But she feared that face was lost forever, gone, just like his family.
Chapter 5- Abduction
Jed whistled a merry tune as he strolled along the castle corridors, sipping his Mavla drink. He sniggered as a grey gremlin cajoled past, singing in an oddly gravelly voice. This place is beyond weird.
Jed poked his head out of a window to check out the manticore he spotted gliding toward the beach. It was around midday and the suns shone bright, causing the Fortress walls to glitter spectacularly. As usual, an abundance of Venators were present. The Venators were out relaxing, in the middle of training, or simply socialising on Veneseron’s vast fields. Jed noticed several pretty girls, Cece Lumiere amongst them. Cece was short and cute with curly red hair. Maybe it’s time to put the moves on her. He smiled. He'd been here almost six months and hadn’t hooked up with anyone yet. That was way too long in his opinion.
As if some divine presence had overheard his thoughts, he came face to face with an outstandingly gorgeous girl as he rounded the corner. Skin the colour of molasses, long dark hair, a full-bodied figure, and sensuous lips completed her exotic appearance. Jed rapidly racked his mind for some quip or chat-up line, but then a storage room door burst open and two people stepped out, giggling.
Was he seeing things? The girl who’d stepped out was the exact replica of the girl in the corridor. Identical twins!
“Wow,” Jed gasped without meaning to.
The first twin hissed in rage at the boy who emerged with her sister. Jed recognised him as the Arch-Realmer Lok.
Lok wore an expensive white cloak embellished with black opals. His red Venator shirt had several buttons undone, however.
“You Ushk-filled pig,” the first twin snarled, her voice ringing with a foreign accent. Brazilian, Jed guessed. He loved foreign girls.
“Did you plan this?” she continued.
Lok looked between the two sisters impishly. “Oh, I thought I asked Aurora to meet me in the storage room, not you, August. You look so similar, you know.”
“I am August,” the second twin yelled. “We were making out and you didn’t even know which sister I was? You Glarqing Bliak.”
“Easy mistake to make.” Lok shrugged, trying to suppress his laughter. “So, no hard feelings, eh?”
The first twin stepped forward to slap Lok’s grinning face.
“Oww, not the face.” Lok darted away from her.
Aurora tossed her hair in indignation before turning and stalking away.
“Well—” Lok turned to the other twin—“shall we resume?”
His offer was met with a second slap.
“Oww, didn’t you hear me the first time?” he yelled after August as she stormed off too.
Lok turned, clutching his already smarting cheek and noticing Jed.
“Good one,” Jed sniggered.
“Ha, oh well.” Lok sighed melodramatically. “They’ll be back.”
“Not after that fiasco,” Jed said.
“It’ll blow over. With my charm they’ll come crawling back. No girl can resist me, you see.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” said Jed.
Lok looked him over. “Hey, aren’t you Brooke’s friend? She’s hot. I wouldn’t mind meeting her in a dark storage room… if you know what I mean.”
Jed didn’t know what to make of this statement, so he simply nodded.
“Well, I’ll catch you around, kid,” said Lok. “Give Brooke my love.”
“Prat,” Jed whispered under his breath.
*
Cece Lumiere cheered as she won the game of Scribduel, the Enerlyte she’d summoned defeating her opponent.
“No way! You cheated,” said Raj.
“Don’t be a sore loser.” Ziville grinned.
The three of them sat by a water fountain on one of Veneseron’s fields, using their Krism sticks to scrawl on the stone tiles that circled the fountain. After winning the deciding game, Cece raised her hand to direct some of the fountain water to splash out over the tiles and wash their chalk symbols away.
“How about a best of five?” Raj asked eagerly.
“Nope, sorry,” Cece said. “I’ll be happy to beat you some other time though.”
She and Ziville giggled as Raj continued to sulk.
“Fine, but next time I’m gonna crush your Enerlytes with the power of a million suns.”
Ziville rolled her eyes. “That’s enough exaggeration for one day. I’ve got healing class, so I need to be going too.”
They left Raj to pester other Venators to play Scribduel with him, as they headed for the Fortress.
“So,” said Ziville, “tonight’s beach party is going to be wicked. Oelika managed to sweet-talk Byron in to giving her a crate of Cyclops Cider, so we can get royally wasted. You’re definitely coming, yeah?”
“Wouldn’t miss it. Why do you think I bought that elven dress earlier?”
“Ah, so you got it especially for Krisjarn?”
“No, I got it for me,” Cece said, “but if he notices me in it, all the better.”
They’d just got back from shopping in Veneseron city when Raj accosted them, badgering her until she played Scribduel with him.
As they headed into Titan’s Tower, Cece spotted a Mandon giant, a wild-looking man over nine feet tall. Curiously, he was loitering in the courtyard outside the castle. He had a long ginger beard, as well as a matted mess of ginger locks that fell to his shoulders. He was rifling through a large sack big enough to fit a human in. He didn’t hold Cece’s attention for long however; all manner of beings from the city often visited the Fortress.
Ziville had Healing training with Master Caldin, who she had a major crush on, so they parted ways as they entered Titan’s Tower. Cece herself planned on getting ready early for the beach party tonight.
She started up the sprawling staircase, heading to the corridor her bedroom was in. Master Magoris walked some way behind her, his arms full of ancient spellbooks. Cece vaguely wondered what Magoris was doing here when his chambers were on the other side of the Fortress.
She turned into the corridor leading to her room. Other than Bane Madagant, who was using one of the vending machines filled with enchanted sweets, the corridor was empty. Bane met her gaze as she passed, his expression unreadable. She broke eye contact with him and entered her room excitedly, preparing to try on her new dress. As she closed her bedroom door the babble from the rec room nearby faded to a murmur.
Ziville had said Krisjarn was going to the beach too. Maybe tonight would be the night he finally asked her out. Cece was sure he’d been heavily hinting at it in their last few Twinsphere practises. They’d both made the team around a year ago, and Cece had liked him almost instantly.
She pulled her new dress from the wardrobe and laid it out on her bed.
She could’ve sworn she heard heavy breathing somewhere behind her.
“Hello?” Cece called out.
She looked around her bedroom curiously. The suns were setting and the room was swathed in shadow. Cece turned on the fae lamp that stood on a small table next to her bathroom door. The shadows disappeared then as the room filled with the blue faelight.
There was no one in her bedroom but her.
Stop being silly.
As Cece turned away, her bathroom door exploded open and the lamp smashed to the floor. She tried to turn, but the intruder seized her from behind, hard. She tried to scream, but a hand holding a strange cloth clamped down on her mouth, filling her with an overpowering scent. She struggled frantically, but the grip around her was too strong.
Her sorcery flared within her. Fire burst from her fingertips, ready to attack.
The fire burned out. Cece’s sorcery had been cut off; her vision was blurring; the bedroom becoming a mass of fuzzy shapes.
Her head lolled as everything went dark.
Chapter 6- Creature College
Josh hated having a werepanther for a roommate sometimes. Of course, the vampire and the demon hunter in th
e room next door weren’t ideal either. Being a weretiger himself, Josh should’ve been the one always breaking things by accident, but it was Ryan who constantly underestimated his own strength. Ryan hadn’t got his new animal instincts under control yet either.
“Sorry,” Ryan grumbled, looking down at the broken ping pong table in dismay.
His other housemates roared with laughter, but Josh wasn’t too pleased.
“You’re paying for that Ry,” he said, dropping his own paddle on the broken table. “Jeez, just because you lost again.”
“I said I’m sorry,” Ryan scowled, “I can fix it, honest. Have we got any super glue?”
Ed snorted around his straw, and turned to Silas. “Shifters eh? Bloody felines.”
“Hey I didn’t do anything,” Josh said, collapsing on the armchair beside the other two. “And stop downing all the drinks, pace yourselves.”
He ran a hand through his hair. He’d have to style it before they headed out. Ironically, his ginger hair matched the colour of his fur when he shifted forms; much to the amusement of his roommates.
He made to grab a drink of his own.
“Oh, not that one dude,” Ed said, “I’ve already mixed blood with the vodka.”
“Why would you do that?” Josh demanded.
“I only put blood in a few drinks,” Ed said, popping the straw back in his mouth as he sipped, “so no one steals my share.”
Whilst he and Ryan played ping pong, Silas had been showing Ed a Venator card game named Magadon. Both of them held several cards each as they got a start on the pre-drinking tonight before they went out.
The front room of their frat house was large, but barely furnished. The broken ping pong table was just one less item in the bare room now. The brown carpet was covered in hair. Anyone would think half a dozen dogs lived in the house. Josh was the only one who tried to keep the place clean and tidy, but it was an eternal and futile task. His roommates were beyond lazy when it came to cleaning up after themselves.
If someone had told Josh before he became a weretiger that supernatural frat houses and sororities existed, he would’ve politely recommended they check themselves into an asylum, but here he was.
Josh checked his watch. “Ten o’clock now guys. We’ll have a few beers then go, yeah?”
“Yeah baby,” Silas whooped, handing Josh a can, “get this down ya’.”
“What the hell is it?” Josh stared at the florescent green can, the writing across it resembled Latin, but weirder.
“I got a case of elven wine in,” said Silas with a wink, “fresh from my world.”
“Fair enough,” said Josh, taking a gulp. “Hmm, surprisingly good, a mix of grape and… something else.”
“Unicorn urine,” Silas said seriously.
Josh spat it out everywhere.
Ed and Silas burst into laughter again. “Just kidding, bro. It’s some sort of elven plant or fruit in it. Trust me, it’s good.”
Josh shook his head, “I’m not sure if I can trust you, but it’s nice so what the hell.”
Josh first learned magic was real shortly after he’d been turned, he didn’t learn about Venators until a year later. The other shifters in Chicago he got to know didn’t have too high an opinion of the demon hunters. They’d told Josh to watch himself around Venators, “they’re always looking for races like us to be breaking the law, so they can punish us,” they had said.
Josh had only met two Venators, the other being Amy from the sorority, but in his opinion they were both cool and down-to-earth people.
Silas did make sure Ryan kept his anger in check however. Silas always asked Ed if he was drinking animal blood too, or if it was human blood, that it had come from a hospital, not a helpless victim.
Josh looked over the room as Ryan attempted to repair the table, to little effect. His angry mutters grew louder. Any second now he might accidently shift into his panther form and cause more damage throughout the frat house.
“Give it up, Ryan,” he said. “You can’t fix it. Come and have a drink.”
Ryan threw the two pieces of the table down and stormed over to take another empty armchair.
“Breathe Ry,” Silas warned him.
“I’m fine,” Ryan replied, grabbing his own can.
“Yeah, you don’t want to let Amy see you all hot and bothered at the party.” Ed sniggered, his needle-sharp teeth glinting.
Maybe it was because Josh had met a few vamps now, but he could always tell them apart from the humans or other Moonlight Races. The fact Ed was startlingly pale also helped.
Sharing a house with Ed was almost as annoying as sharing with Ryan. Ed had his ‘house rules’ he tried to impose. Obviously, the rule of not going into his room and drawing back the curtains made sense. But the fact Ed wouldn’t allow garlic in the house was ludicrous. Not because it affected vampires in any way; Ed was just allergic. Even though his recent vampirism rendered any allergies redundant, Ed still wouldn’t let them cook a meal with garlic in it.
Most recently, Josh had been forced to buy a new set of pans for the kitchen and make sure no other iron was around. Silas was dating a fae girl from the sorority and didn’t want her getting burned accidentally.
“I told you, I’m not into Amy,” Ryan grumbled. He downed his can in one go, before popping the top of another.
“And yet you always hook up at every party,” Silas pointed out.
“Good thing too,” said Ed, “as a Venator she can use her sorcery to knock him out when he has one of his tantrums. He might hurt a normal girl.”
“I do not have tantrums. And I’d never hurt anyone… on purpose.”
“You should be fine tonight.” Josh tried to put him at ease. “We went hunting in the forest yesterday,” he told Ed and Silas, “got all that pent up rage out.”
“Good,” said Silas, “we don’t want another fight. I almost had to use my magic on you last time. If any of the other students saw me I’d have to leave.”
“Hey, would that count as a mission failure?” Josh asked.
“Probably,” Silas said, “my superior Realmers wouldn’t be happy at least. And my current mission is to stay in this college as long as I can. With two supernatural frat houses and a supernatural sorority they need a couple of Venators here to keep the peace.”
The Shifter pack Josh had joined told him about the college. He’d learned that being a weretiger didn’t mean he couldn’t continue his career, as long as he hid what he was. Many of the Mooonlight races had gone on to be actors or lawyers. Josh was going to be a marine biologist.
“Like Josh said, I’ll be fine,” Ryan assured them.
“Right,” Josh stood up and grabbed another can. “I’m gonna’ go change my shirt, then we’ll go.”
The others nodded as he headed upstairs. He sighed heavily as he entered his room, picking up more books to put under Ryan’s bed. He’d broken it again by sitting down too hard. They’d been stopping it from collapsing by using college textbooks.
He pulled off his t-shirt and picked up the shirt he’d ironed earlier. Just as he was buttoning it up, the thunderous crash of broken glass exploded downstairs.
Josh swore under his breath. What the hell have you done this time Ry?
He was about to storm downstairs and see how Ryan had managed to break their window, when he heard roars of fury, cries of fear and high laughter that made him go cold.
Josh frantically yanked open his bedroom door and raced down the stairs. He’d only taken a few steps however, when someone abruptly appeared before him, as if out of thin air.
He caught only a glimpse of a teenager with long hair and dressed in black armour, before the boy’s boot connected with Josh’s chest and sent him sprawling back into his room.
“Hi,” the teen said casually, his face expressionless as he pulled a curved dagger from his belt.
Josh’s shock and confusion at what was happening overwhelmed him. He scuttled to his feet as the armour-clad boy advanced.
He looked possibly sixteen, with a pasty face swarmed with acne and the beginnings of facial hair. His eyes were a dull black.
“What are you doing,” Josh growled, “get away from me, man.”
“Have to kill you, sorry,” the teen mumbled. He stepped into the bedroom and held his knife high.
Josh could sense his body begin to morph as the haze of battle fell over him. He could almost feel his blood heat up and skin itched unbearably.
“Get back,” Josh said again, his voice mutated to a lower pitch as his teeth elongated. “Or I won’t be able to stop myself from killing you.”
The boy shrugged, “I said sorry.” He lunged at Josh, jabbing the dagger at his stomach.
Josh turned sharply, letting loose a bestial roar as the transformation took over. In seconds his hands turned to paws with wicked claws and rust-coloured fur sprouted over his skin. His nose widened and his jaw expanded as his human features twisted into beast.
The teenager slashed at his head this time, but Josh batted the dagger away with one paw, whilst swiping with the other. His claws scraped across the boy’s face, ripping a chunk out of his cheek and a scrap of lip too.
The boy stumbled back, screeching in agony as the gaping hole in his face squirted blood.
Josh was more beast than man now. He pounced on the teen, savaging his neck, ripping into flesh, cartilage and artery. The boy choked for a few seconds into the mauling, before falling silent, forever.
He stumbled back to his feet, his muzzle stained scarlet. Josh looked at the ruin of a teenager below him and felt nausea hit him like tsunami. He’d done this. He’d ripped a guy to death. Josh had attacked him yes, but the guy was obviously mad, and now Josh had slaughtered him like a pig.
Regret and guilt assaulted him like physical blows, but Josh was jolted out of his imminent panic attack by the battle cries still erupting downstairs.
The boy hadn’t come alone?
He tore from his room and leaped down the stairs, only to enter a scene of chaos and sheer horror.
Moonlight War- Act I (The Realmers Book 2) Page 7
