Page 58 of The Cursed Fae

The door burst open and Tina stopped short in the doorway, just as surprised to find me awake as I was to find her sneaking in. She wore dark clothes and had piled her blonde hair beneath a black knit cap. Her skin was ashen, except for the two rosy patches on her cheekbones. She recovered from her temporary shock and slipped inside our room, closing the door silently behind her.

“Um, everything okay?” I asked.

Tina slipped off her shoes and sat heavily on the edge of her mattress, gray eyes glassy and round.

“I saw... something.” She swallowed thickly. “It shifted.”

Okay, so maybe she was still in shock. I threw back the covers and joined Tina on her bed, careful to not make any sudden movements that might alarm her. Placing a tentative hand on her arm, I asked, “Who shifted, Tina?”

She met my gaze. “The vampire. It turned into a wolf.”

Tina was too out of it to provide details, and I considered calling Laz. She might not have been my favorite person, but the vampire-turning-into-a-wolf thing had clearly spooked her. She needed consoling, and that wasn't my forte.

When I started to dial her brother's number, Tina freaked out and threatened bodily harm. Against my better judgment, I complied and settled for sitting up and watching over her until she fell asleep.

I considered calling Nana back several times. It wasn't a coincidence that not two minutes after my great-grandmother phoned, Tina burst in looking like she'd seen a ghost. Not that a vampire was any better.

Since I didn't want to stress her out further, I refrained from shaking Tina awake and interrogating her. But I had a lot of questions. Judging by the panic-stricken expression she wore even in sleep, shifting vampires were as rare as magic-using ones.

How had a vampire broken the wards—again? What was Tina doing that she encountered this shifting vampire? And why was she so insistent Laz not know?

Chapter twenty

Quit Ghosting Me

“Two mornings in a row. The early bird gets the bookworm,” Laz commented, breaking the silence in the library.

I jumped at the sound of his voice for the second time in as many days.

“Hey.” I covered a yawn with my hand. “Sorry. Late night. I needed to finish my homework.”

Laz pointed to the ancient book in my lap. “Looks like you're studying ahead.”

After watching Tina sleep instead of doing the same, I'd crept out of our room with my books to learn what I could about magic-using, shape-shifting vampires. Shrugging at Laz, I glanced down at the open pages of Coven of Eternals.

“I don't speak old faerie. Or Latin, Greek, French, or any of the other languages I can't identify in this book. I'm not really reading, more like staring blankly at letters on a page.”

“Not to brag, but I'm pretty good with languages. Maybe I can translate?”

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah, of course. No promises, but I'll do my best.” He held out a hand to help me out of my chair. “Come on, let's go eat.”

The cafeteria was abuzz when we arrived, and there was one word on everyone's lips: vampire.

“Did you hear about last night?” Laz asked as we joined the food line.

This was the moment I should've told him about Tina. I chickened out. Though she didn't seem like the type to make an idle threat, that wasn't the reason I held back. Instead, it was a healthy respect for privacy. I hoped if I freaked out about something and begged her not to tell anyone, specifically my family, that Tina would honor my wishes.

“Not really,” I said noncommittally.

“There was some big underground fight at the pier. Apparently a vamp showed up.”

It didn't seem like Tina's scene, but it had to be where she saw the creature that terrified her. What was she doing there?

“Get this, he shifted into a wolf.” Laz looked at me expectantly.

I gave him the reaction it seemed he wanted. “Oh, damn. Really?”

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