#Chapter 57: The Cumb

Enzo

I was awoken by the gunshot just seconds before James came running back to camp.

“Enzo!” he yelled. “Enzo! Nina’s in trouble! There’s something out there!”

I didn’t need to hear any more. I quickly unzipped my tent and ran out, having kept my clothes and shoes on in case of an emergency. Unfortunately, the other campers were also awoken by the gunshot, and were already coming out of their tents with panicked looks on their faces.

“What’s happening?” Jessica asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

I cursed to myself as I realized that I would have to wipe all of their memories of this night. I wasn’t nearly as good at it as Edward, but I had no choice. I couldn’t have them following

me out into the woods and potentially seeing a shifter, or worse; I couldn’t have them getting killed.

“Get back in your tents and go to sleep,” I said as I borrowed Fio’s power to daze the group all at once.

They all stopped moving in unison,

their eyes widening as they began

blinking slowly. I hadn’t used this ability in so long that I had forgotten how easy it was to daze humans; the fact that Nina couldn’t be dazed, even by Edward, was solid proof that she couldn’t possibly be entirely human.

“This was all just a dream,” I said.

and climbed inside while everyone else slowly zipped their tents back up. Once I was certain that they were under my spell, I

her just in time. She was fighting with all of her might against a man who I

pushing myself to run even faster. He was fully through the portal now aside from his arm, which was dragging Nina by the ankle. When she saw me, she reached for me, her

forward and grabbed her by the hand, yanking with all my might and freeing her from the stranger’s

top of me in a sobbing heap while the

had asked. Instead, I chose to keep watch through the window of my own tent to make sure she was okay. I had put a protective barrier around the camp when I first got here that would keep out any unwanted visitors, but I worried that Nina would wake up frightened in the middle of the

she came out

had the weirdest dream,” Lori said as she came out of her

“Me too,” Jessica replied.

a baby,” Matt said as he emerged from his tent with a grin. I’d observed him on enough overnight hockey tournament trips to know that he was a heavy sleeper. I

Nina said, pulling her boots on. “I’m gonna go collect some firewood so we can

everyone else was still rubbing the sleep from their eyes.

night,” she said quietly once we were far enough away from

I’d always protect you, didn’t I?” I

the ground. She always looked cute when

collected wood in silence for a minute, but I had burning questions that needed to

that guy, didn’t

asked.

“I did. I didn’t know he was a werewolf. He lied to me… serves me right for meeting

said she met

my nerves so that

answered. “When you first told me you were a werewolf, I didn’t believe you,” she said. “So I did research and found this guy on a forum he called himself K — who claimed

“Like what?”

But I know now that he was

wood from her hands, then pulled her into a tight hug. Much to my surprise, she relaxed into me. I thought I felt her sobbing

wiping her teary eyes with her sleeve. “I shouldn’t be

together,” I replied. “When will you

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