by Rain Oxford
I felt her magic invade my mind and tried to block it, but I was too slow. Her dress was gone and my body was obeying her command instead of mine. It wasn’t unpleasant by any means, just unexpected.
She stopped and sat up. “You seem to be having trouble getting into this. Perhaps your heart already has love for someone else.” She wiped her hands upward from her face and over her hair.
I gasped; it was no longer a stranger’s face inches from mine. Her face was identical to Remington’s, and as her breast swelled, I realized her body was changing to match the temperamental witch’s as well. I couldn’t resist; I leaned forward, reached behind her, and felt the most perfectly formed ass of any woman I had ever seen.
Then she was kissing me again. Whatever part of my brain that knew this wasn’t Remy, my body didn’t get the message. Between her already powerful pheromones and the inhumanly perfect woman writhing against me, I didn’t stand a chance.
Until I suddenly felt sick.
I pushed her away as my stomach rebelled at the movement. My tongue, now free of hers, was burning. I tapped my mouth gently. It was becoming numb.
Poison. “What did you do?”
“Nothing. What is wrong?”
“You poisoned me.” I tried to climb down the steps, but nausea caused me to slip and hit the floor.
“I have not poisoned you!”
I braced myself on my desk as the world spun. “You were in the lake?” I panted.
“Yes; I live there.”
It was the same poison that was killing the kappa then, only the undine were immune to it. I made it out the door, down the hall, and to the stairwell before I collapsed. My arms and legs were growing numb. I threw up and narrowly avoided tumbling down the stairs.
I was lucid enough to realize I was being picked up, but not enough to determine who was carrying me down the stairs. I threw up at least twice more before I was dropped roughly on a wooden desk. The first face I focused on was Mrs. Ashcraft’s, and even in my incoherent condition, I knew I didn’t want her as my doctor.
“Get Dr. Martin. It’s the lake poison,” I said. Or tried to. Whether that was what I actually said or not, my preferred doctor did not appear.
Someone shoved the small opening of a bottle in my mouth, but I thrashed and fought it until I saw Hunt. Hunt wouldn’t poison me. That was my last thought before my body gave up and I passed out.
* * *
I felt myself being lifted into a sitting position and a potion being forced down my throat. It tasted like ginger and went down like cough syrup. Worried that Mrs. Ashcraft was trying to off me, I opened my eyes. I was alone in Hunt’s office with Dr. Martin and Darwin. Darwin was asleep, curled up in Hunt’s chair. “He was the one who carried me here?” I asked worriedly. Only then did I see he had on rubber gloves. “What happened?”
The world was still spinning, but at least I could feel my arms and legs.
“You were poisoned with aconite. It was the poison in the lake water you gave me. Fortunately for you, I have a cure for that. Hunt gave you something to help, but this works better,” he said, showing off his dark blue bottle before it vanished. “Not the water, but for you. See, the antidote must be ingested after the poisoning, and it’s poisonous to kappa. The lake will have to be cleaned, and there isn’t much reason to do that before we know the cause of it being poisoned in the first place. Oh, and here.” He handed me a small, white, plastic trashcan.
“What’s this for?” The instant the words were out of my mouth, my stomach flipped and I vomited in the can. I didn’t stop even when my stomach was empty, I just dry-heaved white foam.
“The poison is now clear from your system, but this potion only works on you once a month, so try not to get poisoned again. Now, I must be off. I have work to do.”
I still couldn’t manage to speak before he was gone. I set down the trashcan and settled back as the nausea slowly faded. Hunt entered a few minutes later. “You are looking better.” He eyed the trash dubiously.
“I just puked my guts out. I’m sure I smell like roses.”
“Who poisoned you?”
“She didn’t mean to. One of the undines woke me up and tried to sway my loyalties by… kissing me,” I said.
His expression was patient, but surprised, as if he wasn’t sure he heard me right. “One of the undine visited you? That is… very interesting. I would not tell people that if I were you. Wizards can be very greedy when it comes to monopolizing power.”
“So wizards don’t get many visits from the undine?”
“No, they do not. Some extremely powerful wizards can see undine, but the forces of nature are not allies of mortals. What did she want?”
“One of them visited me a few days ago and said that I needed to let love in my heart or I was going to go down a dark path. She also said that some dark forces had their eye on me. Then a second undine visited me last night. I don’t believe that she was trying to hurt me. A few days ago, I found out from the kappa that the lake water was poisoned. She comes from the lake, so she has the poison all over her, but I guess she is immune to it.”
“And you got poisoned from kissing her? Why would you kiss a being you just met?”
“Well… she was pretty.” It seemed like a really bad idea to tell Hunt that the undine had taken the shape of his daughter. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be that easy.
“While you were unconscious, you called out Remy’s name several times,” he said casually. His eyes weren’t casual.
“I…” I had no answer.
“My daughter is old enough to make her own decisions. Whether I agree with them or not, I will respect her choices because I do not want to lose her. If she chooses to enter into a romantic relationship with you, I will not object. However, I am her father. If you betray her or upset her, I will disembowel you in a way that is both inhumane and unsanitary.”
My organs quivered. “I understand.”
“Good. Now, we need to find out what you were poisoned with.”
“Dr. Martin said it was aconite that is poisoning the lake.”
“Dr. Martin?” he frowned.
“Yeah, he just went back to his lab. You had to have passed him in the hall. He didn’t tell you what it was?”
“Devon, the only people who have been in here with you besides myself are Mrs. Ashcraft and Darwin.”
* * *
I spent the weekend on mandatory bed rest. It was more for show than anything, as Hunt thought my quick recovery would be seen as suspicious to anyone who was watching me. By Sunday night, I was going nuts.
Darwin brought a dinner plate to me and climbed up onto his own bed. “So, there was another murder last night. Word on the campus is that you were injured trying to confront another vampire on Remington’s location, which means you couldn’t have attacked Megan, the shifter who died last night. You got your reputation as a hero back.”
“How do you always know what everyone is saying?”
“It’s my thing, bro. I listen. Everyone thinks I have some powerful fae ability to see people’s futures when I touch them, so that’s cool. It’s nicer than being called a throwback. Jackson is still going on about Heather’s murder. The way he describes it, he and Heather were supposed to hook up that night.”
I sat up. How does he know anything about her murder in the first place? Either one of the teachers was blabbing his mouth, or Jackson saw her body himself. “I have to go see Hunt,” I said, jumping over the side of my bed. I needed a little exercise after spending days unending in bed. Darwin sighed and followed me without saying a word.
Right as we were passing the entrance to the dining room, we heard a growl. Van, in his person form, was circling Addison and Henry. Addie had blood on her wrists, her shirt had several tears, and she was shaking. There were four shifted gray wolves surrounding them.
“You are making a mistake, Van,” Henry warned the wolf shifter. He didn’t move towards his attacker, but he kept himself between V
an and Addie.
“Go get Flagstone,” I whispered to Darwin. He nodded and ran off.
“You cats are all the same. Filthy, despicable creatures,” Van said.
“You are the one trying to gang up on an ocelot; a cat one tenth your size. Then again, you don’t strike me as someone who can take on a mouse on your own.”
“Henry, don’t antagonize him,” Addie said.
“He attacked you because your cat is smaller than his wolf. Do you really think there is any reason left in him?”
“Enough! Walk away, Henry, and I will forgive your defiance this once. You don’t even like Addison.”
“Whether I like Addison or not, I will not let you attack her.”
Van’s clothes tore as his body reshaped in the span of about ten seconds. It was not a particularly pretty sight. In fact, it could have done with some sparkles and a poof, instead of the slow sprouting of fur, audible cracking of bones, and mouth elongating into a snout.
I felt his approach in time to get out of the way as Flagstone sprang into the room in his wolf form. There was no disadvantage for the professor; he was quite a bit larger than Van in this shape. He also didn’t pause to ask questions.
Before Van could turn his attack on the older wolf, Flagstone crashed into his side and tore viciously into his throat. Snarls, grunts, and snaps filled the room and drew students to the commotion. Henry took Addie’s hand and they came to stand with Darwin and me. Van’s friends just backed away, still in their wolf form.
Van tried to bite back, stand up, or kick, but Flagstone was way too fast for him. He would strike, pull back, and strike again, over and over. After a few minutes of this, he clamped his jaw over Van’s throat and growled. The smaller wolf whimpered and twisted around to display his belly. Flagstone released him, stepped back, and shifted.
“You are a poor example of your pack. For endangering the lives of other students and disobeying my authority as your acting alpha, you are hereby expelled from Quintessence.”
Van shifted back. “You can’t expel me!”
“I just did. Now get out before I really hurt you.”
Van looked like he wanted to argue, but instead he stood, shakily, and limped out of the dining room. Although there was blood all over him, I couldn’t see any wounds. One of the four gray wolves glanced at Flagstone before running after Van. The remaining three wolves backed down.
“Everyone return to your rooms. If anyone is here in fifteen seconds, you will have detention.” The room emptied in a flash, except for Henry, Darwin, Flagstone, and me. “Henry, come to my office.”
“I did not start this, Alpha Flagstone.”
“I know. Unfortunately, Van is going to tell his pack that you attacked him and they’re going to be sniffing around your parents. You need to be prepared.”
Henry nodded and followed him out. Darwin looked at me. “I can’t believe that.”
“What, that Henry stood up for Addie against another shifter?” I asked.
“No. I can’t believe there was a wolf fight in our dining room and I didn’t get a chance to take bets.
* * *
Hunt. Find Hunt. I repeated the thought over and over again in my head. It wasn’t surprising at all to me that I found myself standing before his office almost immediately. I knocked, heard no response, and entered. Instantly, I knew three things; we were alone, danger was afoot, and there was a letter on Hunt’s desk.
I approached the desk and picked up the letter, but it was written in a foreign language. The paper was old, the ink was dark green, and the handwriting was familiar, even though the language wasn’t.
Lieber Logan Hunt,
Deine Bemühungen um die Vampire bringen nun Früchte. Unter Berücksichtigung der strengen Regeln, die Stephen Yocum seinem Hexenzirkel auferlegt hat, ist der Hexerrat bereit, eine Schlichtung zu verhandeln. Ich glaube, dass, sobald der Hexerrat die Vampire als mögliche Verbündete erkennt, auch die Feen und Formwandler weitaus willkommender auftreten werden.
Dieses Abkommen wird es, in den Augen des Rates, Stephen Yocum ermöglichen, alle Angelegenheiten der Vampire zu verwalten. Und so wird Hexern nicht mehr erlaubt sein, Vampire zu jagen und/oder zu töten. Ich sehe vielerlei Probleme vor uns liegen, aber ich glaube auch, dass dies der einzige und entscheidende Weg zum Frieden innerhalb der paranormalen Gemeinschaft ist.
Leider verzögert Ihr Berater jegliche Entwicklung hin zu einem Abkommen. Angeblich sucht er Beweise zusammen, die die Vampire auf unbestimmte Zeit verurteilen würden. Es ist daher meine Absicht, diese Beweise abzufangen, bevor er sie veröffentlichen kann. Allerdings habe ich bislang keine solchen Beweise gefunden.
Mein Rat an Dich ist daher, Deine Schule gegenüber dem Rat so weit wie möglich auf Distanz zu halten. Halte alle Informationen über das, was hinter Deinen Türen passiert fern vom Rat, vor allem in Bezug auf die Morde. Alles, was er nutzen könnte, um Vampire anzuklagen, kann alle Fortschritte, die Du in Richtung Frieden gemacht hast, rückgängig machen. Vor allem aber solltest Du Devon Sanders aus dem Spiel nehmen.
Dein Freund,
V. K. Knight
“That’s German,” Darwin said, studying it over my shoulder.
I turned and handed it to him, careful to avoid skin contact. “Can you read it?”
“Yeah, but it’s very wordy.” He read it carefully before starting at the top. “It’s addressed to Logan Hunt. It says that the wizard council is backing off of the vampires because of the strict rules that Stephen Yocum holds his people to. However, he— it doesn’t give a name— is holding them up until something is found. He’s waiting for evidence of something that would condemn the vampires. The writer says that Logan needs to keep his information away from the council and… and keep Devon Sanders out of the way. Signed, V. K. Knight.”
“That sounds dubious,” I said.
“He is referring to keeping your powers a secret from the council,” Hunt said, suddenly behind me. Darwin shrieked, but I managed to withhold my unmanly yelp.
“Who is Vincent Knight?” I asked.
He sighed. “Your priority right now should be uncovering the murderer and finding Remy. You and Vincent will cross paths in the near future and he will tell you what you need to know when you need to know it.”
Always the helpful wizard. “I don’t like secrets being kept from me.”
“V. K. Knight is Vincent Knight?” Darwin asked. “Are you talking about the Vincent Knight who is on the wizard council?”
“The identities of the council members are kept secret for a reason, Mr. Mason,” Hunt said gravely. “I do not want to know how you got that information. You may someday be a great scientist or inventor, but only if you can stay off the council’s hit lists.”
“Oh, I know how it works. I need to be more valuable alive than dead. I can keep my mouth shut and my nose down, but while I do that, I’m going to be gathering dirt on my enemies.”
Good thing I wasn’t his enemy. “I need to see the bodies of those who were killed. Do you have access to the morgue where they were taken?”
“I do. Follow me.” Darwin and I followed him out to the hallway.
Instead of leading us outside to the SUV, he led us further into the castle and down several flights of stairs. Finally, we came to a door in the deepest, darkest part of the castle.
“Welcome to the morgue.”
He opened the door to reveal a dimly lit room. As he stepped inside, it grew brighter, but where the light was coming from I didn’t know. The room had a metal floor, white walls, and a white ceiling. Three metal tables were spaced evenly in the center of the room. On the wall beside the door was a glass cabinet full of medical equipment and chemicals. Against the far wall was row after row of metal, two-foot wide cabinet doors.
“You have a morgue in the basement of your school?”
“This is a paranormal school, Mr. Sanders. If a human did an autopsy on a shifter or fae, the results could be catastrophic. Furthermore, if a wizard was killed by magic that
a human could detect, it would be equally condemning.”
I stepped inside and turned back when Darwin didn’t follow. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
He shook his head and blanched. “I don’t do well with death. I have a wolf shifter’s sense of smell, and I can’t stand the smell of decaying bodies. Go in without me; I’ll wait out here.”
Hunt shut the door, probably for my roommate’s peace of mind. “I only have the bodies of Professor Hans and the students who died here. The students who were killed before the start of the semester were picked up by human authorities.”
He opened one of the drawers and pulled out the bed tray. The woman was pretty, petite, and young. Her hair was white-blond and long. Her face had that ageless appearance of someone who would look like a teenager until they were well past middle-aged. She was covered in a clean white sheet.
“No blood?”
“It was already cleaned. This is Megan Thompson, Circle Three shifter. Twenty years old, three sisters, two brothers, loving parents. Loving pack, really. She was always writing papers on peace between the paranormal factions.”
“Where was she last seen?”
“Alive? In her room, right before her roommates left for class. She was found in the women’s bathroom.”
“I would like to question her roommates. We’re going to have to pick up speed on this investigation. Did anyone do an autopsy?”
“No. They do not do autopsies when the suspected cause of death is a vampire attack. This could not have been a more obvious vampire attack. You did say two vampires made it through my wards.”
“Yeah, and I want to interrogate Mrs. Ashcraft.” He didn’t say anything as I picked up the woman’s arm. I wasn’t a doctor, but I knew enough about vampires. “No defensive wounds.” I checked her neck and chin around the fang marks. “No bruising except on the actual wound.” The vampire must have been ridiculously gentle with her.
