Shifter's University 2: Forest of Lost Souls

by K. R. Thompson

  Quinn looked at the life-sized cutout that was nearest him, which just happened to be Batman. “Do you know what she’s talking about?” His eyes narrowed. He frowned, nodding as if listening to the caped crusader’s reply before he returned his gaze to the headmistress. “We don’t know what you’re talking about…and for the record, he says you’re crazy. No one ever comes down here except for those you send.”

  The headmistress was silent for a long moment. When she finally spoke, her voice was eerily calm. “If anyone else does come, I expect you’ll let me know.”

  Quinn smiled. “But of course.”

  Without another word, the headmistress left. I waited until I couldn’t hear her footsteps any longer before coming out of my hiding place. “Thank you for not telling her we’d been here.”

  “In all the years I have been in this place, that was the first time she’s come down since we made our agreement,” he said thoughtfully. “It makes me wonder what a mermaid and a…woodland…would be up to that would worry the mighty Magda Herensy enough that she would grace me with her presence.” He paused, then added with a wave of his hand at all the posters and cutouts. “She thinks we’re all crazy down here. Lucky for us, he’s an excellent liar.”

  He, being Batman, I assumed, as I watched Quinn pat the masked hero on the shoulder. “Besides,” he said with a nod to the stack of credit cards at the computer. “You keep our secret. We’ll keep yours.”

  “Agreed.” If covering for a thief/shopping addict was the worst of things I’d have to do, it wouldn’t be bad in the grand scheme of things.

  Humming Batman’s theme song, Quinn went back to his bookshelf and began plundering again. This time, I followed.

  Sidestepping the mounds of discarded clothing, I decided to ask some questions that had been bothering me since the first time I met him. “So how long have you been down here?”

  The humming stopped. “Long enough.”

  “And how old are you, exactly?” I sounded like a five-year-old with an endless supply of questions, but I couldn’t help it.

  Apparently, Quinn was thinking the same thing, because he turned around, put his hands on his hips, and gave me a long-suffering sigh. “I was born in the year of our lord, thirteen hundred and thirty-three.”

  I felt my mouth drop open. “Really?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Of course not. Do I honestly look that old?” He snorted, then resumed his search.

  He didn’t look old at all, really. Twenty-two, maybe? Twenty-three? But, being as I had no idea how vampires aged, I decided it might be in my best interest to shut up and not ask any more questions—especially if I wanted to leave with a book that would help me get to Logan.

  “Aha!” he exclaimed, jerking a dusty book off the shelf over his head. “Now this is the one you should have had to begin with. It documents the time the boundaries of the forest were put into place.” He handed it to me, and I coughed as a wall of dust rose from the cover.

  Once the dust settled, I turned it over in my hands to get a better look. It was definitely a newer book. The pages in this one weren’t nearly as yellowed and fragile looking.

  Quinn was watching me with a skeptical look on his face as he chewed on his lower lip. “It’s my turn to ask questions, since we’re BFFs and all now, keeping each other’s secrets. What are you trying to find in the Forest of Lost Souls? Surely you don’t want to go there of all places. From what I understand, it quite literally sucks the soul right out of you.”

  “There’s someone in there that the headmistress exiled. He shouldn’t be in there at all. I’m trying to find a way to get him out.” There. I said it. I winced, watching him process the information.

  “It’s a lost cause, you know,” he said finally. “I’ve never heard of anyone coming back from there. They named it appropriately, the Forest of Lost Souls. Once you’re in…that’s it.”

  When I didn’t say anything, he gave me a sly smile. “I have exactly fifty-three friends in this room, and you’re the only one who has a death wish. What sort of comrade would I be if I didn’t at least try to talk you out of a suicide mission? Trust me when I say you don’t want to go in there. The ones who do, don’t come out.”

  “I have to,” I said stubbornly. “If I don’t, he’ll be lost.”

  “He’s already lost.” His eyes glazed over, as if remembering some long-forgotten memory. “I once knew someone who was put in there. He never came out.”

  “What happened to him?”

  His attention focused back on me, the faraway look melting away. “Sorry? What did you say?”

  “What happened to the one you knew who was put in the Forest of Lost Souls?” I repeated.

  “Pfft! I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied, a bit of the crazed look I recognized from before coming back. “I don’t know anyone but the people in here, and none of us are crazy enough to go to a place like that. I think you’re insane, you know.”

  Takes one to know one, I thought. “Do you need me to sign for it?” I gestured to the familiar cereal box I spied on a nearby table.

  He rolled his eyes. “Does this look like a library to you? Do I look like a librarian? I am a vampire, for heaven’s sake, not a bookkeeping fae with bad taste in music.” His bottom lip jutted into another pout.

  “Sorry. Is it all right if I take it with me? I promise I’ll bring it back.”

  “Sure,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Like I said, none of us are crazy enough to be planning a long-term stay in the Forest of Lost Souls. It’s all yours, and we wish you luck. You’ll be needing it, where you’re going.”

  Deciding I’d better get a move on before he changed his mind, I started toward the steps.

  “If you go out that door, you won’t have to worry about meeting the mighty Magda on your way.” He gestured toward a huge poster of Bella Lugosi that hung on a far wall. “She wouldn’t dare come past him. That’s why he guards that exit. He’ll let you through, though. Dracula knows you’re a friend.”

  I hadn’t noticed the “exit” at all. The poster was so well placed that it masked the opening in the wall. To Lugosi’s right was the Elvis poster, and I saw a small open space around the edge, the opening to yet another “exit,” no doubt.

  I glanced around. Seven more posters, seven more potential doorways. To where, I didn’t know.

  “You have to have guards in a place like this,” Quinn told me in a hushed whisper. “Or else, the shadows come.” He gestured to the various lights near each of his “friends” who guarded him against the unknown. It was then I saw the chalk marks on the floor. Wherever there was an opening, and darkness began, a thick white line marked the edge that separated it from the light. “I don’t like shadows.”

  A vampire who is afraid of the dark? You’re supposed to be the one everyone else fears—to thrive in the dark and die in the light. What on earth happened to make you this way? I thought.

  Quinn was wringing his hands as he stared at the chalk line at Elvis’ feet, and I caught another glimpse of the scars that circled his wrists.

  Whatever made him this way had broken him, and I knew all too well how that felt. “I don’t like shadows, either,” I confided, wishing to take away the raw fear showing in his eyes.

  At that, one corner of his lips twitched up in a small half-smile. “Do come and visit again. It isn’t often we have a nice sort for company.”

  “I will,” I promised as I started toward the Dracula poster. Once there, I turned to wave, but he had already turned away and was fiddling with the CD player.

  Within seconds, the classical music resumed and I followed a brightly lit passageway with only the sounds of a haunting violin solo to accompany me.

  There hadn’t been a chalk line in front of Lugosi. With the strategically placed bulbs and lack of shadows and darkness, I deduced this must be one of the exits Quinn frequented on a regular basis.

  But where will it take me? I wondered as I continued
to walk, passing bulb after bulb. The music was fading in the distance when I finally spotted a set of stairs ahead that led to a door.

  “At least I’m going up and not down,” I muttered in relief. I slowly twisted the knob, and then took a cautious peek before letting it swing open.

  I stood in a small room that had been a kitchen at some point. I only knew that because I was staring at the sink and a counter. There wasn’t a stove, a refrigerator, or any furniture anywhere to be seen. The window over the sink had its blinds closed, blocking out the sun’s rays.

  I shut the door behind me and moved to the next room, which was even emptier than the first.

  “Where on earth am I?” I wondered, my voice breaking the silence.

  I made it to what I guessed to be the living room and the front door, and twisted the knob. It swung open easily. I had just started to wonder who would leave a door unlocked, when I saw the sign that had been taped on the front.

  “Attention, delivery personnel: Please leave all packages inside the door,” I read, then laughed when I realized where I was.

  My foster dad hadn’t been lying. The story Blake had told me now made perfect sense. I was standing in the cottage Quinn used to receive his stolen merchandise. I stepped out onto the front porch, noticing someone hadn’t obeyed the polite order on the door. Two large boxes teetered on the top step, so I sat my book down, picked them up, and slid them inside to make it easier for my vampiric friend below to get his goods when he came for them.

  I spotted another chalk line as I shut the door. This one was marked on the threshold.

  I mulled over what I knew about Quinn after I picked the book up and walked down the gravel path that took me to the edge of Imperium’s front lawn. What I did know was sketchy at best, but something told me that I could trust the vampire trapped below the ground—quite possibly more than I could trust any of the people currently above it.

  “I don’t remember seeing her come out here earlier,” one of the gargoyles said as I walked by.

  “That’s because you never pay attention, Bob. You never, ever pay attention,” the other complained. “I shut my eyes for one minute. One minute. You can’t even watch for that long. I have to do everything around here.”

  “That’s hardly a nice thing to say to me, Frank. You need to learn better manners,” Bob admonished. “We are the faces of the university, after all. The first ones they see when they arrive. It’s no wonder she didn’t even bother to talk to us.”

  “I’m not a nice gargoyle—and neither are you. And I don’t like her, anyway. She’s not a new recruit. She’s the touchy one. I don’t like being touched. You know that. Besides, we’re concrete. We don’t have manners, and I don’t have to pretend I do have them,” the other huffed.

  “I have manners, Frank.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “Yes, I do, you grouchy idiot. If you can’t say anything nice, then shut your pie hole. I don’t have to put up with this abuse. If I say I have manners, I have manners, damn it!”

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing while the two continued to bicker back and forth.

  As I rounded the corner, the laugh died in my throat. The very person I’d been attempting to avoid—the headmistress—was standing merely a few feet away. I froze. There was nowhere to hide. If I made the slightest movement, I knew she’d see me.

  My attention was so focused on her I didn’t realize someone else had noticed me until he blocked my view, pushing me against the wall of the main house.

  Immediately, I tensed.

  “Play along,” Benny whispered into my ear as he positioned his body in front of mine, effectively blocking me—and the book—from view. “I’m on your side.”

  There were a few catcalls as a group of students walked by, no doubt thinking the centaur was using his charms to seduce someone. He placed his hand on the wall by my head, leaning in closer as they passed.

  Cautiously, I peeked around his shoulder to find we’d gotten the attention of the headmistress. Thankfully, it was on Benny and not me. She didn’t seem worried at all about the girl against the wall. Suddenly, she frowned and went inside the main house.

  “She’s gone now,” I whispered.

  To his credit, Benny immediately dropped his arm and took a step back.

  “Thanks.” I smiled, hugging the book against my chest.

  “Any time,” he replied, giving me his usual charming smile that made every other girl in the school swoon. His eyes were locked on the book, and I knew questions were going to begin soon.

  “I hope I didn’t get you into any trouble,” I said, nodding toward the doorway where the headmistress had disappeared.

  “No more than what I can usually get into completely by myself,” he said with a laugh. “Where are you headed, Claire?”

  “Back to my dorm.”

  “Mind if I walk with you?” he asked. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about.”

  This could be a bad thing, I thought. I’m really not in the mood to ward off the charms of a centaur. I wonder what he’ll do when I say no?

  I was getting ready to test that theory, but then he did something I hadn’t anticipated. He shifted to human, his horsey half disappearing in a rush of golden flames. Whatever he wanted to say had to be serious. I could count on one hand the times I’d seen Benny walking on two legs instead of four—all of them while we were in the main house. Never outside.

  “Okay,” I agreed, suddenly curious as to what was on his mind.

  “I know you and Logan were close,” he started as we began to walk.

  I only nodded, fairly certain where this was going. As far as I knew, I was the only one immune to the centaur’s muscles and charm. This had to be the newest tactic to get to me.

  “I wanted to let you know I’m sorry about what happened to him.”

  Yep, nice try, but it’s not going to work, I thought, though I gave him the polite smile one would typically reserve for those who had come to pay their respects at a funeral.

  When Mia passed us with a, “Hi, Benny,” he waved, but then looped his arm through mine, sending a clear message to her that he was walking with me.

  I was ready to smack him when his voice lowered to a whisper, but his words stopped me. “Even though it might not seem so, there are a lot of us who don’t believe he had anything to do with breaking the crystals…much less any involvement with the Dark Watch. He didn’t deserve the punishment he was given.”

  I stopped. Out of everything he could have said, I hadn’t seen that coming at all.

  “I want you to know you have friends, Claire.” His eyes met mine, solemn, without so much as a hint of his usual flirt and attitude.

  “What are you trying to tell me, Benny?”

  “There are whispers going around that you’re trying to figure out how to get him out. I just want you to know that if you need us…when you need us…let me know and we’ll be there,” he said with a quick nod and an unspoken promise that had me second-guessing everything I knew about him.

  I stood there, dumbfounded, and watched him walk away. Halfway across the courtyard, he shifted back to his centaur, tail swishing at the first girl he came across. No one would have ever guessed that only seconds before he’d been offering to help me.

  But if he knew what Lacy and I were up to, who else did?

  Never had I thought I’d wake up in a padded room.

  But then again, I never thought I’d join up with the enemy either.

  I sat up in bed, then swung my legs over the side of a metal railing and stared at the walls that surrounded me. They had been white at some point, but they were now yellowed and cracked.

  The worst part was that they were most definitely padded. I decided in that instant I most definitely didn’t want to be in here. Wherever here was.

  I’d blast my way out.

  I took a deep experimental bre
ath—one that would certainly have woken up my dragon under any circumstance—and waited for the familiar push of scales, smoke, and fire.

  “C’mon,” I muttered impatiently, waiting for something—anything—that would give me a sign he was coming to help. I closed my eyes, this time taking a long, cleansing breath intended to calm my nerves more than wake the shifter side of me.

  Much to my relief, I felt the tiniest nudge—proof I hadn’t lost my other soul. My animal half was still there, though it felt muted and weak.

  I let out my breath and relaxed. Whatever they had done to me could be undone. If it was magic that had my dragon groggy, he could sleep it off for the time being. Wounds could always heal. Death, on the other hand, was irreversible.

  I stood up slowly, taking a quick check of my human side. Other than having a headache trying to pound cracks into my skull, I seemed to be fine.

  A paper cup of water sat on a nightstand by the bed with two aspirin. Someone out there knew I was going to need them. What they didn’t know was that I was going to refuse their hospitality.

  “I’ll keep the damn headache,” I grumbled as I smacked the cup, sending it flying.

  “You’ll probably wish you hadn’t done that.” The voice came from a hole in the wall beside me. “They aren’t too forgiving.”

  “Who are you?” My voice was thick and hoarse, but I refused to acknowledge the water would have fixed that.

  “Someone who is as stuck as you,” came the reply.

  “Where are we?”

  “A hospital of sorts, though from what I’m gathering, it’s not been used as such for years.” A green eye peered through the hole. “My name is Toad. What’s yours?”

  “Logan.” I resisted the urge to ask his real name.

  “So what are you in for?” Toad joked.

  “I made them a promise they couldn’t refuse,” I replied.

  He snorted, amused. “You’ll have to tell me about that some time.”

  “What about you?” I managed to say as I sat back down on the edge of the bed and pressed my hand to my head, fingers finding a knot on my temple that had to be the size of a golf ball.