Page 5 of Beginnings

I cocked my head and straightened, staring at my prey. The animal in me stirred at the smell of her blood. Fire watched from her cage, ready to jump to my aid, even as I did my best to keep her confined.

“What the hell is going on here!?” yelled one of the teachers. “Everyone stay exactly where you are!” A geeky looking man in his mid-twenties pushed through the crowd of teenagers. He lowered himself with surprising grace and ease, his knees bumping against the tiles. His eyes narrowed, and his lips pressed tightly together as he shook Shannon’s shoulders. Queen bitch moaned, spitting blood when he shook her harder.

My attention zoned in on the burn on her jaw. Damn! How was I going to explain that one? The strength I could pass off as my wolf, but the burn? That was another thing entirely.

The geeky teacher took his glasses off and looked at me with wide brown eyes. “You!” He pointed at me.

I jumped.

“Get yourself to the head’s office.”

I didn’t move. I couldn’t.

“Right now!” he yelled.

It wasn’t that I was being deliberately rude, I was just frozen, freaking out about how I was going to explain causing a burn. No shifters had that kind of supernatural power.

There was an odd pulse of energy. That’s weird. I looked around, but no one else seemed to notice it.

“Everyone else, clear out! Get to class!” the teacher bellowed in a voice that didn’t suit his geekiness at all.

A sigh exploded from me. I knew I’d just fucked myself out of going into the Bureau training programme. I grabbed my stuff from the floor, quickly picking up the stray pieces from my pencil case. Starting my walk of shame to the head’s office, I pushed through the crowd of chattering teenagers and got the hell out of there.

Shannon wasn’t lying when she said Rawson worked for her dad. Shannon’s father was the head of the British branch of the SBI. I licked my dry lips. And I had just knocked her on her arse, probably ruining all her wonderful dental work.

My stomach turned, the lunch I’d just eaten like a brick in my belly. I tried to control my pounding heart and took some deep breaths. I’d not been in trouble for fighting in years...maybe that would go in my favour…

I hoped Rawson wouldn’t be blamed for my behaviour. Doherty seemed to enjoy finding any reason to punish Rawson or Connor, especially if I was somehow involved. Oh gods, they might redeploy Rawson somewhere else, or sack him, or….

I was close to hyperventilating. Making myself breathe deeply was the only way to calm myself and to think sensibly. It was true the SBI was a large, powerful and world wide beast, but the British headquarters was in Kent, on the outskirts of London, and I reasoned it would be ridiculous to move an experienced agent because of an altercation at the academy.

The kids in the academy were children of bureau employees, and most were shifters, or they had some kind of supernatural heritage. We were all watched closely by the staff. When we reached our final year, as I have, they gave us a choice: go into a civilian training programme, where they ensured shifters were safe to live among human society, or try out for the agency training programme at the SBI.

It was hard to swallow my angry tears as I marched into the head’s office. I really didn’t want to get Rawson in trouble, but I’d allowed Shannon to goad me, and Doherty might take it out on Rawson. With a bored expression, the head’s secretary pointed to an old, worn out chair. I sat and folded my arms over my books in my lap, stewing over what might happen next. It was at least ten minutes until the head mistress called me in.

I followed her rigid form through the half glass door and stopped in front of her desk.

Dressed in a mid-calf straight skirt and a tweed jacket, with her hair in a tight bun, the headmistress looked severe and proper. I itched to turn around and walk back out; after all, I didn’t owe this school a thing, and this was my last day. Only the thought of Rawson’s disappointment kept me from walking.

She looked at me coldly. “Sit.”

I did. I sat quietly, not saying a word while the woman ranted at me. To be honest, it was almost too easy to switch off. She wasn’t scary, no matter how she dressed. Seeing homeless tramps pulled apart by red eyed, shadowy figures; women hypnotised by glamoured fae and coerced into performing sexual acts; having to eat the remains of rotting animals to survive as a six-year-old, now those were scary. I shuddered. I’d seen death and killing and much, much, more in the years before Rawson had found me, but I’d also learned how to hide, how to make myself small and use the shadows to become invisible. I’d learned how to fight and even how to kill, all before my seventh birthday. Just like many kids who lived below the surface veneer of tall buildings, flashy cars, glamorous stores and chain coffee shops, I learned how to survive; not live, just stay alive. Most of the time I could hide that feral part of me away—but sometimes it reared its ugly head, and Shannon had really pushed my buttons. Her and Connor together? No way... I snarled, my skin prickling.

I was busy cracking my knuckles when the door creaked open and that heady woodsy scent I constantly dreamed about blasted my senses. My whole body went rigid and on alert. Connor!

“Ah, it’s you. Where’s Mr Rawson?” The head’s voice softened taking the harshness away, if only slightly.

I looked up and then wished I hadn’t.

Connor glared down at me, his eyes glinting.

I schooled my face into a blank mask, but found it hard to swallow against my dry mouth. He looked good—really good.

“Mrs Winter, I’m here on Rawson’s request. He’s out on assignment at the moment—as I’m sure Ember could have informed you…”

He shot another glower my way. I stared back, my stomach flipping. I’d forgotten Rawson had left this morning—and Lyss worked on Fridays.

Mrs Winter turned her gaze on me, at least it felt like it. I didn’t bother looking at her. “No, she didn’t tell me that. In fact, she hasn’t spoken a word about the incident—nothing at all.”

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