Night Shade Academy

by Kelly Carrero

  Unfortunately it didn’t, and for the first time since we were born, I wouldn’t be able to confide in her my deepest, darkest secret I was dying to share.

  Opening the doors to the gym, I stepped inside, a shiver running down my spine, as I pictured the brutal ass-whooping I’d received a few hours ago.

  I scanned the room as I walked to the supply room, expecting to see Hunter already there, but alas he was not.

  “Typical,” I muttered.

  “Typical, what?” Hunter said from behind me. As in directly behind me, close enough for me to feel his breath against my neck.

  10

  I spun around to face him and took a quick step back, my heart practically breaking my rib cage because of how hard it beat. “Holy Lights. Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

  “I could’ve killed you without you even knowing I was here.” He strode toward the supplies. “Rule number one, never let your guard down.”

  “Did you swap notes with Nova? Or is that really some official rule?”

  He glanced over his shoulder, a grin playing on his lips. “It should be an official rule, but it’s just common sense.”

  “To you maybe,” I said, following him into the storage room where he was lifting some mats.

  “Don’t just stand there.”

  “Oh.” I raced over to him and grabbed a corner of the mat, ready to help. Only he let go, expecting me to pull the thing on my own, which of course I could.

  With a flick of my wrist, I dropped my corner and had it moving without me touching it.

  His hand shot out across my middle, stopping me from exiting the storage room. “Not like that.” He smirked.

  I gaped at him. “You can’t expect me to carry that thing out on my own. It must weigh like two-hundred pounds.”

  Hunter chuckled. “No, it doesn’t.” He grabbed a skipping rope from the cupboard and a massive rope off the floor. “You need the exercise.”

  My eyebrows shot up, as my mouth dropped open. “Are you calling me fat?”

  “Why do girls always assume that guys are calling them fat instead of unfit?”

  Releasing my magical hold on the mat, I let it fall back onto the floor. “Probably because guys always judge girls by their weight.”

  “Girls judge each other by weight. Guys judge by their personality.”

  I snickered. “Yeah, right. Maybe the personality of our lady bumps. No, you’re right. It’s our personality, the skankier the better, right?”

  He stopped beside me. “Obviously the Lights are shallow Leaches, but not all of us are like that.”

  “Are you trying to tell me that all male Darks go for personality over looks?”

  “I’m not saying that at all.” He strode out of the room, carrying the gigantic rope, as if it were a skipping rope he was lugging.

  I groaned as I grabbed the mat and followed him. “Then what are you saying?”

  He turned around to face me, a smug expression on his face. “I’m saying you don’t give yourself enough credit.” He gestured to the mat I’d somehow dragged out of the storage room without having a second thought about the weight.

  I released my grip, letting the corner hit the floor. “How?”

  “Distraction.” He walked a few yards away and dumped the things he carried onto the floor. “Let’s do five warmup laps around the court.”

  Laughter escaped me. “Five laps? A warm up? Are you serious?”

  “Yep. Deadly.”

  “You realize I’m not the athletic type? Five laps would probably put me into a coma. Or you’ll have to perform CPR.”

  “As delightful as that sounds, I think you might surprise yourself.”

  “You don’t know me, buddy,” I said. “You better get the ambulance on speed dial.”

  I was only half right about my fitness level. I completed the five laps then collapsed onto the ground, and to my disappointment, I didn’t need Hunter to perform CPR.

  Hunter walked over and sat beside me, placing the water bottle he had just collected between us. “Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  He looked as if he’d barely ran half a lap, with his steady breathing and lack of sweat.

  Pulling myself into a sitting position, I grabbed the bottle and took a sip, followed by another then another, until Hunter snatched it from me. “That’ll do,” he said, moving it out of my reach. “You don’t want to get a stitch.”

  “I have a spell for that.” I didn’t, but he didn’t know that. And I was thirsty as hell.

  Standing, he bent down and grabbed my hands, pulling my reluctant body into a standing position. “We need to keep moving.”

  “To my bed?”

  The corner of his lips twitched, as he shook his head. “Is that an invite?”

  My eyes widened in horror and I pushed him—hard. He barely budged. “That was so not an invitation. Do you really think I’m the kind of girl who would jump into bed with the first guy she sees after she breaks up with her boyfriend?” I was fuming, pissed off with myself for thinking that maybe he was different. A Dark I could trust. That maybe he cared enough about me to help me, not just try to get into my pants.

  He raised a brow. “Nothing like a rush of adrenaline to get you fired up again.”

  Did he just say all that to get me moving again?

  Hunter tilted his head to the side and sighed. “You can relax. I have absolutely no intentions of getting you into bed. I’m here to help you. That is all.”

  As nice as his promise was, a pang of rejection hit me hard.

  Did I really want him to hit on me? So soon after being dumped?

  The answer was clear. A big, fat yes.

  Wasn’t that what every girl needed after being rejected? Now, that made it twice in one day.

  “I know it’s not my place to ask.” He paused as he studied me, a sorrowful look in his eyes. “Are you okay after… Lunch?”

  I swallowed hard and nodded, embarrassment sweeping over me in the way of rosy cheeks. “I’ll be fine. He was an idiot, anyway.”

  His gaze drifted over me. “Clearly.”

  And if I thought my cheeks were flushed before, they now took heat to a whole other level.

  I looked away, unable to hold his gaze any longer. “So, what do I have to do now?”

  Taking my hint, he set up the gigantic rope into a circle around the mats. “We don’t have a cage, and I’m not putting up a ring of fire, so the rope will be our boundary. You need to try to stay inside and push me outside by any means necessary, as quickly as possible.”

  I stared at him blankly. “You do realize you’re like double my weight?”

  “And so will be many of your other opponents.” He made his way into the center of the mat. “What do you think it’s going to be like going up against a vampire or a wolf?”

  “I don’t think I’ll ever find out because there’s no way I’m going to get that far in this thing. I mean, this will probably be the last time you see me alive, and then you’ll have to attend my funeral and explain to my family what happened.”

  He shook his head in amusement. “Get your ass into the ring. There isn’t going to be a funeral or death.” He paused, adding, “If I can help it.”

  My face drained of blood. “Are you saying I could actually die?”

  “Relax,” he said. ‘It only happened once—and that was three years ago. And I don’t want your blood on my hands, so stop protesting, get in the ring, and fight me.”

  “I’m doomed,” I said, as I made my way into the center of the ring.

  “Nope. None of that talk while you’re here with me,” he said. “I don’t want to hear that you can’t do it, because I don’t believe you’re as bad as you appear.”

  I scoffed.

  “Again, I’m not talking about your appearance,” he quickly added. “You need to stop being so concerned about how you look to others and just get in there and fight. Give it everything you’ve got, because I can guarantee the other person won�
�t be holding back.”

  “Fine,” I conceded. “I’ll try my best.” I took off my jacket and threw it outside the circle.

  “That’s what I want to hear. Now, you’ve got a good range of spells under your belt, but none of them are battle magic. And you suck in physical combat. There’s no doubt about that.”

  I raised my an eyebrow. “Yet, you say I’m not doomed.”

  “Come on, little butterfly. Time to learn how to fly.”

  My eyes bugged out. “You’re going to teach me to fly? I didn’t even know we could do that.”

  He chuckled. “Not actual flying. I was referring to your past as a leech, now you’re transformed into a butterfly, where the true beauty of our species lies.”

  These Darks truly believed they were the better faction. There wasn’t a doubt in their minds.

  “Right.” I wasn’t going to bother bringing up the fact that leeches never turned into butterflies, only caterpillars.

  “Now, I don’t think I’ll be able to teach you much in the way of physical combat by tomorrow, so I think we should focus on the skills you already have, and just fine tune them a little.”

  I nodded. Magic I could do.

  “I want you to watch me, and I mean really watch me. See if you can predict my next move before I make it. See if you can stop me.”

  I’d already seen him fight today, and I didn’t stand a chance if he was going to come at me with everything he had. He’d even put his opponent down faster than I’d been beaten. And that was saying something.

  I frowned. “Why didn’t you score any points today, even though you won?”

  “Because I’m not a first year. I’ve already done my time and won.”

  “Show off.”

  He smiled. “Hardly. I’m just stating a fact, so you might take this a little more seriously. I’m willing to put in the work, now you just need to.”

  “I’m willing,” I said, throwing my hands up in frustration. “How much more enthusiasm do you want?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t want your enthusiasm. I want to see balls of fire shooting from your fingertips.”

  Okay. He’d asked for it. Moving one foot back, I placed one hand over the other and was about to shoot a fireball, just like he wanted, when a voltage of electricity shot through the sole of my foot, right up to my knees before receding.

  “Holy hell,” I said, trying to catch my breath.

  “You not only took too long, you showed me you were preparing. You were too focused on what you were doing to pay attention to what I was doing. You need to be at one with your magic, let it flow through you, be a part of you. And you don’t need to get into the position you took when you first learned how to do magic. That shit may have worked in the Lights, but it won’t fly here in the land of the Darks.”

  “If the Darks are so much better at combat than the Lights, why are the Lights the superior faction?”

  Hunter’s shoulders slumped, as he shook his head. “You still don’t get it. The Lights stole our magic. They rely on magic. We’ve had to learn new skills, better our old skills, and rely on the support of the other houses.”

  Yeah, the new skills he referred to was the Dark magic obtained through the Demons. “Do you have a familiar?”

  He nodded. “We all do.”

  “Can I see it?”

  “That’s a bit personal, don’t you think?” When I opened my mouth to apologize, he laughed. “People don’t usually go around asking to see someone’s familiar, but I don’t have any problems showing you her.” He lifted up his shirt, revealing perfectly sculptured abs that would’ve taken countless hours to achieve.

  Once I got past the abs, I focused on the little wolf-like creature scurrying farther up his chest to hide under his shirt.

  “She’s a little shy.” Hunter dropped his shirt back over his stomach.

  “I thought they were supposed to be badasses?”

  “Oh, believe me, she is. But that doesn’t mean to say she likes to be objectified.”

  I barked out a laugh. “I wasn’t objectifying her. I was just curious.” Taking the opportunity, I shot my own volt of electricity his way and smiled when I saw his face light up in surprise.

  A smile spread across his face as he sauntered over to me, making my heart skip a beat. “Better.”

  The next thing I knew, his foot came under my legs, and I was flat on my back, staring up at his smug face. “But don’t get cocky. It’ll be your downfall.”

  I rolled my eyes, as a laugh bubbled up my throat. “Oh, my God. Where do you come up with this shit?”

  “You should smile more often.”

  “I don’t know if you noticed, but I don’t have much to smile about lately.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. You lost about a hundred and eighty pounds that were weighing you down, you learned the truth about the houses, you have a roommate who doesn’t want to kill you, and best of all, you met me.”

  I pulled myself up into a sitting position, leaning against my hands, which were firmly planted behind me. “You think you top the list?”

  “I know I do.” He held his hand out to me and pulled me to my feet. “I’m your best bet of surviving this place.”

  We spent the following hour focusing on predicting my opponent’s next move. Hunter knocked me down way too many times to count and even went so far as to shoot me with fire that licked my skin before he pulled it back.

  The guy was good. I had to give him that.

  Having just enough time to clean up before dinner, I rushed back to my room and jumped in the shower, my mind reeling with everything I’d learned today, but mostly tonight with Hunter. I pulled on a pair of jeans and a shirt then slipped on my Converses before rushing out the door where I almost ran into Nova.

  “There you are,” she said, stopping in the hall a few yards away. “Thought I would see if you were back before I headed for dinner.”

  I caught up to her then we continued in the direction of the cafeteria, as I took a few sideways glances at her now blue hair. “When did you get a chance to…?” I gestured to her hair.

  She ran her fingers through the ends. “Oh this? It’s just a spell. I change my hair with my mood.”

  I frowned. “So does that mean you’re feeling down?” When she drew her brows together, I added, “You know, feeling blue—down?”

  She laughed. “No. I’m actually feeling great now that I’ve got a friend to get through this hell-hole with. I just like the color.”

  “Right,” I said, as we entered the cafeteria.

  As soon as I stepped inside, I could feel Kayla, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Spotting her, I grabbed Nova’s arm without thinking and was glad she didn’t rip it away from me, or one of her little pets decided to bite me. “Come sit with us.”

  Nova pulled me back. “Are you forgetting what happened at lunch?”

  “My sister won’t be like that. I mean, she’s my sister.”

  “That might be true, but what about all her friends?”

  I hadn’t thought of that. And now that I did, I wasn’t sure I would be welcomed at her table.

  It appeared we had a problem because I was positive Kayla wouldn’t be welcomed at one of the Darks’ tables either. “Looks like we’ll be sitting outside, in neutral territory.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  We had barely collected our food when I heard a familiar squeal as Kayla came rushing over to us. Pre-empting what was about to go down, I levitated my tray to the side and waited for the impending tackle.

  It was a twin thing. We hadn’t been away from each other for this long in our entire lives.

  Kayla threw her arms around me, squeezing me with everything she had then sighed in my arms. “He’s such a doosh-bag,” she whispered against my ear before pulling away, releasing me from her grip.

  She slid her hand down to mine. “Come sit with us.”

  “Yeah. I don’t think that would be wise,” I sai
d, gesturing to the Lights at her table who gave me the death glare. “We should sit outside.”

  “Sure,” she said. “Why not?”

  Nova cleared her throat, reminding me what a terrible friend I was. “Oh, this is Nova. My roommate.”

  “And one of two friends,” Nova added with a little wave.

  “Nice to meet you,” Kayla said. “I hope Zali hasn’t been too difficult to live with so far. I mean, I get it. The mumbling as she reads can drive you up the wall. And she swears she’s not making a sound.”

  Nova laughed. “Yeah, I’ve never met someone with quite so many books.”

  Kayla slung her arm around my shoulders as we headed outside. “That’s my sister—the nerd of the family. Me, on the other hand, I’m your regular, rebellious teenage girl.” Who all the authoritative figures thought was an angel.

  As soon as we stepped outdoors, my gaze darted to the spot where Hunter had been during lunch. I was visually disappointed when he was nowhere to be seen.

  “What’s wrong?” Kayla asked.

  “Nothing,” I said, quickly brushing it off.

  I set my tray onto the table near the blooming cherry blossom tree and took a seat. Kayla sat beside me, and Nova slipped into the seat opposite us.

  Kayla put her elbows on the table, propping her head up with her hands. “So, what’s been happening in team Dark?”

  What could I say? Not a whole lot with Nova around or that I was physically able to.

  I shrugged, as I picked up my fork and knife. “Not much.”

  “Gurl, please,” Nova said. “She’s your sister. You can tell her the truth about what you learned in history today.”

  I raised a questioning brow at Nova. When she nodded, I whipped my head around to face Kayla. “Okay, so I found out why they call Lights, Leaches.”

  Her eyes bugged out. “You did? Tell me. Why?”

  Ever since we’d first heard it, we’d come up with a million reasons, and none of them were remotely close. “It’s because the Lights supposedly stole the Darks’ magic. So the Darks had to resort to forbidden magic and form an allegiance with the wolves and vampires for support, and that’s how they got their Familiars. And how they’ve gained their power.”