“Yeah, we,” he stepped closer, and I realized that he was standing closer than usual. I also realized that Henry definitely still didn’t have a shirt on and that he was definitely really handsome and that he was definitely the type of guy I’d imagine having as a boyfriend.
You know, if I was the type of witch who wanted a boyfriend.
I wasn’t sure if I was.
“I’m going to be here for you,” he said. “No matter what.”
He smiled and stepped back. Then he looked down at the messy remnants of the picnic and started to clean it up. He folded the blanket and shoved it back inside the basket. Then he tossed the food into the woods for the animals to eat. You never knew what kind of creatures were lurking in the forest. They had to eat, too, and giving some of our extras certainly wasn’t going to hurt. Henry stood up and held his arm out.
Reluctantly, but with a little rush of happiness, I took his arm and we started walking toward the school.
“I don’t suppose you could magic me up a shirt?” He asked.
“I cannot,” I said. “I can only do a few different things. Aunt Erin figured that learning how to make snacks appear was going to be more useful than making anything else appear. Apparently, she thinks I have a snacking problem.”
Henry just laughed and we kept walking. We were almost within sight of the main castle when we heard a loud, high-pitched scream. It was sharp and it went straight to my bones. I turned and looked at Henry.
He didn’t say a word.
He didn’t have to.
Dropping the basket, we took off running.
Chapter 4
Maddison paced around the tiny room she now called home. It wasn’t home. It couldn’t even come close to comparing to what her home had been like. When she’d lived with her granddaughter, life had been almost idyllic. Once Max’s familiar had joined their little family, it had been like their little world was truly complete. She smiled as she imagined her granddaughter at Hybrid Academy with her little cat. She hoped Max was safe. Secure. Happy. She knew that even if her granddaughter felt safe, though, that she wasn’t. Not really. Maddison had felt safe for a very long time.
And now she was here.
With the vampires.
With the monsters.
They were going to kill her, she knew, the moment they had their hands on both Max and the book. They’d keep her around until then because they were smart. If they hurt Max when they tried to kidnap her, they’d need Maddison to handle the book for them. That was the thing about magic books. They never quite worked the way you wanted them to. Oh, Maddison was a clever old girl. She knew that the vampires had their own magic, their own way of making things work, but they couldn’t use her book.
Layers of magic surrounding the collection of spells ensured that only she and her granddaughter could use the book. Well, and Erin, if she was clever, which Maddison thought she was.
She heard a sound from the hallway and moved silently to the door. She’d been over the details in her room dozens – if not hundreds – of times. She had a bed and a chair and sewing supplies. No scissors, of course. She had needles, but those wouldn’t bother anyone. They especially wouldn’t irritate or injure a vampire.
Maddison stood beside the door and listened to the voices in the hall. The mansion was large, but the vampires had kept her close to their own quarters. She knew it was so she would be under their watch. There would be no chance of escape, she knew. Not if they had their way, which they did. With her nestled carefully in their own hallway, she could be monitored.
Unbeknownst to the vampires, she could also listen.
They suspected she was deaf, or mostly deaf, and in the last place they’d lived, it hadn’t mattered. She’d been locked away in a sort of dungeon, but when they’d moved to this place last month, things had changed. They’d wanted her to be close to the vampire king. She hadn’t been certain of who he was. Not until today. Today was the day she’d heard Gaston and Lexus talking about the king himself. He was the one who wanted the potion, she knew.
He was the one who had called for her.
Oh, it had been that little snit who worked with Maxine who had first given her location away. She knew exactly what had happened to him, too. He’d sneaked up on her, caught her unaware. Maddison hadn’t known then that the magical wards surrounding her granddaughter had started to flicker and fade away. She hadn’t realized yet that she should have doubled down and been extra on-guard. She hadn’t realized.
So, when he’d come to her home, she’d thought it was just Max.
But he’d grabbed her, hauled her away to his uncle, and then been taken to a dungeon to wait for the Vampire King to show up. Maddison had listened twice as much as she talked, though, and she knew that Tony had returned to the cabin to find the book. He hadn’t been able to, much to his uncle’s chagrin, and then she hadn’t heard about Tony again after that day.
He’d been killed.
She knew that much.
By Erin?
By Max?
By his own uncle?
That part of the story wasn’t quite clear, but Maddison knew enough to know that what happened hadn’t been an accident. She’d heard whispers in the dark, rumors. She’s heard them talking when they thought nobody was listening, but she still hadn’t quite been able to piece together what had happened to Tony.
Perhaps that was for the best.
“Two more hours,” it was Lexus again. He was pacing in the hallway between the bedrooms. She hadn’t been out of the room since she first day she’d arrived, but Maddison had been paying careful attention. Lexus and Gaston both had rooms in this hallway. So did Prius and Hybrid. Even Raven, whose vampire name was the only one that wasn’t terrible, had a room here. Most of the vampires came to their bedrooms very rarely: only to sleep or entertain one another. The rest of the time, they were out doing other things.
Maddison didn’t know what.
She didn’t want to know what.
“Are you sure he’s coming tonight?” Prius was speaking.
“Tonight. It’s for certain. He wants to talk to her,” Lexus lowered his voice, and Maddison pressed her hear closer to the door so she could make out what he was saying.
“Pity. She really is kind of a cool old lady,” Prius said.
“You know not to get attached to the humans,” Lexus said.
“But does he have to kill her?”
“He’s not going to kill her yet. He’s just going to ask her some questions. Find out where the granddaughter is.”
“Why didn’t he come before?” Prius asked. It was a question that had been bothering Maddison for some time, but she thought she might know the answer. For the king of the vampires to wait so long to come for her, he must have been occupied. There was only one thing he could possibly be busy with that would take so much of his time.
He’d been hunting for the direct source of the potion.
That’s what Cara and Falcon had been looking for, too.
And look where it got them.
Maddison frowned. It wasn’t fair that her daughter and son-in-law had disappeared, but the vampire had come back. None of this was fair. It especially wasn’t fair that her granddaughter had been left without parents and now, without anyone at all.
“Because he was looking for something,” Lexus answered, confirming Maddison’s suspicions.
“Huh. He was gone an awfully long time.”
“You’re a younger vampire, so you don’t know these things yet,” Lexus said. “But you should try to remember not to question him. Not when he’s here. There’s no way the King is going to take that lightly.”
Maddison could practically hear Prius shrugging. Prius was the one who brought Maddison food each day. She was the one who took care to make sure that Maddison was as comfortable as possible. Oh, Maddison had tried to charm her just as she’d charmed Tulip and Daisy, but a vampire, no matter how friendly, had an icy heart.
“Once he gets here, she’ll have
no choice but to talk,” Lexus continued speaking.
“Poor lady,” Prius said, shaking her head.
“Isn’t it about time for her lunch?” Lexus asked.
“Yeah,” Prius agreed. “I’ll go get it.”
Maddison heard the vampires continue walking and she leaned warily against the door. This was it. This was the final showdown. This was the moment where everything changed for her. This was when she would make the decision about what to do next. This was when she had to decide.
She could either stay and be questioned by the vampire king or she could fight.
She could stay and be killed. She knew that no matter how “gentle” the vampires’ interrogation techniques might be, she was no match for them. Without her powers, she was weak and fragile. They’d kill her quickly and it would honestly be a complete accident.
Or she could get away.
She could escape.
She could find her freedom.
Prius would be back soon. Maddison didn’t want to resort to trickery or to hurting people, but she wasn’t left with a choice anymore. The vampires had been clever. They’d kept her windows boarded up carefully and they’d given her a metal, rather than a wooden, rocking chair to sit in. She couldn’t exactly tear off pieces of a chair and try to stake a vampire, now could she?
But she’d discovered that the little dresser in this room wasn’t entirely made of metal. In fact, the interior runners that enabled the drawers to easily slide in and out were, in fact, made of wood. She’d torn one out last night and had slept with it under her pillow. She had known the moment when she’d need to use it might come.
It seemed that moment was now.
Maddison took the makeshift wooden stake and sat in the rocking chair. She held the stake beneath her sewing. When Prius walked in, it would look as though Maddison was hard at work on a new quilt. That was the idea, anyway. Maddison was clever and smart. She wasn’t afraid even though she knew she should be. She’d been waiting all year for this moment and it had finally come. A few more minutes, and then Prius was going to walk through the door.
Maddison took a deep breath.
She didn’t have to wait long.
Just a few minutes after she’d left, Prius returned. This time, she knocked before opening the door. Her tap was gentle, almost sad. Maddison wouldn’t let herself think that Prius cared about what happened to her. At the end of the day, Prius was a vampire, through-and-through, and she did what was right for the vampires. She might think Maddison was a cool person or an interesting specimen, but she would choose her vampire clan over the human any day of the week.
“Hungry?” She called out. Maddison said nothing. It was hard this time. She wanted to yell and make a loud fuss, but she couldn’t. She just kept looking at her sewing, pretending that she couldn’t hear. She was going to need the element of surprise if she was going to stake a vampire. It had been years since she’d done this. Years. She was certain she still remembered how to do it, but she was rusty, no doubt.
Prius entered the room carrying a tray. She moved to the bedside table and set it down. The tray clattered against the metal nightstand just a little. Prius sighed. Then she took a long, hard look around the room before she moved to stand in front of Maddison.
“Witch? Are you okay?” Prius said loudly. Maddison looked up at her, feigning surprise. She made sure her eyes looked very big, as though she was shocked to see another person in her room. Well, that much she didn’t really have to fake. Having someone in her room was always a little unnerving to Maddison.
“Hello,” she said. Prius smiled. Then she leaned over and looked at Maddison’s needlework. She didn’t seem to notice that the project hadn’t progressed much at all over the last week. Maddison had been busy plotting and planning. She hadn’t done much stitching.
“What are you working on today?” Prius leaned closer, closer. Just a little bit more. She was so close that Maddison could smell her: soft vanilla perfume coupled with a morning cup of coffee. If Prius had been alive, Maddison would have been able to hear her heartbeat.
“Oh, nothing much,” Maddison said.
“It’s very pretty,” Prius said.
Maddison waited another moment. The vampire came even closer. Maddison tried not to breathe too hard. She couldn’t let her excitement or her anticipation show. She was beginning to feel anxious, nervous. Would her old hands remember to do what it took?
Killing a vampire wasn’t unlike riding a bike: you never really forgot how to do it. At least, that was what she told herself.
You can do this.
When the vampire’s heart was even closer to Maddison’s lap, she fisted the stake and, in one swift motion, shoved it up and into Prius’ chest. Prius opened her mouth to cry out, but Maddison shoved the needlework into the vampire’s open mouth to muffle the sound. Her body twitched and then she turned into a pile of ashes.
Maddison sneezed.
Then she stood up.
She’d done it.
She’d actually done it.
She’d taken control of her life despite everything that had happened to her, and she’d blasted a damn vampire. It felt good. Excitement and energy pulsed through her veins as she realized that she’d set her mind on something and then she’d accomplished her task. It was like crossing off a big chore on her daily to-do list.
Only better.
Prius was dead, which meant the world was now one vampire down. There might be hundreds or even thousands to go, but changing the world always started with a single step. Maddison had done that. Relief swept over her and she managed to stay calm. She didn’t jump for joy or anything crazy or stupid like that. Instead, she stood up and assessed her situation. She needed to decide what to do next.
First, she had to hide the evidence of what she’d done. Maddison used her foot to push the ashes under the dresser where they wouldn’t be seen or noticed for some time. Eventually, someone might clean up in the room and notice that Prius’ ashes were there, but as far as Maddison knew, vampires couldn’t smell their own dead, so she wouldn’t have to worry about them sniffing out the ashes.
Then she reached to the floor and grabbed the keys and clothing that had landed on the floor when Prius’ body had disappeared. It wasn’t much to work with, but it was enough. She’d be able to use the clothing to slip unnoticed out of the vampire’s lair. At least, that was her hope.
Maddison peered into the hallway, but it was empty. She had time to change before she ran away. Carefully, she closed the bedroom over. Maddison took care not to let the door latch. Then she changed out of her shift dress and put on Prius’ clothing instead. The outfit wasn’t exactly her style, but from a distance, she would definitely be perceived as fitting in with the vampire crowd.
She picked up the keys, shoved them in her pocket, and took one last look around the room.
This was it.
It was time to say goodbye.
“Hang on Max,” she whispered. “I’m coming.”
Chapter 5
Judging by the sheer number of people running toward the main castle, I’d say that it was easy to tell where the scream had originated from. We ran toward the crowd. Our feet hit the path loudly, pounding. Henry didn’t seem to notice the fact that he was barefoot. We were both so intent on figuring out where the scream came from that nothing else mattered.
I was worried.
The shriek sounded terrifying, as though something horrible had happened. I didn’t want to think about the possibilities that a scream like that opened up. After all, Hybrid Academy was kind of a second home to me now. I wanted it to be a safe place: a calming place. I wanted it to be a place where we could all safely practice our magic.
An academy like this should be a haven: not a hell.
Kiera was loitering at the edge of the group of people, so we went to her as we approached the castle. We couldn’t see past the students who were talking, yelling, pointing. It was mass chaos, but Kiera seemed strangely un
worried. That should have been enough to calm me down and help me to realize that nothing super-serious had happened, but it did little to calm my nerves.
“What happened?” Henry asked. He tried to crane his neck to look around the group, but it was futile. Even as a tall, lanky human, he wasn’t big enough to see what had gone wrong or what had caused the crowd to gather.
“Oh, hey, Henry,” Kiera said, smiling. “Long time, no see.”
“Yeah,” he nodded, but looked around. “Did you hear that scream?”
“Yep,” she pointed to the door up ahead. It was one of the smaller side doors. In front of it there were…
“What are those?” I asked, unable to see clearly. I squatted down for a moment and tried to look between people pushing and shoving. There were small creatures in front of the door. Maybe they were rats or kittens. I couldn’t quite tell.
“Hamsters.” Kiera sounded almost giddy, as though she was fighting back a giggle.
“Hamsters?” Henry asked, raising an eyebrow.
“But why?” I asked. “Why would someone scream about that?”
“Because someone has been casting Patricia’s hamster spell on people, or so it seems.”
“You’re kidding.”
This so wasn’t what I was expecting to be dealing with today. Last year, Patricia turned me into a hamster when I got on her case for bullying the fairies. Later, she tried to turn me into a hamster a second time, but I was prepared. I blocked her spell and she herself turned into a tiny little rodent. I didn’t hear from her again. I thought it was over. I figured her bullying days were long gone, so it was hard for me to believe that she’s at her old tricks again.
I kind of thought she would have learned her lesson by now.
Besides, whatever happened to the whole “new year, new me” thing? That’s what I was hoping for this year at Hybrid. I wanted this year to be the year I got my act together. I wanted this year to be the year that everything went well. Last year, a lot of things went wrong. A lot. I was betrayed, I lost my grandma, and I struggled to find my magical inner-self. Now I have a second chance to have an incredible year, but it’s not off to the best start.
Hybrid Academy Box Set Page 17