Sticks & Stones Spell Werewolf Bones: A Why Choose Academy Romance

by Rae Stapleton

  Sticks & Stones Spell Werewolf Bones

  A Reverse Harem Romance

  Midnight Arcanum Academy

  Book 1: Ink Saves Lives When Undead Rise

  Book 2: Don’t Upset the Necromancer’s Pet

  Book 3: Sticks & Stones Spell Werewolf Bones

  Book 4: Beasties that Roam Can’t Go Home

  RAE STAPLETON & DAPHNE McDEVITT

  ______________________________

  Copyright © 2019 Rae Stapleton

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is coincidental.

  Contents

  PROLOGUE

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  1

  2

  About the Authors

  PROLOGUE

  HATE CLIQUE

  L ennon Sidhe stood in the dorm hallway of the Arcanum Academy for the Supernatural’s Midnight Campus—one of the most prestigious schools in the magical university system—tapping the toe of her Stuart Weitzman Cinderella Slippers. The booties were—thanks to the three thousand Swarovski crystals—blindingly cool, just like her and, bonus, they set off the myriad colors that made up her hair. The Fae were all about pastels and shimmer. They were also about dishing out fate, so where the hell was her clique? She couldn’t believe the nerve of her underlings, making her wait? She was royal for queen’s sake—the only royal in attendance. Well, the only royal who mattered anyway.

  She caught a glimpse of Farrah and Gwen coming around the corner, giggling as they leisurely walked toward her. They were the other two original clique members. Except they were late. Again.

  “Are you kidding me? You’re late because you were climbing the scales of a couple of dragon shifters?”

  “Dammit, Lennon. I told you to stay out of my head.” Farrah cried.

  “I picked that up from Gwen’s head, not yours.”

  “S-sorry, Lady Sidhe,” Gwen mumbled.

  “And you—it’s written all over your face—wipe it off. On second thought,” Lennon said as she flicked her fingers in Farrah’s direction. A beautiful light beamed and hit Farrah’s chin.

  “Oww. That burned, Lenn.”

  She bared her teeth. “You’re lucky that’s all I burned. Do not make me wait again. Do you understand.”

  “Forgive me, my lady.”

  Lennon stared at Farrah, probing her brain to detect if there was a hidden sneer in her statement. Not finding one, she turned to walk toward the end of the hall just as Marigold came running.

  “Why are we at the wolf’s door, Lennon?” Marigold asked.

  Lennon rolled her eyes, wondering why she’d asked Marigold to join the Fate Clique. Oh yes, because it was always good policy to have members to sacrifice if necessary. She was so tired of outcasts and half-breeds. Why they started accepting supernatural trash at the academy, she would never understand. Now, for the outcast at hand …

  “Thank you so much, Marigold, for announcing us to the hairball.”

  “I-I’m s-sorry. Do you need to be near to read her mind?”

  “N-no, I d-don’t. Seriously, did you develop a stutter? I already know her fear just as I know the fear of everyone at this school, including yours, Marigold. So afraid I’ll kick you out of the clique. So afraid I’ll ask you to do something you aren’t prepared to do. Why do I even keep you around?” Lennon tapped a diamond encrusted nail on her chin. “Did you get what I asked for from the chemistry lab?”

  “The silver? N-not yet. Did you want it already? I thought I had a bit of time,” Marigold whined.

  “Must I do everything myself?” Lennon asked through clenched teeth.

  “No! I’ll do it right now. I’ll find a way,” Marigold said.

  “Go. Now. I’m losing my patience with the lot of you.” She watched as Marigold scurried away, then smirked at the other two before turning to the door.

  “Hey furball! I have a little poem for you,” Lennon sing-songed. “Do you wanna hear it?”

  “Is she even in there?” Gwen asked.

  “Oh, the howling fleabag is most certainly in there. I can smell her hairy ass and hear the terror in her head from here. Can’t you? I mean, you’re both Fae too.”

  Gwen hung her head in shame. Ugh. Lennon hated to hear her self-loathing. It was so pathetic. “Oh, relax, Gwen. It’s probably ‘cause I’m royalty or whatever that I’m so much better than you. Anyway, back to why we’re here.” Lennon huffed before continuing. “What an opportune boon, to know of something the Howls are not immune, stay tuned, very soon, very soon.”

  1

  Midnight Witch

  “M ags! Get your ass out of bed. You missed history—we had a test on ancient runes.” I shouted as I barged into her dorm room, it was next door to mine. I’m Evangeline Midnight, yeah one of those Midnights and I was three months into my freshman year at the Academy. “What the hell are you doing? I’ve heard of mental health days but what’s with the tomb?” Maggie Howl didn’t usually sleep in total darkness. For a werewolf, she was kind of a softie. She had one of those bed canopy’s with fairy lights and the little twinkles were almost always on. Apparently, she was even too depressed to care about her fear of the dark. It was the damn Fate Clique. They were these older girls who loved to torture us freshman. I was fine with a little self-pity, but it was time to get her out of this funk.

  “Are you expecting some mosquitos, girl?” I teased, noticing the tulle shroud she had going on. What the—” I hit the power button of my cell phone to see what I’d just tripped over—a pillow. “Time to get up, sleepy head,” I said sweetly, as I walked across the room to the window and threw open her curtains. I absolutely hated it when my own mother did this to me but sometimes it was necessary. “Maggie! What are you playing at?” I’d turned and from what I could see, she’d turned her head to face away from me. Her thick sable hair peeking out from under the edge of the netting. Suddenly, I had a bad, bad feeling. “What’s that smell?” I asked as I inched closer. My heart was pounding. I pulled back a swath of the tulle and jumped back in shock.

  Maggie was lying on her back on the bed, hands and feet tied to the headboard and footboard. Her head was facing the right side, so I walked around the bed to check her pulse, noticing how raw her wrists and ankles were. I felt my knees buckle. She was wearing the most agonizing look. I didn’t need to check for a pulse. From my new position, I could see her open eyes staring directly at me with
a look of both condemnation and terror. “No, Maggie, no,” I whispered, sobs bubbling under my breath.

  Her lips and a portion of her cheek were gone—they were just no longer there. Instead she wore a rictus smile of horror. The absolute horror of the situation hit me like a freight train. “Oh, Maggie. You weren’t just murdered, you were tortured.”

  Suddenly, someone had a pillow over my face or at least it felt like that. All I could get were quick and short breaths. I bent forward with my hands on my hips. “Air!” I gasped, hurrying to Maggie’s window only to remember it had never opened. Shit! I couldn’t see straight. I was suffocating. I was going to die in here with that thing. I shook my head. No, not a thing. That was my friend, Maggie.

  Calm down, Midnight! I could hear Colten Ryu’s voice playing in my head. You’ve been trained for moments like this. This was a panic attack. Focusing on my ribcage I started to monitor the air going in and out. Counting to ten as I inhaled and exhaled, my vision returned to normal. With every breath, I tried to relax until eventually it worked. I grabbed a tissue out of my backpack to wipe away the tears. I’d stopped here directly after class before going to my own room. Taking a deep breath, I pulled out my phone to call Baudouin Remoussin—Bodhi. Second in command of the Monster Squad after Professor Demas Batavian, the director. That’s when someone knocked.

  “Miss Howl, I have a message for you.”

  More knocking. It sounded like the headmistress. Shit! I have to get out of here. I ran and closed the curtains and then placed the tulle exactly back as I’d found it. I couldn’t breathe, terrified of how it would look to be discovered at the scene of a crime.

  “Miss Howl? I know you aren’t well, but this is urgent.”

  That’s when I heard the key in the lock. Dammit. I looked around for a place to hide, one that would do the least amount of damage to the scene. The closet was my only option. Using my tissue, I carefully opened the door and ducked in, leaving it open a crack.

  Headmistress Barnabus walked in hesitantly. “Miss Howl, I’m truly sorry for disturbing you but your father―Miss Howl, there’s no need to be rude.” She walked to the other side as I had. “He’s sending―Oh my God.” I had never seen a vampire cross herself before but that’s exactly what she did. “Oh no, no, no.” Then the screaming started, and she ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

  Stepping out of the closet, I took a couple of deep breaths and realized my mistake. Now the odor was in my nostrils and it was decay. I startled myself out of staring. How long had I stood there? Shit! I needed to get out of here now before she returned. I slipped from the room as fast as possible, pausing for one last look at my best friend—my only friend here at the Academy.

  “I’m sorry, Maggie. I promise, I’ll find out who did this to you.”

  2

  The Gargoyle

  C olten Ryu separated from the rest of the team and headed for the living room of Hideaway House—their own private crime-fighting mansion. Like Batman’s Wayne Manor if, say, Batman were a five-headed hellhound who’d been disbanded for failing to guard the gates of the underworld. Or rather demoted into a supernatural unit charged with tracking down monsters on behalf of the Supernatural Society. Okay, so maybe not exactly like Batman.

  Colten carried the flowers he’d snipped from the island gardens. Evangeline loved fresh flowers. She said flowers made a house a home. Colten didn’t exactly understand what that meant, ‘cause he was happiest when surrounded by stone pinnacles, sharply pointed spires, and ribbed vaults, but she was his girl and what Evie wanted, Evie got.

  He grabbed the empty crystal vase from the fireplace mantle and jammed the bouquet inside. “There!” he said, proud of himself.

  “Don’t forget the water!” Zephyr shouted.

  “Aww, shit,” Colten replied dejectedly and handed the vase to Zephyr, who carried it down the hall to the kitchen. Colten was terrible at this emotional human stuff. Even their plants were needy.

  With Evangeline starting at the Arcanum Academy for the Supernatural, the team had decided a closer home base was necessary in case Evie needed them, so they’d moved to the Thousand Islands region of the St. Lawrence Seaway—a simple twenty-minute boat ride away. Sure, there was a portal in the library of New York’s Midnight campus that could be used to transport home to New Orleans, but what if some supernatural mastermind broke the portals like what had been done at the Midnight Plantation. No member of the team was willing to find out.

  Frustrated at his inability to remember normal human nuances, Colten pulled back the black velvet drapes and allowed the early-morning sunshine to stream in through the mansion’s multipaned window, causing about a gazillion dust motes to fly through the air. “Shit!” He pulled them shut—he was more of a night-time guy anyway. He’d have slept in a crypt if they let him—it reminded him of home.

  “Achoo!” Zephyr Milano, the fifth member and youngest of their group, sneezed as he entered the room. “I think we need to get live-in cleaners.”

  “No way, stupid. No outside threats allowed,” Baudoin Remoussin said, trailing in next to the blonde mage, Eleutian Dupre III.

  “Nice, Bodhi. Name-calling, really?” Zephyr retorted. “What are we? Thirteen. I wasn’t suggesting we hire an explosives expert or anything, just a mortal live-in cleaner who could pitch in. Besides, you know I’ve been working with an agency, vetting potential help.”

  “Well, I don’t like it. What’s wrong with things the way they are?” Baudoin said, leaning back and resting his feet on the coffee table.

  Unfortunately, he was still wearing his heavy-duty black motorcycle boots. They went so well with his really bad attitude. Something Colten could relate too. Two rotten peas in a pod.

  “This is what’s wrong,” Zephyr said picking up a clump of mud and grass that had fallen onto the table below. “You’re a pig!”

  “How dare you? I am the very essence of medieval legends.”

  “Please, you’re a fire breather.”

  “Says the lowly vampire.”

  Bodhi, can you take your goddamned boots off already,” Colten cursed, “You sound like an old married couple, and this is our home now—like it or not.”

  “Not,” Bodhi retorted as he jumped to his feet. All six feet two inches of muscled man reared back, on guard and wary. They were all spoiling for a fight lately.

  “Cool it, guys,” Demas said, coming into the room. “I get it. Nobody’s happy with the current arrangement. Zephyr, you work on a solution, whatever you decide is fine by me—which means us. Whether that’s hiring an outside company, a live-in cook, or creating a schedule and a set of rules to which we will all adhere. Right, Bodhi?”

  “Fine. Sorry,” Bodhi said while pacing back and forth. “Ignore me. I’m just grumpy. The fact that the society makes us return to New Orleans on Friday mornings for that incessant tracker meeting before Evie is done for the day drives me crazy. I don’t know why she couldn’t have just gone to the New Orleans campus of the Arcanum Academy.”

  “Bodhi, we’ve been over this,” Demas sighed. “The New York campus is the most prestigious school of magic in the world right now, and not only that, it was founded by her family. You know this. Why must you fight everything?”

  “Right. So, just because some ancestor of hers laid a few bricks here.”

  Demas glared and Colten suddenly wondered if he was gonna have to jump in between them.

  “Do not insult her ancestors,” Demas growled. “The original Midnights were architecturally gifted. Do you know what that means?”

  “Of course, I know what that means. They could create and manipulate building materials using magic. Big deal.”

  “Big deal, yes. It means their magic signature literally fills the place. Not to mention Aurora and Briar still fund it, and we were able to institute a new Monster Tracking course—one that will benefit Evangeline.”

  “Fine. I get it. She has to go here. So, why make us go home to New Orleans every Friday
for meetings? Why don’t they come here? What if something happens one of these mornings? The point of being in New York is to be close to her in case of emergency.”

  “Calm down. You know, you can sense her location,” Colten said, “If something happens, we can track her down.”

  I guess. I’ll be glad when she’s done school. This is driving me crazy.”

  “Face it, Remoussin. You and crazy will always be intimate friends when it comes to Midnight, school or no.” Colton smirked just as Bodhi’s phone rang. He loved getting under the dragon’s scales.

  “Shit! What do they want?” Bodhi said before picking up the call, “Remoussin, here. You got a body for us?” He answered, impolite as usual.

  Colten watched Bodhi’s face transform into a scowl, not much different than normal. He could always tell the news was bad when Bodhi’s fist clenched. He was going into dragon mode.

  Bodhi hung up and immediately started pacing. “I knew it! I called it!”

  “Don’t look now, but I think there’s trouble in paradise,” Colten said. He knew what was coming next—they all did. The red eyes, the scales and the breaking of shit and there was a lot of expensive equipment in here now.

  “Do not—” Demas shouted belatedly as he turned away from the tall windows, but his voice trailed off as he watched Bodhi chuck his phone across the room like a shotput. Sadly, it took out the crystal vase full of lilies that Zephyr had just set down. The innocent vase and the phone were both smashed into thousands of pieces.

  “Damn it, Bodhi. You almost took off my head,” Zephyr yelled.

  “Not my fault. You’re getting slow in your old age.” This would have all been comical to an outsider, considering Zephyr was a vampire who barely aged, and moved at the speed of light, but to Colten it was just the same old shit.

  Demas took a deep breath. “Bodhi, how many phones is that now?”

  “A better question would be: why in the hell does Evie have to live in that damn dorm?” Bodhi railed.

  “You know everyone who attends has to live on-site their first term. We’ve been over this! We were lucky to get special dispensation allowing her to stay with us on the weekends. They have never before allowed that. At least terms are only six months.”