Mr Wolfshadow doesn't strike me as a big cuddly kind of guy, if I were to judge by looks alone. His big bulbous nose is enormous compared to his little close together eyes. He rustled some papers on his desk until he obviously finds the one that he's looking for. He stood up in front of the room and before saying anything, he clears his throat. When I say he cleared his throat, I mean he tried to cough a horse out of his lungs. He pulls out a red handkerchief and covers his mouth with it. I try with all of my might not to look at Caleb, as I'm sure we will die laughing. I sense he's about to laugh, if he does, I'll fall over.

The cla.s.sroom of possibly fifty students is shifting around in their seats uncomfortably. I'm thoroughly convinced that Mr Wolfshadow is giving us some type of endurance test. I can't prove it, but I'm sure of it.

"Eh, hem, sorry about that kids. My allergies kick up when I'm around so many Tamers. Your dander is unbearable to someone like me. Never mind, that sounds harsher than I intend." He wads his handkerchief up and shoves it into his pants pocket. My eyes directly go to the bulge he has put in his pants, and I'm confident I'm officially grossed out. "How many of you grew up with the knowledge of Light Tamers?" He finally asks.

Caleb and I look around the room and notice no more than five hands go up.

"Okay, how many of you learned about Tamers after starting going to this school?" I look around, and half of the cla.s.s raised their hands. "Interesting," he says and scratches his beard. "How many of you learned about Tamers today or the very minimum, this summer?"

The rest of the cla.s.s, including Thorne and I, raise our hands.

Mr Wolfshadow flings his arms out wide and starts laughing, and not a little chuckle...he practically falls to the ground in hysteria. Caleb senses how uncomfortable I'm feeling. I know this because he reaches over and puts his hand on mine.

He finally finishes laughing and composes himself. "I have my work cut out for me. I'd like to begin by telling you that I am not a Light Tamer, but I am an expert about your species." He says as if we're dogs. He seriously said we have dander, wth? "Don't get me wrong, I'm serious when I say that the mythology about your kind is particularly interesting. By the time you're finished with this semester, you'll be armed with knowledge. As you know, that is the best weapon on earth. If you can outwit your opponent, you can win. There are a lot of misconceptions out there. Many of you that grew up with the knowledge might be even more at risk than those that didn't know. You see, many truths have been uncovered in the last decade. That means that what your parents have learned is wrong. With a show of hands, how many know the Vow of the Tamed?"

Two girls that are sitting next to each other raise their hand.

"That is rea.s.suring, to say the least," Mr Wolfshadow continued. "At the end of the course, you will take a vow of silence, next year you'll take the Vow of the Tamed. This cla.s.s will be mostly lectures, so get your pretty little pampered hands ready to take notes. It would behoove you to start taking those notes...now."

I pull out a spiral notebook with b.u.t.terflies on it. I look over at Caleb's and see its plain green, but he has drawn hieroglyphics all over it.

"Light Tamers are people who have the ability to absorb light from many light sources. Who can name a light source they cannot absorb?"

Caleb raises his hand. "Light emitting diode, or L.E.D. lights."

"Very good Mr Baldwin. When a Light Tamer is in good health and well balanced, they can stay in a room with light, without draining it. You're known as a Tamer because your body has learned how to be balanced. It will change your mind about mythical stories and the way you see the world. Not all of you are equal; a few of you will never be able to harness your light." At that moment, no one made a sound. "This is life, you ninny's. Look at Zeus and Dionysus, his son and a G.o.d too. He invented wine, which makes him a better G.o.d than Zeus, in my book." He chuckles at his own admission. "Dionysus had a mortal mother, this is the first recorded mixed race. His father a G.o.d's G.o.d, and Dionysus merely the G.o.d of vine. Do you understand? In the future, you will be able to harness your light and use it for good things. Let's just say, hypothetically that you are a parent one day, and that child becomes sick, you can heal it. You will simply place your hands on that child, and your light will emit from your hands. Simple right?" Yeah whatever. "I bet you're asking yourself why you had chicken pox, or had a cold. Not all of you have a parent that is a Tamer. You have to learn how to heal yourself and that comes with building up your immunity. Although, we'd love for you to have the power to heal everyone, and every animal, it simply can't be done. The world is full of balance, and we must learn how to make sure it stays balanced. It may seem to you that there are a lot of you out there, there isn't. You've had the rare chance to go to a school that is tailored to you. This school is for the paranormally gifted."

What the H did he say? I'm so not going to ask. Nope, not going to do it. Why is my freakin' hand in the air?

"Yes, Miss Lucente?"

"What do you mean paranormally gifted? Are you saying that everyone in this school has a power?"

"Of course not. Everyone in this school is gifted, not powered. There are some who have the ability to read minds, or control insects. Some of the kids have much stronger abilities, but their secret is theirs alone. The younger children are being monitored to make sure they were born with the suspected ability of their family. The school is sectioned out, and you won't know what the others have. You may share some cla.s.ses together, but you coexist in harmony. The faculty is aware of most of your gifts, and we're equipped to train you and protect you. Tamers that are juniors will take two cla.s.ses that will consist of Tamers only. You'll take Alchemy, it has other students, but the Tamers are sent to their special cla.s.s and this cla.s.s. There are various types of Tamers. Scientists have identified different bloodlines and maybe one day, they'll expose the truth. I can't tell you exactly what they've uncovered."

The Bronx is sounding more and more like heaven. If I could kidnap Caleb and Amber, we could run to New York.

A buzzing sound came from the room speaker. "Mr Wolfshadow, I have a new student for you. I'm sending her your way, so please don't go all paranoid when someone tries to open the door," said the nasally female voice. We all stifle a giggle.

"Of course, Mrs. Pricer." He opens a drawer in his desk and produces another handkerchief to wipe his brow. He takes a silver thermos out of his lunch bag and pours just enough to fit in the little cup attached to the top of it. We turn our heads to the tapping noise on the door. Mr Wolfshadow hustles over and lets the student in. "Pa.s.s please," he holds out his hand to receive the note from the office.

"Oh, just what we need, smarta.s.s Amber," a girl two isles over says.

I look up in time to see Amber strutting across the room. She eyeball'd the empty seat in front of me and winked. Let the good times roll.

"Hey chickadee, I changed my schedule so I can be in here with you lovebirds. You can pay me back with chocolate covered raisins." She joggles around until she finally settled in for the lecture. "I hear this guy knows a lot about Tamers."

"I do Miss Edwards, if you'll take out a pen and paper, you can start writing notes."

"How did he hear you?" I whisper to the back of her head.

Amber shrugs her shoulders.

The teacher walks over to the grease-board and starts writing frantically.

FACT OR FICTION.

1. Tamers are protected only if they have two parents.

2. All Tamers must bond to another Tamer before they are 18.

3. Tamers that don't bond are destined to be a Dark One.

4. All Light Tamers are good.

5. If the bond is broken, they can never be bound again?

"To the lovely young lady in the second row, third chair; answer number one." Mr Wolfshadow says as he uses his laser pointer.

The buxom blonde with hot pink lip gloss looks around the cla.s.s before she answers the question. "I don't know, I just found out about Tamers this summer."

"The gentleman on the back row next to Miss Lucente, can you answer the question?"

Caleb takes a deep breath before answering. "In my opinion, yes we are better protected when two parents are around." I look over at him and give him a rea.s.suring look.

"The answer to the question is actually ambiguous. The protection doesn't matter if it's your parents. You're protected by adults, Tamer or not. Young children don't typically have enough light in them for the Dark Ones to bother them. The threat of Dark Ones isn't overly obvious until p.u.b.erty. Many kids are surrounded by adults all of the time. Instinct kicks in and kids throw fits about being scared of the dark. Mommy and Daddy give you a nightlight, problem solved. I can bet that none of you hung out in dark closets." The room nodded in agreement. "Think about it, sadly so, there are a lot of broken homes. Studies have proven that two non-Tamer parents are as effective as one non-Tamer or Tamer parent. p.u.b.erty is when you become taller, stronger, and all of those hormones make your light irresistible."

"Irresistible, like chocolate and peanut-b.u.t.ter," Amber whispers to me in her vampire voice. "Follow me you little Light Tamer, with your irresistible pheromones."

"What in the h.e.l.l is wrong with you Miss Edwards," the teacher shouts, making me jump. "Can you keep your comments to yourself until cla.s.s is over?" Amber moves her head up and down and straightens up in her seat. "If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not an easy teacher. I will bust your b.a.l.l.s if needed." No one makes a sound even though the teacher just said b.a.l.l.s. "I don't care if you're rich, or pretty, or the mayor's daughter. I don't care who you think you are. I care about your safety. Shakespeare wrote about people just like you. If I don't teach you about your species, than I have failed. I. AM. NOT. A. FAILURE." His annunciation of each word makes spittle fling from his mouth.

One girl at the front of the cla.s.s slammed her pen down on her desk as she jumped up with her backpack. "I'm going to see Miss Ward about you. How dare you talk like that to the cla.s.s!"

"Sit your a.s.s down, you little primadonna. Your princ.i.p.al doesn't give two flips if I say b.a.l.l.s to you. She wants you to be safe, for what reason? I don't know. I don't care. Well, I do care a little. I don't care if you come from a little house, with a little veil of goody-goody, and I don't care what you think. I'm trying to get you to the point that you understand how to protect yourself." We all turned to face the front of the room, giving the girl the chance be humiliated solely.

I'd be on the verge of tears if someone yelled at me in front of everyone. I wonder who she is. I wonder if that girl frets about her big b.o.o.bs too? It's probably a lousy idea to go up to her and ask her how she feels about her b.o.o.bs.

"...and that is how you were protected as a child." Mr Wolfshadow said. "Moving forward, who can tell me what filii nocte means?" No one raises their hand. "You're killing me here. Obviously none of you has taken Latin. It means, Children of Night, it's also the real name for the Dark Ones. The term Dark Ones came into play in the mid 1800's. There is a record of a soldier in the Civil War writing letters about the Dark Ones. He was a medic and talked about one of the young soldiers turning dark. How is that for a little history? Rarely is the Latin name used." He looks down at his watch, thankfully the day is almost over. "Okay, the bell is about to ring. I want everyone to write a thousand word essay about your experiences as a Light Tamer. It's due next Tuesday."

Before anyone has a chance to moan about the a.s.signment, the bell rings.

"Check on my baby before you leave. Make sure he doesn't miss me too much." Amber says as we walk out of cla.s.s.

"Baby?" Caleb and I say in unison.

"My jeep...my baby...my love..."

I shake my head and reach over for Caleb's hand. "Gotcha, have fun in detention. I'll see you later, right? I'm sure your Baby is fine, I'll text you though."

"Later? Oh yeah, I'll be there."

Chapter 5. YOURNIGHTMARE2010.

It was delightful to drive out of the parking lot of school. I hadn't realized how tense I was all day, not until I sat on the hot leather seat and it felt fantastic. I told Caleb about Jasmine and how she flipped out on me earlier. He told me about how Miss Raine seemed frazzled by the time she had him in cla.s.s. We laughed about Amber's public display of affection and we practically drove off the road when we talked about Thorne's reaction.

We stopped for an ice-cream on our way to the library, by the length of the line; we weren't original in our idea. Can you hear me?

Nope. I nudged his arm for teasing me. Did I tell you how cute you look in your uniform?

You did, but you can again.

Our ability to hear one another's thoughts is something that took getting used to at first. Originally he could hear mine, and I couldn't hear him until we kissed, and only when we kissed. We've been working on blocking our thoughts from each other. It's not that we have secrets, but sometimes our thoughts should be private. At least that's how I feel about it. We bonded a few summers ago when I almost drowned at Emerald Isle. Caleb jumped in to pull me out of the ocean, and when he did; his hands started to glow. What he didn't know then, was he and I were Light Tamers and he healed me, and we bonded. He was a little scrawny boy and was a bit obsessed with me. He was always trying to touch me, and I was always trying to keep my distance. No one knew what happened, but Caleb figured it out after his mom died of cancer. Two months ago, my mom and I moved to North Carolina to live with my grandma Gayle. New Bern isn't what you'd call the most exciting town to live in if you're under fifty...or so I thought. I'd never had so many crazy things to happen to me in the Bronx, as a matter of fact, nothing ever happened. True, unless you count my dad's OCD and his problem with alcohol. I'd always thought that if I loved him enough, he would change...he didn't. I learned the truth about his alcoholism once we moved here.

My dad confessed to me that he is a Dark One and I'm part of the original Tamers, making me irresistible to the Dark. To keep him from stealing my light, he would drink. I love my dad, but I think he could have found another way. He's sober now that he left my mom, and he spends his time trying to track others like him. A little more than a week ago, my bond with Caleb was threatened by Erebus, the G.o.d of darkness. He tricked Jasmine's boyfriend Clark into catching me as I fell. Since we're all under 18, our bond can be broken if another bound tamer touches us. I don't understand how 18 is such a magical number other than it's when we're considered an adult. I'm not even 16 yet; my birthday is at the end of August. I have two years to keep anyone from breaking our bond.

Today only added to my confusion about what it all means to be a Tamer. We looked at books on mythology to learn more about Nyx. Amber showed up after detention and told us that Thorne never showed up. It only fueled her attraction to him with the bad boy act.

I told grandma about school before mom got home from work. Mom spent six months applying for jobs in New York and only had two interviews. We were here only a week, before she landed a nursing job at a cancer doctor's office. After dinner, I grabbed the dust buster and practiced making a protection circle as fast as possible. How often I'll have a bottle of salt with me, is beyond me. I do what the teacher wants. I don't ask questions because lately I'm afraid of the answer.

An instant message popped up on my laptop. It was from SURFERGRLAMB.

SURFERGRLAMB: "Whatcha doing?"

BRONXLUVRALWAYS: "Pouring salt all over the floor"

SURFERGRLAMB: "Oh me too! I think the teacher is mental."

BRONXLUVRALWAYS: "You think he's mental? What about Mr Wolfshadow? He's nuts!"

SURFERGRLAMB: "I don't think so, I think he's intense."

BRONXLUVRALWAYS: "Are you running a fever? LOL!"

SURFERGRLAMB: "Ha, ha. Do you want to ride with me tomorrow?"

BRONXLUVRALWAYS: "Sure, I'll let Caleb know."

As I typed out my text, a friend request from Yournightmare2010 popped up.

BRONXLUVRALWAYS: "Who is this?"

YOURNIGHTMARE2010: "Your nightmare."

BRONXLUVRALWAYS: "Okay nightmare, I'm hitting the ignore b.u.t.ton."

YOURNIGHTMARE2010: "Thorne, from school."

Thorne, as in unibomber Thorne? No way, how would he get my screenname? It's someone else trying to be funny.

BRONXLUVRALWAYS: "Yeah, right."

YOURNIGHTMARE2010: "Seriously, it's me. I don't know how to prove it. Here, I'll send you a picture of me."

BRONXLUVRALWAYS: "No, send me one of your backpack. That will prove it's you."

I see the flashing message from Amber wanting to know where I'm at. I send her one telling her I'll BRB.

The picture Thorne sent was of his shoes and backpack.

BRONXLURALWAYS: "Okay, I'm convinced. You know I have a boyfriend right?"

YOURNIGHTMARE2010: "That was pretty clear since you two are connected at the hip. I wanted to know your friend Amber's phone number or screenname Miss Conceited."

I blushed thirty shades of red for saying it and then him shooting me down.

BRONXLURALWAYS: "OIC - I'll give you her SN. SURFERGRLAMB. How did you get mine?"

YOURNIGHTMARE2010: "I have my ways. I'll ttyl, I want to talk to her before she goes to bed. Do you know if she's online? Can you send her a text and tell her to get online?"

Okaaaaay. Weird. He's so not living up to the bad boy image I have of him. I send her a quick IM and tell her that he'll be friending her.

Chapter 6. Secrets.

Mom and I were up early to go eat breakfast together since she will be working at the ER tonight. Amber pulls into the driveway at the same time we do.

"Good morning Miss Tabitha," Amber shouts over the rumbling of her Jeep. Today the doors are off the Jeep making me feel exposed. "Where did you two come from? You smell like syrup, did you have pancakes?"

"Guilty as charged. I brought you a sausage biscuit...two actually," I hold up the brown paper bag.

"Genius! You're the best B, no matter what the other kids say."

"What?"

She pulls out of the neighborhood like we were in a getaway car. I check my backpack to make sure it's wedged under the back seat. "You're so gullible; no one has said anything about you. That isn't totally true. I heard some girls talking about your hair, wondering if you have extensions. It's your hair right? If not, I look like a total a.s.s. Not that I'm not an a.s.s, but you know what I mean..."

"Yes, I'm fully aware of your a.s.s gene. Sooooooo, did you talk to him last night?"