Virtual magic academy of.., p.1
Virtual Magic (Academy of Modern Magic Book 2), page 1
Virtual Magic
Academy of Modern Magic, book 2
Maggie Alabaster
Copyright © 2020 by Maggie Alabaster
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover art by Ryan Katryn digital art.
Edits by Lily Luchesi
To Courtney, Margo, Kim, KD, Cath, Sarah, Katie and Loraine for your support during some hard times. And to anyone else I’ve forgotten to thank!
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
About the Author
Also by Maggie Alabaster
1
"You are not going back there."
My mother's face was an interesting shade of blotchy pink. Not cute like Kane when he blushed, but uneven like her voice when she spoke to me.
I tossed a shoe into my bag. "Of course I am. Well—" I stood up straight and toyed with my hair for a moment. "I'm not exactly going back. The Academy of Modern Magic has moved to another campus."
"I'm well aware of that." Lucinda Knight-Chapel gave me a look which would have reduced most other people, paranormal or otherwise, to a blubbering mess at her feet. Probably not literally, though who knows. Others seemed to find her intimidating.
As for me, I shrugged off the look and searched for my other shoe. "Are you trying to say the University of Arcana campus isn't safe?" I shot her a challenging look. She had gone there herself. Not only that, She had beenn fifteen when she graduated. Surely I should get bonus points for stepping foot on a campus where she was all but revered? To be honest, I would rather put my head in a blender, but after the Zeta attack, the academy needed to be moved. Apparently, the university was the safest place for us. Besides, my lovers and my best friend would be going.
"Of course it's safe," she snapped. That was followed by a deep sigh. You know, the kind mothers do when their children refuse to listen. "I just want you to be careful and not get harmed. Is that such a terrible thing?"
Now I sighed. The kind daughters do when their mothers are being, well, motherly, but the daughter is nineteen and wants to make her own mistakes.
I flopped down on my bed. "I know you're just worried about me, but I can look after myself, remember? The best place I can be is where I can learn more about using my magic."
She perched beside me. "You shouldn't have to look after yourself. They came after you because of me."
"They" were Zeta. A more or less secret government organisation, whose goal it was to bring normals and paranormals under their heel. Part of that meant taking witches like me and using us to create hybrids—witch and shifter cross. None of that was part of my life plan.
"They would have come after the whole academy sooner or later," I reminded her. "Me being there was probably a coincidence." Except I knew it wasn't. My best friend Ariana and my friend-cum-nemesis, Matt, Had been told to protect me. Even my lover and teacher, Nash, was supposed to be keeping an eye on me. Just thinking about seeing him again made my heart race.
My mother eyed me. "Peyton, even if it was a coincidence, I wouldn't want you to go back there."
"How else am I going to learn how to use magic better?" I asked. "Do you have the time?"
She flinched. "I have to leave for North America in the morning. Your father—"
"Isn't as trained as you or my teachers are," I finished for her. I felt bad for saying that. I loved my father dearly, but he hardly bothered to use the power he had. It wasn't that he couldn't, but he never seemed interested. I never gave it much thought until now. From the look on my mother's face, neither had she.
"I will find someone—" she started, but was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.
"It sounds like my escort has arrived." I rose and zipped up my suitcase.
I thought she might argue further, but she stood and gave me a hug. She didn't look happy in the slightest. She held a lot of power in the paranormal community. I knew full well she could have forbidden me from going back to school and no establishment would dare take me. If nothing else, her indifference had shaped me into the independent woman I was. I don't know if it was that indifference which led her to let me go now, or the knowledge I would never forgive her if she didn't.
Either way, she stepped aside to let me zip up my suitcase. I grabbed my backpack off my bed and headed downstairs.
Standing beside the door, face bright red, was Kane, one of my boyfriends and one of the sweetest guys I know. Beside him stood his brother, Dyson, the clown of the family. Twins—fraternal—were both shifters. Right now, however, they were both smiling, in spite of my father's scrutiny. He must have let them in.
"Hey," I greeted them. I handed my backpack to Dyson and gave both guys a warm embrace and a kiss on the mouth.
My father cleared his throat and gave me a funny look, but smiled. "Are you going to introduce me?'"
I gave him a please-don't-embarrass-me look and nodded. "This is Dyson and Kane Gill. They're both, um, friends of mine." Gods, what were they exactly? I was dating them both and sleeping with Kane. Dyson and I had agreed to take things slowly. I didn't know if any of that meant they were my boyfriends. I mean, who has two boyfriends anyway? Or three if you count Nash. I was definitely sleeping with him, too. The fact he was a teacher complicated things, but we made it work so far.
"This is my dad." I jerked a thumb toward him.
"Nice to meet you, sir." Dyson held out his hand and Kane followed suit shortly after.
"You too, boys." Dad shook their hands and gave them a nod.
I winced. Boys? I suppose they were to him.
"So," Dad went on, "you'll take good care of my little girl?"
I groaned. "Dad!" I drew the word out like a whiny child.
Dyson just grinned. "We'll take very good care of her, sir. She's in good hands with us."
I heard Kane swallow and had a pretty good idea where his thoughts had gone. We hadn't seen each other since just after Christmas and the dry spell after a couple of semesters of getting laid regularly… Let's just say my trusty vibrator got a workout.
"Yes." Kane's agreement came out as a squeak. "She'll be safe with us."
Dad blinked at him several times. "Well…good. See that she is, otherwise—"
"They know Mum will hunt them down and have them flayed alive," I assured him. I gave the guys a wink, which probably looked more like I was squinting with both eyes. Winking was never a skill I had mastered.
Dyson grinned. "I hope not. I'm attached to my skin." The mischievous look in his eyes made my heart skip a beat. I knew exactly which piece of skin he was referring to.
I resisted the urge to look in the direction of his dick.
He gave me an innocent look as if he knew what I was thinking.
"Anyway," I drew the word out, "we should get going. We have to beat the traffic."
"Yes, we do." Dyson took my backpack from my father and Kane grabbed the handle of my suitcase.
"Gentlemen, I see." Dad looked pleased.
I was perfectly capable of carrying and dragging my own things, but it gave me a chance to hug my dad and kiss his cheek.
"Stay out of trouble, little witch," he said affectionately.
I caught Dyson's smile and gave him a warning glare over Dad's shoulder. If he thought he'd use the term of endearment as a nickname, he had better think again.
He just smiled more broadly and stepped out into the cool of a Melbourne morning in March.
I followed both guys and closed the door behind me. Something about it felt final, although I knew I'd be back at the end of the year.
"New car?" I asked, eyeing the red Ford something-or-other. I am no expert on cars.
"It's Kane's," Dyson replied. "It matches his face."
"Hey!" Kane protested. "I didn't choose the colour."
"I'm sure you didn't," I assured him. "As long as it goes…" I peered into the back as we got closer and groaned. "What is he doing here?"
Matt wound down the window and smirked back at me. "I'd say it's nice to see you too, but…" He shrugged.
I gave him the finger. Evidently we were going to start the academic year the way we'd left the last one.
He rolled his eyes and raised the window again.
"Officially, he's going the same way we are," Kane said. He opened the back of the car and lifted my suitcase inside.
"And unofficially?" I asked.
"He insisted," Dyson said, his hand cupped around his mouth as if that would stop Matt from being able to hear. "He was sure you'd get into some kind of trouble on the way there."
"You know she would," Ma tt called out.
I grimaced. "I would not." Trouble might find me, though. "Do I have to sit in the back with him?"
"Dyson gets carsick," Kane said regretfully. "And I'm driving, otherwise I'd sit in the back with you."
I knew what that meant. While the guys in front watched the road, he'd have his hands down my top and my shorts. No such luck sitting beside Matt.
I sighed loudly and pulled the door open. "Fine, but no funny business." I shook my finger but I was mostly joking. Matt was a dick, but he was hot as hells, especially dressed from head to toe in black. His muscles bulged in a way that made my eyes pop. I would totally go there. Maybe.
He snorted. "Like that'll happen."
I slipped into the seat and stuck my tongue out at him. "Always the charmer."
"That's me," he agreed. "Now shut the door. You never know when we might come under attack."
I gave him a look, but closed the door quickly. Zeta could be waiting anywhere. I couldn't afford to let my guard down.
I hunkered down in the seat and clicked the belt into place. My father stood in the front window. I waved. He waved back. I saw no sign of my mother.
With a shrug I turned back around. "So, we're all second years."
"Yep," Dyson said. He kept the window down beside him, his face in the breeze. I wouldn't have been surprised if his tongue lolled out.
"It's remarkable you managed to survive first year," Matt said. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
I gave him a sidelong look. "Is this where I say thank you for saving my ass, or you're welcome because I saved yours?" I asked.
"Or where we remind him Nash saved us all by biting the head off a griffin." Dyson glanced over his shoulder.
"That was pretty cool," I said. Nash wouldn't agree. He had killed before and it haunted him. Doing it again…
I hated that I hadn't been able to talk to him since the bus picked us up at the academy. I hadn't seen or heard from him for weeks. With any luck, he would be at the combined university slash academy campus, waiting for us.
I sighed softly. If I called him a boyfriend then I was a pretty crap girlfriend. I had tried to contact him over the holidays, but I hadn't managed to reach him. I didn't know what number to call or what email to try. I had casually asked my mother about dragon shifters, but she had laughed it off. A high pitched, nervous laugh, to be sure, but I got no answers.
"As long as he can tell a good gargoyle from a bad one," Matt muttered.
I leaned over to pat his arm. "It's easy to tell. You were the one who was always getting injured."
He gave me a long look. "Only to keep you safe, remember?"
"I didn't say I didn't appreciate it," I told him. "I'm glad you're not dead and stuff."
"Gee, thanks," he said sarcastically.
"Um, guys," Kane said from the driver's seat. "We're being followed."
2
I swivelled around in my seat and looked out the back window. "How do you know?" I was looking for a black SUV with tinted windows, like the one my mother drove. Except, you know, driven by bad guys.
"That blue car has been behind us since we pulled out of your place," Kane said.
"It's a busy road," I pointed out. "They might be going the same way we are. Can you do that swerving through traffic thing to see if we can throw them?"
"You've seen too many movies." Matt waved a hand toward the window. "This is Melbourne traffic. You can't just swerve around without hitting anything. The moment we get to the lights, they'll be right behind us."
"They're not going to risk a magical battle in the middle of morning traffic." I wasn't so sure about that.
"They might assume the same thing about us," Matt said softly.
The blood drained out of my face. He was right. They may think we'd come quietly, so no one else got hurt. The assumption was a reasonable one. We were the good guys, after all.
"We need to stay ahead of them," Dyson said. He closed the window beside him. "And head in a different direction. There's no point in leading them toward the academy."
I chewed my lip but nodded. I wished Nash was here. Between us we had a dog, an owl, a gargoyle, and my gargoyle tattoo, with which I could conjure a magical creature to fight with me or for me. A dragon would turn the odds in our favour, even if it meant asking him to kill again.
"Right." Kane changed lanes and flew around a corner just before the lights turned red.
That move would have lost anyone law abiding, but the blue car swung around behind us. They ultimately worked for the government; they probably thought they were above the law.
A truck coming the other way beeped its horn and narrowly missed hitting the blue car. Shame, that would have slowed them down.
"Shit." Kane swerved to avoid a delivery van parked at the side of the road. He pulled back into our lane before another truck took out the side of our car. The driver stuck his finger out the window at us. I kept my hands on my lap to avoid doing the same thing back.
"We need to get out of the city," Matt urged.
"Have I mentioned this is my first time in Melbourne?" Kane asked. "I don't know where we're going unless it's programmed into the GPS."
"Turn left at the end of this street," Matt said. "We'll go west."
"Isn't that the direction we were going?" Dyson asked.
"Yeah, but we can get on a different road and head toward Ballarat. At least out in the country we can fight back without risk to too many others."
"If they realise that, they'll—" I stopped when another blue car rounded the turn in front of us and skidded to a stop. "Try to keep us from doing that," I finished.
"Hold on!" Kane spun the wheel and jammed his foot down on the accelerator. The car leapt forward and flew toward the second car. At the last moment he wrenched the steering wheel, but it wasn't enough. The side of his car scraped down the side of the blue one. The squeal of metal on metal made me wince and throw my hands over my ears.
"Dude!" Dyson shouted.
"Sorry!" Kane gunned the engine and we flew clear, but right into the path of another car.
We struck with a crunch of metal and glass. The airbags in front of Kane and Dyson inflated.
Apparently the car was too old to have any in the back. I was thrown forward hard. My seatbelt jerked and I came to a painful stop against the strap.
"Everyone out," Matt ordered. "Split up. Witch to shifter, shifter to hybrid."
Dyson groaned and rubbed his head, but he had his door open before I did.
He helped me out and grabbed my hand to pull me away from the car.
I glanced back once. "Fuck, there goes another suitcase full of clothes," I muttered.
Dyson snorted. "If that's the worst that happens…"
"Yeah, I know. We should stop talking now, I'm making a bubble." I drew magic from a few small trees beside the road and made us both invisible. Our pursuers could hear us if we made a sound, but they wouldn't see us.
I turned my face just as Matt and Kane disappeared behind a bubble Matt made.
"Which way do we go?" Dyson whispered in my ear. Thank the gods magic allowed us to see each other and around ourselves.
"Anywhere but here," I said, "as long as we do it quietly."
Around us, Zeta agents, dressed from head to toe in black, climbed out of their cars, guns in hand. They stopped to listen, then moved in the direction they had seen us last.
I pulled Dyson in the opposite direction as fast as we dared to go.
"Give it up, witch," one of the agents called out.
Yeah, for real. As if that would make me surrender, just like that. It wasn't even worth a try. No witch I knew was that dumb. I certainly wasn't.
"Maybe I should let my gargoyle loose," I whispered.
"Can you do that and hold the bubble?" Dyson asked.
"I have no idea." I wasn't going to drop the bubble to find out.
