Dangerous Creatures Read Free

his dark fur. His head dropped down to his paws.
    The six friends fell silent, until only the crackling remnants of the campfire could be heard.
    Ridley was uncomfortable with the silence, but more uncomfortable with all the feelings talk that had preceded it, so she kept her mouth shut.
    It was finally Link who spoke up. “Yeah, well, change happens. I used to really love these things,” he said, squeezing a marshmallow between his fingers. He shoved John, who was sitting on a rock between Link and Liv. “Dude. When you turned me into an Incubus, you shoulda warned me about the whole we-don’t-need-to-eat-and-everything-tastes-like-crap thing. I would’ve eaten a bunch a stuff for my last meal.”
    John held up a fist. “You’re only a quarter Incubus, you big stud, and I did you a favor. No one would’ve ever called you a big stud if you’d kept eating those things.”
    “No one calls him that now,” Ethan said.
    “What are you saying?” Link was indignant.
    “I’m saying, you used to be kinda sorry, Stay Puft, and now the chicks are lining up. You’re welcome.” John sat back.
    “Oh, please,” Ridley said. “As if his head could get any bigger.”
    “That’s not the only thing that’s bigger.” Link winked, and everyone groaned. Ridley rolled her eyes, but he didn’t care. “Oh, come on. Like you didn’t see that one comin’.”
    Lena sat up straight, looking over the fire at the faces of her five closest friends in the world.
    “All right. Forget this. Forget good-bye. So what if we’re going to college tomorrow?” Lena glanced at Ethan.
    “And England.” Liv sighed, taking John’s hand.
    “And Hell,” Link added, “if you ask my mother.”
    “Which no one is,” Rid said.
    “What I mean is, we don’t have to do this the Mortal way,” Lena said. Ethan stared at her strangely, but Lena kept going. “Let’s make a pact instead.”
    “Just no blood oaths,” John said. “Which would be the Blood Incubus way.”
    Link perked up at the thought. “Is that another camp thing? ’Cause we definitely didn’t get to do that at church camp.”
    Lena shook her head. “Not blood.”
    “Maybe like a spit promise?” Link looked hopeful.
    “Eww,” Rid said, shoving him off his log.
    “Not a spit promise.” Lena leaned in, holding her hand over the fire. The flames reflected against her palm, turning orange and red and even blue.
    Rid shivered. Her cousin was up to something, and with powers as unpredictable as Lena’s, that wasn’t always a good idea.
    The embers glowed under Lena’s fingertips. “We need to mark this occasion with something a little stronger than s’mores. We don’t need to say good-bye. We just need a Cast.”

  CHAPTER 2 
    Symptom of the Universe
    T he six friends had talked circles around the idea, until the moon had risen and the fire had all but died, and even then Link wasn’t really sure what was going on.
    They’re just feeling low , he thought. Don’t think there’s a Cast for that. Still, he wasn’t going to be the one to break the news. If Lena and Liv wanted to pretend there was something anyone could do to change the fact that they were all getting the hell out of Gatlin tomorrow, Link wasn’t going to pop that bubble. He’d learned to stay out of the way when it came to Casters and their Casts.
    “Here’s what we want: something that says that no matter where we go, no matter what we do, we will always, always be there for each other.” Lena nudged Ethan in the moonlight. “Right?”
    “Do you really have to ask?” Ethan mumbled, sleepily nuzzling her neck. “We don’t need a Cast for that.”
    “Anywhere? Even across an ocean?” Liv asked, squeezing John’s hand.
    Link looked away. It was a long-established fact that John was basically following Liv halfway across the world like a whipped dog so Liv could finish studying at Oxford while completing her Keeper training. It was nothing like what Link had ever had with Rid, even