Initiation (33 page)

“What’s up, babe?”

“They’re here.”

The lights went off.

I heard the flapping of wings approaching the dance floor. Had it been a room filled with humans, everyone would be freaking out. But everyone was deathly quiet, transforming into their paranormal forms. Most of us could see better in the dark once we transformed.

Once I had transformed, I spotted Mason heading straight for me. Though I could smell the other four, they were still hidden in the crowd. Well, I had Quinn by my side, and Sienna and Jewel had marked me and given me the thumbs-up sign. Faustine, still in her human form, watched wide eyed. Martha had transformed. I felt like we could take them, no problem.

I had a feeling that the five were coming just for me, as Mason dove right into me. I flicked him away with such force that he went zooming into the far wall with a thump, rebounding and falling toward the floor. I didn’t get a chance to see what happened next as something jumped onto my back. My nose told me it was Tad. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Quinn battling it out with the other two weres–Andrew and Hank–and the twins had jumped on another–Jeremy. Tad had me in an iron grip from behind, and I couldn’t shake him off, but I kept trying to get a poke at him. Then, the rotter dug his fangs into my neck. Damn werewolf.

“Martha, help me get him off me!” I yelled, but then saw that she was helping Quinn.

The other students were all fixated on something beside me. The weight was suddenly lifted off my back, and I heard a loud thud as Tad hit the wall. I turned my head to see Faustine, fully transformed into her giant demon form. She looked flipping awesome. Awesomely dangerous. That’s whom everyone in the room was staring at.

Then, she disappeared. I’d half expected that, as it had become routine during her continued tests with Professor Bern over the last few weeks.

I spun and pounced on Hank. Martha had Jeremy under control. One by one, we chucked them against the wall to knock them out.

In the meantime, the other shifters in the room decided to join in the fight and started randomly attacking. The whole room was a bloodbath, torn limbs and scattered bodies everywhere. I searched for Martha and found her smacking a vamp. Grabbing her hand, I dragged her out the room, hoping that Quinn and the others would be okay.

T
he school had been in lockdown for the last twelve hours or so, ever since the dance.

I had no idea how it had all ended, having made a quick getaway to my room with Martha. Faustine, as I expected, had been fast asleep in my bed, wrapped up, as usual. I wondered about that–the way she was always meticulously tucked in after her episodes. It was strange. Normally, she just lay carelessly half covered when she slept–she liked having one foot peek out from under the covers. But not after she transformed. She was always swaddled like a baby.

Martha gasped when she saw Faustine on my bed. “Did you see her transform? I’ve never seen anything more awesome in my life! How did she do that? I want to be able to do that. And how did she get here?”

“Shush. Let her sleep. Yep, I saw. She is pretty spectacular.”

“She’s totally ruined her clothes, though. I mean, there is no way they would survive that.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Maybe that was one of the reasons she disappeared during the transformations. Because she would be naked when she transformed back. That would be embarrassing. That still didn’t explain why she didn’t seem to have any memory of it. Or did she, and she just didn’t want to fess up? And how did she do the whole disappearing trick? Even Professor Bern was stumped by it.

“Should we wake her up?” Martha asked.

“Not until we get some food for her. She’ll be ravenous when she wakes.”

“Look. There’s some food right there.” Martha pointed to my table.

And so there was, which was really strange, but even stranger was that the meat was still warm. Where did that come from? Surely, Faustine hadn’t brought it with her when she disappeared. No way.

“I brought some sustenance.” Jagger poked his head in the doorway. “I thought you might need it after what happened at the dance.” He walked in and put some plates containing freshly grilled steak down on the table. “Hmm. I see you brought some with you. In any case, here’s some more.” He glanced over at Faustine. “Transform?”

“Yes, she was simply awe–” Martha started in a way-too-friendly tone. I was still way pissed with Jagger to be all friendly with him, so I shot her the death glare, shutting her down.

“Oh, pardon me!” she said, surprised. “I’ll just hush for a while, then.”

“Yes,” I said coldly. And then I scowled at Jagger and turned even more icy. “Did you see what happened downstairs? Did you see us being attacked?”
If so, why didn’t you man-up and help us
?

“Uh oh,” Martha muttered under her breath.

Jagger ignored her. “Not the fight itself, but the aftermath. I went over with Frau Schmelder. It’s a mess. The entire staff is there cleaning up. I take it you guys left before it started?”

“Nope. I guess you really don’t know what happened.” I gave him the details. “Did you see Quinn, the twins, Chun, and McKenzie?” I suddenly realized I hadn’t seen Chun all evening.

“Quinn and the twins have been taken to the infirmary. Nothing major, they’ll be fine. I didn’t see the others, but that’s not surprising. It’s a crush of bodies down there, and I was just searching for you. Quinn told me that you’d taken off with Martha, so I grabbed some food and came up here.”

“Well, thank you. You can go now. I’m going to pop down to the infirmary to check on the others as soon as sleeping beauty gets up.”

“I can stay for a bit and walk down with you,” Jagger suggested.

“Nope. No need for that.” I pursed my lips, avoiding eye contact with him. I turned and looked down on Faustine. It was time to do the meat under the nose routine again.

“Cordelia, we need to talk.”

I spun and gazed into his pained eyes. I felt a twinge of his agony. “Maybe later,” I conceded.

“Okay. I’ll be back. Or maybe I’ll see you in the infirmary.” He pulled at the door handle. It didn’t move. He pulled harder and fiddled with the lock. “Your door seems to be stuck.”

I went over and tried the handle and lock. He was right.

Just then, the intercom speaker buzzed, and Frau Schmelder coughed into it. “Students, we’ve had a situation. The Academy is in lockdown. I don’t know how long it will last. Not long, hopefully. If any of you need food, call Mrs. Stone, and she’ll have it delivered to your room.” The speaker went silent.

“Jeez! That sucks.
Judge Beth
reruns anyone?” Martha sighed, picking up the television remote. “I hope the two of you aren’t going to be party poopers. Chill and have some fun.”

“You go ahead. I’m gonna wake up Faustine.”

“Why don’t you just let her sleep? It’s not like we can do anything anyway.”

“Yeah. But I don’t want her to get uncontrollably hungry. And since we’ve got all this food, we might as well eat.”

Ten minutes later, we were all sitting and eating, totally engrossed in
Judge Beth
. I wasn’t sure that it was appropriate for Faustine–that Judge had a potty mouth–but I couldn’t be bothered making a big deal of it.

Jagger sat on the bed beside me, uncomfortably close. I felt his every heartbeat, and I had the strongest urge to reach over and touch him.

So I did. It was just a whisper of a touch, my fingertips against his thighs. However, even that sent hot flames of desire through me, and I felt him respond. He glanced at me questioningly, but I pretended not to notice. I didn’t have an answer. I just couldn’t fight my desire. Still, it was time to put on the brakes. If I let my urges drive me, I’d be subjecting Faustine to something much more inappropriate than Judge Beth.

Keeping my eyes locked on the television, I fought my fingers as they surreptitiously moved up Jagger’s thigh. He let out a quiet groan and grabbed my hand, gripping it firmly as we finished watching the show.

The lockdown continued into the next morning. Thankfully, I was sprung from my room by Mrs. Stone, while Faustine, Jagger, and Martha were still fast asleep after a late-night marathon of
The Vampire Diaries
.

Frau Schmelder ignored me as I walked into her office with Mrs. Stone. She smiled at Mrs. Stone. “Thank you, Debbie. I’ll take it from here. Get the student council in order.” She turned to me, her expression back to grump city. “Cordelia, thank you for coming. Your parents will be here any minute. Help yourself to something to eat in the meantime. I’m going to get on with some work.”

My parents were coming? It must be bad. “Frau Schmelder, is Quinn okay?”

“He’s fine. I take it from what I saw on the surveillance video that he was collateral damage only. The shifters seemed to be aiming for you. If that’s not the case, I’ll have him brought up as well.”

“Yes. I’m fairly sure that I’m the one they wanted.”

“In that case, I’ll be happier waiting to talk to you after your parents arrive.” She peered into her notebook, rubbing her forehead.

Mom and Dad arrived twenty minutes later. Mom flung her arms around me while Dad shook Frau Schmelder’s hand and then hugged me.

The Smelt wore her pleasant expression again. “Thank you so much for coming. Please sit down. I know this is a terrible inconvenience, especially for you, Pierre.”

“No problem at all,” Dad assured her. “Cordelia is my priority.” I smiled. I knew that wasn’t really the truth, but it sure felt good to hear.

Mom patted my back. “So, what’s going on? The Academy is on lockdown? Is it the shifters?”

Frau Schmelder nodded. “It seems like it, from what I saw on the surveillance video, anyway. However, I need confirmation from Cordelia.” She looked at me.

I nodded. “Yeah. The fight was initiated by Tad and his pack, though it got totally out of hand with everyone joining in.”

“That’s important for me to be certain about. May I ask how you can be confident that it was started by Tad?”

“Well, one of his pack members started the whole thing. He attacked me. Until then, everyone was having fun dancing. After that, all hell broke lose.”

“One of his pack members? So not Tad himself?” Frau Schmelder looked to me for clarification.

“No, but Tad attacked Quinn right after.”

“What’s the name of the shifter who attacked you, the eagle?”