Hybrid Academy Box Set

by L. C. Mortimer

  Too effective.

  “How did Elkridge know who Maxine was?”

  “What?” Rita looked confused, as though she’d completely missed Maddison’s inner-dialogue, which she had.

  “How did the professor last year know that Maxine was the holder of the spell book? How did he, out of everyone at the school, know that she was the one who could read my notes and start the incantation that would launch the potion he wanted?”

  “What do you mean?” Rita asked, shaking her head. She sat down beside Maddison and looked at her, but not in a pitying way.

  No, Rita looked at her in a calculating way. She was truly listening to what Maddison had to say, and she was going to help her figure out what was going on.

  “You think he had a vampire at the school,” Rita said.

  “I think he had a vampire at the school.”

  “I suppose that it makes sense,” Rita said, nodding. “I mean, the school is carefully tucked away from the rest of the world. It doesn’t exactly get a lot of non-student foot traffic. A vampire wouldn’t just randomly wander in and think, ‘Ah, yes, the keeper of the witch’s book.’” Rita shook her head, as though it was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard.

  “Yes, but more than that,” Maddison said. “Hybrid Academy doesn’t get people who want to cause trouble.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  “I would. Most of the students who go to that school are hard workers. They study their little hearts out. They do everything they can to succeed. They aren’t there to cause a ruckus.”

  She was missing something, something important. Maddison reached for the top book again, and she opened the front page. She looked at the top of the opening sheet, the one where young wizards and witches loved to etch their names with magic. She waved her wand, revealing the imprint.

  Who had this book belonged to?

  Where had Rita’s friend taken this book from?

  Without a word, the page began to glow, and then words appeared. She whispered, reading them one word at a time, and then she stopped.

  “Rita.”

  “What?”

  “Where did you find this book?”

  “I told you.”

  “Where did he get it?”

  Rita paused, but then shrugged, as though she realized Maddison already suspected the real answer.

  “He stole it from a vampire.”

  “Look,” Maddison pointed to the note in the front page of the book. It was a handwritten note from one lover to another, and it connected the dots in a way that nothing else had.

  “To my darling Alicia,” Rita read out loud. “To the woman who is going to change the world, one spell at a time. In our quest for the changing spell, may this book be the guide you need to complete your endeavors and bend the world to your strength. All my love, Alexander.”

  Rita stopped reading and looked at Maddison.

  “Alicia,” she said. “Isn’t that-”

  “The headmistress at Hybrid Academy.”

  “And wasn’t she-”

  “Friends with my daughter and her husband? Yes.”

  “And isn’t Alexander-”

  “The King of the Vampires? Yeah. He’d be the one.”

  Rita looked grim. She stared at the book before she picked it up and angrily threw it across the room. Then she picked up another and threw that one. Finally, she threw a third book, and then Maddison reached for her.

  “I hate books almost as much as I hate libraries,” Rita said. She was pissed: angry beyond belief that it had taken them so long to realize why they hadn’t managed to get ahead of the vampires in all of this time. The realization was so horrifying and unbelievable that she stared at the broken books, but said nothing.

  Finally, Maddison stood up, picked up her wand, and looked at Rita.

  “There’s no time for worrying about libraries,” Maddison said.

  “I’ll call the coven,” Rita told her. “We’re going to Hybrid Academy.”

  Chapter 6

  "Do you see anything?”

  “No.”

  “What about now?”

  “Still no.”

  “Can you hear anything?”

  “No.”

  The four of us peered around the corner of the hallway. There were no longer guards posted at the auditorium doors, but none of us knew why. We also didn’t know what was happening inside of the auditorium, or if we’d missed it altogether. That didn’t matter, though, because our goal was to find Erin and free her from whatever cage Alicia had inevitably locked her away in.

  Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to assume that she was in Alicia’s office, but we all thought that was the most likely spot. It was where I would have shoved her, if I’d been the one who locked her away. Erin had been going to see Alicia when she disappeared, anyway. Even if Alicia hadn’t been the one who grabbed her, Erin would likely be located somewhere close to the office.

  “Come on,” Kiera waved for us to follow her. We hurried down the hallway in a row, moving carefully toward the corridor that would lead to the headmistress’ office. Somehow, we didn’t run into anyone at all. In fact, the halls were eerily quiet. The only sounds we could hear were our own footsteps and our much-too heavy breathing.

  “Do you think they’re doing something to the students?” Patricia whispered, finally breaking the silence. Her voice was quiet, but it still seemed too loud. Everything seemed loud.

  “Don’t be silly,” Kiera said. We walked for a few minutes. Then she nodded. “Of course, they’re doing something to the students.”

  “Probably turning them all into vampires,” Patricia said with a shudder. The idea made my blood run cold, but I knew that there was probably something else going on.

  “I’m not so sure about that,” I said. The others looked at me, and I was just about to explain when we heard footsteps. I motioned for them to stay quiet, and we pressed our backs against the wall. There was a plant blocking us from view from the adjacent hallway, and as a few vampires walked past, we were somehow undetected.

  The three vamps who walked by were a strange bunch. They were all dressed in dark Victorian-era clothing. It was almost gothic in nature. Their hair was a mixture of normal and delightfully crazy, and I was a little jealous because my own hair seemed to be so frizzy and untamable. Kiera seemed to notice what I was looking at and she shook her head, as if to say, This isn’t the time to be full of self-doubt.

  She was right.

  This wasn’t the time for doubting myself or for worrying about anything other than making it to the office. We waited. It seemed to take forever for the vampires to disappear from the hallway. We listened as quietly and carefully as we could. Finally, we couldn’t hear them anymore. As soon as the walkway was clear, we turned down the hall where the vampires had come from, and we kept moving.

  The walk to the office seemed to stretch on for an eternity. By the time we reached the headmistress’ private place of business, we were nearly shaking with nervousness. At least, I was. Somehow, Keira, Henry, and Patricia all seemed to have it all together.

  “Here it is,” Patricia said.

  The large door that led into the headmistress’ office was dark and ominous. Although it was a lovely shade of purple I had once admired, I suddenly felt like it was the most horrible thing I’d ever seen. A sense of dread filled me, and I glared at the door, as though it was going to make a difference. Patricia and Henry followed suit. Keira rolled her eyes at how dramatic we were being, but took a step forward.

  “Be careful,” Patricia said.

  “We don’t know what’s in there,” Henry agreed.

  “It’s fine. Besides, you just know it’s going to be locked,” Kiera sighed and turned the doorknob anyway. To our surprise, it turned easily. In fact, the door opened so quickly that Kiera went tumbling in. She landed sideways on the floor. There was no way that hadn’t hurt. I gasped and reached for my friend, but then something caught my eye.

 
Erin.

  She was here.

  We’d found her.

  “You’re okay!” I said, and I darted into the room. I hurried to my aunt, but she wasn’t moving. Instead, she was staring straight ahead. She didn’t seem to be focused on anything or looking at anything, and there was nothing binding her to the chair. Her face was contorted in a sort of grimace, and her eyes seemed anxious and nervous.

  “Aunt Erin,” I said. “It’s me. Maxine.”

  Erin turned her eyes toward me, but the rest of her body seemed…stuck…somehow. Her eyes went wide, and she opened her mouth, but no sounds came out. The rest of her body stayed firmly in place despite the fact that she was unrestrained in the chair.

  “Something’s wrong,” Kiera said. “Why isn’t she moving?” She looked Erin up and down, but if Erin was restrained somehow, none of us could see how. It didn’t make any sense. None of this did.

  “It’s a locking spell,” Patricia came over. She looked Erin up and down. I was glad that someone seemed to know what was going on because I felt completely out of my element here. “Someone is keeping her in place with invisible bonds.”

  “What can we do?” Henry asked. He carefully shut the door to the office so that no one would see us there. Then he joined the rest of us near Erin.

  “We need to get her free,” I said. “And then get the hell out of here.”

  “There’s nothing we can do,” Patricia looked at Erin and shook her head. “Sorry, my friends, but she is stuck, and this is beyond my level of ability.”

  “But you’re a demon,” Kiera said, looking sadly at Patricia. She gestured toward Erin. “Isn’t there something you can do?”

  “I wish I could,” Patricia said. “But I mean, I’m just a student.” She shrugged. “Sorry, friends, but this is way beyond my level of magical abilities.”

  “You’re really talented,” I said. “You’re always coming up with new spells to do the things you want to do. Don’t you think you could do something here?”

  “With her?” Patricia looked at Erin and considered for a long minute. “The problem is that she’s bound and it’s not like I can just untie the ropes, you know? These aren’t just ordinary invisible ropes. These are magical ropes that were basically enchanted and used to restrain her.”

  “So, what are the options?” Henry asked, pacing the room. “Maybe we can move Erin and bring her somewhere else.”

  “That would give us more time to find a way to free her,” Kiera said.

  “But they’d catch us,” I said.

  I don’t know why I was so certain of it, but I was. Something didn’t sit right with everything that had happened today. Why would Erin be locked up in Alicia’s office? Why would Alicia be working with the vampires? She was the headmistress of a magical school. She was supposed to be someone we could trust.

  She was supposed to be someone we could count on.

  Yet she’d managed, somehow, to not only capture one of the greatest witches in the world, but to bind her up in unbreakable bonds.

  And she’d infiltrated the school.

  “Kiera,” I said. “What do you remember about healing spells from last year?”

  “Um,” she said, biting her lip. “Not a lot. There are some potions you can use to treat wounds, but these aren’t really wounds, are they?”

  “Do you think we could apply a potion that would dissolve the bonds?” I asked.

  “No,” Patricia shook her head. “This needs something stronger. It needs a counter-spell.”

  I didn’t have my grandmother’s spell book with me. I didn’t know enough spells to be able to wrestle up one out of thin air. I didn’t even know how I would begin to help my aunt. I looked at her and feelings of helplessness rushed over me. Suddenly, the room felt small and tight.

  “Is it getting hard to breathe in here?” I asked, tugging at my shirt.

  “Max, are you okay?” Henry asked. He reached for me, touching my shoulder, but I couldn’t control it. Heat washed over my body, and I could feel my inner-wolf trying to break out. It needed to break out. I couldn’t do that now. I couldn’t shift. Not when everything was happening so fast, but I also knew that inside, I was weak.

  I couldn’t control myself.

  I couldn’t seem to stop it.

  And then I shifted. I turned. I was so stressed and so upset that I changed into my wolf form and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

  Nothing.

  No amount of internal begging was going to hold my wolf back. Not this time. It hadn’t been long since I’d shifted, but somehow, every time the world seemed to close in on me, shifting was the way I chose to solve the problem. So, I changed. I turned. My skin vanished and was replaced with luscious fur that was soft and thick and warm. My clothes tore as I shifted into my wolf form, and soon I was on the ground in the center of the office. I looked up at my friends, ashamed.

  I should have been able to control myself better.

  “Hey, it’s okay,” Henry said. He knelt beside me and touched my shoulder. “Max, it’s going to be okay. In fact, maybe this will be helpful. Since shifters have such great scenting abilities, maybe you can sniff something out for us. In your wolf form, your scenting abilities are even stronger than mine are in my kitty cat form.” He smiled gently, encouragingly, and a sudden surge of contentment rushed through me. I felt myself calming as he touched my shoulder and gently coaxed me into relaxing. This was going to be okay. I wasn’t sure how, but we were going to figure something out. There were five of us in here, including Erin. Together, we’d come up with a plan for escaping.

  “Don’t demons have sniffing abilities, too?” Kiera asked, looking at Patricia.

  “We’re really damn good at spells,” Patricia said. “And I can create fire in my hand.”

  Erin’s eyes got big as she looked at Patricia. Everyone seemed to notice.

  “What?” She asked.

  “Vampires hate fire,” Henry said. “Everyone knows it.”

  “Maybe we can use that to our advantage,” Kiera said. She walked around the room, pulling open drawers and looking for something. None of us knew what. Henry started walking around, too, and I followed suit. They were right when they said that I had good scenting abilities. It was one of my best traits. I could smell just about anything in my wolf form.

  And something in the office didn’t smell…right.

  It smelled…wrong, somehow.

  I thought back to the day when I’d come home from work to find my grandmother missing. That had been the very first day I’d noticed my uncanny ability to smell things. The world around me had smelled very differently than I thought that it should. That day, I’d smelled fear and anger. Those familiar scents wafted over me, but where were they coming from? Not from Erin. Not from where she was sitting.

  I couldn’t quite pinpoint where the problem was. I sniffed around, moving throughout the cluttered space. Alicia Gregory was nothing if not a total packrat. The office was filled with books and boxes and potions. Once upon a time, when I’d first started as a student at the academy, I hadn’t noticed all of this clutter. Maybe it was new, and this was a recent development. Maybe she had only started hoarding books and spells and potions as of late.

  Then again, maybe I’d just been blind this entire time.

  I still didn’t know why she hated the school so much. Why would she let the vampires in? And why would she capture my aunt? That was so weird. It felt sudden and strange. I sniffed around, realizing I could smell strong emotions coming from one area on the North wall. Moving in that direction, I stopped in front of a bookshelf and looked at it. The heavy wood stretched almost to the ceiling and some of the books were knocked over. A few potion bottles were on their sides, too. It was as if someone had knocked over part of the bookshelf or moved it very quickly.

  Why did I smell anger here?

  Why did I smell fear in this very spot?

  I looked over at my aunt. She was still paralyzed in place, whether it
be from fear or from the spell, I couldn’t be sure. I almost thought I saw a light in her eyes, though. I opened my mouth to ask if this was the spot, but only a growl came out. Erin seemed to understand, and she opened her mouth. I think she was trying to speak, but no sounds were coming out. In any case, she got her message across, and I realized that I’d come to the right spot.

  I patted the floor, rubbing my paw against it, and my friends came over.

  “What did you find, Max?” Patricia said.

  “The bookshelf,” Henry said. “It’s been moved here. Look at how the books and other items are all kind of messy.”

  “The bottles are all knocked down,” Kiera said.

  “But why would someone move this shelf today?” Patricia asked. “Here, let’s move it again and see if there’s something behind it.”

  “Hey, Max,” Kiera said as Henry and Patricia reached for the bookshelf. “I found some clothes. Here.” She motioned toward a corner and held out the sweatshirt and pants. “Go shift back and get dressed while we move this shelf, okay?” I wasn’t really sure if wearing my headmistress’ spare running clothes was a good idea, but it was all I had for now, so I’d have to go with it. Besides, it wasn’t forever, right?

  I could wear the clothing of a traitor for a few hours.

  Couldn’t I?

  I took the clothing between my teeth, moved to the corner, then shifted and dressed while everyone was working hard to move the heavy bookshelf out of place. By the time I got back to my classmates, I realized they’d moved the shelf completely, and Henry was right: it hadn’t been placed there originally.

  In fact, the bookshelf had been moved – probably very recently – to cover up a huge hole in the wall. It wasn’t a natural hole, and it didn’t lead to the adjacent hallway. In fact, the hole looked rather like someone had barreled through the wall, however unintentionally, and it revealed a little passageway that was tucked quietly behind the office. I had never noticed it before, and I doubted most of the student body had, either.