Montrose Paranormal Academy, Book 1: The Nexis Secret: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel

by Barbara Hartzler

  “Ahem,” Miss Sherry cleared her throat, rising to her feet to address the room. “Thank you for coming tonight and following instructions. The Watcher Corps needs new recruits who can follow orders.”

  “Ugh.” Shanda rolled her eyes and slumped down in her chair.

  Yeah, maybe the Watchers weren’t for me.

  “Some of you may be asking why we’re meeting off campus. The other two societies have headquarters at the academy that are open to the public. However, that is not the case for the Watcher Garrison. Our facilities are underground, hidden all over campus.”

  Someone to my right raised their hand. “Why is that?”

  “Good question. The Watcher Corps was founded to keep the peace between the Order of the Guardians and the Nexis Society. Our origins date back to the Tower of Babel. The Nexis Society split off from the Order of the Guardians to create the tower of Babel and make their own deities. The founders of the Watcher Corps did not agree with the way the Guardians handled the debacle, so they too separated and formed their own alliance. It is the Watcher Corps that eventually toppled the tower of Babel.”

  I leaned in a whispered to Julia. “Is that all true?”

  She nodded her head like an enthusiastic bobble-head, her brown eyes crazy wide. “Shush, she’s about to get to the good part.”

  “Sorry,” I mouthed, turning to watch Miss Sherry again.

  Our dorm mom fluffed her frizzy red hair and kept right on talking. “Today the Watcher Corps is tasked with keeping the peace. At Montrose Paranormal Academy, our job is to enforce the neutrality between the three societies. And to make sure things don’t get out of hand.”

  “That sound ominous.” I whispered to Shanda.

  She only gave me a slight nod as she raised her hand. “How exactly can you enforce this neutrality?”

  My lips curled up at her brilliant question. I was definitely glad I brought Shanda tonight.

  “Another good question.” Miss Sherry’s eyes narrowed into slits and her lips quirked. “The Watcher Corps has garrisons all over campus, hidden underground and access through a maze of tunnels and secret passages. These garrisons monitor all activity on campus, and off-campus reports concerning students. Based on these reports, we intervene when necessary.”

  “Cool, like the secret society police.” I mumbled.

  “More like the CIA of the three societies.” Shanda murmured in my ear, plastering a fake pageant smile on her face.

  “Harrumph.” It was my turn to slump down in my seat as Miss Sherry droned on and on about the merits of the Watcher Corps. But I wasn’t buying it. There was no way these guys simply “monitored” everything on campus just to “enforce neutrality.” Not even close. They had to have plans of their own. And judging by this little room of thirty plus recruits, the plans of the Watcher Corps were far bigger than they were letting on.

  ~

  “One hour! The countdown is one hour.” Shanda screeched at me as soon as I opened the door. “You should be getting ready.”

  I rubbed my eyes and set my books down on my bed. Had I really been in the library all afternoon? I’d read about angels and Nephilim, those infamous half angels that everyone had theories about, as if they even existed. I came back more confused than ever. Surprise, the Bible doesn’t say much about angels, at least not a lot of specifics. You really have to dig for it, but I guess I dug around a little too long.

  Lucky for me, this dorm party was only one floor down. I hopped in for a quick shower and when I stepped out of the bathroom, the sickly sweet smells of hairspray and perfume hovered in the air. How was my roomie almost all primped up and ready to go?

  I dragged the brush through my hair as I blow-dried, then flat-ironed a cute flip on the ends. Not a huge departure from my usual straight style, but a definite improvement. More casual, and it brought out the copper highlights in my walnut hair.

  I dabbed on my last coat of lip gloss. Mid-lip, I flinched at a creaking sound to my left as the door slammed shut. Did Shanda leave without me? I tiptoed to the door and peeked down the hall. She was long gone.

  “Someone’s overeager to hang out with boys.” Probably a certain surfer boy.

  “Not me.” Julia popped out of her room, yanking Brooke down the hall. She gave a meek little wave. “See you down there.”

  “See ya.” I couldn’t look at Julia right now in the aftermath of that strange vision of James and even stranger meeting last night.

  So, I glanced at Brooke instead. Bryan’s sister couldn’t be more unlike him, a mousy dishwater-blond girl with thick bangs but seriously cute glasses. If anyone could get that girl to open up, it’d be Julia. My heart still ached for Julia’s loss, in spite of her obviously misplaced anger issues.

  Tonight I couldn’t focus on what she’d said to me or what the Watcher Corps would do next. I needed to shove it deep into the furthest corners of my mind if I wanted to a much-needed night of teenage normalcy.

  I padded back to the mirror for a quick double check. My blue jersey skirt flared with a hint of flirty, like the purple shadow on my eyelids. Not half bad.

  “Time to blow off a little steam.” I raced down the hall, almost crashing into the lobby door. “Great. Exactly what I need, the imprint of a door on my face.” I flung it open and scurried down the stairs.

  When I reached the lobby, a silver balloon bonked my forehead. Miss Sherry had rearranged the room into clumps of couches and chairs with board games on every coffee table. There wasn’t an empty seat in the crowded lobby. Guess we were kind of starved for entertainment on campus.

  “Lucy,” Shanda called out from her spot on the couch between Bryan and Kevin. “There you are. Get over here.”

  “Hi, Lucy.” Bryan stood, motioning to a spot on the couch next to him. “I saw you in the library. You been researching for class?”

  “Sort of.” I wriggled in next to Bryan. Good thing I spent extra time primping. Might’ve given it another five minutes if I’d known I’d be crammed so close to one of my McDreamies. “I’m not really sure what I’m looking for though.”

  “I could help you sometime, if you want.” His gaze burned into me. I shrugged and kept my mouth shut.

  “These twins from the Midwest taught us a great game.” Shanda pointed at Laura and Lenny as they organized homemade cards on the coffee table. Julia and Brooke sat on the opposite couch with them.

  “Everywhere’s the Midwest to you.” I laughed. “It’s like there’s the East coast, then the West coast, and everything in between is the Midwest.”

  “Good one.” A familiar voice filtered down from above my head as a hand pounded into the back of the couch behind me. I whirled around, coming face to face with Will’s gray eyes. “Nice to see you, Lucy.”

  “Hi, Will.” My face was inches from his half-smiling, half dare-you-to-move expression. It never wavered, that grin and those eyes almost laughing at me. Was this a game to him? Probably. I couldn’t stand it any more and turned around. “You win.”

  “Fine, you got me. They’re from Kansas, okay?” Shanda huffed on Bryan’s other side. “Will, why don’t you join us?”

  He pulled up a chair close to my side of the couch. “So what are we playing?”

  I felt Bryan bristle next to me. When I stole a glance at him, a muscle in his jawline twitched. How cute was that? On a whim, I reached over and patted his shoulder. The twitch stopped.

  “Mafia.” Shanda handed me two cards, and I passed one to Will. “We’re starting a new game.”

  Not at all like McAllen family game night. It was a piece of cardstock with a drawing of a red-headed kid labeled townsperson.

  “We made the cards ourselves.” Laura’s little-girl face beamed with pride and she fanned them out on the table with her tiny hands. “Cute, huh?”

  My head bobbed. “I don’t get it.”

  Bryan came close. Like that wouldn’t distract me. “A few cards say Mafia, everyone else is a townsperson.”

  “There’s also
a sheriff and a doctor,” Lenny chimed in. I still had to swallow a laugh at his deep voice, especially right after Laura’s high pitch.

  “The point is to figure out who the Mafia are and vote them out. Make sense?”

  I lost the rest of Bryan’s explanation in those blue wonders. If eyes really were a window into someone’s soul, I would never need to worry about this guy.

  All of a sudden he paused.

  Right, my turn to say something, anything. “I’ll pick it up once we start.”

  “Everyone, close your eyes and wait for my instructions,” Laura announced.

  “Really?” I closed my eyes only because everyone else did. How stupid, until I caught a faint whiff of Bryan’s woodsy aftershave, so yummy my toes curled. I opened my eyes a crack to see Bryan’s hand millimeters from mine.

  Wait, did Shanda move?

  “Everyone, open your eyes.” Laura’s head swung around the circle. “While the whole town of Montrose slept, the Mafia snuck into Will’s house and smothered him with a pillow. Sorry Will, you’ve been axed.”

  “Darn.” Will snapped his fingers and threw his card on the coffee table.

  “Who could have killed Will?” Laura eyed each of the seven people left in the group. Maybe Lenny was one of the Mafia. He wore a nervous grin, like he was trying to act all innocent.

  “It was Lucy.” Shanda lunged across Bryan and jabbed her finger in my face.

  “No way.” Bryan brushed her back to her spot. “She didn’t move an inch.”

  “Me?” I scooted forward, arching my neck to face Shanda. “On my first game, I pulled a Mafia card. Yeah, right.”

  “Likely story.” There was a gleam in Shanda’s eye.

  “What does everyone else think?” Laura asked the group. No one knew what to believe. “No proof, no decision, everyone go to sleep.”

  “Thanks, Bryan.” Somehow I was inches from his face. Better back up. His lips were dangerously close.

  “You’re welcome.” Those lips curved at me as he closed his eyes.

  I could feel Will’s stare burning a silver hole in the side of my head. I forced my eyes shut.

  This time Shanda didn’t move, probably still guilty.

  Everyone opened their eyes. Laura burst into her spiel. “Last night, Lucy was walking alone in a dark alley when the mafia came for her. Luckily, the doctor has saved Lucy.”

  The group erupted with shouts. Julia and Bryan accused Shanda, but Kevin insisted I was part of the real Mafia trying to frame her. Precious, really.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Will staring. His face lit up, and he nodded at Shanda. It was all the confirmation I needed. “My money’s on Shanda as the ringleader.”

  “You’re a feisty one, huh?” Kevin tsked his tongue at me.

  Bryan busted out laughing. “You got that right.”

  Bet he just wanted to make my cheeks burn. It worked, too.

  Lenny and Shanda ganged up on Brooke, who never said a word. She only rolled her eyes. The discussion ended with uncertainty.

  In the next round, Laura announced that I died. “Guess that’s what I get for talking.”

  “The dead don’t speak.” Laura whispered behind her tiny hand. I zipped my mouth shut.

  “Keep your eyes open. I bet you were right. You’ll get ‘em next game.” Bryan’s hand brushed mine, sending a shock wave up my arm. His touch was different from Will’s. It was electric, good enough to be scary.

  Will scraped his chair closer. “The dead should stick together.” Can we say creepy?

  “I guess.” His gunmetal eyes practically bored into my skull. Suddenly, I loved the arm of the couch for being my buffer between me and Will.

  I scooted closer to Bryan, but Will just propped his elbow against the couch arm. That fire in his eyes suddenly reminded me of Jake, and it was too soon. The blood curdled in my veins, I was trapped. Silver on my left, and blue on my right.

  Drastic times called for drastic measures. I couldn’t think of another way out, so I slipped my arm under Bryan’s.

  His head spun toward me, his wide eyes narrowing as they locked with mine. At least he smiled. “What’s going on?”

  I nodded toward Will and scooted next to Bryan. “Just go with it.”

  “Only if I get to call you a cute nickname like Angel.” Bryan’s breath warmed my face.

  “Why Angel?” I asked, lowered my voice.

  “Oh, I think you know.” His mouth curved into a crescent as his arm wrapped around my side, drawing me closer.

  “No problem, babe.” I said out loud and silently mouthed thank you even as my heart pounded in my ears at his nearness.

  Will stood up, kicking his chair back with an ear-piercing screech on the hardwood floor. Conversations lulled as all heads in the room turned to see what he would do next. His commanding tone bellowed across the silence. “Are you engaged or something?”

  “What?” I gasped so loud it bounced all around the room, probably around the world.

  And then everyone’s eyes were on me.

  I buried my head in Bryan’s shoulder, his jaw rested on my head. If I wasn’t mortified to the core, it might’ve been nice.

  Chapter 13

  “That ring’s on your engagement finger, right?” Will’s question hovered over the party like some kind of accusation, and the room buzzed with whispers. He betrayed no embarrassment at all. None.

  I couldn’t believe it. In fact, all I could do was blink at him, then down at my ring. A plain silver band with intricate carvings surrounded by three sparkling purple stones. Nothing like an engagement ring.

  “It was my sweet sixteen present.” When I turned to Bryan for backup, instead of the outrage I expected to see, his face scrunched into a frown.

  “Hey, wait a sec, can I see that? What’s written on the inside?” Bryan’s eyes went wide as he yanked the ring off my finger.

  A bolt of electricity rippled through my body as he slid the ring off my finger. Suddenly I felt as vulnerable as a deer in the headlights.

  Holding my beautiful ring up to the light, he examined the inscription. “Gratiam Coram Domino.”

  “What’s it to you?” I snatched the ring and slid it back to its rightful place. “It’s some verse from the Latin Vulgate. It’s a family heirloom.”

  “Sorry, I was just curious.” He slumped next to me like a deflated balloon, then whispered in my ear. “It’s Genesis 6:8, isn’t it?”

  “So what?” I crossed my arms and glared at him. “How would in the world do you know what it is?”

  “It’s probably a chip off the Guardian Amethyst. Which is very illegal.” He hissed under his breath, glanced around at the group, and scooted away from me. “We can’t talk about this here. Later.”

  “Illegal, seriously? It’s my great-grandmother’s ring. How did you even know there’d be an inscription?” I hissed back at him. “And you’re the one who’s confused?”

  A sadness filled his sea-blue eyes as they roamed over my face. “I can’t explain now. Later, I promise.”

  “You promise?” I held up my pinkie finger.

  When he hooked his pinkie around mine, the corners of his mouth curled. “Promise.”

  Something inside me withered. I was so sick of all the secrecy. All because of a ring? I squinted down at it, the center amethyst glinting back at me.

  “Now that we’ve established Lucy is not engaged, can we get back to the game?” Shanda’s annoyed timbre silenced the hushed murmurs.

  “Go for it.” Will plopped back down, a satisfied smile on his face.

  Everyone closed their eyes for the next round, except Will. He kept smiling at me, a smug grin like he’d just won a battle. The anger seeped from my pores until it pooled in my balled up fists.

  “I think I need a Coke.” Without a glance back, I shot up, weaving across what was left of the party toward the kitchen. A nice moment ruined, and I didn’t even do it myself. I smacked the kitchen door so hard it almost came back and hit m
e in the nose.

  “Watch it.” Will’s arm slid around me to prop open the door. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

  “Smooth.” I spun on my heel, shooting flaming arrows at him with my eyes as I backed into the kitchen. “So, you want to tell me what that was all about?”

  “Calm down. You don’t have to get so mad. Though it’s pretty cute.” He sauntered up to the stainless refrigerator and opened the door, as if the last few seconds hadn’t happened. “Coke, right?”

  “Fine, whatever,” I mumbled, but it wasn’t fine. Hot anger still sizzled up and down every nerve ending. “I don’t get what happened out there. Besides me looking like an idiot in front of a bunch of people. Thanks for that. I guess you bring it out in me.”

  “C’mon, it wasn’t that many people. I’m just trying to watch your back, Lucy.” He tossed me a can of Dr. Pepper. “Sorry, no Coke.”

  “That’s my favorite, anyway.” I popped the top and sipped the fizz. The coolness slid down my throat, evaporating some of the rage.

  “I had a feeling.” Will plunked down on a barstool at the center island, patting the seat next to him. “Come sit by me. I don’t bite. You know, I used to find James in the kitchen late at night, totally asleep.”

  “Really, that’s what you want to talk about?” I rubbed my fingers against the cold aluminum. No random comment about my brother could make up for what he did, even if that lopsided expression on his face looked like he actually meant it.

  “Don’t you know how much I want to tell you everything?” He combed his short sandy hair with rough strokes. “If you’ll just come to the Nexis initiation, I’m sure I could bend the rules a little.”

  “After that fiasco out there, you think I can believe anything you say?” The words burned like fire in my mouth. I doused my tongue with sweet soda bubbles.

  “Listen, I know I owe you an explanation.” He twisted his stool and lifted his chin toward me, his best feature. As if I’d be helpless against his charm. “I didn’t mean to make a scene.”