“I guess we’ll let it go for now,” Megan said unhappily. “But just because we’re not going to report it doesn’t mean we’re not going to do anything about it! Nancy and her goons have got to be stopped!”
“Good luck with that,” Emma groaned. “Ugh—I think I’ll go sit in the bathroom. Maybe I’ll feel better in a little while.”
But it was a full two hours before she felt good enough to go back to bed. Which meant that all the next day—Friday—Megan and I were sleep-deprived and tired.
Too tired to understand what was going on until it was nearly too late.
23
Kaitlyn
It was last period on Friday—Home Ec—and I was feeling desperately tired. I had just about decided that I would ask the Breedloves if they would make a doctor’s appointment for me that weekend because I could barely hold my head up. I was nodding over my sewing machine, too weak to even notice what was going on around me, which is probably why Nancy caught me completely by surprise.
I was vaguely aware of her in my peripheral vision—just a shape with short black hair and big red lips—when she tripped and spilled something on me. She made an exaggerated movement and I heard her say, “Whoops!” so loudly the whole class looked up. Then something that looked like paprika was suddenly all over my hands and my white blouse. And, I thought, probably in my hair as well.
“Hey—what are you doing?” Megan demanded, before I could say a word. She’d been in the back of the class, looking for more turquoise thread for our sewing machine when Nancy had happened by, but she got over to me quickly and began brushing me off.
Only the red paprika-looking spice didn’t seem to want to brush off, I thought, frowning. At least, not off my skin. The tiny red granules seemed to sink into my scarred epidermis even as I tried to brush them away. They left tiny tingling feelings, like sparks that lasted only a quarter of an instant—so short I couldn’t be sure I hadn’t imagined it.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Megan demanded again, glaring at Nancy.
“Why, I simply tripped and spilled my spice blend—that’s all,” Nancy exclaimed, still speaking loudly enough to draw everyone’s attention.
“Here now, girls—what’s going on?” Mrs. Hornsby hurried up, a frown creasing her face.
“Oh, Mrs. Hornsby!” Nancy exclaimed, looking at the Home Ec teacher with wide, innocent eyes. “I was putting away this spice blend that somehow got left at my table from the baking unit and I slipped and accidentally spilled some on poor Kaitlyn here.” She nodded at me as though we were the best of friends and it was a simply an accident.
“That’s crap and you know it,” Megan exclaimed, glaring at her. “She did it on purpose, Mrs. Hornsby. Nancy and her friends are trying to hurt Kaitlyn.”
Mrs. Hornsby gave me a look that was full of dislike and distaste.
“I don’t see what reason Nancy would have to harm your friend, Miss Latimer,” she said frostily. “She seems perfectly fine to me.”
“But Nancy poured that red stuff all over her!” Megan exclaimed. “What’s in it, anyway?” she demanded, glaring at Megan. “Cayenne pepper? Ghost pepper?”
Nancy lifted her chin.
“Nothing but a little smoked Paprika and salt. My spice blend is delicious but it couldn’t hurt anyone—unless they were a slimy slug that crawled out from under a rock, that is,” she added maliciously, staring at me.
Mrs. Hornsby apparently decided to ignore this comment. She simply looked at me and shrugged.
“Well, brush yourself off, Miss Fellows. And Miss Latimer,” she went on, frowning sternly at Megan. “Don’t be so quick to claim offense against someone. Anyone can have a simple accident, you know. Now don’t bother me again!”
And with a last warning glare, she flounced off to the front of the room to help one of the other students sew some lace onto the edge of her apron.
“Ugh! If only they hadn’t put that feel good spell on her!” Megan muttered under her breath. She looked at me with concern. “Are you all right, Kaitlyn? Does that stuff burn? Did you get any in your eyes?”
I told her that no it didn’t burn and that none had gotten in my eyes. And actually, though Nancy had spilled an entire large jar of the strange spice mix on me, there was very little to brush off. I thought of my earlier idea that the little red granules were sinking into my skin and tried to put it out of my mind. Surely it must have been my imagination, right? Skin couldn’t actually absorb foreign substances like that—right?
Right, I told myself firmly, if a bit uneasily. So just forget about it, Kaitlyn, and go back to work.
Which was exactly what I did. It was almost time to go home for the weekend and I was more than ready to go. While I wasn’t looking forward to the long walk across the narrow bridge, that spanned the lake which surrounded Nocturne Academy, I was looking forward to crawling into the back of the Breedloves’ luxurious Mercedes Benz and just relaxing in the cool, dark, leather-scented interior. I could ask Mrs. Breedlove to make me a doctor’s appointment and then maybe they would just let me rest until it was time to go.
Of course, Allegra would need to be entertained but I knew dozens of “quiet” games which we played when Mrs. Breedlove had a headache and didn’t want to be bothered—which was most of the time. So that would be all right.
By the time the bell rang, all I could think about was going back to the Breedlove’s home and resting.
Little did I know, I was never going to make it there.
24
Ari
I watched her leave the castle as I did every Friday afternoon. Standing at the top of the West Tower, where the Drake Dorm was housed, I had a clear view of the long, low bridge which spanned the lake and led from the castle to the parking area below.
And since I was watching so carefully, I saw everything that happened.
I saw Kaitlyn walking with her friends—a little behind them, actually—she seemed to be dragging her feet and squinting in the strong Florida sunlight. I watched as she and her Coven-mates made their way towards the land. Their feet were tapping on the wooden planks of the bridge, which was little more than a pathway across the water. There were no railings or walls on either side of it—just a long, flat, wooden road over the inky blackness that surrounded Nocturne Academy.
And that was when it happened.
Felix Gomez and Lupe Romero came running down the bridge, pushing and shoving each other and shouting like idiots. They made the bridge sway and jostled several people as they ran, nearly knocking them into the water.
“Cuidado, idiotas!” I wanted to shout as they came up behind Kaitlyn and her friends. But I had no time to speak. Before I could get the first word out, Gomez had rammed right into my little human, who was none-too-steady on her feet to start with.
My heart was in my throat as I heard her high, startled shriek and saw her windmilling her arms to keep her balance. But then, just as she had in our History of Magic class, she was falling.
And this time, I wasn’t going to be there in time to catch her.
25
Kaitlyn
It happened so fast, I didn’t even know what was going on. I had been walking along, head down, just trying to make it across the long bridge which led from the Nocturne Academy castle to the parking area in the orange grove beyond. That day the bridge seemed extra long and the sun was extra bright.
I lagged behind Avery and Megan and Griffin and Emma, who seemed to be feeling much better today. I, however, was feeling considerably worse. I was wobbly on my feet—faint and light-headed, though I was careful not to let my Coven-mates notice.
I didn’t want to worry them for no reason, I told myself. I was just a little off because I hadn’t eaten anything. But then again, I didn’t want to eat anything. The very thought of food made me feel nauseous—it was as though my body had decided to reject even the idea of nourishment. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do about that—maybe the doctor could help me. Bu
t at the moment, I just wanted to get across the bridge and sink into the cool, leather interior of the Breedlove’s Benz to get away from the blazing sun.
When we were almost to the middle of the long bridge, I heard shouting behind me.
“Hey, watch out, you jerk!” someone exclaimed and somebody else yelled, “Watch it!”
I started to turn my head, squinting to try and see what was going on that was shaking the wooden planks under my feet. One of the strict rules at Nocturne Academy was no roughhousing on the bridge. That was because there were no guard rails all along its long length. So if anyone ran into anyone else by accident, they could easily be shoved into the inky, matte-black waters below.
Just as my brain processed that thought—rather sluggishly—a broad shoulder rammed into me, hard.
I cried out and staggered, waving my arms to try and regain my balance. But it was no use—I felt myself falling even as Avery and Megan started shouting my name.
I gave a gasp as the black water penetrated my clothing and then closed over my head. It was cold—so cold. You would have thought that being under the hot Florida sun and being so black it would have absorbed some heat. It ought to be as warm as blood. But being in the lake that surrounded the castle was like being in ice water. The freezing chill of it seemed to penetrate right to my bones immediately.
I kicked my legs and moved my arms frantically, trying to get back to the surface. I’m normally a good swimmer—living in Florida you almost have to be, there are so many lakes and swimming pools everywhere, not to mention the ocean—but the inky black stuff around me felt thicker than water somehow. It seemed to drag at my already exhausted limbs and it was so dark I couldn’t tell which way was up.
I had a terrible feeling that I might be swimming deeper into the murky depths instead of towards the surface and my lungs, which had only been about half full of air when I went under, were beginning to beg for oxygen already.
Then, just as I was about to panic, my head broke the surface.
“Oh thank the Goddess, there she is!” Avery was shouting. He was stripping frantically out of his uniform jacket, as though intending to dive in and Griffin was doing the same. “Kaitlyn,” he called, leaning over the edge of the bridge and reaching for me. “Come here—swim for me!”
His voice seemed to come from some distance away and when I shook my wet hair out of my eyes, I was surprised to see how far from the bridge I had somehow gotten. I would have sworn that I was so close I could reach out a hand and grasp the wooden side of the long platform. Instead, I was yards away and the bridge was well out of reach.
My limbs felt like someone had tied lead weights to them but even so, I started swimming. No use in Avery and Griffin jumping in and getting wet and chilly too when I could get my own self out.
And then something appeared in the water between me and the bridge—something huge.
26
Kaitlyn
I knew what the thing in the water was, though I had never seen it up close before. The Guardian was a water serpent—some said related to the Drakes—which lived in the lake surrounding the Nocturne Academy castle. The lake was supposedly so deep nobody had ever found the bottom—like Loch Ness in Scotland—and the Guardian lived in its inky depths, making certain nobody who didn’t belong got into Nocturne Academy.
As I stared at the huge, dinner-plate-sized eye which had surfaced above the black water and was staring at me, unblinking, I remembered reading that the Guardian lived on a strict diet of a special kind of fish that were kept stocked in the lake. Supposedly, it had no interest in eating humans or Others.
That was what I told myself as the eye, with its slitted vertical pupil like a reptile’s, blinked once, slowly, and a truly gigantic snout surfaced to join it. God, the Guardian really did look like an enormous alligator or crocodile, I thought uneasily, as I continued treading water in the cold, sludgy black liquid that filled the lake. Like one of those prehistoric ones you read about that had died out over a hundred thousand years ago—and a good thing, too—because they were huge and could swallow an entire person in one bite.
Its skin was greenish-gray and roughly pebbled. And its jaws, though not as elongated as a gator’s or a croc’s, were wider and filled with long, shining teeth which stuck out of its lipless mouth like a bristling yellow necklace.
“That’s the Guardian,” I heard Avery saying to someone from the safety of the bridge which I couldn’t reach since the massive head was between me and the wooden structure. “It only guards the castle—it never eats anyone.”
That’s right—it doesn’t eat anyone—doesn’t eat people, I reminded myself, though my brain felt almost as numb with fear as my body did after being submerged in the cold, inky water. It doesn’t want to eat me—it probably just came to see what all the commotion was about!
But then the wide black nostrils flared and inhaled—so strongly I could feel the pull of them, like a vacuum cleaner sucking. The Guardian’s eyes—which had been a dull bronze when it first surfaced—turned suddenly blood-red.
And then its jaws parted.
“Oh my God, Avery—do something!” I heard Emma shriek. “I don’t care what you said about it not eating people—it’s about to bite Kaitlyn right in half!”
“Give me something to poke myself with!” Megan was shouting. “Or wait—Griffin, where are you? Don’t jump in—bite me and help me work some magic!”
And then all of them were drowned out by a claxon-roar which came from above.
A vast black shadow blotted out the sun and the Guardian—which had been swimming towards me with its huge mouth open—suddenly froze, its red, slitted eyes rolling upwards.
I looked up too and saw an enormous black shape with wings like sails blotting out the sun. I couldn’t see much else because of the dazzling sunlight behind it, but when it extended one huge, taloned claw and reached for me, my paralysis broke and I screamed and tried to swim away.
I dived under the water again but the enormous appendage found me anyway. A long muscular arm with a claw-hand that had fingers as long as my forearm plunged into the black water and wrapped around my waist. It pulled me up and out of the water and I heard the flat sound of the vast wings flapping as it rose into the air and headed for the bridge.
I was sobbing now, with pure undiluted terror, and my heart was beating so hard it felt like it was shaking every part of my body with each terrified thump. Through my tears, I saw that all my friends who were standing on the bridge had awed looks on their faces. The flapping of the vast wings was blowing their clothes flat against their bodies—they looked like people standing beside a running helicopter. Megan and Emma’s long hair was being whipped all over the place as though they were standing in the middle of a hurricane.
The enormous claw-hand that held me extended towards them and I saw fear on their faces but not a single one of my Coven-mates backed away. Instead, they all reached for me and caught me, just as the talons released their grip.
I tumbled into their arms, sobbing, and they caught me. Megan and Emma held me close while Avery and Griffin seemed to be saying something to the beast—to the Drake?—which had grabbed me.
It answered in that alarm-claxon voice it had, though I couldn’t’ tell what it was saying, and then flew back out over the lake, where I heard it roaring some more—presumably at the Guardian. The Guardian seemed to be roaring or growling back, though again I couldn’t understand the words.
I was too mentally unraveled to process any of what was happening at the time. All I could do was cry and shiver as Emma and Megan held me between them. I was cold…so cold and so tired I could barely move. The sudden dunking in the lake and the terror that had followed seemed to have used up the last of my reserves.
I remember thinking, I wonder if you can die of just being too tired and too scared to go on.
And then everything faded to grey and I didn’t remember any more.
27
Ari
&nbs
p; The minute I saw what was happening, I couldn’t hold my Drake back. Hell, I didn’t want to hold it back. The Guardian is related to my kind, though it is one natured, not two, and lives always in its water-Drake form. It isn’t supposed to want to eat humans or Others but the moment its eyes turned killing-red, I knew that for some reason it had forgotten itself and it intended to eat Kaitlyn.
I leapt from the top of the West Tower, my Drake bursting out of me in midair as he roared a warning at the Guardian below. The creature looked up at me, its eyes confused and clouded by unreasoning hunger. It made a lunge for Kaitlyn but by then she had seen my Drake and was trying to swim away in terror.
My Drake and I were one now, as we always were in the air. We dived for her but Kaitlyn screamed and dived as well—under the murky water. The limited visibility was no problem for my Drake’s eyes. He had the gift of discernment and we both knew exactly where Kaitlyn was, even down under the black depths.
But even as we reached for her and gripped her gently in one talon to deposit her into the waiting arms of her friends, I thought with dismay how much more frightened she would be of me—of us—after this incident.
How would she ever overcome her fear and dislike of me now? What could I possibly do to bring her to me after my Drake had frightened her half to death?
I had no idea—I only knew I couldn’t have done anything other than what I had. I couldn’t have stopped myself from saving her, even if it meant losing her forever.
28
Kaitlyn
Fang and Claw: Nocturne Academy, Book 2 Page 12