by Nikki Dean
“I have another class in fifteen minutes," Janae insisted. “I can't go back to the dorm yet."
“Girl, you're not going to be awake in fifteen minutes."
“No, I will. I just need my backpack. I've got energy drinks in there that would put any coffee to shame. It happens all the time, really."
All the time? Surely that's bad for her. I know I pass out after too long, so I wonder if she does too? “I'll get it and be right back."
Janae nodded and Mallory ran to their classroom to get their stuff. The other students had been there first, and only one or two remained with their backpacks. Bryan's shoulder hit hers as he left. He didn't look back.
Mallory flipped him off.
Grabbing her backpack and Janae's, she hurried back to the exit, only stopping when she saw that Professor MacKenna was outside with Janae. He sat beside her on the bench, his knee touching hers as he presumably asked how she was. Janae's face changed as they spoke, smoothing out the lines from her exhaustion as he pointed to his wrist.
She shook her head no. Professor MacKenna looked around a moment, then took her hand in his.
Oh, shit, is she seeing him? I thought he was married? Mallory thought in surprise. Wait, maybe not?
Janae took a deep breath and looked away as she gave him what little energy she had left. Mallory watched as it left her friend's entity on her web and transferred into the professor, changing until it matched his odd purple color in Mallory's mind. Janae slumped forward, her elbows on her knees as MacKenna let her go.
What the fuck? Mallory burst out the door, hiding her petty grin as MacKenna jumped in surprise. “Janae, are you okay? Should I take you to the nurse? I'm pretty sure I looked the same way when I overexerted myself last week, and my TA had to take me in, too."
Janae stayed quiet for a moment, then nodded her head. “That might not be a bad idea."
Mallory stiffened as Professor MacKenna reached over and patted Janae on the back, then stood. “I'll email Professor Sithe, Janae, and let her know that you're going to the nurse. Your absence will be excused, and you both did well today. Mallory, I have quite a few questions about your plan to keep the red flag safe, and how flawlessly you executed it. I must admit that I was a little surprised, given that you weren't certain that you wanted to be in the class to begin with. I think you'll do just fine here."
Great. “So does that mean you don't want to meet with my handler and the admissions office tomorrow?" she asked as she helped Janae up. The other girl wobbled on her feet.
Why isn't he helping her? If they're seeing each other, shouldn't he be more concerned? Maybe I just misread it.
“No, I'd still like to have a meeting, but I don't think we need to involve admissions, if you're okay with that. Just a conference with you and Mr. Crowley should suffice to get you brought up to speed. He's a hell of a chess player."
“Yeah, you mentioned that. See you in your office at six," Mallory said. Professor MacKenna made a noise of agreement and walked away, leaving the two girls standing there. “Thanks for your help here, Professor," Mallory muttered under her breath.
“He's not really that type," Janae answered. “Sorry about this."
“Not the type to help a student to the nurse? That sounds pretty shitty."
“He doesn't see things unless they're right in front of him, and even then, he tends to ignore it if it's not the outcome he's hoping for."
Pausing, Mallory looked at her new friend. “You sound like you know this from personal experience?"
Janae's mouth tightened into a thin line and she looked away. “You could say that."
Ouch. Whatever it was, it didn't end well. Better not ask. “So I should only cite research he approves of if we ever have to write a paper, huh?"
The healer relaxed a little. “That would be a good idea."
They walked the rest of the way in silence until Mallory's phone began to vibrate. She hit the ignore button without looking, leaving it in her pocket until she could see who it was. It buzzed several more times, short little vibrations to indicate that she was getting texts.
A lot of them.
They rounded the corner of the dorm and Janae straightened, pulling her arm from around Mal's shoulders. “I think I can get it now. I think I’m going to skip the nurse and just go to my room to lie down, since I don't have any more classes after Sithe’s. You really going to have a meeting with Professor MacKenna tomorrow?"
Why does she sound concerned? “Yep. He was a little annoyed that I was assigned to his class without any of the prerequisite courses. I guess he's not so worried after today, for whatever reason."
“He finds odd things interesting," Janae answered. “And likes to study them. Be careful that he doesn't find you too fascinating, or you might regret it." She stepped back and took an energy drink from her backpack, cracking it open as she leaned against the wall beside the elevator call buttons.
“Thought you were going to nap?" Mal said. “Won't that just keep you up?"
Janae held up one finger as she drank, draining the can within a few minutes. “I'll process it while I'm asleep. I'm used to this."
Well, that sounds awful. Why does she have to extend herself so much if she’s so genetically enhanced for healing? We have a nurse on site. “Oh. Well, have a good nap then. I'll see you on Tuesday."
The elevator doors opened and Janae got inside. “Remember what I said about MacKenna. Be careful with him."
Mallory didn't say anything as the doors slid together, cutting off any further conversation. “Well then. Jealous much, or something else?"
Chapter 9
Mallory glanced at her phone as it buzzed again, her jaw falling open as she read the notifications.
You have 17 new messages.
“Seventeen? What the hell are you guys doing right now?" she muttered in disbelief. Turning away from the elevators, she headed for the cafeteria to get some lunch. The messages were pretty much what she'd expected - inquiries as to how the simulation had gone, what team she was on and whether or not she'd passed out.
I guess I'm doing a lot better than I thought I would. It's probably because Janae was healing me for the last fifteen minutes while we tried to keep her away from the special ops team. Her powers are amazing. Her weird relationship with Professor MacKenna though? Not so much. I wonder what's going on between them, and if they're dating in secret, like Nico and I. He did say the academy was a lot stricter about relationships for professors than TAs, and she's in his class. So I'm willing to bet that's an even bigger no-no.
Resolving not to mention it to Nico or Matt, she finally got to the end of her messages.
Mal: Battle sim went great, but I'm starving. Grabbing some food from the cafeteria, but I'll tell you all later.
Alec: Did you find a good hiding place?
Mal: Pfft, this bitch doesn't hide.
Damon: Clearly. Even when it would be good for you.
Mal: I'm not talking to you.
Alec sent back a laughing emoji and they both went silent. “Wonder what the others are doing right now?" Mallory muttered as she grabbed a sandwich and an apple from the quick-serve counter. She ran her student ID to pay and found a table, hoping to go get a thirty-minute nap before her next class, too. Running around in the woods was exhausting, and she hadn't even had to do much.
“I wonder if I should grab anything for Janae and leave it at her door?" Mallory mused. “Not that I know what her room number is, so never mind."
“You're sweet."
Mallory jumped in her seat and whirled around to find Nico standing behind her, a tray of food in his hand. He grinned down at her.
She cast a quick glance around, trying not to be too obvious about it. “What are you doing here?"
“Eating. You?"
She blushed and looked away, unable to help herself. Nico laughed as he pulled up a chair.
“Now who's the pervert?" he asked softly.
“Shut up, someone might hea
r you!" she hissed. “I didn't think you wanted to be seen with me in public!"
Frowning, he looked down at his tray. It only had a bagel and bottle of orange juice on it. Both were unopened.
Shit, he only got those so that he could sit with me, and I'm giving him hell for it.
“You know it's not like that, right? I'm not trying to hide you, Bunny, or our relationship. I don't want you to feel like I am."
“Except that's exactly what's going on, because you're not supposed to spend time with students outside of class. I'm glad you're here, but I don't want you to get into trouble."
“Let me worry about that," Nico said and picked up his juice. “How'd it go today? Were you able to use your powers enough? What happened with your flag?"
She grinned. “It was amazing. My head started hurting a few times, but that healer I told you about, Janae, fixed it for me. She ended up being one of the targets for the special ops team, so I had to help protect her. Another guy, Conner, helped us, but she kept healing me a little at a time so I could keep track of everyone, and our flag. It kinda sucked for her, but had to be done at the time. There was a dragon involved."
“A dragon?" he lifted an eyebrow. “Those aren't real. You told her about tracking people on your web?"
“Not really. Just told them that I can talk to animals, and the animals told me where people were in the woods. Who was close, things like that. I made an owl come and pick up our flag as a last resort, and managed to keep it safe when it looked like we were about to lose it. The dragon was just a defensive spell, protecting the blue team's flag. How do you set up a spell so that it stays with an object, instead of the caster?"
“It's complicated, but not impossible. Charms and runes are how most people do it. Why was there a dragon, in particular?"
Mallory shrugged and shoveled food into her mouth, suddenly starving. “I'm guessing Conner is afraid of them. The spell wouldn't work on Janae, and thus on me since she was healing me.”
He frowned. “That seems strange.”
“I thought so too, but I didn’t see anything. We walked right up to where he said the dragon was though, and there was the blue flag, buried under some leaves. I completely believe that he saw something.”
Nico stilled in the process of taking a drink. “Let me get this right. You protected your flag by strapping it to an owl, protected Janae from the special ops team, and found the blue flag? So technically, you got credit for three of them?”
“Mmm-hmm. Guess so.”
“Mallory, that’s never been done before. What you just accomplished is huge. Even Matt and I didn’t do that in any of our simulations, much less the first one.”
Blinking at his use of her real name, she leaned back in her chair. “That’s bad, isn’t it?”
“If you were trying to stay under the radar, yes. If you want people to actually know what a badass you are and help you learn to use your powers, then no.”
“I have you guys for that. I was really going for staying under the radar. Maybe my class is made up of idiots.”
Nico rolled his eyes. “You shouldn’t say that. You also beat Alec and Damon in the gym last night.”
“Then passed out in the yard, big win for me,” she retorted. Nico just stared at her. “I know, it was rude of me to say that about my classmates. Still. Maybe you guys just had it harder than me, or I just got lucky. It’s been known to happen, you know.” Not usually to me, though. Not that it’s exactly beneficial to have a bunch of people talking about the simulation today, and then mentioning me eating lunch with Nico if we want to keep this a secret. Why’s everything so complicated?
“Still. Three flags is huge. MacKenna will definitely be paying attention to you now.” Draining the rest of his orange juice, Nico stood. “Meet you in your room in a second?”
“Sure, I guess. I’m almost done.”
“Text me when you get there.”
He turned and walked out of the dining room, heading for the elevators. She had no doubt that he’d go all the way up to his room, then flash down to hers.
I guess I’m not getting that nap after all, Mallory thought as she cleared her tray into the trash can. Making her way up to her room, she paused as she went in, savoring the moment of solitude.
It’s been a long day, and it’s not even noon yet. I’m not looking forward to Damon and Alec’s class next. Maybe Nico can get me out of it. She immediately felt guilty for the thought, and knew she wouldn’t ever ask, no matter how tempting it was.
If anything, she wanted to show up just to throw it into Damon’s face that she wasn’t as useless as he wanted to say last night. Hell, if Everett was there, that would just make it even better.
Get a desk job or get my team killed, ha. I guess they didn’t tell him that I’m only here because I was saving someone’s life, and I don’t even like her that much. There would be hell to pay if anything like that happened when Nico or Matt was in danger. I don’t care how many spiders got squished
Guilt assailed her again, even though she knew how dumb that was. Spiders reproduced much faster than humans, and there were millions more of the little eight-legged wonders. Still, that didn’t mean she didn’t value their lives.
But she valued Nico’s more. And Matt’s. Maybe even Alec’s and Damon’s too, if they ever stopped being assholes to her.
“I need a nap,” she grumbled as she fired off a text to Nico. “Maybe I can talk him into waking me up in twenty minutes.” A knock at the door made her jump.
“Come in,” she called out. Nico’s arms were around her before she was even finished with the words, and he swooped in for a scorching kiss. Lifting her up onto her toes, he kissed her hard, making her toes curl as parts of her that definitely hadn’t been worn out during the battle simulation woke up for him.
“I’m so fucking proud of you,” he finally whispered against her lips. “You have no idea.”
“Thanks. I guess it didn’t really seem like such a big deal at the time.” Another knock sounded and she tilted her head, narrowing her eyes at Nico. “Who else did you invite?”
He tried to look innocent.
“Nico.”
“It’s just Matt.”
Mallory rolled her eyes. “Of course it is. Are you two connected at the hip?”
“I mean, would you complain if we were?” he teased, pressing that particular bit of his anatomy into hers.
“Put that away, your friend is coming in,” she replied as she grabbed his ass. “You could have mentioned that you invited him before kissing me like that.”
“Would it have made a difference?”
“Probably not. But at least I wouldn’t be thinking about sucking your dick while your friend is right outside the door.”
Nico groaned and jerked her back against him just as Matt knocked again. “Let’s tell him to leave.”
“That’s rude. Don’t you want to gloat about how I got three flags today?”
“You’re about to get a pole to put them on, too,” he muttered as he tried to kiss her again. Mallory turned her cheek at the last moment, laughing.
“Wow. I can’t believe you just said that. I’m starting to see why you and Matt are friends with lame-ass jokes like that.”
Nico slapped her ass and gave it a firm squeeze before letting her go to answer the door. He sank down onto her bed, swearing under his breath as he looked for something to put in his lap. Eventually he flashed out of the room to the bathroom and flashed back, his erection gone as the toilet flushed.
“Did you just?” Mallory asked as she opened the door, not even looking at Matt on the other side. “Really? That’s where we are now?”
“I’ll make it up to you later,” Nico promised.
“Do I even want to know?” Matt asked as he came inside.
“No,” they said together.
Okay then, Matt mouthed silently. He sat beside his friend and elbowed Nico’s side. “So, how’d she do?”
“I'm right here,
you know,” she retorted. “Stop that.”
“Oof, did she fail?” Matt asked, keeping his eyes on Nico, who edged away slightly.
“I didn’t fail, you ass. Quite the opposite, in fact, although I don’t see the big deal.”
“Oh, yeah?” Matt finally looked at her. “Your team kept their flag?”
“She got credit for three,” Nico said.
“Three?” The surprise in his voice was real, much to Mallory’s delight. Or maybe annoyance, she wasn’t sure. More like both.
“You don’t have to say it like that.”
“There are only two flags on the field, Miss Magic. How’d you manage to get credit for three?”
“The special ops team was supposed to capture my friend Janae. The healer. Another guy on our team can apparently make things invisible, so he kept us hidden while I told them which way to go, and we managed to avoid everyone long enough to make it to the bell. We also found the blue flag along the way, but it was really bizarre.”
“I can see how you and Conner would make a good team. You’re two sides of the same coin, basically,” Matt said. His voice was carefully neutral, but Mallory could sense the flare of jealousy that had ignited at her words.
“How’d you know his name?”
“It’s a small campus. We’ve met before,” Matt replied.
“Why am I not surprised? He was kind of a dick to me at first,” Mallory said with a sigh. “Underestimating me and basically telling me to sit in the corner while the adults handled everything.”
“The adults?” Nico repeated.
“Did you lie about your age again?” Matt demanded. “It was cute once, but come on.”
“Of course not. None of them were hitting on me. I only do that to make creeps back off.”
His brow furrowed as he tried to remember who had been hitting on her first in the truck to earn her lie.
“Matt. Back to the point. They didn’t say ‘the adults’, it’s just a phrase. Basically, the more experienced students with more offensive magic were going to protect the flag, and Janae was supposed to heal them. Her magic is really strange.”