The Haunted High Series Boxed Set

by Cheree Alsop

  “Me, too,” I replied.

  She gave a little giggle and blushed. I had no idea if she was pretty. She may have been a tree nymph crossed with a slimy-skinned taniwha entomophage, in other words, not a pretty sight, but I wouldn’t have known the difference for all the attention I paid her. She didn’t seem to notice because she continued to giggle and flirt and twirl her hair as we rode down the next escalator.

  My attention was taken by the difference in levels. The next one was twice as deep and for a brief moment, the escalator gave us a view of the entire area. Where the last one had been normal and gray, this one had been turned into a myriad of manmade landscapes. In front of me, I could see the browns and greens of a painted forest; to the right were wooden panels painted to look like a cityscape; to the left was the inside of a shopping center, complete with aisles and shopping carts; and behind us, just before the view disappeared as we rode down, I saw a neighborhood laid out with houses and streets.

  The need for Eileen’s security card became apparent when we reached the glass enclosure at the bottom of the escalator. There was no way out except through the set of doors in front of us. She waved her card at the reader and the doors opened.

  “Welcome to the training grounds,” she announced as proudly as if she had built it with her own two hands. Her smug look vanished at my expression. “Grayson, are you sure you’re alright?”

  I wasn’t. I felt like I was about to vomit. The scents of agony that hit me were so strong my stomach roiled. Everywhere I looked, demon shadows wandered. It was no wonder they were attracted to the area. If I was a demon, I would have been perfectly happy there. Thoughts of Chutka the Shambler and the demons we had faced to try to stop him swarmed my mind. I could see the flame-filled eyes of the demon hordes we had left in Lark’s basement. One bite had been enough to nearly kill Vicken. What would happen if we couldn’t stop Chutka from reaching our world with the rest of his horde?

  Eileen set a hand on my shoulder, jarring me back to the present. “I’m, uh, fine. I think I just ate something bad.” I remembered at the last minute that I was supposed to be Grayson and added, “Who knew a box of donuts on an empty stomach was a bad idea?”

  She laughed as though I had said the funniest thing in the world. “You’re cute, you know that?” she asked. She winked at me. “Let’s go find those creatures you brought in.”

  I followed her numbly through the training grounds. Men and women in black uniforms with padded armor and automatic weapons nodded when we walked by. I soon saw the reason for their diligence.

  Monsters were chained at every junction. Most slumped against the walls or slept on the floors as though exhausted from the last training bout. On each one, I could see the angry welts where they had been hit by electric bullets like the spider one Mangus had used on Vicken. The freshest bullet marks were easy to tell by the way they blistered and oozed. It looked incredibly painful and I felt bad for those monsters who didn’t have the ability to heal quickly.

  The monsters who were still awake turned away from us or ducked their heads when we passed.

  “Don’t worry. It’s a bit more lively down here during the training sessions,” Eileen informed me. “They’re encouraged to either try to attack the trainees, which of course they can’t because of their chains, or to try to hide so the trainees have to seek them out. They know better than to laze around like this if they don’t want to feel Sir Harbrand’s wrath, right wretch?”

  She kicked the foot of a sleeping woman. The woman startled and jumped back to the length of her chain. There was so much fear in her eyes that were cat-like and reminded me of Adalia and Melzie from Mrs. Mellon’s class. The woman didn’t say a word, but the expectation of pain on her face ate at my self-control.

  Eileen pulled a baton from her belt that sparked with electricity when she pushed a button. She took a step toward the woman. The woman opened her mouth in a soundless hiss that showed pointed canines, but she couldn’t get any further away from us. The metal manacle around her neck showed raw skin where she had already fought to get free and failed. Seeing a woman turned into less than an animal by the Society’s cruelty set my teeth on edge.

  “Leave her alone,” I said before I could stop myself.

  “Why?” Eileen asked; her tone was suspicious.

  I searched quickly for an answer. “If, uh, she isn’t rested, she won’t give a good performance for the trainees tomorrow. We want to make sure the trainees are well trained, right? And that includes me, now. I’ve got to get good at this stuff.” Eileen watched me for a moment with a skeptical expression on her face. I gave her my best smile and continued with, “Besides, I’d rather talk to you than watch you torture her.”

  My smile seemed to do the trick. She shrugged. “Can’t argue with that. I’m enjoying our conversation as well.”

  To my relief, she clicked the button on her baton again and the electricity shut off. The woman with the cat eyes watched us warily as Eileen slid the baton back onto her belt. I felt the woman’s eyes on us when we turned away and walked deeper into the training labyrinth.

  “This place is huge,” I said. “How do trainees keep from getting lost?”

  She eyed a chained man who appeared to be normal as he slept except for the way his hands and feet moved like a dog chasing a rabbit in his dreams.

  “I got lost my first time down here,” she admitted. “It’s a huge place.” She shot me an embarrassed look. “I got trapped into a corner by a vampire. His chain was just short enough that he couldn’t reach me, but I couldn’t get past him. I was out of bullets and didn’t know how to use my baton. It was pathetic.”

  I tried to sound sincere when I said, “You must have been terrified. How did you get out?”

  “They had to come rescue me,” she admitted. “Sir Harbrand didn’t let me live that down for a week. He made me wash out the body bags after they burned the bodies of the monsters killed during the training. It was disgusting.”

  I swallowed the bile that surged into my throat at her words. It was disgusting, but not in the way she implied. Monsters had died here at the hands of trainees being trained to kill them. I didn’t know how it felt to die from surges of electricity, but I knew it couldn’t be pleasant. The lingering scent of charred flesh touched my nose. It was almost enough to send me over the edge. Only the fact that we were too deep for the moonlight to reach us and there were no windows around gave me the barest hold over my wolf side.

  I wanted to phase. I wanted to change into a wolf and make the guards, Eileen, Sir Harbrand, Madam Opal, and everyone else who was a member of the Monster Abolition and Eradication Society pay for the lives they had taken and the torture they had done. I was sick of torture. Between Dr. Fagrin, the Demon Knight, the Wiccan Enforcer, Chutka the Shambler, demons who fed on pain and fear, Grayson, and the prejudice I still faced at the Academy for my werewolf heritage, I was fed up with cruelty toward anyone who was different. I made a vow to end the Maes if it was the last thing I did.

  My heated inward discussion stopped abruptly at the sight of the man chained to a streetlight pole in the city section.

  My dad lay facedown and motionless. I recognized him by the tattered red and white checkered shirt he wore. It was one of his favorites because my mom had given it to him the Christmas before she passed away. He only wore it on special occasions. I wondered if he and Julianne had been heading on a date night before Grayson jumped them. It took all of my power to walk slowly toward him with feigned nonchalance instead of rushing to his side and falling to my knees like I so wanted.

  “Is that one of them?” Eileen asked.

  She dropped to one knee with her hand on her baton and grabbed Dad’s hair. Lifting him up to peer at his face, she nodded. “Yep. That’s the male.” She released his hair and his face hit the floor.

  She looked around. “I wonder what they did with the female.”

  With a speed that shocked me, Dad leaped up and grabbed Eileen’s baton with on
e hand and her hair with the other. He put the baton to her throat and glared at me.

  “Release me,” he growled, his voice gruff.

  If I hadn’t noticed the shirt, I wouldn’t have recognized my dad. His gaze was vicious, his hair wild, and the scruff of a beard that had never shown on his carefully groomed face made him look both homeless and wild. He had a black eye and dark bruises showed on the side of his face and his neck. An untreated cut on his brow had dripped blood down his cheek that was now crusted and dry. There was a desperation to his gaze and a weakness to the way his hand shook as it held the baton that made me stare instead of running to him. I was completely frozen to the spot by shock.

  “Release me,” he commanded again, his voice louder this time.

  His words freed me.

  “Release him,” I said. I hurried toward them.

  Eileen tried to shake her head, but Dad held her hair tighter and she let out a squeak of pain.

  “Eileen, the keys, now,” I commanded.

  Dad’s eyes focused on me. I watched as recognition warred with fear, and I knew he was worried that his mind was playing tricks on him.

  “Finn?”

  I ignored him for the moment, afraid that if Eileen found out who I was, she would sound the alarm before we had her under control. She fumbled for the keys tucked into a pouch at her belt and held them out. I tore them from her hand and found the round one that would fit into the manacle around Dad’s throat.

  “Keep her quiet,” I told him.

  Dad put a hand over Eileen’s mouth. She watched us both with wide eyes.

  “Finn, it is you!” he said with such relief I had to fight back tears.

  “I’m going to get you out of here,” I replied. I managed to get the key into the hole on the back of the manacle and turn it. The manacle opened to reveal the red, raw skin underneath. I swallowed against the anger that tightened my throat and said, “Where’s Julianne.”

  “They took her.”

  The sorrow in Dad’s voice was agonizing. He hung his head dejectedly and his hand slipped from Eileen’s mouth. Before she could scream, I grabbed her by the throat and squeezed just hard enough to let her know I meant business. I pushed her against the light pole.

  “Where would they take her?” I demanded.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know.” Surprise still showed on her face at my betrayal.

  I felt her suck in a breath and tightened my hold. “If you try to call for help, I’ll snap your neck.”

  “Finn!” my dad said in shock behind me.

  I kept my gaze on Eileen. “Why would they take someone from the training grounds?”

  At my tightening fingers, she said quickly, “They only take creatures from here that are either dead or almost dead.”

  I was unwilling to accept that Julianne was dead. I asked through gritted teeth, “Where do they take the almost dead?”

  “Sir Harbrand has an infirmary,” she replied, her voice raspy from my grip. “He does what he can to heal the creatures so they can be targets again.”

  “Where?” I demanded.

  She pointed to a set of doors near the escalator. “But you can’t get there without a keycard.”

  I grabbed her keycard from her belt with my free hand and said, “I have a keycard.”

  “Hey!” she protested.

  I brought my face close to hers. “I could never find anyone attractive who takes pleasure in the pain and torture of others.”

  I released her neck, but before she could scream for help, I grabbed the gun from her belt and shot her in the chest. At that distance, it must have hurt, but the electricity surging through her body cut off whatever protest she would have made. I waited until she slumped unconscious to the ground, then slipped the baton from her belt as well.

  I handed the baton to my dad. His stare at my actions said so much more than words ever could.

  “Take it,” I barked out when he made no move to accept the baton.

  When his hand closed around the stick, I saw the burn marks the trainees’ bullets had made on his skin. Eileen’s comment about the heart not being able to handle electricity well made me watch him closely. His skin was a sickly gray color and when he straightened, he swayed.

  I grabbed his arm to steady him. “Come on, Dad,” I said gently. “Let’s get you out of here.”

  “Where are we going?” he asked with confusion in his voice.

  “To find Julianne,” I replied.

  Chapter Five

  From my position crouched in the shadows of a fake building in the city district of the training grounds, I counted five guards between us and the doors Eileen had pointed to.

  I glanced at my father, but the hope that he would be of any help vanished immediately. He was sitting on the ground with his back against the same building. His knees were pulled up to his chest and he stared at the baton in his hands as though wondering where it had come from. I hoped his confusion and shock would fade with time, but time was the one thing Julianne didn’t have.

  “Stay here, Dad,” I told him. When he didn’t acknowledge that I had spoken, I set a hand on his shoulder.

  Dad jerked back with wide eyes and the kind of fear on his face that made my heart ache.

  “Dad, it’s me, Finn.”

  Dad’s fear vanished and he smiled. “It’s been a while, Finn.”

  I nodded. “Too long. I’m going to get Julianne so we can all go home, alright, Dad?”

  “Home,” he repeated. “Home would be good.”

  I touched his hand that held the baton. “I need to clear a path to the doors and I want you to stay here. If anyone shows up, stun them with the baton, got it?”

  He held up the baton and nodded, his eyes a bit more focused. “I’ll stun them with the baton.”

  “Right,” I replied.

  I didn’t want to leave him there, but if Julianne had any chance, I had to get her away from the Maes. Thoughts of the baby kept swarming my mind, but I pushed them away. One step at a time. I had to know if Julianne was alive first.

  I crept from shadow to shadow. The impulse to phase into wolf form was strong, but I knew if I was going to take them down in silence, using the gun was my best bet.

  It felt like a game, creeping up on the guards without making a sound. Some instinct inside of me thrummed with pleasure at being the hunter. I could feel my body responding and noticed how softly my feet touched the ground and how soundlessly I even breathed as I approached my prey. It was as though my wolf side found a way to exist within my human side.

  I wasn’t surprised when the colors of my human vision faded to the grays of the wolf. The musky scent of the guard reached me from a few paces behind him. With a breath, I could tell he had eaten lasagna and garlic bread for dinner. The fact that he had a pet cat at home and that he carpooled with someone who owned a wirehaired terrier was catalogued effortlessly in the back of my mind.

  Adrenaline raced through my veins as I closed the last few steps between me and the guard. A single shout or any sound other than Eileen’s silenced electric gun would send the hundreds of guards I had seen on the floors above down on our heads. I knew better than to hope my father and I could survive such an onslaught. Any chance we had relied on complete silence.

  I let out a soundless breath and lunged at the guard. Before he could make so much as a squeak, I shoved him to the floor and shot his exposed neck with an electric bullet. His back arched as the spider-like legs of the bullet sunk into his skin, then he slumped motionless to the floor.

  “One down, four to go,” I whispered.

  As I crept through the shadows toward the next guard, I told myself I was enjoying it too much. But there was something so fulfilling about stalking my prey, approaching them downwind, and taking them out without a sound. The surprise on the face of the next woman made me smile even as her body convulsed and then stilled in unconsciousness.

  I told myself that at least they weren’t dead, but the wolf side
of me didn’t agree. Any enemy to my family was better off dead. A shudder ran through me with the fear of how close I was to losing control. As I pulled down the fourth guard and shot him, I told myself I wouldn’t become the monster they feared. The detached side of me noted with irony that I already was. I had been born that way.

  I reached the fifth guard in record time. He was the closest to the doors that were our target. I pulled him down and couldn’t help grinning when I shot him in the neck, then a voice spoke and shattered my triumph.

  “Hey, what are you doing?”

  I had shoved the gun in my waistband when I crouched to check the guard. A glance out of the corner of my eye showed two guards who had just entered the training grounds from the escalator. Both had their guns trained on me, but their fingers were at the side of their triggers as if they were uncertain whether I was one of them or the enemy. I chose to take advantage of that uncertainty.

  “He fell and I’m just checking—”

  I rose before I completed my sentence and slipped my gun from my waistband with a smoothness even Vicken would envy. I pulled the trigger twice before they could react. A bullet struck each in the throat and they fell to the ground. My gaze shifted from their bodies to the sight of my dad leaning against the closest building. His mouth was open and it was too late to hope he hadn’t seen everything.

  I waited for his words of condemnation, for him to tell me I was a monster and I should get away from him.

  Instead, he pushed away from the wall, gave a single nod when he approached me, and said, “It’s a good thing I took you out to practice with guns when you were twelve.”

  I could only stare at him when he passed me by on the way to the doors. There was no way I would tell him about storming the Mythic Labs with both Mercer’s guns and the labs’ guns and that I went through so many bullets and weapons there was no way to count them. Let him assume my aim had been luck drawn from skills I had learned on one shooting outing four years ago. I would choose that rather than let him know what a monster I really was.