Strange Academy (Hot Paranormal Romance) (12 page)

She exhaled in relief.

There was concrete in his voice when he spoke again. “You can’t even begin to understand the ramifications of this decision.”

“You’re a teacher.” She lifted an eyebrow at him. “Educate me.”

“I have class,” he said, dryly.

She barely repressed a snort. “That’s debatable. I’ll meet you after.”

“The chance of brain damage goes up exponentially every hour you wait,” Gray explained in a reasonable tone. Then he caught her eye. “Hmm. Probably shouldn’t have mentioned that part.”

“Whoops,” she agreed. Another really good reason not to drink it. “Meet me after class. You have to tell me everything.”

He ran his fingers through his shiny hair. “I don’t have to tell you anything. Talk to Cross.”

She shook her head. “You’re the only one around here who hasn’t lied to me, aren’t you? You may have been completely evil to me, but you didn’t lie.”

He didn’t answer, confirming her suspicions. Finally, he nodded. “I’ll find you after class. Don’t do anything stupid.”

Despite the shivering in her belly, she tried for a smile. “Like invite an Eastern European into a children’s dormitory?”

His lip twitched. “Or poke around in the basement.”

Okay, that was confusing. “Why?” she asked. “What’s in the basement?”

Gray scowled and opened the door to his classroom.

*

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*

An hour later, Gray leaned against the Lost Arts Building, feeling the chill of the stone wall through his leather coat, and watched Sadie walking along the black pathway. She didn’t acknowledge him. Not surprising, since he wore an invisibility potion. He was a pair of footprints in a crusty snowdrift against the wall, and nothing more.

It snowed without enthusiasm. An occasional flake floated down onto the black tarmac of the campus path as if it didn’t have anything better to do.

He watched as Sadie’s ankle turned on a slick patch of pathway. But she caught herself and continued on, ignoring her stumble. Nearby, three young witches from the Senior Coven giggled behind their hands. Sadie shrugged.

He looked at his hand, outstretched to catch her. He folded it under his armpit. Of course. That was just his instincts kicking in. She was a Non. He was trained to protect them. His stress knot dug into his shoulder blade like a knife.

Breath escaped from Sadie’s pink lips in chilly white puffs. She wore an old-fashioned black coat a couple of sizes too big for her. Except for the red circles the cold made on her cheeks, you could barely tell where her white scarf ended and her pale skin began. What was she doing now? Why was she unzipping that blond kid’s backpack?

Black leather wings exploded into the air, knocking Sadie back. He winced as she landed on her heart-shaped ass, the air escaping her with a whoosh.

Nikkos. Even at this distance, he saw tears welling up in the boy’s eyes. He probably thought he’d get suspended for letting the cat—or hydra—out of the bag. He reached into his coat pocket for the invisibility counterspell.

“Well, this is—” the masculine voice paused for a dramatic beat “—freakish.”

He twisted and saw the owner of the voice. “Dr. Cross. I was just...uh...”

“Stalking her?” Cross tipped his chin toward Sadie. “Seems Miss Strange has discovered more than we wanted her to know.”

Gray watched Sadie put her hand on the boy’s shoulder and, even though he didn’t hear the words, he caught the reassuring tone of her voice.

“It’s—”
Not my fault
, Gray nearly said, having flashbacks to his school days, when he’d had to defer to Cross. Dammit, he wasn’t some student who’d done something wrong. He hardened his tone. “I said this would happen. No one listened.”

“You did,” Cross agreed. “Loudly. I remember, because the ringing in my ears didn’t go away for a week.”

The hydra looped crazy circles in the sky. Sadie stared up, her jaw dropped in wonder. His vow had come true. Nikkos’s pet was out in the open and it wasn’t Christmas yet. But he hadn’t done it. She had.

“You expected this,” he said.

Cross shrugged, not taking his eyes off Sadie. “She’s Pippa Strange’s niece.”

“You knew she’d figure it out. But she’s Pippa Strange’s niece, so it’s okay? Don’t you think letting a Non know about this place is dangerous? One e-mail to a newspaper and we burn eight centuries of secrecy.”

“Temple moves in mysterious ways. Mine are less mysterious. I have appropriate countermeasures in place. Nothing is more important than this school. Not you. Not me. Not Sadie Strange.” Cross blew out a long stream of white breath and watched it float off. “You understand things. Explain them to her.”

There was no point in asking Cross about his countermeasures. Instead, Gray watched the hydra spiral down to land on Nikkos’s shoulder, one head whuffling at blond curls, the other eyeing Sadie. He nodded and started toward Sadie.

“Gray,” Cross called to him. “She might take it better if you’re visible at the time.”

*

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*

“Nikkos.” Sadie started at the growly voice behind her. Gray walked down the path toward them, wearing a smoke-gray leather coat that matched his eyes and emphasized his broad shoulders. The brisk, snowflake-touched breeze ruffled his black hair.

“You’re not in trouble,” Gray said to the boy.

A sweat bead dripped from Nikkos’s temple. “The principal—”

“He knows.”

Nikkos visibly relaxed, more relieved by Gray’s words than by anything she could say.

The hydra launched herself from Nikkos’s shoulder with a cry of pleasure, soaring to a height where any Non who saw her would mistake her for an eagle. Sadie caught the grin on Nikkos’s face before he walked off toward Strange Hall.

“She looks good.” Gray stared up at Iphigenia the hydra, a black dot against a sky tinged purple by the setting sun.

“A real hydra. Amazing.” Even to herself, her breathy voice sounded full of wonder.

Gray shrugged. “I guess.”

He strode down the path and, for an instant, she hesitated. Was she supposed to follow? She supposed so and hurried to catch up.

They walked in silence for a while. When they came to a crossing of three tarmac paths, she let Gray lead them down the one running behind Strange Hall.

A few snowflakes stuck in the black waves of Gray’s hair. She could deal with magic being real. It was harder to accept she and Gray could actually walk together and not snipe at each other.

She wasn’t the only one surprised. Several of the students who passed them on the path did head-swinging double takes in their direction.

“It’s okay for us to be talking,” he told her. “This is official business.”

“Why wouldn’t it be okay? We talk all the time.”

“Gray House rules. We don’t associate with Nons, except when absolutely necessary.” There was something chilly in his tone as he said “associate,” and even colder when he said “Nons.” “I break the rules every time I talk to you.”

A nauseous feeling bubbled in her stomach. Only hours ago, a scathing reply would have burst from her. Now, she had nothing to say. Puzzle pieces clicked together. Gray was some kind of—what was the word again—
Meta
nobility. How could she argue she was his equal when he had superpowers?

Had she really imagined a guy with a chest like that was a schoolteacher? Yeah, just like Clark Kent was a reporter. And the confident way he walked, like he could stand up against anything the universe could throw at him. His steps didn’t make any of the noise hers did, crunching against the sand and salt mixture spread on the path to melt the ice.

So she just walked beside him on the path, following his lead off the main campus, past the parking lot. Until she realized they were headed into the snowy woods.

Panic wove around her heart as the trees enclosed them, above the path, but curiosity kept her going. The leafless branches reached up like skeletal fingers. Sadie shivered. She wasn’t sure she was ready to be alone with him. And she wasn’t sure she had any choice. If she was getting the magical version of cement shoes, there was no escape.

“Aunt Pippa associated with Nons.”

“It’s a Gray House rule, not a Meta rule. She was from Strange House.” He looked over one broad shoulder as he held a wet tree out of the way for her to pass. “Or what’s left of it after your ancestors made bad alliances, thinning the blood.”

The path inclined steeply. She didn’t say anything as she followed him up the hill.

“You’re quiet,” he said, after a while.

“I’m trying to figure out what you mean. ‘Bad alliances.’ Marriages? Children?”

He may have nodded. It was hard to tell from watching his back as she struggled up the steep path. “Strange House was one of the twelve Great Houses, once. Quinlan Strange founded this place.” He swept an arm in the direction of campus. “Your family bred the magic right out of themselves.” Suddenly, he whirled on her, the path’s slant giving him an extra few inches over his already-looming height. “You could have been like your aunt, protecting people instead of needing protection, if your father had married a witch and carried on the Strange name. Instead, you read comic books and think men in tights are heroes.”

She wanted to call him on his racism—or whatever “ism” it was—but his superpowers made it kind of hard to claim equality.

“Strange is my mother’s name,” she informed him. “Where are you taking me? Will you execute me to keep your big secret?”

“To protect these kids, I’d execute you in a second.” His voice chilled her more than the cutting wind. “But it’s not up to me. The rules have changed. When I was a student, even Nons whose kids went here weren’t allowed on campus.”

As suddenly as he’d turned, he started off again. Sadie wasn’t sure whether she was reassured by his speech or not.
I’d execute you, but it’s not up to me
sounded okay. Sort of.

“You’re not a chemistry teacher,” she said to his back, wishing her high heels were an inch shorter as they climbed.

“I’m a demon hunter.” Before she could absorb that info, he went on. “But Sterling needs me right now, so I’m teaching alchemy until the end of the school year.”

His nephew needed him, so he dropped everything to be there. Some people might do it for their own kids, but for someone else’s?

She would do it for Moira, her own niece. No question.

Whaa! She felt as thought the ground had careened from under her feet. One of her shoes went flying. Her arms windmilled, desperately seeking some sort of balance. In a frozen instant, she pictured herself tumbling Jack-and-Jill style down the steep hill.

Then an iron arm vised around her. Completely unbalanced, she was bent fully backward, her spine parallel to the ground.

And inches away from her face was Gray’s face. His aristocratic nose. Gray eyes smoky with thunderstorm intensity. And, best of all, his full lips. The tiny part of her brain—very tiny—unaffected by the heat of his big body and the safety promised by his cinnamon scent realized they were comically frozen in that painful-looking pose that appeared on the cover of many a romance novel. Neither one of them made any attempt to move.

“Stone. Under shoe,” she explained, with a dry mouth.

Their stomachs touched. The layers of clothing separating them didn’t matter. Her skin turned goosebumpy.

Gray blinked. And it was over. His whole body went taut, his discomfort dissipating whatever crazed magic rode the air between them.

She reddened in humiliation. Worse, her awkward position forced her to keep clinging to him.

“My shoe.” Her voice cracked. “It’s over there.”

She only meant for him to grab it, but instead of bringing the shoe to her, he took her to it. He slipped his free arm under her knees and lifted. A second later, he let her down in an ideal position to slip her foot into the shoe.

“You need boots,” he said.

“I didn’t expect an uphill hike today.” Actually, every day was an uphill hike at Strange Academy. “There have been a lot of things I didn’t expect today.” Including that moment back there.

Then she saw it. Ten meters behind him, in a little clearing at the end of the path, was a stone monolith straight from Stonehenge. Or the first five minutes of
2001: A Space Odyssey
.

Dwarfing both herself and Gray, it didn’t belong on the Strange Academy grounds. It was ancient. No, older. What was older than
ancient
? Primeval. Primordial.

She stepped toward it, vaguely aware that Gray watched and followed her. This was more than just a stone, she knew as she approached it. This was something sacred.

When it was at arm’s length, she raised her hand. And then drew back, suddenly feeling more like an intruder here than ever.

From behind, Gray took her right hand and put it on the monolith. As her flesh touched stone, her ears pressurized. The stone’s warmth surprised her.

She looked up. The sun was high in a blue sky, pouring down summer heat. At her feet, a cricket chirruped in the ankle-high grass. She looked at Gray. His face was obscured in blue shadows from a deepening late-fall twilight.

“It’s summer in here. Am...does this mean I’m—”

Gray cut her off. “You don’t have to be a Meta to experience it. It means nothing.”

“I have no words for this.” She swallowed to clear the pressure from her ears and stepped out from the circle of summer surrounding the monolith. “My ears popped. Is there magic in this stone?”

He looked down his Roman nose at her.

“Uh, right, dumb question. My ears have been popping since I came here.” She touched the stone and they popped again. “I think it happens around magic.”

“A latent genetic anomaly.” He shrugged. “Pretty useless.”

Sadie took her hand from the stone, shivering as she was thrust into the December cold. “Why did you bring me here?”

“There are twelve of these stones. First line of defense against the dark forces. Strange Academy is built on a place of magical power. The earth hums with it here. If we didn’t have the magic circle, this place would be crawling with demons, ripping tears in the reality between their world and ours, manifesting themselves as ten-foot nightmares and consuming any soul they could get their claws on.”