Aurora Witch (Paranormal Hunter Academy Book 2)

by Rae Hendricks

  That night was mostly flashes, seen in a bad light based on what I’d thought had happened. Now that I could piece more of it together, I remembered the way I felt about the strange boy I danced with, who wasn’t a boy at all. The moment I knew something was wrong with the wine I had been given. How he mentioned something about not knowing it would work so fast.

  Even then he was trying to protect me and felt terrible for what he did.

  And still he won’t tell me why.

  “I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t your life on the line. I don't care what they do to me as long as you are prepared first, but you are a lot easier to do away with,” he grits out, his face only an inch from mine. “We can’t do this because our relationship would be a liability, not because I don't want you with every bit of my essence. I would give up my spot in Heaven if it meant I could have you.”

  He blinks, and he backs away from me several feet as if he is even surprised by what came out of his mouth.

  “I…” he starts but doesn’t finish. Never thought I’d be the one to make an angel speechless.

  “But I’m not allowed to do or feel the same? You can risk yourself, but I can’t risk anything?” I whisper, desperately wiping at the blood forming in the corner of my left eye, not wanting any more bloody tears to stream down my face.

  “You are important to more than just me, which I promise I will explain about in time. I didn’t do this for no reason or to be cruel, and trust me when I say it’s just as cruel to me as it is to you.”

  I don’t understand what he means, but I let it go, knowing we need to move on. We have already wasted precious time.

  “I can’t connect it entirely to the Magistrate since they have only been around for about a century. Though, I can say, something is strange about the deaths of all the Aurora Witches and the fact that they suddenly don't exist at all except for me and one other after 1917.”

  “So, you trust me now?”

  “I don't understand it yet, but for now, I do.” It is the best answer I can give him because I still don't know how to see the Magistrate as the enemy. Or even Reyes. He is not a kind man, but he knew my father, was close with him. I can’t deny that part of my history showing that Reyes had to be good once or be damn good at pretending to be.

  The fear I have been holding down bubbles up in me like bile. “So, what can I do now if there is a target on my back, on top of the fact that my angel blood could kill me?”

  “Our best bet now is to make you the very thing they are afraid of – indestructible. No powerful entity wants someone around in their ranks that has the ability to defeat them with little effort, and you have been given the potential to do just that, if only you know how. They don't expect me to be able to get you there without killing you, but that’s why you have to trust me. So I can.”

  Indestructible? Destroy? All of this is escalating faster than I am able to keep up with, but if learning to defend myself is the key, then why would it hurt? It will only make me a better hunter if all of this is a misunderstanding.

  “I’m in. What do I have to do?”

  “Everything I say.” He smirks, and I can’t help the warm sensation that fills me because of it.

  My feelings for Adriel until now have been romantic, desperate star crossed. We haven’t had enough time alone together for me to think beyond that until now, but I think of the way Kagan had his hands on me the night I ran to his dorm and imagine Adriel and I in a similar position.

  It’s enough to make anyone blush, and I wonder if angels can even do things like that.

  I am so lost in this fantasy that I am missing most of what he is saying now, until he brings up a name I haven’t thought of since I left for Ostara break.

  “Dru.”

  “What?”

  “I don't have a choice but to bring him into this. He is the only demon we can trust not to hurt you, and you need to practice with a real demon. The easiest way for them to get rid of you is to send you into a vampire den or even a demon hideout. Just because all your professors tell you demons don't come to earth anymore doesn’t mean that’s right. Some of them have just gotten better at hiding.”

  “ I won’t have to worry about that for a few years. I am nowhere close to graduating.”

  “If there’s an emergency or you do so well you graduate early, then they can and will use you at any time.”

  His words make me queasy. I am nowhere near ready to fight a demon yet, and even though my father was a bad ass, I don't exactly know how I am going to get from point A to point B yet. I just can’t picture it.

  So, yeah, I would be slaughtered.

  Nothing is going to motivate me to do this right quite like the threat of death and dismemberment.

  “Just because I trust you doesn’t mean I trust Dru.”

  “Wasn’t I the one who risked my life to prove to you what you were?”

  I turn around at the sound of his voice and glare at him, pretending I don't notice he looks like he could be a model for Hot Topic.

  His black jeans are tight, his belt buckle is a huge snake, and there is nothing on under his black velvet trench coat. How he is allowed to walk around campus like that I have no idea. I guess demons and angels around here get to make their own rules. Though, I still don’t get why there is a demon in our school.

  I look back at Adriel in annoyance to keep from visibly drooling. Goth boys are my weakness, and I don’t need a third problem on my hands even though it’s probably already too late.

  "I just thought a demon who was stuck at a school for demon hunters was suicidal," I quip, knowing my comeback comes far too late to have the impact I am wanting.

  "Well, then you can think of this as another suicide mission. Once a week, you’re going to be training with me. You need to learn how to fight a demon."

  "I am pretty sure I can just cut myself open and bleed on you," I say, and Adriel chuckles, stepping between us.

  "If I didn’t know any better, I would say this was foreplay."

  I blush at his use of the word, once again getting flashes of us together in my mind. It's like I am having a second puberty or something; this is insane! But then again any girl stuck in the middle of three guys who look like this could easily get distracted just the same.

  "I know I have fed you this line so any times, but you'll have to trust me for now and therefore know that I wouldn’t allow him alone with you if I thought anything would happen to you." Adriel looks down at me, and I don’t know how I can feel both so small and so big at the same time.

  "Fine," I say, "but I think we have wasted more than half of training today on this conversation." I bore into him, and he turns to Dru.

  "You can start with her on Monday. I need to make sure she isn’t going to die in the process of using the angel blood to her advantage," he tells Dru, and I can’t help but watch Dru as he walks away, a little disappointed that I can no longer see his abs.

  "I think this is enough for today. I know it’s been a rough first day back, and my will power is running thin," Adriel admits once we are alone again. "But I won’t take it easy on you tomorrow. Anything I do will be so you can survive this."

  I detect a hint of cruelty in his voice that makes my heart skip a beat. Suddenly I am Sarah from the Labyrinth with David Bowie singing to me. Only, I don’t think I am strong enough to tell him he has no power over me.

  It would be a lie anyway.

  Instead, I count my steps all the way back to my room, which is empty of Jake now. I left Ursula here because I was afraid of trying to get her in a routine while I was also trying to navigate it. As I look over at her and smile, the bond between us has a spark.

  I know what she is asking for.

  "You want to go for a run, don’t you?" I ask her.

  My body is filled with energy that’s not mine, and it’s so strange, an out of body experience almost. This is going to take getting used to.

  "I do. I would love to hunt also, but I am afraid I have
forgotten."

  "You'll relearn." I change into my normal clothes; black buckle leggings, a tight black tee and a Nightmare Before Christmas hoodie. I look around and realize I don’t have a leash.

  "You don’t need one. I'm a wolf, not a dog," she says with a growl.

  I jump at her vicious reaction before nodding. Of course, she doesn’t want a leash; she’s a wild animal.

  For the first time, I reach down and stroke all of her fur to calm her, laying it down flat as I go. It is smooth, almost silky, and she already looks more like a force to be reckoned with, than what she did when she came out of that cell, below the school.

  I am glad Adriel let me have her. I hate to think how much longer she would have been down there otherwise.

  "Let's go hunting," I tell her, going to the door and just assuming she will follow.

  Ursula struggles for dominance with my steps all the way to the edge of campus where a patch of forest sits. I guess neither of this have this figured out just yet, and I guess that’s okay.

  "So, do I need to come with you, or ..." I ask.

  "No, I will be able to find you, and I won’t go so far as to not be able to protect you."

  "Protect me?"

  But she is already off, a running blur in the distance.

  "You really shouldn’t be out here alone," a voice calls from my left. I turn to see a dark figure in the forest with me and wonder if I should have tried to go with Ursula anyway.

  Chapter Ten

  Every defensive spell I know is running through my mind, and when I compare this to what happened to me at that party over Halloween, I am a little proud of myself. I may be the idiot who came into the woods alone at night, but I am not going to fall for some smooth talking voice again.

  I am prepared to fight, and I know that I have the strength to do so now.

  It might be one of the only good things that has come from my transformation from regular witch to Aurora Witch.

  "Whoever you are, know that I have a rather powerful familiar with me," I warn, surprised that there is no crack or other hint of fear in my voice.

  "Don’t get your panties in a twist. It's just me."

  The voice is familiar - the nagging, teasing, annoying lilt to it.

  "I would ask what you’re doing out here yourself, but I guess this is exactly where a demon would be hanging out." I relax my stance, but my forehead is still crinkled in worry about what he is wanting with me, or if it’s some unbelievable coincidence that we are both out here at the same time.

  "For someone who has been through the kind of mixed up Hell you have, I would think you'd have a bit more for an open mind when it comes to me," he spits as he walks toward me, leaves crunching underneath him.

  It’s a good thing I didn’t go with Ursula then because the noise he is making could ruin her chance at a good catch.

  "Firstly, I don’t know where you came from or why Adriel trusts you, but I doubt you know that much about what I have been through. Secondly, you haven’t exactly given me a reason to have an open mind. Sure, I noticed you were hot in a dark and forbidden kind of way when I first saw you, but then you opened your mouth."

  I don’t know what it is about him that makes me so moody. I am not usually such a bitch, and this is not in the same way I was tongue sparring with Kagan, in the beginning.

  If Adriel is off limits, then Dru can’t even be on my radar. He is the enemy, technically, even if he is trying to help for unknown reasons.

  "You think I'm hot?" He’s close enough now that I can see the sneer on his face, and I lean on the nearest tree just to get a little more distance from him. The scent of a demon does have a pull to it, but my angel blood retches a bit at the burnt smell behind it all.

  It’s nothing like the spark that ignited in me when I first met Adriel and didn’t know it, but there is something appealing about it I can’t quite put my finger on. Kind of like how flavored cigarettes can smell good even though they are disgusting death sticks.

  "What if I told you I know more about what you’ve been through than you do? Haven’t you thought about any of this, like the fact that there is a demon at your school who knows an angel in the Magistrate and showed you that you're not a Blood Witch? Coincidences like that don’t exist. You have grown up around magic; shouldn’t you know that?"

  "I have also grown up around the idea that there is no such thing as a good demon, only a good liar." I raise my eyebrow at him, and I know even in the dark, he can see it.

  He moves so fast I don’t even get a good breath in before he lands in front of me, pressing me into the tree, hips first.

  My blood is boiling even though it’s cold out here, and I have to hold some of my breath in as not to pant like a dog in heat.

  Demon or not, Dru is hotter than Hell.

  "Adriel kept things from you, toyed with your heart even though he knew he couldn’t have you, and still you are in love with him. You have a boyfriend that you wish was enough because he is so good to you. And still, the two of them don’t stop your heart from racing in your chest when I get close, no matter how much you try to hate me. Am I lying yet?"

  I Might hyperventilate as I try to think of a good comeback while my mind is totally blank. Some men can have that effect on you, and then you're just powerless to control yourself.

  I hear a howl in the distance, and that pulls me away from looking at him, trying to see where it came from.

  "Sounds like your familiar was successful in her hunt. Don't worry; it’s a normal reaction. Just a celebration is all."

  I look back at Dru, and he is still pressed against me but not as hard as before. His light hair is caught by the moonlight so that it looks almost white, and he is looking down at me like I am something good to eat.

  "You want me to trust you?" I ask him, and he pulls away a bit, taken off guard. Good, that was the point. "You need to tell me why you’re involved in all of this. You should be helping the demons in whatever their plan is; world domination or whatever it is they want, not making friends with angels and hunters. You have to know you're a lone wolf up against the only community that’s going to accept you."

  "You think demons accept me? Accept anybody? Demons are mostly about ranks and survival of the fittest... a means to an end. Even if they feel emotion, they suppress it and bury it so deep they become bloodthirsty fiends. Demons don't lack humanity, after all, what do you think humans are modeled after - us and the angels. But we throw it away like trash. The truth is, I don’t take a side because I don’t agree with either side's politics."

  He hisses it out passionately, and for the first time, I see the hard exterior bully act he puts on get a crack in it.

  I mean, I still think he is a jerk by nature, but a jerk with a heart and passion.

  "Training me to be able to defeat anything and everything that comes my way is not exactly the definition of neutrality," I comment but with little conviction. I suddenly don’t have the fight in me anymore.

  He puts his hand above my head on the tree and leans back in. My eyes naturally go to the pale skin gleaming just like his hair that is now showing from underneath his shirt. His hips jut out in a sharp angle, and I am seriously in danger of passing out.

  "You're right. Technically, I’ve picked a side, but it isn’t angel or demon," he says quietly.

  I hear the padding of feet and feel the presence of Ursula approaching, but I can’t pull myself away from Dru. Hopefully, she doesn’t think I am being attacked. Even though my insides might think there's a battle going on.

  "Then, what is it?"

  "Yours. I'm on your side." He emphasizes 'your' when he says it, and I duck under his arm, thankful for the distraction that is my black wolf, blending almost entirely into the forest beyond the hint of red on her lips and the glowing purple of her eyes.

  "I take it you found something good to eat?" I tease her, bending down to scratch under her chin.

  "Why must you treat me like a dog?" she asks even though I
can tell through our bond she loves it when I pet her.

  "I know you're not a dog. You're much better."

  Turning around, remembering Dru, I see he is still standing in the position I left him, looking at me in a way I am only used to from Kagan and Adriel.

  "Uh oh, go ahead and take five more minutes of running time."

  "Are you sure that will be sufficient?" She is cracking herself up with that one.

  "Telling jokes now, are we?" I don’t wait for her answer, I just walk back to Dru.

  "I don’t really know you, so I don’t understand what it is about me that inspires such loyalty," I admit.

  "Don’t tell me you have a self-esteem issue," he says, looking me up and down.

  "No, but it is a little extraordinary to have both an angel and a demon rooting for me."

  "Your parents were more than just amazing hunters - they were exceptional people. And even though they weren’t there your whole life, they have instilled some things in you I don’t see very often, even in the best of humans. Add that to the unique position you are in being an Aurora Witch at Paranormal Hunter Academy. You have yourself the makings of a real leader."

  I didn’t ask to be a leader, but then again, haven’t I always been feeling like I needed a push to live up to the Graywood name? This is my way of honoring my parents for being the great people they were. Even though it is scary, it is bringing me closer to them in the only way I will ever get.

  “I didn’t know demons knew who my parents were – just us witches,” I say, not knowing what else to say after that because it would pale in comparison. How did I get so utterly lucky to have these three guys here to protect me and build me up in their own ways?

  I need to appreciate it and stop worrying over how I am going to choose or what they will think about me liking one or the other of them. Life is too short to not take advantage of what’s being given to me.