Restrike: (Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting: Operation Shift, Book 2)

by Shawn Knightley

  The lycan rolled over and cried into the air, swiping his paws at the knife as my magic swirled around it, holding it in place. There was a ribbon of red light between the dagger and my hand. I twisted my arm to the side and the dagger mimicked my movement. My magic could manipulate it from far away. I dug it in deeper, causing the lycan to thrash back and forth, desperately trying to swipe at the dagger and get it out. It was no use. I had it lodged deep inside of him. Jake turned the corner with his sword in hand. I barely had time to register what he was doing before he swung the blade high in the air and beheaded the lycan right in front of my eyes.

  “Great!” Alina whined as she came around the corner. “How much are you boys going to make me clean up tonight?”

  “Don’t worry about it, love,” Jake said. “I’ll help you out this time. It’s my turn anyway.”

  That was when Jake saw the red light of the dagger swirling around inside the lycan’s body. He took a few generous steps back and watched as I continued wielding the dagger and dug it out, only to retract my magic back inside my palm and letting the ribbon of magic fade away.

  “You’re nice to have around,” he said with a grin.

  Lothar turned the corner and saw what had happened.

  A thrill passed through me and I started smiling. I had defeated a full-blown lycan on my first trip out with the Vontex. I was alone. I had no one else to count on and I somehow managed to protect myself. It was the first time since the Vontex found me that I didn’t feel vulnerable or out of my depth. I was in control of myself in every way.

  Lothar quickly closed the gap between us. I let the crowning magic disappear from my eyes. He wasn’t saturated in a red hue anymore. He was just Lothar. And he was furious.

  I took a few steps back and let my hands up in front of me, sensing I would soon be on the defensive.

  “What are you mad at me for?” I complained at the sight of his narrowing eyes. “You left me here alone! I had no choice. I had to defend myself.”

  “That may be,” he said, getting right up in my personal space until I backed up into the rear of the car. “But you don’t have to enjoy it. Don’t ever enjoy it.”

  “The Vontex aren’t meant to take pride in their work?”

  Even Alina’s expression was grave after the words came flying out of my mouth. I knew then that what I said must have been completely and utterly wrong.

  “We exist to bring about death,” Lothar hissed. “And even though we try to save those that we can, we do not enjoy it. We do it to stop our own kind from destroying humans. Make no mistake, Riley, we are the villains. And we are at war. Often with ourselves. We do not enjoy or take pride in having to slaughter. We do it because it is necessary. Do you understand?”

  A lump formed at the back of my throat. I saw Lothar when he was trying to be intimidating. I even saw him when he was trying to be understanding and perhaps even a bit doting. But I had never seen him truly angry until that night.

  “Then why do it?” I asked. “Why live such an existence?”

  “Because these people are victims,” he grunted. “They were preyed upon by those who cannot help themselves. Whether we keep them alive or kill them, we provide a much-needed mercy to both lycan and mankind. We bring balance by causing violence. And violence should never be greeted with enjoyment. Do you understand?”

  I gave a small nod, unable to speak as the lump in my throat grew thicker.

  I remembered the way he smiled at me when I circled him in the graveyard. He enjoyed the hunt just as much as I did. He liked that I was a challenge for him the second we met. Was he putting on a show for the others? Or was he warning me not to showcase how much I was already liking the hunt? The thrill of smelling blood and using my instincts to do harm was invigorating. I knew it was for him too. But showcasing it was obviously forbidden.

  I remained quiet as he stepped away and went over to the lycan on the ground, examining it with a closer eye.

  “Do you think this is the one who did the killing tonight?” Alina asked.

  Lothar knelt down to the ground and smelled the scent on the lycan’s front teeth. I knew it had to be horrific. I could smell it without even getting close.

  Lothar nodded. “Yes, I believe its one and the same. That’s the old woman’s flesh in his mouth.”

  I looked over to the headless elderly woman and realized he was right. The two scents mingled with one another. We captured the killer and his prey all in one night.

  A flash of pain scorched my wrist. I latched onto it with my other hand and started screeching. It was coming from my bracelet.

  “What are you doing now?” Lothar snapped at me.

  “No! It’s my brother’s bracelet! It’s burning me!”

  Lothar snatched the silver dagger he gave me out of the lycan’s body and ran over to me. Before I could stop him, he reached for my arm and sliced the leather of the bracelet right off my wrist.

  “Hey!” I snarled, not wanting to lose one of the only items I had to remember my brother by. Clearly, Lothar wasn’t sensitive to items of sentimental value.

  I watched as the bracelet fell down to the concrete sidewalk. Lothar reached for the sleeve of my trench coat and pulled it up. There was a large rectangular burn where the bronze plate touched my skin.

  Seconds rolled by. My skin refused to heal.

  “What the hell?” I took a closer look to see the redness on my skin refusing to go away. I had already gotten used to being able to heal from my wounds quickly. Whatever was stopping my skin from healing wasn’t normal. At least not for a lycan.

  Lothar sighed as he examined my skin. “I’ll take you to Nurse Roslyn as soon as we get back. Get in the car,” he demanded. He kept my brother’s bracelet in the leather pocket of his trench coat covering his skin for protection. It must have been too hot for his skin as well.

  The second I was inside I heard him lock the doors so I couldn’t get out.

  I watched through the darkened windows as they gathered the bodies. Well, Jake carried them. Alina and Lothar just wrapped them up then used the dark telmir powder Jake had to make the evidence of blood left behind disappear altogether. I was forced to sit in the backseat all the way to the forest through the entrance to our realm with the stench of flesh in the cage behind me. My first experience out with the Vontex was as exciting as it was disgusting.

  Lothar’s words did nothing to dissuade me. I felt empowered. I wanted to go on the hunt again. And I wouldn’t feel bad about enjoying it. This was the only way I knew how to amend what I had done. To give back after I had taken life away. The Vontex might be a violent force but they weren’t as villainous as Lothar or Rodrick portrayed. There was indeed a thin line between good and evil. But the Vontex straddled it in the only way that made sense to me. My determination to become one of them only deepened. And I had a sneaky feeling that was Ellinor’s intention all along.

  11

  Professor Addair strolled through the center aisle between the desks in the classroom with her trench coat trailing along behind her. I watched as her long chestnut brown hair moved from side to side as she walked. She was the sort of teacher all the young men drooled over and the women wanted to be like. Or they were insanely jealous of how she seemed to grab male attention and refused to let go. There was no in between. But she always took it a touch too far, if you ask me. And I say that as a woman who dressed rather provocatively on stage. It was either staggering high heels attached to her knee-high boots or a plunging neckline. Either way, she was alluring. And the last woman in the world I expected to teach a hunting class.

  She walked up to the podium as everyone listened in silence to the clack of her high heels on the wood floor. Then she removed her trench coat and showed off her bare toned arms. Followed by a twist of the knob on the podium to darken the room and let the moon’s light cascade down on top of us. Everyone groaned. Except me. I was getting better and better each day that went by. And I was starting to feel the difference between
artificial moonlight spawned by magic and the real thing. It was faint but it was there.

  “I think she likes showing off,” I heard Maribeth Carter, a year two student whisper from a few desks away. “She wants us to see how strong she is under her trench coat.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle silently. I had only been through a couple of weeks of classes and I was already starting to see who roamed in which circles within the academy.

  “She can show off all she likes,” Xavier mumbled back to her.

  “Right, because that’s a totally appropriate way to conduct oneself in a classroom,” Maribeth whined.

  “Who said anything about being appropriate? If anything it helps with paying attention.”

  “Yes, I’m sure you’re not being driven to distraction.”

  Professor Addair went to the side of the podium and opened a chest that had been there since we all walked in. I noticed the stench from the second I came down the stairs to the classroom. Only now I knew exactly where it was coming from. Professor Addair took two large dead rabbits by their long ears from inside the chest and slammed them against the table to the right of the podium.

  I recalled the rabbit I saw in the graveyard. The way it smelled was divine. Like a meal just waiting for me to take the first bite. These little creatures were different. Their flesh wasn’t even the least bit fresh.

  “The sooner you pick up on things the sooner I will discard these little creatures,” she said in her thick Scottish accent as she leaned over the table with the rabbits underneath her curvaceous chest, giving the gents in the room a nice peek at her cleavage.

  “Subtle, isn’t she?” Maribeth whispered.

  “Huh?” Xavier was hardly paying attention to Maribeth anymore. His eyes were glued to Professor Addair.

  “As lycan, you will find that simplest things will distract you,” Professor Addair lectured as she started pacing back and forth on the platform before everyone in her skin-tight black jeans. “You must find a way to fight through it. If you ever find yourself in the human realm, you will be surrounded by distractions and temptation. Best you learn how to control it now.”

  “How is this supposed to help with hunting?” Maribeth whispered. Unlucky for her, Professor Addair caught it this time.

  “To hunt properly, you need focus, Miss Carter. A profound amount of focus that you obviously possess given you managed to pass the trials. But being around humans and other forms of life will always tempt you in ways you can’t imagine. It’s why the lycan are considered a threat by so many of our enemies. And until you learn to control it, you will be the eternal prey. Learning how to harness your mindset from that of prey to the hunter is part of why we’re here.”

  “How do we do that?” Xavier asked, clearly just wanting to get Professor Addair’s attention as she turned toward him with her piercing emerald eyes.

  “I will bring various dead animals to class every day. The smell will make you prone to distraction during my lectures, along with the moonlight above you as I make it more intense than you’re used to. Once you become adept to learning while a distraction is before you, your senses will become sharper. Now, how many of you have ever smelled human flesh while in werewolf form?”

  A few students in the class raised their hands. I kept mine down, not wishing to be reminded of what I had done to the grave keeper. Or to give anyone else cause to ask me questions I didn’t want to answer.

  “And how did it smell?” she asked with a smile as she leaned into the podium once more with her arms folded before her. Clearly, she already knew the answer.

  “Incredible,” a voice whispered from the other side of the room.

  “And how do these rabbits smell? How many of you smelled animals while you were in werewolf form?” she asked.

  I refused to participate. The fewer who knew the way I was captured by the Vontex, the better. It was bad enough that I could remember everything as clearly as I did.

  “You will find humans react much differently to the hunt than animals,” she continued when no one answered her. The silence across the room made me wonder how many other students dealt with such violence like I did after I shifted for the first time. Was the Vontex really that efficient at capturing them before they did something horrible? Or was I special? Were they holding back?

  “Animals are used to being hunted,” Professor Addair stated. “They have been throughout the centuries not just by other animals but by humans. Humans are used to being hunted by other humans during times of war and great upheaval. Or even by criminals who stalk the night. Occasionally you’ll hear about an animal attack on a human but its far rarer than it was once. Which is why the way lycan hunt in modern times is so different. And why we teach you how to control your impulses now rather than later. Animals will always run from you. Humans, however, will be drawn to you.”

  My ears perked up. This was the lecture I had been silently waiting to hear. I remembered how Devon made me feel when he drew me in. But the details surrounding how he did so were still a bit of a mystery to me.

  “Your scent is potent to humans,” she continued. “And yet, they will never know that’s what leads them closer to you. Ladies, you will exude a presence that will forever have men eating out of the palm of your hand. They will lust for you without you even trying because your body now gives off a scent of pure femininity with the perfect blend of mystery. Gentlemen, you will exude a presence that will forever have women falling at your feet and feeling weak in your presence. They will come to you willingly because your body gives off a scent of pure masculinity with the perfect blend of danger. And all humans are drawn to danger now and again just to remind them that they’re alive. I imagine many of you have already felt the effects from each other. How many of you have felt a certain…longing since you came here?”

  Not a single hand in the room went up. Everyone was far too embarrassed to admit it. But they knew. They had to. Because I felt it every time I got close to Lothar, Rodrick, or even Devon. Hell, even Jake on occasion. The thought made me cringe.

  “As lycan, we prey on human desires. We use it to draw our victims closer to us. Werewolves hunt for the scent of human flesh. Lycan hunt because it gives us a sense of power. Now, don’t get me wrong. The taste of human flesh and blood is unmatched by anything else in this world. But the thrill of having humans willingly give themselves over to us for a meal is why we are so dangerous. You will find yourself seeking out this thrill. It will excite you, it will satiate you, and it will make you a serious threat. Which is why so many lycan choose to stay in this realm and never enter the human one.”

  I sank deep in my seat.

  ‘Great. Just great. This means that it likely won’t go away and I’ll eternally feel like my insides are on fire.’

  “Which is why we’re going to have a little test of self-control and discipline. The greatest hunters throughout history have always practiced restraint. They know the one thing that others do not. That it doesn’t matter how fast you find and kill your prey. It’s how you close in for the kill. The process of finding the one you want and deciding if the time is right. Should you strike, or shouldn’t you? Is there too much risk involved? Is this particular kill because you need to feed on flesh? Or is this the perfect victim? These are the questions the best hunters ask themselves.”

  I swallowed hard at the thought. Did Devon see me as the perfect victim? It sure felt that way.

  Professor Addair opened up the cabinet inside the podium and took out a glass decanter with a strange honey colored liquid inside. Only this liquid didn’t look normal. It shined with a luminous blue glow that reminded me of one thing. Magic.

  “This is a very special potion,” Professor Addair said, holding the decanter up high for everyone to see just before she stepped down from the platform and walking between the rows of desks. “It contains a mixture created by a luxra witchling. When consumed it shows you your greatest temptation. And not the material kind,” she smirked as her ey
es glinted from the light reflecting in the decanter. “Take out the small vials inside your desks,” she ordered. “And don’t you dare take a single sip until I say so.”

  I reached into the drawer of the desk and pulled out a small glass vial that didn’t look any deeper than a shot glass.

  Professor Addair started at the back of the classroom and worked her way forward, filling each vial to the brim until everyone in the class had some potion sitting on their desks. I watched as the liquid practically sparkled in the vial. The scent wafted over me like a breeze running through my hair. I knew right away that this wasn’t going to be a particularly easy lecture. Professor Addair was going to make this as uncomfortable as possible.

  She went back to the podium and stood on top of the platform. When she turned around she was playing with a long lock of her hair as an evil grin crossed her face. This was a woman who knew exactly how she appealed to men. And I suddenly understood why Rodrick appointed her to teach this particular class. If the guys could get through it without being utterly distracted they would be efficient hunters who could actually control their impulses. Because every single one of them was going to envision her when they took the potion. I could sense it.

  She dimmed the moonlight and let the stars come out as she slowly twisted the knob controlling the light over the room. The sky above us turned into a new moon. Nothing but the stars shined down on us.

  “You’re about to have enough to deal with,” she said. “So I’ll give you a reprieve from the moonlight. For now. Remain seated, stay quiet, and close your eyes after consuming the potion.”

  Everyone raised the vials before them. The smell of the potion was unlike anything else I had ever smelled. Like nectar that was pulling me in for a single taste that would change my life forever. I downed the mixture and barely had time to feel it hit my stomach before the back doors to the classroom burst open and slammed into the wall.