Page 28

Chapter 28

Sidnee and I lost any street cred we might have had when we both jumped a mile high. We’d been concentrating so hard that our sharpened supernat hearing had totally failed us. How utterly embarrassing.

Thorsen and his number one bitch, Miller, were staring at us from the doorway, their expressions thunderous.

Sidnee, Danny and I looked at each other as we wondered what to say. No matter what we did, these two bastards would try everything in their power to get us expelled or charged – or both, for that matter. Our options were to answer them and hope for a sympathetic ear, to tie them up and stash them in a closet somewhere – or to kill them. Number one was impossible, and we knew we weren’t going to kill them, so the second option was the most appealing. It was up there with flying pigs and the Chudley Cannons actually winning.

Thorsen leaned against the doorway, his arms folded and a smug look on his face. ‘I said what are you doing?’

Sometimes offence is the best defence, so I narrowed my eyes at him. ‘What are you doing here? Do you have Captain Engell’s permission?’ The ‘like we do’ was implicit – and total bullshit.

Thorsen opened his mouth to snarl something that was no doubt witty and cutting, but before he could utter a word an icy wind whipped around the office and sent sheets of paper flying and pens swirling around us.

Saved by Petty Peril! Aoife had come through. The poltergeist wasn’t interested in our company; he was laser-focused on his own agenda, which apparently was saving the academy. And this time, he was showing his actual form – or what remained of it. It was blurry and dark, but unmistakably human.

‘Noooo,’ he wailed as he tore through the room. Anything loose swirled around in a violent storm. ‘Follow,’ he howled – and I realised he was addressing me.

‘You got it,’ I said, a shade nervously. ‘Lead the way.’

Danny, Sidnee, and I leapt up and ran after the debris as it raced out of the door. We shoved past Thorsen and Miller and scampered down the hallway. Thorsen’s eyes were wide as he watched us chase the phantom. The two men followed at what I’d have called a cowardly distance.

The hallway only had two other doors: one on the left and a fire exit at the end. The door to the left led to the building’s plant room and we’d been told during our orientation meeting that it was strictly out of bounds because it housed electrical equipment, pipes and dangerous compounds; it even had a sign saying Strictly no entry . Naturally, the debris arrowed towards the forbidden door. The ghost went through it, whilst the flying missiles stopped and dropped to the ground.

I tried the door; predictably it was locked.

Despite the warnings, it wasn’t heavy-duty but a regular interior door; it was solid but the locks weren’t special. Luckily, I didn’t need any fancy lock-picking skills I had learned one lockpicking spell, after Connor’s singular attempt to teach me lockpicking had failed.

Carefully blocking Thorsen and Miller’s line of sight, I wiggled the knob while saying the words. That ball of heat in my core warmed some, and the handle turned. I opened the door. It swung open to show a stairway heading downwards. Great: creepy, dark stairway. Check.

There weren’t usually basements in buildings on the islands in the southeast of Alaska because there too much water and sand; most were built on pylons that ran down to the bedrock. I could tell from the sounds coming up the stairs that these steps did indeed lead to the academy’s forbidden plant room.

A long wail that sounded like ‘follow’ screeched up to us. We obeyed Petty’s ghostly command and ran down into the darkness; after all, that always turned out fine for the heroes in horror movies.

‘What do you think is down here?’ Sidnee asked from behind me as we descended the stairs.

‘The furnace and electrical box?’ I said optimistically. I’d be so pissed off if it was a dead body; dead bodies were more of a 2am thing.

She slapped me on the back. Thanks to her supernat strength and my super-slidey socks, I slid down the next three steps. ‘Oh shit! Sorry, Bunny! I meant what is Petty going to show us?’

‘I don’t know.’ There was no need to panic her until I smelled death, and so far all I could smell was stale, musty air. Maybe Petty did want to show us an electrical box. Imagine if all of this was because Petty wanted the academy to use a greener source of energy; we could stop his haunting simply by installing solar panels—not that they’d work in the land of perpetual rain.

At the bottom of the stairs the corridor turned sharply to the left and a dimly lit hallway led into a large room that housed the heating and lighting controls. We looked around, trying to find evidence of Petty Peril but he’d lost all his debris at the door and we couldn’t pinpoint his presence. At some point in his ramblings, he’d lost the human-ish form that I suspected had cost him a lot of energy to retain.

‘We can’t see you!’ I explained to him. ‘Do something to show us where you are?’

Nothing happened. Fuck. Had he dissipated before showing us whatever it was he’d dragged us down here for? Sidnee, Danny and I turned and started to search the room that was full of pipes, tanks and valves.

Thorsen and Miller came into the room and stared at us. Thorsen was red faced; we were ignoring him and he hated to be ignored. ‘If you don’t tell me what’s going on right now,’ he started, ‘I’m fucking arresting you all.’

Sidnee rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah, good luck with that. We’re following the poltergeist, you idiot. Didn’t you see him?’

‘I didn’t see anything but you assholes,’ Thorsen said firmly, though his eyes were a little wild.

Sidnee moved closer to him; if she’d been taller, they would have been chest to chest. She prodded him and rocked him on his feet. ‘You are a coward and a liar.’ She punctuated every word with another prod.

Wow! Go, Sidnee! I guessed she was done pretending to be a soft little Miss Suzy. The problem was Thorsen wouldn’t put up with that, not from her. He was a man who wanted his women to cower. If he tried to hurt her, I’d stop him – or she would – and things would get really messy. Maybe option number three wasn’t out of the question after all.

Thorsen’s face turned a mottled purple and his hands curled into oversized fists. The poor guy obviously thought he had the advantage, and it would have been laughable if the entire room hadn’t been so tense. He gazed down at Sidnee, his lip pulled back in an almost animalistic snarl. ‘You are a pushy little criminal.’ His spittle flew onto her face.

‘Jeez, Thorsen! Say it, don’t spray it,’ she shot back. She rolled her eyes and turned around to leave.

Several things happened at once. Miller moved around to block Sidnee from leaving, Thorsen pulled out a pair of handcuffs and grabbed Sidnee’s arm as she turned, and Aoife materialised between Danny and me.

Aoife took in the scene, opened her mouth and let out a piercing banshee wail that made me slam my hands over my ears. I cried out as the noise cut through me. Miller was close to Aoife and, as a human, he took the brunt of the scream. He turned ghastly white and fainted dead away. Neither Danny nor I moved to catch him.

Thorsen was focusing on Sidnee and attempting to clamp the handcuffs onto her wrists. Sidnee, who’d truly had enough of faking human female powerlessness, turned on her heel and punched him in the face with her supernat strength. Thorsen went down like a sack of wet shit. She shook her hand and a small grin pulled at her lips. ‘Man, that was intensely satisfying.’

I checked Thorsen’s pulse; that had been quite some hit and he was only human. It thrummed under my thumb; yep, the prick was still alive.

‘He’s going to feel that when he wakes up,’ Danny remarked. ‘Nice one, Fletcher.’

‘Sidnee, please.’ She smiled.

Danny smiled back, ‘Danny.’

‘ This is the time you two choose to get on a first-name basis?’ I huffed.

Sidnee chuckled then sobered and toed the unconscious man. ‘He’s a problem.’

I sighed. ‘Yep. He’s going to make trouble about what he saw here tonight.’

Danny pulled out some zip ties from his pocket and tied Thorsen’s and Miller’s arms behind their backs. When I quirked an eyebrow at his extra equipment, he said, ‘I used to be a boy scout.’ My expression remained blank so he expanded, ‘I’m always prepared.’

‘Ah. Good to know.’

Danny gestured to the small trail of blood coming from Thorsen’s nose. ‘I know you’re a new vampire, Bunny, but you seem to have a remarkable lack of bloodlust.’

‘I drink blood regularly.’ And also I was a secret hybrid who didn’t have any bloodlust at all.

‘Even so.’ He eyed me again. ‘My point is that you’re still not thinking like a vampire. You can use some mind-control hypnosis. Tell them they slept all night then we’ll send them back to their beds and no one will be any the wiser.’

I blinked. Could I mesmerise them? If I couldn't, Connor was still on Sitka for one more day. Maybe I could call him in to do the dirty work for me? ‘I’ve never done it. Do you think I should call in my boyfriend? He’s an older vamp,’ I explained.

‘What’s his name?’ Danny asked curiously.

‘Connor MacKenzie.’

His jaw dropped. ‘Jesus, you landed on your feet. He’s not an older vamp, he’s one of the oldest vampires in Alaska, not to mention heir to the throne of the US vampires.’

‘Yeah. He’s really down to earth, though,’ I said lamely.

Danny looked amused. ‘I’m sure.’ His tone indicated he was anything but. ‘Even so, we don’t have the time or resources to smuggle him onto the campus right now. It’ll have to be you.’

Me. Right.

Evidently Aoife’d had enough of waiting for us to work through our issues. ‘Petrovich called me to help. He’s over there.’ She pointed, then led us to the far corner of the room. She’d learned to modulate her voice because her speech wasn’t a screech; it sounded more human, though it still sent some spine-tingling terror racing down my spine.

We looked around the corner but still missed whatever we were supposed to see. Petty stirred the air and an icy wind encased us. Finally Aoife pointed to a spot under some large pipes. There, well-hidden, was a black attaché case. I ducked down and crawled on my hands and knees to pull it out.

Sidnee knelt down next to me, as did Aoife; she seemed to be as curious as we were. I went to flick open the clasps but Sidnee stopped me. ‘Wait. It might be a bomb or something. What if you open it and we all go kaboom?’

I drew back and Danny snorted with laughter. ‘This isn’t a spy film. It’s a case – it probably has papers in it.’

I looked at Aoife. ‘Can you ask Petty if this is a bomb?’ It never hurt to err on the safe side.

Aoife rolled her eyes. It was easy for the already-dead girl to be flippant but I wanted to stay alive – I didn’t have a mysterious second life like she did. This undead one was all I’d get. She turned her face toward the wall and spoke, although we didn’t hear anything, then she paused as though she were having a conversation, only we couldn’t see the person she was talking to. After a few seconds she turned back. ‘It’s not a bomb.’ The ‘well, duh’ was kind of implied.

I nodded, stared at the black case for another moment then flipped open the clasps.

‘Well, what’s in it?’ Sidnee asked me impatiently.

‘Papers.’ Just like Danny had said. I drew out a bunch of files; stamped on the first one in big block letters was TOP SECRET . A cursory glance through the rest showed the same labels. I look at the words beneath; the group granted top-secret clearance was the MIB: the Magical Investigations Bureau.

I showed the first folder to Sidnee and she reeled back like she’d been slapped. For her, the MIB was the bogeyman she’d been told to be scared of for her whole life. ‘What the hell is going on?’ she whispered.

I licked my dry lips as I opened the first file and read the first few sheets. ‘This is much bigger than embezzlement,’ I breathed. ‘Look.’ I showed her and Danny the line that almost made my slow heart beat in time with Sidnee’s. It read: A plan to extract and experiment on supernatural entities through the use of the Alaska State Troopers.

Fuck me sideways with a cucumber. This was not good.