“I’m getting worried. Her heart’s barely beating.” It was Celest, speaking in a trembling whisper. “Shouldn’t it be working already?”

“It doesn’t work that quickly on normal people, but I wouldn’t call Elva ‘normal.’” 

I opened my eyes, and a draconic Mark jumped back from my bed. Ugh, this was the first time I’d fallen into a truly deep sleep in the last two days, and I’d stopped actively controlling my host body. It was a good thing I’d managed to repair much of the autonomic nervous system, or else I’d be dealing with a corpse again. 

My digestive system jolted into action, and I sat up. “Bathroom.” I rushed out of the room. 

When I’d taken care of business, I left the bathroom to find Mark and Celest waiting in the hall. 

“How do you feel?” Mark spoke carefully and calmly, like he was talking to a child who’d just had a limb amputated. 

“I’m fine. Sorry for scaring you both. I didn’t mean to sleep so deeply.” 

“Or for so long?” He smiled. 

“How long has it been?”

Sniffing, Celest hugged me tight. “So long, I was so worried.”

Mark crossed his arms. “It’s been nineteen hours. Do you usually sleep like that?”

“No, it was a side effect of putting in so much physical work yesterday. Now I’ve regained a decent amount of mobility, I shouldn’t have to work so much in one session again.”

Still looking like she was on the verge of tears, Celest let go of me. “No, you most certainly will not. You’re staying home today to rest and recover.”

“I don’t need to. I’ve slept plenty. And watch, it was definitely worth it.” I sprinted down the hallway and executed a perfect hurdle jump before spinning on my heels to face her again. “I couldn’t do that yesterday. I could barely walk yesterday. Now I feel much better. It would be a shame to stop all forward progress.” I dropped into a crouch and jumped up again. “But if you really, really want me to, I’ll stay here under protest.” 

I dropped down again and tried a push up, but I hadn’t worked my arms enough yesterday. I ended up flat on my stomach. “So, what’ll it be?” Rolling on my side, I pulled my legs beneath me before jumping back to my feet. 

Celest sobbed. “You’re so much like her.” 

I really didn’t think I was too much like Leah, but arguing with her felt cruel. 

She looked to Mark. “Is she healthy enough to go out?”

“I’m not a licensed healer.” He rocked back on his heels. “And I have no idea how aryta biology works. But if Elva says she’s fine, I’m inclined to trust her.” 

Frowning to herself, she thought for a long minute before speaking. “Okay, she can go out, but I want you to make sure she doesn’t over-exert herself.” 

“I’ll do my best.” 

Did he plan to take me out again today? He really didn’t have to. Of course, I wanted him to, but I’d already taken so much of his time and upset his friends. He’d probably just agreed because it was hard to say no to a grieving mother. 

“You really don’t have to take me anywhere. I’m fit enough to walk places now.” 

“It’s no bother.” He shrugged. “I’ll wait in the car while you get ready.” 

After he’d left, Celest squeezed my shoulder. “If you don’t want to go with him, dear, you don’t have to. Just let me know, and I’ll tell him to leave without you.” 

“It’s not that. I had a lot of fun yesterday. It’s just, he probably doesn’t want to drag me around, but he won’t say no out of politeness.”

She shook her head. “Forget about that. So long as he’s taking good care of you, let me worry about the rest.” 

“Okay.” I still felt uneasy, but she didn’t look in the mood to debate ethics. I brushed my teeth and changed, which drew my attention to my newly regrown tail. It was a relief to be able to control it fully, and it would be a great weapon in a pinch. 

I packed a backpack with anything I might need today--workout clothes, a towel, a swimsuit, pocket change, an old phone and its charger, and a couple of novels. 

Celest insisted I bring a sandwich and muffin as well, which I didn’t complain about. I was almost certain Mark wouldn’t let me eat in his car, but I didn’t want to make him wait while I was eating. 

I hopped in the car. “Don’t worry about me. You do whatever you want, and I’ll just chill with a book in the car.” 

He raised an eyebrow. “You sure you don’t want to hang out with us? You could work on your arms today. We’re going rock climbing.” 

“Hmm.” That was definitely tempting. Like, really tempting. “Olivia hates me, and I’m pretty sure I freak out Vince and Kiara, too. Me coming would put a serious damper on the mood.”

As he pulled out of the driveway, he shook his head. “Vince and Kiara don’t have a problem with you. And Olivia- she needs to get her head on straight. Ignore her.”

“It’s not crazy for her to think I’m dangerous. I am.” Uncurling my tail, I waved it over the console. If I fully extended it, I could easily sting him. “I can paralyze a tiger-sized animal in under three minutes and take control of its body in just as little time.” I curled my tail and tucked it under my shirt. “Though I can’t hide myself well on a human host, I could imitate one almost perfectly using their memories. Anyone not expecting such a threat could easily become a victim.”

He snorted. “Olivia can focus sunlight with her mirrors to make a ray of light that’s over two thousand degrees. When her skin’s cut, the edges of the cut are so sharp that they’d slice you to bits if you tried to infest her. She’s the last person who needs to be worried about you.”

“I think it’s more like she’s worried for you and everyone else.”

“Well, I’m not worried about my safety, Vince can manipulate water with his mind, and Kiara-” He paused. “Kiara would be pretty easy to infest.”

“She doesn’t have an oddity?”

“She does, but I can’t see how animating inanimate objects would help her fend off your venom.” 

“Venom could be considered an inanimate object, right?”

He shrugged. “I think it’s got to be solid.” 

“Then yes, she would hypothetically be an easy target. Is Olivia particularly protective of Kiara?”

“Maybe, but if I had to guess, I’d bet she’s more worried about me.” 

“That makes sense, given her behavior yesterday.” I leaned against the window. It was a pain that Olivia hated me so much, but if Mark was on my side, I could stomach being around her for a time. It would be hard not to argue with her, though. Of course I wouldn’t infest Mark; even if I were a complete monster who attacked the people who helped me, why would I choose to infest someone who often took off his shirt to exercise? Anyone he knew would instantly know something was wrong with him. It would make much more sense for me to choose an easier target. 

In the OOU’s rock climbing room, many of the safety ropes and harnesses were occupied by students. Olivia, Vince, and Kiara were three of them. As we walked up, Olivia groaned from her position on the climbing wall. 

“This again? Are you seriously going to babysit the pancake for the rest of the summer?”

“Hey, Kiara, wanna go up? I’ll spot you.” Mark gestured at the nearest safety rope. 

“Sure, thanks.” She trotted over and pulled on the harness. 

As Mark put on his own harness, he gave me a comforting smile. “You’ll go up next, so watch what path Kiara takes.”

“Okay.” I watched carefully as he spotted Kiara on her way up the wall.

“Don’t ignore me.” Having descended from the wall, Olivia marched over to us. “I’m just worried about you--about all of us.”

Perhaps distracted by Olivia’s shouting, Kiara missed a foothold she’d been aiming for and ended up dangling by the safety rope twenty feet off the ground. 

Mark gritted his teeth. “Shove off, Liv.” 

“You shove off.” She pushed him to the side, which yanked the rope attached to his harness and jostled Kiara. 

There seemed to be enough safety precautions to keep Kiara from falling entirely, even if Mark wasn’t focused on the rope, but Olivia’s disregard for the potentially dangerous situation at hand peeved me to no end. 

I grabbed her arm and yanked her away from Mark. “He’s busy. Harass him later.” 

She punched my jaw with enough force to make me stumble back. The pain in my jaw made me think she’d been aiming to knock me out. Unfortunately for her, my brain was a bit further down than a human’s. Also unfortunately for her, I’d spent quite a lot of time training my legs yesterday. I could probably break her knees with a bit of effort. My body trembled with adrenaline as I fought against the urge to attack. 

“You should back off.” I forced my voice to remain calm and level. 

She raised her fists. “Or else what, you’ll lose control and go ballistic?”

“No, I would immobilize you with as little effort as possible.” My tail spine could likely pierce her skin and paralyze her despite her oddities.

Mark twisted to stare at us. “Liv, leave her alone. She’s not bluffing.”

“All the more reason to show you what kind of monster she really is.” She charged. 

Dodging to the side, I whipped out my tail and squeezed the smallest amount of venom into my tail barb. As she spun tward me, I struck her right thigh before curling my tail out of sight again. 

She took one step and fell with a pained grunt. Clutching her leg, she glared up at me. “What did you do to me?”

“It’s a paralytic strong enough to down a tiger.” Mark cursed. “Elva, what’ll it do to her heart?”

“Nothing at all. I only used enough venom to cause cramping, not paralysis. The primary effects should wear off within a couple of hours, but it’ll be painful for days without medical intervention.” Though I tried to sound indfferent, I couldn’t help but let a hint of amusement creep into my voice at Olivia’s predicament. She’d been warned twice, but she’d chosen to come at me anyway. If we’d been in the colony, no one would’ve batted an eye if I killed her. She was lucky I didn’t want to upset Mark.

“Elva…” Mark helped Kiara to the ground. He sounded disapproving. 

Had he really expected me to lie down and take Olivia’s attack? My only other option would’ve been punching her, but I didn’t want to break my hand again. 

Mark morphed into his draconic form and moved to bite Oliva’s ankle. 

I had the strong urge to let him go ahead and mix the equivalent of magical accelerant with my own venom--which was just as likely to permanently disfigure Olivia’s leg as heal her--but a spark of guilt forced me to speak up. 

“How much control over your venom’s effects do you have?”

He paused. “None.”

“Then I wouldn’t recommend using it on her unless you test it on a human-sized animal first.”

“Why wouldn’t you recommend it?”

I wanted to say “Because I’m pissed at Olivia,” which would undoubtedly cause him to bite her anyway, but yet again, guilt swayed my tongue. “Your venom could have an unfortunate reaction with my own.” 

“In that case-” He returned to his human form and offered Olivia a hand. “-you’ll have to talk to the school healer.”

She slapped his hand away. “I’m not going anywhere with you and the freak.” 

Kiara stepped forward to help her up. “I’ll take her.” 

They hobbled out of the room.