She swallowed hard and then softly answered, “I do.”
I sighed, not really wanting to leave her, but knowing it would be best if I did. “I’d better go.”
She nodded again, but her gaze stayed on me. “I know.”
I stroked her cheek and said, “Sweet dreams, beautiful.”
She smiled, and her lips were like a light breeze across mine as she kissed me. “Always of you,” she breathed out before dropping back to her feet and opening her door. “Night.”
“Goodnight, beautiful.”
I gave her a little wave as I moved down the hallway and made my way to the nurse’s station just through the cafeteria. The mug I’d had at Merriwick’s hadn’t really been enough. I needed more, so I checked in. Twenty minutes later, I was back in my dorm room. I grabbed a change of clothes and headed to the boy’s bathrooms for a quick shower and then returned to my room. It was early, but I really wanted to get some sleep.
I climbed into bed and my eyes closed. Before I knew it, I was out.
* * *
I stood on the edge of the town. I could see them gathered in the center, their deep, blood red robes flowing as they chanted nonsensical words. They were holding hands, their heads bowed low as they moved around the being in the center. Arrond. He stood as if frozen and my voice caught in my throat. I ran, screaming. I knew I was screaming because my throat felt raw, but still I continued, racing toward them.
“Arrond!” I shouted.
Arrond’s gaze flashed up to mine and held steady, a look of terror in his dark eyes. “RUN!” I heard in my head.
“No! I’ll help you!” I called, trying to reach him.
“RUN NOW, James!” slammed through my mind, ricocheting around as if there was nothing for it to catch on to.
I began to tremble as the people in the robes turned toward me, their faces covered in solid white masks with slits for their eyes and mouths. Even as my body shook like a leaf in the wind, I pushed myself forward, trying to reach them. But the closer I got, the further they seemed to move from me.
Black fog seemed to swirl around Arrond and then he began to disintegrate, turning to ash and then dust in the wind. As he faded away, the black fog got thicker and took on the appearance of a human body. The red robed people stopped chanting and then turned toward me. They were an army and began marching straight toward me, with the black fog leading the charge.
I stopped my forward movement and began to back away.
As I did, the people in the robes began to remove their masks… I couldn’t quite see their faces yet—
“James!” a voice called me.
I felt my body being shaken.
“Man, you gotta stop this! James, come on!” the same voice said desperately.
“What the heck is going on in here?” another voice chimed in.
I came awake as if I was moving through molasses to get there. My eyes felt heavy and my throat felt like it was on fire. I had no idea what was going on. There was only a lingering feeling of desperation and anguish from the dream I’d been having. I figured it had to do with Arrond again, but I couldn’t be sure. I thought I had been just about ready to find out something important when I’d heard the voice calling to me. Cory, apparently.
I blinked my eyes and took in Cory, Tran, Kale and Lukas.
“You are having nightmares, yes?” Lukas asked, his large muscular arms crossed across his barrel chest.
“I guess so.” I nodded.
“You go see Corbett,” Lukas insisted.
“I think I’m fine now, Lukas, no need to go see the professor over this.”
“Dude, you may be fine, but you scared the ever-loving crap out of us,” Tran put in, a sour look on his face.
“Why?” I asked in confusion.
“We’ve been trying to wake you for twenty minutes, man. We weren’t sure you were going to come out of it,” Cory said softly.
“Oh.” I blinked and tried to assess how I was feeling. Not rested, of course, but other than that, I felt okay. I still wanted to know what I was seeing, and I started to fall back into my thoughts.
Cory shook me again. “Oh no you don’t,” he said.
“Cors, I’m fine.”
“Maybe just go see the professor and see if he can give you something to let you sleep without the nightmares?”
I sighed. “Fine.” I wasn’t going to go to him, but they didn’t need to know that. I ran a hand over my face and got up.
“Want one of us to go with you?” Tran asked. He looked at Kale and Cory and then to Lukas.
“No, I’ll be fine.” I shook my head. I couldn’t let them come with me since I wasn’t actually going to go.
“Okay, if you need anything let us know. We’re here for you,” Tran said and put a hand on my shoulder.
“Thanks.”
With a nod, he and Kale left. Cory flopped down on his bed and Lukas gave me a narrow-eyed look before turning and leaving the room too. I glanced over at Cory and sighed. “Thanks for waking me. I’ll just go see the professor now.”
“Okay, you sure you don’t want me to go with?”
I shook my head.
“You kind of scared us, man. Don’t do that again, okay?”
“Yeah, sure, I won’t.” I gave him a grin and left the room. Blowing out a breath, I made my way down the hall and up to the vampire professors’ corridor. I went ahead and knocked on Professor Corbett’s door. It was nearing morning, so I knew he’d be in and not teaching at the moment. I wasn’t going to tell him about my nightmares, but I did have another question for him.
“James, what brings you by so early?” he asked when he answered.
“Hello Professor, I just had a question about Leonora.”
“Well, if I can answer it, I will.” He smiled.
“How long was she, um, having nightmares before the incident at the coffee shop?”
“Oh, hmmm, that’s a good question. I believe she said they started just before Christmas break. Why? Did you have an idea about them?”
“No, not exactly. I just wondered if they maybe had anything to do with the incident.”
“As far as we can tell, they may have, but we still don’t understand the kind of magic that was used on her.”
“I see. Well if I think of anything, I’ll be sure to tell you, Professor.”
Professor Corbett smiled and said, “Thank you, James. Yes, it would be best to leave this up to the staff to deal with this time. Why don’t you go get some sleep, you’ve got classes in a few hours.”
“Okay, Professor. Thanks.” I left his room and headed to the nearest outside door and then shifted. Maybe I could get some sleep in my owl form since it eluded me in my human one.
Chapter 12
Bethany
I really had hoped that everything would blow over and everyone would go back to normal. My hopes were in vain. Over the last several days, two witches had gone postal on different vampires in our classes. And today it was a vampire attacking a witch.
The first had been Dorian, one of the upper-class witches who happened to be the TA in our potions class. He began chanting and then directed a spell straight at Mira, one of the few Strigoi who was taking the class. Luckily, she was able to survive the attack, but she’d been burnt in the process.
The second had been in math class. It had been Caroline, an advanced math freshman witch who had lashed out at all of the Strigoi, pinning them to the ceiling and hitting them with spells. I’d tackled her, interrupting the spells and allowing the Strigoi to return to the floor. When I’d looked over at them, their faces were covered in boils and blisters.
In both cases, the witches came out of trance like statues and had no idea why they’d attacked the vampires, but both had mentioned having a series of nightmares over the last few weeks. It had been the same with the attack today and the vampire who’d committed the attack. It worried me, thinking about it. They had to be somehow related to the attacks. Didn’t they?
&
nbsp; As I headed out to the courtyard to take a break between classes, I thought about it. Had I noticed anything else out of the ordinary? As I moved down the steps, I saw Merriwick approaching. I smiled at her, but she didn’t acknowledge me.
“Hello, Merriwick, what brings you to the Academy?” I asked as she got closer.
Merriwick just marched right past me, nearly knocking me over as she mounted the steps and pulled the glass door open so hard it slammed into the side of the building and shattered. My eyes grew wide in fright at what she’d done. Was she infected too?
“Merriwick, is everything all right?” I called, using a bit of counter magic to fix the door. I didn’t want her to get into trouble for breaking it. “Merriwick!” I followed slightly behind her.
She didn’t even turn her head and look at me, just continued on faster, getting so far ahead that I couldn’t keep up. I frowned and went back down the hall and outside again.
“Hello, beautiful.”
I glanced up to see James coming toward me. I smiled. “Hi.”
“Where are you heading?” he asked.
“To the clock tower. We got out early, another incident.” I sighed and shook my head.
“Who this time?” he asked, taking my hand and walking with me.
“Matthew.” I sighed and peered up at him. “English class.”
“What happened?” James asked as we climbed the steps to the top of the tower.
“I don’t know, it was weird. I don’t know how he did it, I mean you aren’t supposed to be able to have your strength or lower your fangs during daylight hours, but he did,” I said softly, my eyes meeting his.
“Did he hurt anyone?” James asked and I could see a muscle twitching in his jaw.
“Not really; he got his fangs into Kerri’s jacket. Luckily it was thick and she slipped out of it before he broke skin. Some of the other Strigoi were able to grab him and restrain him. They got him out of the classroom. I think they said they were taking him to Professor Corbett.” I sank down on the ledge of the window and dangled my feet out.
James sat next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Professor Corbett and Professor Singh will hopefully be able to figure out what is going on. As far as him being able to shift in daylight, you’re right, it’s not supposed to be able to happen, but if magic forced him, then that is not his fault. He couldn’t have made himself do it. It’s just not possible.” James looked at me earnestly. “Remember it took some powerful magic last semester for me to be able to do it, and that was with someone turning the day into night. So whoever this is, is very powerful. I think it’s them. The Shadow Society,” he said softly.
I nodded. “I think you’re right. I’m worried. Why are they doing this? What do they want?”
“I don’t know.” James gazed out over the campus. “Unrest? Discord between the witches and vampires here?” He shrugged. “It’s working, unfortunately, whether that is their end game or not.”
I frowned. “You don’t think it is?”
James’ brows lowered and he looked away. “No.”
I drew his face back to mine. “What do you think they are after?” I asked, looking in his eyes.
He pressed his lips together and the look in his eyes turned stormy. “You.”
I blinked. “Me?”
He nodded. “I’m afraid they are doing all of this just as a distraction.”
“To get to me?”
“You don’t?” he asked me, his expression serious.
I sighed. “If I could give up magic, I think I would.” A tear slipped down my cheek. “Everyone keeps saying how I’m so powerful and the Shadow Society is trying to kill me because of it, I just…”
James wiped my cheeks and kissed me. “I know.”
I sighed. “What are we going to do?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, but whatever it is, I will protect you.”
I gave him a watery smile and put my head on his shoulder.
Chapter 13
James
As I went to my dorm room that evening, I thought about my conversation with Bethany in the clock tower. I had no idea how I was going to protect her when I was worried about the nightmares I had been experiencing. I couldn’t hurt her. Ever. I had to believe there was no magic in the world that would make me capable of that, but still. I worried.
I put my hand on the door to open it, but before I even stepped into my room, I heard screams. It sounded like one person, a vampire, but I couldn’t be sure. I let go of the door and followed the others who raced by me and down the stairs to the lower level rooms, the screaming continuing and gaining depth as we descended. The screaming was now a mixture of two voices, and seemed to be coming from the seniors’ common room. I pushed past Tran and Kale to see Cory’s cousin Levin attempting to attack a small witch who was curled into a ball on the floor. Levin was being held by his arms, but was snarling and snapping at the witch, his head millimeters from the witch’s neck. She was doing her best to cover the tender skin there with her hands and protect her head, as Jordan, a Strigoi senior ordered. Jordan was the one holding Levin back.
“Come on, let’s help, Jordan,” I urged those with me to intervene. I rushed to his side and grabbed Levin’s shoulder, shoving him back away from the witch.
Tran and Kale grabbed the small witch and pulled her up and away from the scene. “What the hell is going on?” Tran asked.
The little witch in their arms started sobbing and babbling incoherently. Suddenly my grip on Levin weakened and I began to feel dizzy. Everything in my vision seemed to be shifting, as if a wave of vertigo had suddenly hit me. The room was spinning and sounds were distorted and I could have sworn I heard more screaming coming from the dorms down the hall.
“Hell! Is that another one?” Kale asked.
I shook my head, trying to fix my vision. An overwhelming anger enveloped me and I felt suddenly hot. Too hot, too fast, as if my skin were on fire. I let go of Levin and started ripping off my shirt. It was burning me up and I had to get it off.
“James!”
I heard my name, but I couldn’t tell who was speaking, it was all just noise. I grabbed my head and slammed my eyes shut tight, willing my vision to return to normal and my body temperature to cool. I took several deep breaths and blinked my eyes open as the wave of anger passed and the heat of my skin slowly dissipated. I was sweating now, but my vision was mostly back, just a little blurry.
I noticed that Lukas had hold of Levin. Jordan was now consoling the little witch and Tran and Kale were next to me. Levin was still snarling and snapping, straining to break free of Lukas’ hold, but no matter how strong Levin was, nothing was breaking free of Lukas.
“James, you okay?” Tran asked, looking at me cautiously.
I nodded. “Yeah, don’t know what that was, but I’m okay now.” I shook my head and gave them a smile.
“Good, we’ve got another problem down the hall, another crackpot vamp losing their mind. We just wanted to make sure you weren’t going to lose yours, dude.” Tran patted my bare shoulder.
I looked down at my shredded shirt and sighed. I’d liked that shirt. With a shrug, I said, “Come on, let’s go see what that’s about.” I gestured toward the hall.
“Lukas, you good?” Tran asked.
“Da, go help the others, I’ll get this one to the infirmary.”
We moved down the hall and pushed into one of the seniors’ rooms to see a shifted Draugr in full berserker mode, ripping the room to shreds. The three of us tackled him, driving him to the floor. We were strong, Tran and Kale were Draugr as well, and they shifted so they could hold the Draugr who was now making it thunder loudly in the room. Lightning struck the bed and lit it on fire.
The fire alarm sounded moments later and the sprinkler system kicked on, drenching all of us as the Draugr struggled to break free of Tran and Kale. Tran lifted his fist and slammed it down on the Draugr’s head, but it did little damage.
“Together!�
� Tran said to Kale.
Both of them raise their fists and crashed them down on opposite sides of the Draugr’s face. Finally the Draugr fell silent and the rumblings of thunder calmed. I moved back, letting go of the Draugr’s legs. Tran and Kale stood and lifted the Draugr up between them.
“Kahn will wake any minute. We have to get him to the infirmary. They can give him a shot and sedate him so he’ll be okay,” Kale said as they started toward the door.
Another scream shrieked through the air along with a keening wail. My heart raced and I was running again, this time up the stairs, following the howl that seemed to shake the walls of the building. I tore through the hallway and out the door to the courtyard to see the mournful cries were coming from a Lamiae on the ground, holding her sister who struggled and screamed in her arms. Professor Corbett was doing his best to get the injured Lamiae from her sister. “Mystic, Desire will be fine, she’s under a spell. We have to get her to the infirmary,” I heard him pleading gently.
I took in the witches across from them who were sobbing and holding a passed-out girl; at least I hoped she was only passed out and not dead. Panic set in my heart and I had an urgent feeling I needed to get to Bethany. Not bothering to see who was around, I shifted and flew the rest of the way to her window. I had to be sure she was all right.
Chapter 14
Bethany
My eyes were drifting closed and I was on the edge of sleep. My mind wouldn’t quite shut down though, so I mostly just laid there, my conversation with James playing over and over again through my mind. He’d said he thought the Shadow Society was probably behind all of the attacks and I couldn’t disagree. Though he’d also said he suspected the attacks were being set up in an effort to get to me. I couldn’t help but be worried about it. I attempted to push those thoughts away, to lock them up in a box in my mind and shove them in a corner to be looked at later, after I’d gotten some real sleep. I purposefully turned my thoughts to other things. Good things. Like James’ kiss. To the moments of joy I had while snuggling in his arms and watching the sunset. And then I was out.
A Witch’s Immunity: Supernatural Academy - Book 3 Page 7
