Immortal Academy- Year Two

by S. L. Morgan

  “Jenna?” I heard Kat scream octaves higher than the demon’s creepy growl. “Oh, thank God, Vannah! Dom!” I felt hands in my hair. “Something’s wrong. Who do I call?”

  “Move!” Dom growled.

  “You won’t tell a soul about this, or your soul is mine, Kat! I have that spell down to a science,” Vannah threatened as I felt my body in muscular arms.

  “Oh my God, tell me this is the first time this has happened.”

  “Dom, we haven’t had a…”

  “Son of a bitch!” Dom growled. “I can hear the damn demon! I can hear the wolf.”

  “You know where to take her. I’ll handle Kat.”

  “Get Ethan on this too and quick!”

  That’s all I heard before I faded out, hoping Dom had a way to fix this. I had to hold onto hope for something because I felt like death was literally marching my immortal life’s way.

  19

  I felt tapping on my face, and my eyes opened to see Dom’s fierce ones. We were in the earth, and the fresh smell of the grounding force was so soothing to me and my wolf, who had been pacing the imaginary room I had the demon locked up in.

  “Thank God,” Dom said as he pulled me up into his arms. “You’re okay for now, but I need you to shift. I want your wolf to take it from here.

  “I can’t shift right now.” I reached for his chiseled face, “I feel like it’s trying to break loose or something.” I exhaled, feeling weaker than I should have.

  I’m so happy to see this face.

  “You have no idea how happy I am to see your face, Jen. I wish it were under better circumstances, though.”

  “Did you hear my thoughts?”

  Dom grinned. “I’ve heard the wolf since that demon thought it had her. She’s been calling to my wolf since you knocked out for a little bit.” He kissed my forehead while he cradled my head close to his lap. “How’s it going inside your mental lockdown for that thing?”

  “I feel like I’m getting stronger and more powerful. It’s like our wolves were getting reacquainted, and you’re lending me your strength.”

  He licked his lips. “I am.”

  “Dom?” I shot up out of his arms to face him. “Does this mean—”

  He nodded. “I feel her—and you. It came from out of nowhere. I have a feeling that demon inside you is playing games it will regret.”

  “I am here,” Ethan announced, sliding down into one of the many dens Dom had dug out around the area.

  “Sit tight, Jen.” Dom stood and walked toward Ethan. “I’ve got to go back and set this all up. I need you to get Jenna out of here. You know the spot, right? Vannah showed you.”

  “Dominic,” Ethan peered around at me, hunched over and unable to stand upright in the cave. “I can’t.”

  “E,” Dom’s voice lowered. “She’s not evil. You won’t harm her.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Ethan, it’s Jenna,” Dom’s voice rose. “It won’t be Jenna if you don’t get her out of here to somewhere we can help her. Do you understand?”

  “I understand. Dominic, I can kill her.”

  Dom stepped out of Ethan’s way. “Do you want to kill her now? That thing is alive and well. I hear it past what her wolf is hearing, so I know you hear it. Do you want to hurt Jenna because you can hear it?”

  “I love Jenna.” Ethan looked at me with indifference. “She is your mate, Dominic. She can’t die.”

  “No, she can’t die.” Dom stood next to Ethan. “You have to protect her. For me. Can you protect my mate, Ethan?”

  The spasm came back in my stomach like Dom was pissing the demon off again.

  “Oh God! This…”

  “Jenna, I’m here,” Ethan said, holding his hand to my forehead. “I have to take you somewhere safe.”

  “I’ll meet you both there as soon as I get it all set into motion.”

  “Go,” Ethan ordered Dominic in a voice I didn’t recognize.

  Dom was gone, and Ethan dragged me out of the den. The next thing I knew, the great gray owl was in front of me and reaching his talons down to take me out of here. I had no idea where Dom instructed E to take me, but all I hoped now was that demon didn’t break loose because if it did, I would be dead. Ethan’s owl would rip my wolf and me to shreds if I went dark, and if I survived it, I would be fully possessed by a demon. A demon with a vengeance, to be exact—out and pissed and looking to lock my butt up.

  Ethan’s owl soared above the treetops, banking in each direction, then over a mountain range. The demon stopped my stomach spasms, but now I was dealing with hanging from the owl’s claws, gliding over God knows where and through a heavy air pocket. That’s when the owl’s wings flapped harshly and gently released me to the ground. Dom’s wolf was amazingly right behind the owl’s landing and leaping up through the window of a familiar cabin’s window.

  The door opened, and Dom was there in black shorts, easing my pain a little just by taking in the perfection of the man’s chiseled frame.

  “I’ve got her E. They’re on their way. Go shift back. I need you. Your clothes are behind the tree.”

  “What are you going to do?” I asked, cradled in Dom’s arms again. “I can walk, you know.”

  Dom smiled at me. “I’m sure you can.”

  “Oh shit.” I rubbed my forehead. “Not again.”

  “I’ve got you, Jen,” he said with determination. “We’re going to fix this.”

  I couldn’t answer. I felt him set me on a soft bed that helped ease the aching agony that was present in every muscle and bone in my body. I groaned, unable to resist the reaction to this pain that made it feel like my body was trying to implode.

  “Who the hell are you?” I heard Dom lash out, my eyes closed while panting through the most excruciating pain I’d ever experienced.

  “I’m the one who is going to fix this problem.” I heard the familiar voice of that godmother lady.

  “You,” Dom’s voice was lethal and questioning. “You’re the one who wiped our memories and forced me to another school. You’re the one who messed us both up.”

  I felt a hand caress my forehead. “Ventulama shulimon velasoui.” I heard the weird incantation, and then I was paralyzed, but thank God the pain left the second she said that last weird word. “She’s at peace. This will help her transition to her life beyond the veil.”

  “What the…” Dom growled, and I heard shuffling in the room. “Beyond the veil?”

  “I must end this now, or she will turn into the monster I predicted to her parents. I should’ve done this long ago with her mother, but I felt as you do right now, young Dominic Rossi.”

  “Really? You felt like you were going to kill the person trying to take an innocent’s life?”

  “I had hope,” she said. “I hoped that this gifted child would never succumb to the darkness, and she would be the one to free her mother of the curse she’s under. I was wrong. Lives have been lost due to my hope and lack of better judgment.”

  “You won’t touch her. She can be saved,” Dom argued.

  “There is no saving Jenna with that powerful entity inside her. Can’t you sense the power? How it grows and how it’s played games this entire time with her and with you—her true mate?”

  “So, that was it? This spawn messed with both of us?”

  “Yes. The only way to destroy this powerful force is to kill the host that keeps it alive. It can’t be expelled.”

  “Bullshit!” Dom seethed. “I’ll kill the bastard. You’re not going to lay a finger on her. You’ve already screwed with both of us and nearly destroyed what fate had planned.”

  “For both of your protection,” I heard her voice grow angrier. “Her mother may feed on the souls of the immortals and gain diabolical strength from that, but the entity in Jenna, it’s far stronger than what took over her mother.”

  “Who do you work for?” Dom questioned. “How do you know all of this, and how could you erase our memories?”

  “I belong to
a group that doesn’t serve the dark matter the creature who took your mate serves. I know this is hard, Dominic, but it must be done, or countless lives will be lost.”

  “I won’t allow this.”

  “My young owl oracle will arrange for you to leave,” she said in a dismissive tone. “We’ll talk later about who I am and why, as an immortal being, I age every time I make an appearance around this powerful child.”

  “I don’t give two shits about who you are, lady. I don’t care if you age and shrivel up and die right before my eyes! You’re not touching Jenna. My wolf and I will handle that creature. Then,” he took a slow breath, “you will explain why you referred to my cousin as a damn oracle.”

  “Enough. She’s in a trance. She’s ready to leave the body I must destroy. Now, leave, boy.” Her voice became wicked.

  “Ethan,” Dom’s voice was more deadly than I’d ever heard it before—making the Master Dominic voice sound like a child. “Get in here, now.”

  “Dominic, I can kill her,” Ethan said.

  “He will kill her, and it will be more painful than the spell I’m going to do to free her from the evil,” the woman argued.

  I wanted to scream to Dominic not to give up. I felt the demon laughing in the background, listening to the battle, then I felt its aching to fight with the godmother lady who seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere again—this time to take me out.

  God, Dominic, please don’t give up on me. I can kill it.

  I hoped he heard my thoughts.

  “Get out of here!” Dom said slowly and resolutely. “If I can’t take this thing out, then we’ll talk about killing the person who innocently took on all of this shit to save all our asses.”

  “Dominic,” Ethan said in a challenging voice. “It will kill you too.”

  “Then, Jen and I will be in the veil together. You going to help me or work for this psycho who is here to kill my Jenna?” he asked Ethan. “Answer me or leave.”

  “If you can do this,” Ethan’s voice was shaky, “I will help you.”

  “Then, that’s that,” Dom said. “Tell Vannah I need both of you.” The silence grew for a second after I felt movement on the bed next to me. “Lift your paralysis so I can help her, and get the hell out of here unless you’re going to save yourself from me going after you after I take care of the demon.”

  “You are truly her mate. The only way you can do this is to unite the wolves and your souls,” she answered him. “If this is a task you believe you can take on, I’ll give her temporary peace, but you must work quickly to unite the power you both may have when joined, body and soul.”

  “You think this comes down to sex, old woman?” Dom’s voice sounded like if he could kill the godmother oracle, he would. “Release her, and I’ll handle the rest.”

  “The only way—if her inner wolf even accepts yours given that demon is now in control of them—is through true mateship. Your wolves will never find that power together without it.”

  “Release Jenna from the damn hold you have her under, and get the hell out of the room. I don’t have time for this!” Dom spat.

  “Fine,” the woman said. “You’re just like her father when he argued to save Jenna’s mother, Julia. He was killed soon after I took the child from them both.”

  “Get her out of here, E,” Dom said.

  I felt a wave of energy return to me and the demon silenced.

  “I’m still me,” I said, looking into Dom’s wolf eyes. He was totally wolfed out, and he hadn’t even shifted into the large alpha wolf yet. “I can kill it.”

  Dom forced a smile onto his face. “I need you to focus,” he said, lying next to me and bringing me to face him as his arm caressed my side. “I need you to feel me again. I need you to feel everything you felt when our bond was calling our wolves together. I will not lose you, do you understand?”

  “Got it. So, we’re having sex, then?”

  Dom’s lethal look fell, and surprisingly, he smiled. “Oh, I promise you’re going to enjoy every minute of that, but now’s not the time for sex, Jen.” He let out a breath and ran his hand over my stomach and exhaled. “I feel it trying to consume all of you,” he said with his eyes closed before they snapped open and he looked into my eyes. “Wait. Do you feel any of that energy right now?”

  “I feel normal again. Like nothing happened.”

  “The woman must really be helping you and me then.” His eyes roamed over my lips. “God, this isn’t right. It shouldn’t have to be this way.”

  “You’re going to take me out? Kill me?” I asked, scooting away from him.

  “Never.” He ran his hand under my shirt and over my side, sending sparks like lightning radiating throughout my body. “I’m going to fix this and get you back, babe. I love you more than anything in this world. I need you to trust me—to accept my wolf and me. Do you feel the bond trying to form between us?”

  That’s when it all hit me, everything I’d felt when I accepted him and his wolf the first time. His wolf was instantly opened up to me, and I saw its massive strength virtually clawing through Dominic to come through and save his wolf mate and me.

  “I feel your wolf, I see him. I feel like I did when it first happened between us.”

  “Do you feel the calling to unite our souls?” he pressed with tightened lips.

  I could tell he wasn’t happy about what needed to be done between us, but at this point, I think both of us were ready to do anything to give this a shot before the godmother came back in and whacked me. Good God, my first time having sex was going to be like this? Or did Dominic have another way to unite ourselves to beat this sinister energy that was now hiding deep inside me? It had freed itself from the cage I’d locked it in, and now it was anyone’s guess as to where it went and when it was going to jump in and take over my body.

  “Jen,” Dom tapped my cheek. “Look into my eyes and answer me. Do you feel the call for me to claim you—for you to claim me as your mate?”

  I licked my dry lips. “I don’t feel anything,” I said, scared that this was our only hope and the demon had taken it away like it’d taken my bond with Dominic away. “I’m trying, but I feel nothing.”

  Dom closed his eyes and exhaled in defeat and possibly understanding the godmother lady was right about me…I guess I was destined to be some evil person who was going to go out and kill everyone and do the work of the devil himself. He looked back at the door the lady must have exited from, and that’s when I knew that Dom’s plans weren’t going to work.

  20

  Dom was silent, his eyes locked on mine, and I knew he was considering our only option for us bonding—shifter style—and pretty much saving my life from the fairy godmother of death and giving us a fighting chance of destroying this demon if we got the opportunity.

  Unable to look into his eyes, knowing the demon was blocking us from going any farther to kick its ass, I closed mine. I exhaled, going deeper into my mind and trying to pull out my fairy-witch genetics, knowing that this was how I had the demon locked up to begin with.

  Mentally, I felt the demon was backed into a corner, and so I did the one thing I had been afraid to do—I decided to go into the memory where I’d locked up the sinister energy.

  The demon sat quietly on the bed of the room it was locked in. It didn’t taunt or provoke me, which put me on guard instantly. As I looked through this window of my mind, I felt my control coming back to me. The persuasion of it forcing Dom and me to sever our bond left me right then and there. I felt a warmth of energy ignite in every cell of my body as I retreated from the nightmare I’d locked inside myself.

  I was back, the demon was not going anywhere, and fairy godmother’s death sentence could kiss mine and Dom’s asses.

  As I came out of the deep mental state I was in, I felt my heart react to Dom as he framed my face with his hands, his thumbs caressing my cheeks. His eyes were toned down from the wolf that was present, and my entire body ached to reunite with having my true ma
te by my side right now.

  “I don’t feel the energy like I did before,” Dom whispered. “How did you do it?”

  “I went in and mentally braved that thing. It’s locked down, Dominic. I think all that pain was because it was trying to get out and break me down mentally and physically.”

  Dom smiled, but there was a questioning look he couldn’t hide from me now that I was feeling our bond return.

  “So, you faced it, and you ended its threat?” he asked, shifting his body some, so he wasn’t completely on top of me anymore.

  “I think so. That godmother may think I’m going dark, but I’m not. Whatever happened to my mom, I won’t let it happen to me. I have genetics that I can feel are more powerful than that thing.”

  He swept my hair from my face and leaned up on an elbow, studying me intently.

  “I feel our bond coming back,” I smiled at him. “It’s strong.”

  “I’m fully opened up to you. I was hoping it would help you reach me again.” He leaned toward me and kissed my cheek. “I love you,” he said, but there was a calculating tone to his voice—like he was planning something.

  “I love you too.”

  His hand slowly brought my shirt up, while his eyes roamed over the area of my stomach. “I feel your soul calling to mine.” His breaths were short. “It’s overwhelming.”

  Right when he said that, I was hit with a powerful emotion that I would never be able to explain. I longed to unite our fated wolves—to give them what they needed to be the strong, true mates they were. To end their starved desire to become one. Then, another source of energy slammed into my chest and overwhelmed my entire being. It was the feeling of an abyss in my soul I didn’t realize I had…a hole that only Dom could fill. It was unexplainable too.