Page 23 of Mortal Shift
“Good. Sit. Another.”
The hands stayed up and she pointed to a girl.
“Alina Reiden,” she said. “Banshee.”
“Correct. Sit.”
She got through another half dozen in quick succession, until my head was about ready to spin, and I wished I had a pen to note them all down. Dryad, Undine, Trow… It was more than I could comprehend.
“That’s enough easy questions,” she declared, and if those had been easy questions, I was completely screwed. “Species that feed on humans.”
The blood which had just returned to my face drained away again. Feed on humans? That was… bad. Very bad. Because I was the only human here.
And someone had already tried to feed on me. Swallowing a yelp of excitement, I thrust my hand into the air. Nyra didn’t so much as glance my way before nodding to the girl whose hair she’d threatened to cut off earlier.
“Leilani. Vampire,” she said, and sat when Nyra dipped her chin.
“Another.”
The list, it turned out, was depressingly long. Wendigo, ghoul, manticores… We got through a dozen before Nyra seemed to grow bored with the topic.
“Don’t worry,” Cole murmured, “I’ll protect you. If you ask me nicely.”
“I’d rather be eaten.”
“Did you have something you wanted to share with us, Ms. Ellis?” Nyra demanded, and I quickly shook my head. “Then I’ll thank you to keep your damn mouth shut and try to learn something.”
My mouth snapped shut out of sheer surprise. She couldn’t talk to me like that… she was a teacher. But that hadn’t stopped her threatening to cut off Leilani’s hair for something she hadn’t even done.
“Outcrossings,” she said curtly. “A high fae and a human?”
“A warlock?” the student she selected answered tentatively, and she scowled in response.
“Are you asking me or telling me?” she snapped irritably. The student hesitated.
“A warlock, ma’am,” the student said, this time with a touch more confidence, and the instructor nodded curtly.
“Correct. A selkie and a kelpie?”
A few less hands went up this time—presumably because the brighter half of the students were already seated—and she chose one.
“A mermaid.”
“Amerrow,” she corrected with a growl. “Name?”
“Tristan Lakin,” the unfortunate student said, turning a shade of red that most commonly seemed to be onmyface.
“A Lakin.” She tutted. “I shouldn’t be surprised. Consider that a black mark against your name.”
She strode to the board behind her, and wrote his name in bold letters.
“You have until the end of this lesson to impress me enough to remove it.”
She didn’t elaborate on what would happen if he didn’t, and wisely, he didn’t ask.
“Another. Vampire and a human.”
A chill ran through me, along with the sudden image of Thaden pressing me up against the wall in the hallway. It took me a moment to notice the low whispers spreading through the room, and then Nyra slammed her palm down on her desk, silencing them.
