The darkness dissipated. I pushed myself up on my elbows and flicked on the Fae light by the bed. A quick glance around confirmed everything was as it should be. So why was I sweating through my sheets? Speaking of, they were now covered in salt. I groaned. This wasn’t the first time this had happened. As my brain got used to the light and to consciousness, the heavy feeling in my body subsided. After ten minutes of sweeping salt from the floor, I wasn’t even sure why I had freaked out. This wasn’t the first nightmare I’d ever had. It wouldn’t be the last.
Disturbed sleep was a curse of the low witch around supernatural beings. Humans had far better prey senses than they ever imaged. It was just a shame they chose to ignore them. Living amongst the supernatural, low-magic users often exhibited signs of mental distress. Yet another reason why I shouldn’t be here. I doubted my parents would see it that way.
Now that I’d gotten out of bed, the chances of falling back asleep were nil. The thought of tossing and turning till morning didn’t entice. On the other hand, loitering around the Academy late at night wasn’t exactly sanctioned either. Besides, I didn’t want to run into the vampires. Some of their classes were on a parallel schedule to the rest of us.
Everyone was already suspicious of me. I didn’t need to be roaming around the Academy at night. At the same time, I didn’t want to stay here either.
Figuring I could avoid most people if I headed towards the walled kitchen garden, I opened my Potions textbook and scribbled down a list of ingredients. It always struck me as funny that supernatural potions contained a general spread of mundane and mystical ingredients. I scratched my head. It was the middle of July in Australia. There were no raspberries in sight. I’d have to use the frozen stuff. That might be a slight setback.
Sighing, I closed the book and stuffed the list into my pocket. I slipped on my sneakers and tiptoed out of the room. As much as they liked to integrate the species in Bloodline, everyone tended to gravitate towards their own kind. I wasn’t sure what Kate had done wrong to get lumped with me as a roommate, but it must have been bad. Until I hit the staircase that led to the first-floor common room, the hallways were pretty much deserted. Jacqueline had been right on the money about one thing: low-magic users were few and far between. I was one of only a dozen kids in the entire junior class.
Everything in the Earth dimension was about balance. Also, humans had moved so far away from their natural affinity with nature that the idea of magic was ludicrous to them. The emergence of magical abilities often caused a human to have a mental breakdown. Some of them could never quite grasp the reality of it. In a way, I was very lucky to have grown up in the compound. Even if it hadn’t been voluntary to begin with.
Thinking of home made me blow out a breath. I ducked behind a sycamore as footsteps approached to the right. Normally I would never be able to hear the vamps coming. When they decided to go into full stealth mode, my human ears were worthless. But it was the day before school started for them too and they were chatting excitedly to each other. That was one thing about Bloodline Academy that I liked. We were under twenty-four-hour protection. The threat of demon attacks never even crossed my mind. Not like at home where the wolves worked on a rotating shift guarding their sector of the human world. There was a war raging between the Hell dimension and all others. Inside the confines of Bloodline, we were allowed to be kids.
I waited until the vamps had disappeared around the corner of the building before slipping out and racing past the back entrance of the dining hall. Of all the subjects, Herbology was the least popular. Mostly it was taken by low-magic users and the Fae who were earth elementals. The size of the kitchen garden was not in proportion to the number of students who attended each class. Almost eighty percent of our Herbology classes involved tending to the garden. We produced all of the fruit and vegetables that the dining hall used to feed the whole school. It was the perfect place to go scavenging for potion ingredients.
I was almost at the gate when a shriek pierced the still night air. Flattening myself against the picket fencing, I turned my head towards the sound. A moment later a stocky boy of about ten or eleven came running past. He shot to the left of where I was standing, his speed indicating he was some kind of shifter. Not wanting to be caught up in whatever trick he was playing, I turned the handle of the gate. A roar erupted in the night.
All of the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Deep in the pit of my gut, the last vestiges of my prey instinct came roaring back to life. I might be a kitchen witch, but I was also a child of Africa. The deep rumble of a lion’s roar caused every nerve in my body to grow taut. I knew how lions sounded. There was a rough-throated edge to this roar that wasn’t normal. My feet became planted to the
