The Haunted High Series Boxed Set

by Cheree Alsop

A dark form stood on the other side of the fireplace. I had dismissed the darkness as shadow, but as I watched, his form solidified. He wasn’t the vampire from earlier; of that I was sure. His shoulders were too wide, I could see that even facing the fire the way he was. He wore a dark suit with tails and a silver chain from his pocket caught in the firelight.

  “A ghost,” Lyris whispered from her place on the couch.

  The ghost turned and his gaze locked on hers. His face was gaunt and the skin hung below his eyes and from his jowls like a hound dog. I heard Lyris give a little squeak of fear.

  “Where is my cat?” the ghost asked.

  “I-I don’t know,” Lyris replied.

  The ghost took a step forward. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the professors gather closer to the couch to protect her.

  “You stole my cat,” the ghost accused.

  Lyris shook her head quickly. “I-I didn’t, honest. I would never steal a cat.”

  “You lie!” the ghost said, crossing closer to where Lyris cringed against Dara.

  I placed myself between the ghost and Lyris. His eyes flicked to mine and narrowed. I felt Sparrow let go of my wrist and climb up to my shoulder.

  “Heathen,” he breathed. “How dare you steal Minkylou.”

  “I didn’t take her,” I said. “But you need to back off. You’re scaring my friend.”

  Green flames flickered to life in his gaze. His face twisted the way the vampire’s had. He lifted his arms and lunged at me.

  Sparrow breathed out her blue flame. It hit the ghost in the face. He gasped and clawed at his eyes, vanishing as he did so.

  The Headmistress broke the shocked silence. “Did the other ghost’s face change like that?”

  I nodded.

  Mercer’s rough voice grated from his place on the other side of the fire. “If demons are inhabiting ghosts in order to breech the Academy, we have a serious problem.”

  The Headmistress let out a breath and said, “We can only hope Alden’s parents can handle the ghost situation before the parents arrive.”

  Everyone looked at Alden.

  He nodded quickly. “They’re the best with ghosts. Trust me.”

  “These aren’t normal ghosts,” Briggs said so quietly I suspected he pitched it for only me to hear.

  “Luckily, we’re not normal students,” I replied.

  Chapter Two

  “Ghosts are everywhere. This is a disaster,” Mrs. Hassleton said as she hurried to answer the door for the first of the parents.

  “At least they aren’t attacking people,” Alden said under his breath.

  I knew he was defensive of how hard his parents had worked to try to banish the ghosts, but since nobody knew the reason they were there, the Grims were having a hard time sending them back.

  A ghost floated past as we spoke. The slightly glowing, transparent girl studied the book in her hand and floated through several students as if she didn’t notice them. The students she touched hurried out of her path. The ghost floated into the wall and vanished from sight.

  Despite numerous frights, the ghosts hadn’t attacked anyone since our confrontation in the hidden room. Most of them drifted around as if they didn’t see our world. Those who did stayed as much out of the students’ way as we did of them. Except for one who had attempted to teach Professor Tripe’s Mythical Creature Anatomy class, the ghosts remained fairly innocuous.

  “Are you worried about what your dad will think of the ghosts?” Alden asked when he glanced at my face.

  I let out the breath I had been holding without realizing it. “Among everything else. Dad’s open to this whole idea, but I have no clue how much my mom told him.” I looked away from Alden’s knowing gaze when I admitted, “If it’s as much as she told me about being a werewolf, that adds up to nothing.”

  Alden gave me a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry,” he said. “He let you come here knowing his son would be the first werewolf at Haunted High in twenty-five years. He knows you need to be here for a reason; I’ll bet he comes with an open mind.”

  I would have accepted his words if I hadn’t read Julianne’s text the night before. Dad had snuck me a cellphone before he left so we could keep in touch. Our brief conversations, if you could call them that, had at least lessened the feeling of homesickness enough for me to stick it out at the Academy. But I worried about my stepmother, Julianne. She was seven months pregnant and didn’t need the stress of learning what other kind of monsters lived in our world.

  EXCITED TO COME SEE YOU TOMORROW. I MADE YOUR FAVORITE STROGANOFF EVEN THOUGH YOUR DAD SAYS BRINGING FOOD MIGHT NOT BE THE BEST IDEA GIVEN THE OTHER STUDENTS. DO YOU KNOW WHAT HE MEANS BY THAT?- JULI (followed by the inevitable flower and smiley face).

  I had written back, THERE’S A LOT OF HUGE APPETITES HERE. THEY ARE STRICT ABOUT NO FOOD LEAVING THE CAFETERIA. I THINK THEY’RE WORRIED ABOUT RATS.- FINN

  I couldn’t decide if that made things better or worse. If Julianne showed up worried about huge rodents only to realize that there were students here who looked like rodents, she might have the baby right there in the corridor. I was pretty sure that hadn’t happened before at Haunted High.

  “Welcome to The Remus Academy for Integral Education,” Mrs. Hassleton said as she pulled open the door.

  I wondered briefly why she had to open it. When Dad and I had first reached the Academy a week ago, the door had swung open on its own. Apparently, that wasn’t normal. I made a mental note to ask about it later.

  My train of thought was derailed by the sweeping presence of a vampire who could only be Vicken’s father, Don Ruvine, the leader of the national vampire coven.

  “Welcome, welcome,” Mrs. Hassleton said with only a slight tremor in her voice.

  “Thank you, Madame,” the vampire replied.

  Mrs. Hassleton blushed bright enough to match the pink dress she had worn for parent night.

  Don Ruvine crossed to Vicken. Vicken bowed to his father. The Don answered with a single nod.

  “Have the Maes sent demands for Mother?” Vicken asked in a voice quiet enough that it strained my wolven hearing.

  “Nothing, as of yet,” the Don replied in a tone that told how upset he was. “Any word of your sister?”

  “No,” Vicken replied. He lowered his head. “I’m sorry. We’re doing everything we can. It’s just—”

  His head jerked up and he met my gaze. His eyes narrowed and he gestured toward the cafeteria.

  “Let’s go somewhere we are less likely to be overheard,” he said.

  His father’s yellow gaze followed his son’s. I looked down before he could make eye contact. Relief filled me when their footsteps led away from the busy room.

  Other parents entered after the Don. Warlocks and witches were followed by tentacled parents who matched their tentacled students. I smiled when I saw the parents of Adalia from my Creature Languages class. They had her same cat eyes.

  “My parents should be down soon,” Alden said with a hint of anxiety in his voice. “They said they were performing a sweep of the roof due to a sighting there.”

  “I know the Headmistress is grateful for all they’ve done,” I told him. “This ghost situation has certainly thrown everyone off.”

  An ancient looking woman with a cane and a ghostly glow made her way from one end of the corridor to the other. Students stepped away from her faint outline and continued their conversations, though their parents stared at the apparition.

  “…it swung open by itself,” I heard a familiar voice explain.

  A smile crossed my face despite my trepidation.

  “Welcome, Mr. Briscoe.”

  “Thank you,” my father told Mrs. Hassleton. “This is my other son, Drake.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” Drake said. He held out his hand.

  Mrs. Hassleton gave my father a worried look. “And is he another, um….”

  Dad lifted a shoulder. “We’re not sure yet. Only time will tell.” He squeezed Drake’s should
er and my brother lowered his hand. “But if so, we’ll be knocking on your door again.”

  Mrs. Hassleton gave a strained laugh and turned away.

  I saw Drake’s eyes widen and followed his gaze to Aerlis and his parents who had the same matching orange horns and orange eyes, though his father’s horns were much bigger than the student’s, making his hug a careful one. I watched as my brother’s gaze left Aerlis and lingered on one of the tentacled families, then flicked to where Jeppy talked animatedly with his family. His purple hair and black eyes appeared to be a mixture of his mother’s long plum-colored locks and his father’s pupilless black eyes. His dad’s equally black skin and dark clothes gave him a solemn appearance. That impression vanished immediately when the man smiled with a youthful grin that made even Alden’s enthusiasm pale in comparison.

  “Over here!” I called, lifting a hand.

  Relief washed over Dad’s face as he hurried to meet me.

  “You could have mentioned a lot more in your texts,” he said, his eyes wide as he stared around.

  “I didn’t want to scare you,” I replied only half-joking. “Where’s Julianne?”

  Dad gave me an apologetic look. “She’s been sick in bed. She said to give you her love and say that apparently morning sickness doesn’t strike only in the morning, and sometimes likes to hit hard again during the last trimester. She did send some stroganoff.”

  He was about to pull it out of the bag he carried, but my warning about enormous appetites wasn’t made up.

  “I’ll, uh, have some later,” I said, taking the bag from him.

  He winked. “Want to keep it to yourself, huh? It’ll make for a good snack when no one’s around.”

  “Is this a ghost?”

  I turned to see Drake staring at a boy about my age. His outline was faint and his feet drifted a few inches above the ground. But instead of floating past with eyes that saw a different world than we did, the ghost’s gaze was locked on my brother.

  “That’s a ghost,” I said warily. I watched the boy’s eyes for any sign of a green flame.

  “H-hi,” Drake said. He gave a little wave.

  “You don’t look like Mr. Snederin,” the boy said.

  Drake glanced at me and then back at the ghost. “I-I’m not,” he said. “My name is Drake Briscoe. I’m just visiting.”

  The boy shook his head. “We aren’t allowed to have visitors. You’ll get us in trouble.”

  I saw it then. The green flame flickered to life in the depths of the boy’s eyes.

  I set my bandaged hand on Drake’s shoulder. “Back up,” I said quietly.

  “I’m just having a talk with a ghost,” Drake said as if amused by the thought. “Don’t you do that?”

  “No,” I replied, keeping my eyes locked on the boy. “It doesn’t seem to end well.”

  Drake glanced at me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his face pale at the realization of how serious I was.

  “Stand behind me,” I told him.

  To my relief, Drake and my father both obeyed.

  “You need to go back to the door,” I told the ghost.

  “But if I lead visitors to the door, Chutka the Shambler will make me pay,” he replied.

  I was aware of conversations falling silent around us. Several of the adults appeared to recognize the name. I knew I held the ghost’s attention by a small thread. If it broke and the demon took over, the Headmistress’ fear of the parents being involved with our problems would come true.

  “No one will follow you to the door,” I said. I didn’t lie. Though I desperately wanted to find the door, I wasn’t about to put lives at risk to do so. My best course of action was to convince the ghost to leave in peace.

  “How do you know?” he replied.

  “Well, I….” I searched for something to say. “I’m a warlock,” I continued. “And I can’t lie. It’s my affinity.”

  The boy nodded as if my answer was entirely reasonable. “So no one will follow me to the door?”

  “That’s right,” I said in my most calming tone. I wished I could imitate Professor Mellon’s calm cadence. I gave my best effort and continued with, “I think the best thing you could do right now is to return to the door and not come back.”

  The boy stood silently as if considering it. Finally, he nodded and turned away. I watched him cross the room between inhabitants who backed up at his advance. When he finally walked through the wall, I let out the breath I had been holding.

  “That was amazing,” Drake said. “I can’t believe I just saw a ghost. Why did you lie to it and say you were some sort of warlock?”

  My gaze flickered to Alden. The Grim’s wide eyes said he had also seen the green flames. I forced a smile and turned back to my brother.

  “Sometimes ghosts don’t want to leave. I had to get him to trust me in order for him to go in peace. It’s a ghost thing,” I replied. I hoped he would believe me.

  “That’s cool,” he said with a shrug. “I guess you don’t want ghosts interfering with learning and all that.”

  I nodded. “Exactly.”

  My dad shook his head with an amazed expression. “This place is definitely more than I expected.” His brow furrowed. “What happened to your hand?”

  I thought at first he was referring to the dragon. I had worn a long-sleeved shirt to hide the creature because I was afraid of overwhelming my family. Something like Sparrow might just push them over the edge. Then I realized he was looking at my right hand. I lifted it.

  “Oh, I burned it by accident, in, uh….”

  Alden was suddenly at my side. “In shop class,” he said. He gave my dad an innocent smile and pushed his white hair back from his forehead. “The professor said it’s healing, though.”

  “Oh, that’s good,” Dad replied.

  I gave Alden a grateful smile. “Dad, this is Alden. We’re roommates.”

  “You have to share a room?” Drake said in dismay.

  I nodded. “It’s not that bad. Alden’s a good roommate.”

  The Grim beamed at the compliment.

  “Pleased to meet you, Alden,” my dad said.

  “You also, Sir. Finn’s told me a lot about you,” Alden replied.

  Dad held up his hand to show his bandaged thumb. “Then I’ll bet he told you being accident prone runs in the family. I did this building our deck.”

  I laughed. “I can’t wait to see it. Is Drake helping?”

  Drake shook his head and waved his hands behind Dad as if hoping I wouldn’t go there.

  “Not exactly,” Dad said.

  “Why? Is the younger weremutt as useless as my boy says this one is?”

  My blood ran cold at the sound of Don Ruvine’s voice behind me. A tremor ran though my skin and my instincts warned that I should never let a vampire sneak up on me. I closed my hands into fists and used the pain of my burned palm to keep the wolf from surfacing.

  “You shouldn’t talk to my son like that,” Dad said, his eyes narrowing.

  I put a hand on his chest to keep him from advancing toward the vampire. “Dad, it’s okay. Vampires don’t like werewolves.”

  Dad shook his head, his gaze not leaving the vampire. “It’s not okay. He shouldn’t talk about you like that.”

  “Takes a weremutt to defend another weremutt,” Don Ruvine growled.

  I looked to Vicken for help. He shook his head from his place behind his dad and lifted his hands as if to say he couldn’t interfere. The irony that it was the same gesture Drake had made about the deck only made me more frustrated.

  “What is your problem?” Dad demanded.

  Don Ruvine took another step forward. “That they allowed a werewolf back here after what happened before,” he spat. “If they won’t take care of the problem, maybe I will.”

  “You’ll have to go through me, first,” Dad said.

  He attempted to move me out of the way, but my werewolf strength gave me an advantage.

  “Glad to, weremutt,” Don Ruvi
ne replied.

  I shoved the vampire back with a strength that surprised him as much as me by his expression. He stumbled back and then surged forward with hatred on his face.

  “My dad’s human,” I said before he could reach us.

  My words echoed around the suddenly quiet room.

  Don Ruvine stopped as if he had hit a wall. He looked from me to my father in shock. I don’t know if he regarded my dad’s presence in the middle of a room full of monsters as bravery or stupidity, but after a moment of silence, he shook his head and stalked away.

  “Come on, Vicken. This place has truly gone to the dogs,” I heard him say before they left the corridor.

  Talking returned, though not with the casualness of before.

  “Well that was rude,” Dad said.

  I shook my head, careful to keep my voice low. We didn’t need to attract more attention than we already had. “There’s a lot of prejudice here.” I held Dad’s gaze. “It apparently started with the uncle I never knew existed.”

  “You know about Uncle Mark,” Drake pointed out.

  “Not Uncle Mark,” I replied, keeping my eyes on Dad. “I’m talking about Uncle Conrad, the werewolf who tore this place apart and killed innocent people. That’s why werewolves haven’t been allowed in this school for twenty-five years. Mom’s brother was a murderer.”

  Dad’s lowered gaze told me he had known about Conrad. He sighed and I heard the heaviness of years of keeping my mother’s secret. “I hoped it wouldn’t affect you.”

  “Don Ruvine was there, Dad,” I replied. “My professor’s girlfriend was killed along with the Headmaster, and others they won’t even tell me about. It was bad, really bad.”

  He gave me a tight-lipped smile and set a hand on my shoulder. “I knew that if anyone could turn the view of werewolves around, it was you.”

  I blew out a breath and shook my head. “I don’t think I can do that, but it would have been nice to know what I was getting into.”

  “I’m sorry, Finn,” he said with true heaviness in his voice. “I should have told you instead of letting you find out this way.”

  I heard footsteps behind me.

  “Not everyone at the Academy is as prejudiced as the Don,” Alden’s father said.