Magic and Misconduct: Sleep Hollow Academy - Book 1

by Zenia, Zara

  “Hey,” I said, frowning as I noticed someone visibly older and wearing a military uniform striding toward a group of students near the cafeteria door. There was nothing obviously supernatural about him. “Who’s that? A professor?” I hadn’t actually seen any professors yet.

  Laurie grimaced. “No. Not exactly. It’s a military recruiter.”

  “Military recruiter? What are they doing on campus?”

  “The military is putting together units of paranormals. They want to use us as fighters.”

  My frown deepened. “We’re not weapons.”

  “Try telling that to him. I was reading about this on a forum for the university not that long ago, apparently it started up near the end of last semester. They’ve given him a permanent office on campus, for whatever reason. He’s going around and trying to get paranormals to sign up to the military. Join specialist units. That kind of thing.”

  “But the military is nearly all humans. There’s no way that they’d treat us as equals.” It was one of those things that still hadn’t adapted properly to the Great Awakening. Humans remained in control of the military because they felt like it gave them power over the supernaturals. The supernaturals were powerful themselves with all their special abilities and so the humans needed the organization and the resources of the military to feel safe against a possible uprising that led to the subjugation of humans.

  “They don’t want to treat us as equals,” Laurie replied, lip curled. “They want to make us into cannon fodder, because other countries have started incorporating paranormals in their militaries and the US is worried that we’re going to fall behind. It’s just like nukes. They need us as a deterrent.”

  “That’s appalling.”

  “Yeah. It is.”

  “I don’t understand why they’d let that guy onto campus.”

  “I have no idea. Maybe they got pressure from local government or something.” The government was also very dominated by humans, though there were token supernaturals in there to try and deter any kind of uprising, like had happened in the past. “It’s not like anyone will join up, is it? Surely people wouldn’t even consider that.”

  “Ugh,” I said. “He’s heading in this direction. I’m not sure I can be bothered telling this guy to fuck off.”

  “Yeah, let’s scram.”

  We packed up our things hurriedly and headed back toward the nearest building where we could scramble back into the underground tunnels and avoid being sold lies about how they definitely weren’t going to exploit supernaturals, and it was just a wonderful opportunity to serve your country.

  This was one of the few buildings we hadn’t been into yet. It was a lot of offices along corridors. “Do you think this place is staff only?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t say it anywhere. You would have thought it would have been labelled if it was.”

  “Yeah, that’s true.” They looked around, but it seemed empty. “Oh well, there’s bound to be some stairs or an elevator somewhere that takes us back into the tunnels. Let’s just have a wander.”

  They walked for about five minutes before finally running into someone. An older man who was small and dressed in a slightly over-sized shirt and tie with suspenders. The lines around his watery green eyes crinkled as he smiled at them.

  “Are you looking for something?” he asked.

  “Oh,” I said. “We were just looking for the stairs down into the tunnels. We weren’t sure what this building was.”

  “This building contains staff offices. Lots of professors have their offices in here, and people like me. I’m your guidance counselor.” He held out a hand to shake. “Professor Alan Crane.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, and shook the hand. It was clammy, and I resisted the urge to wipe my hand on my jeans when I took it back.

  “What brings you inside on such a lovely day?”

  Laurie wrinkled her nose. “We were avoiding the army recruiter guy. Not in the mood to listen to that nonsense.”

  Professor Crane raised an eyebrow. “You may not agree with his policy, but you should show some respect.”

  Laurie narrowed her eyes just a little, and I wanted to cringe. I really hoped she didn’t cause a scene with a professor before classes had even started. “I’m sorry,” she said, through gritted teeth. “It’s just something that I’m passionate about.”

  “I hope that a similar amount of passion goes into your studies. After all, that’s what you’re here at Sleepy Hollow for.”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, if you’re looking for the stairs then you want to go back in the direction you came, and then take the first right and keep going until you hit a set of double doors. Through the doors are the stairs.”

  “Thank you,” I said, my smile faked. “We appreciate your help.”

  “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you both again soon.”

  We turned and walked away, following his instructions. As soon as we were out of earshot, Laurie fumed. “What a jerk! Did you just hear him? I’ll bet you anything he’s the reason that asshole recruiter is on campus. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you both again soon. I fucking hope not.”

  I almost wanted to laugh at her anger and potty mouth, but Professor Crane had rubbed me up the wrong way too. There was something smug in him, even if he looked approachable and friendly. “Well we can put off appointments for guidance counseling for as long as possible, I suppose,” I said.

  “Forever, hopefully,” Laurie muttered.

  We followed the instructions exactly as Professor Crane had given them, but instead of stairs on the other side of the double doors, we found more corridors.

  “Huh,” I said. “I’m sure we followed instructions as he said. They weren’t exactly complicated.”

  We retraced our steps and didn’t see any doors that we’d obviously missed. “He’s fucking with us,” Laurie muttered. “He definitely fucked with us because we insulted his army buddy.”

  “I’m sure he wouldn’t. He’s still a professor. We probably just misunderstood.”

  We ended up finding our way back to the front door of the building and crossing back over the now recruiter free quad to the cafeteria building instead. We’d visited that enough to know where we were going to get back into the tunnels.

  Passing through the dining room was the quickest route, and Laurie stopped to grab a sandwich as we walked. “I’m going to stay in and start some of the reading for classes starting next week tonight,” she said. “May as well just grab a sandwich now.”

  “Sure. Makes sense.” I’d already done all the reading for this year’s classes since the reading lists were released at the start of the summer vacation, but getting a refresher of the beginning chapters wouldn’t be a bad idea.

  We’d just paid for a couple of sandwiches when I spotted Colin sitting at one of the tables with another guy. He spotted me in almost the same moment, and raised a hand in greeting.

  “Perfect timing.” Laurie grinned. “Go on, you have to go speak to him now.”

  “I suppose I could maybe go and talk to him,” I said, and started heading in that direction, my heart fluttering in my chest. He looked just as incredible as the first time I’d seen him. Incredible Fae beauty mixed with his artistic flair of the long coat. He was exotic and gorgeous and just seeing him made my doubts fly out of the window.

  If I was going to try dating for the first time, then Colin was very much who I wanted to date.

  “Hey,” I said as I approached the table, hovering around the end rather than sitting down. That might have been a bit too presumptuous, and it didn’t look like they had much food left.

  “Late lunch?” Colin asked gesturing to the sandwiches.

  “Stocking up for a late dinner,” I replied. “We’re going to try and get a head start on some of our required reading tonight.”

  “I have a better idea.” The guy Colin sat next to had a thick European accent, though I wasn’t sure where he was from exactly. He was big
and burly and wearing athletic clothes that made it obvious how much time he must have spent working out. “I’m throwing a party tonight. You guys should come.”

  Laurie joined in the conversation with an eager, “Party?”

  “I have a house off campus, big enough for us to all have a good time. Plenty of booze. It’ll be fun. Let off some steam before classes start.”

  I glanced at Colin to see what his reaction was, and he was nodding enthusiastically.

  “I thought we were going to get some reading done,” I said to Laurie, unsure why the thought of going to a student party was making me so nervous. This was what I’d wanted, wasn’t it? To have a social life, to meet lots of new people— especially supernaturals.

  And I’d just been invited to a party where all of those things would be there.

  “Yeah, but we can read some other time. And don’t try and tell me that you’ve not already read everything you need to for next week anyway. I’m not buying it.”

  I flushed. “Well…”

  “I knew it. Come on, Marina, we’ll have fun. College hasn’t even technically started yet.”

  “You should come,” Colin agreed.

  Vlad was nodding aggressively.

  “Okay,” I allowed. “We’ll come.”

  “I’ll text you the details,” Colin said. “But things will be getting busy from about eight.”

  “Perfect. I suppose that means we’ll go and start getting ready,” Laurie said. “Thanks for the invite. We’ll see you guys there.”

  We turned and headed out of the cafeteria. “Start getting ready already?” I asked, pulling out my cell and checking the time. “But it’s only two o’clock.”

  “Oh Marina,” Laurie said, giving me a pat on the shoulder and a grin. “You have so much to learn.”

  6

  Marina

  Even though Laurie had made me sit and do my hair and make-up— though I refused to put on the bright red lipstick she wanted to paint on my lips —six hours was still a gross overestimation of how long it would take us to get ready. We spent most of the time sitting on the bed and listening to music. I was just wearing some high-waisted jeans and a tight tank top.

  “It’s so stupid how we can’t drink until we’re twenty-one,” Laurie said.

  “I’ve never really been bothered.”

  “You’ve never had alcohol before?”

  “No. I mean, I’ve had a sip of champagne when I went to a wedding once, but that doesn’t really count.”

  “Yeah, it definitely doesn’t.”

  “You’ve been drunk?”

  “A couple of times. It’s not being drunk that’s fun though, it’s being tipsy. Just having a bit of a buzz. When you get properly drunk, that’s when everything starts to go downhill.”

  I hummed my agreement. The thought of not being in control of myself wasn’t appealing at all, but I supposed I’d give it a go. If I was going to my first party, I may as well do what everyone else was doing. Get the proper party experience.

  We were walking to Vlad’s house. It was off campus, but not so far that we couldn’t walk there and getting a cab seemed excessive. Besides, despite my short drive from Sleepy Hollow town to the campus, I’d seen barely any of the surrounding area. The thick deciduous forest stopped me being able to see beyond the campus itself.

  “Walking through the forest is going to be creepy,” Laurie said as they left the dorms.

  I wrapped my thin coat tighter around myself. The temperature had dropped quickly as the sun set, but it wasn’t pitch black. The sky was orange and red with the sunset.

  “It’s not going to be that bad,” I said. “It’s a popular path apparently. We’ll probably even see people going to Vlad’s.”

  “I hope so. I wouldn’t mind finding someone to walk with.”

  “Someone like Brian?”

  She gave me an impish grin. “Someone exactly like Brian.”

  It wasn’t fair that I turned bright red and floundered when she teased me about boys, but I couldn’t give her the same treatment back again.

  As it happened we didn’t see anyone heading in our direction as we walked toward Vlad’s place. I kept an eye on the GPS on my phone to make sure we were actually heading in the right direction. It was only going to take us fifteen minutes to get there. I almost tripped over on the undergrowth a couple of times, but managed not to fall over and get my jeans covered in dirt.

  The thought of walking home this way after drinking made the idea of getting drunk even less appealing.

  “Whoa,” I breathed when we turned from the wooded path and onto a small driveway. “There’s no way this is it. Surely not.”

  The path they’d turned onto led up to a huge house in its own clearing. It must have had six bedrooms at least.

  “This isn’t a house,” Laurie said. “This is a mansion.”

  “Did he say his parents bought him this? He must be absolutely loaded.” It was wealth beyond my comprehension. I suppose I could understand having this house one day, but to be able to just purchase something like this for my son who was going off to university in another country? And especially in an up and coming town like Sleepy Hollow. I’d looked at real estate prices out of curiosity when I received my offer. It was expensive to buy homes here.

  That was so much money.

  “I can’t wait to see what it looks like inside,” Laurie said. “I mean, I had a big house, but it was a farmhouse. Nothing like this. It was practically falling apart.”

  We could already hear voices and music coming from the house, too. I had to admit, it was the perfect location for a party. There was nothing on either side except trees and a singular driveway that would allow the cars parked out front to get back to the main road that led from the college to the town.

  The front door was open and a few people stood outside smoking cigarettes and drinking from bottles of beer or red Solo cups. They smiled at us, but we didn’t say anything to each other.

  My heart was pounding in my chest, and I wasn’t sure exactly why. Just a situation I’d never been in before, I supposed. Nothing to do with the fact that I was looking forward to seeing Colin again, after he had been so enthusiastic about me showing up tonight.

  Inside, the party was in full swing. The music and the bass were loud, and just like the house itself, I had no idea how much money must have been spent on the music system inside the place. People danced. Everyone had cups in their hands.

  Laurie beamed at me and I did my best to smile back without looking as uncomfortable as I felt.

  From across the room I spotted Vlad, though Colin wasn’t in sight. Beside him was a vampire. The sun still hadn’t completely set outside, which must have meant that the vampire was already at the house before the sun had risen that morning. They must have been pretty good friends.

  Laurie saw where I was looking and tugged me along. “Come on, let’s go and say hi.”

  Vlad probably had more interesting people to talk to than us, but I trailed along behind her anyway because I was intrigued to see the vampire up close. It would be the first time I’d seen a Vampire from that distance and the nerves blossomed in my stomachs.

  Vampires had always been the most ostracized of the supernaturals that had emerged after the Great Awakening. Birthed stillborn, they came back to life in the morgue and grew from creepy kids into almost-immortal adults. A lot of the stigma revolved around their need to consume human blood, and their place in mythology before the Great Awakening. Their treatment by both humans and often other supernaturals alike meant they often formed strong bonds with each other and tended to stay away from humans as much as possible.

  As someone who both lived in a tiny human town and loved the sun, I’d never really interacted with a vampire at all.

  This guy, at least, looked like he wasn’t the stereotypically grumpy and aloof vampire that I’d read so much about. He was wearing jeans and a sports jersey and laughing loudly at something Vlad had just said, punchin
g the host in the arm and grinning, revealing large fangs.

  In spite of my intellectual interest in vampires, the first thing that I noticed about this guy was that he was gorgeous. Blond and muscled and with a grin that was infectious. The red eyes were obvious, but they didn’t take away from his attractiveness. They added something exotic to his otherwise movie star good looks.

  “Hi,” Laurie said with a beaming smile as they approached. “Your house is incredible.”

  Vlad laughed. “I’m a very lucky man.” He nodded to me. “I’m glad you could make it.”

  “I’m Daniel,” the vampire said, when he saw me glancing at him.

  We all exchanged names, and Laurie chatted to Vlad, leaving me to talk to Daniel. I kept throwing away things that I wanted to say though, because they all revolved around him being a vampire and me being fascinated by it and I didn’t think he’d appreciate being treated as a test subject by me.

  “So,” Daniel said, taking the initiative for me. “You don’t appear to have a drink in your hand.”

  I looked down at my bare hands as if checking for myself. “They are definitely empty.”

  “Come on, I’ll show you to the kitchen.” He guided me through the throng of people with a hand on my lower back and I tried to ignore the pang of fire in my belly from the casual touch. Somewhere in the middle of the crowd I looked over my shoulder and caught Laurie looking after me. She looked a little bit worried when she looked at Daniel, but she’d probably fallen into the trap of judging him as a vampire first too.

  But Daniel seemed charming and straightforward. There was nothing in my gut now I’d met him that made me uncomfortable.

  Well, nothing except how much his touch was affecting me, anyway. And that definitely wasn’t in a scared way.

  “Here,” he said, gesturing to a cooler full of beer bottles or a bowl full of pink punch that looked overly sweet. “Take your pick.”

  I went for a beer bottle just because it took less effort. I wasn’t really interested in drinking it anyway.