A Shadow's Tale (9 page)

‘I don't know if I can poof. My dad can. I'm not sure about my mum. But no, big lady in chief of my mum's people decided that she needed me for a bit.'

‘Er, ‘needed you for a bit'? Right. Shad, you came back looking like someone was about to put you on a barbecue!'

I gritted my teeth, jabbing my fork at the suddenly rather holey potato. ‘Nat, Arias doesn't give two hoots about whether I live or die. I'm just a particularly useful tool to her, one she likes to think she can control. If I die, it's another annoyance out of her hair.'

‘But why?'

‘Because I'm stronger than the rest of them. Scarier, because of that power. It's the reason I wasn't allowed to stay with Arellan.' I kept my voice low, only audible to Nat and Holl, but that didn't stop the irritation in my in my voice from leaking out. I knew they wouldn't betray my trust by telling other people this kind of thing.

‘Arellan?'

‘She's…was my mother.' Natalie nodded silently, and didn't ask any more questions. That, unfortunately, didn't mean that Holly was placated.

‘Hey, Roth!'

I would have thought that the reflexes and highly-strung nerves I still had left over from the battle were in my favour. My opinion changed afterwards though. After all, if I had taken the faceful of potato, I wouldn't have ended up standing in the shower, trying to get various pieces of dried, raw meat out of my hair. Mainly because, when Holly threw that potato, I ducked. It hit the alpha of the Academy's teenage werewolf pack. And it was two days before full moon. Let's just say that it riled them up. And the thing about the werewolves was that, although they can't
change forms at will for most of the month, for two or three days before and after the full moon, their forms were unpredictable and they could change at will. Or not, if their emotions get in the way. And the alpha was seriously pissed off.

‘Oops?' Holly said. The alpha growled deep in his throat. This was not going to end well. The pack stood up. They rolled their muscles, loosening up. They were preparing to shift. I gripped the back of my chair tightly. Natalie and Holly had their hands around their wands. Neither side moved for the length of a heartbeat. A lump of raw meat collided with Holly's forehead.

‘Oh, game on!' Holly was revelling in the soon-to-be chaos. I couldn't help but crack a smile. The alpha had no idea what he was letting himself in for. Before long, potato and meat were being slung liberally across the tables. Some hit the pixies, who are a really nasty species when it comes to revenge. Their strange drink that they had for each and every meal entered the fray. I dived under a table, already covered in various foodstuffs. This was only the beginning. Holly, the werewolves and the pixies. I really didn't want to be around when the rest of the Academy joined in: the sorcerers, the sorceresses, the succubi, the incubi, the elves, the angels, the demons, the banshees and the harpies. There was going to be certain chaos. As usual, Holly was in the thick of it. Nat crawled under the table to join me.

‘Wotcher, Shad. Mind if I hang out here for a while? At least until it stops being bedlam out there?'

‘Be my guest. I'm not budging.'

‘Cool, thanks. And Shad?'

‘Yeah?'

‘I think the werewolves managed to get you. You've got meat in your hair.'

Needless to say, I had to spend a long time in the shower before I managed to feel clean again.

Thankfully, Miss Feather didn't punish us since we hadn't
actually destroyed anything. It was an uncommon occurrence, being let off with a simple warning. Then again, I suppose when you get that many teenage mythical creatures with supernatural powers together, the best you can hope for is that no one gets hurt. And we managed to work out a little of the tension between the species in the school. I wish I could say all of my tension was gone though.

To say that the Academy is full of surprises was the understatement of the century. For example, you never knew who you were going to meet next. Case in point: I was hanging out in the library, looking for a book I needed for a mythical creatures assignment on vampires. The point of the exercise was to foster an interspecies understanding, although it had been noted that only the strongest of the day students had been assigned a creature of the night. After all, the main body of the interview was to talk to a member of the species you were supposed to be working on, and no one wanted to get on the wrong side of a not-quite-in-control vampire. In any case, demon blood would smell wrong to the majority of them. I was looking for a book on vampire etiquette so as not to make an enormous
faux-pas
and end up on the menu anyway. That might just put a bit of a crimp on my project. I pulled a book from the shelves, flicking through to the index. Someone coughed politely behind me. I turned my head to glance over my shoulder. A boy about the same age as me stood there, looking very nervous. He looked somewhat familiar, but I couldn't place his slightly feminine, delicate features. He moved with grace and stood with poise. This was a boy that every girl in the school would be following, but for the moment, there was not a girl to be seen. He gripped the strap on his bag nervously. Automatically, I began trying to class his species. Incubi? Unlikely. They don't tend to go for slender bodies. Elf? Possibly. His voice broke through my inner mullings.

‘Are you Shadow Roth?' he asked in a lilting accent I tried hard to place. I closed the book in my hands, turning to face him
fully.

‘Yes, I am. Can I help you?'

‘My name's Ilrune. I was told you came from Synairn…'

I watched him warily. How did he know about Synairn? ‘Yeah, I was born there.'

A weight seemed to have been lifted from his shoulders. ‘You were the demoness under High Priestess Arias's care.'

‘That's right.'

‘Well, as I said, I'm Ilrune. I'm Careen, more specifically—'

‘You're a Wingless.' This raised the question of ‘why the hell was he here?'. The Wingless were Careen children born without wings. Extremely rare, they were revered as a good omen and were the nobility of the race. Unfortunately, there was no way of telling if a child was going to be born wingless or not, not even if both the parents were wingless. It was a very uncommon and unpredictable phenomenon.

Ilrune looked at the floor, embarrassed. ‘Yeah, they thought I'd be better off here, away from all the fighting.'

I placed the book back on its shelf, smiling reassuringly at Ilrune. He looked very much like a lost puppy. At least the Careen were well renowned for their ability to pick up languages in a few days of immersion. ‘Well, welcome to Earth and welcome to the Academy, Ilrune. Don't worry too much, you'll get used to it. Come on, I'll show you around.'

It was coming into the end of the year, summer was in full flight. I revelled in the heat. I can survive in cold, but the heat makes me feel alive! Not to mention that I always came down with a cold in the winter, and that was not a pretty sight. Every time I sneezed, I either changed forms or something exploded. People had taken to diving for cover because they never knew exactly what was going to happen. But in summer, there was no threat of that. I made the most of it. After class, most of the students took advantage of being allowed out into a nearby town, leaving
the grounds mostly deserted. Holly, Nat and I usually decided to spend some time down by the lake. It was a place where we could relax and be ourselves without frustrating each other. Nat would sit under our favourite willow tree with her book, I would do my homework, and Holly would use her magic to push people into the lake. Everything was as it should be. I stretched out lazily under the tree. No more essay assignments to do, no tests coming up and Merlas had returned from Synairn, safe and sound. It felt good to have nothing to worry about. I closed my eyes briefly. A half smile twitched one corner of my mouth. Unclipping my cloak, I focused my mind. I hadn't willingly morphed for a long time. I was afraid I'd forgotten how. Thankfully not. Like a reliable old car, I slipped into the motions with relative ease. In wolf form, no longer a cub, but a sleek, fully grown she-wolf, I winked at Natalie before bounding to the water, jumping in with an enormous splash.

After paddling around a little, I hauled myself out. The urge to shake all the water from my coat was overwhelming, but I needed to get back at Holly for attempting to splatter me in the canteen again. I waited until I was right next to her and Natalie. Then I shook, and took a fiendish delight in the task before I morphed back into human form.

‘You're a stinker, Shadow Roth!' Holly spluttered. I grinned back, wringing out my hair.

‘Hey, what's up?' Jamie appeared from behind the tree, grinning down at us.

‘Nothing much,' we answered. Jamie was a part of our little band as well, but he occasionally took off. I tried not to let that get to me. I know I had already kind of defeated the whole ‘don't-get-close-to-anyone' thing, but I wasn't ready to face what I felt for Jamie. He was another part demon in a universe I thought they no longer existed in. I was glad to know that he was there, but I couldn't afford to let myself get attached. It would only mean that either I would get hurt, or he would. Or if things went
far enough, we'd bring children into the world, children cursed with being part demon. Not something I would ever inflict on a kid. Not after what I had gone through. He nodded to me.

‘Miss Roth, if you will?' he asked formally. I frowned slightly, getting to my feet. I couldn't fathom his game. He smiled at me, his brilliant blue gaze locked on mine. He raised his hands, palms towards me, to chest height. Oh goddess. Oh goddess. Oh goddess! I knew what he was up to. He was asking for a courting ritual native to his species of demon. And it was highly dishonourable for both parties if one refused. I stared at his hands.

‘I…I…I don't know how…'

‘You'll pick it up, trust me.'

I bit my lip, but raised my hands and placed them palm to palm. He smiled slightly. My demon side raised its ugly head. For a moment, I tensed, ready to battle it down. But it wasn't trying to take over. It wanted to dance. Tentatively, I let go of my control. The demon stretched, her influence spreading through my limbs, curling herself in my fingers. I became more aware of our beating hearts. Beating in time, our rhythm. I took a deep breath, and began to dance.

This kind of demonic courting ritual is a little difficult to describe. It really has to be seen. The closest thing I can find to describe it is a tango crossed with a fight and ballet. It's supposed to be the two demons moving in time with each other's heartbeat, the demoness proving herself able to hold her own against a demon, and the demon's determination to have the demoness. At least, that's how it is in the more ‘civilised' of the demonic species and cultures, including both mine and Jamie's even though, like humans, demonic cultures can vary enormously between different groups and clans. Jamie and I moved faster and faster, as is custom. It becomes a spectacle for those standing close by, but for the dancers, they don't even notice. At least, they don't notice until they find themselves back in the beginning position. I was breathing heavily, staring at
Jamie. He panted, grinning at me. He leant his head forwards, dipping lower to kiss me. I'll admit it freely. The dance, the kiss. I was head over heels in love.

We were laughing, heading for the dining hall after classes when I felt the telltale burning in the back of my mind. With a jarring shock, I realised I hadn't released the pent up magic recently, the build up that occurred roughly once a month and had to be released. I gasped, leaning against the wall, one hand on my chest, trying to breathe evenly, force it back a little, enough to excuse myself and run for the forest. Holly and Natalie looked back at me, their carefree expressions immediately turning to concern.

‘Shad, what's wrong?' Holly asked. Natalie rushed to my side, wand at the ready. I shook my head, swallowing hard. They couldn't follow me, it was too dangerous. Summoning up every scrap of energy and concentration I could muster, I turned tail and sprinted out into the grounds.

I reached an unnatural clearing deep inside the forest. The trees had been stripped of their leaves, their branches broken and splintered, the trunks and ground blackened by the force of my magic. Once a month, I came here. Once a month, every month. I collapsed in the centre of the clearing, trying to stay lucid enough to control the direction of the magical flow.

‘Shadow, tell us what's happening!' Natalie's voice made it to my ears through the rushing sound of magic.

‘Stay back!' I yelled out in warning. The fire in my muscles was starting to blaze. I couldn't keep it in much longer.

‘Just tell us, you silly little person or I will bug you for eternity!' Holly shouted.

I didn't have time to say anything more. Magic poured out of my entire body, blasting the clearing with another wave of magic. I could avoid having to do this, but I didn't want to. By being at school, in such a social environment, I exposed myself, my power
of empathy, to high levels of teenage emotions. I had also allowed my own emotional levels to become uncontrollable as well. This, as always, led to dangerous build ups of magic. Magic that had to escape somehow.

I don't know how long it lasted. I never do. I tried to time it once, but my magic fried the stopwatch. All I can say is, at least I didn't scream this time. Instead, I realised a little too late that this time, I was going to be hit by what some humans termed as ‘a double whammy'. Night had fallen, and the moon was nowhere to be seen. I felt the shivers run through my body. Glancing down at my hand confirmed my suspicions. No claws. I was human again for three days and three nights. Whoopee. I slowly got to my feet, staggering, grabbing onto a tree to steady myself. Of course, human meant a lot weaker. Even in demonic form, a power surge left me tired and out of action for a day or two. Human form meant that I was going to be in pain for the next day at least, whether I managed to crawl out of bed or not. Holl and Nat had never seen me human. Not once. Normally, I planned the month with a moon phase chart, casting an illusion charm on a ring or something to give myself the appearance of my half-demon form. This month, I had completely forgotten about it. I felt a hand touch my shoulder.