Werewolf!: Hell High Book 3 Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  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

  End notes

  Destroyer excerpt

  Lion's Quest excerpt

  Michael-Scott Earle

  Chapter 1

  “Do you have your class schedule?” Charlotte asked a second after she parked our car in front of the high school.

  “Yes,” I answered.

  “And you’ve got your lunch, and your books?” she asked.

  “Charlotte, I’ve been to school before. I’m actually a seni--”

  “Yes, but this is different. We are on a mission now. If you mess up it could mean death.”

  “Death?” I asked, and my voice squeaked a bit.

  “Well, for you maybe. I’m hard to kill.” She smirked at me a bit, and I guessed that she was joking.

  “I just don’t see how this is going to work,” I said as she pulled her purple backpack from the back seat of the car.

  “What do you mean?”

  “See. Ummmm. We don’t really look like siblings, let alone twins.”

  “Oh. I have that figured out. Succubi are masters of disguise. We can look like almost any mortal woman. Watch.” Charlotte reached into the small pocket of her pack, pulled out a pair of thick rimmed black glasses that looked a lot like mine, and put them on her face. She looked at me with her eyebrows raised.

  “You look exactly the same, just with glasses on,” I said to the beautiful girl.

  “No.” She pulled down the driver's side visor and double checked the mirror. “I look totally different.”

  “Putting on glasses doesn’t make you look that different,” I sighed.

  “It worked for Bruce Kent.” She shrugged and flipped the visor closed.

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Bruce Kent. The Superbat character in that movie.” She looked at me with confusion.

  “Clark Kent is Superman. Bruce Wayne is Batman,” I clarified.

  “Oh right, anyways. I do appear different, you can’t tell because of your magic.”

  “I guess that makes sense, but why do we have to be siblings, couldn’t we like… I dunno, not be siblings and go to this new school at the same time?” Maybe it was a selfish question. I had kind of hoped that I could use this mission to get a little closer to the girl I loved. She had been distant since our last meeting with Satan, and she hadn’t even wanted to talk that much during our trip to this city.

  “How would we explain living together? Let’s go or we’ll be late. We still have to go to the office.” Charlotte opened the door and stepped out of the car.

  I grabbed my new backpack, opened my door, and jumped out of the car to follow her. The vehicle was a brand new cream-colored Volkswagen Jetta sedan. It was completely inconspicuous in the school parking lot, and we had driven it almost halfway across the USA over the last few days.

  “How are they going to know that we are registered?” I whispered to the succubus as we walked past some angel boys and girls praying around the flagpole in front of the school.

  “It’s already been taken care of.” She shrugged and pointed at the first building behind the gates of the campus. The sign said School Office and the area was clear of any other students.

  The inside of the office was similar to the setup of my old school. There was a central bullpen area surrounded by a wooden counter. Inside of the bullpen sat a cluster of low cubical walls and half a dozen women of various monster races working at their computers. On the far side of the room were a bunch of windows and two large doors that led to the campus quad area. You couldn’t actually enter the campus without someone inside the bullpen swinging open the wooden door on the side of the pen.

  “Can I help you?” the woman at the front counter asked. She looked like a skinny dwarf and had a high pitched voice. I guessed she was a gnome.

  “We are new students. Charlotte and Sherman Grandier,” Charlotte said as we leaned against the counter.

  “Oh yes. Of course! We are excited to hear about your arrival. Your parents said they couldn’t be here to check you in, but I can get the process started now so you can get to first period. It has been a long time since we’ve had twins at the school. You both look so alike!” The woman nodded between us and smiled even wider.

  “I’ll take a look at the paperwork. My parents tell me I’m the responsible one,” Charlotte said as she leaned over the files that the clerk set on the table.

  My phone rang and I almost jumped with surprise. Charlotte and the school clerk ignored me, so I stepped away from the counter to fish my phone out of my pocket.

  The caller ID said: Satan. Lord of Evil and Master of Hell. I couldn’t remember typing his info into my phone; I didn’t even know Satan had a cell phone, and the sight of his name on the device made me gasp with a flurry of terrified emotions.

  “Hello? Satan?” I asked as I picked it up.

  “Hey, Sherman.” The Ruler of Demons surprisingly friendly voice came across my phone with amazing clarity. “Do you know who James Bond is?” he asked.

  “Uhhh. Yeah,” I said.

  “Good. You’ve seen the movies then?” he asked.

  “Yeah. They are cool. I--”

  “So when James Bond is on a special assignment, deep undercover with enemies and hot women all around him, and M calls him on the phone, does James Bond say ‘Oh, hello M! Top of the morning to you! How can I serve the queen today?’” The Lord of Evil’s voice sounded surprisingly British all of a sudden.

  “No. I don’t think he would--”

  “Cause it is all sorts of dumb right? Would totally blow his cover wouldn’t it?”

  “Yeah it--”

  “So are you picking up what I am putting down, Sherman? You’re a secret agent now. You can’t be answering the phone and saying my name. It’s going to blow your cover and probably get you all deader than Osama Bin Laden making an appearance at an NYPD Benefit Dinner.”

  “Oh. Yeah.” I felt my stomach drop with my mistake “I’m sorry. That was dumb.”

  “Ahh, Sherman. I only badger you because I care so much,” the Lord of Hell said.

  “Wow, thanks Sa--”

  “Ahh, ahh, ahh,” the demon king interrupted me. “How was your drive?”

  “It was good,” I said.

  “And the new place?” he asked. “You getting along with Charlotte okay?”

  “The apartment is fine. We just got here last night. I’ve got my own bathroo-”

  “Have you found the target yet?” he interrupted me.

  “Oh, no. We just got here. Checking in now. Then it will be first period. I think I have Geology Class.”

  “Okay. Remember the plan. There is a powerful Alpha here. You have to identify him, and then find a vamp to take the heat for the kill. Gonna be easy. Call me tonight after you finish the job.”

  “But, Saaaa — I don’t think we are going to be able to get it done in one day.”

  “Well, you definitely won’t with that attitude. Sherman, have you ever heard of positive affirmations?” Satan sighed.

  “What is that?”

  “Every morning, when you wake up, you go to the mirror, and you tell yourself that you are handsome and strong, and ready to take on the world. Tell yourself you are a real go-getter! It will do wonders for your productivity. Anyhow, I need to run. All this talk about Osama reminds me I have to go torture him. Call
me tonight after you take care of this werewolf. Toodles!”

  The line went dead and I put my phone back in my pocket. I caught Charlotte glancing over at me and she made a small gesture for me to join her at the counter. I followed her instruction and caught the tail end of the office clerk explaining the map of the school.

  “You and Steward will be in the science building for the first period. Then he’ll have PE for his second period, but you’ll have economics,” the gnome said to Charlotte as she pointed to a large building on the map.

  “PE?” I asked. The gym teacher at my old school and I had an understanding: I wasn’t going to be doing any exercises, and he wasn’t going to bother acknowledging that I existed. The thought of establishing a relationship with another teacher wasn’t that appealing.

  “Yep! We are very fortunate here at Oak Grove High School. Our Wild Wolves are ten-time state champions at wrestling, and we have our esteemed Kinesiology teacher Doctor Mario King to thank. You’ll actually be in his class.” The gnome’s smile was infectious, and I realized I was smiling through the churning in my stomach.

  “That sounds--” I began to say, but the happy gnome interrupted me.

  “Wonderful? I know! We have the best physical program in the tri-county area. All of our students are required to participate in a sport.”

  “What?” both Charlotte and I said.

  “Don’t worry. We believe that every student is naturally gifted at one or more sport. Dr. King, or his assistant Mr. Hellsig, who you actually have next period, are very good at identifying which sport will be the best fit for you. Unless you already have a sport that you play?” The woman looked at me, kind of winced, and then glanced at Charlotte with a wide smile.

  “What time does first period start? Eight?” Charlotte said as she pointed at the clock.

  I was thankful that she changed the subject. The succubus was an amazing warrior woman, and I knew that she would perform well at whatever sport she wanted to play, but I was only good at video games and reading comic books. They didn’t have sports for that.

  “Oh, yes! Do you need a student aid to take you to class?”

  “We can figure it out,” Charlotte said as she waved the map in the air.

  The gnome woman jumped off her stool and then walked over to the short doorway that opened the lobby of the office to the back part of the bullpen. Charlotte and I walked through the doorway, into the hallway by the bullpen, and then out the exit door into the quad of the high school.

  “It is the farthest building. I think,” the succubus said as she tilted the map around in her hands.

  “Let me see. All the video game playing gives me a bonus to my map reading skill,” I said as I looked at the piece of paper she held. “You are right. It is the far one.”

  We walked across the quad and toward the last three story building in a row. The dossier that Satan had given us said that there were close to 2,300 students at this school, and they all seemed to be trying to rush to their first period class at the same time. Unlike my old school, Oak Grove High didn’t have school uniforms, and the differences of attire, hairstyles, and races made the rush seem like a multi-colored monster avalanche.

  Charlotte pushed through the crowd and pulled me along behind her. We finally made it to the science building, and we climbed the stairs to the second story. The classroom door was opened, and I followed Charlotte inside. The succubus skidded to a stop a few steps inside of the room, and I collided with her wings when I was a bit too slow to stop myself. I had been distracted by the other students in the classroom.

  They were all sitting at attention in their desk chairs, facing forward, with eyes on the whiteboard hanging at the front of the room.

  “Fresh meat!” a voice shouted with an intensity that made my stomach drop.

  I poked my head out from behind Charlotte’s purple wings and saw the teacher leap from his desk, do a front flip, and then land between the aisles of desks only a few feet in front of us. Then the man stood from his crouched landing, flexed biceps that were the size of my chest, and tore his white dress shirt off to expose an over muscled bare chest.

  “CAN YOU FEEL THE POWER OF THE EARTH STONES COME UP FROM THE GROUND?” He shouted as he flexed his muscles. They seemed to kind of dance through the places his shirt still covered, and thousands of veins popped to the surface of his light green colored skin. The man stood probably six and a half feet tall, and he was nearly the same width. He had a pair of tusks jutting out from the bottom of his jaw, a long mane of curly dark hair flowing over his shoulders, and a face painted like an Indian warrior.

  Mr. Hellsig was an orc.

  The students sitting around us didn’t turn their attention away from the whiteboard. I would have thought that someone would have made a joke, or snickered, at the teacher’s strange display, but no one moved, and a thick silence descended the classroom after the orc yelled his question.

  “Uhhh. Yes?” Charlotte answered.

  “YES!” he slammed his fists against his chest and then raised his hands in the air. “That’s because the magnetic field extends from the Earth’s interior into space. When it gets there, it meets a POWERFUL solar wind. These are ULTIMATE particles charged with the STRENGTH of the Sun. This charges the particles and creates the poles. THE TAG TEAM DUO OF EARTH AND SUN ARE UNDEFEATABLE IN COMBAT!” he growled the last part out as if he was threatening us, and I felt my heart begin to race.

  The orc turned his gaze from the ceiling of the classroom and then fixed his eyes on both of us. It was obvious to me that he was about to pummel us, and I noticed Charlotte drop her hands a bit to ready herself for a fight.

  “State your names to the gods of Earth and Sun,” the orc demanded.

  “I’m Charlotte, and this is my brother Sherman,” the succubus said as she pointed her thumb back to me. I realized that I was actually cowering behind the beautiful winged girl, and I shuffled to the side a bit so that I could jump to defend her if I needed to.

  “The heavens have opened up from above, and the Sun God has spoken to the Earth God about delivering you into our classroom. We are the undefeated home room of the school. NONE SHALL STAND IN OUR WAY!” He flexed his muscles again and raised his hands to the sky. “Now, sister and brother, daughter and son. Are you prepared to learn about the path of the righteous? Are you prepared to defend your classmates against all known enemies until the death of your very soul? Are you prepared to cram your minds full of the WONDERS of the EARTH GODS so that you reach an enlightenment and physical peak that is only known to the ancient heroes that once walked on this Earth and slew their enemies with the strength of their spirits and the power of their muscles? ARE YOU PREPARED FOR CLASS TO BEGIN?”

  He pointed a giant finger at me as he finished speaking, and my vision started to spin a little. I’d never been called out like this in class, and I could feel every sitting student finally turn from the front of the room to look at me.

  “Yes,” I squeaked through my panic. I half expected the classroom to erupt with mocking laughter, but none of the watching students said anything.

  “I like your POWERFUL SPIRIT, SHERMAN!” he bellowed. “If I had to give you a totem animal, it would be a meteor that slams into the oceans of the Earth, vaporizing them, and turning the globe into an uninhabitable world of single cell organisms. This is the strength you wield, Sherman. Can you and your sister please take your seats?”

  I nodded at the strange man and then moved with Charlotte to the back of the class where there were two empty desks. She took the seat in front of me, and I sat behind her with my back to the wall. It was our usual seating arrangement, and I prepared myself for another boring lecture about a topic I already knew a lot about. The bell rang and Mr. Hellsig closed the door to the classroom with a mighty grunt.

  “When the fires and lava ascended from the cores of the EARTH with unhinged VENGEANCE. After their RIGHTEOUS FURY has cooled, they can dwell within bodies of water, weather the UNHOLY POWERS of er
osion and settle into place. The GODS CALL THIS SEDIMENTATION, and like the mighty eagle of battle, it shows how far one can travel to KILL YOUR PREY.”

  Mr. Hellsig vaulted over his desk with a handspring and then crouched behind it to hide. I looked around at my new classmates, but none of them seemed surprised by his actions. A minute passed, and I almost asked the frog looking boy sitting next to me if this was a common occurrence, but the teacher suddenly sprang up on top of his desk. He was completely shirtless now and held a three-foot diameter egg-shaped rock in his hands.

  “Geodes are formed when the gas bubbles inside of the HOT MOLTEN LAVA ROCKS get deposits of minerals. Sometimes, instead of gas bubbles, these deposits can develop instead with a partial filling of minerals from water. IT IS THE BEAUTY AND POWER OF THE EARTH GOD’S SEDIMENTATION.” He jumped off the table with a double front flip and then landed at the front of the class. Then he raised the large egg rock over his head as if he was doing some sort of powerlifting movement.

  “NOW YOU WILL SEE THE POWER OF THE EARTH GOD. THE HEAVENS WILL OPEN UP AND REVEAL ALL THE COLORS AND MAJESTY TO YOU. WE ARE NOT FIT TO UNDERSTAND ALL THIS GLORY, BUT MY STUDENTS. WE. WILL. TRY.”

  The class actually gasped as Mr. Hellsig smashed the rock down on top of his head with a mighty battle shout. The rock, or his skull, made a loud cracking sound, and I almost thought that he had actually broken open his noggin. The egg broke in half cleanly and then fell to each side of the super muscular orc. He moved both of his arms to his sides without looking, and both halves of the egg rock landed into each of his palms as if he had done this movement a thousand times.

  I had seen geodes before; they were like small crystals that filled the inside of rocks. They kind of sparkled like glitter, and they came in all sorts of colors. This particular rock was one of the largest I had ever seen, and the inside crystals were a magnificent array of rainbow hues with an almost electric shine.

  “Pass this around so that each of you can feel the power of the EARTH GOD.” Mr. Hellsig handed one-half to an angel boy sitting in the front row, and the other half to a naga girl on the other side of the room.