Heather

I couldn’t let it show that he bothered me or they’d pick on me more. "Really with the pointing?"

"I’m willing to briefly discuss this, but let’s leave Miss Jones out of it," Mr. Langdon said.

That seemed highly doubtful.

"So, class, if it’s dangerous—why bite?"

The boy in front of me raised his hand. "Because we police the world’s big bads," said the boy in front of me. "We try to protect the humans and all supes—a.k.a. Supernaturals—from things that would out us. Things that would make the world into an ugly place." He shrugged. "In the past, we’ve gotten low in numbers and so—" He chomped his teeth and the class laughed.

"And what are the big bads, as you pups like to call them?" Mr. Langdon said.

"Fairies, well the bad ones, black witches, vamps, demons. You name it, we hunt it," he said.

What in the hell were they talking about? Fairies? Demons? Vampires? Seriously?

Nikki’s hand shot up again.

"Yes, Nikki?" Mr. Langdon said.

"Sometimes people find out about us and ask to get bitten." She glared at me.

I met her stare, and she looked away instantly.

"That’s enough, Nikki." Another hand shot up. "Yes, Gabriel?"

"Why would someone break the Law and bite a human? We have rules for a reason."

I started a mental list of people to avoid. That dude was on it for sure.

"I know you all have questions about what happened, but I’m not going to answer questions about a private matter of one my students. Miss Jones’s been through a lot, and she still has a hard time ahead of her. I expect you all to treat her with respect and compassion. This ends now."

Nikki raised her hand again. "A whore—"

"Nikki!" Mr. Langdon said. This time power sizzled behind the command. The hair on my arms stood on end as it rolled through the room. "Did you not hear me? You will go—" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"You don’t even know me. None of you know me." As much as I wanted Mr. Langdon to fight this battle for me, I couldn’t let him. I’d had enough of this. "I’m not a whore. I didn’t know he had a girlfriend. If he even had a girlfriend. To be perfectly clear, I sure as hell didn’t ask for this. This right here is a nightmare." I motioned around the room. "And you’ve all just made it that much more shitacular. I hope each of you is feeling really awesome about that right now. And you," I pointed to Nikki, but she couldn’t meet my gaze. "If you say one more word I swear to God I won’t be responsible for what I do, you stupid—" The hot, woozy feeling was back with a vengeance. I was so done with this class. I grabbed my backpack and my half eaten sandwich.

"Heather. Wait," Mr. Langdon called after me.

Power backed the command, but I shook it off and kept moving. I heard shocked murmurs from the class but I didn’t look.

I strode out the door, ran to the stairwell, and slammed into Brent.

Why had I dared the day to get worse? I was seriously dumb sometimes.

Brent’s scent filled me. I wanted to bathe in it.

I pushed him away. It wasn’t easy, but I had to. For my own sanity.

I tried to step around him, but he blocked my way. "Move." I shoved him, but it was like trying to push a boulder.

"Heather. Calm down for a second."

"Calm down? Do you know what I just went through in there?"

He tucked my hair behind my ear. "Heather, I—"

I slapped his hand away. "No. Don’t. I can’t. Not right now." A tear slipped free. I wiped it away with my gloved hand. There was no way I would let him see me fall apart. "Please. Let me go."

"Cherie..."

"Please. Just let me be."

"If that’s what you really want." He frowned and stepped aside.

I raced down the stairs and out into the courtyard. A black Expedition pulled between the buildings, narrowly missing me.

I slammed my hand on the hood of the car, like any good Angelino would do. "Hey. Watch it."

Two men stepped out of the car. Their power tingled along my skin making me stumble. I kept on walking to the dorm, but couldn’t stop myself from sneaking a peek at them again.

"Very sorry, lass. We didn’t see ya," one shouted to me.

He wasn’t very tall, but he commanded attention. The two shared a word, and then glanced at me before they walked toward the faculty building.

I tried to shake off the feeling that I should know who they were, but couldn’t quite manage it. I looked back one last time before picking up my pace.

Once I was in my room, I went straight for my cell. The tiny screen said nineteen missed calls. Oops. I flipped it open and pushed the number one button. Home. It didn’t even finish ringing before she answered.

"Finally! Heather Elizabeth Jones. You called your brother but not me! And you tried to run away. What is going on over there?"

"Sorry." My voice cracked.

She took a deep breath. "Oh, baby. What happened?"

"Nothing. I’m totally, one hundred percent, a-okay." The wobble in my voice told my mother what she needed to know—that I was one hundred percent lying.

"Oh, Heath—"

"Mom. This isn’t the place for me. There has to be somewhere else. West said something about the cousins?"

She cleared her throat. "I’m sorry, baby. The cousins can help, but they can’t teach you what you need to know right now. If there’s a chance that you can get a handle on your wolf without your cousins’ help, then you have to try."

She was clearly mistaken. My emotions were all over the place, and I didn’t feel one bit like myself. "There’s no controlling this. I get so angry, and then—it’s just bad. I’m afraid of what I’ve become."

Dad said something in the background. There was a rustle before I heard his voice. "Princess. I’ve talked to your mother’s family, and your brother is right—they could help, but I don’t think it’s the best place for you right now. We’ve kept you away from them for a reason. Right now you have some freedom, even if it doesn’t feel like it. If you got to them in the state that you’re in right now, I’m worried for what they’ll do to you. If there were another place, a better one, then I’d tell you. But Presley is there for you. He’s a good guy. You can trust him."

"I thought you were mad at him."

"I was, but I also am your father and have to put aside any anger to figure out what’s best for you now." He paused. "You know I wouldn’t leave you somewhere without going over every option. Right?"

I sighed. "Yeah. I know that." But what was up with the cousins? I thought we moved here to be closer to them.

"Listen, Presley wants me to give it time, but I need to see you for myself. I negotiated him down. We’re coming for a visit in two days. Can you hang until then?"

"Sure," I said, and hoped it wasn’t total bull. Soft taps came from my door. "I gotta go. Someone’s here."

"I love you, kiddo. We all do."

"Love you, too." I ended the call and plugged my phone in to charge. I was stalling and I knew it. I didn’t want to know who was on the other side of the door.

"Heather," Serena’s voice came from outside. Three more knocks. "Haze? It’s me. Can I come in?"

"Is it just you?"

"Yes."

I was relieved it was only her and disappointed at the same time. We were going to have to stop running away from each other at some point. "It’s open."

She stopped at the foot of my bed and shoved her hands in her pockets. "I heard class didn’t go so well."

I half-laughed. "You could say that."

"Well, at least you got me out of Meta."

"How?"

"Mr. Langdon pulled me. He’s worried about you."

I guessed now was as good a time as any for that apology that I owed her. Taking responsibility for your actions was part of growing up, but that didn’t make it easy. "About earlier...I’m sorry I snapped at you."

She held up a hand. "Don’t even worry about that. We all snap sometimes and I was way out of line. I don’t know what happened between you and Brent, but you can trust me. I won’t tell anyone. I swear." She shrugged one shoulder. "I know it’s none of my business, but you might feel better if you talked to someone about it."

We sat there for a moment in the quiet. Bottling it up was making it worse. I looked back at the poster hanging over my bed. Serena had dealt with crazy just as long as I had. A different breed of crazy for sure, but she’d understand better than anyone I’d met.

So I totally spilled my guts.