by Rain Oxford
“Yes. You have never had formal training, obviously, but your natural talent is exceptional. Like he said, you can do things naturally that must be learned for others. Your psychic skills are particularly advanced, probably because you didn’t spend much time with humans growing up. Tell me about her,” he said.
I shook my head. “It’s not a night for a sob story.”
“No, but it is a very good night for getting something off your chest.” He sat in the chair across from me. “You just found out you are not just a wizard, but an extremely powerful one, yet I see in your eyes that the only thing you want to do is go back to that coven and shoot that woman some more.”
“That wasn’t a woman; that was a living nightmare.”
“Well, either way, I need to take your gun. Alcohol is one thing, but it would not be right to let you have a gun on campus.”
I scoffed. “Have you seen the shifters around here?” I asked as I took off the gun and holster.
“Tell me about her.”
So I told him the story from the moment I moved into the brownstone to the details of the blood dripping down Cody’s face as the first responders dragged me away from him. When I was done, the silence was deafening and I felt raw, but I also felt slightly better.
There was silence for a few minutes before Hunt spoke. “I told you when I first accepted you into the school that we normally place our students in the element they are best at in their first circle. I lied. I have placed you in the element I believe you need the most. Whether you decide to forgive Astrid or kill her, that is up to you. You could even keep her alive in order to have someone to channel your hate and anger into. Maybe that would be healthy, maybe not.”
“I thought you were supposed to be super wise.” I tried to glare at him, but the alcohol was making me lightheaded.
He shrugged. “I am a wizard, not an oracle. My point is, you trusted me enough to tell me. You never told Cody, did you?”
I shook my head, slightly ashamed.
“When you healed Astrid, you used your love and desire for healing. You trusted me with this, so I know you still have that in you. You cannot talk about it like that and not still feel it. Love your mother, love your friends, love someone romantically if you can. Just find a way to keep more positive emotion in you than negative, or you are going to end up like Astrid.”
That hit me in the gut.
When I got to my room, I stayed awake for hours. I thought about the hate and fear that drove her to cling to me. It wasn’t my love that caused her to do what she did but the fact that she had spent her entire life bathing in hate before she met me. I didn’t want to hate anyone, and the fury I felt for vampires was irrational.
Astrid didn’t kill because she was a vampire; she killed because she was an abused little girl who knew nothing else.
That was what she had tried to tell me at the coven.
* * *
“We’re skipping our first classes this morning,” I said.
Henry and Darwin both stared at me wide-eyed. Then Darwin smiled brightly. “Awesome! I knew you were cool, bro. I know this really great strip---”
“Absolutely not,” Henry barked, offended. “I will not skip class to watch naked ladies dance for…” He stopped with a shudder.
Darwin snickered. “I forgot. It’s not your time of the month.”
Personally, I felt sorry for Henry. Apparently, he had no interest at all in anyone except for three days, during which he had enough hormones to last anyone a month. Of course, during the rest of the month, he spoke and acted with the utmost sophistication, enough so to make Darwin gag.
Henry huffed and thanked one of the teacher’s assistants when she handed him a letter. “If you have a legitimate reason to skip class, then of course, I will help you with your… you-know-what.”
My investigation. He was so dedicated to keeping my secret that he wouldn’t even say the word out loud. When he opened the envelope and unfolded the letter, his face turned a sickly shade of green.
“What’s that look for?” I asked. “Is that a letter from the IRS?”
“Worse. My fiancé found me.”
Darwin burst out laughing. “Your what?” I asked.
“It-it was an arranged ma-marriage.” His voice stumbled and cracked. Darwin fell out of his seat with laughter.
Twenty minutes later, the three of us were in our room. I locked the door and we put our three chairs in a triangle formation so we were facing each other. I opened my mouth, only to hesitate. Trust didn’t come naturally to me anymore.
“Well, go on then. We haven’t got all day. I have a love letter to write for Henry’s fiancé,” Darwin teased.
“What do you think of humans?” I finally asked.
He shrugged. “The same as puppies and kittens, really.” Henry shot him a look.
“You like them then?”
“Oh, yeah. If they’re cooked right, at least.”
Good thing I’m not a human then. “I’m going to kill someone tonight,” I said solemnly.
They both stared at me for a second, and then Darwin smiled. “No worries. I can totally help you hide the body. We can bury it by the lake. I got your back, bro. We’re in this together. Whatever that asshole did to you, he has this coming to him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Henry scowled at Darwin with disapproval. “The lake is the first place anyone would look. We will hide the body in the forest and make it look like an animal attack.”
They were absolutely serious. I didn’t even have to warn them first that they couldn’t tell anyone. Finally, I told them my story; I told them about Astrid, Cody, being human, getting hired undercover to investigate murders, and my trip with Hunt to the vampire coven.
By the time I was done, it was well into the middle of our second classes. They both stared in thoughtful silence. Even Darwin had dropped his playful attitude. “So, you thought you were human when you came here, but now you know you’re not?” Darwin asked. I nodded. “Then one of your parents had to be a wizard. It was probably your father, because that would explain why Astrid tore him to pieces. Vampires like wizard blood more than human blood.”
Henry shook his head. “It wasn’t because of that. Devon said his father was abusive when he drank. That is why Astrid mutilated his body.”
That made absolute sense, while also being horrifying.
“You could have trusted us when you thought you were human, but I’m glad you trust us now,” Darwin said.
“I concur,” Henry said.
“Just say you agree like normal people, ya dork,” Darwin said. Henry glared at him and then turned to his desk and opened his textbook, effectively dismissing Darwin. Darwin smirked at me. “Hey, since your first girlfriend was a vampire, are all your pickup lines tailored to bloodsuckers? I mean, do you go up to a woman and ask if she sucks or blows? I think you should do that.”
I rolled my eyes and turned to my desk… to see Vincent’s book right out in the middle of it. I got the hint and started reading. Just in case I ran across something of the same language, I pulled out the note I found in Heather’s pocket and studied it for the hundredth time.
After a while, I pushed the book aside and took one of my textbooks off the shelf. I had schoolwork to do. Suddenly, Dr. Martin’s cat was there, studying Heather’s note. “Don’t tell me you can read that.”
The cat glanced at me, picked up the note in his teeth, and vanished.
“There goes your evidence,” Darwin said.
“Evidence of what? Stupid cat.”
* * *
There was a knock on the door. I looked up from my Metals textbook, but didn’t stand. Henry was at his desk, studying, while Darwin was sprawled over his bed reading manga. Darwin sat up and made a weird face.
“Déjà vu, anyone?” he asked.
Henry sighed and went to the door. He paused with his hand on the door, sniffed it, growled, and opened the door. Addie stood there, glaring at my roommate.
“No, I’m done with you,” she said, snarling. “I’m here for Devon.”
Henry and Darwin both looked at me. “Um…” I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but I was less of a keeper than Henry. “I’m not really ready for a relationship right now.”
She rolled her eyes. “Guys are all the same. Professor Langril wants you to see you in his office. Sounds like you missed his class today. I’m supposed to take you there.”
“I wouldn’t do it, bro,” Darwin warned. “She might decide she’s your permanent chaperone and start spreading shit about you when you try to go to your classes on your own.”
“Darwin, what is your problem?” she asked angrily.
“Bros before hoes, yo.”
I stood with a sigh. I figured if I didn’t go, there would be bloodshed. “If I’m not back in three hours, don’t sell my stuff,” I said.
“When can we start selling your stuff?”
“After my funeral, and only if you go to it.”
“I gots the perfect dress,” Darwin said. “I can do tears and everything.” I shut the door.
“Your roommates are weird as hell,” Addie informed me as we left the dorms.
I nodded. It was a clear day with lots of sunlight, but my skin was still crawling. Maybe I am getting paranoid in my old age. Knowing that Astrid had followed me after I shot her was going to stick with me for a while.
“Henry really doesn’t want to see me anymore?”
Addison was a cute woman in her early twenties with wavy, golden blond hair, big, bright blue eyes, and a round face. She could have made a great clothing model, pop star, or adorable niece. I couldn’t imagine she got dumped very often. Then again, there are some people who I thought were great until they opened their mouth.
“He said he warned you it was a three-day deal.”
“That isn’t normal.”
“I would really rather not be involved. When you were with Remy the other day, did she say anything odd? Maybe about someone following her?”
She frowned at me. “I wasn’t with Ms. Hunt.”
“Addie, I saw you. You brought her tea.”
“I haven’t seen her in nearly two weeks.” She sounded so sincere and confused.
My skin crawled worse, but we had just arrived at Professor Langril’s door, so I couldn’t question her further. She walked off without another word. I opened the door and went inside the potion class. There was a large desk at the front of the room, which hadn’t been there the last time I was in class. The torches that hovered around the room were dimmer than usual.
“Missing class is not a good habit to have, Devon,” Professor Langril said. He was leaning back in an office chair with his feet on the desk and was tossing a red ball up in the air.
“I had something I had to do.”
“Damn. I was hoping you would say you were in a fight with a vampire, had to help the headmaster find his daughter, or even that you ran into an ex-girlfriend. Any of those excuses I would have taken. But no. You had to make this difficult. Congratulations, you are the first person I have ever had to give detention to.”
“You don’t have to give me detention.”
“Oh, but I do. First, you have to learn the potion you skipped out on today. Second, you have to clean the C-Five library.”
“Today?!”
“Yes. The entire library… or maybe just one section of it. I haven’t decided yet.”
The potion-making portion of the punishment wasn’t difficult at all. Professor Langril showed me how to make a minor healing potion, but he told me we would make stronger ones in the next semester. “This is one most wizards don’t know, because it’s German in origin. In fact, I learned it from a great friend who used to work here.”
“Andrew Martin?”
“Yes.”
“He’s not dead, you know.”
“Well, that is good news. Focus now.” The fire was set and the ingredients were in the cauldron… I just had to put the healing magic in it. “Imagine healing someone. Imagine wounds just disappearing, skin stitching, blood clotting in---”
“Getting weird now, Professor.”
“Sorry. That is a bit morbid, I guess. Do it however you want, you’re the wizard.” He patted me on the shoulder and walked back to his desk.
“Wait, you’re not a wizard?”
“I am there, but not here.”
“You are a wizard there?” I asked as he put his feet back on the desk. He nodded. “Where? What do you mean?”
“Like Heather. Except she’s a wizard here and not there.”
“What are you talking about? Wait… Heather is…”
“My daughter. Heather is my daughter there, not here.”
“Shit. I’m sorry for your loss. I don’t know how you can still teach class. Surely Hunt would let you take a few weeks off when your daughter was just killed.”
He shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. It happens.”
Okay. Professor Langril is insane. I turned my attention to the potion with great difficulty. Healing. I focused on what I felt when I healed Astrid. For several minutes, I played the scene over and over in my head.
“Good. Now, let’s see how well you did,” the professor said. He moved to sit on his desk and watched me while I filtered the potion and poured it into a single dropper bottle. Professor Langril then took a cloth… which had appeared on his desk… and applied three drops to the cloth. “Take off the bandage,” he said.
I did, but I hadn’t changed it since the vampire attack, so it stuck. I pulled it off anyway. Before it could start bleeding badly again, Professor Langril pressed the cloth to my forehead. After a few seconds, he started wiping my cut, which stopped stinging at all.
“All gone.”
I reached up and felt my forehead. There wasn’t even a scar.
“Now, you can keep your potion this time. Time for the second part of your detention.”
We went to the library. I didn’t worry about running into anyone since Professor Langril was with me, but I was getting more concerned about his sanity by the minute.
“That section. Start there,” he said, pointing to a shelf of books. They were all spotless. “Take each one down, dust it off, and put it back. Don’t open any of them, though. You’re not allowed to open them. Remember that very carefully.”
“Right. Got it.” I managed to hold my tongue and got started on the books. At least it was daylight. The skylights definitely made a difference. I started on the bottom row at the far right and made my way left.
It wasn’t until I was halfway through the third row that I felt it. The book I touched had no title, and it shocked my fingers enough to make me jerk. The thick, heavy book fell out of the slot, hit the ground, and opened.
I crouched in front of the book, but didn’t touch it. On the top of the page was a symbol very similar to the one on Heather’s note. Under it was a sentence almost identical to the one on the note, except the second word was different. The rest of the page was written in what appeared to be German.
“I told you not to open any of the books,” Langril said, startling me. He stood only a foot behind me.
“Heather…” I hesitated. The professor wasn’t my client and I had no idea what this was, but he was her father. Besides, I had to know something. “She had a note in her pocket. It had a symbol and said this except it---”
He slapped his hand over my mouth. “I know what she had in her pocket,” he whispered harshly. His eyes started all around the room as if he was afraid of someone listening in. “All I need to know was if you recognized it. Yes or no?”
He didn’t remove his hand, so I nodded.
“Did you destroy the note?” he asked. I shook my head. “Why the hell not?”
I pushed his hand away, stood, and backed up against the bookshelf. “The cat took it,” I whispered.
His eyes widened. “What cat?”
“The cat with one blue
eye and one gold. Dr. Martin’s---”
“Shit!” he yelled, no longer bothering to whisper. He clinched his hands angrily and turned away. “Not Ghost! Anyone but him!”
Before I could ask what he was talking about, he walked into the darkest corner of the library… and vanished.
Chapter 8
I recognized the gentle presence of the undine, but the small pressure wasn’t sitting on my chest this time. “Wake up, Devon Sanders.” The voice did not belong to the same undine as before. I opened my eyes and looked down at myself, but was careful not to sit up. She was sitting very comfortably on the most private part of my anatomy, and she didn’t look like she was planning to move any time soon.
This undine was almost identical to the previous one, except her hair, eyes, dress, and wings were purple. Just like the other undine, she was only about six inches tall.
Fortunately, I had a sheet between me and her tiny body, but it almost felt like an innuendo.
“Good morning, Devon Sanders.”
“Um, good morning. Do you mind moving… somewhere else?”
“Yes, I do, Devon Sanders. I sit where I choose. We know that you have started to expel the hate in your heart. We are pleased. However, your actions at the house of the vampire king proved that you need the help of water to achieve your inner peace before your hatred consumes your soul. We do not agree on how to help you.”
“Okay.”
“Adesra wanted to bring you into our realm and show you water in its purest form, but I disagree. After seeing you at the lake, I wanted to give you another reason to let us guide you.”
As she said this, she started to grow, slowly at first, but with increasing speed. Her body heat and weight grew with her size until there was a regular-sized woman sitting in my lap with iridescent wings. I sat up and tried to scoot away, but she leaned forward and kissed me. Her lips were soft, sweet, and warm.
This didn’t feel like Regina, who only kissed me when she wanted something or tried to distract me. My instincts were confusing; I was in danger, but I felt like I could trust the undine. I turned my face to break the kiss and her mouth trailed down to my neck. Meanwhile, her hands had skillfully removed the sheet between us and were expertly manipulating my body like only someone with magic could.
