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The moment I shift, my massive familiar leans his head back toward me, silently asking for pets.

I rub under his chin. “Look at you,” I say fondly. “Sneaking onto the bed at the first opportunity.”

The big cat looks mighty pleased with himself.

I pet him a little longer, then attack his face with kisses until, affronted by the gross display of affection, my panther rolls away.

Oh, to be a cat.

I slip out of Memnon’s bed, my body satisfyingly sore. I’m also stark naked, I smell like sex and sweat, and I need another birth-control potion.

Fuck, if I’m doing this regularly, I’ll need to stockpile the stuff or else get a human prescription.

I shower, then change. Memnon still hasn’t returned by the time I’m fully dressed, and I have thirty minutes until my first class of the day begins.

I’m not missing it.

I’m about to call a car when I wander into the foyer and my eyes land on a side table. A set of car keys rest there.

What do you want?Memnon had asked me last night.

Well, sir, today I want the car.

CHAPTER 29

When Neroand I arrive on Henbane campus, we’re greeted with the sound of anguished howls.

Stepping away from Memnon’s car, I stare out across the grassy lawn, toward the tree line behind Morgana Hall and Cauldron Hall. Nero comes to my side, his ears perked.

Something is obviously happening.

The baleful howls continue as I head to Cauldron Hall, its stone façade looking particularly ominous against the overcast sky. My skin prickles. I haven’t checked on the wolves since Nero was attacked. Perhaps I should’ve.

A witch with warm brown skin and curly black hair passes me, and I stop her.

“Do you know what’s going on?” I ask, nodding toward the tree line beyond the campus buildings.

The witch pauses, her hooded brown eyes flittering over me and Nero.

“You haven’t heard?” she asks. “A lycanthrope has been killed.”

Immediately, I call Kane. The phone rings and rings, but he doesn’t answer. I try again, and then a third time.

Nothing.

Fuck.

Of course Kane’s not answering. He’s out in the woods with the rest of his pack, mourning the shifter they lost.

I call once more and leave a hasty message, and then reluctantly, I head into Wards.

I sit there among my peers, listen to the lecture, and I diligently take notes, but the excitement that normally suffuses this class is lost on me. It feels pointless, so goddess-damned pointless to be here, when all around us, supernaturals are being preyed on.

Perhaps this latest death is unrelated to the murders. Perhaps the dead shifter got gored by a deer or shot by some trigger-happy human who wandered onto the wrong patch of wilderness. Perhaps it was a mere accident or a more mundane misfortune.

I don’t know for sure until shortly after class lets out.

My phone buzzes in my pocket as I head down the stone steps of Cauldron Hall. I snatch it up before the second ring.