Their dark imaginings ac.., p.1
Their Dark Imaginings (Academy of the Supernatural Book 3), page 1
Their Dark Imaginings
May Dawson
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
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
41. An Excerpt from One Kind of Wicked
Also by May Dawson
About May Dawson
Chapter One
Deidra
My voice seemed to ring out in the posh foyer of the academic building. “Where’s Malcolm?”
“Deidra,” Tristan said, a nervous edge in his voice.
I ignored him. Students streamed around in an ever-widening circle. I caught glimpses of shocked faces and open mouths, but I didn’t care right now.
People should be scared of me. Maybe I didn’t want my fellow students to feel fear, but Calla? The people who had hunted me?
They should have some serious misgivings about their life choices.
“Okay, Crazypants.” Cade grabbed my shoulders, then he tried to steer me away from prying eyes. “Let’s not make a scene.”
I shrugged his hands off and headed for Malcolm’s office.
“Shit,” Cade muttered.
But even though I was carrying a head in a bag—and a very bad attitude—Cade and Tristan still flanked me.
Nix had gone ahead—Nix didn’t exactly mind my crazier plans—and he was the one who straightened from leaning against the wall in the hallway that housed Malcolm’s office. He shook his head, warning me that now was the wrong time to approach the dean-slash-my-kind-of-grandfather.
Further down the hall, posted right outside Malcolm’s door, were two Hunters dressed in black. Calla’s guards. I’d been scared of them the last time we met, when Malcolm told me to run.
He’d intended to protect me from Calla’s cruel plans. But I had to protect myself and my men, in the end.
“Calla’s in there,” Nix warned.
“Perfect,” I said, not breaking stride.
Nix caught my wrist and pulled me around to face him. I shot him a dark look, before raising my eyebrows pointedly.
It turned out I had superpowers. Maybe he should watch his hands.
But Nix didn’t hesitate to reel me against his body, his hands firm and possessive on my hips.
“Deathwish,” he muttered in my ear. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
“I’m not,” I said.
“The look on your face right now suggests that’s a goddamn lie,” he said tightly. “And also, you’re dripping blood down the hallway.”
I glanced back down the hall. Blood stained the bottom of the bag, and there were little round drips marking where I’d been.
My path was marked in blood. That sounded about right.
“Get out of my way, Nix,” I said.
His brows arched above those icy blue eyes. “Or what?”
I smiled at him tightly. “Or I’ll keep going anyway.”
Nix moved so fast I barely saw him. Suddenly he slammed me against the wall, my shoulder blades hitting hard enough for the impact to tingle down my arms.
Then his arm barred my chest, pinning me against the cold wall. Normally, my reflexes would’ve had me breaking his grip before conscious thought took over, but I let him push me. His icy blue eyes, rimmed with dark lashes, stared into mine as if he could see right through me.
My path might be marked in blood, but it wouldn’t be his blood. Never his.
Damn dickhead was counting on that.
“Listen to me,” he said, his voice soft and intense. “I know right now you want to burn this place down. I’ve been there before.”
I stared at him, my jaw tense.
He hesitated, as if it was hard for him to say whatever was going to come next.
I was still tight with fury. “Spit it out or get off me, Nix.”
“You make it hard to be sweet when you’re such a jackass,” he told me.
“I know.” My eyebrows arched. I wasn’t going to change. He could take me as I was, or he could leave.
Just then, I felt reckless. With everyone and everything.
And yet, the rage that boiled through my veins at what had happened at Truby’s house cooled to a simmer as Nix’s gaze bore into mine. His mouth was so near mine, with his kissable lower lip that he was chewing now, as if he didn’t know how to say what I needed to hear.
“We need you,” Tristan said quietly. He leaned his shoulder against the wall beside me, his hands in his pockets, his posture casual. “Don’t start a war with Calla, don’t leave the academy. When I look into the future, I see the four of us, Hunting together…”
“You could come with me,” I said, knowing it was unfair. This place had given them a home when they were orphaned. No matter how much I chafed at academy life, this place meant so much to them. I couldn’t ask them to go, so I added, “Besides, I didn’t say I was going to leave—”
“I’m pretty sure if you go in there and tear the Council apart, that’s where we’re going to end up.” Cade frowned. “And when I ask you not to tear them apart, I think I might mean that literally. You are simultaneously so adorable and so terrifying.”
I didn’t know quite what to make of that thought, but Cade spoke over Tristan’s shoulder, then turned away, jamming his hands in his pockets.
It felt good to be angry—that anger crowded out all my other, more complicated feelings—but the three of them looked so serious and intent that it stole some of my fury away. The other emotions that crowded in hurt far worse, even though I couldn’t make sense of what they were. I just hurt. Suddenly my chest was so tight I could barely breathe.
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” I said. “But you know that we have to talk to Malcolm about what I am.”
Nix gave me a long look, and Tristan grinned in relief. Cade blew out a slow breath, running his hand through his hair, and I realized for the first time how rattled he’d been.
“You sound so reasonable,” Cade muttered. “But you’re carrying a head in a bag.”
I lifted the bag, looking at the bloodstained side where Truby’s face might’ve been. Cade had knelt next to me and closed Truby’s unseeing green eyes that looked so much like mine. He’d been by my side when I claimed Truby’s head, even if he didn’t agree with me.
“It’s what they wanted,” I said. “I’m going to give Calla exactly what she wanted.”
I met Cade’s gaze with a bright smile. “Look at what a good cadet I am. Falling right in line.”
Cade stared back at me. The look on his face said, what did I get into with this psycho?
The door at the end of the hall opened.
“Shit,” Nix said. He stepped back, his hands dropping to his sides. My body felt cool without him against me, no matter how aggressive he’d been when he held me.
Suddenly, all three of my guys schooled their faces to cold and stoic. I might be the one who was losing it, but they looked like three psychopaths themselves.
“Be good,” Cade told me tightly.
“Always,” I said.
“Liar.”
Malcolm strode out of his office first, turning back as if he was speaking to Calla. Then he saw me, and he broke off abruptly. His face brightened.
She stepped out of the room, following his gaze, and her face went to coolly neutral. Unlike Malcolm, she sure didn’t seem happy to see me.
Her men were a step behind and flanking her, as Malcolm and Calla headed down the hall.
“Brought you a gift.” I tossed the bag at her. It rolled down the smooth wooden hallway, and she stopped it with the toe of her boot.
“What’s in the bag, Deidra?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow. She turned to Malcolm. “Well, if I didn’t know better, I’d think she had inherited your flair for the dramatic.”
“It’s Truby’s head,” I said. “Merry Christmas.”
“It’s November,” Tristan muttered. “We haven’t even had Thanksgiving yet. It’s too early for holiday music or body-part-presents.”
He was so critical sometimes.
“You killed him?” She sounded bored as she kicked the bag to one side.
One of her men crouched down and opened it. He looked up at her and nodded.
“It was cruel to send me to kill my own father,” I said. “What kind of monster does that?”
“What kind of monster sent you, or what kind of monster commits patricide?” Calla crossed her slender, tattooed arms. “No one else could have gotten close enough to him, Deidra. The world is a far better place without him in it. Take comfort in that.”
She glanced at my guys, who hovered around me protectively no matter how steely their gazes.
“Or in them,” she added, as a mocking smile tilted her lips.
I stared at her. I still couldn’t make sense of everything that had happened with Truby. He had lied to me, he had used me, and then he’d died protecting me.
But I knew one thing for sure: I hated her for sending me.
“So can I come home now?” I asked. “I can stay at the academy?”
“Yes. I called off my Hunters,” she answered.
My Hunters? I wanted to Hunt, but I never wanted to be one of them if it meant belonging to Calla.
“Great,” I muttered. At least the guys should be happy.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay here, but for now, I didn’t have anywhere to go.
I turned and headed for the stairs, leaving Calla and Malcolm behind. Malcolm looked at me as if he wanted to run down the hall and grab me in a hug, as if he was so thankful I was alive.
But either he couldn’t show that weakness in front of Calla, or he knew I couldn’t.
“How’d you do it?” she called after me. “I’ll need a full report. Standard Hunter protocol when you have a Council mission.”
I wasn’t excited to let Calla know the truth about what I was, and there was no way I could explain how Truby’s head ended up separated from his shoulders without discussing things like the first time Deidra Ainsley flew. I wanted to talk to Malcolm first.
I glanced at her over my shoulder. “There was a pointy thing involved. I think you can put the pieces together.”
One of Calla’s men muttered to Malcolm, “You better get your students under control.”
“I don’t know.” Malcolm’s voice carried a note of pride that warmed my heart. “I happen to like them the way they are.”
Chapter Two
When I walked into the hallway of my dorm, Axel saw me first, and his eyes lit up. He shouted down the hall, “Deidra’s back!”
Then he lunged toward me. I almost punched him in the windpipe, before I realized he was going in for a hug. My fist punched harmlessly into the air alongside his head before I closed my arms around his neck, as his brawny arms wrapped me up.
“I already heard you were home.” There was a laugh in his voice as he hugged me tight. “You made quite an entrance.”
“Thanks,” I said, my face smushed against his chest.
Hanna ran out of our room and wrapped us both up in a hug a few seconds later. I was enveloped by the cucumber-and-aloe scent of her body spray, and I grinned at her powerful squeeze. Hanna was built, just like I was. One of the many benefits of brutal physical training: we can give some serious hugs.
“I missed you so much,” Hanna said. “Don’t ever leave me again, you bitch.”
She sounded almost choked up. I slipped my arm around her waist, hugging her back.
“Jesus,” Nix said behind us. “I worry about the future.”
But the other guys in our team were spilling out and hugging me too.
“Heard you faced down Calla. You are definitely the most badass freshman we’ve got in our house.” Killian ruffled my hair affectionately, as if I wasn’t badass at all, or at least, not remotely scary to him. I grinned up at him.
Then I remembered Truby’s blank face staring at me, his eyes wide. I’d let them punt his head around like a soccer ball.
Nausea spread through my stomach like battery acid. But everyone saw me as a badass. Well, that made it all worth it. My friends were still talking and laughing around me, even as the noise and joy faded around me.
He killed Liam. He killed Liam. He deserved it.
“Okay, okay, let the girl get a break, she’s had a long week. And I need roomie time.” Hanna flashed me a grin as she caught my hand and tugged me away from the crowd. I let her tow me away into our room.
She’d wrapped Christmas lights around the austere curtain rods at the top of our big windows; we never bothered to close the curtains, since we were always up before dark. They twinkled in the dim light of the room, making it feel homey in here.
I took a tentative step in, feeling a sense of wrongness wash over me. I didn’t belong here, did I?
But my legs carried me into the room, even if my heart stuttered. Got to keep moving.
I always kept moving, but it felt like my heart never quite caught up.
“I made us flash cards,” she said, scooping up a stack from her desk. “You’ve got some catching-up to do.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Thanks.”
“Are you all right?” She looked at me closely.
I shrugged. I debated what to tell her, and then it all came out in a rush, although my voice was flat: “I killed the man I thought was my father, but he turned out not to be. He was a terrible human being. But I still…”
I trailed off. I couldn’t tell anyone that Truby’s death bothered me. He’d killed Hunters. He was a monster, wasn’t he? And we killed monsters.
She stared at me for a long second. Then she said definitively, “You need therapy, girlfriend.”
I snorted.
“Not kidding,” she warned me. “Hunters don’t usually do therapy, I know. But the best thing I ever did was hie myself off to therapy in high school. My parents thought I was sneaking off to have sex with my boyfriend, or I bet they would’ve lost their minds. Hunter families are so fucked up.”
“Did that help?”
“It still smarts when someone calls me baby killer, I still have my moments when the dark voices whisper, but…” She looked so relaxed when she admitted that, sitting on the edge of her bed with the pillow in her lap, but it made my heart ache for her. She went on, “Yeah. I think it helped a lot. At least now when I think I’m worthless, I know that voice in my head isn’t real.”
I sat heavily on the side of the bed. “Damn, Hanna.”
“Really,” she said. “Therapy. Trust me.”
I couldn’t deal with that thought right now. “Are you still dating that guy? The one your parents thought you were sneaking off to see?”
“No,” she said. “He’s a Hunter. Absolute dickhead. I found myself a nice townie.”
“How’s that? Dating a civilian?”
She began to tick things off on her fingers. “Cons list: if I was attacked by a vampire, he’d probably just stand there and scream.”
“That is a problem.”
“Pros list: he doesn’t have a massive ego. He does have a car. We don’t ever fight as foreplay.”
“That’s on the pros list?” I asked skeptically.
She made a see-saw motion with her hand. Then her bright gaze honed in on me. “But I’m sure you’ve got an opinion, don’t you? Does it get you hot when you spar with your guys?”
I felt my cheeks heat. “Mm?”
“Oh, don’t pretend with me.” She chucked the pillow at me. “I’m your roommate. That’s supposed to be fucking sacred, Ainsley.”
“Roommates don’t always get along.”
“Yeah, but you lucked out. You got an awesome one. So. Did you finally have sex with your handsome cadre crush—”
There was a knock at the door just then. The door was still propped slightly ajar, so anyone out in the hall could hear us.
“Hanna,” I groaned, picking up the pillow she’d tossed at me so I could press it over my face as I fell back on the bed. Through the pillow, I said, “I’m going to strangle you in your sleep.”
“You love me. And you need my flash cards.” She wheedled, her voice teasing.
“I can steal your flash cards after I strangle you.” My voice was muffled by the cool crisp fabric of the pillow. Maybe I’d just stay here forever.
