Hedgesville, West Virginia
Harbinger Academy
Monday, August 26, 1996
7:34 AM

"So you planning on hooking up with him?" Shan questioned as the two walked the hallway together.

Jennie kept in step with him. "With Reiyl?" she asked.

"That's who you were making out with back there, right?" he said with a shrug.

"Yeah," she whispered, "but..."

"What about Rem?" he inquired. "Weren't you dating him?"

"Dating?" she coughed. "No...I mean..."

"Must really suck to be the Seraph," Shan laughed. He gave her a large smile. "You got all these guys crushing on you. And you have no idea who to fall for yourself. Could go for the easy choice of Rem since he's the Caspian. But then...why not fall for someone else who makes you all horny and shit."

"I'm not horny!" Jennie screamed in the middle of the hallway.

"Could've fooled me," Shan said, scratching at the side of his nose. "You're all emotional at the moment, rubbing all over a cat demon...looks like your in heat to me."

Stopping in her tracks, Jennie's mouth dropped open in shock. The younger boy peered back at her as he smirked.

"What?" he asked, "I'm a dragon. I can sense these things."

"But," Jennie called out, "that's..."

"Yeah," he said with a laugh, "disgusting, I know. But you got to remember...animal demons will sense these things easily."

"Eww," she mumbled, squirming slightly.

"No worries," Shan said, shrugging his shoulders. "Enough talk about this. Let me take a look at your back."

"What?" Jennie questioned.

Making with a circle with his hand in midair, Shan eyed her. "Turn around."

"Alright," she mumbled as she flipped around on her feet while continuing to walk down the hallway.

"I meant turn around and stand still," he complained as Jennie halted.

"Sorry," she whispered.

To the left, Jennie could see their classroom. Allard was teaching the class and seemed oblivious to the two students who were outside. She didn't seem to notice when the dragon demon touched her shoulder blades then traveled down to the wings. When a sharp sting of pain hit her, she winced and flinched.

“Can you stand still,” Shan muttered.

“It hurts,” Jennie cried out as she felt his fingers run across the section where her wings protruded out of her skin. The area was still sensitive and swollen. She closed her eyes, sensing the hot sting of his touch.

“This may sound incredibly stupid,” he said with a sound slap of his hand on her shoulder, digging his fingers into her joint. She let out a shriek of pain as the prince smirked. "Clear your mind of all the junk you have in your head. Stop thinking about that idiot cat guy and just listen to what I say. Got it?"

“Yeah,” she whispered, feeling his grip tighten.

"Close your eyes," he said as Jennie obeyed. He released his hold on her shoulder, bringing his hand to her wings. "Feel this..."

A sharp pain erupted through her shoulder blades as she bit her bottom lip and nodded. She tried her best keep the tears from falling.

"Where you feel the pain," Shan announced, "I want you to visually pull in the wings. Just gradually let the wings meddle back into the skin. Ignore the sensation you're going to feel and let your body simply swallow the wings."

Doing as he said, Jennie stood silently. Her mind focused on the appendages. A soft crackling sound caught her attention as she opened her eyes. A strange feeling erupted through her body as she felt the wings being absorbed back inside her body.

When the last portion of her wings disappeared into her back, she dropped to her knees while breathing heavily. “That’s it?” she huffed.

“Yep,” Shan replied as he kneeled down beside her. “Simple, isn’t it?”

“But it feels disgusting,” she muttered as her stomach swam with nausea. “I could feel them being pulled in. And the bones in them broke. And…”

“I said to ignore it,” Shan stated. “In time you’ll grow accustomed to it.”

Jennie nodded. After all that, she felt extremely tired. A yawn left her as Shan chuckled.

"Yeah," he laughed, "that tends to make a demon sleepy, too. That's why you don't see us running around with our wings out all the time."

A foggy haze began to form in front of her eyes as Jennie tried to peer up at Shan. She blinked then reached up, rubbing at her eyes.

“Shan,” she whispered as he gave her a questioning glance.

Slowly, her sight disappeared while her body went numb. Everything around her seemed to spin as she tried to step forward, but only tripped. Crashing into Shan, she could sense him holding her, but that was the last she could remember. The final thing to go was her memories as she fell silent in the prince's arms.