Paranormal Academy

by Limited Edition Box Set

  “Lead on,” I said.

  A few minutes later, Piper and I were in the anteroom outside the dean’s office. I glanced around the room, which was flooded with light from the windows, brightening a tan leather couch against the wall and shelves lined with books. I studiously avoided looking at the secretary, who had risen from his desk.

  “The dean is not to be disturbed,” the secretary repeated firmly. His cheeks flushed above the neat dark lines of his beard. “You have an appointment with him this afternoon—”

  Piper stared at him and crossed her arms, heaving a sigh that caused him to break off, his cheeks flushing even darker.

  “You’re not in Virginia anymore,” he reminded her.

  Her lips parted in a cool smile. “Oh, is that what this is about?”

  Her voice was suddenly very soft. My sister is never more dangerous than when her voice goes quiet. I wanted to hiss at the secretary to run.

  We were making a great impression at this school I desperately wanted to attend, the only one of its kind. I chewed my lower lip. But I had Piper’s back, no matter what it cost me. I always would.

  “No, of course not,” the secretary sputtered.

  Just then, the dean’s door opened. A big man with dark red hair came out, frowning.

  “What seems to be the problem?” he asked impatiently.

  “Dean McCauley,” Piper said.

  “Yes?” he said impatiently.

  “Piper Northsea,” she said, enunciating a little too exactly, the way she did when she was exasperated. She extended her hand for him to shake. “I believe you have a problem on your campus right now.”

  He looked at her as if he was perplexed, his brow furrowing. I glanced at my sister, wondering why he was reacting that way. Right—she was barely five-foot-four in her heels, her blond curls framing a sweet, round face.

  Then he came to life as if his brain had suddenly caught up. “We can speak in my office.”

  “Thank you.” She glanced toward me, then the door, indicating I should come with her, and I followed them into the dean’s sumptuous office. Things had certainly changed since the days when I played poker with Finn and Kai on the floor outside Piper’s makeshift office.

  The dean looked at me and then, as if he didn’t find me too interesting, back to Piper. “Well?”

  She eased the door closed behind her and regarded him with cool blue eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. “I believe the school is under attack by the covens.”

  “And why do you think that?”

  “Because I can’t shift, and neither can your students. Can you?” She looked at him pointedly.

  He looked at her as if he was going to dismiss her out of hand, but then he sighed, slipped off his suit jacket, and hung it on the back of his chair. His movements were quick and impatient, as if he thought this was a ridiculous effort. He closed his eyes, held out his hands, and went very still.

  After a second, he opened his eyes back up again.

  “Why do you think the witches are behind this?” he asked.

  “It’s generally been my experience that witches are up to no good,” Piper said coolly.

  He raised his hand wearily, as if he agreed. “Yes. But there could be other causes. There’s no need to panic just yet.”

  “There’s no need to panic at any point,” Piper said. “But there’s certainly a need to go on alert.”

  He shook his head. “I’ll order extra patrols. But I’m not going to call out our students until we’ve been able to identify what’s going on.”

  “They’re going to be slow patrols since they can’t transform,” Piper said. “If a full alert ends up being nothing but a drill, they’ll survive.”

  He glowered at her, and after a second, she added, “But if the war is about to come to campus and there is no alert, they may not.”

  In a full alert, the student body would all move out on patrol. I’d spent my life being protected by other wolves, despite my best efforts to fight my own battles. I loved the idea of being the one on patrol myself. I felt a thrill of anxiety, a restless pull to do something even though I was also nervous.

  I’d been just a little girl the first time I saw what the covens could do, as sea monsters crawled onto land and dark fog crept over the water.

  Werewolves could be used to power witches’ magic.

  Especially born female werewolves like me.

  “Thank you for letting me know about this problem,” McCauley said. “I will let you know what we’ve discovered when we meet this afternoon. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to see about sending out those patrols.”

  He flashed Piper a dismissive smile, already moving to the door and holding it open.

  His glaze flickered to me as I reached him. His eyes were cool above that smile, and I had the distinct feeling that he already hated me.

  So that was a great start.

  “Enjoy your lunch,” he said.

  “Hopefully we make it through lunch without any killing,” Piper said.

  “Well, the food is usually pretty good in the cafeteria,” the dean said blithely.

  I had to wonder how his attitude would change if there was some challenge to the wards out on the walls.

  Wolves are supposed to hate magic.

  But some of us can manage a trick or two.

  4

  By now, you might see why I couldn’t suggest to my sister that we briefly disrupt the wards protecting the school. I love her, but she easily tips over from adorably protective to a fucking hazard.

  “The guys should be on their way,” she told me as we left the admin building. She pointed across the green yard to where Lex was talking to a small knot of prospective students. They were clearly not students yet, given their t-shirts and jeans. “Stay with Lex. Stay out of trouble, okay? Try to enjoy the tour.”

  “What are you going to do?” I demanded. “Are you going to stay out of trouble?”

  Piper nodded and then broke off, shrugging. “I am not a student here and never will be. Let’s not ruin your reputation before you ever get to crack open a book.”

  “Piper Jane Northsea.” I scolded her.

  “Madeline Mae Northsea.” My sister matched my tone and mimicked my hands-on-hip pose perfectly. I guess I did learn all that from her. Then she sighed. “Just trust me. Please. I don’t want you to start the school with any more black marks besides just being my sister.”

  “What are you talking about?” I frowned. “You’re famous. You’re a hero.”

  “It’s never that simple,” she told me drily. “Come on. Go stare at Lex’s ass some more and try out the cafeteria. If the coven attacks, you’ll know.”

  “Is that supposed to be comforting?” I muttered.

  She rested her hand on my shoulder, although she had to look up at me. “Yes. I’m not afraid to split up because I know you can handle yourself.”

  I stared back at her, pursing my lips. Piper would usually want me near her if she thought there was going to be danger. I wanted her to see me as an equal, not someone she had to protect.

  “Well, except for around boys,” Piper muttered, like an afterthought. “I’m confident in your weapons-handling, have serious concerns about your flirting skills.”

  I gave her a look. “Are you really mocking me right now when we’re under imminent attack from the covens? What’s wrong with you?”

  She shrugged. I shook my head at her as I walked away, heading across campus toward Lex.

  Lex looked over the heads of the three other students he’d collected and flashed me one of those devastating grins. “Ah, she’s back! Where did you wander off to?”

  My head always went blurry when I tried to think of a lie. “I grew up hearing about the ghost in the church,” I blurted out. “Had to check it out.”

  “No ghosts here,” Lex promised, although something shifted in his face. “And if we had any, they’d be freshmen who didn’t listen to their cadre.”

  There was so
mething about his suddenly crisp tone that felt like a challenge. I stared back at him, at the sudden set of his jaw and his chestnut-brown curls waving in the wind, before he grinned, like it had been a joke.

  He took a step back toward the main building, gesturing toward a few students who had just stopped outside and were looking toward us, all alike in their uniforms. “It’s lunchtime. You each have a guide that you’ll sit with at lunch and that will take you around the rest of the afternoon after we hear from the dean.”

  He waved a hand at the students, and they headed over. He quickly paired up student and guide until it was just the two of us and a friendly-looking boy in glasses who flashed me a smile.

  “Thank you so much for being willing, but your student is M.I.A.,” Lex told him, instead of introducing us. Lex flashed him a smile and then grabbed my upper arm, towing me with him toward the big brick building.

  His steely fingers around my bicep left me with the most confused feelings. Did I like having Lex touch me? Did I want to punch him in the face? Could both feelings exist simultaneously?

  “You’re a liar, aren’t you?” I whispered, glancing up at his face as he pulled me aside from the door, as if he was looking for some privacy.

  “You are too, aren’t you?” he muttered back. He drew me around the side of the brick building, then finally let go.

  I glowered at him as I rubbed my arm. “You don’t need to touch me.”

  “Oh?” he said, and his gaze lingered on my lips for just a second, before they jerked up to my eyes. Then he said, as if he’d forgotten himself, “I’m sorry. You’re right. You’re not a student here yet.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “We’re wolves. We fight,” he said, but he tucked his hands into his pockets like he wasn’t thinking about fighting. “Freshmen lose. That’s kind of the nature of being a know-nothing freshman.”

  “You’re only nice until we get here, huh?” I asked, feeling as if I’d gotten a quick glimpse into the future with that bruising grip on my arm.

  “We’re only nice when you earn it,” he said, and for some reason, as close together as we were, I couldn’t help noticing his lips the way it seemed he had noticed mine. His lips set impatiently. “So, where were you? Really?”

  “I told you.”

  He shook his head.

  “I’d like my actual guide back, please.” I just wanted to nettle him. I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave Lex, even if he was kind of an asshole.

  “Not a chance.” He flashed me a tight smile. “I can tell you’re trouble, Northsea.”

  “Takes one to know one.” He looked like he was trouble for me, anyway.

  He flipped through his leather folio and pulled out a crisp sheet of paper, which he presented to me with a flourish. “You and your sister disappeared before I could give you this. Your itinerary for the day. Which you should follow.”

  “Of course.”

  “And I’ll be right here with you,” he said, and this time, when he took my elbow his fingers were gentle. He tugged me with him toward the entrance, and then his hand fell away. “Making sure you don’t get lost.”

  “Lucky me.”

  5

  Lex lead me to a table where a few students were always sitting. As I followed his broad shoulders across the crowded lunchroom, turning sideways to scoot down the long rows of tables, I asked him, “Are you sure you want to introduce me to your friends?”

  He snorted. “I’m not sure I want you to be introduced to them. I’m trying to give the academy a good reputation here.”

  “A good reputation? It might help if you were nicer to me.”

  He stopped, half-turning, so quickly that I almost walked my tray into his lower back. His lips quirked up, just a little.

  “If you come here in the fall, you’ll be a first-year and I’ll be a fourth. I’ll be in the cadre. Believe me… this is me being nice.”

  I stared up at him, debating what to say.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t come here,” he murmured, half to himself. The words would have been inaudible in the murmur of voices to anyone who wasn’t standing as close to him as I was.

  “Why’s that?” I demanded.

  He shook his head instead of answering, as he headed to a table already occupied by a handful of guys. As he set set his tray down, he said, “Try not to scare her off, gentlemen. Best behavior.”

  “You don’t think that’s scary right there, Lex?” The guy directly across from asked. His eyes flickered up to me and then away, as if he wasn’t very interested in me.

  “Piper, meet Jensen McCauley.”

  McCauley like the Dean. “Any relation to…”

  Jensen groaned. “Unfortunately.”

  “Where’s your brother?” Lex asked him, glancing over his shoulder.

  “Pop’s got him running around doing security stuff with all these randoms on campus.” Jensen made a lazy gesture with one long-fingered hand.

  Lex gave him a look, as if he didn’t like Jensen much, and then pointed to the other guys at the table. “Piper, meet Rafe—he’ll be cadre next year too.”

  A ridiculously tall-dark-and-handsome guy at the end of the table held his hand up in a quick wave. He had one of those faces that looked like he didn’t know how to smile, no matter how gorgeous he was.

  “Beckett, Faro, meet Piper Northsea.” Lex nodded to the other two guys. “They’re first-years now like Jensen.”

  “Nice to meet you, Piper.” Faro rose to his feet, holding out his hand to shake like a gentleman. “My first name is Jack.”

  Beckett put his shaggy blond head in his hands in response. I couldn’t help looking at him at the same time as I shook Faro’s hand.

  “Does anyone else have first names?” I ask lightly, wondering what was wrong with Beckett. As Beckett straightened up from the table, there was a smirk across his face.

  “I think the first-years were just leaving,” Rafe said, a hard edge in his voice.

  “We only tolerate them for Will’s sake,” Lex explained.

  “Will?”

  “My brother,” Jensen explained.

  “Does everyone make that big a deal out of the whole first-year thing?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Lex said.

  “Embarrassing, isn’t it?” Jensen leaned back. Even on the bench, he managed to look relaxed, as if he was slouching. He tilted his head, studying me. He’d seemed to avoid my gaze, but now, for the first time, his glittering eyes met mine evenly. They were eerily beautiful eyes, not quite human, yellow and dangerous. With his dark curls wild around his chiseled face, he looked like he carried more of the wolf with him—even as a human—than any other boy I’d ever met.

  I shrugged as I took my seat. “The packs have strange ways.”

  “Yeah,” Jensen muttered. “Especially your pack.”

  Most of the packs forbade any magic except the most simple defensive counter-spells. They had good reason for hating magic. But we took a different perspective.

  “I’m sorry I’ve never heard of your pack,” I said sweetly. Maybe they would remember that it was my pack who had hunted down the last of the grim witches, a coven that had murdered children throughout the northeast. I couldn’t wait to join them.

  “Then you must not have been paying attention,” Faro said blandly.

  Jensen shrugged. “Princesses have better things to do, after all.”

  He said that like he was mocking me.

  “Like what?” I asked sharply.

  “Like making babies,” he said shortly. When his eyes locked with mine, I couldn’t tear my gaze away. He was still staring into my eyes from across the table as he asked, “Is she staying here to watch a fight, Lex?”

  “No,” Lex said, and the same note of steel was in his voice as Rafe had a minute before.

  “When is it?” I asked. “Maybe I can fit it into my schedule.”

  Jensen’s lips turned up at the edges.

  “It’s not that exciting,” Lex sai
d. “It’s just a training exercise. Patrols versus patrols.”

  “It really helps your patrol if you can hold your own,” Jensen said. “People tend to take it personally if you can’t watch their back in a fight. Especially when we’re all heading out to face down the covens one day.”

  “McCauley,” Lex said in a warning tone.

  “I can’t imagine having a girl in your patrol.” Jensen’s lips curled up. “Sorry. Not even a girl. A princess.”

  His dismissive words made my heart hammer in my chest. I wanted in on one of those fights. I wanted the chance to show him just how dangerous I am. Up close and personally.

  “You might be surprised by what a girl can do.” I winked at Jensen. I didn’t want him to see how angry his words have made me.

  “Oh, I’d love to see what a girl like you can do,” Jensen said, his voice dropping low. He winks back at me, but it means something else entirely. “But not in the ring.”

  I stared at his smirking face. Would I get kicked out of here if I reached over and showed him how a girl like me could slap him out of his seat?

  “And you’re done.” Lex was on his feet, moving with fluid grace, and he gestured Jensen up. “I don’t care who’s son you are, or if you’re my best friend’s stupid kid brother. On your way.”

  “I’m just being honest with her.” Jensen never even looked Lex’s way. Now that his eyes had met mine, he couldn’t seem to tear those strange, golden-yellow eyes away from mine. “No one wants her. Someone should tell her. Someone should tell her what’ll happen if she comes here.”

  “The fuck did you just say?” Lex’s voice came out low and hard.

  Jensen’s gaze flickered to his face, and his eyes widened.

  But before he could say anything else, Lex bounded over the table, clearing it with sudden, violent grace. His foot caught a tray and it flew across the table, crashing to the floor. Jensen threw himself backward, off the bench. Lex barely missed slamming into him, and he caught himself with his hand on the wooden tabletop, managing to land on his feet.