Chapter 16: Chapter 16

Elijah lowers himself beside me, his fingers grazing mine as I lean back on my arms. It’s only a quick and unintentional brush, but Logan notices, and his eyes narrow. Even after Elijah is settled in—with his hand a good six inches from mine—Logan mentally measures the distance like a teacher at a middle-school dance.

I lean over and lay my head on Elijah’s shoulder. Logan’s eyes narrow even more, and I have to chuckle at that.

“Get used to it, Lo,” I say. “Elijah and I need to practice our public displays of affection. I’ve agreed to be his fake girlfriend for the remainder of the camp.”

“What?” Logan says, and there’s genuine outrage in his voice, which is adorable.

“So, Elijah,” I say. “You’re at this conference, posing as a half-demon because . . .”

“Because werewolves weren’t invited.”

My look tells him that isn’t an answer to the actual question.

He continues, “When my dad died, he left a couple of names for me. Two werewolves who might be able to help once I grew up. One’s dead. The other blew me off but had a friend who heard about my situation and got in touch. He wasn’t looking to play werewolf Big Brother. I’ve discovered werewolves

aren’t exactly the most helpful race, which is why I really do appreciate you giving me those tips, Kate.”

“Pack werewolves can be plenty helpful,” I say. “That’s the point of being in one.”

Elijah doesn’t get the recruitment hint, but Logan does, and his eyes darken with fresh outrage.

Really, Lo? Aren’t you the one who always takes Mom’s side about wanting a bigger Pack . . . while I’m with Dad for keeping our borders tight? Maybe he thinks I’m going to extend an invitation a few hours after meeting a new werewolf. Sure, Elijah’s hot, and he’s an amazing kisser, but I

don’t think Mom will accept those as recruitment qualifications.

“Well, I do appreciate it,” Elijah says. “My dad wasn’t exactly a fan of the Pack.”

“Let me guess,” Logan says. “He got his ass kicked for breaking the Laws, and he told you stories about how it was all a big mistake, the Pack bullies throwing their weight around.”

“No,” Elijah says, his voice chilling. “My father never had any run-ins with the Pack. But they were responsible for the death of someone he cared about. Someone who did not deserve it. At all.”

“Older wolves have good reasons for not trusting us,” I say quickly. “The Pack did some nasty shit back in the day. So, you had contact with another werewolf who didn’t want to mentor you . . .”

“Yeah, but he gave me the name of this half-demon he knew. He thought she might be able to help. She offered to put me in touch with the Pack, but I said hell no. We talk sometimes. It helps having contact with another supernatural. She mentioned this conference because she thought it’d be great for me. Except when she checked, the organizers kiboshed the idea on account of my race. No vamps. No weres. No exceptions.”

“Uh . . .” Allan says.

“Yeah, apparently it was just me. Anyway, I have been interested in

making contact with supernaturals my own age, so she agreed to vouch for me as a half-demon who hasn’t come into his powers yet.”

“That explains why you’re here,” I say, “and why you’re playing for Team Half-Demon. It does not explain why you broke into the office and were trying to log on to the computer. And don’t tell me you were checking your YouTube stats.”

“Nah, I just . . .” He shifts, shrugging. “It’s gonna sound weird and paranoid.”

“I like weird. I live weird.”

We exchange a smile, and there’s a softness in his eyes as they crinkle at the corners.

“Get to the point,” Logan says curtly. I frown his way, but he pretends not to see it.

Elijah turns to Holly and Allan. “You guys arrived yesterday, too. Does anything seem different today? Weirder?”

They glance at each other.

“It’s a camp full of teens with supernatural powers,” Holly said. “You’ll have to be more specific about the weird.”

Elijah shrugs, looking a little abashed. “Maybe it’s me, then. When we got here, it was awkward and tense like any new situation. Today, though, you’d think it’d be better. We’d all be relaxing. Instead, I feel like someone’s sitting in a control tower, cranking up the dial. I was saying earlier that this place is a hotbed of teen hormones with everyone looking to pair up. Aggressively looking to pair up. Then there’s the actual aggression—the shouting matches and fistfights. People snapping over anything. It’s as if everyone’s looking for an excuse to fuck or fight, you know? I can feel the tension. My hackles go up and stay up for no reason I can tell.”

Silence. Elijah looks at Allan and Holly. “I’m imagining it, aren’t I?” “I’ve only been here a few hours,” I say. “But we arrived to a fight

between a counselor and a camper, and Tricia didn’t seem all that shocked.”

“It’s definitely hormone central,” Allan says. “I’ve been hit on by three girls since I got here. I was hoping it was just my new shampoo. I mean, sure, we are at camp. It’s like Las Vegas for teens. What happens here stays here. But as Elijah says, it seems aggressive. As if there’s a hook-up competition with an awesome prize, and no one told me about it.”

I glance at Holly, whose cheeks redden. “Uh, sorry. I can’t help. No one’s been hitting on me.”

“Because no one’s seen you,” Allan says. “You spent the entire day in your bedroom. I saw you talking to Mackenzie at breakfast, and then you took off . . .” He stops and swears under his breath. “What’d she say to you?”

Holly’s cheeks go redder, and when she says, “Nothing,” it’s an obvious lie. Holly hurries on with, “I just wanted to get in some spell practice, and I lost track of time.”

“Well, you didn’t miss much. Mackenzie and her clique were being total bitches to everyone all day. Spoiling for a brawl, with words that cut deeper than knives.”

I know exactly what that feels like. I’d rather be sucker-punched than sliced with the tongue of a teenage girl. I nod Allan’s way and then look at Elijah. “You believe they’re spiking the Kool-Aid with testosterone?”

“Nah, I just think it’s weird and suspicious. I’ve been feeling edgy myself. I was at that cabin this morning running to burn it off. I’ve heard of experiments being run on teen supernaturals. This would be the perfect laboratory. I don’t know what I hoped to find in their files. I just wanted a look.”

“There is another explanation,” I say. “This land isn’t empty for no reason. I heard that people tried to build on it and . . .” I flutter my fingers and waggle my brows. “Strange things happened. People disappearing. People turning up horribly dead.”

“As opposed to nicely dead?” Elijah says.

I stick out my tongue at him. Allan and Holly laugh. My brother does not.

“Oh, man,” Elijah says, leaning back. “Please don’t tell me the conference center was built on an ancient Native American burial site.”

“I beat you to that line about eight hours ago,” I say.

“Then can I be the first to point out that we’re a bunch of teens at a summer camp, wandering around the forest at night?”

“It’s not night yet. And we won’t die unless we sneak off to have sex.” “Huh.” He lifts one brow. “In the interest of testing that theory . . .” Logan levers forward so fast we all jump.

Elijah lifts his hands. “Chill. It was a joke. How about you get to know me before you’re all up in my face?”

“Get to know you,” Logan muses. “Let’s see. The first time I saw you, you were hiding in the forest, ogling my sister.”

“Ogling?” Elijah sputters. “I’m not saying Kate isn’t worth an ogle, but the first time I saw her, my only thought was ‘That girl smells like a . . . Holy shit, that’s Kate Danvers.’ And then I bolted.”

“The second time,” Logan continues. “You seemed to be stalking her through the forest.”

“I wasn’t—”

“And now I find out you’ve talked her into some kind of fake girlfriend

arrangement.”

I chuckle. “It didn’t take much talking. A bit of kiss—” I stop fast, seeing Logan’s expression. “We decided it was a perfectly logical solution to the hormone-overload situation. Which is what we’re discussing.” I look at Elijah. “What did you think of that cabin?”

He hesitates and looks around the group. “At the risk of sounding crazy again, I had a weird experience there. I didn’t see the place at first. I was jogging past when I could have sworn someone whispered in my ear. Only no one was there. As I was shaking it off, I turned and saw the cabin.”

“A creepy hidden cabin?” Holly says. “Am I going to sound weird if I say that’s cool?”

“Not at all.” I push to my feet. “In fact, I’m going to use this flimsy excuse to suggest we take a field trip and check it out.