I felt a tingle and fought back the incredible desire to twine my sex vapors around hers. I could barely keep the beast caged. Most of the time I walked around in—how should I put it?—a stiff state due to all of the raw sexual energy bottled up in high school girls. But I felt ashamed of what I'd done to Victoria and I didn't want to take advantage of anyone else. I take that back. I really wanted to take advantage of every girl I saw but the nerdy romantic part of me considered my virginity a precious gift I shouldn't squander. Victoria hadn't texted or called me once since our encounter. The guy in charge of trainers had told me she'd canceled our appointments and was handing me off to someone else.

That was no bueno. But it was my fault. I had to figure out how to control my raging desire to ravish every girl I came across. But looking into Elyssa's smiling eyes, I was certain she was different. She might be The One. Whatever we had, I wanted it to be true and pure.

After suspension that night, I walked Elyssa to her car and gave her a tentative hug. She squeezed back. My heart beat faster but I resisted the urge to go for a kiss. Coward.

"See you tomorrow, Elyssa."

She smiled. "Not if I see you first."

I watched her drive away with a warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of my stomach. A hot spike of strangeness nearby triggered my danger reflexes. I spun as Stacey sauntered from behind a school bus, clapping her hands in a slow rhythm.

"Why are you giving me the slow clap?" I asked. "And why are you being such a creepy stalker?"

She tsked. "Not nice, my little morsel. Not nice at all." She brushed her hand across my cheek.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "What's not nice is sneaking up on me, not to mention trying to suck out my soul."

"You are entering decidedly dangerous territory, my dear toy. Have you thought further about the deal I offered you?"

"Becoming your sex slave? I don't think so."

She stood behind me. Much as I didn't like the thought of a very strong, not to mention fanged, woman standing at my back, I stood my ground. She hugged me and nipped my ear. Then, of course, she licked me. I pushed her away.

"Will you stop licking me? Your tongue feels like fine-grit sandpaper and it's gonna give me a rash."

"But I like you," she said. "Can you not see that?"

"What, with all your posturing and calling me 'morsel' and 'toy', blah, blah, blah? And you talk like a pretentious idiot. Maybe you've been around a while, but you should probably use the lingo we use in this century, not two centuries ago."

Her eyes glistened like large amber pools. Tears welled precipitously before spilling down her cheeks and over trembling lips.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

"Why do you not like me?" she asked, her voice plaintive.

Freaking girls and their abilities to turn the tables on you. Not two minutes ago she was acting super-cool and condescending, and now she sounded like the only girl I ever broke up with back in fifth grade. I put a hand on her shoulder. "Look, I'm sure you're not all bad, but you have to admit, it's not polite to suck people's souls out of their eyeballs."

"But it is my nature."

"Just like the scorpion and the frog? That's a cop-out."

"It is not a cop-out," she said, reverting back to her haughtier tone and wiping at the moisture on her cheeks. "Think about my proposal, Justin. You are in grave danger. I can protect you from those who would do terrible things to you, and I would teach you to protect yourself." She ran her hands slowly down her body and smiled. "In return, you may enjoy all I have to offer. I will show you just how inventive we older women can be in bed." She ran her fingernails up my jeans-clad leg.

I leapt away with a yelp as she squeezed my butt. "Will you cut that out? What kind of danger am I in?"

She smiled and shook her head. "I will only tell you that it is right before your eyes. You have no idea who or what you even are."

"Yeah, well Google hasn't helped me figure this one out." I sighed. "Look, I have deep personal beliefs that prevent me from having sex with you. Maybe we could just mess around a little?" The thought of selling my body to her was appealing in an egotistical sense, but also frightening. If her tongue was like sandpaper, what would her private parts be like? The thought of that was enough to banish my stiffness issue on demand. I tucked that feeling away for future use.

She wrinkled her nose. "Mess around? What rubbish is this? I want someone to be with me, not a one-night stand."

"You want to go steady?" I was utterly perplexed.

"I want a committed relationship. What is wrong with that?"

I laughed at the innocent blink of her big round eyes. "An old-fashioned vampire?"

"Are not intimate relations a great deal more enjoyable with someone you like? Especially when you can practice frequently and learn new things?"

"But we hardly know each other." I paused. "Wait, we are talking about sex, right? Not blood sucking, because I don't want to be anybody's snack pack."

She broke into a deep-throated laugh. "I speak of normal but fantastic sex, you adorable little man. Blood sucking is not a requirement." She giggled. "I will give you more pleasure than you can imagine."

"I'm a teenage guy, so I can imagine quite a bit."

"Give it your full consideration. I fear if you take too long, it will be too late for me to protect you." She paused and pursed her lips. "And, Justin, I am not a vampire."

"Then what are you?"

She ran her fingers through my hair and gave a wicked grin as I shivered. "Perhaps you will figure that out with your clever little mind. Eventually."

"Are you the reason I changed into whatever I am?"

One corner of her mouth rose in a lopsided grin. "I'm afraid that, my dear, is all you."

With that, she sped across the parking lot, her body a blur, jumped halfway up the three-story school, and then cleared the remaining half by vaulting to the roof from a window ledge. The darkness swallowed her.

"Badass!" I said. I ran as fast as I could toward the school. My legs moved faster than I'd ever seen them go. The ground blurred. It was amazing. Then I tripped on the curb. Smacked into the side of the building. Rebounded, and skidded backwards on my butt. Apparently, such an athletic feat took a lot of practice.

I picked myself up. A scrape on my hand healed right before my eyes, leaving only a glistening smear of blood atop the new skin. At least I didn't have to learn how to use that ability. I went home the old-fashioned way—I drove—and turned on my computer once I arrived at home, with Stacey's dire warning echoing in my brain. I had to find out what I'd become before the boogey man got me.

Chapter 13

Ugh.

That was my first thought of the morning. I stripped and went into the bathroom for a shower. As I passed the mirror, I noticed something odd about my chest. No, I hadn't grown more than the few wisps of hair that had sprouted from my left nipple a couple of years back, but my man boobs looked smaller. I touched my left pectoral. My finger met a layer of hard muscle hiding under the flab. My stomach also looked slightly less paunchy and doughy than before. I flexed my biceps. Meh, they still looked pathetic, but at least they weren't sagging.

This revelation made my morning seem a bit brighter despite the lack of sleep. I thought about suspension with Ms. Foreman. I thought about Elyssa giggling. I was actually looking forward to staying after school. I couldn't wait to see Elyssa in the gym. My brain, the spoil-sport it is, decided to play back a few choice samples of my disastrous experiences with humans of the female variety. Dark clouds blocked the rays of feel-good sunshine, squashing all my warm and fuzzies of the morning. My brain was right. I was falling for Elyssa and my track record with girls looked like a zombie apocalypse.

Just take it slow. Really slow. I wondered if I should take it anywhere at all. So far I hadn't discovered what I'd become or who was going to kill me for it. If I started anything with Elyssa, the mysterious boogey man might hurt her too. But the only way to find out was to enter a serious relationship with Stacey the British supernatural chick. And that would kill my chances with Elyssa. I mulled over the frustrating situation while I showered, ate, and brushed my teeth. I'd hoped for a light bulb moment, but ended up with a cranial power outage.

When I got to school, I pulled my backpack from the passenger seat, stood up, and nearly collided with Katie. I jumped away from her. God only knew what would happen if I bumped into anyone, much less the catalyst for my woes, nowadays. Principal Perkins—or Jerkins as Elyssa called him—might sentence me to the electric chair.

Katie smiled. It wasn't a warm smile, exactly. More of an I-have-your-nuggets-in-a-vice smile. "Hello, Justin," she said in a tone that could freeze sunshine.

"Hi." I turned to leave.

"I can't believe I wanted to be friends with you. It makes me feel gross to even think about it."

"Cool story, bro." I was amazed how little her cruel remark fazed me. The part of me that wanted to ravish females detected something off about her emotional state. If I had to guess, I would say she might be lying. It wasn't like I could read her mind, but I could sense insincerity rolling off her, buried in waves of anger. Loitering beneath it all throbbed a white-hot pulsar of sexual energy. I had to think about Stacey and her possibly sandpaper-lined unmentionables to keep Justin Jr. from getting too riled up.

She glared at me. Everyone seemed to glare at me nowadays. "You should watch your back. I know a lot of football players who'd love to teach you a lesson."

"Are you doing the deed with them too?"

She slapped me. It stung like crazy but I smiled through the pain.

"Were you always just a fake friend to me, Katie? I understand being pissed about what I did. It was wrong and stupid. But this is ridiculous."

"No. I used to genuinely care for you, Justin. Then you went and posted how much of a whore I was on my Facebook wall where my parents and all my friends saw it. Do you know how mortified I was?"