Forest of Lost Souls Read online

  Table of Contents

  Quote

  Logan

  Claire

  Coming Soon!

  House of Secrets Excerpt:

  Other Books By K.R. Thompson

  About the Author

  Forest of Lost Souls

  Book Two of Shifter’s University

  K.R. Thompson

  Magic Quill Press

  Shifter’s University Book 2: Forest of Lost Souls

  Copyright © 2017 by K.R. Thompson

  Shifter’s University™ is a registered trademark of K.R. Thompson.

  All rights reserved. Except for any part in a review, no part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design: Covers by Combs

  Editor: Cynthia Shepp

  Proofreader: Echo Shea

  Contents

  Quote

  1. Logan

  2. Claire

  3. Logan

  4. Claire

  5. Logan

  6. Claire

  7. Logan

  8. Claire

  9. Logan

  10. Claire

  11. Logan

  12. Claire

  13. Claire

  14. Claire

  15. Claire

  16. Claire

  17. Claire

  18. Logan

  19. Logan

  20. Claire

  21. Claire

  Coming Soon!

  House of Secrets Excerpt:

  Other Books By K.R. Thompson

  About the Author

  “I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”

  -Sarah Williams

  Time was irrelevant. Days, nights, sun, moon. Everything mixed, becoming one and the same until I couldn’t distinguish if I had been in the forest a matter of days, weeks, or even years. The instant I stepped into this cursed place, my dragon took over, forcing my human self into the shadows.

  The forest looked the same as any other I had ever been in, but the atmosphere was heavy, the air dense, as if it were weighted down with all the souls who had been banished here for eternity.

  Then, there was the shadow. Whenever it came, it seemed to feed off me, bringing the animal side of me ever closer, while taking those parts of me that made me what I truly was. Each time it came near, I felt a little more of myself go, as if my human side was a flame that flickered, threatening to go out.

  It hadn’t taken me long to know I needed to move whenever the shadow came. To escape.

  I shifted my weight from one claw to the other as I clung to the rock facing at the very top of the mountain. The one place I’d found where the shadow had yet to come.

  Purgatory, they had named this mountain, and it fit.

  From here, I could make out the blurry lights in the spot where I knew Imperium sat—where Claire would be. It was so close, yet so far away it was maddening.

  The thought of her was all that kept me from giving in to my dragon—from letting the human part of myself go. Letting the darkness win.

  I closed my eyes, remembering the first time she flew with me, arms tight around my neck. Everything felt right when she was near me. I felt whole.

  I stretched my wings, and let the wind catch beneath them as I replayed the memories over and over, hoping I would be able to keep them forever. I thought of her blue eyes, the way her dark hair danced in the wind, and of her smile that always seemed to warm me from the inside out.

  As long as I can remember Claire, I will be able to fight against the magic here, I promised myself.

  At that last moment, before I stepped into the forest, she’d promised she would find a way to save me. I was certain she didn’t know she was already doing exactly that—if only by replaying the picture of her face in my mind constantly to remind myself of what—and who—I truly was. Dragon, yes. But also a human. A human who was desperately trying to hold onto not only his mind, but also his heart.

  Even if my heart is still with her.

  The rumble of falling rocks made me open my eyes. They hadn’t fallen in front of me, but were sliding a distance away as something…or rather, someone, appeared, scrambling up the mountain.

  I screamed, letting out a shriek of rage that only a dragon could make when I saw him.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Victor said, hitting the side of his jeans with his hands to knock off the dirt. “I’m ecstatic to see you, too. I’d hoped you’d be gone by now. So much for that wish.”

  I’m dreaming. He should be dead. Why isn’t he dead? And how is it he’s still human? No human form can survive in this place. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but I’ve barely held onto my mind, much less a human skin. I shot flames at the ground in front of him, blocking him from coming any closer.

  “Ass,” he spat in true Victor fashion, dispelling any notion I was having a nightmare. He was indeed real…too real for my liking.

  Shit. I should have hit him, not the ground, I thought, taking another breath. I wouldn’t be so nice this time, I decided.

  “Before you get all pissy, you’re going to want to listen,” he said, scowling as he crossed his arms. “There’s a way out, but it will cost you. And just for the record, you don’t know everything. Not by a long shot.”

  “Trust me, we’ll find what we’re looking for in here,” Lacy said. I knew she meant to be convincing, but the way she was biting her lip made me wonder.

  “Okay,” I replied as I followed her into Imperium’s library. I was willing to give anything a shot. We needed information on how to break Logan free from the Forest of Lost Souls, and it made sense that the library would be the place to find what we needed.

  “Let me handle this,” she whispered. She pushed the big double doors open.

  We made our way toward the librarian’s desk where Aeolith watched us approach, her huge, bottomless black eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  “Hi, we need some of the journals from Imperium’s first years of operation,” Lacy said. “Where would we find those?” When the librarian only stared, she added quickly, “We’re doing research for history class. Tests are coming up, you know. We want to be ready.”

  After an excruciating moment of silence that made me wonder if the fairy was going to bother answering us at all, she finally spoke, though when she did, she bared her teeth, letting us know she wasn’t happy about telling us anything. “There is nothing up here that old,” she told us in her musical voice. “What you’re looking for is below.” She nodded to a narrow door in the corner of the room, half-hidden by a bookcase, a “Restricted” sign over the opening.

  “Is it all right if we go down there?” I asked, uncertain, half-hoping she’d offer to find the books for us, though by the scowl on her face, I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

  The librarian looked thoughtful for a second. “He has eaten recently. He should be…tolerable,” she said, more to herself. She looked directly at me. “Mind the bat.” She bit off each syllable as if to let me know she held an intense dislike for winged rodents. Then she turned her attention to her desk, pointedly ignoring us as we left and made our way to the corner.

  “Bats?” Lacy hissed under her breath. “I don’t like bats. I had a friend once who got one tangled in her hair. They had to cut it to get it out. I’ve heard they bite, too. And what if it’s still hungr
y?”

  Her voice trailed off as we started down the dank spiral staircase that led us farther and farther down.

  “It’s too well-lit for bats,” I said in an effort to be reassuring. Wherever we were going, there was electricity. Every few yards, a bare bulb was burning, giving enough light to show the way until we made it to the next. “And we aren’t going to be the only ones down here either, so that’s a plus.” Music blared a few feet below us.

  “Someone is a Backstreet Boys fan. I recognize the beat,” Lacy said as we reached the bottom step. The music abruptly ceased.

  The next thing I knew Lacy was grabbed, her head twisted to the side as some crazed lunatic poised a set of sharp fangs at her throat. His eyes were wild, feverish.

  In the instant before his teeth would have found the pulsing artery in her neck, he stopped, closed his mouth, and leaned closer to her, taking a quick sniff of the place he’d been ready to bite. “Ugh…sushi?” He grimaced. “No thank you!” And with that declaration, he slung my friend into me. We toppled to the ground in a heap.

  As we untangled and tried to sit up, he muttered, “We agreed no shifters. I can’t believe she would dare to send a mermaid to me.”

  He came closer, his shoes making thwacks against the cold stone as he advanced. All sense of impending doom melted in an instant.

  I bit my lip, trying not to smile. It was hard to be afraid of someone who wore bedazzled pink flip-flops, cut-off camo shorts, and a Justin Bieber shirt.

  He stopped short of me. Taking another deep breath, he ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “No, that one’s a shifter, too.” He sighed.

  “V-vampire…y-you’re a v-vampire,” Lacy stuttered, before spitting out the next sentence. “But vampires aren’t real.”

  For the first time, he actually seemed to see us, the feverish look leaving his eyes. “I can assure you, darling, I certainly am,” he said dryly, letting his fangs descend just enough to prove his point. Err, points.

  “But vampires don’t wear…” Lacy stopped, taking in his attire. “Stuff like that.”

  “Fashion, my dear…” he said with a long-suffering air and a roll of his eyes, “…is everything.” He placed his hands on his hips. “Now, it is my turn. What brings a mermaid and a…” He stopped, taking another experimental sniff of the air. “Beg your pardon, but what exactly are you? Your blood smells…different.”

  “Fox,” I said quickly. No way was I going to tell him what I truly was. “I’m a woodland shifter.”

  “I see,” he said in a tone that implied he didn’t really believe me, but, thankfully, he let it drop. “So what brings a mermaid and a woodland…” he paused. “What brings you down here? Surely Magda didn’t send you as a snack.”

  “The headmistress sends people down here for you to kill?” Lacy asked, her voice gone hoarse.

  “Don’t be silly!” he exclaimed. Realizing there was a wrinkle in his shirt that marred the bridge of Justin’s nose, he pulled on the hem to straighten it out. “She only sends the humans who have seen too much.” When he realized we were staring at him in shock, he rolled his eyes again, as if taking pains to explain what happened below the library would take forever. “I don’t kill them. I only take enough blood to keep me from going…batty.” He stopped, smiling as if enjoying some inside joke, and then continued, “The venom in my bite causes temporary amnesia, so it’s a win-win for us both.”

  “But I thought the witches were the ones in charge of all the magic?” I said, confused.

  “My darling girl,” he drawled. “Don’t you know? Vampires always do it so much better.”

  True, he was a vampire. And he was, without a doubt, crazy. But if we were going to find anything in this place, we might need his help. “Aeolith told us the school’s first journals were down here. That’s why we came.”

  “Ah yes, the grouchy fae sent you. She keeps the fancy books above, and I keep the moldy ones that no one wants below,” he said, finally understanding our mission. “You would be the first to venture down the steps for that reason. No one has asked for those records in years.” He turned and walked farther into the room, disappearing behind a wall of brightly colored beads that hung in strands from the ceiling.

  Lacy and I looked at one another and shrugged, then followed the slapping of his flip-flops.

  On the other side, the room was pure chaos. Old wooden bookshelves lined the walls. There must have been actual books on them somewhere, because he was busily moving what looked to be half his wardrobe off the shelf to unearth them, pitching shirts, pants, and even some sort of strange flowery hat to the floor in a jumble.

  He must not get much company, I thought, realizing Lacy and I were the subjects of dozens of eyes as we waited. Never had I seen so many posters and life-sized cutouts of singers and actors in my entire life. Lacy had been correct. The entire group of the Backstreet Boys were hanging out in all their cardboard glory with John Wayne near an old leather sofa. A poster for the new Wonder Woman movie was on the other side of the room.

  A jukebox sat in the center with a CD player on top of it. Our host was spanning several eras. Curious, I wondered how long he’d been down here as guardian to Imperium’s oldest books, but I decided to ask a different question first.

  “What’s your name?”

  At that, he stopped throwing things to the floor and turned.

  “I am Quinn,” he said, giving us a low, elaborate bow. “Keeper of dusty tomes, errant humans…” His gaze landed on the life-sized poster of Elvis hanging on the far wall. He smiled, a small trace of fang showing on his lip. “…and other stuff.”

  And with that, he spun around and began throwing clothes again.

  Lacy took a step back, as if more than ready to run now that the vampire’s back was turned. “Let’s get out of here,” she hissed under her breath. “He’s nuts.”

  “That may very well be true, but if he has what we need, we’re staying,” I whispered firmly.

  Realizing I was serious, she nodded and came to stand beside me.

  “Besides,” I added with a wry grin. “I don’t think you’re his type.”

  “Thank goodness for small miracles,” she muttered, her eyes still locked on the far side of the room, where a flurry of white floated and danced around the vampire like small, wispy angels as he continued to chuck things left and right.

  Feathers, I noted, taking in a ripped pillow that had been thrown in the last few moments.

  “Have a seat,” came the vampire’s voice from behind the growing stack of clothing on the floor. “I’ll be with you shortly.” His hand shot up and gestured to the already crowded sofa.

  Deciding it would be in our best interest to do as he asked, I sat down on the faded leather, nearly on top of one of the cutouts I’d seen earlier. “Beg your pardon,” I said, just in case our host was watching. Then I gave it a scoot so Lacy would be able to sit beside me.

  Begrudgingly, she did, though her eyes were locked on a laptop on an end table by the sofa.

  “He’s got internet,” she said in a voice that was a mixture of awe and jealousy.

  No one in Imperium had the luxury of technology…at least, not technology that connected us to the world outside the school. Other than the telephone in the headmistress’ office, I hadn’t seen anything that would suggest we weren’t completely cut off from the rest of the city.

  But she was right. Somehow, beneath the library, this vampire had managed to get something none of the rest of us had.

  I spotted a cord coming from a phone jack in the wall. It ran along the floor, and then up, connecting to the back of the laptop.

  “He has dial-up,” I said, astonished.

  “I didn’t think that was even still a thing,” Lacy said, leaning forward to take a closer look. “You’re right, though.” She pointed to the stack of mail-order catalogs on the opposite side of the end table. “I think he likes to shop.”

  “Finally!” Quinn’s voice tore our attention back to h
im as he appeared from behind the mound, a thick, worn book in his hands. “I should have remembered it was on that far side behind the velour Armani suit.”

  He glared at the cutout I’d moved so we could sit. “Honestly, John. You’re so stingy. The least you could do is move so I’d have room to sit with our guests, instead of hogging them all to yourself.”

  He stood there, as if waiting for it to do as he’d asked. After a long moment, Lacy reached out and gave the cutout a quick push that sent it off the side of the sofa.

  “Thank you,” Quinn addressed it, as if Lacy hadn’t touched it at all. “It’s about time you used your manners.” He looked at us. “I apologize. We don’t get many visitors, so when we do, everyone likes to jump in all at once.”

  He plopped down next to us, thrust the book into Lacy’s lap, then leaned forward and clasped his hands over his knees.

  Thick scars crisscrossed the skin around his wrists, wrapping their way up his arms. Something horrible had happened to him at some point. I wondered if it had occurred after he became a vampire, or before…while he was still human.

  That thought naturally brought on a host of others. How were vampires created, anyway? Were they born, like shifters, or bitten, like in the movies? Did they really take only blood to survive? And were stakes and sunlight truly lethal?

  My silent questions came to a halt when just as quickly as he’d sat down, he leapt back up, nose scrunched. He held his hand over his mouth. “I’m sorry. The smell is just too much,” he said, glaring at Lacy as if it were all her fault. He pulled a chair over to sit across from us. Taking an experimental breath, he nodded approvingly. “Much better.”