The faeries glided past me. Siobhan shot me a disdainful glance, and then they transformed into circles of light, roughly the size of tennis balls, and drifted down the hall.
"Good freaking riddance," Taylor said under her breath before turning to me with a bright smile. Her fangs were nearly gone now, but her eyes were still golden. "Hi again."
"Hi," I said weakly, giving a wave.
"So what are you doing up and about?"
I nodded my head toward Elodie's door. "Just, you know, socializing.
Shouldn't you be outside, running in the woods or . . . whatever?"
Taylor looked confused. "No, that's only the weres."
"There's a difference?"
The friendliness vanished from her face. "Yes," she snapped. "I'm a shifter. That means I become an actual animal. Weres are somewhere between animal and person." She shuddered. "Freaks."
"Don't listen to her," a voice growled from behind me.
The werewolf was bigger than Justin had been, and her fur was reddish instead of gold. She was standing at the opposite end of the hallway, near the stairs.
"Shifters are just jealous because we're so much more powerful than they are," she continued, leaning against the wall. It was a very human posture, and it made her look that much scarier.
I gulped and shrank back against Elodie's door. Taylor didn't look scared, just annoyed. "Keep telling yourself that, Beth." To me she said, "See you tomorrow, Sophie."
"See you."
The werewolf stayed put at the end of the hall, her tongue lolling out and her eyes bright. I would have to pass her to get to my room.
I struggled to keep my face impassive as I strolled toward her. My foot still stung from the wax, but I wasn't limping anymore.
When I reached the werewolf, she startled me by thrusting out one large hand, tipped in deadly-looking claws. For a second I thought she was trying to disembowel me. But then she said, "I'm Beth," and I realized I was supposed to shake her paw.
I did, gingerly. "Sophie."
She smiled. It was terrifying, but that wasn't her fault.
"Nice to meet you," she said, her voice thick.
Okay, this wasn't so bad. I could handle this. So she had eaten someone. She didn't seem to want to--
She plunged her snout into my hair and took a deep shuddering breath.
A warm string of drool dripped from her open maw onto my bare shoulder.
I forced myself to stay very calm, and after a moment, she released me.
Giving a bashful shrug, she said, "Sorry. Werewolf thing."
"Hey, no problem," I said, even though all I could think was, Slobber!
Werewolf slobber! On my skin!
"See you around!" she called after me as I hurried past her.
"Yeah, sure thing!" I said over my shoulder.
When I reached my room, I dashed over to my desk and pulled out a handful of tissues. "Ugh, ugh, ugh!" I moaned, scrubbing at my shoulder.
Once I was de-drooled, I flipped on my lamp to search for some hand sanitizer.
I remembered Jenna, and turned to look at her bed. "Oh, sor--"
Jenna was sitting up in bed, a bag of blood pressed against her mouth.
Her eyes were bright red.
"Sorry," I finished weakly. "About the lamp."
Jenna lowered the bag, a smear of blood on her chin. "Midnight snack.
I . . . I figured you wouldn't be back for a while," she said softly. The red slowly faded from her eyes.
"It's fine," I said, sagging into my desk chair. My stomach was turning over, but I wasn't about to let Jenna know it. I remembered Archer's words:
You're at Hecate now.
And man, had tonight proved that.
"Believe it or not, it's not the weirdest thing I've seen this evening."
She wiped her chin with the back of her hand, still not meeting my eyes.
"So did you join their coven?"
"Oh, heck no," I said.
She did look at me then, obviously surprised. "Why not?"
I rubbed my eyes. I was suddenly really tired. "It's just not my thing."
"Probably because you're not an evil bimbo."
"Yeah, I think my lack of evil bimbo-ness was the death knell. Then I watched a shifter fight with some faeries--Oh, by the way, what the heck is a
Seelie?"