The Dawnvel Druids - - (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📗

them,” said Mo. “Cairnath and gargoyles can’t attack during the day, which is why Dawnvel has a curfew. We’ve also placed ward spells so they can’t enter people’s houses.”

“My dorm building…that’s safe right? I’m not going to find a Cairnath in my bed or anything?”

“Not unless you invite one in.” Mo grinned. “And I can’t deny some of them are pretty sexy.”

“But why Dawnvel? It’s just a quaint countryside town, isn’t it? I mean, aside from the school and its old castle?” Bobby asked.

“Because of Dawnvel itself,” Lana drawled, as if she were loath to speak to him. “Deep underneath the castle is a gateway to Otherworld. It’s a sealed gateway, so nothing can get out, but where a gateway is the veil between worlds

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is thinner, drawing supernatural beings to it like a beacon. It’s why our clan is stationed here.”

“Okay, I’m going to pretend I understood all of that,” said Bobby. “I just need to…” he trailed off, edging for the door once again.

“You can’t leave yet,” Lana sneered. “Not until the perimeter has been secured. There could be more Cairnath watching the house. Although you’re a pesky little urchin, I don’t fancy seeing you ripped limb from limb.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Alright, I’m not gonna try and escape, but I really need to pee, okay?’ he lied.

“No problem,” said Simone. “You do that whilst Lana and I spell the house safe.”

“Uh, do I have too?” Lana followed Simone from the room sluggishly, muttering something about needing to do her hair.

“Toilet’s to the left of the front door.” Mo collapsed onto the sofa and flicked on the TV, with his wand; not the remote. “But don’t go wandering and come straight back here. Dreg keeps all kinds of magical creatures round the house, you probably don’t wanna run in to them.”

“Uh, right,” Bobby nodded awkwardly, trying not to rush from the room.

He’d fully intended running back to his dorm the moment he got the chance, but with the threat of Cairnath out there he hesitated.

He walked down a long corridor, finding himself staring at the front door, frozen. Before Bobby could decide the door opened and Warren barged into the

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house. He looked a mess, his hair covered in sweat and his face coated in blood.

It dripped from his nose, as well as the gash under his eye and more scratch marks on his neck. The heavily muscled Irishman took one look at him before leaping forward and seizing Bobby round the collar.

Bobby tried to speak, but only a grunt came out as he was lifted high into the air and pinned against the wall.

“What the hell are you doing here you little creep?” Warren roared. “You a bloody Legionnaire?”

The blood around his eyes made Warren look even more deranged than normal. With his long black hair and electric blue eyes, Warren resembled some Norse warrior or a barbarian Viking. A broadsword would’ve fit better in his hand than a wand.

“N-no,” Bobby croaked.

Warren held him up in the air with only one hand now as he rooted through Bobby’s pockets with the other. “C’mon, where’s your sorcery extractor?”

“Warren, let him go,” Mo shouted, racing toward them. “He isn’t a druid hunter, he’s one of us…we think.”

“What the hell are you on about?” Warren said through gritted teeth.

“When one of the clan falls, another rises to take his place, you know the drill.”

Warren looked from Mo and back to Bobby in disbelief. “You’re telling me this little eejit is gonna be Zander’s replacement?”

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“You can let him go now,” Mo repeated.

Warren ignored him, glaring at Bobby like he’d peed in his cereal. Bobby had no idea what he’d done to offend him so.

“If he’s not a hunter, who’s to say he isn’t a dark druid. Maybe he’s the one who murdered Zander!”

“I didn’t even know druids existed until today,” Bobby shouted. “How could I be an evil one?”

“It’s a cover. You’re pretending to be hopelessly pathetic to wriggle your way into our ranks only to betray us.”

“I’m afraid being hopelessly pathetic isn’t an act,” Bobby replied.

“Leave him alone Warren,” said a new voice.

He turned to see a stranger standing on the stairs. It must be Niamh, the only Perfect he hadn’t met. Bobby wondered how long she’d been there. He prayed she hadn’t heard Mo call him Zander’s replacement.

Warren let him go at last, mumbling. “Sorry.”

The girl before him was physically intimidating. She looked like a pro athlete, taller and more muscled than the majority of guys, but etched on her face was a vulnerability that belied her size. Her blonde hair might’ve once been as perfect as Lana’s, but was now knotted and dirty. Old makeup was still smudged under her eyes where she’d been crying.

“Whoa, you’re finally out of your room. We started to worry you spelled your door locked.” Mo smiled weakly.

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“Warren’s shouts made my floorboards shake,” she replied with her own faint smile.

“Oh, that you hear? But not the group of Cairnath bursting through the windows?” Mo rolled his eyes.

“They were here?” Warren seethed. “On the same night this guy shows up?

How do you know he isn’t one of em, trying to fool us?”

“Oh course he…” Mo trailed off. “Actually, that could be a possibility…wait, with you being so close to him and with blood all over your face he would’ve exposed himself by trying to bite you or something. He isn’t one of them.”

“I assure you, I certainly won’t be exposing myself.” Bobby edged away from Warren before the brute could hoist him into the air again.

“What happened to you?” Niamh asked Warren softly, pulling him toward her. She’d been so quiet Bobby hadn’t even heard her come down the stairs.

“I was scouting the new coven in town,” Warren grunted, reluctantly limping away from Bobby. “It’s big. I got ambushed by a Cairnath and a gaggle of gargs. I killed several, but got outnumbered and had to escape. The maggots almost killed me. They must be led by an ancient Cairnath. They usually can’t co-exist in such large numbers unless a real powerful dude is influencing them.”

“You idiot,” Niamh pounded her fist against his chest. “You could’ve died tonight. What were you thinking hunting them alone? We don’t need another of our number to die, not so soon after…”

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Warren’s expression showed something other than anger for the first time since Bobby had met him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean too. I thought there’d only be a half dozen of ‘em. Just wanted to get my anger out, you know.”

“And why didn’t you heal yourself?” Niamh asked, using her own wand to cure the litany of flesh wounds covering him.

“Ran out of magic keeping the monsters at bay,” Warren grumbled, holding up his wand which was smoking at the end, apparently useless for now.

So, druids don’t have an endless supply of the stuff.

Niamh pulled out a handkerchief and gently wiped Warren’s blood away after she’d healed his wounds. Bobby watched in fascination. This kind of thing was normal for these people. Hearing about the Cairnath attack had barely bothered Niamh and Warren.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when Lana and Simone suddenly re-appeared in the hallway.

“Are there more to kill?” Warren said eagerly.

“No sign of any others.” Simone shook her head. “And we put the protective spell back on the house.”

“Good, now you can explain what this, ” Warren jabbed a finger at Bobby, “is doing here.”

“He’s going to be the newest druid in our clan.” Simone met Warren’s gaze, not backing down.

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“And you’re sure of this?” Niamh said, her tone intense.

Simone nodded sadly. “Yes. I know it’s hard, what with how soon it is. But like Dreg always says, ‘The Threads of Fate wait for no one’. We all knew we’d have to be seven again soon.”

Warren turned to glower at him, but held his insults at bay.

“Why was the protective spell down anyway?” said Niamh.

“Dreg disabled it.” Mo shrugged.

“He did what?” Warren growled.

“He brought back another creature from the forest,” Lana said. “I just hope he keeps whatever germ-ridden thing it is in his room.”

“So he often brings strange animals here?” Bobby asked.

“All the time.” Mo grinned. “Don’t worry though, they’re not Otherworld creatures, just your regular Snortails and Pixikins.”

Bobby decided to let the last two names go, unsure whether Mo was joking, and focused on the word he’d heard them use before. “Right, and what the hell is Otherworld?”

Lana sighed melodramatically, turning away from him. “Do we have to tell him everything? He’ll probably die soon anyway. It seems like a dreadful waste of time.”

“Lana! She’s joking Bobby,” Simone tried to reassure him. “But she’s right, in a way. We can tell you everything once your powers have been awakened, but first you need to become one of us, you have to go through the Joining.”

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“Are you sure you guys aren’t a cult?” He chuckled weakly. “You do keep saying an awful lot of cultish things.”

Bobby kept smiling, even as he wracked his mind for ways he could leave.

Maybe these druids really were the good guys, but Bobby wasn’t one of them.

“No, the Joining is a ritual, I know that part does sound cultish.” Simone broke off with a grin. “But we’ll need all of us to take part and it needs to be at midnight. We can do it tomorrow.”

“Excellent. I’ll see you then,” Bobby said quickly, not caring what he was saying, but jumping on a way for him to leave.

“Are you sure it’s safe for him to walk back to his dorm?” Mo asked.

“We swept the area with a detector spell,” Lana yawned. “There’s nothing out there now.”

“Dandy,” said Bobby, immediately horrified by his use of the word. “Well okay then, see you tomorrow.” He hurried from the house before any of them could reply, hoping this was all some sort of fever dream. Maybe someone had spiked his drink at lunch and tonight’s events had been one long hallucination.

*

Simone took a deep breath as she began climbing the stairs to his room. They still hadn’t talked, not properly, since Zander’s death.

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It had been one hell of a night. Just like she’d told Niamh, Simone hadn’t expected they’d be joined by a new druid, Zander’s replacement. No. She shouldn’t think of Bobby that way. He was his own person, and no one could replace Zander.

A tiny voice at the back of her mind whispered that maybe Bobby wouldn’t be the newest member of their coven anyway. There was always a chance he could die when he went through the Joining. No. Don’t think that way either.

Simone willed the bad thoughts away, something she felt she was doing more of lately, and walked down the hall, stopping outside Warren’s room. The only noise on the corridor had been her own footsteps, but now she heard the clank of metal and the rough exhales of air.

She almost chickened out and turned straight back for her own