by S. L. Morgan
“I’m not gawking. I don’t gawk, especially at guys that look good. As far as I know, he’s a complete jerk, so why would I give him a fraction of my time?”
“Good question. I get you back into reality with a waking spell, and after he put you in check, you’re checking the dude out.”
I craned my head, looking pointedly away from the guy. “It’s obvious that chick is his girl anyway. I’m not into him, so chill. I’m with you.” I turned back to see the line slowly moving forward. “What the hell is with this school and their admission process? A freaking witch could snap her fingers and move us right into our dorms.”
“Let’s just hope this is the only flaw I see in the school.”
I glanced over and smiled at my judgmental witch friend. “You and I both know you’re going to complain about anything unless you find out an ancient witch is running this joint, and you know it. You witches are all the same. You judge others pretty harshly.”
“It’s not my fault we have impeccable standards,” she said with a wink. “I’m just ready to move along.”
“Me too.”
It felt like an hour before we were given our schedules and dorm room numbers, complete with an enchanted map. Vannah and I were obviously split up. New students were paired up with existing ones.
We were each given a mystical map, complete with a magical bug icon that walked on the map, leading us to where we needed to go. I couldn’t help but laugh at the adorable little thing as it trudged down the hallways of the second floor of the Manor House building where my dorm was located. The bug’s tiny legs were scrambling on the map, trying to keep at the same pace as me and not get too far ahead. If the magical bug turned right down a hallway, I needed to turn right. Simple as that. My curiosity couldn’t allow me to follow the critter without wondering what would happen if I went the wrong direction though.
I laughed out loud when the bug shook like it was having a breakdown because I was going to get lost. It started to turn red, waving its front legs in the other direction as if I was going to fall off a cliff if I didn’t go the other way. I decided to turn right again before the bug had a heart attack and keeled over on my map. It finally led me to Dorm 307.
I walked in to see two twin-sized beds on opposite sides of the room and two French doors that were opened, leading out to a balcony. Glancing around the room, I was impressed with its size. Two large dressers to match the white, metal bed frames were against the wall just beyond the foot of each bed. Two doors, each leading to bathrooms, were next to each bed. Personal bathrooms? Nice touch. The wind blew in through the French doors, and along with the white chiffon curtains, the girl who was with the hot dude from earlier blew in too.
Just my luck. I get to share the room with a girl who was obviously a vamp. Thank God this room was big because Miss Vampire Pageant was going to need to give me some space. This wasn’t going to make sleeping easy. If this chick so much as winked at the thought of draining my energy and using that to compel my shifter butt to get busted, she was in for a big surprise.
Knowing myself, she’d be wasting her time. I was probably going to do that all on my own. Either way, I was going to have to sleep with one eye open. Shifters and vampires were polar opposites. To put it nicely, we hated each other, and I was stuck bunking with one of them.
Chapter Four
House of Braeclaw
Schedule of Classes
for our highly esteemed shifters.
Welcome to Immortal Academy:
Orientation: Day One
At Immortal Academy, we strive to make your first day your best day. Today is our introduction day where you will meet professors and learn of the various activities that Immortal Academy has to offer. Please make sure you are on time and in uniform upon arrival to Brickhall Theatre. Classes will start tomorrow.
Personal schedule for Jenna Silvers:
Immortal Shifter: Species; Wolf.
5:00 a.m. - 7:00 a.m.
Training in natural forms
Attire: Combat uniforms
Instructor: Master Dominic Rossi
Location: House Braeclaw lawns
7:00 a.m. - 7:30 a.m.
Shower and dress in universal school uniforms
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
Breakfast
Location: Brignell Dining Hall
9:15 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
First Session
Class: Shifters of House Braeclaw
Professor: Sir Samson Candor
Location: House of Braeclaw building, unit 501
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Second Session
Class: Vampires; The immortal history of
Professor: Mistress Sirena Masorne
Location: House of Draguar building, unit 632
12:00 p.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Lunch
Brignell Dining Hall
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Third Session
Class: Fairies, the immortal history of
Professor: Dr. Winston Goldwater
Location: House of Fae building, unit 717
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Fourth Session
Class: Witches, the history of
Professor: Madame Helen Von Tassle
Location: House of Mage building, unit 890
5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Dinner
Location: Brignell Dining Hall
7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Shifter forms:
This is considered Shifters’ free time and agility workout with your assigned Braeclaw Master. Your assigned Master is Dominic Rossi.
This is the ONLY time your animal may be present unless otherwise specified at this academy. If any shifter is found in their animal form without proper permission from your professor, you will be reprimanded, and repercussions for this offense will be decided by the dean of the school. This is taken very seriously, and we advise you to comply with these rules. Dean Darius Edgewater is rarely involved in matters such as these, but for this, he will make exceptions.
(IMPORTANT: Your assigned Master has the right to revoke your shifting privileges at their discretion).
8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Free time/Study Hall
10:00 p.m. - 5:00 a.m.
Retire to your dorm for sleep
“Careful, or you’re going to tear that schedule in half if you grip it any harder,” a sweet, almost too nice voice said from across where I had absently sat on my bed.
“This is crap,” I said, unable to peel my eyes away from the paper. “We can only be in our animal forms for an hour out of an entire day?”
“A lot of us vampires felt the same our first year in too. Being limited to our vampire abilities—our true selves—for only an hour felt like an eternity. It was almost like a detox process,” she finished with a contagious, kind laugh.
My eyes slid up to see her sitting in her cute pleated skirt and white polo shirt, the crest of this overly strict and overbearing school glaring right at me. The girl was definitely all legs on top of her vampire goddess beauty.
I slapped the paper down over where I had thrown my map of the dorm building at the foot of my bed. “This is bullshit,” I grumbled, watching her perfect features highlight with humor.
“Careful of your language,” she said with an arch of her brow. “If some Master or professor catches you cursing, it’s not a good consequence.”
“Is it as bad a consequence as me shifting outside of the hour they give me a day? My freaking wolf is part of who I am. If I keep her caged up like this, she might blow a fuse and come out like the wild animal she really is.”
“My twin had a mouth the school didn’t approve of, and he washed a lot of dishes, so much so that his hands and nails started to become softer than mine.” She laughed, but I just stared at her in confusion.
“Why are you of all supes—a vamp—being nice to me? We both know our kind don’t exactly have good blood in the supernatural realm.”
I could see something behind her vampy, light blue eyes, but she wasn’t going to give that away. “It’s what this school is for, Jenna. That is your name, right?”
“Yep, Jenna. Your wolf shifter bunkmate.”
She nodded. “Good. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Lusa.”
“Well,” I conceded with a smile, trusting the vamp for now, “It’s nice to meet you too. I guess I’d better suit up in these lame uniforms and head off to demonstration hour.”
“Demonstration hour?” she asked with her forehead wrinkled in confusion.
“Yeah. Where they tell us everything we need to know and all about how we’re all lucky to be at this school?”
She giggled. “I’ll be with you. Since I am a second-year student, we get assigned to newcomers. I hope you’re cool with a vamp joining you. Besides, I’d like to get to know you better.”
I tugged at my bottom lip with my teeth. “Yeah, I’d like to figure out how a vamp is cool with sharing a room with a shifter myself.”
“There’s going to be so much you’ll learn and love at Immortal Academy. It may seem like other schools to you, but it is very different. The first of its kind to merge all supernaturals. We all get along and work together.”
“That’s definitely something I’m looking forward to figuring out for myself.” I smiled. Crap, I was actually playing nice with a vamp. My guard wasn’t down, I wasn’t tired, she wasn’t draining me and compelling me to like her right now. This was freaking weird.
She stood up and glanced down at my schedule. “Careful of your map.”
She eyed the papers on my bed. “The little critters who guide you through the campus buildings are called Scio.” She smiled, “They’re brilliant and very much alive and part of this school.”
I pulled my schedule off the map, and when I looked at the bug that was in the paper that crawled its way around the halls getting me to this room, I covered my mouth. The thing was upside down, its hair-thin feet curled up.
“I killed the poor thing!” I said, feeling awful. “How was it even alive? It’s just some magic on paper!”
“No,” Lusa said with humor. “I mean, yes, they are of House Fae’s works, but your little guy is still alive. He’s only playing dead. They’re mischievous little things.”
“I would imagine so if the thing was created by a fairy.” I moved my finger on the paper, trying to disturb the bug. Nothing. “Well, guess my bug’s dead. I’ll just throw the thing in the trash and figure my own way around campus.”
I watched as the stubborn thing remained in its dead state, and I decided to challenge the fairy-created turd. I took the paper and headed toward the shredder, and I was shocked when the thing stayed dead, knowing it would’ve heard me turn on the machine. “I think it really is dead,” I said with a soft voice to the vampire.
She shook her head. “Stubborn.” She smiled, her lush pink lips glittering with her eyes in humor. “It would actually let you shred it to its little magical death before letting you win for insulting it.”
“Oh, this is fantastic. I have a paper bug pissed off at me.”
“Upset,” the vamp corrected me. “I think if you give it an apology, it’ll pop up and be back to work in no time.”
Immortal Academy lesson number one, don’t offend the freaking bug on the paper. Stubborn bug, 1 point, Stubborn Jenna, 0 points.
“Well, I don’t have time for this. Hey, little dude. Sorry about not realizing you’re a living thing. I won’t insult you again.”
Nothing.
I closed my eyes. I had the same temper as my wolf right now. She was perked up and in on the whole schedule reading from earlier too. She knew she was shut down to an hour a day at this place for the next three freaking years, and she wasn’t pleased. I didn’t have time for a bug with hurt feelings. I tossed the paper on the bed.
“Well, hopefully, the bug forgives me, or I’d better figure out all the buildings at this academy and quick,” I said, kicking off my shoes and rolling my eyes at shiny black loafers that completed this ridiculous academy ensemble.
The vampire smiled. “I’ve never seen someone react with annoyance at one of the Scio. Usually, new students are enchanted by them.”
“I’m not enchanted by anything right now. I’m serious, I can’t cage my wolf up like this,” I said, feeling panic run through my veins.
“Trust me, you’ll get through it. I promise.” She glanced over at my paper. “Look, I think your Scio forgives you.”
I pulled on my new crisp cotton polo shirt and looked over to find the fairy map bug fluttering its wings, tiny particles of blue dust lifting off the paper and into the air. “What the…”
“It’s offering you something to help for your wolf, I think,” she said. “I’ve never seen a Scio offer dust to its owner.”
“This is insane,” I answered.
Lusa cupped the dust the bug sent off in the air and reached her hand out toward me. I instinctively stepped away from my natural enemy in the supe world.
“It’s okay,” she smiled. “Take it or leave it, but I think the little guy feels sorry for you. You should name it and become friends.”
“Friends with a vamp, then a fairy-created bug. Are we sure that IA doesn’t really stand for Insane Asylum? This is wrong on every level.”
A ring came over the intercom in our room. “I need to go. I’m part of the presentation and the introductions today. Don’t be late.”
Lusa floated out of the room in fantastic and flawless vampire form, leaving the dust the bug offered me on the map. I stared at the bug, the dust, and the map. I had to take a breath and stop reacting too harshly, or I was just going to keep feeding my wolf hostility and paranoia. I learned a long time ago we are the masters of our animals, and we could never let that turn the other way around on us.
If I fed my wolf, she would eventually take over, and the only place for a shifter with their animal in full control was an institute. I needed to calm down. I inhaled, swiped my finger over the bug dust, and instantly felt its gift calming my nerves down once I welcomed the bugs sympathy.
Jenna Silvers, this will be three of the most essential years in all of your existence, I said to myself.
At that moment, I decided I wasn’t going to nitpick this school, but instead, I would open my mind up to it. Learn from it. Heck, my best friend was a witch, why not have a best friend in the vamp department too?
I smiled at my new bug friend. “I’ll name you Bug,” I smirked. “Like that, little dude?”
The bug flitted in circles of what seemed to be happiness, and I let out a breath of sheer disbelief. “Alright. Let me get this lame outfit on, and then you and I are off to the races, Bug.”
I was looking forward to seeing Vannah again, but I was also intrigued by this introduction thing I was headed to now. Would there be any more surprises, or was this going to be the highlight of the academy? A shifter, a bug, and a vamp roommate. Almost sounded like the beginning of a bad joke about walking into a bar.
Chapter Five
I followed Bug, who seemed to be excited to walk through the wing that my dorm was in. The dorms were part of the main building: the silver, sparkling building we were dropped off in front of when we first arrived. The dorms were on the third floor, and from watching Bug, we were headed down a flight of stairs that must have been where this Brickhall Theatre place was.
Glancing over the map of this main building, I could see that its beautiful main entrance wrapped around some courtyard with a huge fountain right in the middle. It was one of many structures on the property. I had no idea how many facilities there even were.
I wondered if I would be given a new map at the introduction assembly and a new bug to help me figure out my way around all these particular and new to me house names for each supernatural at the school. Maybe Braeclaw House, my shifter house, had its own map and my Bug wouldn’t be a part of navigating me around that building or whatever the place was. Or maybe Bug
would jump onto the new map and carry on. I’m sure I was about to find out soon enough, and if I didn’t stop worrying about it and paying more attention to Bug, I was going to accidentally run into a wall.
“Right this way. You’re here with two minutes to spare.” I looked up and saw Lusa smiling as she approached. “And tuck in your shirt. No bare skin in the mid-drift department.”
“Tuck my shirt into this skirt?”
“Just do as I say, or you’ll be singled out by Mistress Sirena,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “She’s extremely strict and highly intelligent.”
“Let me guess, if I remember reading correctly on my schedule, she’s the head vamp professor?”
“However did you guess?” she winked.
“The highly intelligent part was a dead giveaway.” I smiled back, knowing how vamps felt about other vamps. The lady could be an absolute bitch, and her vampire students would still think highly of her and never find flaws. Why? Vamps stuck together like that.
“Jenna!” I heard Tanner’s familiar voice shout.
I strained my eyes—and shifters don’t strain their eyes—to locate my buddy in the direction where his voice came from. The place was dimly lit, and velvet, red-cushioned seats all in rows rose up from the stage where lights were shining down.
Why is my vision sucking right now? I thought, then I felt my wolf was still agitated and pretty much ignoring being part of any of this. This is something she and I needed to get a handle on and quick. Even though she couldn’t have her runs as often as we had at my other school, she’d have to remain focused with me. I needed her as much as she needed me. Also, I couldn’t let my wolf throw these temper tantrums, I had to keep her in check. I didn’t want to run the risk of her rebelling and sending us straight into a real insane asylum for supernaturals.