“What in the world?” Kiera said. She peered her head into the space, ever the brave little fairy. Then she slipped off her robes and let her wings out. They fluttered, casting a light into the darkness, and we could see that there was some sort of tunnel there.
“There’s a secret passageway,” Henry said. “I bet this is how Erin got here. She must have taken this way. A shortcut?” He looked over, and Erin opened and closed her mouth. It looked like she was mouthing the word “yes,” but no sounds were coming out.
“And that’s how they found her,” I said. “They heard her.”
“Or smelled her,” Patricia added.
“Hey, can you make us a torch?” Henry asked.
“Sure,” Patricia took my old, torn-up clothing, a couple of broken boards, and a few other items. Then she started to fashion torches using her demon fire abilities.
“If you can make fire, why didn’t you make one last year?”
“What?”
“When you were invisible,” I asked. “You never made fire then.”
She shrugged. “I was so weak when I was invisible. It was like being trapped as a sort of ghost, really. I could barely hold anything. Working fire was out of the question.”
“But you could turn people into rodents,” Henry pointed out. “You still had some powers.”
“Yeah, but that’s different. I could just whisper those words. Even though nobody could hear what I was saying, the magic still worked.”
“But the fire?”
“The fire comes from within me,” she said, and she held up her hand. A small, tiny flame appeared in her palm, and she lit the makeshift torches she’d created. She handed one to each of us, and then she looked back at Erin. I hated the idea of leaving my aunt here.
“Can we bring her through the tunnels?” I asked. “I think these are going to be our best bet for leaving.”
“No way,” Kiera said. “I’m sorry, Erin,” she looked at my aunt sadly. “But there’s no way we can carry you. Even Henry, in his human form, still can’t carry you while you’re bound to the chair. The chair is the problem, really. Besides, I don’t even think it will fit in the secret tunnel.”
If Erin was sad, none of us could tell from her face. She kept on a brave appearance, yet I felt the overwhelming emotions wafting from her heart.
Fear.
Sadness.
Disappointment.
Erin hadn’t expected today to turn out this way. None of us had. We’d come to the school today in hopes that our last year would be an incredible one. Now I was discovering that my last year at Hybrid Academy might actually be over before it ever began.
And where did that leave me?
“We’re going to get some help,” I told Erin. “Stay here.”
My grandmother would know what to do. Well, her and the coven. That meant getting off school grounds and getting to Erin’s place. At the very least, we needed to find a way to get some sort of message to them. I was all about being brave and fierce, but from what I could tell, there were a lot of vampires at Hybrid Academy today, and they seemed to have one shared goal: destroying everything.
I wasn’t enough to take them all down.
I probably wasn’t even enough to take one of them down.
Not on my own.
We slipped into the space between the walls. The secret passageway seemed to stretch on forever. As I peered down it, I realized we’d have plenty of room for walking. Maybe we’d be able to take it to one of the outside exits. Then we could run and get help.
“Wait,” Henry said. “Let’s put the bookshelf back in place.”
“Right,” Patricia nodded. “We don’t need to let them know we were here.”
It seemed like a good plan, so together, we pulled and managed to move the bookshelf into place. I could just barely see Erin from a tiny crack that still showed. Apparently, we moved the shelf just in time because suddenly, the door to the office burst open and in came Alicia and her friend: the man who was obviously a monster.
“Still here?” Alicia said with a sneer. I hated the way her voice dripped venom. She sounded so damn mean. It was cruel and unbearable to watch. Erin was a good person: a nice person. She was the type of woman who would do anything for anyone. I didn’t like knowing that she was being restrained by someone who had, once upon a time, been her friend.
“Where did you think she was going to go?” The vampire said. He seemed bored. I couldn’t see very well. I imagined he was leaning against the door, ankles crossed. He seemed like that sort of man.
Still holding our torches, Kiera motioned for everyone to stay still and silent. Any movement might be detected by the vampires, and that wasn’t something that would be good for any of us: least of all, Erin.
“Oh, don’t be daft,” Alicia said. Her voice sounded so different than it had before.
Before, she’d seemed…sweet.
Kind.
Caring.
No, I hadn’t gotten to know her very well, and yes, I understood that adults were often different than the way they seemed to students, but this was too much. It was almost like she was a different person entirely.
Wait.
Was she a vampire now?
Had she been one all along?
I racked my brain, trying to think of what I knew about vampires. I knew that people could be turned. Both witches and shifters could be turned into these creatures of the night.
I also knew that turning into a vampire could change your personality.
It could change who you were at your core.
Had she recently been turned into a vampire?
Or had she been one for a long time?
Maybe what I’d seen before was what I wanted to see: remnants of who she’d been as a human long ago. I wanted to see that she was a kind teacher. I wanted to view her as a strong female guide. I wanted her to be someone I could look to because I’d lost my own mother so many years ago.
I still didn’t know what had happened to my mother. Part of me wondered if there was any chance that she and my dad were still alive, but I knew now that the reality was more grim than all of that. This wasn’t going to be a sort of happy fairytale where my parents came rushing in to save me from the evil vampires at the last possible moment before my death. No, the reality was that I didn’t have any answers, and I probably didn’t have anyone coming to save me, and I might not be able to get away from Alicia this time.
“She’s a tricky witch,” Alicia continued speaking. “And witches are excellent at getting out of tough spots.” Her voice dripped with suspicion.
The man sighed. “Are you going to kill her, then?”
“What? No.”
“Why not? The girl is still on the campus grounds. We don’t need the witch.”
“Yes, we do,” Alicia said. “She’s bait.”
“You really think some kid is going to come after a witch we caught?” He scoffed in disbelief, and honestly, I bristled at the idea of being called a kid. I was 21 now. I had come into my magic. I was old enough to know that no matter what happened next, I was strong. I was capable. I was able to handle anything life threw at me.
“She’s not a kid,” Alicia said. “And you don’t give her enough credit.”
“No, I didn’t give the grandmother enough credit. A young witch is no match for me. An old witch…well, old witches know quite a bit about the ways of the vamps, now don’t they?”
Alicia whispered something I couldn’t quite hear, and then Erin gasped, sucking in air. She was breathing heavily, and I realized I could hear her. Why could I hear her all of a sudden?
“Oh, good, you’re free,” Alicia said drily. Apparently, she had freed Erin from her bonds and her paralysis. “Don’t bother trying to escape. Alexander will kill you if you do.”
“Your husband,” Erin said, gasping.
And that’s when it hit me.
Alexander.
That was a name I’d heard before.
He
was said to be the king of the vampires. He was the one who had captured my grandmother. He was the one who was responsible for taking her away. He had been after her magical book because he knew that she was working on solving the mystery of my parents’ research and their disappearance entirely.
Was he the one who had sent Professor Elkridge to Hybrid Academy?
Did he have something to do with the fact that Elkridge had been working on an antidote for the shifter potion my parents had been researching?
“You say that like you didn’t know,” Alicia said.
“I didn’t,” Erin said. “I had no idea you were married to a monster.”
“Aw, come on, now,” Alexander said. “Once you get to know me, I’m quite nice.” He started laughing manically and then stopped. “Just kidding. I’m not nice. At all. Now start talking.”
“You first,” Erin said. “How long?”
“What?”
“How long have you been married?”
“An eternity,” Alicia said. “Didn’t you think it was strange I got so sick while we were students at Hybrid Academy? I missed over a month of classes after I got turned.”
“I thought you had just been partying too much,” Erin said, and I wasn’t sure about Kiera, Patricia, or Henry, but I could hear the sound of pain in my Aunt Erin’s voice. She didn’t like knowing that she had let her friend down. That’s what Alicia had been to her: a friend.
“You were a terrible friend,” Alicia said. “You didn’t even notice what was happening to me.”
The words were harsh, and I cringed. I couldn’t see Erin’s face from my position inside the secret passageway, but I knew how I would feel if one of my friends said those words to me.
I would be hurt.
Pained.
Lost.
“I was doing my best,” Erin said. “But I can see that I let you down.”
Alexander scoffed.
“Are you girls done yet? I want to go hunt the little witch.”
“Maxine?” Erin’s voice seemed a little higher pitched than it had just a few minutes ago. “Why? What do you want with her?”
“Don’t be stupid,” Alicia said, but I couldn’t tell if she was speaking to Alexander or to Erin. “We don’t have to hunt for the girl. She’ll come to us. She’s got a heart of gold, now doesn’t she? And oh, I just know that she has a weakness for her dear old auntie. No, we can just sit here and wait. It shouldn’t be too long now.”
The room went silent, and my heart seemed to be pounding out of my chest. There was no way we were getting out of here. Seriously. There was no way at all. Alicia and Alexander were right there with Erin. If we burst into the room, they’d kill all of us. Well, everyone but me. Apparently, they thought I was going to be able to help them read my grandmother’s spell book.
Yeah right.
Fat chance with that one.
I wasn’t about to help some jerks destroyed the world, especially not when I’d already lost so much. I didn’t need to lose anything else, but I did need a plan.
And right now, that plan meant getting away from Alicia and Alexander long enough to gather my thoughts and find people who could help us. As far as I knew, the rest of the student body was still locked in the auditorium. If the vampires had cast a bonding spell on the students the way they had with Erin, then there would be little chance of those kids escaping without help.
We could start there.
We could cause a ruckus.
We could call for my grandmother.
We could do something.
But how could we get out of the hallway? The passageway was small and narrow. Surely, we could just run down it. I knew that vampires were fast, though. They were a lot faster and a lot meaner than normal witches.
I might not be faster than Alicia or Alexander.
But I had something they didn’t have.
I had a creepy demon roommate who had a weird skill, and I had a shapeshifting best friend, and I had a fairy.
We could do this.
I motioned to my friends and tried to explain what I wanted without actually speaking, but I wasn’t very successful. They all just seemed kind of confused. I didn’t blame them. Communicating while trying to hold magical torches and stay silent seemed to be an impossible task.
Alexander and Alicia started talking to each other, so they weren’t necessarily paying attention to us. Speaking in the tiniest, quietest whisper possible, I told my friends what I wanted.
“Can you put the torches out?” I asked Patricia.
“Yes.”
“We’ll shift,” I said. “And then we’ll run.”
“Where are we going to go?” Henry asked quietly.
Everything felt loud.
Too loud.
“Outside,” I said. “To the clearing.”
We all knew the clearing I was talking about, especially Henry. Last year, we’d had a picnic together there. It was one of the first times we’d shared a meal alone since I’d learned he was a shifter, and it was definitely one of the first times I’d shown off my magical abilities just for him. Despite my weak skills, I’d managed to generate a sort of picnic basket with food and snacks and drinks in it. I hadn’t had any control over what I made – not like when I made the pizza - but we’d loved sitting together all the same.
“Um,” Kiera raised her hand silently and then motioned to her body, as if to say, “I’m a fairy. I’m not a shifter.”
But I had her covered. I motioned to Patricia, who knew what to do. Patricia was clever and smart. She had been cruel and unkind the first year we’d known her, but now she was much more gentle. She was even a little…sweet.
She pulled out her wand, waved it at Kiera, and whispered her secret magical spell. Instantly, Kiera dropped to the floor. As she did, her torch fell, too, but Patricia swiftly caught it. Kiera had been converted into a hamster, thanks to Patricia’s spell. I knew the spell wasn’t permanent. Patricia had created it and designed it to last only a few hours.
Now she stood with both torches. She shifted them to one hand, snapped her fingers, and they vanished. Kiera had a slight, faint glow to her. It was thanks to her being a fairy. Fairies always seemed to glow, even just a little. I wasn’t really sure exactly why they were able to do that, and I was only a little bit jealous.
Just a little.
Instantly, Kiera turned and started running silently down the little passageway. I knew that in her hamster form, she wouldn’t have trouble seeing in the darkness. Enhanced visual abilities, coupled with her glow, and I knew she’d be just fine.
Henry gave me a nod before he shifted, too. Once he was in his cat form, he turned, and he took off after Kiera.
That just left me and Patricia.
I looked at my friend.
We both knew the score here. Patricia couldn’t shift. She was a demon. She had a lot of incredible powers and she had a mean streak a mile long, but she couldn’t shift.
“You can do the hamster spell on yourself,” I whispered, but I knew that she wouldn’t. She’d been too out of control last year to ever let herself be put under a spell again. Last year, Jeremiah, her boyfriend, had turned her invisible. Now she hated the idea of being out of control. Even though she crafted her own shifting spell, she wasn’t going to be comfortable shifting herself.
She was just going to go in her human form.
And I hoped above all hope that Alexander and Alicia wouldn’t hear Patricia stepping lightly in the passageway.
I closed my eyes, and I shifted as silently as I could. My clothes dropped to the floor, joining the pile already created by Kiera and Henry. I looked up at Patricia. We were going to have to do this together. Either one of us stepping could make noise. Personally, I could see clearly in the darkness. My wolf body gave me that ability.
Did demons have incredible seeing abilities, too?
I wasn’t sure, and obviously, I couldn’t exactly pick Patricia’s brain at this moment. She took a deep breath and no
dded. There were two directions we could go: left or right. Both Kiera and Henry had chosen to go to the left. I thought Patricia and I should both go the same direction, but she shook her head and gestured. She would go to the right and I would go to the left. I frowned, but finally nodded. I didn’t like this at all, but I knew what she was thinking. We could each run a different direction. If Alexander and Alicia happened to come after us, the chances of them getting both of us would go down. I didn’t like the idea of them finding either one of us, but I also knew that Patricia was probably right, and there was nothing wrong with trusting my friend. Gingerly, carefully, I started to move. I heard Patricia begin to creep quietly in the opposite direction.
Kiera and Henry had both easily gotten away. They were both very small animals, though: a hamster and a cat. Henry especially was good on his feet. After years of living as my familiar, he had to be. I was clumsy enough for both of us, which meant he’d definitely learned to overcompensate and had been incredible at jumping and moving around easily without difficulty. There had been no chance that Alexander or Alicia would hear either of them.
But I didn’t know if Patricia and I would have the same luck.
We moved.
One step.
Then another.
I put one paw in front of the other. Step by step, I moved. My eyes let me see clearly in the darkness and I was able to step over pieces of the wall that had splintered earlier when an obvious hole had been punched in it. Patricia, too, moved with ease. I paused, for just a moment, and looked back at her.
But I shouldn’t have.
The speaking from within the office stopped.
“Did you hear that?” Alexander asked.
My heart pounded as I held perfectly still, and I knew Patricia was doing the same. Yeah. They’d heard us, but I wasn’t sure how. We’d both been so careful, so at ease. Erin knew what we were up to and she tried to buy us an escape by distracting the terrible vampire duo.
“What are you talking about?” She said loudly. “Stop imagining things. You know this school has rats in the walls.”
“Zip it,” Alexander said, and then Erin went silent. One of them must have cast a spell on her again that made her be quiet. I grimaced. Great. So much for her distracting them. If I knew one thing about vampires, it was that they didn’t like to let go of something once it had their attention.
Hybrid Academy Box Set Page 33