Fang and Claw: Nocturne Academy, Book 2

by Anderson, Evangeline

  “Forgive me,” I said quickly, setting her down gently. “I just…didn’t want you to fall.”

  Kaitlyn’s only answer was a frightened glance before she rushed back to her seat. But then she appeared to realize that her test papers were still all over the floor. She started to get up again, though by now, everyone in the class was staring at her—which I knew was agony for the little human. In all that she did, what she strove for most was simply not to be noticed—not to be seen.

  “Let me,” I told her and bent to pick up the scattered papers. Stacking them neatly, I placed them face-down on the teacher’s desk and resumed my own seat.

  Kaitlyn’s one visible eye—a lovely pale aquamarine that was striking in the pale, creamy brown of her face—followed me uncertainly. As I passed her on the way back to my desk she murmured, “Thank you,” in a voice so low I was certain no one heard but me.

  I nodded and murmured, “Welcome.”

  She stared at me for a moment more, then looked quickly away, her curtain of hair swinging down to hide her face.

  I wished she could have met my eyes just a moment more—I hated the fact that she was clearly afraid of me. I probably shouldn’t have swooped her up like that but what else could I do—just let her fall?

  Inside me, my Drake roared in negation. Kaitlyn was ours, he asserted passionately—ours to watch over, ours to protect. I could no more stand by and watch her fall and hurt herself than I had been able to let Sanchez get away with bullying her.

  But as I sat back down in my own seat, I couldn’t help lifting my nose to catch a bit of her scent once more. Her fear had faded but the new, cold note hit my nose, making it tingle. I frowned—why did she smell so strange? So unlike herself?

  I frowned as I wondered once again, what was happening to my little human?

  5

  Kaitlyn

  “So I hear you tripped and fell right into Ari Reyes’ arms in History of Magic class this morning,” were the very first words out of Avery’s mouth the minute I sat down at our lunch table.

  “Shut up, Avery—don’t tease her!” Megan exclaimed.

  “Well pardon me, Princess Latimer,” Avery said huffily. “I was just curious about what our little Katydid might be up to with that big handsome Drake.”

  “I wasn’t up to anything,” I said, feeling my cheeks getting hot as I looked down at the steaming mess on my green plastic lunch tray. “I tripped and he caught me—that’s all.”

  “That’s all?” Avery probed. “Are you sure about that? I mean, after he punched out that brute Sanchez for you, I thought—”

  “That was ages ago,” I said quickly, cutting him off. “And he was just being honorable—that’s all.”

  “Honorable. Riiiight.” Avery nodded and I felt my cheeks get even hotter at what my Coven-mate was implying.

  As if someone like Ari Reyes could honestly be attracted to someone like me in any way.

  It was impossible—he was so tall and handsome and he smelled so good—his spicy scent still seemed to linger in my senses after the incident in my History of Magic class that morning.

  Maybe he might have been interested in me if I still looked the way I had before The Fire. But not now—no one could want me now, I was sure of that. Least of all someone like Ari. Besides, I knew how his people felt about women with facial scarring or deformities. Drakes considered women like that unfit to show themselves in society.

  Unfit to live.

  I thought it was probable that he was just curious about exactly how ugly I really was. He probably had a morbid interest in seeing the melted side of my face up close or something—which he certainly had—at least for one horrible moment before I could cover myself that morning.

  I’d had people try to peek at me before—to see what I was hiding behind my long black hair. They almost invariably recoiled when they saw what The Fire had done to me. Only my Coven-mates and little Allegra didn’t seem to see my scars—I couldn’t trust anyone else to be so kind.

  “Please, Avery—don’t tease,” I said quietly. “You know Ari doesn’t have any interest in me…that way. And I wouldn’t want him to. I just like keeping to myself and staying with my friends. You know that.”

  Avery’s sharp blue eyes softened a bit.

  “I’m sorry, Katydid,” he said gently, reaching across the table to squeeze my hand. It was his pet nickname for me and he always used it when he was being especially sweet and careful of my feelings.

  “It’s okay.” I smiled back at him. I have to say, I love Avery—he is one of the best friends a girl could ask for. He’s loyal and true and protective of all of his female Coven-mates—which is basically all of us, unless you count Griffin who had become kind of an honorary member after he and Megan got together.

  Avery winked at me. “I won’t say anymore. Maybe I’m a just a tiny bit jealous. I wish I could get a big handsome Drake interested in me.”

  “Well, why not, now that the Edict is broken?” Megan said, smiling.

  She and Griffin were sitting side by side. Megan’s long, auburn hair was tied back and she was picking unenthusiastically at the cafeteria’s latest offering. For once it wasn’t a casserole, though that hardly made it any better than usual.

  Though Megan had come into her power in a big way and had the right to eat from the Sisters’ selections of food—which was almost always better than what they fed us Norms—she still got the same food that Emma and I did, out of a sense of solidarity. I wondered if she was regretting that now as I watched her look unhappily at the contents of her lunch tray.

  Griffin, of course, was sipping a chilled bottle of blood. I could smell it from where I was sitting, even though he was far across the table from me. For some reason the harsh, metallic scent actually smelled good to me—appetizing. Which was crazy, right?

  Huh—just goes to show how bad the food the cafeteria feeds us really is when a Nocturne’s lunch smells better than mine, I thought with a mental shrug.

  “I’ve told you, the Edict might be dead magically, but it’s still with us socially,” Avery said, breaking into my weird thoughts. “Besides which, I’m pretty sure that homophobia is as much a constant companion to most Drakes as their dragons are.”

  “I’m quite certain you’re right about that,” Griffin said quietly. He didn’t usually speak a lot, except to Megan, and I got the feeling he was getting used to having friends again—and belonging to a group after he had been a social outcast for the past fifteen years. “I believe it is actually against the law in the Sky Lands for two males to, er…” he cleared his throat. “Cohabitate.”

  “Well isn’t that a fancy name for getting the goodies?” Avery said dryly.

  Griffin shrugged. “I’m just telling you that you’re right. If you’re looking for a romantic relationship, you should probably look elsewhere.”

  “Seriously?” Megan raised her eyebrows. “They actually outlawed same-sex couples? But that’s discrimination!”

  “No, Princess, that’s the uber-macho world of the Drakes,” Avery said and shrugged. “And before you plan any protests, remember that it isn’t just the whole gay thing they hate—it’s the idea of a Drake dating anyone outside his or her race. Even humans, which most Others consider fair game. And getting rid of the Edict isn’t going to change that particular prejudice one bit.”

  “Really? Even humans? That’s awful,” I murmured, letting my eyes drift over the Dining Hall, looking out from the safety of our own little table. We were located in the far corner of the vast room, away from the long tables which housed four main groups of Others.

  Idly, I let my gaze drift over them. The Fae’s table sat under a long purple banner, the Sisters’ had a blue banner hanging over their table, the Nocturne’s had a red banner, of course and the Drakes…

  I let my eyes stray to the Drake’s banner, which was green with gold writing, and then down to the long table beneath it. Sitting at the far end was Ari Reyes. He was definitely the tallest of t
he Drake guys and the most muscular too—though he wasn’t all pumped up and beefy like some of the other football players. Still he was plenty strong, as I could attest after he had caught me and held me during our History of Magic class.

  Stop thinking about it, I lectured myself sternly. Stop thinking about how warm he was and how he pressed you against that broad chest of his…

  Suddenly, as though he felt me looking at him, the big Drake glanced up and met my gaze. He had dark hair cut short, and caramel-colored skin like most of his people, but his eyes weren’t black like most other Drakes’ were. Instead, they were a clear, pale amber that met mine and seemed to burn into me before I could yank my gaze away and look back down at my green plastic tray, my heart pounding.

  God, what was wrong with me, staring at him like that? He must think I was such a freak. Which was exactly what Sanchez, the Drake who had hit me in the head with a football and then laughed about it, had called me.

  Just the thought of that made my scarred skin crawl with shame and I stared fixedly down at my tray, trying to will the awful memories away.

  But I couldn’t help remembering how vulnerable—how naked—I had felt when Coach Vasquez had forced me to dress out in a t-shirt and shorts that showed all my scars. Worse, she had made me put my hair back to show the bad side of my face. And then she had paraded me and Megan down the athletic field in the back of the castle, putting us on display as the rest of our class looked on curiously, all of them obviously revolted by my awful appearance.

  Well, all of them except Ari, that was. He hadn’t made any comments about how disgusting I looked. In fact, he had punched Sanchez for calling me a “freak.” Why had he done that?

  I still didn’t know why. Anymore than I knew why he had caught me and held me in our History of Magic class that morning. And then picked up my test papers for me afterwards, like a perfect gentleman.

  How could he want anything to do with me? I was everything his people hated—a scarred and deformed girl who wasn’t a Drake herself. I was damaged goods and Ari was a prince among his people—or at least Avery seemed to think he was. Surely he had just been being nice to me—he didn’t really care for me in that way. He couldn’t.

  Could he?

  You’re forgetting something, whispered a little voice in my head. The image of a huge, winged black shadow formed in my mind’s eye and I remembered looking up and seeing it coming…coming for me.

  When Nancy’s mother and some of the rest of the Windermere Coven had kidnapped me and Avery and Emma and made us watch while she attempted to have Griffin kill Megan, (it’s a long story—trust me,) she had tied us to trees out by the edge of the coven’s Hallowed Glade. We had all come out of the experience all right because it turned out that Megan was kind of a reincarnation of the Witch Queen and Griffin was her Blood Knight so they had gotten out of the trap and come to set Avery and Emma and me free.

  But before they could, he had come. I hadn’t really seen his Drake directly—it was just that vast shadow passing by overhead in the dawning light that sent a shiver down my spine. It was huge and there had been smoke or steam—I couldn’t tell which—drifting from its nostrils. Not all Drakes were fire-breathers, according to Avery, but I had a feeling Ari’s certainly was.

  Just the thought of that vast creature with a furnace inside was enough to make me cringe. Ever since The Fire, I wanted nothing to do with flames of any kind—I didn’t even get too close to our friendly little fire down in the Norm Dorm where Avery made our second supper most nights.

  I didn’t see him change, but when Ari came to me, he was in human form and dressed only in a pair of ragged shorts. The outfit showed off his perfect body—so tall and muscular and flawless, his skin a warm caramel color and smooth and perfect. So unlike my own scarred visage…

  “Hi guys,” a voice said, jerking me out of my morose reflections. I looked up and saw it was Emma.

  “Oh, hi,” I said, glad she had come to complete our little group. All our Coven-mates were present and accounted for now, which always made me feel safer and more at ease. Also, her presence helped distract me from my confusing and distressing thoughts.

  “What is this?” she complained, plunking her tray down next to mine and pointing to the steaming bowl it held. “It looks like chili with cheese on top but it smells…” She took a deep sniff and wrinkled her nose. “It smells really weird.”

  “It is really weird,” Megan said flatly, stirring the mixture in her own bowl. “Remember the beef brisket the Drakes had yesterday and the mixed root veggies the lunch ladies fed the Fae?”

  The cafeteria workers—or “lunch ladies” as Avery had dubbed them—at Nocturne Academy had a bad habit of mixing whatever leftovers they had from the Others’ meals and making them into a casserole or some other kind of mixture for us Norms—usually blanketed in a thick layer of bright orange cheese that looked and tasted like melted crayon.

  “Yes, but beef and veggies ought to make a great stew,” Emma exclaimed. “So why does it smell so weird?”

  “Remember the tuna salad they gave the Sisters’ yesterday?” Avery asked, arching an eyebrow. “The one that smelled ‘off’ according to Nasty Nancy and her crew?”

  He was referring to Nancy Rattcliff, of course, the bitch-witch daughter of Winifred Rattcliff, former head witch of the Windermere Coven.

  “That stinky tuna salad? Oh, no—they didn’t,” Emma groaned.

  “Afraid so.” Megan put down her spoon with a sigh. “They added it in with everything else and called it ‘surprise stew.’ As in, ‘surprise—you want to puke now!’” she finished flatly.

  “But why couldn’t they just stick to the beef and vegetables?” Emma demanded. “That would have been perfect. Well, if they’d left off the cheese for once,” she added.

  “There are many imponderables for which was have no answers,” Avery intoned, sipping his own lunch which was, as always, just a cup of coffee with waaay too much cream and sugar. “Such as, why Nasty Nancy and her crew are still here at Nocturne Academy when they tried to kill us all less than three months ago?”

  “Now, Avery,” Griffin remarked. “You know that the only reason any of us is still here is because Headmistress Nightworthy thinks everyone deserves a second chance. The Council of Other Elders would have been just as happy to see myself and Megan expelled for breaking the Edict as to see Nancy and her compatriots kicked out of the Academy for attempted murder.”

  “Besides, I made it so they can’t use their magic except for good, remember?” Megan asked brightly. “Personally, I think it’s the best possible punishment—them staying on at the Academy where they’ve always been such bullies and being unable to do a thing to hurt anyone with their magic.” She grinned happily and took a bite of the rather stale cornbread which was an accompaniment to the beef/veggie/tuna salad “surprise stew.” It was honestly, the only edible part of the meal.

  “That was an extremely clever notion of yours—neutering them magically like that,” Griffin murmured, giving her a half-lidded smirk. “I imagine it must be seven shades of hell for Nancy to be unable to use her magic for evil intent.”

  “Not that she doesn’t still try to use it for evil,” Megan said. “She’s been working all week to try and screw me over in Home Ec but so far all she’s managed to do is make my baked goods taste even better.” She smiled at Avery. “It’s like the magical MSG spell you were talking about when Nancy was using it on her own cookies and cupcakes.”

  “Only she’s using it on yours?” He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

  Megan nodded. “But it backfires on her every time. It’s like everything she tries only makes my baking more delicious. Mrs. Hornsby, the Home Ec teacher, is actually starting to like me. And all the while she’s raving about my cakes and cookies, I can see Nancy and her two nasty little friends—the Weird Sisters—absolutely seething over in their own little corner of the classroom.”

  “No wonder Nasty Nancy seems so grumpy lately,
” Avery remarked, grinning. “And here I thought it was just because her mother is in prison for life for murder.” He took another sip of coffee. “I just think it’s too bad the Council refuses to implement the death penalty.”

  “Oh, don’t say that,” I said, startled into joining the conversation, though I really didn’t feel much like talking. “Nobody deserves to lose their parents—no matter what,” I said earnestly.

  “No, they don’t,” Megan agreed soberly. She had lost her mother to cancer a few years before—about the time I was losing my own parents to The Fire—so she understood how I felt.

  “All right, well I was just saying,” Avery grumbled. “I mean she did kill people and then pin it on someone else.”

  “I know, as I was the one she pinned it on,” Griffin remarked mildly. “But I agree with Kaitlyn and Megan—no one deserves to lose their parents for any reason.”

  He sighed and took another sip of his blood, wafting the delicious meaty scent across the table to me again. It made my mouth water and I took a sip of my iced tea thirstily. It tasted bland and flat, though tea was usually my favorite drink. I frowned—what was wrong with my taste buds lately?

  “Griffin, are you talking about your own parents?” Megan asked in a low voice. “About how they, um, don’t like me?”

  “I am certain they would like you just fine if we weren’t Blood-Bonded, little witch,” Griffin said dryly. “But as we have broken the Edict and are ‘flaunting’ our forbidden relationship, to use my father’s words, no, I am afraid that you are not their favorite person.”

  Megan looked like she might cry for a moment—her big green-gray eyes went suspiciously bright.

  “I’m so sorry, Griffin,” she nearly whispered. “I know you hoped that after your name was cleared, you’d be accepted into your family again. I can’t tell you how bad I feel that I ruined that for you.”