It was quiet in the limo on the way home. None of us knew what to say about anything that had happened that night. I had blood on my clothes. Ben did, too, but he didn’t ride back with us. He’d shifted as soon as he got off school property, and Joshua brought his suit home. We had six weeks of school left. Graduation was coming up. I’d already applied at my online school of choice and been accepted. But I couldn’t help thinking about how this wood nymph business had the possibility of interrupting all of that. I was planning on going to Europe over the summer, too, to try to win back my ancestral homes. I just didn’t know how I’d have time to do that if I had to keep fighting monsters in my back yard.My thoughts just kept returning to how in the world did we get rid o

The next morning, I woke up with Sam’s arm still around me. That was a rarity. Most of the time, whenever I fell asleep with Sam, he’d be gone by the time I woke up. The fact that he’d stayed with me all night spoke to me almost as much as the fact that he’d carried me up to my bed and made love to me when I’d asked him to show me that he loved me.I rolled over and met his gaze. “Good morning,” he said, brushing my hair off of my forehead. “How did you sleep?”“Good,” I told him, smiling up at him. “Did you sleep?”He nodded. “A little bit. Mostly, I watched you sleep.”That might’ve sounded creepy coming from anyone else, but it made me smile at him. I leaned up and kissed h

I got up off of the bed and pulled Jimmy along with me as the essence that I’d just distracted from his body went into the portal opening. Jimmy was limp, so I had to use my magic to move him. “Guys, I could use a hand,” I said, hoping Sam and Ben were listening closely enough that they’d come bursting in through the door even without me calling loudly for them. I didn’t want to alert Harold, or whatever the hell was about to come out of that hole.It was him all right. He was in his regular form, the giant green monster that was so revolting to me. He was even slobbering this time as he entered Jimmy’s bedroom. The piece of him that he’d left behind must’ve gotten sucked right back into him because I didn’t see it anywhere, and he was certainly at full strength.“What do you want us to do?” Ben

“No, I don’t want to be next,” I told Harold as he continued to use his powers on Francis Flamingo, keeping her from moving or getting out of his grip. “I also don’t want to have to hurt you, Harold. I just saved you, for crying out loud. But I can’t let you kill Francis. She’s my friend’s mom.”“I don’t care who she is to you!” Harold snarled. “She ruined my life! She locked me up for years. She deserves to die!”“Why don’t you do the same thing to her that she did to you?” I asked him. “Can’t you send her into the other realm, the way she did you? You said you were going to seal them up, right?”I could tell that he was considering doing what I’d suggested, that the wheels in his head were

It was weird not having anything to worry about except for school. Graduation was coming up in just a few short weeks. The year had flown by in a way. In other ways, it had seemed to drag on and on.I had been accepted into the online college program of my choice, which was exciting. Most of the rest of my packmates that would be graduating at the end of May had also made their selections and gotten accepted. Ben was going to a different college than me, but Joshua was in the same freshmen online program as I was in. Starla had decided to take the year off. She wanted to spend some time with her parents and explore the country a little bit before she started college. I didn’t care what she did, as long as it meant she wasn’t going to be in my way anymore. I was hopeful that she’d find a new pack to join. There really wasn’t anyone left in my pack who wanted her to be there anyway.