She huffed a breath, which clouded in front of her face in the cold air. “You don’t need makeup, idiot. Just shift.”
“I’m a werewolf now?”
“You’re. A. Demon,” she said slowly, like she was talking to a child. “You think demons just run around looking demonic all the time? They’d never get anything done. Shift.”
“How?” Hannah asked.
“Oh my God, just do it! Or don’t. I don’t care. Ugh.” She shook her head and stormed away. Dru watched her go with that same thin-lipped look he’d given her back at the house. Then his face softened, and he looked at us apologetically.
“It’s like meditation,” he said, running a hand through his brown hair. “Close your eyes and focus on how you want to look. When you feel that ache start to build up in your chest, lean into it. Let it fill you up. It’ll take you a few minutes, but the more you practice, the faster you’ll be. See?”
He blinked. In just the span of time it took him to close and open his eyes, he transformed into a massive charcoal-colored creature with long fangs and claws. Hannah let out a terrified squeak, clutching my arm as we both staggered back a step. Geez, warn a girl first, huh, Dru?
Then he blinked again, and his form melted back to human. It took slightly longer and seemed to use more energy, but it was still fast and seamless.
Hannah took a deep, shuddering breath. It struck me as I watched her that although Dru’s transformation had startled me, it hadn’t actually been as terrifying as it probably should have. The fact that I hadn’t peed my pants made me think maybe I had finally snapped.
Whatever. Might as well be crazy in a world gone mad, right?
Following Hannah’s lead, I closed my eyes and tried to focus.
Oh, an ache? Understatement of the century. It burned like fire and sucked like a shop vac. I stopped breathing entirely and began to wonder if demons even needed to breathe. The pounding in my head screamed that we did, but before it managed to actually crush my skull, I felt my body change. It made me queasy, but it was better than the burning suck. I opened my eyes just in time to watch Hannah transform back into her human self.
“I did it!” she squeaked. “How do I look?”
“Normal,” I said. I hugged her and looked over her shoulder at the imposing gate. Sonja stood in front of it, tapping her bright red nails impatiently on the stone. Kyle was next to her, looking deliberately bored and shooting her glances every now and then to see if she noticed. Oh, for fuck’s sake. I rolled my eyes. If his infatuation hadn’t nearly gotten us sent to the underworld, I wouldn’t have cared—but really, guy? She wasn’t hot enough to kill for.
Hannah was happily raking her fingers through her blonde hair, unimpeded by her horns. She must have been going crazy with those things in the way. And apparently, Sonja’s use of the word “shift” had been accurate. What we’d done wasn’t just an illusion or mask. We’d actually changed our physical makeup back to a human shape. Surreptitiously, I patted my butt to see if my tail was still stuffed down my pant leg, but, nope. Gone.
Whew.
We followed Dru to where Kyle and Sonja were standing and stopped short at the gate. There was a weird buzzing in the air that made all the hairs on my body stand on end. I rubbed my arms furiously.
“What is that?”
“Wards,” Dru said. “Supernatural beings can transport up to the gate, but no farther. It protects the school.”
“Where are we?” Hannah asked.
“Mönkh Saridag.” When I blinked at the unfamiliar words, he added, “We’re in the mountains between Mongolia and Russia.”
As if that explained everything, Dru turned away, putting one hand on the gate and muttering a string of words. The heavy stone gate swung open.
“Explains the chill factor,” I muttered, still rubbing my arms.
We crossed a snow-dusted courtyard toward a towering building that looked more like a castle than a school. Like the gate, it was made of stone and encrusted with snow and ice. Black windows rose up like a million little eyes. I shivered. The place was so isolated—and from out here, it also seemed to be completely deserted.
We tromped up the wide front steps, then Dru and Kyle opened the big, heavy double doors.
“Welcome to Fallen University,” Dru intoned.
As I stepped inside, I saw that the emptiness had been an illusion. People were scattered in clumps all through the main hall, talking and laughing. They stopped when we walked in, and every eye turned to look at us. Hannah groped for my hand, squeezing it so hard I winced. While most of the people around us looked like people, not all of them were disguised as such. Un-shifted demons lurked—okay, maybe lurked is too dramatic, they were really just standing there like everybody else—here and there throughout the hall, and Hannah’s wide-eyed gaze flitted from one to the next.
A trickle of heat snaked down my spine, and the light in the hall suddenly seemed too bright. It seemed to undulate like a current in the air, snaking around the students, beckoning to me. Something foreign and enticing infused my blood, making my whole body tingle. I shuffled my boot on the stone floor, relishing in the thrill of the texture. My heart pounded hard, but it wasn’t unpleasant. In fact, it was exactly the opposite. It was… arousing. The hairs on my body stood erect, along with my nipples.
What the fuck?
The air in this place must be laced with ecstasy or something. It was the only explanation. After the shit I’d been through today, there was no way I should be feeling this good. This turned on.