"Well, it's certainly... Something," Creek said and narrowed their eyes a little at the aquarium. "I mean... I get it, but uh. I think I'm too sober for this."

"An art opening is rarely about the art and more about the wine," I said and took another sip of the ridiculously bad wine. But hey, it did the trick.

We went back to mine and Fred's piece and met some familiar faces there. Abel's old vampire friend was staring at it before he turned to look at me.

"Is this supposed to be funny?" he asked with a shaky voice.

"No," I replied coolly. "Do you find it funny?"

"Why would you label it 'bigot'? I'm not a fucking bigot," he growled back, his cheeks reddening.

"Well, I never said you were. You did. We never said who did this. But since you're so hurt by this, it must be because you did it."

Abel took a step forward. "You poisoned him too?"

Liam took a step back, his gaze swinging from me to Abel. "N-no that wasn't my idea."

"But this was? What the fuck is wrong with you?" Abel was all up in his face now, his hands shaking at his sides.

"I-I didn'-"

"You're dead. Entirely forgotten. The earth is scorched. You get me?" Abel's voice didn't sound like his at all.

I focused on his fingers. They kept turning darker and darker. It looked bizarre. I gently stepped in beside him, grabbing his hand.

"Let's go."

He looked down at me, his chest rapidly rising and falling. His jaw was clenched so tightly, I was afraid he was about to break his teeth. I pulled him with me out of the gallery and to a more private area by the side of the building, hidden partially by some trees.

"Abel," I said softly and gently took his aviators off.

His eyes were entirely black. I still had his hand in mine, and I looked down at it, his whole hand now turning into this non-natural dark colour. It looked almost purple. And his nails were longer. He usually had them neatly cut, but they were longer and shaped more like talons.

I put the palm of my hand to his cheek, and he cringed, exposing his teeth. His fangs were longer too.

"It's alright," I said as softly as I could.

He bent down and pressed his forehead to mine, taking deep and loud breaths.

"There we go, it's alright. You're alright."

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I lost control."

"Don't be sorry. You have nothing to apologise for."

He grabbed me and almost crushed me to his chest. He slowly calmed down, his breath evening out. He also didn't clutch onto me as desperately as he had moments before.

"Did you threaten Liam in some old-timey goth way?" I asked after a while.

Abel snorted and pulled back, shaking his head. "No, I excommunicated him from the community."

I frowned and Abel could probably see the confusion on my face, despite the lack of light there.

"My family is one of the oldest. Liam's is considerably younger. Getting shunned by one of the older families is like getting kicked out of the sect. No one's gonna associate themselves with you in fear of repercussions from the older family who did the excommunication." He sighed and shrugged a little. "I didn't know what else to do. He needed to be stopped."

"Hey man, I'm not complaining. Maybe that makes me a really bad person, but fuck that guy." I spat on the ground. "Was that why they wanted to be your friend at the beginning?"

He nodded. "They're all from lesser families. You know, no matter what species you are, it's all about status. It's always about power, money, control and status."

"And your family has a lot of all of it."

He nodded again. "Yeah. It wasn't right to use it. I don't like using it. My parents didn't raise me like that."

"Maybe we should talk to your mum about it."

"Yeah, I should. You don't have to come with me. I think it's better I do it on my own."

"Just text me if you need me. And come right home after."

"Home," he murmured and pulled me close again, his hands balled in the hoodie he technically owned, but I had stolen from him.

He could just stop buying really nice and stealable hoodies, in my defence.

"I'll be home soon." He gently pressed his lips to my forehead, and I closed my eyes revelling in it. "Get a ride with Fred and Cal, alright? I don't want you walking around alone. It's not safe."
"I'll go back in a minute. Just gonna see you off and then I'll head home too, alright?"

"Alright."

I waved at Abel as he drove off and turned back towards the gallery building. It wasn't much to talk about. Used to be an old gym that had been rebuilt for exhibition purposes. Couldn't very well have such a large arts department and nowhere to exhibit our work. In between our own in-house exhibitions, students could put on their own exhibitions and outsiders could rent it too. Sometimes there were school parties in there. Like the summer party to close off the school year before summer vacation. I couldn't wait for that now. To have summer back. Autumn and winter here were just grey and boring with lots of rain. It didn't really get that cold. But I thrived in warmer climates. I thrived during the summer.

"Everything was great before you," someone said from behind me.

I turned to find Liam there, looking like a sobbing mess.

"Yeah, because my entire presence is enough to disrupt your life," I spat back.

"Why did you have to murder people like that? Huh?" He took a step forward. I didn't budge.

"I haven't killed anyone. I don't know how to get it through your fat fucking head, I'm not the one killing people."

"Of course, you fucking are! You're the monster!" he growled and took

"Says the one who poisoned a random arts student. And ruined not only his work, but also a fellow student who had fuckall to do with it." I stood my ground. I was not about to back down from this. "Just because I was the unlucky one to get this fucking curse, I've got no control over. I didn't ask for this, Liam! I never asked for any of it!"

He was about to come with a rebuttal when something cracked loudly. I felt this terrible feeling between my shoulder blades. I immediately recognised it at something bad.

"Liam, go inside."

"What? Fuck you."

"I mean it. Go inside." I was staring into the darkness of the terribly lit campus but could see nothing. "Please, lend me your eyes," I whispered to the wolf.

I felt it stirring around my spine. The wolf woke up and I blinked, suddenly being able to see clearly, although a little blurry. Like I was missing glasses. Colours became a lot duller too, but it also became less 'noisy' to look around.

Something moved and I immediately saw it. I took a couple of steps forward, my vision clearing a little. I inhaled sharply, realising the wolf had lent me all of his senses. Sense of smell, his hearing, his eyes, I could even feel things I had never felt before. Like there was a light breeze I hadn't felt earlier, but now felt it as if there was an actual wind here.

And there was definitely something moving in the darkness. Liam said something but I had cued in on whatever was moving.

I felt claws grow out of my fingers. The wolf was arming me with whatever I needed. He was terrified.

In between the trees... A tree was moving. Or it looked like a tree but also some kind of... living thing? Like a tree person. It was entirely impossible to determine what kind of person it was. It was just... Bark. A tree with legs and some kind of face.

"Holy shit, a dryad," Liam said from right next to me.

I glanced up at him before looking back at the tree-thing. "What's a dryad?"

"A protector of the forest. I've never seen one venturing outside of the forest though..."

I couldn't hold back a growl pushed by the wolf. That was the thing that spurred the weird feeling. The sense of absolute dread.

"I think we've found our serial killer," I said and took a step towards it.

"Oi, you can't take that thing on! Especially not here. What if someone saw you?"

"What exactly do you suggest? It doesn't look like it wants to talk or have a cuddle."

"Run?" Liam shrugged and stepped backwards. Then he turned around and hauled ass real fast.

I growled and rolled my shoulders, before launching against the tree-thing. It shrieked and started towards me. I shed the last of my humanity, letting the wolf take over. He knew better how to deal with something like this, I reckoned. But I was in the driver's seat with him. We were both sharing our body for once.

He jumped and I braced our claws for maximum impact. We slammed into the wooden monster, landing om top of it. It immediately raised what I assumed to be its arm and slammed it into my body, flinging me halfway across the quad. It also punched the air straight out of my lungs. One hit from this thing and I was grasping at the grass, desperately trying to breathe.

I was not gonna win here. Liam had had the right idea. I was gonna go with Plan B and run.

I started towards the woods surrounding the campus, at least wanting this monster away from all the other students. I wasn't sure what I'd do once I was alone with this thing, but now was not the time to doubt myself. Or my super halfassed plan.

I ran as fast as I could. At least the wolf loved running and was in much better shape than I had ever been.

The stomping behind me was a sure way to know the monster was on our tail. And then it was literally on our tail. Branches and twigs wrapped around it, yanking me back. I slammed my jaws down on a branch but got a mouthful full of bark. Splinters dug into my tongue.

The tree raised another branch and then this horrific sound slashed through the air. I shifted out of the wolf form, almost getting ripped out of it, just to stick my fingers in my ears before I burst an eardrum. The dryad squealed and stomped off in between the trees.

Creek was by my side when the ringing stopped in my ears, handing me a jumper and a pair of sweats. "Here. Liam told us what happened, and Cal happened to have some spare clothes."

I grabbed the hoodie first, quickly getting my chest covered. Creek had already turned around, giving me the privacy to get dressed.

"It's a damn dryad," I said as I bound the band in the sweats, so they wouldn't fall down. Cal was a lot bigger than me.

Creek peeked over their shoulder and then turned, when they found me fully clothed. "Yeah. Very weird." He then handed me a pair of vans. I frowned but slipped them on.

"Why does Cal have a full set of spare clothes and shoes in her truck anyways?" I groaned as I bent down tying the laces. My ribs were not alright.

"You okay?"

"I think I broke a rib. Or all of them."

"Cal has a lot of clothes and shoes because she rips them all when she shifts, by the way," Creek said.

And then there was a thump in the darkness. I was about to cry because I didn't wanna fight anymore. Everything hurt.

Cal emerged from the forest with wings and all. "You guys alright?" she asked as she flapped her wings a little, before they settled on her back.

"Gael's broken some ribs, but the dryad was chased off by my amazing singing. Don't think it liked my voice much." Creek shrugged.

"Aw, babe, I'm sure it sounded lovely," she said as her feathers started dropping to the ground, her wings disappearing into her back. She was in a sport's bra and a pair of very tight shorts, and I wasn't sure if I should even look at her. She was always in sweats and big t-shirts or tops. And she had like... Abs. Her body was envy worthy.

Creek grinned a little and then glanced at me. "You sure you're alright? You're looking pale."

"I uh... Yeah. I'm... Alright." I shook the envy off me and got my head back in the game. Even if it was easier to focus on how much I wished I had abs too, rather than thinking of me having battled it out with a literal monster.

"So, what's a dryad exactly?" I asked as we started heading back to the school.

"A guardian of the forest. Usually they're very peaceful and just wander about the woods. This one seems... Off," Creek said and shoved their hands in the front pocket of their hoodie. "They don't kill."

"Unless they're threatened," Cal added.

"You think the murder victims threatened the forest in some way?" I asked and arched a brow. "One was a jogger. One was a baker. One was a family man. I doubt they were about to burn the whole forest or something."

"Might've wandered into its lair?" Creek shrugged.

"And then it just went ballistic?" I asked and threw my arms out to the side. "Something must've set it off."

"They're not all the same, Gael. Maybe this one was just overly protective and didn't want intruders. We can't cut them all over with one comb."

"We can't what?" Creek looked up at the much bigger woman.

"We can't cut them all over with one comb. Like we can't say they all do something. They don't share a brain or a hivemind. You know... We can't generalise," Cal explained, flailing her hands around.

"I have literally never heard that."

"Well, you haven't heard everything have you?" Cal's voice was very pointed.

"Might be a cultural phrase," I said meekly. "I haven't heard it either before, but it's nice."

Cal turned her head in my direction and smiled. "Maybe. We all say it in our family." She hesitated then and her smile turned into a more concerned expression, her brows almost touching each other, making her forehead wrinkle. "Are you sure, you're alright?"

"Oh, just a little trouble breathing," I muttered and coughed. I looked down at my hand, seeing fine little red droplets in my palm. "And some internal bleeding it seems."

"We should get you back to Fred. She knows a bunch of healing spells."

I couldn't agree more. "We should go to mine. Abel's going there after he has talked to his mum."

Everyone seemed to agree and off we went.