Night Shade Academy

by Kelly Carrero

  “So, this is Kayla,” Thomas said, with an easy grin.

  “Guess you don’t remember me.”

  “Nope. Only what Zalia has told me.”

  Putting the mug onto the coffee table, I said, “You know, Bishop could just be getting used like I was.”

  She snorted. “That guy has probably planned this all from the very beginning. Everything he showed you or told you was to manipulate you.”

  “We don’t know that,” I said.

  Still drying off her hair, she plumped herself down on a cushion beside me. “You need to stop being so forgiving. You didn’t know him before coming here, so he could’ve always been this conniving. If you ask me, the bastard deserves whatever he gets.”

  I could understand where she was coming from, and deep down I felt the same way. But that didn’t change the fact that I didn’t want to see the worst in people. After all, that was exactly what everyone in this place did with me.

  Maybe that was why I was being so forgiving. Was I just projecting my feelings onto Bishop? Whatever it was, I needed to stop.

  “Kayla’s right,” Thomas said. “Too many lives are at stake to worry about one person.”

  Again, that could’ve been said about me. But they were right. We needed to save everyone and whatever happened to Bishop would be.

  “Okay,” I said, getting my shit together. Removing the glamour spell I’d placed on the journal, I stood and grabbed it from the other side of the coffee table then returned to my seat. “We need to figure out where he is keeping them.” I opened the book and flipped through the pages, searching for something I’d seen the night before.”

  “Hold up,” Thomas said, doing a double take. “Wasn’t that just a… brush?”

  “Get used to it,” Kayla said. “She hides all her good things behind glamor spells.”

  She dropped the towel onto the table then curled her feet up and leaned against the beanbag, as she looked over my shoulder at the book. “Another empty book?”

  “Hasn’t Zalia told you?” Thomas asked.

  In all that had happened, I’d completely forgotten to fill her in on my Demon eyes.

  “Told me what?” Kayla asked, grabbing my coffee off the table and taking a sip.

  “Yours is up there.” I gestured toward the kitchen.

  She shrugged and took another sip.

  I shook my head. “Anyway. You know the message that—”

  “The one on the window in your bedroom?”

  “Yeah. Well, it turns out that I do have other eyes I can use to see, and Thomas taught me how to access them. And now I can read the words on these pages.”

  Her eyes practically popped out of her head. “Seriously?”

  I nodded. “But they look a little freaky.”

  “Way freaky,” Thomas said under his breath.

  “Let me see.”

  “Fair warning, my eyes go completely black.”

  “As in no whites at all,” Thomas added.

  Her eyes lit up with excitement. Kayla really should’ve been the Shadow Walker out of the two of us. “Let me see.”

  Focusing, I closed my eyes then opened them a few moments later, being able to see the wolf enveloping Thomas and dark smudges over Kayla that had me more than a little curious.

  “That is so freaking awesome,” she said, moving closer until she was only inches away from me, so she could get a better look. “They look so demonic.”

  “They are demonic,” I said, frowning as I reached toward the black smudges.

  She frowned when I poked her chest. “What are you doing?”

  “There’s…” I narrowed my eyes. “I can see this… almost soot like substance all over you, as if you were burned by fire.”

  Almost as soon as the words left my mouth, a rush of guilt swept over me. I feared I had done something to her. That part of my Demon side had brushed off on her—literally.

  I hadn’t seen her through these eyes before and tried to convince myself that all Lights had those marks. After all, they were the Leaches of our world. But something deep inside of me told me otherwise.

  She looked down at her chest and scrunched up her nose. “You’ve probably got some eye condition or something, because there is nothing there. I just had a shower. All clean.”

  I blinked hard, switching back to my normal vision. “Maybe.”

  The look in Thomas’s eyes told me different. He didn’t know much more about Shadow Walkers than me, but he appeared just as concerned as I was.

  “Definitely,” she said, grabbing the book off me. “So, what are we looking for?”

  I grabbed the book back from her. “You can’t see anything but I can.”

  Switching back to my Demon eyes, I scanned the pages. “I saw something in here about a Demon tracker.” A few moments later, I found it. “Here it is.”

  “You do know neither Thomas or I can see it.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I know.”

  “You didn’t mention anything about it last night,” Thomas said.

  I shrugged. “I didn’t think much of it because we thought it was Bethany doing all of this. I was going to ask Bishop about it, though.” I returned my gaze to the book. “It doesn’t say how it works; it only mentions a trinket and has a small drawing of it.”

  Kayla jumped up from the couch and raced into her room, returning a few moments later with a pencil and a sheet of paper. “Draw it for us.”

  I took the paper and placed it over the page then grabbed the pencil and copied the outline of it. Once I’d finished, I held it up for them both to see.

  Kayla’s eyes widened. “I’ve seen that before.”

  “What? Where?” I asked.

  “Well, you know how you jumped down my throat when we were in the vault, and I was supposed to be looking through the books. Well, you should be glad that I have such a short attention span. Because while I was stuffing around, avoiding the written word, I saw this thing amongst some other trinkets in the vault.”

  “Seriously?” I asked in disbelief.

  Kayla nodded. “At least I think so.” She glanced down at the picture again. “It’s not a very good drawing, but it kinda looks like the pendant I saw in the vault.”

  “We’re going to the vault?” Thomas asked.

  “Looks like it.” Snapping the journal closed, I stood. “It seems to be the place where Night Shade keeps all its secrets.”

  41

  We made our way into Bishop’s office then through the secret door and into the tunnels. Of course he wasn’t in his office, and there was still no sign of Bethany.

  “So, this is the place where you woke up after releasing a Demon?” Thomas asked, inspecting the vault door that I tried to open.

  “Yeah. And I’d like to know if Bishop controlled me or is being controlled because of me.”

  “I still say it doesn’t matter,” Kayla said, nervous energy bouncing off her as she glanced back down the tunnel.

  “What’s down there?” Thomas asked, pointing farther down the tunnel into an area we’d never gone before.

  Losing concentration, I frowned, wondering why I had never thought to ask. “I have no idea.”

  “Probably torture chambers,” Kayla said. “Or more secret doors throughout the school that all the faculty use to get around without the students knowledge.” She wiggled her brows up and down.

  I shook my head. That was so my sister.

  Once the ball of light had formed in my palms again, I flicked my hands out, throwing the magic into the door then manoeuvring it into the right formation. A second later, the lock clicked and the door released, swinging slightly open.

  Kayla was the first one through the door; she strode over to a shelf filled with various trinkets and artifacts, grabbing a pendant and spinning around to face me. “Is this it?”

  I gently took the pendant from her and inspected the cool blue crystal holding shadows within. “This is it. I can feel it.” I closed my fingers over it. “No
w, I just need to learn how to use it.”

  “Where’s the instructions?” Kayla asked.

  Thomas chuckled. “These Demon objects don’t generally come with a handbook.”

  She shrugged. “The Lights stuff does.”

  “That’s probably because the truly Dark objects shouldn’t be played with by those who don’t know how to use them.”

  I held my fist against my chest. “I’ve got an idea.”

  Without telling them where I was going, I raced out of the vault through the tunnel into Bishop’s office. Spotting the canister that had housed the level D Demon I’d released, I grabbed it off the shelf behind Bishop’s desk.

  As soon as I touched it, I could feel the negative energy radiating within. Bethany had been right. Whatever Demon it had held was one of the very worst.

  Switching over to my Demon eyes, I focused on the demonic energy and opened the palm of my hand, holding the crystal up to my eye level. Repeating the spell I’d used way too many times to find the TV remote, I prayed to the Gods that it would work.

  The shadows within the pendant began to shift, swirling to the right. I turned to the right and just as I’d hoped, the shadows changed direction. The pendant amplified the location spell, leading me to my desired object—or Demon in this case.

  Following the shadows, I raced back into the tunnels just as Kayla and Thomas were coming out. “This way.”

  Kayla groaned then the two of them jogged to catch up with me. We arrived back at the vault, the shadows pointing for us to continue on, past the point none of us had been.

  “Told you they were down this way,” Kayla said, puffing.

  “No you didn’t,” I replied, trying to ignore the fire building inside of me.

  “Ah, yeah I did. Remember what I said about the torture chambers?”

  “That’s not exactly saying the others were down there,” Thomas said.

  Kayla scoffed. “Yeah, it is. What else would they be—”

  “Shh,” I said, grabbing hold of her forearm. “I feel something.”

  “What?” she whispered. “You’re not about to erupt, are you?”

  I shook my head, even though I wasn’t too sure. “I think we’re getting close.” The demonic energy called to me, and it scared the hell out of me.

  “Are you okay?” Thomas asked, quietly.

  I nodded then continued. Coming to a fork in the tunnels, I took the one leading to the left then right. There were so many tunnels. The farther we went in, the deeper and more tunnels there were.

  But like a beacon in the night, the energy sang to me, drawing me closer, connecting with a primal part of me, as I followed the shadows within the pendant.

  Karma crawled across my shoulders then up to my neck, as if it were keeping an eye out for me from behind. My own little watchdog.

  My breathing became erratic, and the fire in me swelled to life. I stopped dead and held my finger up to my lips, telling them to be quiet and pointing toward an opening.

  Terror filled Kayla’s eyes as Thomas’s turned the richest shade of amber.

  A demonic screech ripped through the tunnels followed by screams from a human.

  This was it.

  42

  I turned to Kayla, about to tell her to wait there until it was safe for her to get in, free everyone, then get the hell out of there, when a bolt of ice shot toward us, fired from the hands of a Light, his brilliant white soul encasing him. It was almost the same color as the ice.

  With a flick of my hand, a wall of fire erupted in front of us, swirling around us, keeping us safely inside, as it melted the ice, the smell of sulfur almost choking us.

  I threw my arms out, sending the fire down the hall, destroying everything within its path, leaving only the three of us still standing, and one Light burned to crisp.

  Apparently, fire beats ice. Or at least my fire.

  Not waiting for me to go first, Thomas partially shifted and took off into the room.

  Shit.

  The guy was going to get himself killed going in there alone.

  “Wait here,” I told Kayla then followed Thomas.

  My black eyes widened as I took in the scene before me, trying to figure out what I was seeing, who the key players were that I needed to take out first, and where the hell my friends were. But my gaze remained on the Demon covered in blood, kneeling in the center of a large pentagram carved into the stone floor. His black eyes faced a dark hole in the stone ceiling, his mouth open and demonic screeches pouring out, being answered by whatever lay beyond.

  This was straight out of my dream.

  Tearing my gaze away from the monstrous form, I focused on the bodies hanging upside down from ropes attached to the ceiling, their wrists slit, and blood dripping down into the grooves of the pentagram.

  My heart leaped into my throat the second I saw the black hair and snake wrapped around the wrist belonging to my friend.

  Nova.

  Seeing her hanging there, like an animal, draining of blood did something to me. It was almost the same thing that had happened to Kayla. The very thing Bishop was responsible for.

  I desperately searched for Hunter. But he was nowhere to be seen, and I prayed that was because he was somewhere safe for now and hadn’t already had his life stolen from him.

  A rage like I’d never experienced before took life inside of me, sending Karma into a flurry of energy, scooting around my shoulders and neck.

  Every single person hanging from the ceiling was critical, knocking on death’s door. Thomas was in over his head, and Kayla was standing outside, not having the knowledge or power to save herself.

  It was all up to me.

  And I couldn’t fail them. I wouldn’t fail them.

  A volt of energy hit me in the back, knocking me to my hands and knees. I twisted my head around and saw another volt coming my way. I rolled to the side, coming back up on one knee and a foot, then threw a ball of fire at the Dark Witch, cloaked in a midnight blue hooded cape, her hands outstretched, getting ready for her next attack.

  But she was too slow. And she knew it.

  The look in her eyes just before the fire hit would forever haunt me. She screamed as the fire swirled around her then she went quiet. The fire dissolved, leaving nothing but a pile of ashes on the floor.

  An ear-piercing howl ripped through the air. I snapped my attention to the far right side of the room where Thomas was getting to his feet, his head tilted up to the ceiling, and his mouth open, letting the haunting sound flow from his lips. I had no idea if he was calling to his pack or what.

  For a split second, it dawned on me that I didn’t know who his pack were. I really knew nothing about him other than he was risking his life to help others. Plus, he wore unicorn socks, so that made him a soul-brother in my eyes.

  He leapt to his feet and lunged toward another hooded Witch, snapping his fangs into his neck, exposing his face to me. It was another unknown Light, his ice-blue soul shining brightly, a stark contrast to the evil monster he really was.

  Feeling a tug against my skin from Karma, I turned just in time to see a dark storm of clouds with glistening white specks underneath spreading across the floor by the hands of two Darks.

  Narrowing my eyes, I realized the specks were ice hiding under the shadows of the dark clouds. But I couldn’t see who was the Witch responsible for the attack.

  Taking out the two Darks with a small fireball, I tried to search for the ice Witch, but there was too much smoke everywhere, and the ice was getting dangerously close. Just before it licked my shoes, I jumped into the air, instinctively grabbing onto the ceiling with my freakish new ability.

  Sweeping my gaze across the room, I found a cloaked Witch huddled in the corner, her eyes trained on me.

  Pressing my palm against the ceiling, I released a stream of fire, shooting across the stones, spreading down the walls, engulfing the Witch, and turning her into a pile of ash. A second later, the ropes tied to the beams on the ceiling s
napped, the blood sacrifices falling to the floor with a thump, barely audible moans coming from them, revealing just how weak they were.

  The ceiling began to shake as the dark hole above the Demon widened, showing a portal to another world. Lightening cracked from within as a dark, shadowy mass slipped into the room, followed by another and another. Once inside they slithered to the corners and disappeared.

  They were Demons, and that hole was a portal to their realm.

  I crawled across the ceiling to the middle of the room, concentrating all my energy as I reached toward the Demon in the center of the pentagram, a ball of white light with shadows mixed through it formed in my hand. I gripped the beam to support myself, as I tried to control the energy I was about to release in the form of one big, lightning bolt into the Demon’s head.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  I snapped my head toward the voice I knew all too well. Bishop.

  My heart stopped, freezing me to the spot when I saw Bishop standing behind a very gaunt looking Hunter. His eyes were sunken with dark rims around them; he’d been battered and drugged, and his skin was as pale as a ghost. But what was worse was the knife Bishop had pressed against his throat and the thin trail of blood dripping down his neck.

  Hunter’s weary gaze locked with mine, a million messages contained within, but one more so than the others.

  Tears pooled in my eyes as I shook my head, telling him there was no way I was going to let him die. No one was dying on my watch, let alone him. The one guy who truly understood me; the one who held a huge chunk of my heart.

  “Do it,” Hunter said, his voice barely a whisper.

  Bishop pressed the knife in harder, turning the thin line of blood into a thicker stream. Any harder and it would be fatal.

  Defeated, I was about to call back the ball of energy in my hand when a searing pain stabbed me in the back of my neck, and a dark shadow slipped out, taking the form of a massive black beast, molten lava burning through the cracks on its skin.

  It was Karma, live in the flesh.