Lion Shifter

by Lucia Ashta

  A clanking clattered through the large dining hall like a monkey clapping cymbals. Then silence settled around the students in a hush of anticipation. Sadie shot to her feet, hands dropping to the curved blades in sheaths around both thighs.

  We all waited for the source of the commotion to reveal itself. The pygmy trolls ran a tight ship, and they’d soon be out from the kitchens and serving areas to scold whoever had disrupted their domain.

  But when the pygmy trolls emerged from the kitchens, my heart thudded in a rapid beat; Wren and Dave scooted closer to me, squeezing me in a freaked-out-friend sandwich. Even Jas bit her lip and ran nervous fingertips across her eyebrows.

  “What’s going on?” Adalia whispered.

  “Whatever it is, it can’t be good,” Wren whispered back.

  A dozen-ish pygmy trolls tottered into the eating area of the dining hall, war paint in rough, dark lines across their flesh and below their hardened, black, beady eyes, transforming their disgruntled little old man faces into a formidable sight.

  “What the...?” Dave said.

  That’s right. Dave hadn’t seen the trolls in warrior mode. Ky, Leander, Boone, and I were the only students to have seen the trolls rise to the school’s defense at the end of last term.

  The trolls had discarded their kitchen aprons for loincloths that fully exposed their round little butts, which were thankfully more like babies’ tushies than old men’s … well, no need to go there. They brandished axes, short swords, and daggers. And when they stalked across the room in an array of gumball colors—two-feet-tall fluorescent fro-hawks peeking above the tabletops—Sadie was the only one to move.

  She stepped directly in front of them, blocking their path out of the hall. “What’s going on?”

  Orangesicle emerged from the group, crossing his arms across his bare, hairless chest. “Intruders are at the gate.” He narrowed sharp eyes at Sadie, silently daring her to stand in their way.

  “How many?”

  “More than the three rabbits can handle.”

  “They haven’t entered the campus though?”

  “Not last we heard.” Orangesicle tipped his orange fro-hawk at her. “Are you going to let us pass?”

  She swept out of the way. “Of course. Kick some slimy shifter ass for me.”

  “Will do.” Then Orangesicle led the rest of the trolls toward the dining hall doors.

  “Fight hard!” Sadie called after them. “But live to—”

  “Fight another day!” the trolls chimed in.

  “That’s right,” Sadie said more softly. “Live to fight another day,” and from the way she said it, I knew she was thinking of all the friends she’d lost.

  Orangesicle paused with a knobby hand on one of the doors. “Students, you’re to transport every single dish and utensil to the dish depository. Just because we won’t be here doesn’t mean we won’t hold you accountable for any messes you leave behind. We’ll know who did what when we get back.”

  With that, he slammed both stubby hands against the door, which slammed open with a loud slap to the wall behind it, and led the small army of waist-high trolls, including hair, outside. When the last of the round butts faded from sight and the door closed behind them, Jas whispered, “They don’t actually have a way of knowing who does what while they’re gone, right?”

  In unison, Adalia, Wren, Dave, and I faced her. “Do you really want to test that?” Wren asked.

  From the mischievous twinkle in Jas’ ice-blue eyes, yes, yes she did.

  “We’re in a school of magic, Jasmine,” Wren pressed, while Jas’ eyelid twitched at the use of her full name. “It’s a school of magic for shifters, but it’s still a school of magic. If you want to be reckless and stupid, that’s fine by me. Just don’t drag any of us into your mess.”

  Dave gave Wren an appreciative look, and I had to admit I was also appreciating Wren’s shift in attitude. But Adalia sobered us all right the eff up. “Jasmine Jolly, are you serious right now?” she said. “We’re apparently under attack and all you can think about is causing trouble and other trivial … stuff.”

  Wren’s eyes widened. The upbeat fairy had been about to say “shit.”

  “Grow up already,” Adalia said, and Wren’s jaw dropped open. “This is life and death we’re talking about. Just because you were safe all summer at your parents’ estate doesn’t mean the rest of the paranormal world was. We’re basically at war and you want to do pranks on the trolls who are stepping it up to defend us? Really?”

  “Whoa,” Dave muttered under his breath. It was exactly what I’d been thinking.

  Adalia sat back from the table, crossed her arms across her ample chest, and glared at Jas. I’d never seen the fairy like this before.

  Sadie was stalking back toward us when a trilling erupted throughout the dining hall.

  “All students except for initiated vampires,” Fianna’s voice rang out, “you’re to report to the dining hall immediately. Like right now. Stop whatever you’re doing and run to the dining hall. Stay there until we tell you to leave. Do not go to your 9 AM class until we tell you to. All staff except for general student protection, head to the gates.”

  Fianna’s voice vanished abruptly. A deep, encompassing silence spread across the students in the dining hall before they erupted into a chaos of simultaneous comments.

  “Enough!” Sadie roared, spreading her arms wide. The hush was instantaneous. “We don’t have time for your squabbling and freaking. You need to get it together right this second.” She swept her gaze across the tables; not a single student was willing to object. “Good. We have plenty of shit to do.”

  She pointed at a table across from us. “You guys. There are a couple of back doors to the kitchens. Find them and barricade them. Shove whatever you can in front of them. Actually, you guys”—she pointed to another table—“go help them. Get it done.”

  The two tables of students rocketed to their feet. “You think they’re going to get into the school?” a burly shifter asked.

  “I think,” Sadie said, “we want to be prepared if they do. Now go.”

  While the students streaked across the dining hall, breaking one of the trolls’ many rules, she pointed at a couple of other tables. “You, drag the tables closest to the main doors next to them. We’ll wait until all the students are inside, then we’ll barricade the doors.”

  She whirled, taking in the rest of the room. “The rest of you, stay quiet until I tell you to do something. I need to focus.”

  “On what? What are you going to be doing?” I asked.

  “Way to follow my rules, Rina.” But she answered me anyway: “I’m going to be sealing the large windows that leave us vulnerable to attack.”

  “But how?”

  “No one ever said I was a shifter.”

  “But I thought mages weren’t part of the Enforcers. I thought mages only worked to police their own kind.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve never been one to follow rules myself.”

  “You seem like a shifter,” Dave said.

  “Exactly. I’m with my own kind, just in my own way,” Sadie said. “Now silence. I need to get to work. If the trolls, rabbits, and other staff can’t hold the shifters, they’ll be looking for you.”

  “And Ky,” I gasped.

  “And Ky.” Sadie slapped a hand to my shoulder. “Ky’s in good hands. Damon won’t let anybody touch him, I promise.”

  I’d seen enough movies to know that when people said they promised, shit went to hell fast. But there was apparently nothing I could do to help my brother or anyone else. I did as Sadie said and waited in silence, watching her flash waves of orange at the large panes of glass lining the walls until they shimmered with the light of her magic.

  7

  More than an hour passed in agonizing slow motion. All students who were going to report to the dining hall were barricaded inside the large hall with us. Most of the heavy, solid wood bench tables were being used to block the entrances to t
he hall, and the students huddled along the sides of the bare room, leaning against the walls.

  Though the students conversed in a non-stop buzz of subdued, nervous whispers, the hush within the room vibrated against my mind until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I shot to my feet.

  “What is it, Rina?” Wren asked. She and Dave rocketed to their feet too. They leaned toward me, concern etched across their kind faces.

  “Nothing, it’s nothing. I just can’t wait anymore without knowing what’s going on. Ky’s out there somewhere.”

  “But Ky is fine, he must be,” Dave said. “He’s a tough shifter in his own right. Besides, he’s sure to be with Boone and Leo, and both of them can hold their own too.”

  “Don’t forget about that Enforcer with the dreads,” Wren said. “There’s no way he’s a pushover.”

  My shoulders relaxed a fraction of an inch, but it wasn’t enough. “Thanks for trying to help, guys.” I linked my hands behind my back, arched my chest, and popped my back. “I’m just super stressed. I need to walk off some of this energy.”

  Wren offered me big, sympathetic eyes. “Want us to come with you?”

  “Thanks, really, but I just need some time alone with my thoughts.” My freaked-out, frantic thoughts. I remembered everything that had happened at the end of last term in vivid detail. Rage’s hard, determined face as he promised to steal my power and Ky’s. He’d kill us without flinching. Fury’s distorted mountain lion, too weak to fight. Leander’s firm body and soft touch as he pulled me against him...

  I walked away from my friends, wishing there was a place to go within the hall where all these eyes wouldn’t follow. There had to be at least a hundred students inside this one space, all waiting for news. Were we at war within the school? Was there nowhere safe to go anymore? Would Ky and I be hunted until our inevitable deaths? Would we get those we cared about killed in the process of protecting us?

  Shit!

  I meandered through the serving areas and into the kitchens, usually off limits when manned by the trolls. How had this become my life? Not that long ago, my greatest concern had been that the paranormal world would pass me by. Now I was smack-dab in the middle of it all, putting my friends and the entire Menagerie in danger. And Dad … what would happen to him if he didn’t have Ky or me anymore?

  Wood and metal creaked then snapped, pulling me out of my fruitless reverie. I gasped and shuffled backward a couple of feet, and though the smart thing might’ve been to run back where the others were to find Sadie, my feet were rooted to the spot, waiting to see what would emerge through the back door to the kitchens.

  Another straining groan and the doors tore from their hinges, only to push against a large stainless steel cabinet and a massive stove the students had wedged against the doors.

  Whoever was on the other side of that door was strong; when they pushed again, the cabinet and stove skidded across the tile floor with a grating screech. The contents of the cabinet rattled, a din of metal and ceramic crashing around inside it.

  My breath hitched, and my brain returned online with a flood of realizations: I was stupid for standing there, gawking at the double doors. Whoever was coming through that doorway was probably hunting me. I needed to get Sadie. I needed to get her fast.

  I pivoted on my heel and moved in the direction of the common area, but a ferocious force slammed against the doors, sending the stove stumbling and bouncing across the tile, cracking a few of them. The cabinet slid across the floor until one of its legs hitched on the depressed grout between tiles and the entire thing tipped. It balanced precariously for a second, and then crashed to the floor.

  I jumped as the cacophony of rattling metal and breaking porcelain assaulted my eardrums. Well, Sadie had certainly heard that. No need to call her now.

  I reminded myself that not only was I a mountain lion shifter, but I was also a mage—probably, maybe; it was a working theory. I also struggled to forget that my shifts remained wholly unpredictable and that there was no guarantee I’d manage to shift before whatever monster was coming through those doors walked through them. I was better off forgetting as well that my glowy-goopy mage powers hadn’t made a repeat appearance and that I couldn’t count on them to help me in the least.

  Then a cowgirl boot appeared between the double doors and all thoughts of what I was supposed to be forgetting and what I was supposed to be remembering vanished. Like the proverbial deer in the headlights, I waited, staring at the doorway. Shouts rang out in the common area—probably Sadie—but I couldn’t make out what she was saying.

  Then an ordinary woman walked through the doors...

  With her highlighted, caramel-tinted hair swept into a high ponytail, and bangs riding low around soft brown eyes, and a round, unassuming face, this woman couldn’t have crashed open the locked and barricaded doors … could she? In tight jeans and a coral-colored sleeveless polo t-shirt, she strolled into the kitchens. Immediately, her attention landed on me. “Hello there.”

  “Hi...? Uh, why’d you break in here?”

  “Oh. I was just checking in to make sure everyone is all right. I especially want to make sure the girl Rina is okay.”

  “She’s fine. Who are you?”

  She beamed a winning smile and brushed the bangs from her face, oblivious to the destruction her entrance caused. “I’m Wendi, with an ‘I.’ I’m an Enforcer.”

  “Well, Wendi with an ‘I,’ you could have just knocked on the front door and Sadie would’ve let you in.”

  “Oh, Sadie’s here?”

  I wasn’t buying the nonchalance. She wasn’t happy Sadie was here, no matter what she said.

  With impeccable timing, Sadie ran through the open archways that connected the kitchens to the rest of the dining area. She held a curved blade in each hand, but slid to a stop when she spotted Wendi.

  “What are you doing here?” she accused.

  “Checking that everyone’s okay.”

  “You could’ve asked to enter through the front doors.”

  “That’s what I said,” I interjected.

  “Yes, well, we’re under attack,” Wendi said. “I arrived at the back entrance first. I took action to get inside as quickly as I could.” She shrugged, but Sadie only narrowed her eyes at her.

  “And beyond checking that everyone’s okay, what other reasons do you have for coming inside?”

  “What do you mean? What other reasons would I have? You know what we Enforcers do. We protect. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

  “Hmph. I didn’t realize you were being assigned to the school.”

  “I was, just this morning. After Thane interrogated Jacinda and discovered that more attacks are planned.”

  “More attacks?” Sadie asked sharply. “Tell me.”

  Wendi gave me an askance look. “Later.”

  Sadie moved to my side. “If there are more attacks coming, she needs to know. This is Rina Mont.”

  Surprise flitted across Wendi’s soft brown eyes, hardening for a few moments before they returned to normal. “You’re Rina?” she said to me like we were about to become fast friends.

  “I am,” I said tightly.

  “Well, if only I’d known before…”

  “What would that have changed?”

  Wendi smiled winningly. “I would’ve offered you my protection right away.” She waltzed over to Sadie and me, invading my bubble of personal space, and placed a soft hand on my forearm. I looked down at it, wondering how her fingernails were so perfectly manicured in a coral tone that exactly matched her shirt and lipstick when she could ram doors open.

  “I’m looking forward to getting to know you. I’ve heard so much about you.”

  I raised my arm to flip the loose strands of my hair over my shoulder—and to dislodge her hand from my arm. I took a step back. “Well, I don’t know anything about you. Do you have news of what’s going on out there?”

  “Oh, that? Yeah, everything’s fine now.”

  “What ha
ppened?” Sadie asked.

  “A bunch of shifters tried to force their way through the rabbits and the gate, but I showed up at just the right time. I took most of them out, and the rabbits helped take out the others. By the time Sir Lancelot showed up with the staff, I had everything under control.”

  “How many shifters were there exactly?” Sadie crossed her arms, arched her eyebrows, and looked Wendi up and down.

  Wendi shrugged and glanced at her manicure. “About eight of them.”

  “You took out eight shifters on your own.”

  “That’s what I said. You know I’m more than capable of it.”

  But Sadie didn’t reply. Someone pounded on the front doors to the hall, loudly enough that the sound thumped through my chest all the way in the kitchens.

  “You’re sure it’s fully safe out there now?” Sadie asked of Wendi.

  “A hundred percent.”

  Sadie hesitated, but when the pounding continued, she grabbed me by the arm and led me toward the common area.

  “Wait,” Wendi said. “You should leave her here with me, just to be safe.”

  “I thought you just said it was safe,” Sadie said.

  “It is, it is. But it never hurts to be extra careful.”

  “That’s precisely my thought. You stay here and get those doors barricaded again, just in case. Surely your super strength is up for the challenge. Or are you worn out from taking out eight shifters all on your own?”

  Wendi scowled at Sadie. “Of course I can do it.”

  “Good. Then do it.” Sadie smiled, but her eyes remained cold.

  She pulled me through the kitchens and into the dining area, where half the students had gathered in front of the rattling doors.