Demon Accords 8: College Arcane (7 page)

“Nah, are you crazy? She’s just a kid,” he
said with a sneer, giving me a nasty look before turning away and
leading his pack down the hall. The last wolf to leave was the kid
that had waved to Jetta and Mack, and he looked highly disturbed by
the events. He paused, giving me a nod before following the
others.

“Always protecting the lasses, huh Declan?”
Ryanne asked me, one pretty eyebrow arched.

I let the power I was holding flow down
through my legs and into the concrete. The lights flickered back
on, one florescent tube at a time.

“Actually, I think I was protecting him,” I
said, studying Toni and her dangerous necklace.

“That’s why ye were draining the bejesus out
of the lecky, jest to give the boyo a pat on his back is it?”
Ryanne asked.

One of the twins was looking at the lights
coming on, bewildered, and the other was staring at Toni.

“Holy shit, look at that necklace,” she said,
reaching for it.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I warned,
but it was too late. Her hand got almost six inches away and a fat
spark jumped the gap. She yanked her hand back fast and shook it
out.

“Fuck. What the hell was that?” she said.

“Toni? Declan? Everything alright out here?”
Gina Velasquez suddenly asked from the door of her apartment.

“Yeah, Gina. Toni was meeting some of the
students,” I said, meeting Gina’s eyes directly.

“Oh. Toni, why don’t you come in now,” she
said, after a glance at the witches and nodding hello.

“Okay, Mama. See you, Declan,” she said, then
skipped back to her mother, the two of them disappearing into the
apartment.

“What the hell was that? With the necklace?”
the blonde who had gotten shocked asked.

“She’s Chris Gordon’s goddaughter. The
necklace is strongly warded to protect her,” I said.

“Oh. That has to be the most powerful
Artifact I’ve ever seen. Don’t you think, Brit?” the blonde said,
looking at her sister for confirmation.

“Oh, where me manners. Declan O’Carroll, this
is Erika and Britta Boklund. Britta is me roomie. Declan’s the only
male witch at the school,” Ryanne said.

“Did you do that with the electricity?”
Britta asked me, not bothering to say hello. “Or did the
necklace?”

“I suspect that be Declan. Eh, ye mucker?”
Ryanne asked me with a smile.

“Yeah, well, what do you expect? That
Delwood’s a freaking monster,” I said.

“Yes, isn’t he just a magnificent beast?” the
aggressive twin, Erika asked, smiling and looking down the hall in
the direction he’d gone. Her sister was frowning at me.

“You blacked out most of the building,” she
commented.

“Well, it’s back up now, so no harm done,
right? Anyway, nice to meet you. Maybe I’ll see you all later,” I
mumbled, turning to look for my dropped books.

“We’re in a school of less than fifty kids.
Of course you’ll see us, genius,” Erika snarked. Her sister was
still studying me, and Ryanne was grinning.

“Right then, see ya, D,” Ryanne said, as all
three turned and headed toward the dining room, shopping bags in
tow.

“Did he really black out the whole building
by himself?” I heard Britta ask as they disappeared.

I collected my books and stood up, stopping
when I spotted Caeco watching me from the stairwell.

“Making new friends?” she asked, curious.

“I don’t know if the twins are really friend
material,” I replied.

“What about the Irish witch?”

“I met her once at the restaurant. Couple of
months ago. Passing through with her sisters,” I said, carefully,
watching her.

“Uh huh. And now she’s here. Funny that. And
what about Delwood? I passed him and his minions in the stairwell.
He was cursing about, and I quote ‘a faggot witch boy.’ Is it
imperative that you always make enemies with the biggest
bully?”

“It’s kind of my thing,” I said,
shrugging.

“Well, if that’s your thing, then I want my
axe. Let me have the keys to Beast. Please,” she added, holding out
her hand.

“You think it’s a good idea bringing it in?”
I hesitated.

“Oh please. Did you read the rules? It said
no firearms or explosives. Nothing about axes or knives. Have you
seen what our roommates are packing?”

Jetta and Mack each had a duffle bag under
their beds that were stuffed with machetes, knives, throwing stars,
and even a spear, at least in Mack’s case.

“They’re re-plating all their blades with
silver and they offered to plate any of our stuff too. So let me
get my axe, please,” she said.

“Okay, here ya go,” I said, handing her the
keys. She took them with one hand while her other hand grabbed my
shirt and yanked me down to her level. Smiling, she planted a kiss
on my lips, then looked me in the eye.

“When the lights went out, I knew it was
you.”

“Well, Levi is always saying
bring enough
gun.
So I did, sort of,” I answered.

“Werewolves are incredibly tough. Next time,
black out the city,” she said, giving me one more quick kiss before
heading out the door. She was wearing black leggings and a heavy
green sweatshirt and her lithe stride trapped my eyes.

“And I know you’re looking at my butt,” she
said without turning around as she pushed the glass door open. The
guard looked amused at her comment, glancing my way with raised
eyebrows. I grinned back at him and shrugged, then headed
upstairs.

Chapter 7

Six in the morning is a really stupid time of
day for a class. Any class. It’s a horrible time of the day, made
worse by the fact that in order to get there on time, you actually
have to get up at like five-thirty.

About forty of us sat around the floor of the
gym, waiting for our instructor, who walked in precisely at six
o’clock. Wearing pressed khaki tactical pants, black combat boots,
and a sprayed-on black t-shirt, he looked ridiculously alert and
competent… and dangerous.

“Ah, my little lambs. On your feet. Now,” he
said, never raising his voice yet somehow sounding completely
badass.

“This is our first day, so you get an easy
one. The only easy class we’ll hold. Wednesday, I expect you all in
workout clothes, not street clothes, as we’ll begin to learn some
combat skills
after
a light warm up that I learned in BUD/S.
But today, since you showed up dressed in everyday clothes, we’ll
conduct a little exercise. Everybody drop a squat on the
floor.”

Having just climbed to our feet, we all
basically collapsed back to the hard concrete.

“The difference between mankind in all his
forms and the rest of the animal kingdom is our big brains. It’s
what sets us apart from the predators of the prehistoric world.
Somewhere along the way, some of us became more predatory than
others. So tell me, lamblings, what’s gonna keep a big bad
supernatural predator from munching down on you succulent little
morsels?” he asked, thoroughly creeping me out. Lamblings?

“I’d like to see the predator that would try
and chew on me,” Delwood said right on cue.

“Well boy, I can think of a half dozen off
the top of my head that are either bigger than you or outnumber
you.”

Oddly enough, Ashley was nodding but stopped
when she saw me looking her way. She gave me a little shrug and
turned back to watch Mr. Jenks. He in turn made eye contact with
both of us, our little exchange fully noted.

“Miss Moore here has seen just such
creatures, have you not?” he asked her.

“Yes sir,” she said.

“And how would Mr. Singer here stack up?”
Jenks asked, pointing at Delwood.

“Ah, about a mouthful sir,” she replied,
looking first at Jenks, then Delwood, and finally the concrete
floor in front of her.

“A mouthful, she says. And she’s right. The
biggest individual in this academy and he’s no more than a
mouthful. So what protects us? What keeps us alive?”

“Our ability to talk or negotiate?” Ashley
asked.

“In your specific case and where you have
been, that works. But how would the rest of us fare?” he asked
her.

She glanced around, her gaze on Caeco last,
before coming back to him. “Some would be okay, I think.”

“And why do you think that?”

“I don’t know… maybe because they seem really
prepared, really capable,” she said.

“Ahh. Prepared. Anyone know what the Latin
word
parabellum
means?” he asked.

“To prepare for war,” Caeco said.

“Exactly, Miss Jensen. To prepare for war.
That, little lamblings, is what will separate you from the meat.
Now, the whole purpose of this class is to prepare you,
essentially, for war, with the hopes that you never need it. That
will mean learning new skills, exercising those soft bodies, and
most of all, preparing your brains. You need to be aware of your
surroundings at all times, watching for dangers and thinking what
your responses will be to those dangers. But let me ask you this…
do you walk around naked?”

The class all looked confused, finally
muttering out a disjointed series of no’s.

“Right. You go out with shoes on your feet,”
he said, holding up one combat boot, then using it to nudge Erika’s
high-heeled gold glittery wedge. He frowned at the shoe and then at
her.

“You go out with clothes,” he said, tugging
his khakis before looking at another girl’s wispy skirt.

“So, what you have on you is another form of
preparation for the big, bad world. Turn out your pockets. Go
ahead. Make a pile in front of you and let’s see what you’ve
selected to help you make your way through the world today.”

We looked around at each other before slowly
starting to pull stuff from our pockets.

I had a piece of chalk, a Sharpie, my cell
phone, the keys to the Beast, my wallet, some cash ($7), my school
ID, and a pocket knife. Some kids had just their school IDs and
their phones. Most of the girls had some kind of lip-gloss or
lipstick.

Very quickly we were done… most of us. The
sound of clinking objects caught my attention and I turned to look
at Caeco, Mack, and Jetta. The piles in front of them were huge and
growing by the moment.

Pocket knives, disposable lighters, mini
tools, several brands of tactical pens—you know, the kind that will
write upside down in the bottom of a swimming pool and can punch
through the top of a can—small containers, ziplock baggies, razor
blades, small first aid kits, at least one tube of super glue,
little flashlights, a roll of quarters, and the list went on.

Jenks was parked in front of the three,
looking through their piles and nodding to himself or frowning at
this or that item. When Jetta reached up under her shirt to her bra
and pulled out a little knife, he took note, which would have been
creepy except his eyes were glued to the knife. Immediately, he
held out his hand to see it, then held it up to the class.

“Very nice, Miss Sutton. Class, this little
beauty is called a Hideaway Knife. That’s its brand name. Designed
by an engineer who discovered she didn’t like being unarmed…ever.
See the loop where the handle should be? Unless I miss my guess,
it’s been custom fitted to Miss Sutton’s first two fingers.”

He gestured at her to raise her arm and then
fit the knife over her fingers, leaving her with a steel loop over
her middle and index fingers, with a two-inch bladed triangular
razor edge jutting out from the looped handle.

“Miss Sutton wasn’t born with claws—so she
bought some. And they can’t get knocked out of her hand; she can
handle things while wearing them and they can be hidden virtually
anywhere—and she’s plated them in silver,” he said, eyeing the
blade closely.

His hand touched the paracord bracelet on her
wrist and he jerked back as if burned. Looking at his fingers then
her bracelet, he nodded.

“Tell us what you have here, Miss Sutton,” he
said, looking pleased, as if being burned by a student was a good
thing.

“Well, these are paracord, so I can use them
for all kinds of things in an emergency. The one on my right hand
has a survival kit woven into it. You know: fishhook, line, wire,
can-opener, fire flint, and even a little handcuff key. And I’ve
modified both of them,” Jetta said.

“Yes, you have. What have you added?”

“Well, I wove an additional wire into them,
made of silver, and I threaded a number of different-sized silver
beads onto it.”

“What good are they?” he asked.

“The beads and wire make a pretty good
protection from getting my wrists grabbed, by any… well… by any
weres,” she said, flashing a defiant expression.

“Weres or vampires, eh Miss Westing?” he
said, turning to the pale vampire chick who was lurking, er,
sitting in the corner of the room, a noticeable gap between her and
her neighbors. She gave him a cool nod.