Page 1 of Monster's Reward

CHAPTER1

A monster was bornthe night I was attacked.

Maybe the monster always lived inside me, I don’t know.

All I know is I wasn’t aware of her before the attack, but she is always there now, scraping at my skin, begging for release.

The night it happened, there was a thundering in my ears as two men held me down on the ground while another ripped at my blouse—men, who let’s be clear, are therealmonsters of this tale—when she was born.

She exploded from me in streams of darkness, tentacles made only of shadow and mist that settled over the men and slowly devoured them.

I can still hear their screams.

Not that I feel any guilt over their deaths. They deserved far worse as far as I was concerned, especially since their deaths caused me a whole host of new problems.

Like derailing my entire life when Blackthorn Academy came for me.

The headmistress sent her dean of students toinviteme to attend their academy, and by invite, I mean, inform me of my mandatory enrollment, starting right fucking then.

I had no interest in going back to school.

Been there, done that, got the high school diploma to prove it.

School sucked.

But here was this man, thisProfessor Edwin Dunlop,telling me I had no choice. I had to go to Blackthorn Academy to learn to control my monster blah-blah-blah.

Color menotimpressed.

Unfortunately, according to the Professor, it was Blackthorn Academy or prison for supernaturals, since after all, my monster had killed three men.

I tried to point out there was absolutely no evidence of this (there wasn’t even a single drop of blood at the scene of the supposed crime), but apparently, innocent until proven guilty isn’t a thing in the supernatural community.

So back to school I went.

Here’s the thing though.

Blackthorn Academy was like no other school I had ever attended.

And given I’d been in the human foster care system my entire life, I’d attended alotof different schools through the years. In fact, I’d celebrated the acquisition of my diploma with a vow to never darken the doors of any educational institution again.

Fast forward three years and keeping that vow meant going to prison.

So that’s how I ended up an indentured student,again,this time held hostage by Blackthorn Academy until I could prove my ability to control my monster.

It wasn’t all bad.

The classes were occasionally interesting and the professors were helpful, more or less.

They were also a tiny bit afraid of me, something they couldn’t hide no matter how hard they tried, and something my monster reveled in.

She loved the scent of their fear any time we met in secret for those private lessons Headmistress Blackthorn deemed absolutely necessary.

Private because, according to her, my species—we were called shadow monsters—had been hunted to extinction hundreds of years before, which meant my existence was quite the mystery.

It was also, according to my professors, unlikely to last if anyone discovered my secret. The minute that happened, they assured me, I would be hunted.

None of them, however, would tell mewhy.

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