I shifted my eyes back to human, then swept my gaze around, inhaling through my nose again. The scent from last night wasn’t here though. Ava said something had been in the woods—a shadowed shape.
Whatever it was, it wasn’twhat was at the camp last night.
The thing that had come to terrorize her in her sleep wasn’t human. I’d sensed that much. Its smell was peculiar—like nature more than an animal. It smelled like dirt, smoke, and something I couldn’t define.
I knew Ava called out to the weird and strange—knew that intimately. I looked down at the thick blue skin of my arms, the razor-sharp claws on my webbed fingers and toes. I used to pretend I was different from all the ghosts that latched on to her. They were needy things that wanted her so badly they didn’t care if they scared her.
At some point, I’d realized I was similar. It was about the time I was kicking the shit out of the fourth guy who came sniffing around in high school. I was just as selfish as everything else strange that clung to her.
Still, I was different. I wasbetter. I’d care for her, not scare her. I’d protect her, comfort her. I’d be anything she needed and hide who I was.
Anger slashed through me. Some creepy fucker was in these woods, something more like me. A monster. I’d never let it get her.
The loud sound of squealing brakes came from behind me. I shifted back to fully human. It was more an illusion than anything. Hardly something I’d call a true form but it was a functional form, operating as a normal human’s.
I turned and went back to camp, furrowing my brows when I spotted a big bus parked on the street.
Fuck, it was the tour bus. I sighed as I walked across the street, making my way into Brandon and Matthias’ camp. Brandon looked like he was enjoying himself while watching his morning fire. I’d better say good morning, it was only polite.
My foot connected to the camping chair Brandon was sitting on, making the legs close up and the entire thing crumple beneath him. He yelped in surprise as he went down into the dirt. A moment later he was jumping up and snarling at me.
“What the fuck,” he hissed.
“What is that?” I hitched my thumb behind me, pointing at the bus. The sound of the door opened and I groaned as I heard feet spilling down the stairs and into the campground. Brandon looked on at my displeasure with a wide smile. He slipped his arm around my shoulders and turned me towards the rest of the band.
“Look who decided to show up,” he said proudly.
“Why?” I asked. There were two other members of the band—the bass player and the keyboardist. They spilled out of the bus, yawning, stretching, and squinting up at the sun.
“Well, I got to thinking,” Brandon said as he waved at his friends.
“Where’s Matthias?”
“Matthias is around, don’t worry about him. He thought this was a great idea too.” A fourth person spilled out of the bus that I didn’t recognize. He had a video camera hitched on his shoulder. He swept it around and then settled on Brandon and me. Brandon waved and my body stilled.
“Don’t be so tense,” Brandon said and I shrugged him off, disliking touching him any longer.
“What is this?” I asked.
“A Nix camping trip! We’ll post it to the band’s youtube page. Hey, where’s Ava?” Brandon asked, his head turning towards our camp. I looked back over at the camera with a frown before I flashed it a smile and waved like I was excited. It finally swept away to take in the rest of the campground.
The other band members came hopping over, lookingactuallyexcited. Their toothy smiles stretched widely at me.
“Ava is none of your business,” I told Brandon as the camera guy set the camera down and started to pull luggage from the bus storage. I flicked my head back to the guys standing around me.
“Hey, Cas,” the keyboardist, Grady, said. He had thick, black-rimmed glasses. One of those nerdy punk types that had a sweatband around one wrist at all times.
“Hey,” I said with a flat smile of displeasure. This caused them all to laugh.
“I see he hasn’t changed at all out in the wild,” Grady said.
“Oh, I beg to differ,” Brandon said, leaning in close to me. I eyed him, unimpressed. “He’s genuinely pleasant when his girl, Ava, is around.” I looked around at them as they smiled at me. They were up to something.
“Where is she? We were hoping to meet her again. Last time was weird, we want to make it up to her,” Grady said. The bassist, Simon, remained silent. He wasn’t a big talker and mostly kept to himself, something I normally appreciated but here he was to make my life difficult.
It almost felt as if they were trying to keep Ava and me apart. Nokken were furious, paranoid bastards when it came to their mate and I seemed to have that trait in spades.
It was the other reason I had needed a break from Ava five years ago. The tension of living with my unclaimed mate for years left me always angry and brimming with violence. Sometimes even lashing out at my own father.
