I forced a smile. "Peachy keen. I'm just thinking about all I need to do to prep for school."
Deep down, though, a troubling thought kept recurring. I wasn't fully Daemos, or angel—just a part of each. Even worse, it meant I didn't possess a shred of humanity. My close friends came from all sorts of supernatural groups—vampire, felycan, lycan, Arcane—but they all had one thing in common: their human genes. It made me feel disconnected. The only person in the world who shared my bizarre lineage was my sister, and she thought I was pure evil. She'd told me it was her duty to rid the world of me and had followed through by staging her kidnapping at the hands of Maximus. When I'd gone after the rogue vampire, he'd captured me in an ambush, and I'd very nearly ended up fueling his vampire revolution and quest for world domination with my unique blood.
A cold ache blossomed in my calf, sending tendrils of sub-zero chills throughout my leg, as if to remind me that even though the potion might have slowed it down, the vampling curse was still determined to eat me alive and cut my education short if it could.
Chapter 2
"I need new clothes," Elyssa said. "I don't have a single thing to wear to the university."
Shelton looked her up and down. "Looks like you're wearing something now." He blew out a breath. "Women and new clothes."
"Harry, you don't know a thing about women, do you?" Bella said, looking a bit miffed.
"Sure I do," he said. "They like to talk and spend men's money."
Bella made a little growling sound in the back of her throat and took Elyssa by the arm. "I'd love to help you shop for something cute." She took a step back, craning her neck to look my girlfriend up and down. "I'm thinking purple and slinky."
"I'm all for slinky," I said, my attitude brightening. Then again, Elyssa's athletic curves looked amazing no matter what she wore.
"At least Justin understands our needs," Bella said with a sniff, casting Shelton a look.
Shelton, for his part, grabbed his coffee mug and said, "Come on, kiddo, it's time for your lessons."
I checked the time and felt my forehead go all wrinkly. "But, I still have an hour!"
"Better get an early start. Let the lady folk go shopping."
"Oh, wait," Elyssa said, snapping her fingers and stopping to look at me. "Let's get Justin's measurements. He definitely needs new jeans." She looked at the cargo shorts I wore. "Something that doesn't make him look like he's on a jungle safari."
"How about a sky blue shirt with ruffles?" I said. "Or a yellow tuxedo?"
Bella brandished her wand, waved it in a familiar pattern, and a stream of white sparkles floated over me like pixie dust.
"Hold your arms out to the side, dear," Bella said. "I'm getting your measurements."
I did as she asked, and after a few seconds, the sparkles vanished, replaced by numbers floating in the air.
"There we go." Bella smiled and the two women practically skipped with joy out the door.
"Women really love their shopping," Shelton said, scratching his whiskers. He grunted and headed deeper into his secret lair.
We reached the gauntlet room, a large space Shelton shuffled into different configurations for whatever challenges he wanted to throw my way. I took a slender white rod about three inches long from a nearby table, squeezed it, and gave it a shake. The ends telescoped in both directions, and the girth thickened into a plain white practice staff a little taller than me.
Shelton extended his own staff and directed it at a haphazard stack of cinder blocks. An invisible force toppled them to the ground. "Pile 'em back up," he said.
I closed my eyes for an instant. When I reopened them, the tendrils of my incubus essence hovered before me. Magical energy—or aether as Arcanes called it—was an invisible force to most people. Somehow, a mixture of my incubus senses and angel heritage allowed me to see it. Aether took all sorts of shapes. As my eyes focused into incubus sight, I saw streaking white comets whizz past, swirling ultraviolet orbs, gray amorphous clouds drifting lazily, and galaxy-like swirls of white and ultraviolet mingling with each other. A network of glowing capillaries webbed the ground. Arcanes called them ley lines. Most of the ones near the surface were tiny but numerous. Deeper down, large arteries of aether thrummed through the earth.
I drew in a deep breath through my nose, drawing energy into my tendrils as if they were straws.
Shelton took out his arcphone—the Arcane equivalent of a normal smartphone—and flicked on an application to measure my performance.
I imagined ropes of energy wrapping around the cinder blocks and directed my will toward the effort. Glowing white lines formed around the targets. Holding out my staff, I imagined lifting the blocks. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the power gauge on Shelton's app jump straight into red territory. I gritted my teeth, groaned, and shouted, "Shoryuken!" The cinder blocks jumped, jerked, bumped together, and finally slammed into a crooked teetering tower.
With a gasp, I released my will, and the ethereal ropes vanished. The cinder blocks wobbled uncertainly before finding a semblance of balance despite their precarious positioning.
"Sweet monkey butts," Shelton said, holding the screen of his arcphone so I could see the results. "You blew through more energy to move those cinder blocks than it'd take to stop a woman from shopping."
I sighed. "I don't know why."
"Neither do I." He sighed. "That's one of the reasons I think the university will be good for you."
"Are you sure the kind of magic angels use is the same as Arcanes?" I'd pondered that question a lot lately, but hadn't arrived at any conclusions.
"It's got to be," he said, scrolling through the stats on his phone. "You use aether like the rest of us." He tapped his chin in thought. "Although, I don't recall seeing Nightliss use a staff or wand for a focus. Hell, I don't even remember her using words."
Since the intent mattered more than the words used to activate most spells, I'd taken my words from video games. Shelton shamelessly stole his from sci-fi movies, proving he was almost as big a nerd as me.
My shoulders slumped. "Bottom line—I'm the worst angel ever."
Shelton clapped me on the shoulder. "Ah, don't get down on yourself, kid—er—man. I had almost zero potential when I went to Arcane University. Hell, they sent me to the Science Academy first because my parents didn't think I had the gift."
"Wait a minute," I said, raising an eyebrow. "The Overworld has a Science Academy?"
"Right across the valley from Arcane University." One corner of his mouth twitched into a smile, as if he'd just remembered something amusing. "If it hadn't been for one professor who thought I was worth a damn, I probably wouldn't be the man I am today."
"He must've been a real jackass," I said with a grin.
Shelton laughed. "Yep. Good old Miles."
"This is the guy who pushed my application through?"
"You got it."
A trickle of hope washed over my self-pity. "Do you really think going to school will help me with my issues?"
"Like I said, my parents thought I didn't have the gift." His lips twisted with obvious distaste. "They sent me for testing every year, but my potential pinged zero. So they sent me to Science Academy. I fit in with the techies just fine, but Miles saw Arcane potential in me when nobody else did." He shuddered, as if remembering something unpleasant.
"Something wrong?" I asked.
A gruff, uncaring mask slid over Shelton's face. "Nah. I think I had too much coffee."
I knew better than to probe him with questions once he got that look on his face. Bella, on the other hand, didn't seem to care, and usually pushed Shelton until he locked himself in his study and watched space movies at full volume.
"When do I need to take the assessment?" I asked.
"The sooner the better." He checked the calendar on his phone. "Looks like they open for business tomorrow. Might as well get it over with."
"Gee, it sounds wonderful when you put it like that."
He wrinkled his nose. "I hate standardized tests. They're the work of the devil."
I couldn't agree more.
After lunch, I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing. By late afternoon, exhaustion hung like lead to every limb, and nausea clawed at my throat. I made a beeline for the bathroom, gripped the sides of the sink, and heaved. It took deep breaths to keep lunch firmly in my stomach. This was, unfortunately, nothing new. Every so often I would draw in more energy than my inner reservoir—Arcanes called it a well—could hold, and it would stretch to accommodate more. This caused what was known as magic poisoning, and it sucked.
The mirror reflected the greenish tint to my face and my bloodshot eyes. I stared at my tired visage and wondered if all of this was for nothing. Something in the shadows seemed to move, stretching toward me. Fingers flexed on a shadowy clawed hand as it reached for my back—
Knuckles rapped on the door, startling me, and the shadowy image vanished. I splashed water on my face.
"You okay in there?" Shelton said from outside the closed door.
"Wonderful," I replied, rubbing my eyes and looking around. Or maybe I'm just crazy.
Shelton grunted. "If you barf, make sure to spray air freshener. The odor nearly caused me to hurl last time."
I rolled my eyes. "Thanks for your concern. You're the best friend a person could have."
"Hey, I'm just sayin'."
I heaved again. Nothing came out. I looked in the mirror. Something shrieked. Two clawed hands of black mist lunged from the shadows behind me, reaching for my throat. I yelled and spun to face whatever it was. And found…nothing.
I closed my eyes. Took deep breaths. What the hell is wrong with me? A rotten scent crawled up my nose, wrinkling it with disgust. Hot, dank air touched my neck. The rattling sigh of the undead chilled my spine. Shivering, I opened my eyes.