Restrike: (Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting: Operation Shift Book 2)

  Restrike

  Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting: Operation Shift, Book Two

  Shawn Knightley

  Newsletter

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  Contents

  Newsletter

  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

  About the Author

  Also by Shawn Knightley

  1

  I definitely had a week of firsts. First crazy hook-up, first kill, first shift into a werewolf, the first time being stabbed, and first shift into a full-blown lycan. But this was the first time I had ever been on a motorcycle. And it was the most thrilling thing I experienced all week. Shifting from a human to a beast wasn’t exactly exhilarating. It was terrifying. Motorcycles, however, I could get used to.

  I latched onto Lothar’s back and he pulled me in even tighter. I could feel his sculpted abs through his trench coat as I grabbed onto his front. Then once he was sure I was hanging on tight enough, he started it up and we were off with Jake and Alina trailing along behind us on their motorcycles.

  ‘It might be worth becoming a Vontex just to get access to their toys.’

  We sped by the other cars as I felt the rush of the wind blowing through my hair and ripping at my face. It only hurt for a few seconds. Then I guess the healing power of my body took over and I couldn’t feel the sting at all. There was only the rush of the wheels under my legs and the incredible scent coming from Lothar’s skin.

  Lothar wasn’t particularly interested in adhering to the traffic laws. He broke a number of them and along with the speed limit all the way back to London. Which was a far trek. I had no idea how far Devon had taken me away from the academy. And clearly, I wasn’t meant to know. As we got closer I waited to see the same sight that appeared before me when I was in the back of Lothar’s SUV and I had just shifted back into being a human for the first time. The change between realms. It opened up before us like ripples in a lake after a rock had been thrown in. The edges were blurred, the space widened, the ripples turned bright gold, and we passed through until there was nothing but a dirt road. Lothar slowed down his bike as did the others and we traveled through the thick path between the trees, coming to a stop when we saw the Tower of London in the distance. Or as I knew it now, the Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting.

  My body felt weak. I was covered in blood. My hair was matted with the crimson red of liquid staining its texture. And now I had bike chick hair. To say that I needed a comb was a massive understatement. I pulled my right leg over the side of the bike, feeling stiffer with each movement I made. The inner tendons of my knees were getting tight, trying to heal from the hours I spent latched onto Lothar as we rode through traffic. The sun would be up soon and we had to get back inside. Lothar told me the first day I arrived that the sun wouldn’t hurt me once I was a lycan but I didn’t feel up to putting it to the test just yet.

  The second I was off the bike I hunched over, waiting for my body to catch up with the idea of moving again until it healed from being so tight for hours. Lothar reached for my arm and pulled me upright as I brushed my hair out of my face.

  “Are you alright?” he asked.

  I gave a small shrug. “About as much as can be expected.”

  He smirked, knowing my meaning had nothing to do with my body getting used to being on the back of a motorcycle. He forced me to explain everything that happened with Devon. Each detail felt too surreal for words. The very thought of my brother being alive made me thrilled. And angry. Why didn’t he come to me? Why didn’t he try leaving me some sort of message that he was alright? Or at least tell me what happened to him when he was first bitten? He could have protected me from all of this if he had just been a little more open with me.

  My face sunk as the myriad of thoughts and questions ran through my mind.

  Lothar placed his fingers under my chin and forced my eyes to meet his. “Don’t hide that face,” he said. “You’re a lycan now. You cower to no one.”

  I smiled. A weak smile that probably didn’t make me look very strong. So I stood up a little straighter and pretended to believe what he was saying. That being a lycan meant that I had to have some sort of renewed strength at all times.

  Lothar removed his hand as we heard Alina and Jake pulling up behind us and get off their bikes.

  “Go put those away,” he ordered them.

  They all took the motorcycles into the nearby woods. I watched as they stepped back and the trees took on a life of their own. The branches swooped over the bikes and pulled them deeper into the forest as if the tree’s limbs were hands, reaching for the bikes like they were trying to protect them from view.

  My jaw dropped. “What in the world?”

  “The vixra enchanted the Alluring Forest,” Lothar answered me. “It helps us from time to time with small things.”

  “This is the Alluring Forest?” I asked.

  “Yes, why?”

  “Devon said he took me there.”

  “No, Devon took you to a forest in Yorkshire. One where he assumed we wouldn’t be able to find you even with the trackers we place on the initiates going through the trials if he got you far enough away from the academy.”

  I saw rays of light piercing over the edge of the horizon, threatening to come barreling down. Alina and Jake all pulled their hoods over their heads and began walking down the trail toward the drawbridge with a rather large moat surrounding the academy. I was too out of it my first time arriving to take note of certain things. This time I had my senses about me. The entire area was closed off. Hidden deep inside a forest as though time had skipped over the area entirely. The tower appeared brand new. As though it was built only a few years ago and the forest surrounding it was the same one that probably stood when it was first erected. I could hear the animals moving through the trees. The metal of the chain attached to the enormous drawbridge being lowered over a river right where the Thames was outside this realm. And most of all, I could see with more clarity than I ever imagined. New colors appeared in the sky as the stars began fading from the sunlight piercing over the distance. Their glimmer was remarkable even as they started to disappear. The crispness of the air tickled my nose. The scent of fresh meat being prepared inside the fortress made my mouth water. Each and every sense inside of me was sharper and more defined than when I was a human and even a werewolf.

  I stepped onto the drawbridge with Alina beside me and Jake only a few paces behind. I could sense Jake was admiring the view from back there.

  ‘Pervert.’

  We followed Lothar over the wooden drawbridge toward the entrance of the academy. That was when I saw the official crest of the academy hanging over the entrance. It was a large lycan rearing up toward three stars. Then the second I lowered my gaze back down I saw someone I was immediately frightened to look at. Rodrick was standing at the gate waiting for us with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked furious.

  Lothar walked up to him and gave a small bow wi
th his fist over his heart. Alina and Jake did the same. Rodrick paid them no mind. His eyes were fixed on me in a way that didn’t give me comfort. They were intense and focused. I was in for a lecture about leaving the academy for sure. Maybe even punishment. Or so I assumed.

  “Leave Miss Blackburn with me,” Rodrick demanded.

  Lothar raised a brow. “As her mentor, I believe it might be best if she rests first. I can fill you in on the details of what transpired.”

  “I will have Miss Blackburn fill me in, Lothar. Thank you for returning her safely.”

  Lothar slowly backed away from me and the others followed him. His eyes met mine before he turned around to walk away from us. I tried to communicate with my eyes what I was feeling inside.

  ‘Please don’t leave me with him. I’m begging you.’

  It didn’t matter. Rodrick was the Dean of L.I.T. He would have his way.

  “Follow me, Miss Blackburn,” Rodrick ordered.

  I did as he asked and walked through the tower’s front entrance and into the central courtyard. A bell tower started ringing above us, nearly making me jump out of my skin. Classes were about to end and the students started heading back to their dormitories in the back towers.

  They funneled out of the doors and instantly saw me following Rodrick to his office. I could hear their whispers as I walked.

  ‘What in the world happened to her?’

  ‘She passed the trials! She’s a lycan!’

  ‘Fresh meat.’

  ‘She left the academy without permission. She’ll be flogged for sure.’

  I chill ran down the center of my back and made my legs shake a little more with each step. It wasn’t until I was inside Rodrick’s study and seated in one of the large chairs facing his desk that I managed to control the trembling. I folded my hands onto my lap just like the tutor my father hired when I was a kid taught me. She failed to make me prim and proper as he wanted but a few of the formal manners stuck in the back of my mind.

  Rodrick hung up his trench coat and gently placed it on the bronze rack in the corner. Then he went over to the wall and removed a tapestry he had hanging from a loosely tied rope. Behind it was an array of decanters and fine liquors. He poured himself a glass and then one for me. My hand was visibly quivering when I took it from him.

  “Do you still fear me, Miss Blackburn?” he asked.

  I swallowed hard. “Forgive me. I just… Devon looked like you when he stabbed me. I know it wasn’t really you but the memory is still fresh in my mind.”

  He sighed. “I have no doubt that you’ve been through quite an ordeal. Which is why I wanted to hear it from your lips rather than anyone else’s. I’ve learned over the years that hearing it directly from the victim is always better than hearing it recounted by others. People tend to perceive danger differently when they’ve experienced their life being taken out of their own hands.”

  I took a deep breath and sipped the liquor. Whatever it was, it was fabulous. There was a hint of honey, strawberry, and the dark flavor that I only ever tasted in the finest of Scotch money could buy. I should know. My father always paid for the best.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “A special brew that we make here at the academy. It will help soothe you. Now tell me word for word what happened. Every single detail.”

  ‘Every detail? Including when Devon kissed me and made me think it was you? I hope you don’t mind if I leave that part out. I didn’t even tell Lothar.’

  I decided right then and there that he didn’t need to know everything. Particularly the mortifying bits and pieces.

  “So you know?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “That Devon is a master shifter?”

  “Who do you think taught him?”

  I stared at him in disbelief.

  “I never said that all of my choices were wise ones. A quality I’m sure you can relate to given how you came to be here, Miss Blackburn.”

  ‘Harsh, but fair point.’

  I gradually told him the entire story. How Devon was in the hospital when I woke up. How he was shifting into Rodrick’s form so I decided to trust him. How he told me I had to complete the trials for my own safety away from the academy. Then the wretched part. How he stabbed me and I barely survived before Lothar and the others showed up. And most of all, I told him what Devon had said. That my brother was alive. Well, that he might be. I wanted to believe it. His death never felt real to me. Now I knew why.

  Rodrick listened with patience as I recounted everything. He propped up his chin on one hand as he reclined into the large chair behind his desk, soaking in all the details. When I was done he set his hand down and tapped his fingers on the table.

  “Well,” he said. “I suppose you can’t be too frightened of me if you trusted me enough to follow a man who looked like me into the forest by yourself.”

  “Is it true?” I asked quietly, staring into the glass of liquor in my hand.

  “Is what true?”

  “You’re a Blackatter?”

  He sat there frozen, clearly a little irritated that the secret was out. “Yes,” he finally admitted. “I prefer not to advertise it if you don’t mind.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because you didn’t need to know.”

  “Why are you a Dean to the academy rather than a Vontex?”

  “Do you think lowly of my position here?”

  “No,” I answered quickly. “I just… I wondered why. Ellinor implied that Blackatters usually become a Vontex.”

  His eyes squinted as though he didn’t believe me. “Ellinor asked me to take this post when my predecessor died. It’s a position that comes with a great deal of responsibility and I consider it an honor. I helped to oversee the training of many Vontex who go on to help protect our kind as well as humanity. After all, it’s most often the case that humans need protection from us. Not the other way around.”

  I thought back on how Devon lured me into his clutches that night in the pub and when I killed the man in the graveyard. Rodrick wasn’t wrong. Humans did need protection from us. We were dangerous and we were frightening.

  “I think you should be more concerned about the fate of your brother if he is indeed alive,” he said.

  “Why is that?”

  “Because if what Devon said is true, it means that your brother faked his death. Which is a crime. It means he abandoned his post in training to become a Vontex. Which is also a crime. What he’s done will be considered a betrayal by the vixra council. And by me.”

  I was silent for a moment, not really certain if I had heard him correctly. “Wait, you mean that my brother faking his death makes you instantly suspicious of him? That’s completely insane. I know my brother. He wouldn’t do something like that unless he was scared. He must have been trying to hide from someone. Maybe someone who meant him harm. We need to find out what that is. I need to know.”

  “As do I.”

  I got up from the chair and looked down at him. “Only because you want to see him punished. Not because you think he might be in danger.”

  “Miss Blackburn,” he said in a calm voice, as though he didn’t appreciate being talked down to by the likes of me. “We will do everything in our power to discover if this rumor is true. But if your brother is found guilty of a crime against the Vontex he will be held accountable. And you need to be prepared for that.”

  “Prepared how?”

  ‘Don’t say it! Don’t you dare say it!’

  “His death. Abandoning one’s post as a Vontex or even a Vontex in training is an immediate death sentence.”

  That did it. Now I was bloody, battered, and mad as hell. The very thought that Devon made me believe that I might have feelings for this man even on some physical level now made me want to wretch.

  “I already lost my brother once,” I said firmly. “I won’t let you take him away from me again.”

  Now it was his turn to stand up from his chair. He
towered over me and leaned down on his desk. His eyes burned with aggravation. I refused to back down. He could give me all the nasty looks he wanted. I wasn’t letting him or anyone else near Dirk if he was indeed alive.

  “I’ll dismiss your disrespect because you’re new here, Miss Blackburn. You don’t understand our hierarchy or how things work. But remember that no one speaks to me in absolutes unless they want to be put to the test.” He reached his hand into his pocket and took out something shiny. My mouth dropped open when I recognized what it was. Dirk’s bracelet was in his hand.

  “How do you have that? Devon ran off with it.”

  “I’m the one who taught Devon how to shift objects in his hand and make them appear however he wants. The bracelet he had wasn’t the real one. This is.”

  I looked down at it, wanting nothing more than to snatch it right out of his hand. “How did you get it?”

  “It was on your brother’s body when he was initially brought here. Or if Devon is right, then it was on the body of a stranger who was brought here. Regardless, this is the bracelet that matches yours, correct?”

  I peered down at the one on my wrist and pulled back my trench coat to show it.

  Rodrick gave a nod and extended his hand out to me. “Keep it for now.”

  I reached out to touch it and felt the cold metal of the copper plate along with the black leather binding. Feeling it graze over my fingers sent a chill through me.

  “I’m guessing that Devon shifted an object to appear in the form of your brother’s bracelet to earn your trust. Or to make you curious enough to do what he asked.”

  I turned the bracelet over in my hands to see Dirk’s name etched on it just as it was before he died. Only there was one change. A small circular symbol with strange markings was etched onto the bottom right corner under the plate with his name.