Rogue Reformatory: Busted (Supernatural Misfits Academy Book 1) Read online

  At the end of the hall, we stopped at a door. A keeper sat beside it at a desk. As we continued through the building, we traveled through more halls and encountered more keepers. They universally jumped to their feet when they saw her approaching. Each wore a starched, light blue uniform embroidered with Wadsworth in discreet lettering on the right pocket. No numbers for them, just first names. Bill. Charles. Olivia. And Larry. All had identical bite marks on their necks. Either vamps ran rampant around here, or this woman was exceedingly hungry.

  Eventually, we entered a long corridor with tiers of railed walkways on either side. Each contained equally spaced, purple-painted steel doors. A series of metal stairs led up to the three floors on either side.

  The vamp strode down the middle of the dead-quiet hall but stopped about halfway. Turning, she poked the number on my chest. “See that?”

  I nodded.

  “The last three are your personal number. 179A. First floor is the one. 79 is your room number. You’re A and your roommate is B.”

  “I have a roommate?” Would she hate me as much as I hated myself?

  “Odd numbers on the right, even on the left. 79A. Don’t forget.”

  I stared at the door. My new home. “Will you lock me up now?” And throw away the key? It was what I deserved for murder. What kind of girl killed her sister?

  The worst kind. My breath choked off. A girl like me.

  The woman—Pat, according to her right pocket—glared. I assumed she was eager to dump me and go find a keeper to feed from. “We lock the doors at six, after dinner. Doors open again at six in the morning. Breakfast starts then and goes until seven. Lunch is at noon. Dinner is five sharp. Miss it and you’ll go hungry.” Leaning close to me, she snapped her teeth. “Turn up missing, and we’ll hunt you down.”

  Fear sliced down my spine, making my knees weaken.

  But I lifted my chin. “Maybe I want that. Go ahead,” I dared her, “kill me now and get it over with.”

  A sheen of grudging respect (or was it anger?) flitted across her eyes, but she scoffed. “That would be too damn easy.”

  Power churned through me, suggesting that no, it would not be easy. I would never be easy. The beast bellowed, rising up in my belly. It hungered. Again.

  I’d tasted this power before I’d killed Cece. Was this the endless potential and power someone had said I possessed?

  Pat stepped backward before correcting herself. Surging forward, she fisted my upper arms and shook me. “Don’t try to direct that at me again!”

  “I can’t…I…” I couldn’t control it. The power grew, bubbling up inside me. It craved to be unleashed. As if it had gotten a taste back in the alley, it ached to run free.

  A flicker of something skirted past me and stopped. I tilted my head, unable to define it, but it surrounded me, trapping me in its clutches. And my power backed down. No...it felt almost as if it had been depleted. The collar?

  Pat shook me again. “I mean never. Do you understand?”

  I shuddered and wrenched away from her grip. “It’s not…I don’t…” What could I say? This…thing was a part of me, and I belonged to it.

  “Remember,” Pat ground out, “I’ll be watching.” She spun, and for a moment, I thought she’d abandon me here in the empty hall.

  “Where…” I gulped as terror shot through me like a bolt of lightning. Don’t leave me alone. Please. “Where am I supposed to go now?”

  Pat squinted, as if consulting an inner clock. “Check your schedule.”

  I quickly scanned the paper I’d been handed with my stack of shirts. Outdoor Exploration.

  “Outdoor Exploration? What’s that?”

  “Yard time,” she barked, as if repeating a boring litany. “Fresh air. Sunshine. We may be a locked-down facility, but we’re still a school. It’s important that everyone get exercise. Relaxation. Recreation.” Her gaze skimmed down me, and her lips flatlined. She sighed, as if irritated she had to explain further. “Follow me.”

  We continued past the residential area and exited through a steel door that ground closed behind us. Another corridor was followed by a corner and a short hall. Ahead, sunlight gleamed through a slice of a window centered in a door.

  Though I was directionally challenged, I had a feeling we’d made our way to the back of the enormous building.

  Pat unlocked and thrust open the door. “Outside, please.”

  I stared through the doorway, taking in the big, fenced-in yard. Barbed wire coiled in a ragged mess at the top of the fence, and the exercise area consisted of scruffy, clipped grass with bare spots, like an old guy’s balding head. A few trees. No bushes or flowers.

  And kids. About a hundred or so. Co-ed.

  “Are all of us magical?” I asked.

  “A bleakness runs through all of your veins. Why else would you be sent to Wadsworth?” For murder. “If you weren’t supernatural,” she said, “you wouldn’t be here.” Her hand flicked toward the opening, and her voice deepened, threatening danger. “Go on. Get out.”

  “For how long?”

  “Check your damn schedule,” she all but growled.

  Schedule. Right. She’d just said we’d attend school here. Somehow, I’d forgotten about the education I’d dreamed of for years. More AP classes in high school would be followed by attending my first choice of college. I was a STEM girl at heart and hoped to study microbiology.

  Hoped. So much for that stupid dream.

  Welcome to reality, Maddy.

  “We like to keep the kids busy here,” Pat said, perhaps feeling generous enough to contribute to the conversation. Maybe because she’d soon get to ditch me.

  All thought slipped from my mind when she pressed her fist into my spine. I stumbled forward onto the grass, and the door closed and locked behind me.

  I’d forgotten to ask how I’d tell the time.

  Wiping my eyes and cursing the sun—because it was easier to blame the light for my tears—I looked around.

  “New meat,” a girl said from my right. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. A sardonic expression on her face. And a gold collar, meaning fey. Better not tangle with her.

  A black girl standing beside her snickered. “Cute little thing. Better watch out, or she’ll get eaten.”

  Everyone with them burst into laughter. Not the fun kind that made me want to laugh along with them, but the kind of laughter that told me to run.

  Pivoting on my heel, I bolted.

  I made it three steps before smacking into a guy. Tall. Thick, dark hair. Green eyes behind glasses that gave him a nerdy-hot appearance. Nice wide shoulders, but who the hell cared? Looked like a shifter, and he also wore a blue collar, which meant he was one of the halves—half of one variety of supe, half of another—like me.

  “Whoa,” he said, bracing me with his hands on my arms, “watch where you’re going, huh?”

  “You…you jumped right in front of me.”

  “No way. You ran right into me. I was just walkin’.”

  “I’ve gotta…” A sob rushed up my throat, and I couldn’t contain it. I wrenched away from him and kept running, not stopping until I’d crossed the large yard. Stopping beneath a big maple tree with broad branches sweeping up to the sky, I slunk to the ground and settled on my butt. I pressed my back against the stone wall and tucked my legs up in front of me. I dropped my chin onto my knees and shuddered.

  Footsteps approached before I was ready—not that I’d ever be.

  I lifted my face but was unable to keep my lower lip from quivering. “If you came over here to insist that I ran into you instead of the other way around, go away.”

  “Actually…” He dropped to the ground and, leaning back on his palms, stretched his legs out in front of himself. “Saw you were upset. I wanted to see if I could help.”

  “Any way you can take me back in time and undo the past twenty-four hours?”

  “Afraid not.”

  “Then I stand by my first suggestion. Go away. Please. I—”
br />   He laughed. Ass. “Let me guess. With that attitude, you’ve got lots of friends.”

  If I ignored him, he might give up and leave me alone. I crossed my arms, tipped my head back, and studied the tree.

  I had a sister, and I killed her.

  “Nice day,” he said.

  Not listening.

  “Warm, though.” His feet shifted, one crossing over the other. “Supposed to be even warmer tomorrow.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Why is it supposed to be warmer tomorrow, or why am I hanging out here, still pestering you?” He held up his hand. “No, wait. I forgot. I’m supposed to go away.”

  A growl rose up in my throat. I couldn’t stop it.

  “Cute, but I’m not scared.”

  “You might want to be. I’m dangerous.” To everyone who loved me. God, I’d—

  He cocked his head, as if he was actually intrigued by the notion. “In what way are you dangerous?”

  “I’m a murderer.”

  “Cool. So am I.”

  That made my brain grind to a halt.

  But he had to be mocking me. Fortunately, I knew just how to drive him away. “Bet you didn’t kill your sister.” His eyes widened, filling with horror. “Yeah. Didn’t think so.” A sob caught in my throat, and I stumbled to my feet and ran across the open yard.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Cece

  Holy. Shit.

  I’d done it. Three days after I’d left the hospital, I’d gotten myself into Wadsworth—on purpose! And while that had seemed like such a stellar idea at the time, I had to admit to having second thoughts after the welcome wagon rolled in and I found myself in only my socks and underwear with a not-so-friendly vampire named Pat. I made a mental note not to mess with her.

  Even I knew when I was outgunned.

  By the time I reached the cafeteria, following the world’s briefest tour, which had consisted of pointing in the general direction of my room (sans roommate) and nothing else, I knew what my life would look like until I got Maddy out; and it was totally underwhelming. Operation ‘BREAKOUT’ was in full effect, and on an accelerated timeline. Nobody deserved to wear these hideous canvas shoes for more than a few hours.

  That was punishment enough for any crime.

  The halls were quiet, but the room beyond the double doors was anything but. It sounded suspiciously like high school, which I hadn’t expected. Visions of Hollywood prison movies ran through my mind: heads down. No talking. But that wasn’t the case. Sure, the chatter wasn’t next-level, but it was far from whispers.

  I hoped it was loud enough to eclipse my entrance.

  Turns out, it wasn’t.

  Every head turned at the soft swoosh of the swinging door. I stood still for a minute and met their stares as I scoured the room for my sister. She was what mattered, not them. They could all go to hell.

  Since I knew (from Pat’s breakdown of all things Wadsworth) that everyone would be there for dinner, Maddy’s presence wasn’t in question, so I grabbed a tray of food and started my search. The comments and whispers and sexually harassing shouts started, but they didn’t deter me. I was on a mission they couldn’t derail.

  I was on my second sweep when I finally spotted her on the far side of the room, hunched over her tray at the end of a table, as alone as she could be in a sea of supernatural misfits. My heart ached at the sight, and I broke my first rule at Wadsworth when I bolted toward her, screaming her name. The keepers barked out a warning, but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t stop until I had my arms wrapped around her and heard her tell me she was okay.

  “Maddy!”

  She lifted her head and slowly turned toward me. When her dead, vacant eyes met mine, I nearly ground to a halt. She looked haunted. Gaunt. What had this place done to her in just a couple of days?

  “Cece?” she whispered, an emptiness to her voice. But it was tinged with hope, too. Hope that she wasn’t hallucinating; that maybe I really was standing in front of her, panting like a wild woman who’d just broken into juvie to get her out.

  I tossed my tray down, threw my arms around her, and hugged her tight. She practically fell backward over her seat as she tried to stand. She was crying, her body shaking in my arms.

  “It’s okay,” I said, shushing her as I fought back tears of my own. There wasn’t time for that. First, I needed to learn everything I could about the reformatory. “Maddy, listen to me—”

  “You’re not dead?” she asked between sobs.

  “Um…no. Am I supposed to be?”

  “Oh my God, you’re not dead!”

  The laughter that tainted her crying concerned me a bit, and I pushed her away from me to search her face for a sign that her sanity hadn’t broken.

  “Maddy? Maddy, look at me.”

  She wiped her face with the sleeve of her oversized sweatshirt and smiled. “It’s really you.”

  I smiled back. “It’s really me.”

  For a moment, we just stood there and stared at one another as though an entire reformatory of witches, sorcerers, shifters, vamps, and fey weren’t watching. Then, as reality slowly dawned on her, I watched her expression turn from joyous to terrified.

  “Cece…why are you here? What did you do?” She yanked me close and whispered in my ear. “Did it happen to you, too?”

  “What? No! Nothing happened. I allegedly blew up a building,” I said, leaning closer in conspiratorial fashion, “on purpose.” I smiled as she gasped in horror. “Relax, it was abandoned.”

  She looked at me as though it was my sanity that was in question. In fairness, I couldn’t imagine that anyone else at Wadsworth was there intentionally.

  “On purpose?” Her incredulous tone was duly noted. “But how? Why?”

  “How? I bought a whopper of a spell on the black market. And why? Is that a serious question?” She nodded. “Please. Like I’d leave you in here by yourself—”

  “But I almost—” She cut herself off before her hysterical rant gained momentum. One cleansing breath later, and her hushed tone returned. “I almost killed you!”

  “I mean, yeah, but it was an accident, right?”

  “Of course it was.”

  I shrugged. “Then we’re good.”

  I could hear the whispers in the background gaining volume, the gossipers growing bolder, and I looked over my shoulder to find them staring. I flipped the bird as a gesture of appreciation before Maddy whipped me back around to face her.

  “Cece!” she yelled, shoving me halfheartedly. “This isn’t funny!”

  “I mean—that was,” I said, flipping her off, too, for good measure.

  “Celine!”

  “All right, all right! Listen, I know this isn’t funny. None of it is, which is exactly why I came.” I leaned in close to her ear. “I’m going to get you out.”

  “Take a seat, ladies!” Maddy looked past me to the keeper, then quickly sat down. She made no motion for me to join her, which gave me pause. “That means you, too.”

  I started to sit beside my sister, but she shook her head frantically. Her hoodie pulled back, exposing her collar. It looked exactly like mine, except for the colored symbols on it: blue, not silver. I looked at the kids sitting at the far end of her table. Only blue symbols.

  As Maddy rambled on about why I needed to leave, citing some messed-up magical hierarchy, I scanned the room, taking note of the visible collars. Red with red. Green with green. Gold with gold. Purple with purple. It was like fucking high school cliques of some sort. Before I could ask her to clarify, I found out what it meant the hard way.

  “You think you’re above our rules?” I turned, expecting to start an argument with a keeper, but instead found a blonde female at least four inches taller than my five foot seven staring daggers at me. I noted the gold symbols on her collar, the sharp set of her features, and the pouty, self-satisfied expression on her face. My hands balled into fists, prepared to wipe it away.

  “I’m talking to my sister. Not sure how th
at’s against the rules.”

  “Wrong. You’re talking to a half-breed.” She said the word like it was offensive, and my hands clenched tighter. “The witches are over there.” She pointed to the far side of the room where the kids with the same collars as mine sat, looking on like the showdown of a lifetime was about to occur.

  “And the bitches are…? Oh, wait! Found one.” I smiled as her cheeks flushed with rage. “Thanks for the directions. I’ll be sure to make my way over there when I damn well feel like it.” I shouted those last words for effect, just in case she was afflicted with the stereotypical blonde traits.

  Though it was clear she wanted to rip my hair from my head, she forced a smile to camouflage her anger. She picked up my tray like she was going to hand it to me, then flipped it into my chest, spilling spaghetti all down the front of my newly-acquired white t-shirt. Clearly, this one had a death wish.

  “Oops,” she said, smiling like the serpent she was.

  I smiled back.

  “Cece, don’t—”

  Before Maddy’s words could even register, my fist was barreling toward the girl’s face. I don’t know if she hadn’t expected me to react, or if she was just used to being the queen bee, but either way, my cross slammed into her jaw like a freight train, knocking her back into someone at another table—green symbols only—driving his face into his food. He was on his feet in a flash, along with the rest of his green crew, prompting everyone else in the cafeteria to rise.

  Blondie’s gold-symbolled followers were at her back.

  My witches were nowhere to be seen.

  “You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that,” she snarled.

  “I don’t know,” I said with a shrug, “it was pretty damn satisfying.”

  She let loose a primal scream, then launched herself at me. Seconds later, all hell broke loose. It was like a war of the clans, fighters in different-colored collars all going after one another. The keepers tried to break it up, but they were woefully outnumbered. Right about then, I was thankful for those collars that subdued our powers, because I was a trained fighter and next to nobody else in there was. It was rare for me to have the upper hand, but as I dodged a lazy punch from some random girl, I remembered that Maddy was at a huge disadvantage. I needed to get her out of there.