by Rain Oxford
We spent several hours at Marcus’s house and found nothing that could point us in the right direction or clue us in on how to help him. I tried calling him back at the number he used, but it was disconnected.
“What do you want to do?”
“Wait for him to call, I guess. If we try to track him down, we might lead someone right to him.” That didn’t mean I was giving up completely. If someone wired the place, it was best to pretend that we were giving up.
We returned to the office to find it destroyed. My desk, the old computer, and the windows were all smashed. Two police officers were inside. Instinctively, I reached out for Darwin’s mind. “Where are you?” I asked.
“The internet was too slow, so I’m at the library.”
“He’s okay,” I whispered to Henry.
Once I explained to the police that it was my office, I was asked all the basic questions. When they asked me what I did and I told them I was a private investigator, they glanced at each other. Henry didn’t make it easier by looking to me every time they tried to ask him a simple question about his employment. I knew he was worried that the cops would find out about his past thieving. Although he could easily incapacitate them, he was trying to get away from that long.
Realizing that this was a real issue for him, I tried to hurry them up. “I’m not going to hunt this guy down or anything. You can investigate and I won’t get in your way, or don’t and just let the insurance take care of things.”
“So you have no rivals in town or any angry clients?” one of them asked, ignoring my dismissal.
I figured the perpetrator was either Regina, who I hadn’t heard from all winter, or the same person who was after Marcus. Fortunately, my client files were all untouched in the secret storage room behind the bathroom. Darwin had taken my new laptop to the library with him and my desktop computer hadn’t worked in months, so nobody got anything from them. Whoever did this just came to destroy crap.
“No clue. It was probably some kids who got a few rocks, saw some big, shiny windows, and decided to get into trouble.” I was much more interested in getting home to make sure my apartment wasn’t damaged.
“That’s a pretty laid-back way of thinking about it, Mr. Sanders. Most people are angry or feel violated in this situation. Maybe you should come down to the station for a---”
“No, thanks,” I interrupted. “My friends and I are going on a trip in the morning.”
“A hunting trip?”
“No.” I knew the man was fishing, but I wasn’t biting. If it came down to it, I was prepared to use my magic. Fortunately, they left very soon after that and I didn’t have to resort to mind control.
“It’s the same scent as the one at your friend’s house,” Henry said as soon as they were gone.
“Figures.” Henry and I spent the rest of the afternoon taking pictures with my phone and cleaning up. Darwin finally arrived and we drove back to my apartment, which was only a couple of minutes away. I half expected my apartment to be destroyed, but fortunately, it wasn’t.
Henry sniffed the door and searched the unit. “Anything?” I asked.
He returned to the living room. “No one has been in here.”
* * *
I had dreams of Heather and Astrid, but they were actual dreams, where I couldn’t communicate with the very real and very dead Heather or my trapped vampire friend. I woke to a loud crash and Darwin yelling that he didn’t do it.
I got up, dressed, and only then noticed that my phone was missing. Whatever mess Darwin had made was cleaned up by the time I went out to the living room, where Henry and Darwin were sitting on the couch, eating breakfast, and watching the news. The takeaway bags from the nearby fast food place were open beside the coffee table to be used as little trash bags.
Henry could make a full-time career out of cleaning up after Darwin. With his insanely high I.Q., Darwin could create advanced computer programs, crack any mathematical formula, and make predictions based on probability that could pass for magic, but he wasn’t the most functional man alive.
Aside from experiencing horrible pain if anyone touched his skin, Darwin was extremely socially awkward when he thought he was being judged. He was also raised to stay with his family indefinitely. According to his father, the university was the only thing that kept him from sitting in front of the computer for days at a time without sleep when they were at home.
“What does Maseré think of your wolf?” I asked Darwin. He stopped shoving bacon into his mouth, looked at me, and shrugged. “You didn’t tell him you can shift now?”
Despite eating with his mouth full quite often, he took his time chewing before answering me. “It came up a time or two. He can sense the wolf. My wolf sensed him, too.” He chugged down his coffee. “Dad’s wolf is a part of him, so his wolf should technically be as much my wolf’s dad as Dad is mine.”
“So your wolf was fine with him?”
“No, he wasn’t. He would have challenged Dad if I let him out. It’s not the normal behavior for wolf shifters. Are we gonna go or what?”
“I used your phone this morning and took care of the insurance for the office,” Henry said.
I managed to get a bite to eat before Darwin scarfed it all. Of course, as thin as he was, nobody could guess how much he ate. After we grabbed our bags and locked up, we took Henry’s maroon, extended cab pickup, since my car wouldn’t hold everything and Darwin didn’t have a car.
The first few hours were great because Darwin napped. Then he woke and spent the rest of the drive harassing Henry with personal questions. He wanted to know everything about Henry’s ex-wife, what it was like being a thief, and where he was going from here. Fortunately for the jaguar shifter, his fiancé disappeared after falsely accusing him of killing his parents. Henry was not an open person, but his patience was improving all the time. When Darwin asked about Addison, the jaguar growled and told him there would be no more talking. To my astonishment, that actually worked; Darwin didn’t say another word until we arrived at the university.
It was pretty majestic as far as schools went, and pretty creepy as far as castles went. Strangely, it also felt like home.
* * *
A few dozen students had also already arrived, but the professors were nowhere to be seen. It made for a very quiet few days. I went to Hunt’s office on Friday to see if he was okay and interrupted a very vocal dispute between him, Flagstone, and Remington. I understood Hunt’s issue with the situation; he could see through his familiar’s eyes and no one wanted to see that much of their daughter. Still, I thought the wolf shifter was good for Remy. They were both visibly happier together.
I returned to my room to find Henry in this jaguar form playing with his pillow. I couldn’t find any appropriate response until I saw Darwin sitting in his chair. “What did you do?”
He grinned and shrugged. “I might have accidentally put a bit of catnip in his pillowcase.”
“He’s going to kill you when he comes out of it.”
“No worries. He’ll do that for ten or so more minutes and then walk away from it.”
Addison arrived on Saturday, so she and Henry spent the three days of the full moon hiding away in her private professor’s room on the top floor. One very interesting change I discovered was that Zhang Wei was not only a teacher, but also the new head of all the feline shifters. Since many of them, like Henry, were solitary creatures, Hunt thought that Zhang Wei would be better suited than Alpha Flagstone. The wolf alpha was still in charge of all other shifters. Li Na never looked so heartbroken.
She sat next to Darwin on Sunday morning and my young roommate asked her something in Chinese. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
She answered in Chinese and Darwin turned to me. “She said her brother is trying to kill her. He doesn’t think she works hard enough.”
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to a symbol on her wrist. It looked like a tattoo of the four elements inside a black circle, but she tugged the sleeve of
her red blouse over it before I could get a better look.
“Is nothing,” she said, then got up and left.
“That wasn’t weird or anything.”
“Amy!” Darwin said excitedly, forgetting about Li Na when he saw his girlfriend. He stood, pulled his hood over his head, tightened the drawstring, and then hugged Amelia as she reached us. The woman held still so that her clothes wouldn’t crease and expose skin that could hurt him.
She turned to me when he let her go. “How’s… oh… sorry. Astrid is still missing then?”
I nodded. “You can tell that from my emotions?” Her power wasn’t all that different from mine.
“I can see it on your face.”
* * *
On Monday morning, knowing my element was air this semester, I made several guesses as to who my elemental mentor was. I was only half listening to Darwin’s lecture on recycling plastic at breakfast when Henry made a soft sound in the back of his throat. Darwin and I both turned to see who was walking up behind us. My jaw dropped.
Vincent handed me my schedule. “Good morning, Devon.”
“Morning. Are you a teacher here now?”
He smiled brightly. “It is much better than being on the council. I am teaching the advanced divination classes, which you will be in.”
“But I haven’t taken beginning divination classes.”
“You’re going to be my assistant this semester.”
“I’m not getting up at five to wake everyone else up, deliver messages, and run errands,” I said. I got a dirty look from one of the assistants who happened to be handing Henry his schedule at that moment.
“Not every assistant does that. We should save this conversation for private. Come to the library where you practiced with me last semester after you finish your classes today.” He patted my shoulder and walked away.
I checked my schedule. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I had Tools of Magic, Mythology, Summoning Your Familiar, and Mixed Martial Arts. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had Defensive Magic, Psychology of Shifters, and Advanced Divination.
“Did you get the classes you asked for?” Darwin asked.
“Yes, except I also got the class on familiars.” I didn’t have Professor Langril, but that was probably a good thing since he basically trapped Astrid in Hell.
“You said Hunt and them told you not to summon your familiar.”
“I doubt Professor Watson knows that, though,” I said.
“Maybe you should do it. Your familiar can be a huge help.”
“Not until I can get rid of this curse.”
* * *
Tools of Magic was taught by Meredith Aros in an outside classroom. Professor Aros was a tall, thin, middle-aged woman with soft brown eyes and curly brown hair done up in a ponytail. The “classroom” consisted of three picnic benches and a ten-by-twelve wooden gazebo canopy. On the benches were small leather packs.
“Everyone take a seat.”
There were fifteen students, myself included, who were all wizards. Most of them I had other classes with before. I sat down and one of Jackson’s gang, Theo, immediately sat to the left of me. I knew this guy had an agenda. Jackson himself was growing up and learning some humility. I had no mercy for his racist and violent friends, and Theo was the worst of the lot, especially when Jackson wasn’t around.
“After many years of requesting, I finally got an outside classroom. This will help tremendously, as you will see as the semester progresses. Now, unlike most of your classes, I did not assign a classroom text. There are too many books you will need, so you will rent them from the library. Instead, you will all have a carving kit. They’re all the same, so the one in front of you will be fine.”
“Do we have to pay for this?” Theo asked.
“It is covered by your tuition, since you have no assigned textbook. You all probably noticed your is tuition slightly higher this year. Some of that is the fact that your more advanced classes cost more, but also, you will be using a lot of material in this class.”
“My husband said that the council would be paying most of our tuition and donating tons of money to the school when their taxes are started,” one of the women said.
Her sister beside her nodded. “Only us, though. They’re not paying for the fae, shifters, vampires, or throwbacks.”
“Don’t start that shit here,” Theo snarled. “The council isn’t shelling money out to anyone. They’re all liars and stupid as goats.”
The woman stood. “You won’t be saying that when the council locks you in their dungeon. Once the council stops having to pay for the other paranormals, they will have more for us. We have to stand together or the other paranormals are going to take over. You of all people know that!” Theo stood, about to start yelling.
“Sit down,” Professor Aros snapped. They both sat. “You both have detention. This is not a political debate class and I will not tolerate such behavior. This is your fourth semester; act like adults and keep your views to yourself in class.”
The rest of the class went by without argument. I found several carving and cutting tools in my pack as well as a polishing cloth and several empty vials and pouches. We learned that we were going to be making a number of magical devices, but exactly what we made was up to us, since they were tailored to us individually and we all had different tastes. I was looking forward to making a tool that would help me in getting the key and saving Astrid.
When Theo pointed one of his carving tools at another student threateningly, Professor Aros took it from him. As she did, I saw the same tattoo on her wrist as Li Na had. She continued reading off the syllabus without a word to Theo.
My Mythology class was taught by Professor Roswell, who I had in my first semester for Metals. Although I knew I could pass the quizzes and tests easily, he failed me before for missing too many classes. Since I was trying to get the key this semester, it wasn’t looking good.
“The semester will be divided into regional myths, but there will be quite a few crossovers. In fact, we will spend a great deal of time discussing human vampire lore.”
“I didn’t know there were human vampires,” Becky said, sitting a few rows down from me.
“Oh, I did miss that humor over the break, Ms. Adams. I see quite a lot of detention down the road for you.”
Summoning Your Familiar was taught by Julien Houx, a French man who didn’t look any older than me with dark brown hair and a small, groomed goatee. Instead of the normal wizard’s robe that most of the teachers wore, he just had on a business shirt and slacks, a matter which had most of the women in the room whispering and ogling.
The classroom was spacious with large windows on two walls. Three of the walls, including the two with windows, were rounded. There were six tables and a syllabus at each seat. I sat down in the closest seat to the door. Although I planned to learn as much as I could about familiars, I pretty much expected to flunk the class, because endangering the life of my familiar was immoral.
“Not every one of you will be successful in summoning your familiars, as many of you will not put in enough effort. You cannot pass my class unless you are able to call your familiar and bond with it. Before you begin calling it, you must learn to treat the being with respect. Familiars have been known to try to kill their wizard if he was not powerful enough to complete the binding. No familiar wants to be bonded to someone who is weak.”
He might as well have been speaking directly to me.
My last class was Mixed Martial Arts, taught by Zhang Wei. The tiger shifter greeted me kindly and then glared at his sister when she tried to hide from him behind one of her friends. Li Na ditched the kimonos and hair pins Zhang Wei wanted her to wear and was often seen in skirts or sundresses. As she discovered her own style, she began gaining the attention of quite a few men. Of course, her brother was not pleased.
After class, which consisted of rigorous practice moves, I dressed into my regular t-shirt, jeans, and leather jacket, said goodbye to Zhang
Wei, and went to the tower library. Vincent was already waiting for me when I arrived. With his attention on his book, he indicated the seat across the desk from him. I sat and waited.
Finally, he looked up at me. “There are books in this library that really shouldn’t be so accessible to students,” he said.
“So, are we going to get started on finding the key?”
“I know it sounded like I was on board with the idea, but I really don’t want you to bear that burden.”
“Can I see?” I asked, pointing to his hand. He turned it over and held his palm out to me. The symbol burned into his skin was different than the one I had seen on Heather’s note, which was only to be expected since it was a different key. It was still just a circle with symbols in it, though. “Is there any way to be sure of what you would lose?”
“No. The key has a way of destroying everything. Your mother didn’t die, but I also didn’t just lose her. John hurt her, and if it weren’t for the key, he never would have had her.”
“Are you sure? When you got the key, were you told what you would lose?”
“No. I had a choice.”
I gaped. “You never told me that!”
“I take it when you saw my past through the book, you didn’t see how I got the key?”
“It skipped over that. It went from Star warning you not to do it, to after it was done. What was your choice?”
“It doesn’t matter. It was a trap. In order to get the key, you will be tested. This is why none of us has been able to get the key. Rosin gave Logan the key to Skrev and Baldauf gave Keigan the key to Dothra. When I got mine, my power, sanity, and strength were all tested to the point I barely made it out alive. I also had Logan’s help. Since then, I have changed.”
“But you can teach me how to get through the tests?”
“No. The reason you could not see me make it through the tests is because those memories are gone. I asked for them to be removed.”
“Great. Who took them?”
