered the little secret that Adeline Jones is hiding as well."
I keep my face blank, knowing that there's no way that he can leave here alive. He's not just dangerous because he's been attacking students and could attack Adeline. He's dangerous because he somehow knows what she is.
"And what secret is that?" I ask him dismissively, like I'm confident that he doesn't have anything that would interest me. My attitude does the trick in poking his pride. By the looks of him, we've never run in the same circles. And he seems to know exactly who I am, meaning he knows the power that I hold in the community, and the fact that my mother is on the Council. Power that he has never experienced.
"Can't help but hear the rumblings that the angels have made a reappearance. Or correction that one angel has made an appearance. I bet her soul tastes like ambrosia, it will be the best thing I'll ever taste once I get my hands on her,” he rambles. “I'm sure you've experienced it already. Mercy’s told me all about the little harem that Miss Jones has been collecting of you and your friends. There's no way you've been able to stop yourself from tasting that."
My hands clench. It's a small movement, but he notices it and it tells him exactly what he wants to know. That he’s right.
I’ll be having some words with Adeline after this...if she wakes up, that she needs to keep be
tter friends.
Adeline Jones is special, and her secret is one worth fighting for.
"What’s your game plan here?” I ask him with a smirk. I can see the anticipation building in his eyes as he thinks about what awaits him if he makes it out of here alive.
He laughs at my question. "She changes everything, Alexander. You know that, right?"
I try to smile back, but I'm sure it looks a little crazy by the fact that he takes a step backwards. He stops himself and crouches down, growling low and menacingly at me. I'm sure it would make a human pee himself, but it’s nothing to me. I'm a far scarier predator than anything he could offer.
Connor steps into the grove next to me, his face a picture of boredom. "Are you going to continue to play with your food?" he asks me. I want to punch him in the face, but I refrain.
"I'm going to have her," the vamp hisses, and there's a hint of desperation threaded throughout his voice, like it's a need rather than a want.
"You’ll have to get in line then," responds Connor.
Growling again, our prey crouches even lower to the ground, preparing to spring at me at a moment’s notice. Before he can take a breath, I move. Hitting him so hard that it knocks him back at least 30 feet into a large tree that topples from the impact. The sound of him impacting the tree makes a large cracking noise that echoes through the woods. If it was any other creature that I had punched, they would be dead. But unfortunately, vamps are a little stronger than that and it's wishful thinking that this could be over already.
