by S. L. Morgan
A wall of green liquid was thrusting up from out of the ground and pouring down from the sky. It was sheer liquid slime, and it was oozing darkness that prevented my wolf from going any farther. I went to get around it, but my wolf—with a damn mind of her own—took off the way we came up the trail. She raced back through the fairy quest and bounded back to the school where I noticed no further magic was being siphoned.
The moon was large, yellow, and ominous. Evil was heading our way, and Dominic had just chased it off. God only knew if he’d come back or just feed this shit even more. We already lost Vannah, so we needed Dom more than ever, and now, I had no idea what the hell to do next.
What would the next day at school bring? There was no covering this shit up. Witches were without their magic, and the school couldn’t cover this up like they did so well with the death of the immortals.
Damn it, Dominic, you better come back to us, I thought as I shifted back and looked down to see myself wearing the clothes that I had left my dorm in. Well, if I was going to get roasted by some contorted and evil beast in the water, at least I figured out the coolest shifter technique ever…shifting back into natural form with clothes on. Score one point for Jenna. I’m sure the Guardians will be so proud when they show up to kill us all because I only managed to figure out how to shift out of wolf form and not be naked after doing so.
We needed more help. This was getting bad and fast, and I had no idea if I could keep up.
Chapter Thirty-One
I walked into my dorm room to find everyone in there with panicked looks on their faces. Finley was the only one who looked as if she’d stared death in the face and kicked in its teeth. Thank God someone in here wasn’t completely freaked out. I needed some stability, even if Finley was a bit savage about things.
“So, this is the deal,” Scott approached me, “we all saw some dark shadow figures in separate areas of our dorms.”
“What the hell?” I said, understanding their looks now.
“Yes,” Lusa said. “We seem to have seen the same thing. It was a tall figure with a hat on. It felt diabolical.”
“They shouldn’t have felt anything,” Vannah said. “My magic had them cloaked from all of that.”
“Maybe their senses were naturally picking up on it, unlike last time when everyone was pretty much possessed by all of this dark shit,” I said.
“We were?” Ian answered.
“I don’t know exactly how many were. I just knew my friends acted like a bunch of fruit loops and were definitely not themselves. Finley and Dom were the only ones outside of the school when all hell came after it. Then, I met with an oracle after trying to go get help, and her only answer was reversing time somehow—along with all of your memories—all while Dom went after it with Ethan and beat it.”
“What are you talking about?” Finley asked. “I don’t remember anything about Dom and me picking up on bad energy.”
I crossed my arms, “Alright, let me fill you all in on this part of the nightmare that lurks at this school.”
No one said a word as I laid out the hard facts of everything, starting from the oracle entering mine and Dom’s lives when we were toddlers, and moving into what my birth mom was now, the fact that the school was being used by some evil force that wanted to take over everything, and everything else that we knew and had hidden from them up until now. The silence in the room was deafening but expected.
Tanner’s face was white, and I felt horrible for introducing him to the dark side this way.
“You okay, Tan-Man?” I rubbed his shoulder after walking to where he stood, blank-faced, next to Vannah.
“Jenna, none of this can be true. These are all myths and stories you were fed by—” he stopped.
“By what, Tan?” I questioned his denial and treating me like I was a crazy freak. “Fed to me by my dreams?” I asked.
“Shifters don’t dream.”
“No shit,” Scott said with annoyance.
“Take it easy on him, Scott. This is all news to him,” I snapped. “He’s responding like everyone else at this school would if we brought them in on this madness.” I sighed, looking at Tanner who would trust me even if I were lying to him, “The difference with Tanner is that he’s one of my best friends, and he’s going to accept it a whole hell of a lot easier than strangers we don’t even know.”
“She’s right,” Vannah validated my statement. “Tanner trusts Jenna with his life. If he’s struggling with it, then how do we expect the rest of the school to react when we try to get them to team up against this?”
“They’re all going to think we’ve lost our minds,” Lusa confirmed.
“It’s just overwhelming,” Tanner said. “Maybe it’s too much too fast.”
“It was too much too fast when I saw the fox shifter dead, Tan. It was too much when I internally battled and locked a demon spawn up in my mind. When—”
“I get it,” Tanner interrupted me. “Seriously, I do.” He let out a breath. “You were all saying that we needed to be protected by Jenna when she got back. What about that?”
“Right.” Vannah looked at me, “We can’t waste time with this. Jenna, my magic isn’t protecting these guys anymore. Do you think you can cloak them?”
“With witch magic?” I asked, overwhelmed by how fast all of this was moving. “I’ve been working with fairy charms, not my witch side.” I covered my mouth, “You guys, my witch genetics are locked in behind the fairy stuff.”
“Fairies can cast illusions,” Melanie offered.
“Not good enough,” Vannah said. “We need a shield of protection. Only witches can cast those spells.” She looked at me again. “You can tap into your witch magic, it’s what you’ve already done before.”
“The magic ball in my hand?” I asked with more confusion than ever.
“Yes,” Vannah nodded and smiled. “Can you conjure up that power and spell us with some form of protection?”
“I hate that word…conjure,” I groaned.
“It’s what witches do. It’s what you have to do with those particular genes,” Vannah said while everyone sat quietly. I could feel their intense emotions, waiting to see if I could help them. They needed a shield spelled by me.
“Gah,” I growled. “I don’t even know which door that magic is hidden behind.”
“Door?” Ian looked at me as if I were as crazy as Melanie before I blasted her with the irreversible, sweet leprechaun charm.
“Yeah, that’s how I see it in my mind’s eye. It’s how shifters see our beasts when we’re in our natural forms. Only now, I don’t see only see her. I also see where my other genetics are stored.”
“Wow,” Finley coughed out. “Well, girlfriend, go find the witchy door and open that sucker up. If you can’t help protect us, there’s a pretty good chance that shadow figure we all saw will hunt us down and turn us against you too.”
“Yeah, that’s my luck,” I responded, and then I closed my eyes.
Here we were, my wolf and me, doing precisely what Finley mocked, hunting down door number four…Jenna’s witch genes. I decided to order my wolf to help, and while doing that, I internally pulled my fairy magic out and thrust it toward the wolf, giving her guidance on where we needed to go to get these witch genes unlocked.
That’s when I sensed the witch genes. They weren’t hidden behind a door. They had been lying dormant but were now wide awake with my frustration, anger, and the fact that I was figuring out how to utilize most of these fairy genes. There were no colors, just feelings, and power came to me as my wolf dropped her head, watching me absorb this internal power of mine. I ignored how bizarre it all was and focused on taking in all of the witch-side of my genes that I could. It was surreal. I felt like I’d cracked a code to spells and they would answer whatever I wanted without any crazy chanting.
I was juiced up, and I felt it, but strangely enough, having the witch genes alive and well shut down the damn fairy powers. Before I could mentally head toward
door number one to try to access the flood of power behind it, I was facing everyone in the room.
“You’re all cloaked,” I said while willing the spell to cover them and protect them. “Did it work?”
Vannah grinned, “Perfectly.”
“Alright,” Scott said. “Now that we’re all taken care of, where’s Dominic and Ethan?”
“I already told you, he took off after that spirit-woman who was coming after us both. Ethan’s planning shit in the oracle realm, and so we’re all left here to figure out what to do next.”
“Great.” Finley looked at the master shifters, “The sun rises in two hours. We’re all protected, so let’s go about everything as usual unless the school puts us on lockdown or something.”
“Great idea,” I said.
“Melanie,” Ian eyed the silent leprechaun, “You’re awfully quiet, and that makes me nervous.”
“I’m thinking,” she answered.
“She’s fine,” I confirmed, picking up on the fact that Melanie was trying to figure out how she’d handle all the fairies if they’d gone dark when the witches lost their magic.
“You sure?” Tanner asked.
“I’m positive. She’s got to get out of here.” I looked at her, “Play along if they somehow turned into evil bastards overnight. We need you to let us know if we’re about to fight off a bunch of twisted fairies.”
“We don’t stand a chance against all of those things if that’s the case,” Lusa said. “And what about the vampires?”
“Listen,” I said calmly, “Vannah’s shield went down about an hour or two ago, and all you saw was that shadow creep lurking in the halls. It didn’t make a move on any of you, and all of you are excellent targets, being that you’re all strong and in powerful positions,” I said to the master shifters. “We will all go through this day like nothing’s happened. We need Dom back, yes, but we may have to fight this battle sooner rather than later. Dom’s life could be at risk, and I’m not sure he can shift back. I was barely into the fairy spell to reverse what I’d done to him when he chased that spirit-woman off.”
“Alright, then,” Ian said. “All of us will stay chill, but our next plan is to start informing students about what’s going on.” Ian looked at me, “If we bring them to you, do you think you can shield them like you did us?”
“I have to,” I answered. “We just have to hope I have the strength to do it. All of this is unnatural to me. I feel like I’m trying to navigate a maze in the freaking dark.”
Vannah nodded, “You’ve got this, Jenna. Just stay focused.”
“What if she could cloak everyone from here?” Tanner said.
“Are you trying to kill me?” I answered. “I wouldn’t even know where to start with a spell like that. You’re all lucky I managed this one.”
“Let’s get out of here, guys,” Finley ordered. “We’ll deal with it as it comes. Let’s try to start recruiting students and professors before this evil gets to them.” She shuffled Scott and Ian toward the door, “See you at training, Jenna.”
“Alright,” I answered, then turned to my friends. “We’ve got this,” I said with certainty, forcing out any negative thoughts about what Dominic could be going through from my head. “See you at breakfast.”
The next few hours were spent with me trying to maintain my positive mindset and stay hopeful that things would be partially normal when I reported to Scott’s unit. Wishful thinking never got a supernatural far, but right now, I was holding onto that.
I stopped and stood in shock when I saw Dom’s unit lined up, and I had to force myself to remain calm when I saw him for the first time since I’d screwed him with my magic.
He’s back! Holy shit, he was back like nothing had ever happened. What the hell?
“Silvers! Get in formation,” he ordered.
I jogged up to stand at the back of one of his rows.
“Up front, Silvers,” Dom’s Master Dominic voice barked. “You’re late,” he said, but I felt no emotion coming from him. His damn glasses shielded his eyes from me, and I had no idea what had happened to bring him back, or if it was really him.
“Yes, sir,” I muttered.
Dom’s lips pulled up on one side. “It’s great to be back with my unit again,” he said, moving to stand in front of me. “I’d like to know how it is that while I’m off working a quest, my strongest shifter becomes so lazy, late, and inconsiderate. Do I blame Master Scott for this, or do I blame you for taking advantage of my absence?”
“My fault, Master Dominic.”
“I appreciate your honesty,” he said, “but you’re still going on that miserable fairy quest once it’s confirmed by the school. You’ll lead the unit. I didn’t spend a week out there in wolf form for the fun of it.”
Dom’s lips twitched, and I instantly felt his signal that it was him, and he was back by some miracle. I would get filled in later on what had happened, but thank God he was back.
How is it that I had no idea how to get a read on him or his wolf? Why didn’t—
“Silvers,” Dom said with annoyance in his voice, marching down an aisle behind where I stood, “let’s keep our focus on today’s drills, shall we?”
Dom made it sound like he was just being an asshole by singling me out after I showed up late, but he was dropping clues that he was with me, and my mind was dumping all my questioning thoughts into his. I turned to where Scott stood in front of his unit, and noticed all of the other masters standing in front of their groups like robots, waiting for their instructor’s order to command their armies.
“Bring them in,” Dominic said as he reached the front of our unit.
Orders were barked by Scott, Ian, and Finley as they lead their shifters to join into formation with ours. I noticed Professor Samson at that point as Dom walked over to him while the other master shifters stood quietly at attention with their arms behind their backs.
“What the hell is going on?” I whispered to Tanner, who was at my side.
“You haven’t heard?” Bradley whispered from behind me.
“No,” I answered, seriously confused. We had all this shit planned a few hours ago, and now, the shifters looked like they were lining up to go to battle.
“Most of IA’s witches don’t have their powers anymore. They think IA was blindly attacked by a dark coven last night.”
I turned back to Bradley. “That’s what they’re saying?”
“That’s what they think, I guess.”
“Jenna, turn around,” Tanner whispered. “We’ll talk about it later.”
“Now that all of you are in formation,” Dominic addressed the group after a firm nod to an extremely serious Professor Samson, “you will all learn very quickly that even though IA appears to have been attacked overnight by some rogue witch coven, all of the shifters were left alone.”
He pulled his glasses off, hooked them onto his collar, and his silver-brimmed, alpha eyes went directly to mine. He was back, and he was pissed. He knew shit was going down, and I knew my man was going to find a way to unite the shifters so that we were prepared for anything.
The guy was a genius, using his role as head master to bring the units together and prepare us for the storm. The students wouldn’t question his sanity. They would do exactly what I was doing, feeding off of his dominant and pissed-off energy because the school was attacked.
“As shifters, it’s our job to ensure we’re not caught off guard by anything,” he said as he paced in front of the lines, his voice booming over the crowd of students who were lined up in front of him. “In my opinion, witches who attack their own and do something as unimaginable as stealing magic—well, that’s unheard of, and it’s reprehensible.” He stopped and spun on his heel, marching the other direction. “But if we are foolish enough to disregard how evil any rogue supernatural could be, then we’re the next target. So, with that said, all of us will start focusing on our fighting skills for the first hour of drills this morning. We will shift and focu
s intently on our inner beasts who will work to protect us should the shifters be targeted next.”
“What’s going on?” I heard a panicked voice cry out.
Dom walked over to Finley, and she whispered something into his ear. Dom nodded and turned to Finley’s part of the unit. “Grady?” he asked in his Master Dom voice. “I don’t want to hear you or any of you question me when I order you into skill exercises for your own protection. You can easily see that IA experienced a breach overnight. I returned an hour ago to find that all of us are vulnerable, and it is my responsibility as the head master shifter to ensure all of you are prepared and ready if our kind is attacked. I don’t want questions. I want determination from all of you. Now, find your partner, and get into attack formation. We will work our skills while protecting our minds, starting right now. Get to it!”
Dom finished with his usual resounding order that essentially called to shifters and mandated they follow his command. He was using all of this to prep the shifters for the impending attack.
I went into fighting drills with Tanner, wishing I knew everything Dom had seen with that spirit-woman, and what he learned when he came back. I’d find out later. The critical part was that Dominic was taking advantage of his power, and at least we’d have the shifters in this fight now that the school was turning its focus on the students.
We may have had Dom doing this sneaky trick to gain the allies of all the shifters, but the fairies were a whole different subject. If those jerks were dark and affected overnight like the witches were, we had a whole different battle on our hands.
“Stop thinking, Silvers,” Dom’s voice rang through my head. “We’re focusing only on our combat skills because we will need them.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
After a grueling workout of fighting and pushing my wolf harder than I ever had, I wanted to collapse in the hot shower, and call it a day. I could tell that Dom didn’t come back with good news from his week-long search for the source of evil. In fact, it was all bad, and all that was consuming my mind was the fact that if we had these damn wolves merged, we’d be able to handle this.
