by G. Bailey
Professor Drysdale glances at her briefly. By now, she’s turned back into a human, her red hair mussed and her uniform covered in dirt. “Self-defense is another matter,” the professor says. “She can’t be blamed for protecting herself.”
Landon snorts. “Sure you’d say that if her dad wasn’t a leader? If she wasn’t a princess of the shifter world?”
“Watch your attitude, Mr. Thyme,” snaps Professor Drysdale. “And as a matter of fact, this has nothing to do with nepotism.” He glances at Hunter. “You were involved, too, Mr. Ash.”
Hunter’s eyes go wide. “Wait a minute, I didn’t even--”
“Brawling,” replies the professor. “Prince or not, we do not accept this behavior at the academy.”
“That’s not fair,” Amelia says, getting to her feet. “My brother was trying to protect me from these guys! He shouldn’t be punished for…”
Professor Drysdale shoots her a withering look--enough to, miraculously, make her shut up. He crosses his arms, looking between me, Landon, Hunter, and Silas. I have no idea what’s coming, but I can already tell it won’t be good. “For brawling on campus and unsupervised transformation,” he says, “I want to see all four of you after class tonight. In detention.”
Chapter 14
Detention.
Unbelievable.
Just for the record, I've never been sent to detention in my life. In spite of the fact that my social life has been nearly nonexistent at every school I've attended, and the fact that I'm lousy at almost every subject, the one thing I've always had going for me is a spotless record. Until now, I guess.
The rest of the day feels like it slogs on ad infinitum. I do my best to pay attention during my next batch of classes, but between what happened during lunch hour and my inability to transform for the teachers' exercises, none of them goes decidedly well. To make things worse, I feel like the other students are looking at me more, leaning in to make whispered comments to one another and staring at me with cautious expressions. I can't tell if it's because they heard about the fight, or because by now they probably all know just how strange I look when I transform, but I know I'm not just being paranoid. First, I had to watch Amelia strut away without getting punished, and now it seems like the student body has been turned against me.
I don't know anybody in my witch shifting class, although I do learn that the shockwave I unleashed during lunch break is a witch power, a spell that can only be cast in full or partial witch form. I guess that's progress… if only I could actually make it happen consciously. After that is my dragon class, with Silas on the other side of the room, although aside from a shared glance when we arrive, we don't interact. Nobody in my wolf shifting class looks familiar either, and by the time the last period arrives, all I really want to do is go back to my room and sleep the day away.
Unfortunately, that's not meant to be. As I drag myself out of the lecture hall where I've spent the past hour listening to an old woman explain shifter etiquette to a group of bored-looking students, I can see the others heading out for free time. Dinner isn't for another three hours, all of which I'll be spending in the detention hall.
At least the others will be there, too, I think as I make my way to the ground floor and down a winding hallway that leads to the older offices. The detention hall is a stuffy room that doesn't get the same light as the other classrooms, a faculty member slouches at a desk in the front, dozing. Silas has taken a desk near the window, while Landon sits near the front, making a paper airplane. Hunter has, as per usual, claimed the desk in the far corner of the room, and next to him sits a blond guy who looks oddly familiar.
We seem to be the only five people here. I give a resigned sigh and move to one of the desks in the middle of the room, prepared to ride out my punishment in silence. That's when a voice from behind me pipes up, "You're Millie Brix, aren't you?"
I turn around to see the familiar-looking guy staring at me, a grin on his face. His voice is what makes it finally click. "Yeah," I reply. "You're the guy who came to Mrs. Fairbanks' office yesterday, aren't you?"
"One and the same," the guy replies, putting his feet up on the desk.
"What are you doing in detention?" I ask.
"Sitting," he replies. "Talking. Thinking."
"We just had to get stuck in here with you, didn't we, Shade?” mutters Silas, shooting the guy a look.
“I don’t know what you mean,” the new guy, Shade, retorts. “I thought I was stuck in here with you. What’d you do this time? Beat up an old lady? Set fire to the boys’ bathroom?”
Landon rolls his eyes. “Guys, come on. Can’t we just go back to sulking in silence?”
“No way,” Shade replies, leaning forward in his desk. “Silas and I are just joshing each other, aren’t we, Silas?”
Silas rolls his eyes.
“Besides,” Shade continues, “I want to hear more about the new girl.” He grins at me, his gray eyes sparkling. “I heard you kicked Amelia Ash’s ass at lunch today.”
“Hey,” snaps Hunter. It’s the first thing he’s said since I got here. “That’s my sister you’re talking about.”
“Yeah,” Shade says, “and you still ended up in here, didn’t you?” Hunter doesn’t reply, hunkering lower in his chair, and Shade turns back to me. “So is it true? Can you really shift into multiple forms?”
“That’s what they tell me,” I reply, “but right now I can’t even do that right. Whenever I do shift, I just end up looking like some… hideous blob of body parts.”
“Ha! Nice!”
I can’t help but chuckle. “Easy for you to say. You’re a… what are you again?”
“Wolf shifter,” Shade replies proudly. “Listen,” he continues, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face, “if you need help learning how to shift, maybe I can help you.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Yeah?”
He shrugs. “Sure. It’s always come pretty naturally to me.”
Hunter makes a scoffing noise but doesn’t say anything.
“Well, I…” I blink. I hadn’t considered the possibility of someone tutoring me before. Considering how well my classes have gone so far… “Yeah,” I say, smiling a little. “That sounds good.”
Shade smiles, his silver eyes meeting mine for a split second. My heart flutters a little in my chest. “How’s tomorrow morning before breakfast?”
I purse my lips. “Aren’t we, like, not allowed out before breakfast?”
Shade shrugs. “What’s the worst that they’re gonna do to you if they catch you? Send you back here?”
“You have a point,” I reply.
“Then it’s settled,” Shade says, sitting back in his chair. “Tomorrow morning at six, on the quad. I’ll show you a thing or two about turning into a wolf.”
“Come on,” Hunter says finally. “Can you not ask the new girl out right in front of me?”
Before I have time to process the implications of his anger, Shade is already replying gamely. “Hey, I never said it was a date. You can come too, if you want. I’ve heard you’re not doing so well, yourself.”
Hunter snorts. “Not happening.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing,” Shade tells him. “So, Millie,” he says, “how did you end up winning the shifter lottery, anyway?”
“No idea,” I reply. “I never knew my parents.”
“Damn, really? Join the club.”
My eyes widen at the same time as Landon’s. “Seriously?”
“Yeah,” Shade replies. “I was adopted.”
“Holy shit,” mutters Landon. “I spend my whole life angsting about my past and then I meet two others like me in less than a day? It’s a small world, I guess.”
Silas, who’s been silent for some time now, speaks up. “It’s even smaller than that,” he says slowly, turning around in his chair to look at the rest of us. “I’m an orphan, too.” There’s a pause, and he adds, “That sounds pretty pathetic when I say it out loud.”
“I’ll be damned,” says Landon, looking between the three of us with newfound respect.
“Well, looks like we’re a regular Breakfast Club in here, aren’t we?” says Shade. “Next thing you know we’ll be dancing on the desks and confessing our darkest secrets to each other.”
Silas snorts, but there’s humor behind it. “I wouldn’t count on it.”
“To be honest,” Landon says, “until I met you, Millie, I thought hybrids didn’t exist.”
“Oh, they existed, all right,” replies Shade. “They say they were experiments done by witches, but then the humans took them out.”
Silas clears his throat but says nothing.
I open my mouth for a moment and then close it, debating, before asking, “So what happened, Silas? To your parents, I mean.” There’s a pause, and I realize how insensitive the question must have sounded. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” I add hastily, already feeling my cheeks going red. What the hell came over me?
“It’s all right,” Silas replies. He takes a breath, meeting my eyes, and replies, “They were killed.”
The room goes completely silent, except for the snores coming from the teacher’s desk. The others are staring at Silas, eyes wide. Even Hunter seems to be both intrigued and scared.
“How?” Shade asks, the only one bold enough to break the silence. “I mean, who by?”
“Jeez, Shade,” snaps Landon.
Shade puts his hands up. “Sorry, sorry.”
Silas shifts in his seat, not seeming particularly bothered. “Humans,” he replies, swallowing before he continues. I’m surprised at how composed he is, considering what he’s discussing, but maybe that’s just how it is when enough time has passed after a tragedy. “My mom and dad were both pretty pro-shifter,” Silas says. “They were always suspicious of them--raised me in a shifter-only community, away from civilization. They were always telling me not to trust them, calling them violent and xenophobic. I kind of brushed it off. I mean, I was a kid back then, and I didn’t even know if I was going to end up with shifter powers, you know?”
The others nod.
“Anyway,” Silas continues, “my parents paranoia eventually started to get the better of them, I think. They started coming up with all these crazy conspiracy theories about how the humans who know about shifters don’t actually want to coexist with us. The humans apparently wanted to enslave us, or use us, experiment on us… It was a different story every day. It got to the point where they tried to stop interacting with humans at all. It went about as well as you’d expect.” He takes a breath, fidgeting. “At one point, I remember coming home every day to see a new group of shifters in our living room, discussing conspiracy theories and talking about how they were going to ‘escape enslavement’, or something like that.” He shakes his head.
“I can’t imagine that ended well,” says Landon.
“No,” Silas replies. “It didn’t. By the time I was ten, they had basically turned our lives upside-down. Then, one day, they pulled me out of school, packed up our stuff, and got in the car. They wouldn’t tell me why, or where we were going. It didn’t matter anyway--we hadn’t made it that far when we were stopped by a couple of humans. Apparently, the word had gotten out that my folks had been stirring the pot, and the governments needed to do damage control. So they took me out of the car, hauled my parents away, and that was the last time I ever saw them.”
There’s a long moment of silence as we process all this. Finally Landon turns to look at him. “You okay, Silas?”
He nods. “Yeah, I’m fine. It was a long time ago, and my parents were… unwell. That much was obvious.” He shakes himself, sitting up in his chair. “But enough about that. Let’s talk about something more fun, yeah?”
“Well,” Shade remarks, “I don’t think any of us are going to top that.”
Silas snorts and the others laugh, the tension in the room breaking up. I stay quiet, Silas’ story still bouncing around in my head like a pinball. The idea of having parents and then losing them… I didn’t think anything could be worse than not knowing one’s parents at all, but I’m realizing now that I’m wrong. Absently, I reach down into my boot, touching the necklace given to me by the only real family I’ve ever had. I do know what that’s like, I think, the memories of Mollie flooding back to me. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
“What are you doing, Millie?” asks Shade.
The others turn to look at me with my hand in my boot, making me blush a little. “Sorry,” I respond. “I just…” I never talk about Mollie with anyone. She’s always been sort of an unspoken guardian angel, one I look to with a kind of superstition, as if one wrong step will corrupt her memory, too, leaving me alone for real. But now I find myself relaxing as I speak, the words coming out as easily as if I’ve known these guys my whole life. “That story of yours got me thinking, Silas,” I reply. “I never knew my parents, but one of my foster mothers gave me a necklace. I keep it in my shoe, since the clasp is broken.” There’s so much I want to say, want to explain, but somehow, none of it seems right--or necessary. “I was just thinking about family,” I say simply, shrugging.
I have no idea what’s compelling me to open up like this in front of a bunch of people I’ve known for less than a day, but I’m past questioning it at this point. My first day at Shifter Academy has been a shit show; maybe a little solidarity is exactly what the doctor ordered.
“You’re a funny girl, Boots,” remarks Landon, and I blink at him. He looks around at the others for support. “Come on, Boots? Because she keeps it in her boots? Guys?”
The others laugh. “I can get on board with that,” says Silas.
“It’s got a nice ring to it,” remarks Shade. “Boots Brix. Hunter, thoughts?”
“Whatever,” Hunter murmurs, but there’s a ghost of a grin on his face.
“Boots,” I say, testing out the nickname. For the first time since lunch, I find myself smiling. “I like the sound of that.”
Chapter 15
Hunter
"Dad is going to be so mad," Amelia all but huffs as I walk into my room and come to a halt. How the fuck did she get in my room?
"And for the second time today, you are not my mother therefore you can't tell me what to do. What the hell are you doing in my room?" I demand, dropping my bag onto the floor and kicking off my shoes. Amelia sits on my chair in front of the window. This room is pretty big and I even have a kitchen area. Nothing but the best for a Prince of the Vampires.
Except I don't want it. I don’t want anything that comes from my father or that I didn't earn on my own.
And no one in my family seems to understand that. To them, blood and what family you are from is all that matters.
Hard work is for the poor, as my father likes to remind me.
"You need to stay away from the hybrid," she tells me, and I ignore her like I always have since we were kids. Amelia was always the bossy one, the sister who thought she needed to look after me just because my powers don't work. I appreciate that she cares, but sometimes it feels like she wants to control me rather than try to understand me. Amelia catches my arm as I walk past, making me stop. I effortlessly pull my arm from hers and she raises an eyebrow. "You little liar, your powers work fine enough when you need them."
"Strength is one thing. Everything else just feels blocked," I all but growl at her. "Now get out. I'm tired."
"Dad called me today--,"
"Good to know he calls one of his children. How is mum?" I question and she narrows her eyes, a touchy subject for us both. Dad is domineering and always in control…and mum is shy and weak. She is the complete opposite to him, and he controls her every waking move. If he could control her dreams, he would.
"Don't be like that. Dad loves you," she says, lying so effortlessly and avoiding the subject of mum all together. Typical Amelia. And Dad wonders why his kids are cold and emotionless assholes. "Anyway, he said the hybrid is dangerous to the whole shifter world
and the shifters of every clan are watching her. You can't be noticed at her side, so drop the tramp and find someone else to bang. She isn't even that pretty!"
I lean against the wall, crossing my arms as I swallow the anger that bubbles in my throat. I'm usually the master at controlling my emotions, but something about Amelia calling Millie a tramp has me wanting to scream at her. And about her not being pretty? Amelia must be fucking blind. Any shifter in this academy can see that Millie Brix is fucking gorgeous. She could bring any man to his knees. Me included.
I can see why Boots would be a big interest to the shifter community if I really think about it and why my sister would want me far away from her. They really don't have anyone like her, and she is clearly linked to every clan. Effectively she could lead all of us when she is older and if she is as powerful as I suspect she actually is.
Either way, I have no intention of staying away from her. I feel something, some kind of connection to her that I don't know how to explain exactly. Either way, I want to find out more about her life, and whether she feels anything for me.
I don't give a shit if my controlling sister and father want me away from her.
"I'm going to say this once. I love you, Amelia. You're my sister and I care about your opinion usually, but not this time. I'm friends with Millie and you need to get over it," I tell her. The moment the words leave my mouth she growls, and stands up from the chair. If looks could kill, I'd be a dead vampire right about now.
"Hunter!" she screeches.
Sighing, I walk to the door and hold it open. She stares at me like she has never seen her brother before. I smile as she stomps to the door, coming to a halt right in front of me. "If you won't save yourself, then I will have to."
I grab her arm before she can escape. "Hurt Millie and we will have a problem."
She smiles sweetly as I let her go and she leaves my room. As I shut the door, I rest my head against the cold wood and pray to the shifter goddess that Amelia lets this go.