by Cooke, CJ
I gave him a nod and walked out of the door before anyone could stop me. I caught Caleb, giving me the side-eye as I left. He knew me well enough to probably know I was up to something.
As I made my way to the front door and down the steps, I was surprised that it was Wyatt I heard behind me. “You don’t seem like the kind of female to just let things go. What are you up to?”
“Me?” I said, turning around to face him and trying to give him an innocent look. I must have failed because he just laughed at my attempt.
“Has that ever actually worked?” he chuckled.
“If I’m honest, it was my first ever attempt. It’s probably something I need to keep working on,” I said, turning to keep going down the steps. I intended to move down the side of the house and try to shift then leave. I hadn’t intentionally shifted before, and I wasn’t exactly sure what the process was.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Wyatt pointed out.
“Just going to explore a bit,” I said, stopping in my tracks. Technically, that was true.
“Hmmm, explore. Well, we’re pulling the pack back to the house, so maybe you should stick to exploring inside.” He totally knew I was about to take off.
“Well, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but I had a pretty intense work out yesterday. So, I’m just going to have a quick run and try and ease my muscles a bit. Helps with the aches and pains you know. We can’t all have super healing powers like you shifters,” I countered him with. I was feeling fine. Maybe a tiny bit stiff, but not so much it was bothering me.
“Oh well, if that’s the case, why don’t I join you? You might get lost and end up, oh I don’t know, about sixty kilometres or so away.” He came up beside me, and from his monster height, he was very much able to look down on me, with a look of superiority on his face. I couldn’t wait to smack these shifters down. My magic flurried through my system at the thought. It loved a good fight too apparently.
I just gave him a grin and took a few steps back. “You’ve got a super important, Prime Alpha given mission to accomplish though.”
“Be careful, Aria,” he said seriously. “You’re not invincible, and you have three mates here who need you.”
“I promise you, my feet will not even touch the ground unless absolutely necessary,” I replied seriously. Gone was the time for joking.
Wyatt just nodded, turned and strode away. I appreciated that he wasn’t going to try and stop me from doing this. He seemed different from Kyle’s father. He didn’t seem as dismissive of my sex, and I liked that he clearly cared for Kyle and the other guys. I’d have to make an effort to get to know him a bit better.
I found a quiet spot down the side of the house, because of my discussion with Wyatt, my magic was simmering just under the surface. It wasn’t the angry, rampaging burn it was when I was gearing up for a fight. It was more like a warm embrace. It was a nice change from the overwhelming feeling when my magic felt out of control. I had no idea what to do. My other changes had come unintentionally, and I hadn’t had the chance to speak with the guys to see how they shifted. But then, maybe it was different for everyone. I should have thought about this more before I just decided to sass my way out of there like I knew what I was doing. If I went back now and asked for help, it would only be humiliating especially if Kyle’s father heard. He already thinks I’m lacking in every way possible, probably just because of my lack of a penis. He didn’t even take the time to get to know me before he judged me. But then I didn’t take any time really to judge him before I decided he was a dick. I guess that made us even then.
I took a deep breath and felt inside myself for my magic. The same way Professor Octavia had told me when I was trying to use it to sense where the danger was in the academy's first demon attack. I found it at my centre as I did before. This time it didn’t have the same burning urgency. Now it was just a gentle burn. It was like sitting in front of a fire on a warm day. You could feel the gentle burn against your skin, but it didn’t hurt, it was more comforting. I wasn’t sure where to go from there. I tried envisaging my wings, but that didn’t work. Neither did recalling the feeling of them or the emotions I’d felt the last time I’d shifted.
I started to get frustrated and began to feel a bit stupid, just standing there with my eyes closed. That was when I remembered what Professor Octavia had told me last time about taking hold of the magic and pushing it where I wanted it to go. It wasn’t easy to get a hold of. My magic might be warm, but it was slippery as fuck. Once I had a handle, of a sort, I pushed it behind me to between my shoulder blades. I suddenly lost control when I felt the flicker of my wings. It was like I could feel them just under my skin, and it was so weird it freaked me out for a minute. Taking a deep breath, I told myself I was being ridiculous and tried again. This time I felt like I got a better hold and when I pushed my magic into my back and felt my wings, I didn’t freak out like last time. This time I kept pushing and I felt my warm magic run over my skin and my wings burst free.
Opening my eyes, I looked down, and my leathers had changed into the armoured leather I had on yesterday. Thankfully it was clean and wasn’t covered in leftover, crusty, demon blood. That would have just been nasty. When I ran my hands over my hair, I could feel the same braids holding it back from the sides of my face. It was quite cool. It gave a faux hawk kind of look which looked pretty badass.
“Impressive,” I heard a voice say from above me. “I was sure you’d be standing there for hours before you gave up.”
I looked up and saw Wyatt leaning out of a window on the first floor. He had such a shit-eating grin on his face. Most people would be annoyed by this, but I just recognised him for what he was, one of my people.
I grinned back up at him. “How long have you been watching me, stalker?”
He barked out a laugh. “Long enough. You did well. Come see me when you get back, and I’ll talk you through how to speed it up.”
I beat my wings and flew up to face Wyatt, face to face, and he gave me another brilliant smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Man, I’d love to be able to do that,” he laughed. “How long are planning to be?” he asked seriously.
“I promised the guys I’d be back by nightfall. I figure I can make it there and back in about three hours and I’ll probably take an hour or so to have a scout around.”
“Okay, let’s say five hours. If you’re not back by then, I’ll have to speak with the Alpha and ask for his permission to get a portal opened to the Academy.” He at least had the decency to look bad when he said it. “Kyle is like a son to me, and you’re his mate. It’s my job to protect you.”
“I understand.” At least he had given me a heads up.
As I turned to go, he added, “We should get a drink when you get back.”
“You planning to interrogate me or just get to know me?” I asked over my shoulder.
“Got to make sure my guys are good enough for you,” he laughed. I hoped we were going to be friends.
“I’ll see you in five hours,” I shouted over my shoulder as I flew away.
Chapter 10
By the time the academy came into view, I was just starting to feel the strain. This was the furthest I’d ever flown, and I didn’t have an unhealthy amount of adrenalin running through my system this time.
The fire was still smouldering. Most of the roof was gone, and it looked like the left-wing, where the gym was located, had collapsed. I took a circuit around the building to scout for any signs of life down there. Specifically, demon life. When I came in closer, the atmosphere around the wreckage of the academy was even eerier. There was no sound here. It was strange being back here when the building wasn’t full of life. Full of other students.
I came in to land on the other side of the academy. I didn’t have it in me to see the battlefield outside the gym just yet. This was the side of the building where some of the teachers had said the portals had opened. There were no signs of any portals or demons t
here now. If it weren’t for the burnt-out academy, you wouldn’t have known there had been any fighting here at all.
I was stuck with two options: take the running track around the building and scout inside; or find a way into the building and check for anyone hiding. I reasoned that the best course of action would be to follow the track around the building to the breach in the wall at the gym. Then, if I could make my way into the gym, I should be able to trace the path of the demons and see if there were any survivors. There was no way I could search all of the building, and I hadn’t been here long enough to be completely familiar with its layout.
I’d made it here in just under an hour and a half. Presuming it took the same amount of time to get back, I only had, at the very most, two hours to search the grounds and building before I’d have to leave.
I slowly jogged around the building, keeping my eyes open and trying to stay alert. Maybe coming here alone wasn’t such a good idea. I pulled one of the daggers out of my thigh holster to keep in my hand. It was kind of comforting to feel the weight of it.
It didn’t take long to reach the area outside the gym where the demons had breached the wall. The fighting had spilt out onto the grass as we fought our way outside, but the only sign of it now was the blood spilt on the ground. There should have been bodies of dead students all over the grass. Granted, most of the students had run, but there should still have been several bodies outside. There can’t have been enough wildlife out here to have taken this number of people.
I scuffed my feet in the grass around the bloodstains, but I didn’t know what I was looking for. I wasn’t any kind of tracker. There was no way I could tell where the bodies had gone or what had taken them. I was just wasting time, and logically I knew it was because I was afraid of what I would find inside. What would be worse? Finding my fellow students dead or not finding any bodies at all.
The hole in the wall was easy to get through, but that was where the ease ended. The roof and the floors above had collapsed into the gym, and the rubble was impassable. After ten minutes of trying to find a way through, I gave up trying to find a route that way. I was just going to end up under a pile of collapsed rubble if I kept trying to barge my way through this way. I gave up and backed out of the gym following the edge of the building further around. Most of the glass in the windows had blown out at some point during the fire. I didn’t want to cut myself to pieces trying to climb through them.
The front door was the only other option I knew of. It was a little further around, and it would be the easier route in. I could make my way back down the main corridor towards the gym and check it out from the other side. I knew the chance of finding anyone alive in there was non-existent, but I needed to see if the bodies were still there. I needed to be able to tell their families some kind of news. Even if it was as terrible as I already thought it was going to be. Even if I was going to have the soul-destroying job of telling them someone had stolen their bodies.
I made it to the front door quickly. There was little destruction to the outside of the building. Once I was through the door, however, the inside was an entirely different matter. The fire seemed to have ripped through the building. The interior was gutted. Most of the corridor still seemed structurally sound—in my complete novice and uneducated opinion. When I made it a short way down the hall, I found my first ceiling collapse, but I could squeeze along the wall through a gap. There were several small collapses further down the corridor, but I was able to climb over those.
I made it to the gym doors before I hit a more significant collapse I couldn’t get past. I was tempted to try and move some of the rubble, but there was no way of knowing how stable this part of the building was. Just near the ground, there was a gap in the wreckage, and I crouched down. When I pressed my face against the floor, I could see through the rubble that was blocking the doorway. I couldn’t see all of the gym, but the part that had housed the punching bags was reasonably visible. The fire didn’t seem to have reached the gym. The ceiling must have collapsed from the fire on the floors above.
The blood on the floor still looked wet. It was splashed across the floor like someone had thrown a bucket of it across the ground. It was horrific. But there were no bodies. Not in that area of the gym. No one might have died in that section. But this was the way they had run to flee the demons and the flashes of memory of the fight I had, told me there should have been some. It seemed more likely that they, like those outside, had been taken as well. It could only have been the demons, or whoever had been working with them. But what could they want with the remains?
I headed back out towards the front door. There was a lot of damage through the school. That was obvious from the short trip I’d taken in an attempt to gain access to the gym. Walking upstairs wasn’t going to be smart. The corridors weren’t wide enough to accommodate my wingspan. I wasn’t going to be able to fly around the inside. I could attempt to search the bottom of the school, but a building this big, with this much damage, it was going to take days. I only had just under an hour left. There was only one option left. When I reached the bottom of the main stairs, opposite the front door, I took a deep breath and shouted at the top of my voice, “Hellooooooooooo.”
After a couple of minutes of no response or any other noise, I tried again. “My name is Aria. I’ve come to search for survivors. If you can reach a window, hang something outside, and I will come to find you.” It was the best I could do. It was kind of the only option I had. It could also be the stupidest thing I’d ever done if there happened to be any demons hanging around here, waiting for any stragglers.
I gave it another ten minutes, just in case anyone would appear or shout something back at me, or just basically do anything before I left. I knew I was grasping at straws. If the demons hadn’t got them, it looked like the fire and the smoke definitely would have. But I had to at least try. I don’t know why. I didn’t owe these people anything. But I wasn’t about to leave anyone here if I had any choice about it.
I made my way outside and pretty sharpishly took off to begin my flight around the school. I’d made at least ten laps of the building before I could finally admit to myself that nothing was hanging out of any of the windows. There was no sign of any survivors. With a heavy heart, I turned towards the packhouse and flew back to my mates, with the hard job of breaking it to the families that the bodies of their loved ones were gone.
Chapter 11
I arrived back at the packhouse half an hour before Wyatt’s curfew and well before sunset. I was a little bit proud of myself for how well I’d followed directions. Typically, if someone told me to be back by a specific time, my go-to nature would be to openly defy them and make sure I was at least an hour late. These days, however, were not the right time to wander off on your own. Even if you were trying to make a point about being an independent woman. Even I wasn’t bitch enough to make anyone worry that much.
When I got back, I was surprised to find Wyatt and Kyle both sat on the front steps of the big house watching the sky. As soon as my feet touched the ground, Kyle strode towards me and folded his arms around me. I knew he was finding it difficult to let me go off and do my own thing. All of my mates were. But Kyle, being an Alpha, was finding it the hardest. I was beyond grateful for how much he was trying to bend to what I wanted. I needed to try and be a bit more appreciative of that and give him a break every so often. Perhaps that was something I should work on for the next few weeks.
“I missed you,” I told him, snuggling my face against his neck and breathing in deep to take in his scent.
This was something I’d found myself doing recently. The first time I’d realised I was doing it, I was worried my craziness was spiralling to whole new levels. But the scent of the guys calmed me, and it soothed my magic even more—no matter how much it felt like it was about to explode into a raging inferno. All it took was being held by them, being surrounded by the scent that was un-mistakenly them, and it settled to just a nice, warm buzz.
“You’re earlier than I expected,” he said, squeezing me before easing off a little so he could look down at my face.
“Well someone gave me a curfew,” I said grinning over Kyle’s shoulder at Wyatt, who was just sitting on the step watching us, like the new stalker he was.
“Since when have you ever taken orders from anyone?” Kyle laughed.
I gave him a quick squeeze before stepping away. “Since I had three mates who would be worried about me when I just took off on my own,” I said.
Kyle smiled down at me and slung an arm around my shoulder as we walked back over to where Wyatt was waiting for us. When we reached him, we both sat down on the step next to him. My wings automatically folded back into me and I shifted back into regular old me. We sat in a semi-comfortable silence for a few minutes as the weight of what I had seen settled around me.
Wyatt was the first to break. “How bad was it?”
“They’re all gone,” I said. I knew my voice was heading towards the catatonic mess I’d been last night and I mentally slapped myself and cleared my throat to try and mask it. “All of the bodies,” I clarified. “They’re all gone.”
Kyle looked confused for a moment and Wyatt, in I hope not a dickish way, because I was just starting to like the guy, simply said, “You must be mistaken.”
“Yeah probably, I mean I could’ve just missed the hundred or so dead people just lying around. In fact, maybe I flew to the completely wrong burnt down academy. You know, the one that’s a little off to the left from the one we used to attend,” I said sarcastically.
Wyatt didn’t apologise. I don’t know if that pissed me off more. This was just a shitty situation for anyone to find themselves in, and I knew I shouldn’t hold it against him. He sighed and hung his head down. I forgot a lot of these kids he would have known. Shit, he probably watched a lot of them grow up.