Shifter’s University Read online

  “No!” The name of my foster brother automatically had me shaking my head. Blake was the one person in the world I trusted, and we were closer than blood siblings could be. Blake was my protector, my confidante, my one sure thing in the world, and, other than Hadley, my only friend.

  Unfortunately, he’d been gone more than usual lately.

  “Well?” Hadley asked, tapping her foot. “I’m waiting. I’m not going to touch that spell until you tell me, which means I’ll have to start completely over in a few minutes if you don’t spill it.”

  I frowned and rolled my eyes, still pulling at my sleeve as if I could make the bruises and this inquisition go away if I kept trying to hide them.

  “It was John.”

  Those three words were enough. Her eyes narrowed, and she gave a quick nod. My foster father had a reputation for being a rough individual…a rough, drunk individual.

  When she began working on her spell again, the words just kept spilling from my mouth. “I was late getting home yesterday, and he’d been drinking. He wanted to know why I hadn’t cooked supper and cleaned the house, then he started cursing and pinned me to the wall.” I stopped and took a breath. My foster mother died years before, mere days after I moved in. Ever since, I’d been expected to take over the housework and cooking. Cleaning wasn’t that big of a deal. Cooking tended to be problematic, though, since there was rarely anything to eat in the house because his money went straight to booze.

  “Where was Blake?” Hadley’s tone was sharp, and though she hadn’t looked up from her work, I knew she was scowling. In her eyes, the apple never fell far from the tree. Whatever scum my foster father was, she expected his son to follow in his footsteps.

  But Blake wasn’t anything like him, and if he’d been there, he would have defended me. He’d taken fists to the face for me before, and he would have stood up for me.

  Lately, though, he’d been going out with new friends and wouldn’t tell me anything about them. I was worried he was getting into drugs or a gang.

  “He wasn’t there.” My stomach growled, evidence of not having eaten anything all day.

  She nodded, letting the matter drop. “There is leftover pizza in the fridge. Help yourself,” Hadley said easily, as if my eating at her house was the most natural thing in the world. It had happened quite a bit lately, and I found myself wondering if my best friend was what was keeping me alive.

  Once I scarfed down two pieces of pepperoni, I glanced at the clock and groaned. “I have to go. If I don’t get some of the house picked up before he gets back from work, it will be a rerun of yesterday.”

  Hadley finished funneling the goo off the cookie sheet and into a vial. She then looked up to give me a sly smile that made me wonder if she knew more than she was letting on. “Hopefully things will change soon.”

  “Yeah.” I wasn’t feeling the hope she did, but I tried to sound optimistic.

  A different pot boiled over behind her, filling the air with a weird pink smoke. “Crap,” Hadley exclaimed, whirling around to pull it off the burner.

  “I’ll see you later,” I called, letting myself out the door.

  Her answering “Okay,” followed me as I walked down the front steps. After I got into Blake’s old truck, I headed home, thankful he’d left me the keys and saved me the walk.

  When I pulled into the driveway, I felt as if I were being watched. The fine hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention, and my palms started to sweat as I got out. I took a quick look at the alley across the street before darting into the house.

  I’d left a small part out of the story I’d told Hadley of the night before. I hadn’t told her I’d shifted to my fox or about the transformer exploding, which knocked out the electricity and gave me a chance to escape. Nor had I shared my feelings I was being watched.

  Once inside, I slid the deadbolt and took a deep breath. I hadn’t been here since John tried to strangle me. If the disaster area of a living room was any indication, he hadn’t bothered cleaning anything up at all when I’d left.

  I sighed and began picking up the empty beer bottles and trash that littered the floor, feeling every bit like a fairy tale Cinderella with an evil stepfather.

  When the doorbell rang an hour later, I jumped, unaccustomed to hearing the jaunty little tune. No one in their right mind visited this place, not even door-to-door salesmen. I peeked through the little glass peephole in the door, curious.

  A petite woman who looked to be in her late forties stood there, her brown-and-gray streaked hair piled on her head in perfectly shaped ringlets. In her hands was a stack of pamphlets.

  Ah, Jehovah’s Witness. She rang the doorbell again and waited patiently, as if she’d stand there all day if she must.

  “We aren’t interested, but thank you, anyway,” I said loudly, knowing she would hear me through the door. “This isn’t a wonderful neighborhood, so it’s best if you move on,” I added, hoping she’d take the hint and go.

  “I will go as soon as I speak to you, Claire,” she said primly, her gaze locked onto mine through the hole, as if she could see me. “I have something you’ll want to see.”

  I froze. Who was this woman and how did she know my name?

  “Unless you’d like to wait for your foster father to arrive, but then, he might not like what I have to say,” she added, still staring at me through the peephole.

  I wasn’t sure why I did it, but my hand reached up, unlocked the deadbolt, and opened the door.

  The woman smiled and reached out with her free hand to shake mine. “Now, that’s much better. It’s good to meet you, Claire. My name is Magda Herensy. I am the headmistress of Imperium University.”

  Then she nodded toward a young man I hadn’t noticed. He was tall with lean muscles that were clearly visible under his blue shirt. Dark hair fell into his eyes, and I noticed his attention was completely on me as the woman spoke again. “And this is Logan. Might we come inside for a talk?”

  I was surprised when the door opened. Honestly, I thought it would have taken longer to convince Claire to let us in—or at least take as long as it had for me to convince the headmistress to let her enroll into Imperium. I’d spent almost an hour pointing out every reason Claire should be at the university, and the headmistress had repeatedly turned me down, replying that a shifter who revealed herself to an obvious drunk was not a liable threat to shifters as a whole.

  Until I told her the girl’s name. Claire Pratten. Abruptly, the headmistress was ready to offer her a scholarship, and it left me wondering what the headmistress knew that I didn’t. Who was this girl that the mere mention of her name made Magda Herensy change her mind?

  Claire stood in the open doorway. For the first time, I got a good look at her. The first thing that struck me were her eyes. They were a beautiful shade of blue that reminded me of the sky I loved so much. If I stared at them for very long, I would easily get lost in them. Hair so dark it was nearly black swirled around her shoulders in a silky wave. She stood in a defensive position, arms over her chest, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  She may have opened the door, but that didn’t mean she trusted us…at least not yet.

  I did not expect her to stand to the side and nod. “Come on in.”

  I followed the headmistress into the living room and sat down beside her on the couch, hoping we looked harmless enough. Claire leaned on the edge of a chair, not fully committing to sitting down with us.

  Easier to run away if you’re already standing, I thought as I watched the headmistress hand Claire the pamphlet that explained about the school.

  The human version, I noticed. The one explaining the benefits of enrolling in the state’s leading school. It stated the statistics of students who moved on to become something greater. It also told of the school offering not only college courses, but high school courses to gifted students who chose to get an early start in higher education. All the hum-drum, plain facts. Nothing more. It even showed a picture of the front of the scho
ol, but it didn’t give the reason why the main building was curved like a shield as if to protect those in the dorms behind it.

  There wasn’t a shifter’s version of that pamphlet—nothing that told of the school’s true purpose. Nothing that hinted at the skeleton crew of teachers who taught during the summer for the students who were less than normal—and more than human.

  A small line furrowed between Claire’s brows as she read it. No doubt she was wondering what Imperium had to do with her.

  “I don’t understand,” she said, proving me right.

  “That isn’t the shifter’s version,” I replied without thinking.

  She looked up at me, her eyes narrowing into suspicious slits. “Pardon me?”

  “What Logan means is that Imperium University is a school for those who are gifted—those who have the ability to vertō, or shift,” the headmistress explained. “We help those who have difficulties blending into human society. All it takes is a single shifter to reveal us to the human race, and it could spell disaster for us all. We have discovered over the years that those who do not have magic do not understand it. And humans have a flawless record of destroying what they do not understand.” The headmistress’s voice took on a hard note on her last words.

  Some of the suspicion melted from Claire’s eyes, but not enough. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. There is no such thing as a shapeshifter.”

  “That, my dear, is where you are wrong. I believe you are kitsune, one who turns into a fox. But there are many types of shapeshifters.” The headmistress turned to me. “Logan, please demonstrate.”

  The living room was hardly big enough for my dragon, so I chose to half shift instead, letting scales cover my upper body to give her a good idea of what I could become. My skull widened and my facial bones realigned as my eyes slanted and my teeth grew to points. Now a dragon from the neck up, I let out a long, easy breath, sending out a small flame that heated the air around us.

  Claire’s eyes grew large. She stared at me for a moment before turning her attention to the headmistress. “Are you something scaly, too?”

  The headmistress laughed. It was the first time I’d actually heard her do such a thing, and it caught me off guard. As I shifted back, my flame danced around a candle on the coffee table before us, scorching the top and lighting the wick at the same time.

  The headmistress stood and walked over to the far side of the living room where there was a large empty space. She closed the blinds on the window and turned around. The air crackled with magic as the small woman disappeared, leaving a large mythological creature in her place.

  “You’re a…” Claire broke off, words completely escaping her.

  “Griffin,” I finished as she stared openmouthed at the creature whose body was that of a lion and whose head, wings, and front talons belonged to an eagle. Claire’s hands tightened on the pamphlet, knuckles going white.

  The headmistress’s tail twitched, narrowly missing the chair sitting by the far wall. We were lucky the room wasn’t any smaller, or we would have had to risk going outside to demonstrate our abilities, which would have proved interesting since the shields wouldn’t have been there to protect us so close to the house.

  Claire was still silent, her gaze locked on the griffin. As if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, the headmistress shifted back and came to sit beside me again. There was complete silence for a moment, then Claire began fiddling with the pamphlet.

  “I won’t be able to come. I don’t have any money for tuition.” The excuse sounded lame, even to me. She was searching for an excuse to get rid of us.

  “I am here to offer you a full scholarship,” the headmistress replied easily. “Should you decide to come to Imperium, everything you need will be provided. I have already spoken with your social worker and cleared it with the state, so the choice is yours.”

  “Oh.” Claire seemed at a loss for words. Then a question appeared in her eyes. “How did you know I was a shifter, much less a fox?”

  “We have our ways,” the headmistress replied, then paused, before adding, “I believe a certain witch may have alerted us to your existence. You have a friend in the coven.”

  Understanding dawned and Claire smiled as she whispered, “Hadley.” Then the smile disappeared and she went completely still for a long moment.

  I wanted to snap, “So are you coming or not?” but the headmistress spoke first.

  “We will leave you to think it over. Sleep on it. If you choose to come, there will be a taxi here in the morning at eight o’clock to bring you to the school.”

  Not the words I would have chosen, I thought irritably as we stood to leave. If she had seen what I had the night before when Claire’s foster dad had grabbed her, she would have been more insistent on getting an answer right now.

  “Thank you,” Claire replied in a soft voice as she walked us to the door. “I will think about it.”

  And just like that, the door closed quickly behind us and we were outside, while Claire was still inside. Irritated, I blew out a long puff of smoke.

  “For one who has been at Imperium so long, you should have better control,” the headmistress informed me as we walked across the street to the alley. “You should think with your head, not that of a dragon. It would be a shame for you to come so far and fail now.”

  I flinched, knowing all too well the implications of what she was saying. There was one thing the headmistress hadn’t told Claire. While Imperium was dedicated to saving shifters, occasionally there would be one who could not be saved. To fail would be that person’s end, for the safety of the majority would always overrule the needs of the few.

  I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” I wouldn’t fail, but the part of me that was my dragon still wanted to stay there—to watch after Claire. “If it is all right, I’d like to watch for a bit, in case she comes out looking for us.” The headmistress stopped mid-step, and stared at me. “In case she has more questions she needs answered,” I added hastily.

  She looked as if she was ready to tell me no. “Very well. But stay hidden until it is obvious that she is looking for you.” She grabbed my arm and I felt the bite of a talon, proof her griffin was just below the surface.

  Look who should have better control, I thought.

  “But you do not interfere, no matter what happens, when her foster family comes home. It is her choice to make, and she will make it on her own. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.” I resisted the urge to flex my hand as she turned loose.

  “Be back when the star lights.” With that, she shifted. Her griffin form launched into the sky, disappearing within mere seconds.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted movement. A guy was walking up the sidewalk to the house. He looked like a younger version of the man who had strangled Claire the night before. Without knocking, he turned the knob and walked in.

  Star be damned, I thought. I’ll be back when I’m ready to come back. And if Claire needs help, I’ll be here to give it to her.

  As soon as the door closed, I shut my eyes and willed myself to take a deep breath. My heart was pounding, and I could feel myself losing control. My brain was running in circles, trying to make sense out of the last few minutes. Who were these people and how did they know what I was? How many other shifters were there in the world? Did I dare to even think about leaving?

  Yes, I dared. There were only two things keeping me from packing my bags and being ready for that taxi when it came. The first was the one thing that had kept me here, instead of taking my chances of living in the streets. Blake was the only family I had and I wouldn’t leave him. The second thing keeping me here…

  The door opened behind me, and I yelped in surprise.

  “Blake,” I exclaimed, running straight into his arms.

  Startled, he patted me on the back. “I know I’ve been gone for a couple of days, but I didn’t know I was this missed,” he joked. Then, his hand stilled on my back. “Hey…hey, what’s w
rong, Claire?”

  Gently, he pried me off him and looked down, his worried brown eyes taking in every inch of my face…no doubt looking for the bruises that might have occurred in his absence.

  “What’s going on? Why are you shaking?” When I didn’t answer immediately, he took me by the hand, led me to the couch, and sat down beside me. “Tell me what he did to you.”

  He being his father, I knew.

  “Nothing,” I lied. I knew that there would be a big blow up whenever my foster dad made it home if Blake knew he’d gotten rough. My eyes landed on the pamphlet on the coffee table and I picked it up, hands still trembling as I handed it to him. “They came by today and offered me a full scholarship.”

  Blake let out a low whistle as he thumbed the pages. “Imperium University. I’m impressed. They only take the best for scholarships, I hear. You’re going, right?” He looked up at me. “You would be crazy not to.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Your life will completely change.”

  You can say that again.

  “Plus, it would get you out of here.” He glanced around the living room. “You would be safer there.”

  That’s up for debate. I thought about the griffin headmistress and the cute guy who scorched the top of the candle, simply by breathing.

  “But what about you?” I asked, coming to the reason I didn’t want to leave. “You’re the only family I have. What will happen to you if I go?” Sure, I wasn’t exactly his protector, but…

  “I’ll be all right. I’ve been planning on telling you something, anyway. Seems like now is the perfect time,” he said, taking one of my hands in his.

  Bad news. It’s always bad news when he does this, my brain screamed. The last time he took my hand was three months ago when he found our cat dead in the street.

  “I’m planning on moving out in a few weeks. I’m eighteen now, and Dad can’t stop me.” He hesitated. “I didn’t want to leave you behind, and was trying to get them to let me bring you.”