The Hunter's Curse (Monster Hunter Academy Book 2) Page 22

  The moment passed, and Symmes turned to regard me. Once again, he afforded me a deferential nod, which took me by surprise.

  “Ms. Cross. In the way of twenty-year-old daughters, I’m afraid Wendy did not spend as much time admiring you as she did your compatriots. And when I attempted to secure more information about you, I found my sources woefully inadequate. Mrs. Pendleton’s cameras only revealed so much, as you know.”

  I jolted at the reference to the surveillance, and both Tyler and Zach started to speak at once, but Symmes waved them quiet. “There’s much you don’t understand about the magical families who make up Wellington Academy, and we don’t have time for a history lesson, but I owe you this, at least. Yes, there is a net of watchers around the academy, and yes, Margaret Pendleton is their enthusiastic leader. Hunters are often drawn to Wellington even if their line no longer resides in Boston, and we like to be prepared. We found Zachariah’s father that way, though he doesn’t know it. He still thinks to this day that his visit to Boston as a young boy with his adoptive father has no link to his eventual enrollment at the academy. We’ve found other, lesser-skilled hunters as well. But a harbinger—that is something entirely different. You can understand that your arrival has created some excitement.”

  “You knew what she was from something you saw on those cameras?” Zach asked, but Symmes shook his head as he continued to study me. I shifted uneasily, not used to the scrutiny.

  “Not at all. We knew what she was because our cameras shorted out every time she was in the apartment—half the time, the cameras didn’t work at all, and when they did, there was so much static, we couldn’t see anything of worth. That level of interference shouldn’t be possible.”

  “Baller,” Liam muttered, and I pressed my lips together.

  “Exactly so,” Symmes agreed. He nodded to me again. “I look forward to learning more about you this evening.”

  I murmured something polite, though I couldn’t imagine how much his curiosity was going to be rewarded. But I was already getting the idea I would be wise not to underestimate Mr. Symmes. He had the kind of assurance that came from being certain of getting what he wanted. I suspected that confidence had been well earned over time.

  A man appeared in the doorway, providing a discreet signal, and Symmes nodded. “Excellent,” he said. “I’m famished. Gentlemen? Ms. Cross?”

  He directed us into the room, and though I shouldn’t have been surprised, I barely forestalled a gasp at the size of the dining room. It was completely paneled in richly veined wood, and dominated by a massive wooden table that looked like it would be more at home in King Arthur’s castle than a Boston mansion.

  Over the next twenty minutes, course after course was served, each more mouthwatering than the last—soups, meats and fish, vegetables, and so much bread. I couldn’t decide if I was more surprised by the quality of the food or by the fact that the guys were able to put it away without seeming to need to breathe. As we ate, Mr. Symmes quizzed them on all manner of innocuous topics, from the types of courses that they took to their experiences with Dean Robbins and Commander Frost.

  It wasn’t until small glasses of port were brought out on a silver tray that Mr. Symmes’s energy changed. He set down his glass, and studied us. “Gentlemen, Ms. Cross, you have proven to be most gracious guests and I suspect are quite curious as to the real reason why I’ve brought you here tonight. I do appreciate the general background, though, as it has been some time since I’ve spoken to a student of the academy pursuing your specific studies. I’d rather thought I wouldn’t ever speak to one of you again, in fact.”

  That brought everybody up short, though Mr. Symmes delivered the line without any overt animosity. Still, Tyler took the lead.

  “We’re aware not everybody at Wellington is a supporter of the monster hunting minor, despite its historical significance to the school,” he began carefully.

  “Oh no, no, don’t misunderstand,” Mr. Symmes replied, waving a lazy hand. “I have no quarrel with your course of study, nor any interest, like so many of my peers, in seeing it eradicated. All things have their time and purpose, including, as it turns out, monster hunters. No. My purpose in calling you here tonight is simply to inform you that our need for you is becoming a matter of some urgency. Commander Frost has kept me well apprised of your development, but the time for caginess is past. We’re under siege from within. And we need you to fight.”

  As usual, Tyler recovered first. “What do you mean under siege?” he asked. “Frost said there was a monster outbreak brewing, but it hasn’t hit yet. We’ll get on it the moment it does.”

  “And if I believed your efforts could continue in such a haphazard manner, I would be content to allow you to carry on,” Symmes returned. “However, we’re not simply dealing with the occasional monster who stumbles upon our portion of the fair city. These attacks are coordinated and not the result of supernatural creatures simply sniffing us out. They’re being directed in their attacks. Our defenses are being tested, and frankly, other than your estimable attempts, we’re coming up decidedly wanting.”

  He turned his attention to me. “We haven’t been completely lax, of course. Mrs. Pendleton did find you. But if we know about you, you can rest assured others do too. Which means, undoubtedly, their timetable has moved up.”

  “We’re ready for them,” Tyler said staunchly, “We may not be as prepared as hunters who’ve completed all four years of training, but we can handle whatever comes. Nina only makes us stronger.”

  “She does. But the issue of Wellington’s past hunters brings me to the next problem,” Symmes said. “You are aware, I’m sure, of Commander Frost’s attempts to locate and marshal past graduates, the illustrious monster hunters who, in return for their lifetime service to the school, have been given prestige and riches.”

  Uh-oh. I didn’t like where this was going.

  “Sure,” Tyler allowed. “I know a series of summonses have gone out—”

  “None of which have been answered,” Mr. Symmes put in, but Tyler shrugged.

  “It’s early days yet, and some of these hunters are undoubtedly in remote corners of the world. I know I certainly plan to be upon graduation.”

  Mr. Symmes smiled thinly. “I wish quite sincerely that was the case. But alas, it is not. After careful and thorough review, it appears the reason our illustrious graduates aren’t responding is because they’re uniformly dead.”

  “Dead?” Liam blurted, the question as sharp as a pistol shot. “How?”

  “It would be poetic to say they died while in the process of dispatching monsters. Once again, we were destined to be disappointed on that score. We estimate the fifteen graduates still alive as of our last census have been systematically eliminated over the course of the past five years. Starting with those who are most remote and the least likely to create any interest, and ending with those who have graduated within the past decade. They’re all gone, or they’re missing, and I’m frankly not sure which is worse.”

  “And you just now figured this out?” Liam protested.

  “Quite,” Mr. Symmes said. “With the general animosity that’s been growing against the monster hunter minor, there has been no great interest in bringing past graduates back to the campus or drawing any attention to them at all. They were out doing what they had signed up to do, reports were coming in, all was proceeding as it should with very little verification happening. But when we started looking for them in earnest, we learned the reports were coming from spoofed accounts, and the monster hunters themselves were nowhere to be found. It took another deeper search to identify the first casualties, and while the search remains ongoing, we must proceed with the belief that no more assistance will be forthcoming other than that which is found in this room.”

  “What about the freshmen?” Zach began, but Mr. Symmes raised a quelling hand.

  “They will be informed shortly of the cessation of their course of study at the close of this school year. They are no
t prepared to face this struggle.”

  Tyler scowled. “And if we face the challenge, what then? Sure, they won’t be part of the fight with us, but the minor will still exist, right?”

  “The general consensus is that yes, in the event you succeed, monster hunting studies will resume, but I must tell you…”

  “Nobody expects us to succeed,” Tyler said.

  Mr. Symmes smiled. “This is where it gets interesting.”

  33

  We left the house in a quieter mood than when we’d arrived, mostly because we were now almost certain we were being recorded. By the time we reached the campus, you could cut the tension in the SUV with a knife.

  We were unloaded in the center of campus again, unable to shake the mood of impending doom. Students milled around, walking from late classes toward the bar district or just enjoying the night, but the five of us stayed quiet and close together until we reached the archway to the monster quad.

  “Where do we go from here?” Tyler asked.

  Liam shook his head. “Honestly, we gotta get more information from Frost, even though he’s clearly been holding out on us. Dean Robbins is a nonstarter, but if we’ve got Symmes on our side…”

  “We don’t know that he is,” Grim said. In the short walk from the center of campus, he’d managed to pull off his tie and chuck his dress shirt. His muscles rippled beneath the soft white T-shirt that remained. I was surprised he didn’t kick off his fancy boots and walk barefoot. “Symmes has a need in all this we don’t know yet. We shouldn’t trust him.”

  “I agree,” Zach said. “This doesn’t feel right. I should have pushed him. I didn’t, but I should have. He’s definitely hiding something.”

  “Even if you’d pushed, you wouldn’t have gotten very far,” Liam said, hitching his pack higher on his shoulder. “The wards in that place were top-notch. He was not messing around. Which means he does know at least something about you and your abilities, Zach. Probably about all of us.”

  “Or he’s careful,” Grim countered. “If he knew that much, he wouldn’t have invited us into his lair.”

  His word choice was interesting and, I suspected, deliberately chosen. Symmes was a predator, and I got the feeling we could become his prey. But we hadn’t yet. Was that because we could still offer him help? Help he couldn’t get elsewhere?”

  “What can he gain by making us feel comfortable?” I asked. “We’re students at the academy. We pretty much have to do as we’re told. Could that be it? He thinks we can be easily manipulated?”

  “That’s an interesting thought,” Zach said. “If somebody hits us up for action and pressures us from a ‘do this or you lose your degree’ standpoint, that could get ugly really fast.”

  “Agreed. What’s worse, it means Symmes knows something’s coming. Which means he knows shit we should probably have already been told,” Tyler muttered. “I don’t like this at all. I don’t know who it is we’re supposed to trust.”

  “You do know,” Grim offered. The energy shimmering through him was undeniable at this point. He looked like a caged animal who’d just sniffed the open door of his enclosure. “Each other. Period. Where do you want me to be and when?”

  Tyler sighed. “We need to be ready tomorrow for whatever they throw at us. I get the feeling it’s not going to be pretty. I need to think.”

  “Same,” Zach agreed.

  “Well, I need to find out what the hell is in the basement of Bellamy Chapel.” Liam had already half turned to leave and fairly bounced on his toes. “You know that fire uncovered some serious shit. My illusion wards will fool most people, but not if we’re dealing with people who shop at the same stores I do. So I’m outtie until tomorrow morning minimum.”

  “Tomorrow, then,” Grim said. The guys all nodded, and he turned away without sparing me a glance.

  “Wait,” I blurted, and Grim stopped, swiveling back to me with a forbidding expression. I pushed on. “Those beads that, um, the demonology guys brought to the library. Have you ever seen those before? Because they ended up keeping Zach’s demon in place long enough for us to take him out.” I didn’t want to mention the handful of pellets that Grim had given me during our demon-fighting practice, but I couldn’t help but think they were important…especially since the other guys didn’t seem to know anything about them.

  Liam turned to me and Zach. “Really? You cracked the code on how to use them?”

  “I’ve never seen them before,” Grim grunted as he glared at me, totally lying to my face. “Ask the demonology idiots.” Then he swung around again, setting off into the shadows with a ground-eating stride.

  I scowled after him. Hard guy. For every mystery I solved at Wellington, it seemed two more sprang up in its place. Now I needed to figure out the importance of those silver beads and get back to reading whatever pages were left of the Apocrypha. There was still too much I didn’t know.

  Liam took off as well, which left me, Zach, and Tyler standing in the pool of light. As I watched Liam break into a run, my mind still churning, it occurred to me it had suddenly gotten…really quiet. Then I realized why. Zach and me. Tyler and me. Tyler, Zach, and me, alone together for the first time since…

  I jerked my attention back to Zach as he blew out a long breath, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked more uncomfortable than I’d ever seen him in his life, and I tried desperately to come up with something to say, but couldn’t. “So…um, Tyler…” Zach began.

  Tyler folded his arms over his chest and looked back at Zach with stern eyes. “You want to tell me why you been messing with my girl?” he asked in a voice so low and menacing, I swung his way—only to be practically tackled to the ground as Tyler threw out his arms and engulfed both of us in a double-barreled hug.

  “Hey!” Zach started, but no matter how much he’d leveled up, he was no match for Tyler’s size and strength, and it was all we could do to stay upright as we pushed back at Tyler with all our might. Tyler squeezed us tight, then released us.

  “We’re bonded,” he announced. “Really bonded. I felt something strange in the Force I guess yesterday? But I don’t think it really hit me until I felt you fighting in the library, Zach. I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others, I know it may be totally different with them—and Nina, for reals, Liam is looking for every loophole out there to make sure you don’t feel forced into doing anything you don’t want to—”

  I opened my mouth to say too late…but instead blurted something totally different.

  “It’s okay. Seriously. I wanted to be with you, Tyler, you know that, and Zach…” I felt myself blush crimson as he turned his beautiful, gothic-angel gaze on me. “The way you and I connect, the way I can borrow your abilities as my own—I mean, it means everything to me. You gave me that.”

  Zach grimaced. “You can also feel my pain,” he said quietly. “When I’m injured, when I bleed. I wouldn’t wish that kind of gift on anyone.”

  “That’s so cool, though,” Tyler said, only his voice had dropped as well, as if such conversations shouldn’t be held where anyone might hear. “Nina, you and I rock the world around us when we’re together, but I don’t think you pulled anything from me, yeah? But with Zach—his psychic mind-melding work? You can borrow that, you say?”

  “Some of it,” I said, turning to Zach, who studied me with such unabashed emotion, I felt myself warming from the inside out. Zach had tried out our mind-melding connection when we’d all been getting ready for the Symmes dinner, linking to me when he’d called his dad. So I’d been there when he’d told Reverend Williams that the curse had been broken and their family was safe. His dad’s reaction still made me sigh, the preacher’s words bubbling over with joy, relief—and, finally, with pride. A pride that was no longer a liability, and which Zach had richly earned. “When we’re linked, I can channel his mind-reading ability a little, I guess. I don’t know how, but—”

  “But it’s friggin’ great,” Tyler finished for me as he spread his hands
wide. “Maybe because you guys both were natural born hunters, yeah? Like out in the wild, doing your thing. Maybe you just link up more naturally because of that. Maybe you and I will just take a little longer, have to work harder at it—but either way, it’s all amazing.”

  His phone buzzed, and though Zach and I both visibly tensed, expecting to hear the same summons, ours remained silent. Tyler pulled his up, his brows arching as he read the screen.

  “Whoa-ho-ho,” he said, then turned it toward us. In the darkness, the brightly lit surface was easy to read—the sender was Frost. The message: Need you now.

  “Just you?” Zach asked. “We can come—”

  “Nope, I think he might spill more if it’s just me, though you can bet your next drink I’ll be telling you when we all hook up again. White Crane, tomorrow morning, say eight?” He turned to me. “Where are you staying now, with Merry? Back at your apartment?”

  I jerked, realizing that neither option appealed to me, but Zach draped his arm over my shoulders.

  “I figure we’ve got so many floors and wings and bedrooms in Fowler Hall we can find somewhere she can feel safe, don’t you?” he asked as a grin stretched across Tyler’s face.

  “I don’t know, man,” he said teasingly. “What if she needs to feel safe from us?”

  “Super funny, standing right here,” I pointed out, but both Tyler and Zach were laughing, and at this moment, all I wanted was for them to stay like this: happy, certain, ready for any adventure. Was that why I’d come to Wellington Academy, after all? Was my pursuit of information about my mother’s family just a strange trick of the universe to get me here, finding a way to help me succeed?

  Life never worked out that neatly for me, but…maybe?

  Tyler’s phone buzzed again, another solo text, but he had to swipe to read it, so it wasn’t Frost.