Free Shapeshifted by Cassie Alexander Page A

take a shower before dinner—I was starving, my PB&J had been a while ago—but a change of clothes and washing any exposed skin would be nice.
    I was running a washcloth over my arms and feeling silly for not just showering already when the doorbell rang.
    It was eight o’clock at night. And to say I didn’t typically have visitors would be an understatement. No one knew where I lived now, except for my family. Goddammit, if it was Jake … well. Maybe it would be good for us to talk about Mom.
    I set the washcloth down and came out to look through the peephole.
    “Hey, Edie,” said a familiar voice as I looked through. He must have heard me lean against the door.
    Ti. My zombie boyfriend from last fall.
    All the stomach acid that had drenched my stomach at the thought of my brother visiting shifted slightly, continuing to rise. I could ignore him, like he’d ignored me for going on seven months now. Being forgotten had hurt.
    “Edie,” he said from behind the door, his voice dropping.
    “Can’t help but think of the last time we met like this,” I said quietly, from my side of the door. We’d been going to a trial then, and he’d been wearing half of someone else—a part of their face, and their arm.
    “I’m all me this time, though.”
    I opened the door up just a crack and whispered, “Where have you been?” I kept my face hidden by the door.
    “Around. You were kind of hard to find, once you moved.”
    “And no one told you I was being shunned?”
    “Do you think I care what any vampire says?”
    This apartment unit, unlike my last one, was on the second floor. My porch light made him cast a shadow on the wall beside my door. His skin wasn’t much lighter than his shadow, a dark even black, though his eyes were the color of amber hidden from the sun. The last time I’d seen him, he’d been recovering from injuries received as a fireman inside a burning house, and his skin hadn’t healed back all the way. Now he was whole, the rippling scars were gone, and his hair had grown back, tightly clipped against his scalp.
    He put his hand on the partially open door. “Can we talk?”
    I looked up at him, at the face I’d kissed once, even when it hadn’t been all his. He’d risked his life for me. He was still that same man. I nodded.
    “Indoors?” he asked gently, not teasing in the least.
    I took a step backward and let him in.
    *   *   *
    He took a look at the silver cross hanging on my wall. “I’d ask if you were religious now, but I think I know the answer to that.”
    “You never know who’s going to visit,” I said, well aware that neither crosses nor silver worked on zombies.
    There was an awkward silence. I waited for him to fill it. I figured he was here for a reason, and I didn’t want to give him any outs.
    He walked into my living room and looked around. “I can’t tell. Is this a step up or down?”
    “It’s a lateral move.” What does one normally do when one sees exes whom one perhaps wants to stay on congenial terms with, but only for five minutes or so? I walked over to my kitchen. “Tea? Coffee?”
    He smiled softly. “I’m fine.”
    Of course he was. Zombies didn’t need to eat or drink, except for show, and to regrow—and besides, he’d gotten to do the leaving, not the being left behind. Of course he was fine.
    “Edie, I didn’t mean to—”
    “Yeah. No one ever means to.” I walked past him and sat down on the far end of my couch. He sat opposite me.
    “This is a nicer couch than your last one.”
    “It is. So why’re you here?” I was actually more interested in where he’d gone, and why he’d left, but the answers to those questions were more likely to piss me off.
    “I wanted to check in on you. The last time I saw you, you were in pretty dire straits.”
    “You mean when you left me.”
    “At a hospital. Your hospital.”
    I crossed my arms again, this time over my stomach. The last time Ti’d seen me, I’d been stabbed by vampires