Fallen University: Year One

“Now that you mention it, he did seem a little strange. Almost like he was some kind of creature of the underworld.” She arched a brow, shooting me a deadpan look.

I rolled my eyes and laughed. I was glad to see she’d retained some sense of humor. Maybe this wouldn’t be too traumatic for her after all.

We were the last ones into class, and there weren’t two seats left together, but she found a group of soft-looking girls to sit with. I let myself stop worrying about her for a moment.

As for me, I had a choice: I could sit next to the cute, nerdy looking guy with the wavy ash-brown hair and dimples, or next to the massive Amazonian-looking woman with the intense scowl. Yeah, not a difficult decision. The guy lit up as I approached, and I waited for my body to do the thing. To my relief, it didn’t.

“I’m Owen,” he said, grinning at me. He was younger than me by a couple years, if I had to guess. Or maybe he just gave off a young vibe. “You’re new? I mean, of course you’re new, we’re all new, this is a first-year class I guess, and… hi.” A deep blush washed across his face, and I had the pleasure of feeling flattered and admired without the stress of my body trying to take control of the situation.

“Good to meet you, Owen. I’m Piper. And yeah, I’m as new as you are, I guess.” I smiled at him and his blush deepened.

“I’m not so sure I’m excited about this class,” he said a little nervously. “I’m not sure I want to know what all’s out there.”

“Better to know than not.” I sank into the seat next to him, trying to sound encouraging. It felt like he needed the same kind of protection Hannah did. I shrugged mentally and accepted my fate. I was a collector of people now—those who needed protecting, and those I wanted to roll around naked with.

“You’re really smart,” he murmured, looking down at his paper.

I just grinned. He didn’t really even know me, but he clearly had a little crush on me. Nothing wrong with that. Hell, at this point it could only help balance the universe. I missed the whole first quarter of the lecture dreaming about my own crushes.

It was a terrible start.

If I didn’t get my head in the game soon, I was going to fail in the most epic way possible.

Chapter Seven

“Piper! Piper, wake up, we’re going to be late!”

I groaned and pried my eyes open. Hannah had woken me up the same way for the past week. I didn’t understand it. I’d never slept through alarms before. Actually, after a few weeks of a new routine, I usually woke up a minute or two before the alarm went off. Something was off with me, and it was only getting worse.

As my groggy vision focused, I found my blonde roommate gazing down at me disapprovingly.

“I grabbed you a sausage roll from the cafeteria. Hurry up and get dressed, we only have seven minutes to get to class.”

My entire body ached, but I managed to haul myself up. I stretched and twisted, wincing at the snaps and pops sounding off all the way down my spine. I blearily shoved my body into a clean outfit—it didn’t match, but I was too tired to care—spent ninety seconds in the bathroom, then snatched the roll from Hannah and hurried faster than a speeding granny toward the stairs.

“I think you’re sick,” Hannah blurted out as I hobbled down the stairs to the rapidly-emptying hallway below. “You’ve been getting worse for weeks.”

“We’ve only been here for a month,” I said defensively. “It’s probably just the altitude or something. I'm used to sea level.”

“So am I,” she said thoughtfully. “But I adjusted pretty quick.”

“Yeah, well, you’re resilient.” She really was. I’d honestly thought she was going to let herself be washed away by that depressive riptide she’d fallen into when we arrived. It had taken a lot of effort and a ton of distraction, but she was finally starting to act like herself again. At least, I assumed that this was more like her. To be fair, I never really had a chance to get a good baseline feel for human Hannah.

“So are you,” she pointed out solemnly. “I think you should go to the nurse.”

I brushed her concern away. I was fine. It was altitude sickness or a touch of the flu or an allergy to the cold which seemed to creep in around the edges of every room no matter how high the flames rose in the fireplaces or how far away from the outer walls the room was. I’d taken to wearing that thick jacket most of the time.

The only thing that ever seemed to make me feel better was running into those four guys. Jayce had been sitting next to me in Sven’s class every morning, and it was better than coffee for my foggy head and stiff muscles. This morning, I nearly fell into his lap when I sat down. I couldn’t help it. He smelled like life and I felt like death.

“Morning, sunshine,” he said with that slow smile of his as I sat down. Then a line appeared between his brows. “You look like hell.”

“Fitting.” I made a noise that would’ve been a laugh if I’d had the energy.

“No, really. You trying to make a statement or something?” He wiggled two fingers over his forehead, mimicking horns.

“Oh… damn it.” I’d forgotten. I hadn’t been able to maintain my human form overnight lately, and I’d been in such a rush gettin

g ready that I hadn’t fixed my face. I closed my eyes and concentrated. Fuck. It took so much energy lately. Way more than the first few times I’d done it. I started to shake as I desperately tried to hold my own human image in my mind’s eye.