Across the Veil: Open Eyes (Book 1)

Chapter 1: For it is always clerical errors

  The sun shone brightly as students wandered the university campus. Many of them were new to the area and were still trying to find their way around the dense, maze-like streets. A few streets over from the campus was a series of townhouses that were often rented out by upper year students. Oftentimes this involved shoving as many people into the abode as possible in order to make the cost of rent more bearable for everyone involved.

A tall, strongly built man hoisted a box onto his shoulder before marching into the townhouse he and some friends had rented for their final year. He set the box down and looked around at the very, very old house. It creaked. It groaned. He was pretty sure there were a horde of creepy crawlies in the basement, but it was still better than living on campus. At least this way they would have some much desired privacy and quiet.

A shriek came from the basement, drawing the attention of the young man. He watched as the basement door was flung open and a friend scrambled out from the darkness.

"Bruno! We need to get bug traps!" Blake practically shrieked.

A young man and woman appeared on the steps behind Blake. The woman, Nina, gave a small sigh as she explained, "They saw a house centipede."

"That thing is disgusting and I refuse to go back down there until it and its buddies are dead!" Blake frowned, dramatically folding their arms across their chest.

The man, Vilis, gave Blake a sympathetic look before nodding at Bruno. "It is a little gross." Vilis' long, pointed ear twitched slightly as he glanced into the darkened basement. "We can pick up some traps later today after we get the house set up."

"You'll remember your disguise, right?" Bruno arched a brow, tapping the tip of his own, albeit Human looking, ear with a smirk.

Vilis gave him a dismissive wave of the hand. They all had plenty of experience blending in with Humans and keeping their identities hidden. At least now they would have a space where they wouldn't need to hide their true selves. That was the benefit of living in a house off campus. No surprise drop ins from floor supervisors and such. They had a few close calls in their first year on campus, one of which involved the floor supervisor nearly stumbling across Nina cooking supper while in her snake form. They had midterms at the time and had completely forgotten about the monthly check-ins that were being done. Nina had just managed to slip on her enchanted ring and disguise herself before they came in.

"Speaking of disguises... Where's Savio?" Nina asked, glancing up the stairs to the second level of the house.

Vilis paused as something wrapped around his ankle and gently tugged him into the dark stairway. He yelped, whirling around to glare at a shadow that looked all too solid crouching on the upper stairs.

"Fuck you!" Vilis glared at the shadow, "Just for that I'm putting an iron doorknob on the basement door."

The shadow chuckled as it ghosted up the stairs and over to his friends. "Oh, come on... It's not my fault you're jumpy." The figure teased, the shadows slowly fading away to reveal a human-looking man.

"Sav. Let's give it a rest for now. We're all really tired." Bruno sighed and rubbed his eyes, "Has everyone chosen their rooms?"

"End of the hall, with the window looking out over the street." Savio said, "I've already got most of my stuff set up."

"We're taking the large master bedroom, as we agreed earlier." Nina said, nodding at Blake and Vilis.

Bruno nodded and stretched, releasing some tension in his back. "Awesome. I'll take the room near the bathroom, and that leaves the fourth room as... What? Game room? Study?"