Insidious Winds

by Rain Oxford

  I was halfway to the greenhouse when my instincts fired up. Before I could get down, Henry crashed into me in his shifted form. He growled when I tried to stand, then made a painful yelp as he was thrown off me. I climbed to my feet and turned to check on him, but he was already sprinting to the greenhouse. By the time I reached it, six students were scrambling out the door. I moved aside for them to go through and then entered.

  The first thing I noticed was that the glass panels of the ceiling were broken. The second was the three students in the far right-hand corner; a first-circle male vampire, second-circle female vampire named Misty, and a first-circle male shifter were all huddled under the long metal counter against the entire back wall. Henry blocked me from getting further into the building and growled at something I couldn’t see.

  “What is it?” The instant the words were out of my mouth, a glass panel in the wall on the left blew out. Henry snarled and became invisible. I reached out with my magic and sensed something extremely powerful. There was definitely an entity, but it wasn’t a mind I could read. What I could feel was pain and urgency.

  Misty shrieked and vanished. The vampire yelled while the shifter changed into a large brown wolf and started growling and snapping at an invisible opponent.

  After a few seconds, both the wolf and Henry settled down. Henry shifted back. “It is gone.”

  “What was it?”

  He shook his head. “I couldn’t see it. I do know it was exceptionally powerful.”

  “What about Misty?”

  “She’s gone.”

  “Until I see a body, I’m going to assume she was just taken somewhere. Henry and… wolf, get everyone inside either the castle or the dorms.” Henry shifted back into his jaguar form and he and the wolf left. “Nobody saw anything? What all paranormals were in this class?”

  “Vampires and shifters. And no, no one saw anything except the glass breaking.”

  “Can you get inside by yourself?”

  “Of course.”

  “Do so, and make sure no one calls Stephen.”

  “Why don’t you want us calling our coven master?”

  “He’s friends with Headmaster Hunt. If one of the students calls him up in a panic before anyone knows what’s going on, it’ll just cause problems.”

  “Right.” He left and I followed.

  Only the professors and Hunt were outside. I went to Hunt and Vincent. “Please tell me you know what this is.”

  “A massive, stationary tornado that is just large enough that it isn’t damaging the castle or dormitory? Magic,” Vincent answered.

  “Yeah, I got that part. Who is doing this? Krechea?”

  “I hope not,” Hunt said. “Come to my office.”

  I followed them into the castle and to the headmaster’s office, which was the same as always— dark, quiet, and cozy. I sat on the couch, Hunt sat in the chair behind his desk, and Vincent sat in one of the chairs by the fire.

  “The wizard council has been pushing for the school records,” Hunt started.

  “So you think the council is doing this?”

  “I believe so. Most likely, they hope to force my hand by locking everyone in. Without water or food, we would be in great danger… eventually. It is the exact kind of passive attack that the council would use.”

  “Are the other schools affected?”

  “Yes. I have already sent Rosin to secure the children’s school and orphanage. He will likely be gone for several days, so some of the students are going to panic,” Hunt said, giving me an indicative expression.

  I knew what he was getting at; Flagstone’s temporary departure in the previous semester left a lasting effect on the pack-minded shifters. It did help that they had Zhang Wei taking over matters concerning the cat shifters, but the shifters who were not wolves or cats still hadn’t assimilated. Brian, the only hyena shifter in the university, was actually firmly devoted to his one alpha. That one alpha was me. Even some of the wolf shifters would look at me for confirmation before obeying Alpha Flagstone.

  Hunt wanted me to help keep the shifters calm. I nodded.

  “Since Logan, Keigan, and I can go in and out easily, we don’t have to worry about food and water,” Vincent said. “The problem is, having worked in the council, I know that not a single wizard in the council is strong enough to create a storm of this magnitude alone.”

  “What if they worked together?” I asked.

  Vincent looked unsure. “It is possible. However, if they’re working together like this, they must be very dedicated to their goal, because those wizards are the most temperamental, self-serving imps I have ever met.”

  “You can’t just get rid of the tornado yourself?”

  “Magic like this leaves residual effects. It is very likely that trying to destroy it without knowing what is fueling it will merely reinforce it. The families of the students will panic when they find out the students are trapped here. Nevertheless, we are going to keep the shadow pass a secret for obvious reasons.”

  “Maybe we should be trying to get everyone out.”

  “As long as the wizard council is fighting so hard to control the paranormal world, I believe the school is the safest place for the students.”

  “Where have you been? Jackson’s gang is taking bets on when and how everyone is going to start dying this time. The current top prediction is that zombies are going to attack by the third Friday of March.”

  “We have had no supernatural deaths since I opened the school until you came,” Hunt pointed out.

  He didn’t mean it as a jab, but it hurt nonetheless. It made me sick to my stomach. “So you think I’m the reason?” I asked.

  Vincent stood up, but he didn’t take a step in any direction, as if he weren’t sure what he should do. “You are not the cause of this. Logan merely means that the frequent deaths are not the norm.”

  “You could be the cause,” Hunt said thoughtfully. Vincent glared at him, but he went on. “Had you not come here, John would not have gone after Remy because no one would have stood in his way of starting a war with vampires. Had you not gone after Gale, Vincent and I would have. You can imagine what he would be like with our power. Had you not used your wide-spread mind control, dozens of students would have died in the dorms during that earthquake. And had you not been so determined to uncover every secret in the university, no one would have made the connection between Krechea and Gale.”

  “Logan,” Vincent said, sighing with disapproval.

  Hunt went on, uncaring. “So, yes, you could be the cause. You should be very ashamed that we lost nearly a hundred people in a year and a half instead of the thousands if not more we would have lost had you not been here.”

  “Is that your way of encouraging me? Because it needs work.”

  * * *

  On the way back to my room, I had to herd people inside and away from windows. There was something out there and we had lost several people to it in the first few minutes. At least it wasn’t zombies.

  Is this what my life has come to?

  When I opened my door, I was not surprised to see Addie in Henry’s bed while the jaguar shifter sat at his desk. Darwin and Amelia were sitting on the floor with about forty books spread out on the floor. However, I had forgotten about Marcus, who was sitting in the chair at my desk. He stood. “You look smaller on camera,” he said.

  I side-stepped three stacks of books to get to my desk. I wanted to pace, but I wasn’t willing to work that hard. Instead, I shook his hand. “And your voice sounds a lot less paranoid in person.”

  Although Marcus was my most trusted human friend, I hadn’t seen him in over a year. I had tracked a drug operation to Marcus’s mother when Marcus was sixteen. Lois Sinclair wasn’t intentionally involved; she was just a tool to Simon Sinclair, or “Sin,” as he was more commonly known. While it was one of my first cases, it was also one of my most difficult ones.

  Sin was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and an entourage of crooked la
wyers. He was the type of man who wasn’t happy with just having everything; he also wanted everyone else to have nothing. Sin was to blame for at least a dozen murders, but every one of his witnesses was paid off, blackmailed, or they just disappeared.

  He was impossible to track. His wife wasn’t. Marcus, who was always clever when it came to electronics, decided to turn off the alarm system so he could sneak out to a party. I happened to be there that very night and was able to get right up to one of the windows. If it hadn’t been for Marcus and great timing, I would have gotten caught. Instead, I saw Sin shoot Lois from the living room window while Marcus saw it from the balcony.

  Marcus took off that night and hid at his girlfriend’s house. The girl’s parents convinced him to go to the police, which he did. The girlfriend’s house burned down in a fire, her parents were reported with mental instability, and the girl was sent to a foster family. Marcus was taken to a safe house, which lasted for about an hour before Sin found him. Sin had many contacts in the police.

  Using my skills and intuition, I found Marcus and helped him pull his life back together. I was only five years older than him, but I hid him at my place and got him some new records. While I attended my college classes, he studied security. By the time I graduated, he was able to stand on his own feet. I already had a good clientele and was able to give him his first business. As silly as the extreme measures he went through to hide his identity seemed to be, they kept him safe from his father for ten years. After the first five, I thought that Sin had given up.

  Apparently, I was wrong.

  I glanced at Henry and Darwin. “Please tell me you explained all of this to him.”

  “We thought you wanted to do it,” Darwin said. “No worries. I’m Darwin, half fae, half wolf shifter. This is my fiancé, Amelia, who is a fae. That’s Henry, a jaguar shifter, and his girlfriend, Addison, who is an ocelot shifter. Devon here is a wizard. You’re in a school full of paranormals, including vampires, fae, shifters, and wizards. Oh, and if they catch you here, the wizard council will probably kill you, but since there’s a magical tornado circling the school, I don’t think you need to worry about them. Instead, you need to worry about whatever is in the tornado that’s attacking people. Does that cover it?”

  Marcus’s eyebrows furrowed and his lips pursed. “Okay.”

  We all looked at him. “Okay?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “As long as the vamps don’t want to chow down on my neck and the werewolves don’t want to crawl into bed with me…” he shrugged again. “It’s cool. I like fantasy, so it’s like fiction, but real.”

  “What is the plan?” Henry asked, already over the fact that Marcus was a human. It seemed like it was only the wizards that really worried about humans finding them out.

  “We have to find out what took that student.”

  “Do we know who’s responsible?” Addie asked.

  “Hunt thinks it’s the wizard council. It’s not like they could do anything to him, though.”

  “They have a lot magical items they confiscated from various people, some even worse than the amulet,” Darwin argued. Henry turned to him, very interested in knowing more. “I’ve been doing some research on the amulet, and I found out it has a sister artifact.”

  “Another amulet?” I felt a bit sick at the thought that we would have to track another one of these things down.

  “No. They’re shackles, and they neutralize the wearer’s power. I bet you the council has them and if they could get those on Hunt, it wouldn’t matter how powerful he is. They could do whatever. Alpha Flagstone wouldn’t even be able to use the headmaster’s power.”

  “If it is the council doing this, are we going to have a big fight with them?” Addie asked.

  “Probably, yes.”

  “Then we’ll need to plan our defense ahead of time.”

  “Right. Darwin, you’re on rumor duty. Find out who is for and who is against the council. Make sure there’s no outside contact; we don’t want the council supporters getting word to them that we’re all okay. Make sure nobody is trying to get themselves or each other killed. If you have to, spread the word that this is a scare prank and virtually harmless.”

  “Would I be lying?”

  “Yes. This is definitely dangerous and people are probably going to start dying if we can’t stop it, but we don’t want anyone panicking. Misty vanished, but there was no blood and no body, so we can’t be sure she’s dead.”

  “But Grayson is Becky’s father. He wouldn’t try something on the school with her here, would he?” Amelia asked.

  “He tried to stop her from coming this semester. That makes it more likely that they did this. Amy, help Darwin by making sure no one is panicking and send them to Addison if they are.”

  “I don’t have to lie, do I?” she asked.

  “No. Addison, use your counseling to watch for any shifters who are trying to take the storm for an excuse to get higher in the food chain. You’d better put a revolving door on your… wait, did you even get an office? I don’t want to tell you to put a revolving door on your bedroom.”

  Henry made a grumble of agreement as Addie rolled her eyes. “Yes, I have an office. I’m not a teacher, but I’m still staff.”

  “Have you been to it yet?” Darwin asked. “You spend more time in our room than we do.”

  “Lay off her,” Henry said. “What do I do?”

  “Make sure no one goes outside alone and set up monitors to stand guard during their breaks. Students are still going to have to get from class to the dormitory.”

  “Headmaster Hunt hasn’t cancelled the classes?” Amelia asked.

  “If he shut down the classes every time his students were murdered…” I let the sentence die because I really didn’t want to finish the thought. “Alpha Flagstone is going to be gone for a few days. Don’t let it be known that he can go in and out.”

  “What are you going to do?” Addie asked.

  “The best guess we have right now is that this is the council’s doing. I’m going to go talk to Becky.”

  I left the room and started on a hunt for Becky. After checking her room, Brian’s room, the dining room, and the den, I came across one of Becky’s roommates and asked the young cheetah shifter.

  “Ask Alpha Watson.”

  I would have pushed for a better answer, but there was a hint of nervousness in her eyes that told me she really didn’t want to know. That I could understand; Becky was the daughter of a council member. Either the council was involved and Grayson was using her as a spy, or they weren’t involved and Grayson was going to unleash hell on the school when he found out his daughter was in danger.

  I made my way cautiously across the deserted field between the castle and dormitories. I knew that in the next couple of days, some of the younger wizards who had more bravery than common sense would venture outside to tempt fate.

  Professor Watson’s classroom was empty, so I went to his office. I knocked, received no answer, and started to leave, when the door cracked open. I pushed it open and saw the office was empty, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave. With no possible reason for entering the room, I did so and shut the door behind me. The air seemed to vibrate, Watson appeared behind his desk, and Becky appeared in the seat across from him.

  “How can I help you, Devon,” Watson asked.

  Becky was holding out her arm, where her new tattoo was displayed on her wrist. It was the same one Li Na had. “Vive la résistance?” I asked.

  She grinned. “Yep. Did you think I would side with the council?”

  “PETA doesn’t have a tat?”

  “It’s on my butt. Want to see?”

  “Of course.” Professor Watson cleared his throat. “I’m not here to get in the way of your club,” I told him. “I just need to talk to Becky.”

  “You want to know if the council did this?” she asked. I nodded. “I don’t know. They haven’t said anything, but they never would. I know my father is the only halfway powe
rful wizard on the council— the rest are just politicians with magic tricks.”

  “Is he powerful enough to do this?”

  “On his own, no, but the woman he’s been having an affair with is a pretty powerful bitch. Maybe he got her to help. I mean, she doesn’t look too bright, but she seems like someone who enjoys making others suffer.”

  Once again, my instincts pushed me to ask more. “How does she seem?”

  She shrugged. “Well, she’s pretty hot on the outside. If she wasn’t my father’s floozy, I probably would have… never mind. She’s tall, petite, kind of Victoria Secret model-ish with that disheveled, fallen angel look. She’s got really red hair, but her eyebrows were red, too, so I’m pretty sure the carpets match the drapes.”

  I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. No fucking way. You can’t be serious. “Her name isn’t Felicity is it?”

  She blinked in surprise. “How did you know?”

  Chapter 5

  I went to find my uncle and, not surprisingly, he was in the north tower library. “I need to have a vision of the council,” I said as I shut the door behind me.

  He folded his hands across his book. “And you have come to ask for my permission?”

  “I need something of theirs to focus my vision on. You must have something after being a council member for so long.”

  He sighed. “Devon, some days, I wonder if you have ever listened to a word I said. If you need to have a vision of the council, you will. You can use objects to encourage your magic, but your visions are designed in the same way your instincts are. I lack the instincts, which is why I will never reach the potential you have. Your instincts will tie your visions and mind control powers together. You must see all three as one, and only then can you be the man you were meant to be.”

  “But the mind control powers are---”