Paranormal Public (Paranormal Public Series) (13 page)

Sip grinned and I rolled my eyes. “Now we just have to get the magic out of you,” said Sip to me.

“Yeah, well, apparently that’s Keller’s job,” I muttered.

“Do you think Keller’s cute?” Sip asked suddenly. They had some second session classes together, so she spent a lot of time with him.

“He’s easily the most beautiful guy here,” said Lisabelle. “And that includes all the vampires and pixies. It even includes Cale, despite what Camilla wants everyone to think.”

I cleared my throat. “He’s alright,” I said. “Cute” wasn’t the word I would have used to describe him; neither was “beautiful.” But did I think he was attractive? Yes, yes I did.

“He’s a fallen angel, you know,” said Sip. “From one of the purest and most famous families.”

“So?” I asked.

“So, he’s expected to marry another fallen angel and continue the line,” she explained.

“Did you want to marry him?” I asked. I was getting irritated, but I wasn’t sure why.

Sip grinned. “Nope, but I’d do other stuff with him.”

Lisabelle laughed.

“Where are we going?” I asked, pushing my brown hair out of my face. The wind had picked up and my hair kept breaking free of its ponytail.

“Towards the woods,” said Lisabelle. “It’s beautiful, and it’s a shame you haven’t seen it.”

Lisabelle pointed ahead of us. I looked in the direction of her finger.

We were heading straight towards the pond and the President’s offices. The moon, which was nearly full, shone down, lancing a streak of pearl through the black water.

“We are breaking the rules and you are taking us towards the President’s office,” Sip said. “What, are you just trying to save her time when she gets around to punishing us?”

Lisabelle just grinned.

“They use it for Dash some years,” Sip added, pointing to the pond. “I think this year Dash is on the field, though.”

“What’s Dash?” I asked as we walked closer to the water.

“What?” Lisabelle and Sip cried at the same time.

“I keep forgetting she has no idea about paranormals,” Lisabelle muttered, shaking her head. “Complete shame.”

“It’s not my fault,” I retorted.

“No one said it was,” said Sip quickly. “We just forget.”

“What’s Dash?” I asked again. “What kind of game can move around?”

“It’s a school-wide competition that’s held every year. It’s an obstacle course that every student who enters gets to go through. The best student from each dorm then competes, and the student who wins that wins all sorts of honor and gifts for the dorm,” Lisabelle explained. “It’s a really big deal. The student who wins is a hero. And the obstacle course can be put anywhere, so some years it’s here.”

“An obstacle course?” I asked skeptically.

“Yeah!” said Sip. “Any student can enter his or her name at the start of term. You do the course three times, and your best time gets entered into the school-wide competition. Then the best four individual times compete in the finals.”

“I wish I could enter,” I said. I pulled the scarf closer around my neck, trying to protect myself from the wind.

“Yeah,” said Sip chewing her lower lip. “It’s too bad that since you’re on probation you can’t.…”

“Oh, well, I’d be no good at an obstacle course anyway,” I said, lifting my shoulders. I didn’t want them to know how disappointed I was. I don’t even know why I was disappointed. I wasn’t athletic; I’d never competed in anything. But somehow, navigating an obstacle course to compete for school-wide honor sounded fun. Plus, my friends were excited about it.

“When’s the first competition?” I asked.

“This weekend,” said Lisabelle. We had come to a stop in front of the water and were all just taking in the breathtaking view in front of us. I loved water and this lake was the prettiest I’d ever seen. “We’re both doing it. You have to come and cheer Airlee on.”

“Yeah,” I said. I kicked a pebble and waited until I heard it splash. “Great.”

Lisabelle cocked her head. “Do you hear that?”

Sip and I both quieted to listen. Murmurs. Voices. People were coming towards us.

Sip’s purple eyes grew huge and alarmed. She grabbed my arm and the three of us started running. If I got caught roaming the grounds at night after we’d been warned not to do just that, the very least we’d get is detention, and I would probably get expelled, since you couldn’t put someone on probation who was already on it.

The three of us raced for cover. We dashed into the closest building.

It wasn’t until we were inside and had slammed the door behind us that we realized our mistake.

We were in the offices of the President.

I felt like I’d just swallowed a rock. It hadn’t been long since I’d been there, but somehow the building was different at night. Any of the friendly charm that had been there during the day was replaced by shadows. The only light was a lamp that burned at the far end of the hall. My eyes were still adjusting to the dark and I could barely see my friends.

Every second that ticked past I expected someone to come through the door, saying that they’d seen us running and that we were finished.

“Think we’re safe?” asked Lisabelle in my ear. Her breath tickled my skin.

At the sound of her voice I jumped, and she was forced to put her hand on my shoulder.

“Calm down or you’ll get us caught,” she hissed.

I nodded, telling myself to take deep breaths. I wasn’t going to get expelled when I hadn’t even been there a week. I wasn’t. Was I?

Sip looked upset and was chewing her lip. I could tell she thought this was a terrible idea.

“We have to get out of here,” she said, her voice barely audible.

“And go back out there to get caught?” demanded Lisabelle, “No thank you.” I could just imagine her eyes snapping in the dark.

“So what do we do?” I demanded.

“Wait,” said Lisabelle, shrugging. In silhouette I could see her folding her arms over her chest and leaning against the wall.

“I tell you it’s not good,” a muffled voice said from down the hall. I could see where it was coming from and it made me feel queasy. The light in the President’s office was still on. We had thought that the building was empty, but there were other people in it with us. We weren’t alone.

“We’re dead,” said Sip, putting a hand on either side of her face. I could see her pale hair illuminated by the moonlight. It was trembling.

“Shut UP,” Lisabelle hissed. She crept closer to the door the voices had come from. Sip and I tried to pull her back towards us, sure that at any second the President’s door would be flung open and we’d be caught. But she ignored us.

Now that I was listening, the conversation behind the door was clearly audible.

“The demons are growing in strength. They are even trying to penetrate the walls of Public,” said a female voice I didn’t recognize.

Another voice, male this time, said, “That’s nonsense. They aren’t that strong.”

“Of course they are. Why wouldn’t they be when our defenses are down?” snapped the first female voice.

“Our defenses are not down.” That was the President.

“Yes, they are. And now they are going to be permanently,” said the first voice.

“Just because we do not have an elemental to complete the Power of Five does not mean we are defenseless,” said the President.

“We should have protected them better,” said another voice, muffled.

“We tried to protect them, but we couldn’t force anyone to do anything they didn’t want to do,” said the President. “We can’t save everyone.”

“There have to be some out there,” said another voice. “Somewhere.”

“Enough,” cut in a man’s voice. It was harsh and grating. “Demons are everywhere. They are attacking paranormals across the country. Their confidence is growing by the day, by the hour. As long as we do nothing to stop them they will continue to kill us one by one.”

“We could call the paranormals in. We are safer together. They would be safer here, at Public.” That was the first female voice again.

“You think Public is safe?” the man spat out. “What do you think those light flickers and trembles mean? That the electricity is cutting in and out? No, they mean that the demons are getting closer to breaching our defenses.”

I tried to swallow the rock lodged in my throat. The President was having a conversation with at least three other people, and they were talking about demons attacking paranormals. And not just any paranormals. The demons were trying to attack Public. I felt a stabbing fear radiate out from my stomach. Seeing the hellhound at my house had been bad enough, but I didn’t think I could take seeing demons overrun Public.

“Well, well, well,” said Professor Zervos’s voice behind me. “What have we here? Students out of bed at night, I see.”

We were caught.

I turned around to look into the cold black eyes of Professor Zervos.

“Just what do you three think you are doing?” he asked, his voice sounding silky and dangerous.

Before Lisabelle could say something that would get us in even more trouble, the door to the President’s office came flying open.

“What’s going on here?” Her eyes locked on the three of us, cowering in the shadow of Professor Zervos, and her brow puckered. I could see dark circles under her eyes that hadn’t been there the last time I’d seen her. She was tired.

“I found these students eavesdropping on your conversation,” explained Professor Zervos. “In your offices. I was handling the situation.”

The President looked at Professor Zervos. “If they were listening in at my door then I should be the one to handle the situation, don’t you think?”

Professor Zervos let out a noise that sounded like a balloon popping.

“You three, come in,” she said. We started to follow her into the room, with Professor Zervos bringing up the rear until the President said, “No, Thads, not you.” I wasn’t sure who she was talking to until Professor Zervos came to a halt. I could see his nostrils flaring as he tried to get control of his rage.

“Fine,” he snarled. He turned on his heel and stalked off.

With a thin smile, the President opened the door for us and we walked in. I was surprised to see that the room was empty.

“Didn’t you hear voices just a second ago?” I muttered to Sip.

“Quiet,” she hissed. “You too,” she said, glaring at Lisabelle.

“Please sit down,” said the President, gesturing toward the open chairs. “I do believe you have some explaining to do.”

She settled into her own chair, cradling a cup of what looked like tea.

I wondered what exactly was going on. The last time I’d been in this room I’d been threatened within an inch of my life. The President had not been at all kind to me. Now, when all she should be saying is “Pack your things, you’re expelled, dummy,” she was sitting calmly behind her desk, waiting until one of us spoke.

“We didn’t mean to,” Sip burst out, clutching the President’s desk.