by S. L. Morgan
Immortal Academy: Year One
Introduction
I grabbed a handful of chips from the tray my best friend was about to empty into the cafeteria trash can and shoved them into my mouth.
“Geez,” she curled her nose, “you can be such a pig!”
I flashed her my usual grin as kids shoved by us to dump their trays in the trash and report to training exercises.
“Nice try.” I patted her back, “I’ll see you after school. We need to prep for the ceremony.”
She followed my hurried pace and grabbed the inside of my arm as we walked out of the cafeteria and into the courtyard.
“What if…” her eyes darted around the bustling students, some nervous, some excited, and some like me who were ready to be done with all of this.
“What if what, Vannah?” I asked, sensing her frantic emotions.
I shouldn’t have been able to feel any emotions. I was a shifter. A wolf shifter to be exact, and damn proud of it too. I had a mouth that got me in trouble all of the time, especially with my witch friend, Sahvannah. The arch of her eyebrow already told me she heard my prideful slang ring through my thoughts.
“What if they split us up?” she asked. “I’m dreading this ceremony.”
“Why don’t you grab a peek into the future with your little witchy ways and find out for us?”
“Jenna,” she countered with an icy glare, “you already know they blocked our mage powers since the testing started. I couldn’t see into the future even if I conjured my ancestors.”
I widened my eyes in humor, “Conjuring the dead, eh?” I smirked. “Really, Vannah, don’t worry about it. We’re going to be okay.”
“Fine. See you then, little miss confident,” she said as she walked off, leaving me in the massive courtyard of Dark Water Academy.
I walked to a stone bench and sat down, needing some time to gather my thoughts. I was totally pretending not to be freaked out, and I certainly didn’t want to think about what the ceremony was going to be like. Times like this made me wish I knew my parents. Like me, everyone I knew had been taken from their parents at age five and brought to one of these institutions for supernaturals and magic users, the only difference was that they saw their families again…I didn’t.
I’d been to a handful of those places before I got to Dark Water, but the time had now come to find out whether or not I’d have to move on to the elite Immortal Academy, which was, just as the name said, an academy for immortal beings who went on to serve and protect all life forces. Supernatural or mortal human.
Vannah had it easy. She came from a long line of powerful witches. Woodson witches were like royalty, and she was, without a doubt, going to be one of the students accepted into IA. She was one-hundred percent immortal, and that made her enrollment mandatory.
I, on the other hand, had no friggin clue who my parents were. Was I a full-blooded immortal, or was I just your average half-breed shifter who kicked ass and took names?
I had no idea. Part of me had always wished that my immortal blood percentage would be under the required eighty percent necessary for IA to grace you with their acceptance. If it would be 79.9 percent or less, I’d be well on my way to blending in with humans and getting on with my life.
My only hope in believing I had to have had diluted bloodlines was the fact that when I shifted into my wolf, her fur and eyes were a different color than mine. That was something that I’d never seen in any other shifter. My brown hair and brown eyes should’ve produced a brown wolf with brown eyes; instead, my wolf was silver and black with blue eyes. I could only hope that meant my genes weren’t strong enough to carry over into my wolf. A girl could dream, anyway.
I wouldn’t find out if my blood had fallen short of the eighty-percent requirement until the ceremony where they were to announce IA’s new students based on our blood analysis. That put me in the same boat as most other people. The only difference between us was that, unlike everyone else, I didn’t want to go. I was intrigued by human nature. The places I’d read about and pictures I’d seen in books made me long to live amongst them for as long as I could remember. I wanted to experience a new life, a different life, and if I were accepted into IA, that wasn’t going to happen.
There were pretty steep rules for immortals to follow, and I was not one for following the rules. Obviously. My use of offensive language got me thrown in the night watch almost every other week. The night watch was a rigorous physical training that lasted from dusk until dawn, and when it was over, you were expected to show up to all of your classes. No excuses. My inner wolf loved the all-night workout, and I loved it too. It pushed me to be a stronger and more resilient wolf amongst the shifters.
Regardless of how tough I thought I was, I wasn’t a fan of living hidden away from the human population. For centuries, all the supernaturals and magic users had been forced to grow up in an enchanted realm that no human could find.
These realms were located in areas that humans couldn’t travel to even if they were aware that we existed: inside frozen mountains, in the middle of a desert, a deserted island, at the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean, or in the thickest, darkest haunted forest in rural mountain communities. We lived—or so we were told—in one of the latter. It was a forest that humans had thought to be haunted for ages, but even the bravest ghost hunters wouldn’t have had any luck if they wandered right up to the hundreds of thousands of acres we populated. Magnetic forces made it so no mortal could ever break the barrier of the veil that separated the supernatural from the human.
We knew about the humans, but they knew nothing about us. Certain immortals in the surveillance council were tasked to keep an eye on all supernaturals who lived amongst the humans. If someone shifted into their animal form, or if a witch teleported in front of a mortal, the surveillance council would send someone to erase the human’s memory, and then deal with the offending immortal.
The punishment for revealing ourselves to the mortals was severe. Anyone foolish enough to get caught was given a one-way ticket to Rockfill Dungeon to live out their life as a servant to the Immortal Academy. Not an ideal scenario, and yet it was one that more than a few had to live out.
I knew if I’d ever told Vannah that I didn’t want to go to IA, she would’ve been devastated. She couldn’t understand why I had a tendency to act up in class or get myself in trouble all the time when all I had to do was follow the rules, and truth be told, I didn’t necessarily understand it either.
All I knew is that I was different from everyone else, and I liked that I wasn’t a go with the flow kinda girl. Hell no. I would much rather be known as the girl who has an opinionated, smart mouth than the pushover bimbo who is obsessed with what other people think about her. I was nothing if not strong-willed and determined.
“There’s our sassy gal!” Tanner proclaimed as he walked over to me. “Let’s go. We have the twenty-mile obstacle race.” He ruffled my hair, “You think your cute little silver wolf can keep up?”
“As if my wolf hasn’t whooped your cheetah every single time. Aren’t you supposed to be the fastest animal alive?” I teased with a smug grin as I stood.
“Ouch!” he responded with a loud laugh. “Fighting words before a race only fuel me, you know.”
“Oh, God,” I heard Lacey grumble to the other female fox shifters as they strolled through the courtyard. Foxes were so cute in their shifter form, but this bitch made me hate the cute little critters. “I’m going to laugh when she and her little friends get split up at the Immortal Academy,” she taunted. “Just because Jenna can run with the guys, that won’t put her high up on any group there.”
“What makes you t
hink any of us are getting in?” I shot over to her and her blonde, ponytailed friends.
“It’s obvious we will. This is an important school.”
“Says who?” Tanner asked. “No one knows anything except for what they want us to know in these institutes. So shut your trap.”
“Did you really just say shut your trap?” I said to Tanner with a belly laugh before the girls rolled their eyes and walked off in a huff.
“Hey, it’s a timeless burn,” he laughed in response.
“You crack me up,” I said. “I’d rather not think about what Lacey said. I’m stressed out about the selection ceremony enough.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” he said. “It’s not really a ceremony, though, you know that. No need to dress little Jenna up.”
“I know. They’re gonna call some names, shuffle us outdoors and all that BS, but,” I looked at Tanner’s pointed features and bright green eyes, “Tan, this might be our last race if we get split up, you know.”
“I get that.” His mood was changing, and I could tell I was putting a damper on what should’ve been our last fun race.
I nudged him and laughed, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s make the most of it.”
“Lady wolves first,” he said, stepping out of the way and stretching his arm out for me to lead the way.
I knew that one way or another, my life was going to change very soon, and I couldn’t think of a better way to burn off my anxiety about that than to give my wolf a nice, hard run.
Chapter One
I shifted out of my wolf form in the girls’ locker room and dressed quickly in my leggings and tee. Dark Water Academy wasn’t as strict as some of the other academies when it came to dress code, but from what I’d heard, IA was definitely the most rigid. I just hoped that if I was made to go there that it wasn’t going to be all skirts and polo shirts, but it was the most prestigious academy of all supernatural time, so chances were that chicks were going to be in dresses, and dudes in those lame blazer jackets.
Before I left my locker, I reached in for the slice of pie I had stashed in there earlier. Most people love coffee, bacon, cake…I had a fetish for pies. Don’t ask me why, but I’d never met a pie I didn’t absolutely love. There was something about the sweet goodness inside a flaky pastry crust that made me salivate. It was definitely the food of the gods.
I crammed the slice in my mouth and sped out of the locker room—running late again—swallowing down and savoring the apple filling. I came out of the tunnel to see my shifter pals waiting for me while other students walked in large groups up to the auditorium.
Tanner, who I’d friend-zoned our freshman year, grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder.
“Dang it, Tan!” I put an elbow into his brawny back. “Put me down! You’re going to get us in trouble…again.”
“Nope,” Tanner said with a laugh.
“Chill, Jenna,” my friend Jon, a panther shifter, said. “If everyone hasn’t figured out how we roll yet, then that’s their problem.”
I lifted my head and caught the tall, black-haired shifter in my sights. “Easy for you to say, Jon, but you know since all the academy ambassadors are here, they don’t put up with this crap. Some academies hate—”
“When shifters act belligerent and stereotypical?”
Damn it. Vannah was here to bust us all.
“Save the language for if and when we get split up, Jenna,” she said with her arms crossed and reproachful eyebrow. She never missed a single curse word that entered my thoughts.
Tanner set me on my feet in one smooth move, and I smiled at my bestie. “You’re going to be cool if I lose it in there after they send you to that academy and send me somewhere else?”
“You know how I feel about all of this.” She eyed my crew and me, “Come on. You’re all late, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to be stuck in the back.”
“That auditorium can seat at least a thousand people, Vannah,” Jon said as we walked up to the double door entrance. “I’m sure there will be extra seating for you and your cute—”
“Shhhh,” Vannah shut down the one shifter who actually fell for a witch. It drove her insane too, but she put up with Jon and his constant flirting with her. “Let’s try not to make a grand entrance.”
“Fantastic!” the dean of our school said, bringing his attention to all six of us shifters and our witch friend as we tried to sneak into what we thought was the back entrance. “Not only late but entering right in front of the entire auditorium as well,” Dean Hagger said with an annoyed tone.
Dean Hagger was cool, but he was a vamp, and vamps thought they were royalty among all supernaturals, especially the shifters. So even though he had a level-headed personality, he could be a jerk most of the time.
“Sorry, we just—”
“Take your seat, Miss Woodson, and make sure your shifter friends mind their manners.”
There it was. The prick side of the vampire. He’d be cool to a full-blooded immortal witch because she could probably smoke his ass here and now, yet he couldn’t help but be condescending to the shifters. Dear God, if I got into this elite Immortal Academy, would it be the same friggin way there too?
“I’m not the only one who can read your thoughts in the room,” Vannah hissed at me. “Seriously, Jenna, help me out a little here.”
I rolled my eyes as we climbed up to the second landing of the auditorium and found our seats.
“Before the selection ceremony begins, I need to make an announcement. Some changes have been made to the graduation process of all supernatural academies,” Dean Hagger started. “No longer will we be sending eighteen-year-old supernaturals straight out into the world if they are not chosen to attend Immortal Academy. Those not selected for the honor of attending Immortal Academy will attend a different university for supernaturals, and these distinguished ladies and gentlemen seated behind me are here from those institutions,” he said as he motioned to a panel of people seated behind him. “If you aren’t selected by your bloodline to be welcomed to Immortal Academy, then you will be assigned to one of these many other institutions by your achievements—or non-achievements—where you will stay for no fewer than two years in order to better prepare you for human interaction.”
“What the—” I stopped myself and turned to Vannah. “He’s freaking joking, right?”
“It’s not a joke, Jenna,” Dean Hagger shot me a dark stare from where he stood at the podium. “I would appreciate it if you would remain quiet, or I can assure you that the school you’ll be heading off to is one you won’t like.”
Asshole.
“Jenna!” Vannah nudged me. “Knock it off.”
“The reason this decision has been made is that we have had way too many disruptions from students who were ill-prepared for what awaited them in the mortal world. Too many have been punished, and even worse, too many humans have had to have their minds erased of memories because of it. It’s time that stops, and this is our best answer.” I went to speak, but the dean looked directly at me as if to halt me with his vampy stare. “I think our sweet shifter, Jenna, is reason enough to understand why you all must mature more through strict training before being released into the human population.”
My eyes filled with tears, and it wasn’t because the d-bag was making an example out of me. If for some reason I didn’t go to IA, I had to wait at least two or three more years to find out who my parents were. God, I couldn’t even remember what they looked like. I didn’t know if I had any siblings. Nothing. Now, I wouldn’t know the only thing I was so excited to learn after getting out of this joint.
“Without any further announcements, we will proceed with the ceremony. To make this easy, we’re dividing this ceremony up into two parts. It will be easiest to have the esteemed ambassador from Immortal Academy, Miss Alicia, announce the selected students who will be attending their institution this year. Once she calls your name, please stand and excuse yourselves through the back doors as
quietly as possible. You can wait in the students’ admissions park for the ambassador to meet you and,” he smiled at all of us, “I wish you all good luck, and I do hope you represent our academy well at the Immortal Academy should you be chosen. This will be your last hour here as there is a private escort arriving to bring you to the academy. The rest of you who remain will be admitted by each one of the ambassadors behind me to your various schools.” He turned back to some blonde chick in a tight, sparkly dress. Fairy. Awesome! Not. “Miss Alicia, you may announce the students who have been chosen to attend the Immortal Academy.”
I felt my palms sweating, and then Tanner gripped my shoulder. “No matter where we go, we’ll all meet up in two to three years.”
“Still Montana, right?” I said in a shaky voice.
“That diner I told you about brags that they make the best pies.” He winked. He was always the positive one, but I could now see the trepidation in his eyes too.
“Well, that’s me,” Vannah said when her name was called.
WTF. “They’re not calling names in order? How un-academy-like of them.”
“That’s not a word, and no they aren’t, so pay attention,” Vannah said. “I love you, Jenna.”
Okay, she was bidding me farewell. What school would I be attending after the Immortal Elitists got their butts out of here? After always getting in trouble, totally pissing the dean off today, and my stubborn attitude, I was probably heading off to the supernatural school of fallen angels or some crazy crap like that.
“Jenna Silvers,” Miss Alicia’s song-like voice rang out, looking right at me with her bright yellow fairy eyes. “Jenna?” she laughed, trying to make it seem like fairies could actually be sweet.
I couldn’t freaking move. My butt was glued to my cushioned chair. My wolf…she wasn’t happy about this either. When my inner Jiminy Cricket seemed to hide in her cage, not liking this at all, I knew something wasn’t right about going to this school. I just didn’t know exactly what.