“I-”
Charity walked to him and gently pushed him towards the open door where she saw everyone having their dark bubbling drink in their various assortments of glasses.
“Charity, please. Don’t.”
Hearing her name made her stop. “Do I know you.”
The man took off his hood and looked at her. “Once.”
She recognized his handsome jaw but the deep shame was new. “Richard.”
“I am so-”
“There is someone waiting for you at the party.” Charity smiled.
“M-me?” he allowed her to lead her in and among the people there was Anthony, his brother, lifting a toast for Death and Life. He chugged his Potion and turned from a rather dashing zombie into just as dashing man.
The two men linked eyes and right away Richard had a drink in his hand and a hug welcoming him.
Charity nodded at Richard who was mute from their kindness.
“Is it easy?” Prudence asked from Charity when she came to take her glass.
“No.”
“Is it worth it?” Prudence rubbed her gloved hands.
Charity looked at the two men hugging each other tightly and crying with the new tear ducts the potion had given them. “Yes.”
Prudence looked at the Ballroom doors.
Charity hugged her. “We always have next Christmas for that, my love.”
Prudence linked her arm to Charity’s and loudly toasted so everyone could hear, “For Families found, forged, and new, we raise a glass! May every day be like Christmas, and may we always be thankful, and charitable towards our kind. Whether you are newly dead, or ancient-” She nodded to Taka that still refused to wear a dress and Atenea in her new white toga. “May we always gather here to raise this glass of Life, on this day!”
Nefera and Em lifted their glasses beside them.
The doors to the Ballroom were opened and music flooded in from there.
Charity held her wife harder than ever as they laced their fingers and led everyone in for a dance, gifts, burned food, and laughter everyone so direly needed in the Land of The Dead.
Northanger Dorm by Ivy Hearne
A Hunters’ Academy Novella
My parents had always intended for me to attend the Hunters’ Academy.
I was less certain.
I mean, I had been brought up to believe that the evil coalition of supernaturals who wanted to subjugate humanity, the Lusus Naturae, needed to be eradicated, or at the very least kept under control.
I was absolutely on board with that idea.
But I didn’t know how I could ultimately end up being part of that fight.
As a bobcat shifter, I wasn’t always entirely certain how I could participate. Sure, I had my teeth and claws, but I had never been much of a fighter.
But my parents were determined to have me continue the family tradition of Academy attendance. So when Ms. Allen, our wealthy neighbor, offered to sponsor my early application to the Academy, Mom and Dad jumped at the chance to send in a request for me to attend The Applicants’ Ball, an annual New Year’s tradition where applicants to the Academy who missed the standard due dates for one reason or another were invited to show off their particular skills at some point during the party.
My formal invitation to attend arrived two days before Christmas.
Turning over the envelope in my hand, I examined the thick, cream stationery and my address in hand-drawn calligraphy.
The weight of it in my hand turned into a weight in my stomach.
I’m not sure I want to go.
But I couldn’t say the words out loud to my parents.
I was, unusually within bobcat clowders, or clans, an only kitten. I was my family’s only chance at having a legacy Hunters’ Academy graduate.
I couldn’t let them down.
If it was that important to them that I have a chance to be admitted early, I would give it my best shot.
So on December 26, I put on the semiformal pink dress Mom had picked out, climbed into Ms. Allen’s Lexus, and went with her to the nearest Academy portal, where we stepped through to the school.
I can do this.
I have to get into the Hunters’ Academy. For my parents.
I HADN’T REALIZED THE Hunters’ Academy had an actual ballroom, but that’s where The Applicants’ Ball was held—a small ballroom in what Ms. Allen, also an Academy alumna, call The Auditorium Building.
The parquet floor gleamed in the soft light, and dancing couples swept around the room—mostly adults, as most of the potential students, anxious expressions on their faces, sat in the chairs lining the walls.
But all I could think was how my claws would scar the floor as I walked across it in my shifter shape.
I was nervous, since my skills were basically limited to the ability to turn from human to bobcat and back again.
Even that wouldn’t have been much of a problem, except for the fact that in order to make the shift, I generally had to be entirely naked. And at fourteen years old, there was pretty much nothing worse than the thought of ending up naked in front of a room full of people.
Ms. Allen drew me across the room. “Kitty, I’d like you to meet the Hunters’ Academy headmaster, Dr. Novak, a tall, thin man with slightly spidery fingers and extraordinarily pale skin.
He greeted me politely and Ms. Allen deposited me into one of the chairs against the nearest wall.
Now what to do?
“He’s a vampire.” A girl dropped down into the chair to my left.
I glanced over at her. She was pretty, with dark hair and bright blue eyes that sparkled as she grinned at me.
“I’ve never met a vampire before,” I said. “Have you?”
“Oh, tons.” She waved her hand airily. Then she paused and shrugged. “Or at least two or three.”
We both dissolved into giggles. I already liked her.
“Do you know anything about what they’re doing to test the shifters?” I asked nervously. “I’m a little worried about shifting in front of all these people.”
“Oh, I heard something about that. They do want to see part of the shift, so they’re allowing shifters to change in some dressing room and come out in their animal forms and then shift back to human under a sheet.”
“Like a bedsheet?”
“That’s it exactly.” She held out her hand for me to shake. “Hi. I’m Ella.”
“I’m glad that’s how they’re doing the shifts. My sister and I are really hoping to get in,” a voice from behind me said. I turned around to find a guy with eyes the same color as my new friend’s.
“Isn’t that why everyone’s here?” I asked.
“Yeah—but our reason for wanting to get in is that there’s supposedly a new Hunter in Residence who’s a shifter, and he’s doing some interesting things with the academy pack.
“Wait. There’s just one pack at the academy? For all the shifters?” I had never heard of anything like that—we had clowders and we had clans and we had packs, but for the most part, shifters tended to stick to their own kind. We didn’t have mixed packs.
“Yeah—he’s finding new ways for different kinds of shifters to work together, to become better fighting units to work against the Lusus Naturae.”
Fighting. There was that word again. I didn’t know if I would been able to do it when the time came. Even as a kitten, I had played more gently than the other kits in my clowder.
I stared down at the floor and chewed on my bottom lip nervously. “So you’re both shifters, too?”
“Wolves,” the brother said proudly. “I’m Henry Tyson.”
“Kitty Moore,” I said.
Henry took a deep breath. “Seriously? You’re a cat shifter named Kitty?”
“Technically it’s Catherine. I guess my parents thought it would be cute to call me Kitty.”
Henry smiled me indulgently. “Well, it definitely suits you. You are absolutely precious.”
I frowned, not certain what to think of that. No
one had ever called me precious before. Certainly not anyone my own age.
But Henry was also probably the most beautiful guy I’d ever talked to.
It’s fine if he calls me precious, I decided.
Dr. Novak strode to the center of the ball room and clapped his hands for attention.
“Hello, and welcome to the interview portion of your application for admission to the Hunters’ Academy.”
I glanced around. There were about fifty kids in the room with me. I wondered how many of them were actually going to get in. Granted, everyone here would have a chance to try again if it didn’t work out now. That was the whole point of the Admissions Ball.
The youngest applicant in the room looked about twelve and the oldest about seventeen. I knew that some of them were here after having been turned down the year before for regular admission.
Dr. Novak was still talking. “We’ll begin with the shifters, and from there we will move on to the magic users, then vampires. After the vampires, we’ll test the additional specialties, such as banshees, wraiths, and other smaller groups.
My palms started to sweat, but that wasn’t a terrible thing. When I was nervous, I found it easier to hold my bobcat shape than my human one. I just hoped it wouldn’t be a problem when it came time for me to shift back into my human form later.
My new friends and I made our way back to the rooms in the vestibule outside the ballroom.
A steady stream of people moved into the bathroom, and animals came back out, making their way back to the ballroom. The three of us stepped into line.
“You couldn’t tell what kind of shifters we were?” Henry asked. His sister grinned at me.
“Cats rely more on vision than on smell,” I explained.
“Quit teasing the poor girl, Henry.” Ella leaned in confidentially to me, looping her arm through mine. “Henry knows perfectly well that cat shifters have different abilities from wolf shifters. I think he simply likes you. That’s why he’s being so ridiculous.”
Henry laughed aloud. “I do like her. And I’m not being ridiculous. When we all get to the academy, we need to find each other.” He looped his arm through mine on the other side. “There’s no need for any of us to sit alone at meals. And you can ignore my twin. She thinks she’s much cleverer than she actually is.”
Ella slapped at him, making contact with his shoulder. “I am not. I am really exactly as clever as I believe I am.” The two of them laughed, and for the first time since I had embarked on this scheme of Ms. Allen’s, I felt like it might actually turn out okay.
MY AUDITION WENT WELL enough. I left my fancy party dress hanging in the dressing room, stepped into the interview room in my bobcat form, and followed Dr. Novak’s instructions while a panel of people I assumed were Academy instructors watched. And then I moved under the sheet that two assistants, probably students, held up for me. I turned back into my human self.
Two female shifters in their own human forms helped me wrap the sheet around myself toga style, and I answered a few questions.
I barely remembered later what they were. Something about my reasons for wanting to go to the Academy—I answered something about my family’s long history of association with the Academy—and then moved back toward the dressing room.
By the time I re-entered the ballroom, I was finally comfortable enough to take a plate of fruit and cheese, along with a glass of vaguely fruit-flavored punch.
It wasn’t long before the Tyson twins joined me. “We should trade numbers before we leave,” Ella suggested.
“Absolutely.” I pulled out my phone.
About ten minutes later, Ms. Allen came to gather me up. Or at least, that’s what I thought. Instead, she said, “I’ve just been informed that you’ve been chosen to join the Hunters’ Academy under a new program. You’ll stay at the academy for the rest of the holiday break and take a few remedial seminars to prepare you for your first classes next semester.”
She looks so pleased that I couldn’t bring myself to explain how nervous that made me.
“But I didn’t bring anything,” I protested.
“Not to worry,” she said. “I knew this was a possibility, so I had your parents pack a suitcase.”
A single suitcase packed by my parents? I couldn’t live for a whole semester on that.
Ms. Allen shook her head at the sight of my distress. “Oh, darling, not to worry. It’s only for a few days You will have a chance to go home before the next semester begins. You can arrange for more than two weeks’ worth of clothing then.”
The churning in my stomach subsided a little bit.
I glanced up to see a man with the same bright blue eyes as the Tyson twins talking to them.
Before Ms. Allen dragged me away, I was able to get away long enough to speak to Ella.
“Can you believe it?” she said. “Henry and I get to start today. This very night. We’re going to be moving into one of the dorms.”
“Me, too,” I announced.
Ella squealed, throwing her arms around me. “I am ever so delighted! We’re going to have an amazing, wonderful time. I can’t wait to be in school with you.” She cast a sly glance her brother’s direction. “I know Henry feels exactly the same way. But even more so.”
As she left, I puzzle over her comment about Henry. Even more so? What did that mean?
Well, no matter what it was, I had time to figure it out. Because starting tonight, I was a brand-new Hunters’ Academy student.
Little did I know how terrifying that night would turn out to be.
Not to mention the next two days.
“WELCOME TO NORTHANGER Abbey.”
I tilted my head to one side and frowned at the graduate student leading me to my room. “I thought this was just the underclassmen’s dorm.”
“Oh, it is. But the Resident Assistants are gearing up to do a literary theme next session, so we decided to start early. Each floor has been given the name of a classic novel. We’ll have study nights each week and be reading the books.”
“An English teacher came up with this plan, right?”
A blush climbed up his face. “Well. Yes. And I had something to do with it, too.”
Ms. Allen smiled. “Perhaps you could simply lead us to Kitty’s room?”
He stuttered out an affirmative and led us to the third room on the left. It took him a few seconds to fumble a key into the lock. “We’re trying to put everyone in the room they’ll have when the spring semester begins, so we’re a little spread out. I’m afraid you’re the only one on this floor.”
I glanced down the long, empty hallway. “No one else?”
He shook his head. “Not until the semester starts. Is that a problem? It’s only four nights.”
I paused to consider it. I guess if I get too frightened, I can call Ella. Maybe even go to her room.
“No. It’ll be fine,” I said aloud.
But later that night, as I lay in my room alone in the dark, I wasn’t so sure.
I made the mistake of downloading a copy of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and starting to read it.
The book was clearly meant to be a comedy on some level, but Catherine Moreland’s panic over the weird things she saw in Northanger Abbey hit a little too close to home for me right now.
Especially since I was also a Catherine who had just met a Henry.
How many psychics are there attending Hunters’ Academy? And were any of them involved in naming the floor or assigning me a room on it?
Being totally alone on this dorm room floor didn’t help, either. Despite knowing the whole academy was warded, part of me was terrified.
I finally gave up on reading. I wanted to give up on sleeping too, but I knew that the seminars starting the next day would leave me exhausted if I didn’t. So instead, I shifted into my cat form. At least if I ran across anything evil, I’d have my teeth and claws to use against it.
I leaped lightly onto the mattress, prepared to sleep there.
&nbs
p; But on second thought, I snagged a blanket with my claw, tugged it off the bed entirely, and dragged it underneath the bed, where I finally curled up and fell asleep.
In the middle the night, a sound woke me.
I came awake almost instantly, already half-aware of what I might have heard out there. A door opening and closing. Maybe my own door.
I perked up my ears and carefully drew in a breath of air through my mouth, dragging the molecules over the Jacobson’s organ that allowed me to take in information about my surroundings.
There it was. A scraping along the floor in my room, the smell/taste of something foreign.
Someone—or something—was in my room.
I remained perfectly still for another instant, waiting to see if whatever was out there did anything.
Footsteps made their way closer to my bed.
I crouched down below, peering out from under the bed frame. Even with my cat’s vision, though, I couldn’t see much in the dark. Outside, the moonlight was faint, filtering in through the window without giving much illumination.
A vague shape wafted toward me.
It stopped a few feet away, as if examining the bed I’d been in.
A cloud passed over the moon, and I couldn’t see anything at all.
Another slight scrape, a low creak, and then a quiet click was all that alerted me to the fact that my door had opened and closed again.
I crept out from under the bed and concentrated on shifting into my human form.
But by the time I had opposable thumbs again and could open my door, whatever had been in my room was long gone.
Sticking my head out the door, I peered up and down the hallway. Nothing.
I shut my door and locked it, though locking hadn’t done all that much good before. This time, I sat on top of my mattress, huddled into a blanket, staring at the closed door, wondering what on Earth was going on.
Who would want to come into my room and why?
What did they want?
And how far would they be willing to go to get it—whatever it might be?
THE NEXT MORNING AT breakfast, I poured myself a cup of coffee in the cafeteria and made my way over to Ella and Henry.
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