Chapter 19 Avery #2
I ran my hand along the campus’s warded brick wall next to me.
The school must employ a small army of security experts to recharge the wards under the Full Moon, because I could feel the soft buzz of the magic under my fingertips even from the interior side of the thick wall.
This level of magic would blaze like a bonfire under the Full Moon, but that was the unfortunate nature of our wraith problem—they could only appear when our magic was the weakest.
The crunch of tires on gravel caught my attention.
George and I were nearing the front gates, which were closed and locked with a silver chain and padlock during curfew nights.
No one in or out, and good luck picking that lock without melting your fingertips off.
The sound of a car approaching the campus entrance was unexpected, to say the least.
George must’ve thought the same because he darted in front of me and increased his speed, both of us hurrying over to peek through the wrought iron bars.
A large black Cadillac SUV had skidded to a stop a few yards away from the gate, next to the little hut where the guard normally sat. The hut was abandoned tonight since we were on lockdown.
The door opened, and a teenage girl tumbled out.
“Shit!” she shouted, banging her small fist on the glass of the hut.
“Moondamn it.” She cast a harried look around, raking a manicured hand through perfect brown curls and stumbling a bit in her heeled leather boots.
She was also wearing a skirt under her wool peacoat, so I doubted breaking and entering into the Proteus College campus had been on her to-do list when she’d picked out her outfit for the evening.
“Hey!” I whisper-shouted through the bars of the gate. “What are you doing? It’s dangerous to be out right now.”
Her frantic gaze jerked to me, and her shoulders slumped in what might have been relief.
She scurried up to the gate to meet me. “I know it’s a New Moon.
It’s so reckless, but I just… I didn’t know what to do,” she told me, her lip quivering.
She hardly looked old enough to drive the car she’d abandoned, and words began to spill out of her at breakneck speed.
“I was, um, on a date over in Frederickstown, and it was going badly. I needed to get away, but I can’t go home.
My brothers go here, and it was the only place I could think to come.
Do you know them? Heath and Aiden Blackwell.
I’m Clara Blackwell—wait, is that Elijah’s snake? ”
I blinked at her for two seconds before my brain switched into action mode. “Yes, I know your brothers, and yes, that’s George,” I told her. “And I’m Avery. Did you call your brothers?”
Clara shook her head frantically. “I turned my phone off. I don’t want my parents to be able to track me.”
“Why?” I asked slowly. The idea of my dads not being the first place I’d run to for safety was foreign to me. “What’s going on?”
“They’re making me go on, um, dates,” she whispered.
“My dads are very powerful Primes, and I’m their only daughter, so they’ve, um…
. They’ve decided to arrange an advantageous bonding for me.
” She gripped the iron bars and leaned closer to me.
“I don’t want it, but they don’t care. And the guys tonight were terrible.
One of them kept grabbing my thigh under my skirt, and they kept talking about how they, um, couldn’t wait to see if ‘latent Prime pussy was as good as everyone says.’”
I bit my cheek so the rage that blasted through me wouldn’t force my body to sprout fur. This girl couldn’t be older than sixteen. “So you ran away from your dates?”
She nodded again. “I swiped the car keys off the table when they weren’t looking, went to the bathroom, and climbed out the window.
Then I stole their car and drove here. Outside the town’s wards during curfew—I know, so stupid, but I was panicking.
They’re probably tracking me, though. One of them is an Alpha wolf, so he’d be able to find the scent. Shit.” She jerked on the bars.
Shit, okay—think, Avery. “Good for you, Clara. That was still good thinking, getting away like you did. How many guys are we talking about?”
“Two. Brothers. A wolf and a lion. My dad really wants me to bond with a lion.”
Fuck lions, and two was better than a whole quad.
“Okay, let’s figure out how to get you inside the gates, and then we’ll go find your brothers and let them deal with your dates.
Unless…. They aren’t involved in this shit, right?
” I couldn’t imagine Heath or Aiden being complicit in shopping their baby teenage sister for an advantageous bonding against her will, but if they were, I’d stab them myself.
She shook her head vehemently. “No, they call my dads to yell at them about it all the time. They just can’t… do anything, really. Not now.”
The immense relief I felt at hearing that Heath and Aiden didn’t actually suck was unnecessary, but no time to dwell. “Okay, I’m going to try to climb over the gate, and then I’ll give you a boost—”
A roar sounded from deep in the forest. A wolfy snarl followed.
Those were not wraiths.
Clara tensed, and then she turned wide hazel eyes to me. “That’s them! They found me!”
“Shit, okay. It wouldn’t make sense for them to try to hurt you, but let’s not chance it. George, slither out there and stand guard.”
George oozed his scaly body between the iron bars of the gate and curled up in the ten-foot space between Clara and the car. I had no idea what he could do against a baby Prime shifter, but we’d find out.
Tears leaked from Clara’s terrified eyes. “I don’t want them to catch me. They’re probably really angry.”
I wrapped my hands around hers on the bars. “Listen, Clara. I am going to get over this wall, and I will make sure they don’t touch you. I have my swords, and I’ll tell you a secret: I also have a beast, so I’m very strong.”
She hiccupped. “You… you do?”
There were more roars and snarls, louder ones, and they were getting closer. “Yep. Okay, here goes nothing.”
I backpedaled about fifteen feet, and then I sprinted straight for the gate.
With everything I had, I took a running leap and landed halfway up the gate, my feet pressed against the bars while I gripped the same bars above my head for dear life.
I shoved off the bars with my legs and propelled myself upward until I was able to grasp the top of the gate.
I swung my body over, readying myself to jump down.
A large brown wolf came charging out of the trees and onto the road right behind the SUV.
Clara screamed.
Then came a dark gray lion, tearing out of the forest behind his brother.
I was out of time.
With a fortifying breath, I launched myself off the gate and dropped into the fray.