Shifter’s University

by K. R. Thompson

  “Lacy, let me have the knife,” I said, reaching for the blade that she held in front of her. In her other hand, she held a crystal that was broken and cracked.

  “The dragon and the fox will die,” she said, lunging toward me.

  I barely dodged her, and she turned to come at me again. I blinked in disbelief when I saw Blake appeared in the doorway. A chill ran through me. I was definitely in deep trouble. I had seen him, following in retreat with the Dark Watch. He was the only reason I hadn't let Logan chase them down as they disengaged from battle. I'd been right all along. He had joined a gang—just not the kind I had expected.

  He held a baseball bat in one hand—not at all the weapon I would have chosen to kill someone with. To my stunned disbelief, he swung it, popping Lacy on the back of the head. She sprawled to the floor in a heap.

  “Please tell me I didn’t kill her,” he said, looking genuinely worried for someone who had joined a gang of murderers.

  “Isn’t that what the Dark Watch does? Kill people?” I asked angrily.

  He looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Claire. I didn’t know what I got myself into when I joined up with them. I never would have done it if I’d known you were a shifter.”

  “Well, it’s too late now, isn’t it?” I retorted as I dropped to my knees to check on Lacy. A large knot was forming on the back of her head, but she was breathing easily. As her head tipped to the side, I spotted the marks at the base of her neck and knew why she had attacked me.

  When she’d saved me in the lake, Victor must have bitten her. Now she was under his control…which meant he was still alive and able to influence her from inside the Forest of Lost Souls. Oddly enough, that realization gave me hope.

  "Pick her up," I ordered. Blake hesitated. Anger rushed through me like flames racing toward fresh air. He was part of the reason why Logan had been banished, with his stupid Dark Watch. After all we'd gone through, he'd found himself in a group that would love to see me dead possibly more than anyone else, if they knew what I truly was. Maybe Hadley was right, and the apple really didn't fall far from the tree. I still couldn't make myself believe that. I narrowed my eyes at him. "You owe me. If you were ever even a piece of the brother I thought you were, if you ever really loved me at all, you will pick her up and do anything—anything—to make this right."

  He did as I said and scooped Lacy up. “What are we going to do with her?” he asked.

  “We’re taking her to Hadley.”

  “Shouldn’t we be taking her to the headmistress? Won’t she want to know that she broke a crystal and threatened you with a knife?”

  “We’re taking her to Hadley,” I growled. “I’ve already lost all the people I’m going to lose today. We have to hurry if we’re going to get out of here and not be seen.”

  “Okay, okay,” he mumbled as he carried Lacy out the door.

  I picked up the broken crystal and put it in my pocket.

  Hadley was going to love seeing me again so soon.

  We managed to sneak out of the house to the front yard without being seen, then we crept down the long driveway that led to the main road. I flagged down a taxi, and we got in. I cradled Lacy’s head in my lap and gave the driver the address to Salem, noticing he was the same driver we’d had earlier.

  Odd, I thought.

  “What’s wrong with that one?” he asked, gesturing to Lacy.

  “Partied too much,” Blake lied easily. “We’re taking her home.”

  “Humph,” came the reply as he put the car into gear.

  We rode in silence for a long while. Questions were piling up in my head, and when I couldn’t hold them all in anymore, I reached up and pulled the glass shut between us and the driver, praying it would muffle our conversation. Then the questions spilled out.

  “When you told me we’d leave soon and be somewhere safe, you meant we were going to join up with the Dark Watch, didn’t you?” I couldn’t help my accusatory tone.

  “Yeah.”

  “What changed your mind?”

  “You did.”

  “You’ve lost me.”

  “I didn’t know you were a shifter,” he explained. “After you went to class, I met back up with them. I knew the Watch was planning another attack tonight. They got me into Imperium so they’d have a set of eyes on the inside. I was supposed to observe and report back. That’s all, I swear. But when I went back, they had new instructions. They were attacking a specific house this time—one of the houses for the scholarship kids.”

  “Earth House.”

  He nodded. “The instructions were to kill everyone inside. I argued and told them that my sister was in there, but they said no one was to make it out—that the only kids in those houses were shifters and they all had to die. That’s when I knew I was playing for the wrong team. I agreed to their orders, but only so I could try to get back there and get you out.” He frowned. “They attacked while I was still at the camp. They didn’t wait for me to go with them. By the time I made it, the fight was already in full swing. I had to retreat with them to save face and just made it back to find Lacy trying to kill you.”

  “That’s not who she is,” I said, taking her side. “Lacy saved me before. She was bitten by a water serpent, and now she’s under his spell.”

  Lacy’s eyelids fluttered, maybe in response to hearing her name over and over as while we argued. “Claire? Where are we?” she asked. “Why does my head hurt so much?”

  “We’re on our way to get you fixed up. You had a bit of an accident, but you’ll be fine.” I wasn’t about to tell her that she was a mess from the back of her head being in contact with a baseball bat and her neck being the victim of fangs.

  “Okay,” she mumbled, then drifted back off.

  “Imperium isn’t what I thought it would be,” Blake said, looking at the mermaid in my lap.

  “I can understand that.” It wasn’t what I’d thought it would be either. I’d went there hoping to find a place I belonged. And I’d found that—with Logan.

  I looked down at Lacy. And I’d found friends who were like me in more ways than one. Friends who were faithful—when they weren’t trying to kill me.

  “So why did the Watch target Earth House?”

  Blake shook his head. “I don’t know. Only a handful do, and they never say. All the orders come from higher up the food chain. The only thing we are told is where we’re going and what we’ll do. There is a certain type of shifter they want to eliminate, though. Something in Earth House. After each attack, they take note of what kind of shifters were fighting…which ones were hurt…or killed.” He paused. “I never should have gotten involved with them.”

  I didn’t have to ask why he did, because I already knew. Escape. His reason was the same one that drove me to come to Imperium.

  But now, the words were pouring out of him.

  “Dad was the reason I joined with them initially, though it was only to get away from him at the time. He was always raving when he was drunk about ‘the ones with magic’ who could kill you if you didn’t watch out. I never really believed him until the Dark Watch approached me about joining. Now I wonder if he wasn’t one of them at some point.” He stopped for breath, his gaze locked on me. “But they are both wrong. There is nothing wrong or evil about you, Claire. I’m wondering if they haven’t been lying about everything all along.”

  “So now that you know the truth, will you go or stay?” I asked.

  “I’ll stay, I guess, so long as the Watch doesn’t figure out that I’ve changed sides and if the headmistress doesn’t find out that I used to be the enemy. After all, who else is going to look after you?”

  Lacy must have heard his voice, because a small smile painted her lips. Ever the mermaid, she whispered in a haunting, musical voice, “Welcome to Shifter’s University.”

  Blake snorted. “Thanks…I think.”

  “Okay, now you have some major explaining to do,” Hadley informed me, crossing her arms over her chest.

/>   Lacy was lying on her sofa, strange-smelling herbs caked on her bite wound, and ice against the big knot on the back of her head.

  “You bring me a poisoned mermaid who was hit with a bat.” Hadley’s eyes flicked to Blake. “And your foster brother.”

  “And another broken crystal,” I added, forking over the contents of my pocket.

  “Geez, Claire,” she said, taking it. “If I’d known you were going to be that much trouble when I told Logan you needed to get into Imperium, I never would have suggested he go and fetch you. I’d have told you to just come and live with me instead and taught you some witch magic. At least then you could fix some of this yourself.” She stopped complaining for all of a second before her eyes narrowed. “Speaking of Logan, where is he?”

  “The headmistress exiled him right before Lacy attacked me.”

  She looked surprised, but when she saw me tear up, she tactfully held onto her comments.

  “I have to save him, Hadley. What can you tell me about the Forest? I need to know how to get in and get him out before it’s too late.”

  “I don’t know enough,” she admitted. “The others in the coven are in charge of keeping the shields around it. I do know that the magic there is strong…and old. I don’t know much else, other than the shields have been up since Imperium was founded.”

  “Books,” Lacy said, wincing as she attempted to get up.

  “Hey, easy does it,” Blake told her, helping her sit up.

  “There should be books,” she repeated, tenderly touching the back of her head. “In class one day, it came up that in the early days of Imperium, everything was recorded and written down. It would be in ledgers somewhere. We should try the library. Odds are, there’s something there to point us in the right direction.” She picked up the bag of ice and squeezed it in her hands. “I’m so sorry, Claire. I remember breaking the crystals—the one by the gargoyles and the one in the dorm. And I remember what I said. I fought it, but he was too strong.”

  “It’s all right,” I said, reaching over to squeeze her hand. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. It wasn’t your fault.”

  Lacy looked at Blake. “I never thought I’d thank someone for hitting me, but I’m glad you did.”

  “I’m sorry I hit you that hard,” he replied. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “I will be,” she said. “We’d better get a move on if we’re going to help Logan. Are you ready to head back and see what we can find in the library?”

  “I’ll head out and ask the others in the coven about the Forest and see what they’ll tell me,” Hadley offered.

  “I’ll head back to the Watch. If I dig around, I might find someone who will tell me what they know. We’ll figure out a way to get him out, Claire.” Blake smiled.

  And we would, I realized. While I might have been the one to promise Logan I would find a way to save him, there was power in numbers. After all, when a witch, a mermaid, a Yokai, and one of the Dark Watch joined forces to save a dragon, what could possibly stand in our way?

  But before they could get in any deeper than they already were, they deserved to know.

  “I’m the reason some of the crystals exploded. I’m a Yokai,” I blurted out, closing my eyes tight as the secret left my lips.

  Complete silence enveloped me for a moment, then I cautiously opened them to find Lacy smiling at me.

  “It doesn’t matter to me what kind of shifter you are, Claire. I’ll always be your friend.”

  “I suspected you were something more than a woodland shifter when I suggested to Logan he needed to help you get into Imperium,” Hadley admitted. She handed Lacy a small chunk of a clear crystal that seemed familiar to me. It pulsed blue the instant it hit the mermaid’s palm. “I found this when I was doing research in some of the old spell books. It’s a piece that was left over from the globe the witches made years ago for Imperium.” She picked it up from Lacy’s hand and placed it in mine.

  It instantly changed to a multitude of colors.

  “The day before Logan came to pick up the crystals, you visited and picked this up. I knew then you were different. I hadn’t put the pieces together that you were the reason they were exploding, though,” I must have looked worried, because she added hastily, “Just because you’re the newest paranormal at Imperium doesn’t mean you’re the one responsible for the crystals breaking, you know. But even if you are, there’s nothing to worry about. I’m working on a spell to make them stronger so even you won’t be able to destroy them. With the bond between Victor and Lacy broken, and my new spells, the Dark Watch doesn’t stand a chance getting inside again.”

  Blake had been the only one not to speak so far. Figuring I needed to explain what a Yokai actually was, I turned to him, only to find his face ashen.

  “Yokai…” he whispered. His shocked eyes met mine. “I know who the Dark Watch wants. Claire, it’s you. They know what you are.”

  *****

  Forest of Lost Souls Excerpt

  Claire

  “Trust me, we’ll find what we’re looking for in here,” Lacy said. She’d meant to sound convincing, but the way she was biting her lip made me wonder.

  “Okay,” I replied as I followed her into Imperium’s library. I was willing to give anything a shot. We needed information on how to break Logan free from the Forest of Lost Souls, and it made sense the library would be the place to find what we needed.

  “Let me handle this,” she whispered as she pushed the big double doors open. We made our way toward the librarian’s desk where Aeolith watched us approach, her huge, bottomless black eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  “Hi, we need some of the journals from Imperium’s first years of operation,” Lacy said. “Where would we find those?” When the librarian only stared at her, she added quickly, “We’re doing research for history class and want to do as well as we can when the tests come up.”

  After an excruciating moment of silence that made me wonder if the fairy was going to bother answering us at all, she finally spoke, though when she did, she bared her teeth, letting us know she wasn’t happy about telling us anything. “There is nothing up here that old,” she told us in her musical voice. “What you’re looking for is below.” She nodded to a narrow door in the corner of the room, half-hidden by a bookcase, a “restricted” sign over the opening.

  “Is it all right if we go down there?” I asked, uncertain, half-hoping she’d offer to go down there and find the books for us, though by the scowl on her face, I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

  Then she looked thoughtful for a second. “He has eaten recently. He should be…tolerable,” she said, more to herself than to us. She looked directly at me. “Mind the bat.” She bit off each syllable as if to let me know that she held an intense dislike for winged rodents. Then she turned her attention to her desk, pointedly ignoring us as we left and made our way to the corner.

  “Bats?” Lacy hissed under her breath. “I don’t like bats. I had a friend once who got one tangled in her hair. They had to cut it to get the bat out. I’ve heard they bite, too. And what if it’s still hungry?”

  Her voice trailed off as we started to descend the dank, spiral staircase that led us further and further down.

  “It’s too well lit for bats,” I said in an effort to be reassuring. Wherever it was we were going, there was electricity. Every few yards, a bare bulb was burning, giving enough light to show the way until we made it to the next bulb. “And we aren’t going to be the only ones down here either, so that’s a plus.” I could hear sounds of music blaring a few feet below us.

  “Someone is a Backstreet Boys fan. I know this song,” Lacy said as we reached the bottom step. The music abruptly ceased.

  The next thing I knew Lacy was grabbed from in front of me, her head twisted to the side as some crazed lunatic poised a set of sharp fangs at her throat. His eyes were wild, feverish.

  In the instant before his teeth would have found the pulsing artery in h
er neck, he stopped, closed his mouth, and leaned closer to her, taking a quick sniff of the place where he’d been ready to bite. “Ugh…sushi?” He grimaced. “No thank you!” And with that declaration, he slung my friend into me. We toppled to the ground in a heap.

  As we untangled and tried to sit up, he muttered, “We agreed no shifters. I can’t believe she would dare send me a mermaid to eat.”

  Then he came closer to me, his shoes making thwacks against the cold stone as he advanced. All sense of impending disaster melted in an instant.

  I bit my lip, trying not to smile. It was hard to be afraid of someone who wore bedazzled pink flip-flops, cut-off camo shorts, and a Justin Bieber shirt.

  He stopped just short of me and took another deep breath, inhaling. “No, that one’s a shifter too.” He sighed.

  “V-vampire…y-you’re a v-vampire,” Lacy stuttered, before spitting out the next sentence. “But vampires aren’t real.”

  For the first time, he actually looked at us, the feverish look leaving his eyes. “I can assure you, darling, I certainly am,” he said dryly, letting his fangs descend just enough to prove his point.

  “But vampires don’t wear…” Lacy stopped, taking in his attire. “Stuff like that.”

  “Fashion, my dear…” he said with a long-suffering air and a roll of his eyes, “…is everything.” Then he placed his hands on his hips. “Now, it is my turn. What brings a mermaid and a…” He stopped, taking another experimental sniff of the air. “Beg your pardon, but what exactly are you? Your blood smells…different.”

  “Fox,” I said quickly. No way was I going to tell him what I truly was. “I’m a woodland shifter.”

  “I see,” he said in a tone that implied he didn’t really believe me, but thankfully, he let it drop. “So what brings a mermaid…and a woodland creature,” he said pointedly, “down here? Surely Magda didn’t send you as a snack.”