Fae of the South (Court of Crown and Compass Book 3) by E. Hall (libby ebook reader .txt) 📕

not tearing everything apart?” Aaron asks.

“What? Like you?” Tyrren eyes the chair.

“I’m not a vamp for your information. But all the new vamps I’ve ever heard of are monst—” Aaron cuts himself off when Tyrren cuts him a glare.

“Monsters,” Tyrren finishes for him. “So I’ve gathered. I felt like one after I was bitten.” A shadow crosses his expression. “I am one.”

“But you’re talking to us,” Amelia says. “Three fae.”

I look away.

“Look around. Try as the faculty might, we don’t intermingle,” Aaron says.

“I still have my mind. I know the difference between right and wrong. It’s hard to fight the cravings and urges, but I do and I will. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I’m not going to stop being me.” Tyrren’s voice sounds strained.

I take that to mean being friends with a fae.

As if oblivious to the gravity of our conversation, a girl with pink hair bounces between us and starts chatting with Aaron and Amelia.

I turn to Tyrren.

He squeezes his eyes shut. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

“I’m sorry for what I am.” His tone is low and full of remorse.

“Yeah, me too,” I mutter.

“Do you mean because you’re fae? Lea, you’re still you. You’ve been the same you since you stole half of my peanut butter and fluff sandwich in fourth grade.”

I shake my head because the part about me being me isn’t true.

He nods because it is.

How can it be both?

“Earlier, I walked away from you because I hate myself. You should too. As Aaron said, I’m a monster. There is no denying that. But you’re good.” He rakes his hand through his hair.

“Tyrren, you know that’s not true.”

He tilts his head. “We’ve been taught that the supernatural community must be controlled...and I think because of that, what happened sophomore year,” he speaks that last part carefully, “you suppressed your magic, and—”

“I almost killed someone that night.” Like the magic then, the words escape now.

“But you didn’t. You wouldn’t.” The corners of his lips turn down in disgust, revealing his true feelings that I know he tries to hide.

I mumble, “If you understood how I feel inside you’d—”

His expression softens. He lifts his hand to place it on my arm and pulls away. But in that gesture, I know he’s saying that I can tell him anything. Usually, I do. He’s like my very own living, breathing diary. Well, now not living. He knows all of my secrets except one.

I close my eyes, preparing to tell what it’s like being me. “It’s like vines winding around my bones, my heart, suffocating me. Teeth digging in. Claws scratching. A heavy weight pressing down while at the same time all this energy feels like it could explode out of me. Well, it did, once. I’ll never let that happen again.”

“I think that’s the problem,” he says softly. “It wants out.”

I shake my head rapidly. “That’s why there are places like this. To protect the world from people like me. That’s why there’s the Brooklyn Vampire Club to keep the streets safe.”

Tyrren frowns. “It’s like you’ve tried to pretend that you don’t have power for so long, you’ve missed the opportunity to understand it.”

He places his finger under my chin so I meet his eyes. The tightness inside fades a little.

“Lea, whatever you are, whatever you do, I’ll always—”

Someone knocks into me. I crash into the chair Aaron had thrown earlier and onto the floor.

Chapter 8

Tyrren

 

 

I grab the shirt of a vampire with dark hair and pale skin—like the kind from movies minus the cape—and spin him to face me. He hisses and I punch him in the face. Like my newfound strength, he’s surprisingly solid and hardly flinches.

“Baby vampire hasn’t learned how things work around here,” he says.

Lea gets to her feet, fuming.

Cliché Vampire moves to headbutt me, but I feint to the left as two others, both built like linebackers, take a couple of steps closer, barring me from going anywhere. As if I would walk away from anyone who messed with Lea.

Cliché Vampire grips my shirt and sneers. “You’re a vampire. She’s a fae. We don’t mix.”

“She’s my best friend.” I drive my knee up, pivot, and take him down in a submission hold.

“That’s going to be a problem,” he says, kicking off and getting back to his feet.

Ivan should have vampire jiu-jitsu matches. Things could get really interesting. I’m strong and have skill, but this guy is a beast.

“You are going to have to pick. Vamps or fae. One or the other. This isn’t a sing around the campfire community. It’s us against them and if you’re smart, you’ll choose wisely.”

The sound of female laughter comes from nearby. Probably that girl Jasmin I met earlier.

“Oh, and I’m Rizon. I rule things around here,” says Cliché Vampire.

The others chuckle.

I get to my feet and step over to Lea who’s glaring at Rizon.

Everyone stares at her. Whereas before I would’ve thought it was because she was accused of murder. Now, I realize, it’s because of who she is.

I wrap my hand around her upper arm. “Are you okay?”

Lea’s glare at Rizon and his buddies is answer enough.

“Faetcher,” he spits and then storms away.

Belatedly, a CA hurries over, shouting, “Hands off. No touching fellow correctional students.”

Amelia mutters, “Sorry, I should’ve mentioned that rule.”

“Too late for that,” Aaron adds.

“They don’t care if Felix and Nina make out or Rizon attacks, but touching someone’s arm is off-limits?” Amelia huffs at the injustice.

The CA issues a warning. “Everyone back to their dorms. Free time is over.” She turns to Lea and me, eyeing my hand which is still on her arm. “Don’t be stupid.”

I give Lea a