by S. L. Morgan
Immortal Academy
Year Two
S.L. Morgan
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Afterword
About the Author
Also by S.L. Morgan
1
The school year had finished, and I actually had hope that everyone would be safe until we got out of here or we found a way to fix the darkness that was apparently sleeping at this place, once and for all.
I couldn’t allow myself to think about the evil shadow creep who was locked up in my mind, stuck in a memory of that room of horrors where I saw them kill the fox shifter, Jess, and that’s exactly where that thing was going to stay…in a memory somewhere in my brain. A memory that wouldn’t resurface because now was the last time I was going to think about what they did to Jess.
“Babe,” Dom said. His voice was honestly one of the most soothing sounds in the entire world to me. I couldn’t explain it, but I knew every part of the sexy man called to me and my wolf, and I accepted it. I just wish I had my memories back, so I could grasp how this whole love relationship formed at my previous school, Dark Water Academy. “Jen,” I heard the laugh in his voice when he used the nickname I hated, and it was only allowed to be used by him, because, for some reason, it felt right.
“Yes,” I finally answered as I swallowed my last bite of rib-eye steak and smiled at Dom’s amused expression.
“I swear, I don’t know how you two do it,” Finley, one of the master shifters, said with a sparkle in her green eyes.
Dom laughed. “She’s my girl, that’s how we do it.” He discreetly pressed his lips to the side of my hair—his new favorite thing— and inhaled deeply. “God, you smell good. I’ll be right back. What should I get for you this time, two or three slices of apple pie?”
“After surviving the master’s quest with all these other shifters?” I licked my lips, my mouth now watering. “I’ll throw down three pieces, easy.”
“Back in a sec.”
“Girl, I have no idea how I didn’t see it coming,” my bestie, Vannah, the witch, said.
“See what coming, me craving an entire pie?”
“You and Dominic Rossi.” She rested her chin against her hand. “You falling head over heels for each other like this.” Vannah laughed, prompting the entire group at the table to laugh with her.
Well, everyone at the table aside from the Dom followers and chicks who were obsessed with the alpha wolf shifter…those girls were definitely far from amused. All I got from them were evil glares, but that was sort of the norm now. The hate club, which was not isolated to this one table, started up directly after Dom and I became an item. It was more hardcore now that we weren’t fake dating because we were all in now, and it was pretty obvious. So, I decided to let the haters hate and did my best to ignore it.
“It took me by surprise too, but I’m not complaining,” I responded.
“I swear, Jenna,” Tanner, my best guy friend, said with a laugh. “You two act like you just got back from your honeymoon.”
“Give it a break, Tan-man,” I grinned. “We’re a couple, you don’t need to take it to that extreme. Careful though, you’re starting to sound like Kat and her gang.”
Freshly-baked pie filled my senses, and I couldn’t dig in fast enough. Strong bond or not, Dominic Rossi was a keeper for these romantic gestures. Who thought getting someone food could take the place of roses and jewelry?
“I don’t know how Jenna eats that garbage,” Scott, the other master shifter and one of Dom’s best friends, teased.
I shrugged. “Got a problem with it?” I challenged the shifter I once hated until I got to know the cooler side of him.
“Nah, just shocked,” he laughed and looked at Dom. “Maybe you should wean her off this addiction. It’s getting a little crazy.
I’d already shoved another mouthful in and couldn’t swallow fast enough to defend myself.
“Trying to get her on dish duty after she cusses you out for insulting her pie addiction?” Dom shot back. Dom’s eyes met mine. “I’ll let you have at him when we shift tonight. Then we’ll celebrate you kicking another master’s butt after.” He gave me a look that made my wolf perk up with anticipation.
“Changing the subject,” Finley said with a laugh. “Where are we going this year for our virtual vacay? Dom hooked up a killer rainforest adventure for us last year.”
“The blue waters,” Ethan said loud enough for the entire lunchroom to hear. Dom’s owl shifter cousin had been anxiously awaiting this virtual vacation since Dom promised it to him after we kicked this school’s menacing and deadly threats in the butt. “The island—”
“E,” Lusa, Dom’s twin sister, laughed in shock, “Shh, Dom is still working on it.”
“Dominic Rossi,” Ethan said in his matter-of-fact voice, “You did promise this.”
Dom crossed both arms and leaned on the table. “Yes, E,” he said, looking at Ethan sitting across from us. “I’ve got you, bro.”
“You’re heading off to a virtual reality island for summer break?” Ian, the other master shifter, asked. Then he eyed me, “Ah, I get it. Jenna in a bikini. Should have known, Dom always has a plan, and that’s a good one, dude.” He laughed. “Sounds nice too, I could use some beach time.”
“Hey,” Dom used his Master Instructor Dom voice on his friends, “Keep it down. I don’t need everyone here hacking into the virtual reality we’re taking and hijacking the peace that my cousin deserves. It’s for E. Ethan’s first year at this school was tough. Letting him shift whenever he wants on a private island is the only plan there is.” He took a sip of his water. “As for Jenna, I’m totally down for a bikini in her wardrobe,” he looked back at me and winked.
“Seriously?” I said, shaking my head. “Maybe the boy talk can wait until I’m not sitting right here. I don’t even have a bikini, so good luck with that.”
Dominic laughed and kissed my temple. “Lusa will hook you up. Actually, you can wear a trash bag for all I care, as long as you’re comfortable. The computer will program your clothing for whatever you want.” He went to stand up and nodded toward the masters, “Let’s get out of here. It’s the last day, and we have to be at the graduation ceremony tonight for IA’s seniors.”
“Dom,” Finley rose up with the other two masters, “You didn’t hear?”
“Hear what?” Dom glanced around, then he pulled his eyes from mine just as my heart skipped a beat, thinking something must have happened to wake up the sleeping demon in this school. “What?” he demanded, looking at the three masters in concern.
“Dean Edgewater announced that no one is graduating this year. All the seniors failed,” Ian said.
“What?” Dom and I both said in shock.
Dom frowned at Ian’s solemn expression. “
That better be one of your lame jokes. Now, let’s get out of here.”
“It’s not a joke, Dom,” Tanner added. “You must have missed it. It’s true, man. No one graduates this year.”
Dom stopped from leaving the table and looked at Scott. “Why didn’t Samson let me in on this?”
“This has never happened before,” Lusa said, looking at Vannah and me. “I have to wonder why they are holding kids back.”
“Death is the only way out,” Ethan said, and as soon as he did, I knew it was time to end the conversation. He was reverting back to the good old days when death was literally the only way out, but we’d fixed that crap.
“It’s all good, E,” I said as I looked at Ethan with the most reassuring smile I could muster. I could only hope that this school wasn’t on another mystery downslide.
“Alright, then. I need some answers. This is all news to me.” Dom looked down at me, “Want to head out together?”
“Hell yes,” I said.
“Jen and I need to talk to Samson. This isn’t right. After vacation, Jenna was supposed to go on that exclusive challenge to promote her to master shifter for the new students. She was the one who Samson suggested take our place when we were assigned to train the advanced shifters.” He guided his hand to my lower back. “E, you’re coming with us,” he ordered, leading Ethan to follow immediately.
“We’ll talk later,” Vannah said, seemingly as confused as Dom and I were. “Later.” She arched her eyebrow knowingly at me.
Um, yeah, we were talking about this later. Damn it if everything was jacked up at this school again. It was odd that not one senior was able to graduate and able to leave this school. Shit, was Ethan right? Was death our only ticket out of this place? We had to get some magic on our side and handle whatever demon ran this school and these professors.
“Stop thinking about it,” Dom said. “Wait until we’re at the eucalyptus trees.”
“Yes, only at the silent trees,” Ethan added, walking at the same brisk pace as Dom and me.
“Right. Got it.”
“Everything’s fine,” Dom said.
I had no idea who he was trying to reassure with that statement because nothing was fine if not even one student was able to graduate and leave this school.
Was this all because Dom and I accidentally drew on one another’s power within our bond? We were cloaked. Vannah hid our strong bond, and I was sure we hadn’t done anything to destabilize her spell.
“Jen,” Dom jerked me out of my thoughts. “Your questioning thoughts are screaming into my head.”
“Quit listening, then. That’s part of the deal. We don’t play into this connection we have with each other, remember?”
“We’ll get to the bottom of this. Vannah is heading down here too. Shit,” he said. “If Edgewater catches all of us down at these trees together, we’re screwed.”
“Dom, relax a little. Seriously,” I said, trying to slow him down.
He looked at me and ran a hand through his thick, onyx hair. “Yeah, I’m good.” He let out a breath. “Probably not best to head to our trees right now. We have all the master shifters following your friends and my sister now. You know what, why don’t I just take off with the crew and go talk to Professor Samson? I’ve got to get to the bottom of this, and I think he might speak more candidly with his master shifters. I’ll fill you in later. You cool?”
“A lot cooler than you are at the moment.”
“True.” He sighed.
“Just chill a little before you get to Samson,” I said.
He took my hands and bent to kiss me. “I’m chill now,” he said, then looked back at everyone who was catching up to us. “Fin, Scott, Ian,” he ordered them like they were his trainees, “I want you with me when I talk to Samson. You all have to know something’s off with this, especially with the strange fact you three knew about it, and I had no idea.”
“Dom,” Vannah looked at him in warning, “Go with whatever the school deems is correct. Got me?”
“Good point,” he answered her.
“When did you start taking orders from a witch?” Scott asked.
“Since I got together with that witch’s best friend. Let’s go.”
Just like that, Ethan, Vannah and I were left to wonder if this school was going to turn into an immortal killing machine again. I knew it was up to us to fix this, but we needed more shifters because Dom and I weren’t ready to take on the hardcore merge of our wolves. We had no idea what the repercussions of that would be.
Of course, this would all go down the day before summer vacation and right before we started our second year at this school of demonic horrors.
2
Lusa and I were sound asleep when I heard two soft knocks on our door. My snoring goddess vamp shot up in bed at the same time I did. I looked at her and put a finger to my lips, hoping she wouldn’t say anything. I knew it was Dom. I felt his strong aura from this side of the door.
“It’s Dom,” I whispered to her.
She nodded. “Good God. I’m on edge about everything now, and I don’t know why.”
I stood up, nodding in understanding. “We all are.”
Poor thing had her memories about our lives at Dark Water Academy wiped from her mind too. Apparently, she was my bestie there, not Vannah. Dom shocked me when he hit me with that info dump. I was still trying to process being best friends with a vamp, but we had been, and I looked forward to one day having the friendship that was wiped from my memories come back to me.
Memory loss or not, Lusa’s vamp instincts had to be picking up on something that happened with mine and Dom’s instant love connection, especially with his memories resurfacing from out of nowhere and remembering our history at Dark Water.
Dom and I hadn’t told Lusa what had gone down after everything had reset at IA. We needed it quiet until we graduated and safely got out of here. I felt terrible for not filling her in, but Dom knew she wasn’t ready for it all, and it was safer for his sister to go along with things as they unfolded for now.
Currently, all Lusa knew was that Dom and I had been an item since the night of the Ageless Ball. Our story was that Dom and I were together alone when something in us connected, we kissed, and that’s the story we stuck to when the entire school picked up on our relationship. Crazily enough, everyone was going with it, and the dean was ecstatic about it. Anything to fuel that creep’s ego and keep him from snooping around too much.
“Jen,” Dom whispered, stepping into our room after I opened the door for him. He looked at his sister and smirked. “Calm down, Lus. It’s all good.”
“You’re going to get your butt thrown in the dungeons if you keep showing up at Jenna’s dorm room like this,” she warned.
“Last I checked, it’s my sister’s dorm room too,” he shrugged. “Like I said, it’s all good.”
Dom turned to me, took my cheeks in his two strong hands, and then his lips were on mine. I wanted to open my wolf up to him and absorb his intense energy, but that was off the table in our relationship. Man, this sucked. All I felt was a yearning to claim him as my mate every time we were close like this.
“I feel the same, and trust me when I say that I want it more,” Dom said after pulling his lips from mine and resting his chin on top of my head. “I can still hear your—”
“Heartbeat?” I said, looking up into his stunning brown irises. Lusa didn’t know Dom could read my thoughts in circumstances where I was either wanting something or uncertain about things. It was all part of the stronger than normal bond we were keeping hidden from everyone and especially this school.
“Yes,” he kissed my forehead. “It’s nice to know my presence still makes it beat as fast as a hummingbird’s.”
“Really?” Lusa’s voice was harsh in her whisper. “Dominic Rossi,” she stood, “I’m right here, I am your sister, and you know the rules. What the heck? You’re here at two in the morning, and now you’re obviously having thoughts about your girlfriend, w
hich,” she glared at her brother’s smile, “if you plan to act on them, this school will punish you harshly. Grow up.”
I smiled at Lusa. “He’s not the only one having thoughts,” I teased, trying to get Dom’s back and make a joke out of our relationship.
“You two need to slow it down,” she warned again. “Why are you here, Dom? Goodnight kisses could have come before lights out. Where have you been all night, anyway?”
“Planning the summer vacation.” He looked back at me, “All is cool with the whole seniors not graduating thing. The Elite Council has instructed the school to add another year for pre-grad classes. Apparently, things have gotten out of control with the supes, even the ones graduating from IA.”
“What?” Lusa questioned. “They added another year on top of our three years at this school? So, we aren’t graduating next year? Whose idea was this?”
“Samson and Edgewater met with the council a week ago. It was a unanimous vote after some dude brought up that his peeps were sick of stepping in when our Supernatural Elite Forces aren’t able to handle those idiot supernaturals who are screwing with humans.”
“Nice. Wait,” I said, “There are others out there who watch us in the human world? I thought it was only the Supernatural Elite Forces?”
Dom nodded. “I don’t know who they are, but they sit in on our pre-grad council, and they work to protect humans from any threat out there.”
“Are they supernaturals like us?” Lusa asked.
“Don’t think so,” Dom said in response to mine and Lusa’s interest in this mysterious group of people who evidently decided that Immortal Academy needed to add a fourth year to the school’s program. “Anyway, they’re called Guardians or something like that. Apparently, we’ll learn more about these people in our fourth year here. More importantly, everything is on track for the vacation. The fairies have tweaked the virtual reality program so that we literally are at the location I chose.”
