If I could join the Clan I would in a heartbeat. Humans, even with witchy powers, don’t have the ability to join a supernatural faction. I asked if there was a secret handshake or pledge. Amber said there was something that physically tied them, something they couldn’t make happen for me. I even tried speaking some of the ceremonial words the werewolves and vampires used to connect to their Packs and Families. Nada.
I’m pretty sure Craig hated that I was coming along. He never really came near me unless I was in danger of fatally injuring myself, or burning something. Such a shame. Craig had a body that would have been right at home on the cover of one of my erotic romance novels. Heck, he wouldn’t even need the artist to add the fangs for the paranormal pictures. He had his own. He was a giant wall of muscly man. He took his shirt off a lot. I enjoyed it a lot more than I should have, but unlike my best friend, I’m very much alive.
Craig towered over my 5’4” frame. I had brown ordinary wavy hair, and blue eyes. I liked my eyes and used to think they were something that made me stand out. Then Amber turned hybrid and got these amazing eyes that looked like a starburst. They even glowed on occasion. My only distinguishing feature was outdone again.
All I had that was different now were my dreams, and those just made me strange. Among a Clan of vampire and werewolf hybrids, that was a feat. It wasn’t anything new though. I grew up in a foster home and the one time I told my foster parents about the dreams they threatened to send me away. I knew there were some skeevy people out there, so I just kept my mouth shut, and got out the day I turned eighteen.
I tried so hard to blend in when I got to college. Then I met Amber. She was tall and strong, and so confident. Something drew me to her, and I loved how she could just be herself. She ate like a horse, wore whatever she wanted, and had the best dad ever. She had the most beautiful colors too. She radiated a purple with green lightning strikes. The witches told me I was seeing her aura. Craig had said something similar in passing. Whatever.
I don’t always see the colors around people. It’s usually when they are going through a strong emotion. Black with anger or extreme pain, blue with sadness, yellow with happiness and red with passion. I had never seen purple before I met Amber.
And because I met Amber, I was now stuck in this hotel room cleaning up burnt fabric. I pulled a bedspread off the queen-sized mattress, and hung it over the large window that led out to the walkway. No need for anyone to watch me do this. Especially no need to remind Craig. He was already pissed off.
The first time I met Craig he was working his library assistant job on campus. He held full-time hours there, so once I noticed him, it was easy to run into him whenever I wanted. He had the same purple glow Amber did. No offense to Amber, but I liked looking at Craig a lot more.
He wore glasses when he worked at the library to read the print. He would always take them off to look at me when I talked to him. I could see his honey colored irises flex when he looked at me. I would get lost in them.
I’m not even sure why he kept talking to me when I followed behind his restock cart. I was a dim bulb next to his strikingly bright aura, but we both loved talking about history. I read a lot of historical romance novels, and he had to tell me how historically inaccurate a lot of them were. I loved it when I found some that had it right. He would return the smiles I gave him at the library. Now I saw more of his tense back than his smiling face.
I used to read books to him while he returned the dropoffs or did cataloging. He would listen, and call out any incorrect facts or mannerisms that just wouldn’t exist in that time period. Then I tried some edgier books, reading some of those scenes out loud to him. Wow. Let’s just say if the man didn’t get a little aroused from my words, he carried one hell of a tool in his pocket.
That time together among the stacks of books was sexy, it was fun, and now…now we were busy trying to get me to understand my powers, and it didn’t happen anymore. I suggested it once. Craig shot me down. He said there were more important things to do.
The only other hobby I had was my art. I did keep a few sketch pads with me when we took off, but I could only draw for so long. It was a bit bittersweet every time I picked up my colored pencils. Memories of the mural I had been doing at the children’s hospital snuck into my thoughts. Now I had filled up cheap notebooks with the way Craig looks staring out the window of the car, or the way he stands outside our hotels to sniff the air and make sure we are safe.
I begged Amber to let me watch them change into wolves once for a little more inspirational material. She told me they got naked first. I told her I really didn’t mind, but it was a definite Do-Not-Pass-Go. She said I was her best friend and she wasn’t going to risk losing me. I think that was a bunch of bull. I’m human, sure. But I hung out with a lot of supernatural beings before. Only difference now was that I knew what they were.
I put down the cleaner and broom, and started throwing clothes into my duffel bag. Craig was right. We were definitely leaving. No way were we getting our continental breakfast after this.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
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Just His Taste
Copyright © 2014 by Candice Gilmer
ISBN: 978-1-61922-234-2
Edited by Holly Atkinson
Cover by Valerie Tibbs
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: September 2014
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