by Terry Spear
She squeezed my hand, and I grimaced. Her strength had significantly increased, and my eyes watered. Quickly loosening her hold, she frowned at me.
She was back to being mad at me again.
“But just think of it this way, Marissa, we can fight Lynetta easier if you have vampire strength.”
Marissa muttered something unintelligible.
“You don’t have a book bag, Dominic,” Kate said, her words a definite challenge to my story. “Are you prepared for school?”
The question was loaded. I didn’t have a scrap of paper to take notes, nor a pen or pencil to write with. It did seem a little odd that I wouldn’t have something to take to school.
“They haven’t even unpacked all of their household goods, and Dominic’s book bag is still packed away somewhere in one of the boxes. He can borrow one of my notepads for the day,” Marissa quickly suggested.
I took a ragged breath. I hadn’t expected Marissa’s girlfriend to pose such a threat to me. Still, if we could master her, we could make it through a day of school, I thought.
“But what if I don’t have any of the same classes as you? Really, Dominic, I think this is a bad idea. Maybe if you just walk me to school, and then return for me after classes end, you can escort me safely home. Wouldn’t that be a better idea?”
There was no way I was letting her go through a day of classes unprotected. She had no idea how vengeful Lynetta could be. “No. Well, I mean, it might have been a good idea except for a couple of things. Number one, it’s not the plan we spoke to Kate about. And secondly, I’m afraid Lynetta might send her minions after you. We have to put on as good a show as we can.”
Marissa swallowed hard as we came into view of the rambling white brick buildings attached by covered walkways. Blue roofs topped with flags identified each of the classrooms, and I tried to imagine what they stood for.
Marissa shared her thoughts on which buildings housed which classrooms: “A white-haired and bearded warlock on black for the spells room, a white-haired witch on purple for the potions room, a castle for the history of witchcraft, a fairy godmother-type woman featured on the flag for manners…”
I grinned at Marissa, amused the school would teach manners to witches and warlocks. She poked me in the ribs.
Then a new concern popped into my head. What if the witch who had turned me into a toad was at this school? She had to have the worst manners of any of the students.
Marissa gave me a sinister glare, and I realized at once she had seen my folly in a dream. Did she know the girl?
“Absolutely. Debbie Damint. All the guys fall all over themselves for her. So you’d better not ask her out to the movies again, or face the consequences.”
So I was really in the doghouse now.
Marissa nodded. “I’ll take Dominic to the main building to register him,” she said to Kate.
“I have no plan to speak to this Debbie Damint, Marissa. It was just a really bad mistake.”
“Right.”
Then a new worry consumed me. What if I ran into her or any of her girlfriends who were with her at the Hamburger Spot? She’d recognize I had been a human and then what?
Marissa shook her head. “Wouldn’t you know I’d have to get mixed up with a…a Prince of Darkness who had the hots for Debbie Damint?”
“Sorry, Marissa. It won’t happen again. I swear it! She was just a distraction before I met you—the real thing.”
“Stop, before you dig yourself any deeper.”
“Are we still on for lunch afterwards?” Kate asked Marissa, her look hopeful, yet I sensed she wanted to get Marissa off to herself in private and interrogate her thoroughly.
“Uhm, I think—”
“We’d love it,” I broke in, hoping to not raise Kate’s ire or suspicion any further.
Marissa frowned at me. “The more Kate sees us together, the more suspicious she’ll be, Dominic!”
“If you don’t do the things you normally do with her, she’ll become even more suspicious.”
“Marissa?” Kate asked, encouraging her to agree.
“Yes, of course, Kate, as always. If you don’t mind Dominic tagging along.”
“Not at all. Since he’s so new, and doesn’t have any friends.” Kate said the words sarcastically, as if she didn’t believe I was new to the area in the least.
“Right.”
I handed Kate’s bag to her. She thanked me, but looked back at Marissa’s neck. I knew before long she’d question her about it.
Marissa dropped my hand when we walked into the administration building. A plump woman with white hair piled on top of her head and piercing blue eyes studied me. She instantly made me think of the grandmotherly-looking movie versions of Mrs. Santa Claus, except for the harsh eyes.
“This is Dominic Vorchowsky, Mrs. Remington. He just moved here and needs to be registered.”
“Your old school records?” she asked, putting me on the spot immediately.
“I’ve come from Germany, Mrs. Remington. I’m afraid it might take a while to get the records. But I didn’t want to lose any more schooling.”
She raised a white brow. “Interesting. You have no German accent.” She glanced at Marissa and dismissed her. “You may go to class.”
Quickly, Marissa jumped in to rescue me. “Can you assign him to my classes? I can show him around and—”
“We’ll have to test Mr. Vorchowsky first. We have no idea what level he’ll be in.”
“Test him?” Marissa squeaked.
I could sense the terror in Marissa’s thoughts. I rested my hand on her shoulder to reassure her. “If I don’t do well, it may be because my education is lacking. However, I will try my utmost to succeed.” The notion came to mind again that I was unable to control a witch’s thoughts. It would have been so very simple to compel Mrs. Remington to allow me to stay with Marissa the rest of the day and to forgo the test, if she’d been human.
“Very well. At least you have a good attitude, young man, more than I can say about some of the warlocks who attend the school.” Mrs. Remington motioned to Marissa to leave.
Marissa’s eyes grew misty as she looked back at me, her heart thundering. I could hear the blood rushing through her veins, panicked.
“I’ll be all right, truly, dear Marissa. Go to class.”
“You won’t know how to do any spells. She’ll prove you’re a fraud.”
“She thinks I’ve come from a foreign country. Maybe she’ll allow me some mistakes.”
Marissa shook her head, knowing the school administrator would soon prove me an impostor. Then she headed out of the building.
Feeling horrible that I couldn’t reassure her, I realized I couldn’t even reassure myself this would work. Instead, I envisioned Mrs. Remington calling the head of security and having him or her toss me out on my ear.
“All right, Mr. Vorchowsky. Now we’ll see what you’ve learned in your old school. We’ll start with something fairly simple. Levitate my pen holder, will you?”
Having hoped my vampire abilities would help slip me through the tests, I gulped at her suggestion.
Levitation?
Chapter 8
MARISSA
Bullheaded, that’s what Dominic was.
I couldn’t help being terrified that he’d be in trouble, though. Chill bumps covered my arms and legs, and I could barely breathe.
Did he think he could sneak into a witches’ and warlocks’ school without being a bona fide warlock? Nuts. He was absolutely nuts.
Not to mention if Debbie Damint caught sight of him, then what? She’d remember him for sure, or one of the two witches she’d been with. Linnie, the brunette, and Carissa, the redhead, both meaner than fire ants on the attack.
Still, I had to protect him, since he thought I was Marissa, his savior. Even though I was still perturbed with him for turning me into a…well, a Princess of Darkness. Though in part, some of my new abilities were kind of funky.
I stood at the
administration window and chanced peeking in. I read poor Dominic’s thoughts. Mrs. Remington had her back to me, and Dominic was concentrating on levitating the pen container on her desk. Just when I began to cast a spell on the container, the desk lifted. Then the chair and the pen container.
Mrs. Remington quickly waved her arms around, and all of the items settled back down with a thud.
I dropped my mouth wide open. How in the world…
Mrs. Remington pointed to a drawing board. Now what?
Dominic concentrated on the board. He was to write the ingredients and potion for making a body invisible. He smiled. But I did not. He could make himself invisible, sure, but not the way a warlock would.
I jammed my hand into my bag, then yanked my potion book out. Flipping through the pages, I hurriedly searched for the correct potion that I could never remember by heart even if my life—or in this case Dominic’s—depended on it. I would transfer the directions for the potion via my thoughts. He knew I was outside the window, but he tried to concentrate on the administrator’s words, not the thoughts I tried to convey to him.
Pay attention! I wanted to yell at him.
Before I had the correct page, he began to write the ingredients. I looked down at my book, then back at the board. He had correctly listed every one of them. How’d he do that?
“Seems you transferred some of your skills to me, Marissa.”
“Dominic?”
He turned toward the window and gave me a satisfied smile. “Seems I’m a bona fide warlock now.”
“But…but I never could remember this potion.”
“I always excelled at chemistry. Seems you have the thoughts in your subconscious, but can never use them when you need them. But they’re there. Somehow, you transferred them to me. Though I really thought I was sunk with that levitation spell.”
My head spun with the notion. What else would we learn he could do, or I could do because of the blood transference? Then another worry took hold. “Now she’ll put you in the advanced classes. I’m only average.”
“You’ll never be average to me, Marissa.”
Loving how he said the right words, I smiled.
“Marissa, what are you doing here?” a deep male voice asked, belonging to Joshua Cantaleaver, the cutest warlock in school until Dominic slipped into my life.
My heart leapt in my throat and my skin grew clammy as I whirled around to see Joshua studying me. Dressed in dress slacks and a preppy sweater, he always looked like he was going to hobnob with the Princes of England. I looked back through the window at Dominic. The look on his face had turned stormy. Instantly, I worried he’d extend his fangs.
“On my way to class,” I said to Joshua, hurriedly shoving my potions book into my bag.
“Want me to carry it for you?” He held out his hand.
What had gotten into him? He’d never shown any interest in me. Not in the ten years I’d been at the school. Not once.
Dominic appeared behind him. Just poof, and he was there. I frowned at him. “Walk places, Dominic, before you get found out.”
“I had to get here sooner to protect my girl. Besides, I’m registered for school now. I’ll walk you to our class.”
I motioned to Dominic still standing behind Joshua. “My new friend—”
“Boyfriend,” Dominic corrected with authority.
Joshua stared at Dominic, his black eyes heated. “Who are you?”
“I just told you. Dominic Vorchowsky, Marissa’s steady.”
“She doesn’t have a steady.” Joshua acted like if he said so, that was good enough for all of us, then turned to me and said, “I wanted to take you to the dance on Friday. I’ll drop by your house at five.”
My mouth gaped wide again. Had one of the students slipped him a love potion to play a trick on me—the most undated girl in school? Any such potion wouldn’t last for long and by the time of the dance, it would have worn off, as well as Joshua’s interest in me.
Dominic clenched his teeth and shook his head at Joshua. “I believe you didn’t hear me right. Marissa will be my date Friday night and for every time in between and forever thereafter.”
This time Joshua’s mouth dropped, but then a hint of malice burned in his black eyes, though he didn’t say a word to refute Dominic’s claim.
Dominic grabbed my bag and slipped his hand over mine, then clutched it possessively. “Mrs. Remington said I had all of your classes.”
“Witches’ sports, too?” Joshua asked, his voice lilting upward, mocking Dominic.
“Spectator sports. I’m sure I’ll enjoy that class the best.”
Joshua folded his arms. “I’ll see you in warlocks’ gym. One on one.”
I held Dominic’s hand securely as Joshua took off for the history building. “I have no idea why he’s taken an interest in me all of a sudden. He’s never—”
“I know. I wonder if it’s your friend, Kate, who’s put him up to it.” Dominic motioned with his head to the spells building. Sure enough, Kate watched us through the window. “I believe she might have bribed him to take an interest in you, to get you away from me, you know—worried for your safety.”
“Bribed him?” My brows lifted in annoyance.
“Well, I can’t imagine anyone needing to be bribed to get interested in you, but if he’s not been attracted to you before this, I’d be highly suspicious of his motives now.”
“I am.” But if Kate bribed Joshua… I growled inwardly, then a new thought bugged me. “How did you manage to get into my average classes? With all you did, I would think you’d be assigned to the advanced classes.”
“I was. But the administrator won’t know which I’m actually attending for a while.”
“You sure are cute. A bad boy, but awfully cute. Did you do things like this when you were just a human?”
His dark eyes sparkled with mischief. “You probably ought to get to know me a little better before I tell you all of my secrets.”
I laughed. In the past, I’d always stayed away from bad-boy types. Now one was my steady? What next? “I knew you were too good to be true.”
“Even if I’m a—”
I reached up and touched his lips. “My prince without his knight’s armor.”
He winked. “I believe you’re the one rescuing me.”
That notion tugged at my heartstrings. At least I hoped his faith in me was warranted.
Before we reached the spells building, I saw that sniping redheaded Carissa looking south and I hurried Dominic into the building before the witch noticed him.
Dominic glanced her way and his whole body tensed.
“She doesn’t have spells class this period. And she’s not in any of my other classes either.”
Dominic relaxed. But we still hadn’t even barely begun the day. If Linnie or Debbie Damint saw Dominic, I was sure we’d be in for some trouble.
Dominic and I walked into the spells class where students stood talking with one another in groups of twos and threes, dressed like the typical blue jeans crowd, and none of them paying any attention to us. None but Kate, who folded her arms and studied us when we walked inside.
“Kate’s mad at me.”
Dominic nodded. “For having a boyfriend who she believes to be a vampire.”
“And not telling her about it.”
Her blond hair now moss green, Mrs. Robertson walked into the room. Last time her hair had turned that color, she’d said she’d gone swimming in the school’s pool after hours and warned the girls who dyed their hair to wear caps in the pool. Guess she forget her own advice. She motioned to the seats forming a half circle, three rows deep. Spell books of ancient and contemporary times lined shelves along two of the walls, a third of which I’d read, but retaining the information was my biggest problem. And large floor-to-ceiling windows looked out upon a grassy courtyard where some students ran on a track. I wished Dominic and I could be out there, right now, away from the watchful eyes of Kate and the teacher.
&n
bsp; “Oh, my, we have a new student today,” Mrs. Robertson cooed, as if she’d found a new victim to charm.
He raised his brows.
“She’s fond of the male students in her classes. She barely tolerates us girls.”
“Oh.”
I couldn’t tell if he thought that was a good thing or bad, which bugged me.
“And who might you be?” Mrs. Robertson shoved rimless glasses on her nose and squinted at a roster. “I don’t have anyone new on my list.”
“Dominic Vorchowsky, ma’am, just arrived this morning.”
A grin split across her face. “So polite, too. All right, well, why don’t you take a seat right there?” She pointed to a plastic chair close to where she stood.
Okay, that could be a bad thing.
I pulled an extra pad of paper and pen out of my book bag for Dominic, then joined Kate at our desks in the last row.
“I want to know everything!” Kate whispered harshly in my ear.
Mrs. Robertson rapped her wand on the podium. “Students, take your seats and let’s begin our lessons.”
Dominic passed along a telepathic message to me. “So the inquisition begins.”
“Yes, but you don’t have to be the one answering Kate’s questions.”
“Okay, class, today we’re working on a spell to clear the mind. We can use this on humans, should one wish to harm us. The effect is only temporary. But if a human should approach me with a weapon, for example, I could make him forget what he wanted to do with it. Then I could easily relieve him of the weapon and leave. We can use this on ourselves, also, if we wish to wipe out a current anxiety. For example, if I worried about an illness in the family, but I needed to concentrate on a test, I could put the worry aside for a while, then focus on taking the exam. As you can see, it’s a useful spell. Any questions?”
Kate raised her hand. I glanced at her, wondering what she was up to. She never asked questions, always keeping as low a profile as she could in class. It wasn’t that she wasn’t smart, she was over the top in most subjects, but she just didn’t apply herself like she could to move up to the advanced level classes. Me? Well, I struggled hard to even get average grades.