Chapter 20

20

Icrashed into the wall, skull cracking against stone until stars burst in front of my eyes. They were bright spots in the darkness. Rising slowly on a groan, I held my hands up in front of me, showing the stranger I wasn’t a threat.

Fear coiled in my chest as a male figure stepped out of the darkness and shadow. Yellow eyes glowed in the dim light. Then he was on me. A snarl ripped from his mouth. My hackles rose.

“Do you have it? Give it to me!”

His voice exploded over me, hot breath on my ear and claws digging into the sensitive flesh at my sides.

Gritting my teeth, I tried to force the body aside, catching a brief glance of the attacker’s face in the process. High cheekbones, slanted eyes, slick brown hair. One of those second-year boys whom I’d caught trying to break into the exchange students’ rooms the other night.

He had noted my scent.

Dammit. I should have been more careful.

“Go to hell,” I told him instead.

Normally I tried to take a peaceful approach. A resolution without resorting to violence. But he had jumped me without provocation and if things kept going, I’d have to damage him. I was no stranger to violence. I was good at it. With adrenaline filling me, I’d be in for the fight of my life no matter how I’d exhausted my magic.

“Give it to me!” he demanded again.

His growl drowned out my repeated response.

I rolled until my weight was on my shoulder blades, freeing up my legs to kick at whatever part of him was closest. It didn’t give me a lot of room to maneuver but it knocked me off balance. Claws tore through my skin and I howled, blood dripping from the wounds.

He moved with the energy of the kick and rolled up onto a crouch to stare at me. He stalked closer with an unnatural grace, sniffing the air. Standing over me as I struggled to get to my feet.

“Get up or I’ll make you get up.”

I wondered if I had the time to kick him in the face and run away. Probably not. So I bolted instead of attacking back, my sneakers fighting for traction in the hallway as I struggled to outdistance him. But with my power worn out, each step felt like wading through cement. I’d done too much, too close together, and left no energy for anything else.

My heart pounded hard, breath catching, and I’d made it halfway down the hall when the boy knocked me between the shoulders and sent me flying. I crashed against a wooden doorway under an arched alcove with him looking at me from several feet away.

I needed a plan. And of course all logic flew out of my head when our eyes caught and held.

“What do you want?” I asked. Keeping him in front of me at all times, adjusting my posture so we circled each other, with opposite ends of the hall stretching behind us.

He cocked his head, bloodlust riding him, and I had a feeling it didn’t matter what answer I received. He’d already made a decision on what to do about me. “You know what I want,” he stated.

My fingers twitched at my sides. “I’m sorry, I really don’t. Maybe you just enjoy trying to kill defenseless girls.” Keep him talking, I told myself. Keep him talking and maybe you can get him to spill. “Maybe you get a real kick out of taking down those you consider weaker than you.”

“You talk too much.”

“What’s the matter? Am I annoying you? Are you here to gut me for Kendrick?” I pressed.

The guy bared his teeth and his growl ripped through me. “Who the hell is Kendrick?”

Oh. What? He didn’t know who I was. That could only mean—

“Damn. You want the Augundae Imperium.”

How did this guy know about the artifact?

The name clanged between us and the boy charged, driven by some serious fury I couldn’t even hope to match. Shit. He was bigger than me. And a lot stronger.

Ducking to avoid the swipe of his claws, I reacted, ramming my elbow up into his solar plexus. It didn’t slow him down. Instead, he jerked to the side from the force of the blow, giving me enough time to hold up my arms and use the last of my power to change my hands into claws. It would have been easier if I had the full strength of my wolf. But without an easy way to break my glamour, I had to rely on my transfiguration power to aid me.

Fur sprouted along my forearms, accompanied by wicked sickle-curved claws.

I slashed at the boy, going for his face. His eyes. Anywhere I could reach to give me an advantage, something soft and fleshy.

Except he didn’t give me an opportunity to hit him, countering with his leg and kicking me on the side of the head at full strength. The world shattered into a shower of pain and I tasted blood. I’d bitten the inside of my cheek. The blood filled up my mouth.

A second kick sent me sprawling back and this time I miraculously managed to make it onto my feet, blocking his followup punch by sheer luck. On instinct, I jammed my knuckles into his throat directly beneath his Adam’s apple. His growl cut off on a gurgle as his teeth sliced through his lower lip.

“How does that feel?” I taunted, breathless.

I really needed to learn how to keep my mouth shut.

The boy charged at me again, his palm locking on my shoulder and sending me slamming into the wall. His teeth snapped in front of my face inches from my nose.

Fatigue rode me hard. I was hanging on, clawing on, desperately trying to win this fight. I got in a quick kick to his knee at just the right angle and listened to the satisfying sound of bone crunching. Good luck walking away from this on both legs. I kicked him again but he spun me around in a circle until my cheek pressed to the wall, his teeth clamping down on my wrist. Fire raked through my skin.

No matter how I tried to kick or punch or claw at him, I couldn’t seem to get the upper hand. I twisted and unleashed a quick jab to his face, but his claws clamped my shoulder and the world narrowed, shrinking to a tiny point as blackness choked my vision. There wasn’t enough space for me to kick my way out of this one.

“I’m going to warn you right now,” the boy said, too softly, his fangs scraping the softness of my neck. “I’ll warn you this once and then it’s on you. Give me the Augundae Imperium. I don’t care what else you do or where you go, but if you try to take what’s mine, then I’ll make sure you regret it. I will hurt the people you care about. Death will seem preferable.”

His words fell like stones against the side of my head. If I stole the Imperium, then I might doom my friends, the ones I considered my true family. Where would that leave them?

What would happen to them if I didn’t do what Barbara asked?

I clucked my tongue in a show of bravado. “For you to threaten my friends’ well-being is a low blow. Bad move, guy.”

I opened my mouth to continue to taunt but his snarl rattled the lanterns hanging from the walls and clanged through me. With the last of my magic I urged my claws to grow longer, punching out from my fingernails, skin groaning as it parted to accommodate the size of them. But I wasn’t fast enough to avoid his fist. It landed on my jaw and knocked me sideways. Holy crap, that hurt.

It hurt enough for it to take several seconds too long for me to come around. He took hold of my hair and dragged me toward him on a screech.

Damn the hair. I’d rather see him rip it out than leave myself defenseless. I swiped my claws through the strands he held until I felt a release.

I rose to my feet in a powerful, brutal move and made no attempt to hide my fury. I let him see how my canines lengthened. I couldn’t let the wolf out but the transfiguration was enough to let him know I wasn’t going down easily.

“Give it to me!” he demanded again.

Then he was on me, his claws in my flesh, rivers of agonizing pain. My head swam and I closed my eyes to brace against the agony, chest constricting as though someone wrapped me in an iron band.

“I have nothing to give you,” I barely managed to say. “I don’t have the Imperium.”

He tore his claws away from me and everything began to blur together. I knew better than to tell him anything. Even being half fae, the boy would find a way to exploit me. If he didn’t kill me first. Fae were notorious for bargaining. And I’d already been foolish enough.

We came at each other in unison, movements impossibly fast. I spun out of the way and sliced across the boy’s back. He whipped around to face me, almost oblivious to the pain, and raked his own claws down the front of my leg to slow me down. Scarlet blood swelled along the lines of torn fabric and we collided again. Jaws snapped.

The boy was bigger than me. Huge fangs loomed over my face and his breath bathed me in a hot cloud of fetid stench.

Snarling in pain, I wrenched away from him, dropping down and swiping my leg at him to knock him off his feet. The boy anticipated the move and jumped straight off of the wall, driving his fists down into the back of my head on his descent.

I ducked and the blow landed on my shoulders. Sliding down, rolling to the side, I lunged up and grabbed at him. Tensed. Then launched myself into the air. His claws caught me in mid-leap, hooking in my arm.

We clashed together time and again, both of us slick with blood, his claws grasping for me, mine trying to find him. Too much blood. My sneakers skidded and I went down. The boy was a moment behind, locking his hands around my neck and trying to choke me. I didn’t have the strength left to fight him.

“You’re going to give me the Augundae Imperium,” he snarled, clamping down. He smashed my head into the floor. “Or I’m going to make you wish for the end. How about I crush your windpipe? You talk too fucking much, anyway.”

Pounding at me, hammering my head down again and again, I nearly blacked out from the blows. He slammed his knee down on my stomach. The air rushed from my lungs.

On my back, claws at my throat, I didn’t notice until Mike was barreling into the hallway. I didn’t know the man next to him, although I caught the scent of shifter. That might have been the boy on top of me, though, and I could never really be sure. It took every bit of my strength to keep him at bay or else I’d slip into unconsciousness. To keep him from slicing me to shreds the way he had the others, or from crushing my windpipe the way he wanted.

“Tavi!”

I heard footsteps rushing toward me, saw the outline of pale hands reaching to wrench the boy off of me, to no avail. Yet hope fluttered, growing larger with every moment. Help had arrived.

“Step back! Use it. Now.”

The barked demand came across clear enough from the second man, and whatever object Mike held—couldn’t see much of it—sent a blast of power out from him. It knocked the boy off of me and sent him tumbling ass over shoulders into the stone wall. His head slammed against the rock and dazed him enough so the other man could rush forward to grab him.

And then I realized who he was. My bodyguard from the hospital wing, the one Detective Wilson sent along to keep an eye on me. Though my head spun and my vision blurred, I recognized the face Nurse Julie had found so enticing and attractive.

Hadn’t done a very good job of protecting me, though, had he?

I coughed at the eased pressure around my throat. Mike rushed forward at the sound, still carrying whatever it was he held that glowed like a lamp. A second blast of power shot out from the thing, wrapping the shifter boy in a sort of force field until his eyes rolled back in his head.

Out like a light.

“Help her up,” the other man told Mike, clamping a hand around the unconscious boy and pointing to me with the other. “We need to get her to the hospital ward.”

Mike helped me onto my knees and I watched through blurry eyes as my shifter bodyguard whipped out a pair of handcuffs, using them to secure the unconscious student.

“Are you okay?” Mike asked.

I coughed again and made the mistake of trying to nod at the same time. It didn’t work out too well for me. I managed to get the point across without blacking out, however, so score one for me. My misery must have shown through on my face because Mike winced.

“Just take it easy, Tavi. I’m here now. I’ve got you. Stay with me.”

The soothing didn’t do anything but it was nice to have him there. Besides, where would I go? I dripped blood from a dozen cuts and it would take all night for the deep wound at my side to heal.

As soon as the boy was trussed up, Wilson’s friend walked over and crouched in front of me. “Tavi Alderidge. It’s nice to make your formal acquaintance. We’ve met before, you remember?”

I nodded again, still woozy from blood loss.

“I’m Officer Allen, Detective Wilson’s friend. We work together. Do I have your permission to inspect you?” he asked.

For what I didn’t know, but I didn’t have the energy to fight him either. I lay cradled in Mike’s arms, and Allen’s hands were light as he shifted me from one side to the other, going over my limbs to make sure nothing was broken. I simply rested in Mike’s arms, every inhalation sending jolts of pain singing along my spine.

After a moment, he nodded. “Beat up pretty good, but not dying. It puts us in a little better position. Hold on tight while I make a call for backup. Okay? We’re going to get you taken care of soon.”

I agreed because what else could I do? The only reason I hadn’t slid to the floor was because Mike held me up. The glowing orb sat on the floor next to him, and although I couldn’t make out the distinct design of it, the magic coming off of it was impressive enough it prickled at the inside of my head.

“What is that thing?” I asked, blinking to focus.

In response, Mike shoved it in his pocket and the glow extinguished. “It’s just something I used to save your life.”

“Don’t I have a right to know what it is and why you have it, then?” I tried to turn around and look at him, only to have a dozen parts of my body bark in protest. “Ow!”

“Don’t move.” My reaction had him scooting closer, keeping me cradled in place. Concern showed in his eyes. “Take it easy. Try not to move. We’ll get you to the nurse’s office soon enough.”

Allen kept the hallway blocked so none of the casual passersby—if there were any—would see us. Soon the space would be filled with officers and noise and activity.

“Don’t worry about me,” I tried to say. “I’ve been tossed around like this before.”

I saw Mike opening his mouth to comment, wondering what I meant, before understanding dawned. His mouth thinned and the hand stroking my hair stilled. “Well, you should still have your injuries checked. You have cuts and bruises everywhere.”

“The boy did try to kill me. He tried his hardest, anyway.” I took a breath. “I managed to fight him off. Until you got here. My knight in shining armor.”

Mike sighed. “Speaking of—”

“Yes, speaking of, what is the thing you used to get him off of me?” I turned the talk around and returned the focus to him and his power source. “Don’t think you can get me off the scent.”

His gaze cast away from me peevishly. “It’s nothing, Tavi. Drop it. Let’s focus on getting you through the next hour. Okay?”

“It’s not nothing.”

Fussy man. But talking to him provided the distraction I needed to keep awake. I struggled with my emotions, not wanting him to see. To see my guilt at having him here, the relief and the happiness and the lies I struggled to cover.

There was truly no hope for me.

“Why don’t you want to talk to me about the globe, Mike?” He turned away further, and it finally clicked. “Oh. You’re not supposed to have it, are you?”

“Okay, no, I’m not,” Mike hissed under his breath. His hand fell on the lump in his pocket. “It’s an artifact to amplify the magic of the user. The Augundae Totalis. I smuggled it in with me from Faerie.”

Ah, I’d finally managed to wring the truth out of him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean what I said. I felt you fighting with your power all the way across the school because of it. This thing can pick up on magic, and anyone who holds it can amplify their own powers.” His eyes darkened as they flickered between me and Officer Allen. “Take whatever small amount they do have and turn it into a tidal wave.”

I looked at him. Took in the sour grimace wrinkling his brow. “Oh my God. Mike, this is…” This was the reason why he’d been excelling at his classes lately. Not from our study sessions. “You’ve been cheating.”

Finally, his eyes met mine as he gave a weird little nod. A silent admission and also a plea not to tell anyone what I knew.

“I don’t understand,” I said on a rush. “You’re full-blooded fae. You’re the crown prince. Why are you using an artifact to bolster your magic? Why are you fighting so hard to stay here?”

“It’s not that simple, Tavi—”

“You’re lying to me.”

He huffed. “You want to talk about lying? You still won’t tell me anything about your past, or about why you have no family.” His eyes went dark.

“Because I can’t!” I exclaimed.

“You think it’s any different for me? As far as you need to know, I’m here at the academy to help get a better understanding of halflings. Period.”

“But you didn’t need to—”

This time it was his turn to interrupt. “Yes, okay, I shouldn’t have the Totalis. I have been cheating. But it saved yourlife.”